Isobel Carlyle

Isobel Carlyle
Personal
Also known as	Bel
Born	3131
Affiliation	House Carlyle
Profile
Position(s)	MechWarrior
Profession	Noble
Family
Parents	Gardner Carlyle (father)
Siblings	Ronan Carlyle

Isobel "Bel" Carlyle was a Lyran Commonwealth noble. She was cashiered from the LCAF despite her loyalty to the Lyran Commonwealth when her unit, the Twenty-sixth Arcturan Guards, defected to the newly formed Tamar Pact. Bel and her brother Ronan Carlyle, along with other former members of the Twenty-sixth, formed the new Gray Death Legion on Garrison.

Personal History

Early Life

Born into House Carlyle of Odessa, Isobel was expected to join her family in their work restoring the plague-ravaged world to its previous greatness. However, the Blackout - which fell on Isobel's first birthday - changed her future. As she grew into an Inner Sphere ravaged by war, Isobel rejected her father's pacifism and sought to emulate her grandfather Alexander Carlyle, a hero of the LCAF who fought in the Word of Blake's Jihad and his parents Lori Kalmar and Grayson Death Carlyle, founders of the mercenary Gray Death Legion. Isobel devoured every record of their exploits and made headbands and skull emblems, the symbol of the Legion, part of her attire.

LCAF Service

Isobel, or Bel, as she shortened her name, eventually followed her big brother's path into the LCAF, enrolling in the Coventry Military Academy in 3147. Once there, Isobel excelled in both MechWarrior and anti-Mech infantry training programs, though she was disciplined in early 3148 for taking a squad of fellow cadets - who she dubbed Carlyle's Commandos - on unauthorized field exercises to break up a local criminal kangaroo-rustling operation, with her brother Ronan having to testify in her favor.

The disciplinary hearing was interrupted by a Clan Jade Falcon attack, which instigated the Battle of Coventry. Bel was authorized to lead her "Commandos" in a flanking attack on the First Falcon Striker Cluster after they'd razed the town of Whitting and, despite only intending to serve as a distraction, the Commandos disabled a Binary of Falcon 'Mechs using satchel charges before being forced to fall back. When the Falcon advance was driven away from the academy, the surviving members of Bel's company deployed with the rest of the Academy's Training Battalion to relieve the Lyran forces defending the Coventry Metal Works industriplex. Seeing her brother Ronan's Gauntlet threatened by Falcon Elementals, Bel led her Commandos into the fray, successfully scattering the battle-armored troops and shoring up the Lyran defenders. Ronan congratulated Bel after the victory.

After the Battle of Coventry ended, Bel joined her brother in the ranks of the Twenty-sixth Arcturan Guards, having graduated from the academy with honors in 3150 as a newly commissioned first leutnant. She becoming part of the Third's Battalion's second company - which she also named Carlyle's Commandos. Isobel and Ronan followed the Twenty-sixth to Arcturus, believing they were on a legitimate mission. They only uncovered the truth on 13 August 3151, when they heard General Sarah Regis' announcement of the resurrection of the Tamar Pact. After discussing these events, the siblings agreed to try to find how many Lyran loyalists remained in the ranks of the Arcturan Guards. In a later assembly of the troops, General Kathleen McQuade announced the official defection of the Twenty-sixth; those who wanted to remain in the LCAF had to leave. Ronan and Isobel exited from the ranks but only a handful of others followed them.

Ronan took command of the Lyran loyalists, and, once their commercial DropShip arrived in the Lyran system of Garrison, both Carlyle siblings were arrested. After a week of interrogation, Bel was freed and dishonorably discharged from the LCAF, along with all the other loyalists including Ronan, by orders of the garrison commander Hauptmann-General Timofey Bondayehr. Ronan sent a message to his parents, and while awaiting the answer, the siblings and most of the remaining loyalists moved to a salvage yard property owned by the Carlyle family. The manager gave the yard to Ronan so the loyalists could exploit it, with Ronan's intentions being to obtain enough money to buy a ticket to Odessa. However, on 14 September, after finding a Clan Gargoyle OmniMech, Isobel informed Ronan that most of their people wanted to remain together and under his command. Thus, the siblings took the first steps toward creating a mercenary unit of their own.

Mercenary Career

By 26 October, the Carlyles' people already had a functional unit and received a visit from the Lyran officer who had arrested them upon their arrival. The local Twenty-sixth Scout Company had defected to try to free some Hinterlands planets from Clan control and all other Lyran units were unavailable to stop them. However, Ronan's people were and were duly contracted to do so with their still-unnamed unit. The Carlyle's had three working BattleMechs - including Isobel's Hatchetman - several tanks, and both armored and unarmored infantry, but the defectors outnumbered them. On Isobel's suggestion, the newly formed unit took the name of the Gray Death Legion and they moved to intercept the defectors and successfully immobilized their support vehicles. Knowing that their mission was doomed, the Twenty-sixth's leader surrendered to the Legion and Lyran military justice.

On 29 October, Ronan met with Isobel in a hotel and she gave him a message from Odessa: it contained their father's congratulations for both of their actions and gave them more funds to continue growing their unit. Isobel further surprised Ronan by showing him that their old commander General McQuade was there; McQuade informed them of the Lyran plan to cashier all the Twenty-sixth Scout Company's members and offered the newly born Legion a contract with the Tamar Pact in a few months, if they managed to build up enough strength. After the general departed, Ronan and Isobel moved to receive the Twenty-sixth Company's people and made sure they knew they weren't alone; there was a place for them in the Legion, if they wanted it.

After the legion recruited most of the Scout Company's members, growing to battalion strength, the Carlyles accepted the proposed contract from the Tamar Pact. Their first destiny was the newly incorporated planet of Crimond where, on 2 February, the siblings were present when a terrorist attack destroyed a government building in the planet's capital city. Fortunately, Ronan escaped unscathed and Isobel received only a minor wound, but it became evident they would have a lot of work to do before the world was secure.

Two days later, Ronan and Isobel meet with their liaison officer who's hostility towards mercenaries was met with Isobel's own verbal assault, but Ronan managed to diffuse the situation and obtain work assignations for the Legion. After reviewing them, Ronan asked his sister which of two tasks would suit them better and she suggested that they accept both at the same time, dividing the Legion in the process. Reluctantly, Ronan agreed and chose to take the legion's main body north in order to assist local police forces in a terrorist hunting campaign, while Isobel took her group - the reborn Carlyle's Commandos - to a neighboring continent to inspect and claim an old Star League fort.

The Commandos' landing on the continent of Condor occurred without problems, as the Commandos' possession of two 'Mechs, several tanks and numerous infantrymen was only opposed by a lone Regent with limited armor and infantry support. Isobel's efforts to talk to the unknown militants uncovered that their leader, a former Clan member named Curtain, wasn't openly hostile. Curtain offered to talk about the Star League fortress and Isobel, along with three Gray Death infantryman, agreed to visit the locals' base to conduct talks. The Condor Defense Force, as the locals called themselves, didn't want anything other than to be left alone but Curtain did welcome the legionnaires - unlike Bernard Blucher, a local technician. When a joint team of Legion and Condor troops led by Isobel and Curtain, inspected the fort, Blucher and his own team of Lyran loyalists engaged the investigation team in combat. By working together, Isobel and Curtain's team managed to kill all of the loyalists and capture Blucher.

Ronan's group didn't run into too much trouble while completing their own mission. When both siblings gathered again on 7 February to announce their successes to their liaison officer, Isobel revealed that she had not only completed her mission, but had also obtained new recruits: Curtain and several Condor Defense Force infantrymen and tankers. While Ronan was initially reluctant to accept them, he ultimately agreed to his sister's idea and gave Curtain's men a welcome into the Gray Death Legion.

Then on 2 May 3152, when the Legion landed on Pandora, she was alongside her brother and told him of the Legion's past on that planet. Soon after, Bel met Staff Sergeant Zahara Khaled and was very interested to know that she was a direct descendant of one of the first generation legionaires.

After the Legion had crushed a rebellion from a group of Lyran loyalists led by the planetary governor, her brother was very worried about his responsabilities and she had to remind him that he was doing a good job as Legion's commander. She also informed him that among the salvage taken was a Shadow Hawk 'Mech which she intended to take for herself.

On 7 June 3152, when the Legion was traveling through the Draconis Combine space, and made a stop at the planet Gram, Isobel tracked the former Legion member Isoru Koga's sword and, with help from Curtain, she obtained it, to seize a symbol of the Legion's history.

BattleMechs

During her time with the Twenty-sixth Arcturan Guards Bel Carlyle piloted a Shadow Hawk she'd named Tyche, which she had also piloted while at the Coventry Military Academy. The name was apparently partly in homage to the legacy of Boss Lady, the legendary Shadow Hawk piloted by her great-grandmother, Lori Kalmar-Carlyle.

Bel used it with great success against the Falcons, crushing several Elementals with Tyche's battlefists. After graduating, Academy Commander Petra Kühn granted Bel permission to take Tyche with her to her new posting. With the formation of the Tamar Pact, Bel became dispossessed. In the new Gray Death Legion on Garrison, Bel still wanted a Shadow Hawk but there weren't any available, so she moved on to piloting a Hatchetman.

Isobel piloted the Hatcheman for some time until, at Pandora, she replaced it with a salvaged Shadow Hawk which she named Boss Lady II.

Gallery

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  Isobel Carlyle from BT:Legends

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  Carlyle's Shadow Hawk Tyche from BT:Legends

Bibliography

• A Lesson Learned (short story)
• BattleTech: Legends
• Decision at Pandora (novella)
• Mercenary's Honor (novella)
• The Price of Duty (novella)
• Recognition Guide: ilClan, vol. 12