Historical interlude 3000-3011
Introduction:
While there are many things that we could say about the Inner Sphere in the time between 3000 and 3015, many of them would tie back to one unit. While this is not a summarization of their unit's history during this time, one might say that we take a closer look at the Marksman than most histories because they were a large part of how the Inner Sphere looks today.
The time period of the early thirty first century was one of the typical raids and exchange of forces that plagued the third Succession war, and nothing was different until the appearance of one Mark Hull, while his claims of time travel were never truly confirmed, it was clear that he knew of at least one if not multiple Star League era Caches of technology.
It is interesting to note that instead of staying in the Federated Suns when he initially formed his unit he went to the Taurian Concordat, proving himself invaluable in anti piracy actions and getting salvage rights instead of pay. This set the tone for most of the Marksman's career in the periphery. After gaining the lost prototype dropship Argo, he arranged for it to be refitted into a R&D and medical Dropship. Something that generated much interest at the time, but didn't prove itself until years later.
There is little known about the Interstellar Expeditions contract that they took after their anti piracy missions, but it is confirmed that their two nearly extinct Leviathan Jumpships were salvaged from the IE mission. (1)
From there, they grew their unit from a company to almost a battalion, using funds procured by the selling of the Jumpships that they captured and sold to the Taurian Concordat in their first anti piracy missions. (2) After they had grown, they engaged in the recapture of stolen goods from the Marian Hegemony, leading to the Magistracy giving them both the rights and licenses to advanced medical technology, equipment, and personnel. (3)
It is not known what the Marksman did for the Concordat, it is only known that he arrived, met with Protector Zarantha Calderon, got authorization to bring his unit to Taurus, and spent several weeks in meetings with both her and several TTI industrial heads.
After that, the Marksman were simply another mercenary battalion in the employ of the Federated Suns.(4) With nothing to truly distinguish them from any other company until the raid on Tybalt. This raid is what truly set the Marksman apart from the typical mercenary company, after seizing the world with little to no casualties, they also managed to defeat and destroy the 2nd McCarron's Armored Cavalry. (5) Which had been reinforced with Elements of both the 1st and 3rd regiments of the same unit. While some might argue that this was the debut of what is now considered the standard Power armor.(6) Its relative obscurity at this time limited the public's exposure to the Mithril power armor and so it didn't become a common sight on the battlefield until years later.
With the destruction of the 2nd Mac, the Marksman had cemented a reputation for punching far above their weight class, and for using unconventional tactics to do so. It is to be noted, that the battleroms of the Duel between Major Barton, and Colonel Hull are still used in textbooks today for reference.(7)
There was little action from the Marksman for the next several year period, they accepted limited garrison contracts, and began a massive recruitment and training spree. It was uncertain as to why they were recruiting so many forces, because at this time, the Marksman had barely two Battalions to their name. Then, after almost a year of not being seen in public Hull returned with a large amount of SLDF era weapons, gear, and combat vehicles and mechs.
One he had come back from raiding whatever cache he had known the location of, the Marksman unit as a whole moved to Kentares IV. The unit then grew from two Battalions, to a force of reckoning with two combined arms regiments to their units banner in a period of two years.
Then Hull visited the Davion Palace complex for Christmas, gifting the Davion family and Hanse in particular a Lostech variant of the Thunderbolt. After that, there is conflicting information on whether Hanse, Hull and the Third Davion Guards were actually gone or not. What is known is that over a period of the next two to three years, the Davions began work to rebuild the Avalon Hussars, and began to rotate units off of the front lines to be given fresh war material.
It should be interesting to note, that during the beginning of this process, Ian Davion and his brother put together an ambitious plan to take Tikonov. It is said that Ian wanted to be on the front lines for this, but that Yvonne Davion forced him to remain behind and to assist with the rebuilding of the Avalon Hussars.(8)
It was during the invasion and taking of Tikonov, that the Mithril Powered Armor (Light) truly made its debut onto the battlefield. The Marksman, having had years of development into Powered armor, had sold licenses of slightly outdated units to the Davions, and with the relative inexpensiveness of the armor, and the increase in effectiveness, it proved why it would later become the golden standard of the Inner Sphere.
There was quite a force defending Tikonov. With the remaining forces of the long since nonexistent McCarron's Armored Cavalry regiments stationed there while they were being rebuilt after the losses that they had taken on Tybalt as well as quite a few other elements. And from what notes we have, it seems that Hanse's plan for taking the world involved baiting the remaining MAC units into attacking the Marksman regiments that had made landfall.
It was here, once again that the Marksman made a reputation for punching above their weight class, with nearly three regiments of mech forces from McCarron's Armored Cavalry along with them drawing in support elements from the Tikonov Militia.
The Marksman did well in both maneuvering and unexpected tactics, allowing them to use the Lostech that they had at their disposal to oftentimes level the playing field even face with superior numbers. While this diversion was taking place, the remainder of Hanse's forces were shattering the remaining forces on Tikonov, using the Marksman's new DroST variant which they called the Sting to great effect against infantry. It was this dropship in conjunction with the Mithril armor that was critical to the success of the Tikonov invasion. (9)
The battleroms that were examined of Colonel Hull's fight with Archibald McCarron noted that the man was extremely comfortable fighting superior numbers and weight without pause. (It is unknown if Hull had a death wish or not at this time) and Hanse's entry into the battlefield is still considered the textbook entry and definition of orbital dropping, and the source of what became known as the "Dynamic Entry."
Interstellar Expedition later revealed that they helped assist in the salvage and recovery of the two Leviathan JumpshipsIt is to be noted that the Marksman faced serious criticism from other merc units for selling their captured Jumpships to the Concordat at this timeAs it turns out, they were the only mercenary unit to have asked for access to the advanced technology, and this allowed the proliferation of advanced Star League Era medical Technology to spread faster than was previously notedThe Federated Suns would remain the main employer of the Marksman for years to come. They still employ several regiments of them for various reasons.The forces of the 2nd McCarrons armored cavalry typically only held three battalions, but when they reinforced the world of Tybalt, they had two extra battalions lent to them from the first and third Regiments.The Mithril was seen as a Davion development being tested by the Marksman at this time. This was later proven false.Mostly used as a reference in the terms of what not to do. Many academies, while holding Hull as one of the primary Mech pilots in the Inner Sphere at this time. (Along with the likes of Natasha Kerensky, Morgan Kell, and Yorinaga Kurita.) Do not advise that you use his tactics. According to quotes from several of his own people, he was almost always using "Fucking Lostech Bullshit" to gain any advantage necessary.In Yvonne Davion's now published journal, it was revealed that Yvonne had to physically force Ian to stay on New Avalon instead of running off to join Hanse and Hull in their conquest of Tikonov. To this day any Capellan infantry formation that has lineage dating back to the Tikonov invasion that hears the words "Sting Incoming!" will drop their arms and surrender.