Devil's Dents

Devil's Dents
Affiliation Mercenary
Parent Command Independent


History[edit]

The Devil's Dents were a loose mercenary regiment under Oberst (Colonel) Jack Marmari. The unit comprised highly independent battalions and companies that hired out like individual mercenary units under their own names. Their commanders struck individual deals with Colonel Marmari whenever they needed access to regimental resources. As such, the Devil's Dents regiment was an administrative unit or a mercenary cartel more than a cohesive military formation.

Operating out of Outreach during the Clan Invasion era, all three battalions were hired for missions against the Clans by the Draconis Combine, suffering heavy damage around 3055 that left the unit in shambles and teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. They were subsequently unwilling to accept new missions against the Clans, which they felt they could not stand up to in their current condition. This marked the mercenaries as useless in the eyes of their former employers, and even a security risk as it was feared the money-starved unit might somehow sell critical data that they had obtained during their employment with the Combine. Consequently, hired assassins decimated the unit on Outreach on the night of 12 to 13 April 3056. Only a small number of (former) unit members and associates survived, plus a small handful of members who managed to escape aboard the Overlord-class DropShip Mephisto. George Bear was one of the notable survivors, taking a Commando with him when he realized the unit was no more.[1]

Officers[edit]

Rank Name Command
Commanding Officers of Devil's Dents
Colonel Jack Marmari 3055

Tactics[edit]

Unknown.

Subunits[edit]

Red Devils[edit]

Described by Colonel Marmari as his personal 'Mech company. They were successful on their last assignment and were scheduled to embark on a new mission in mid-April 3056 when the Devil's Dents were destroyed. It is implied that the Red Devils also served as a training unit within the regiment.[2]

Doom Angels[edit]

Led by Major Kyle Thornhill, the Doom Angels were a mixed battalion rated Veteran and consisting of a BattleMech company, a company of jump troops, and an infantry company with some armed hovercraft.

They were hired by the Draconis Combine to harry Clan Ghost Bear through a series of raids. The Clan Watch may in turn have instigated these operations through feeding them false information.[3] For their part, the Doom Angels were trying to obtain Clan salvage, but fared poorly most of the time.

In an engagement on Setubal on 30 September 3054 the Doom Angels crushed the Clan defenders under Star Commander George, took him prisoner, salvaged a Thor[4] and narrowly escaped by jumping to the Kiamba system. However, their JumpShip Dark Duke was crippled immediately upon emerging at Kiamba. Stranded, they subsequently sacrificed the already heavily damaged Leopard-class DropShip Hellcat while evading Clan Smoke Jaguar garrison forces on Kiamba, and ultimately the remains of the Doom Angels evacuated the Kiamba system aboard the Mephisto to rendezvous with the rescue JumpShip Heaven's Sake, provided by the regiment.[5]

Team Reißzahn[edit]

This Devil's Dents battalion had their three Union-class DropShips (Allende, Melville and Kipling) subjected first to orbital bombardment, then to an Arrow IV artillery attack in an action against Clan Smoke Jaguar on an undisclosed world in or shortly before 3056. The DropShips could not take off and their JumpShip Heaven's Sake was forced to jump to avoid approaching aerospace fighters (this allowed the Heaven's Sake to rescue the Doom Angels from Kiamba). Nothing was heard from Team Reißzahn again; for lack of confirmation of their destruction they were provisionally listed as "missing in action" and not as destroyed.[6]

Little Devil[edit]

A company of unknown composition, apparently associated with the DropShip Sulfur Smoke. Hired to fight Clan Nova Cat with mixed results, they withdrew to Wolcott with losses, where they lost their JumpShip Spirit of Doom. They returned to Outreach on a Kurita freighter.[6]

Beelzebub[edit]

A company of unknown composition, apparently associated with the DropShip Hellfire. They operated alongside the Little Devil company during their last mission and suffered similar losses. Their DropShip suffered a crash landing on Wolcott, necessitating a complete overhaul. The company was implicitly still stranded on Wolcott when the Devil's Dents regiment was destroyed.[6]

Canonicity[edit]

The Devil's Dents mercenaries appear first as unnamed opponents, and later as the protagonist's unit, in several novels in the German-only Bear Cycle. Since these books do not fall under the current definition of canon (because they were never published in English), they and the information therein—including the Devil's Dents mercenary unit—must be considered apocryphal.

References[edit]

  1. Erster Kontrakt
  2. Erster Kontrakt, p. 33
  3. Clanwächter storyline - the Watch is revealed to be actively stirring up trouble in the occupation zone
  4. Clanwächter, Mission Kiamba
  5. Mission Kiamba
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 Erster Kontrakt, pp. 30–31

Bibliography[edit]