Col. Farley playing with his ZEUS heavy rifle, a gift for his 35th birthday. {note: The light in Col. Farley's eye is from daylight due to the fact that it's tomorrow where the target he's shooting at is.}
Ft. Hope, Kennard-3025: LT Chuck U. Farley was driving the "Laser Enema", a modified Jenner, on patrol with his lance on the western edge of the base perimeter. His lance was the newest addition to Lindon's Company, a Davion loyal merc unit. All of the training he had received in his two accelerated years at the N.A.I.S. came into play when House Kurita performed a combat drop and attacked the base. The attack seemed strange from the beginning. It was almost too easy, the Kuritains didn't appear to be trying very hard. Then, without warning, traitors within the ranks of Lindon's Company turned, killed Colonel Lindon in his Battlemaster, and made a break for their dragon lovin' friends. LT Farley quickly maneuvered his lance into a hasty horseshoe that the traitors would have to run through to get to the Kuritain ships. It was a turkey shoot. Even though some of them got away, including their leader, CPT Dane Morgan, they payed dearly. (May they burn in their cockpits wherever they are!) DOWNLOAD THE FULL STORY (Word .DOC): CLICK HERE
Though the unit had meager beginnings, the contracts came and they had soon salvaged about a company of mechs. We had also atracted decent pilots and techs willing to sign contracts. It soon became apparent that there was no shortage of unique individual personalities with many skills out side of mech driving within our ranks. We had our rogue, a face man, the tech guru, a computer whiz, a weapons specialist, a HEAVY weapons specialist, and of course me, old Col. Chuck, the tactical genius.
Digi-pic from the Mallory's World battle.
Mallory's World, 3028: Maj. Farley had contracted the twelve 'Mechs of Damage Inc. to guard a fuel/ammo depot. Wolf's Dragoons attacked the planet with a regiment (they were still working for Kurita at the time). Things looked bad until Chuck and the crew came up with a brilliant idea. Playing on the merc spirit of the Dragoons, Chuck described the extreme cost to both sides should it come to blows over the depot. He suggested single combat (mono e mono) to which the Dragoons redily agreed. (Chuck didn't see it coming...) He even went as far as asking what machine the Dragoon's pilot would be in so he could see if he could match it out of the Damage Inc. ranks to make it a test of pilots and not 'mechs. The Dragoons replied, "a warhammer" and nothing more (He still didn't see it coming!). MAJ Quazi "White Shoes" Motto, the unit Vengeance officer, had a warhammer. Col Chuck, never willing to order someone to do anything he wouldn't, hopped in it and walked out onto the field of battle. The other warhammer was flat black with a red spider painted on the leg... OH SHIT! Chuck charged Natasha Kerensky at top speed to just get it over with. She fired and dazed Chuck with a cockpit shot that stopped him cold but, he didn't fall. He quickly regained himself as she began a charge of her own! Through blinding pain, Chuck summoned all he had and threw every weapon his warhammer had at her speeding legs. His heat went through the roof... but, they all hit her right leg! From mid-thigh down went pin-wheeling off into the distance as SHE PEG-LEGGED IT ON HER LEFT FOOT AND KEPT THE 'MECH STANDING! Chuck soiled his coolant vest as she lined-up on his legs. He charged trying to knock her over before she could fire. No such luck. She gave to him as good as he had given, but by direct intervention of God himself... both her PPC's missed! On naked internal structure and bare wiring, Chuck slamed 70 tons into her at better than 60kph! She went sprawling onto her back. Technical kill by knock down... Damage Inc had won! She poped her canopy and her fire red hair exited followed by a man-portable SRM launcher! (she just don't give up, do she?!) Chuck took aim with the PPC's and some how appeared to make the 'mech say "no, no little girl!" At this point Chuck had horrible visions of Natasha Kerensky chasing him all over the Innersphere seeking revenge (this ain't too far off of fact) and he toyed with the idea of letting her have it even after she dropped the SRM launcher... Then he looked up and saw all those Dragoons on the ridgeline and common sense took hold again. The universe, not allowing even us enchanted folk to get away with too much, gave Natasha her revenge several years later... After a long romance that began in a 'Mech simulator at Hans Davion & Mellissa Steiner's royal wedding on Earth, she married Col Farley. It all comes around.
NOTE: A running joke in the unit goes something like this... Chuck was sitting in church one day and Satan appeared right in the middle of the sermon and scared everyone off except Chuck. The Devil walked up to the man snickering in the middle of the church pew and asked him if he knew who he was laughing at? Chuck was grinning ear to ear and told the Devil that he was not scared of him or anyhing he could do to him because he was married to the his sister...
Numerous contracts and stunning victories against obscene odds became as big a trademark of the unit as the "Headless Atlas" patch worn proudly by the members of the unit. The history of the patch is simple. It started as a goal to be strived for, an award given only to those members of the unit who have killed an Atlas (one of the more feared machines on the field of battle) in single combat. Chuck & Shades were the first to design and also, coincidentaly, wear the patch. Others of the unit soon qualified and before long the patch was adopted as the destinctive unit insignia. The original patches sported a red Atlas (a none to subtle slam on House Kurita) and this became the identifying feature of those who have actually killed an Atlas. All others wear a patch with a black Atlas.
On Sian during the Fourth Succession War, HQ company was tasked to hold a city against a superior Laio force who didn't like all of these Davion mechs running around. The total ended up being 72 Capellan Battlemechs against 12 Damage Inc 'Mechs, 4 SRM carriers, and 4 LRM carriers. The battle lasted for the better part of a day. The LRM carriers and an Archer laid withering fire anywhere called upon from the tarmac at the edge of the spaceport. The rest of the 'Mechs and the SRM carriers made the streets a very bad place to be Capellan. We gave the enemy a one block wide strip around the outer rim of the city to move around in. Every inch after they paid for, dearly. The Capellans finally retreated with 6 functional machines... we called for relief because there were only 6 funtional 'Mechs on our side as well but, we weren't about to tell THEM that!
During a time of financial good fortune, Damage Inc. decided to shore up the dwindling infantry ranks. The most likely candidate was a cocky LTC from Stiener who commanded an infantry battalion with light 'Mech support. LTC Beermann drove a Locust and liked to gamble. After the unit was hired on, LTC Beerman bet Col Farley that he could best him in a 'Mech and the wager was who would foot the bar tab for all the alcohol Damage Inc. could drink that evening. The rules were simple: first 'Mech to be hit loses. LTC Beermann was in his 20-ton Locust and Col Chuck was in the "Back from the Grave II", his modified Battlemaster. This seemed quite the miss matched contest. Chuck stayed out of the range of the Locust's medium laser and lined up a shot with his PPC to get the game over with. When Chuck fired, the damn Locust DODGED IT! This sent Chuck over the edge and after about three full Alpha-Strikes from the B-Master, it finally shut down from heat. LTC Beermann dodged every shot then strode over to the immobile Battlemaster, popped the Locust's canopy, and pulled out a PAINTBALL GUN! One shot left a bright orange splotch on the B-Master's cockpit window. At this point Chuck shutdown from heat! Beermann had won... Chuck paid the bar bill. The total was so incredible that Damage Inc. went without repair parts for almost a month (who knew grunts could drink so much)! Despite this, Beermann and Farley grew to be great friends over the many years the infantry were part of Damage Inc. but, vengeance of the non-leathal type festered and grew in the back of Col Farley's mind. Twenty years to the day from the first contest Chuck challenged Beermann to a rematch. Some would say Chuck cheated but, not if they wear the "Headless Atlas" on thier shoulder. Chuck bobed and weaved his way into the range of his medium lasers (and into Beermann's range as well) and touched off one Alpha Strike. Even though Beermann's prowess had grown throughout the time he had worked with Damage Inc, one laser hit. The trick was that Chuck made his tech adjust the point of impact for the four lasers to just above, just below, just right, and just left of the PPC's point of aim. LTC Beermann laughed... until he got the bar bill.
*SECRET* Photo of Marauder III and Dr. Banzai before presentation to Hans Davion at his birthday.
Chuck & "Tash" were selected by Dr. B. Banzai to deliver Hans Davion's birthday present at his bash in 3041. The MARAUDER III was the 'Mech that should never be! Some how Dr. B. made a 200 ton 'Mech(the ONLY 200 ton 'Mech)! We are talkin' 2 cockpits, 4 VLAR-XL 300 engines, 4 Gauss cannons, 6 ER PPC's, 40 double heat sinks, almost 5 tons of armour on the front of the chest, and almost 5 tons of armour on the back as well! This... thing... was pitted against 4 Atlases, not just any Atlases but, Comstar Atlases. They have always been itching to know what Banzai was up to and he gave them this opportunity to inspect his handiwork first hand. "Slaughter" is far to tepid a term to describe the combat that ensued. The entire thing took less than a minute. The Marauder III was able to leave under it's own power, barely. The Atlas pilots were dead and there was not a piece of the 'Mechs that remained functional. (The holovid clearly shows Chuck's cockpit take a hit but, he was not badly hurt.) DOWNLOAD THE FULL STORY AND THE PIC ABOVE (Word .DOC and .JPG): CLICK HERE
Cpt. Sasha Kerensky-farley in her Wolf's Dragoons cadre portrait.
COL Farley & CPT Kerensky had one daughter, Sasha, who got her father's tactical abilities and fortunatly her mother's good looks. She grew into a fine lady who posessed no small amount of her parent's piloting ability in a Battlemech. She spent most of her early years at the Dragoon's compound on Outreach. Chuck had swung duty for Damage Inc as cadre in the Dragoon's compound with occasional contracts elswhere to stay sharp. Chuck understood the day Natasha had to leave to go back to the Clans, and why. Natasha understood why Chuck had to stay in the Innersphere. Sasha, however, never did get over it. The deep respect the Clans hold for Damage Inc, borne from repeated confrontations on the battlefield, allowed them to be generous. Chuck and Sasha were guaranteed safe passage to and from Natasha's ceremony for her genetic material on the Clan Wolf home world after she was killed by Joanna. The ceremony gave Sasha some closure and some understanding of half of her family history.
Ned Telosa, the greatest thief in the Innersphere, signed on as the unit supply officer. Ned was wanted by every house in the Innersphere for a total number of crimes that, when written, required scientific notation to prevent it from becoming unwieldy. The only reason House Davion let him move unfettered in public was that they were still trying to compile a case against him when he fell into our care. While working for Damage Inc he went on a personal mission and stole Kuritian Warlord Samsamov's battlefleet of 17 Jumpships with thier full contingent of Dropships. Disguised as Samsamov, he strode right on to the bridge of the flagship and calmly ordered an attack on House Davion while handing a bogus set of orders from Takashi Kurita to Samsamov's XO as he spoke. House Davion helped Ned by conveniently stationing the entire Draconis March contingent around Marduk (the first destination of Samsamov's (Ned's) assault). Seventeen Kuritian jump-ships were met by dozens more, all with the Davion Sunburst. Ned promptly surrendered the Kuritian force. It was at precisely this point that House Davion dropped all charges against Ned for reasons never satisfactorily explained. He only had to make about 30 million rolls against Forgery, Disguise, Impersonate, & Leadership. I'm tryin' to tell ya that this guy is GOOD! We captured a Kuritain officer once in honorable combat and during the interrogation Ned was standing behind me. When I kept grilling the Kuritain to at least give us his name and got nowhere, Ned piped up and spoke his name as if he was a psychic or something. Ned somehow managed to pick the pockets of the Kuritain standing in front of me without me seeing it (He also picked my pocket while he was at it). On slow days, he tries to steal from himself without him noticing, just for the challenge of course. He is now the CEO of TNN (Telosa News Network). TNN is the premiere news and sports network of Solaris VII and the first civilian network to gain access to a real-time, full Innersphere broadcast system trough ComStar.
"Dropship" Van Gorder was an ex-Comstar Demi-Precentor who had found himself longing for adventure. He left the order and took on as Damage Inc's negotiations officer and part-time D-ship pilot. His crowning glory came when he tried to kill "The Bounty Hunter" by throwing an entire Leopard class Dropship at him. We had taken what looked like an easy contract to quell a civilian uprising. After the combat drop from space, "Dropship" Van Gorder, as he would be known from this point on, heard that we had been mislead by our employers. We had dropped in four 'Mechs to deal with ill-equipped people and discovered that the "Bounty Hunter" and a battalion of his friends were laying in ambush for us. Ol' "Dropship" called down for us to retrograde into a narrow canyon and he would take care of the rest. We don't know for sure if "Dropship" took out the "Bounty Hunter" when he punched out and crashed the Leopard Dropship into the attacking battalion, but man, it was a cool explosion! "Dropship" lived to NOT tell the tale, so we tell it for him in all of it's hilarious detail.
"Just one more modification" Allen never could get that Crusader just the way he wanted it. I have personally witnessed good techs, grown men, weep openly whenever they saw Allen get that look in his eye. A certain look he would display just before he would begin a sentence something like, "Ya know, just a couple of more medium lasers would be cool and all we would have to take out would be the..."
"Liberty Toaster-Oven" was not the 'Fairest One of All' by ANY strech of the imagination. She had a Shadowhawk with her {gulp} face painted on the front of it. During an encounter with another Shadowhawk, the enemies head-mounted SRM blew up as he attempted his opening volly. We IMMEDIATLY realized that he had caught one look at her image and it made his head explode!
COL Farley has been offered 'General' a number of times, and turned it down because he could not stand being away from his men or his 'Mech. After all, we all know Generals really don't do much.
DOWNLOAD A STORY ABOUT A LOST SLDF TEXAS CLASS WARSHIP (Word .DOC): CLICK HERE
DOWNLOAD A STORY ABOUT A UNIQUE WARSHIP AND HER FIRST CREW (Word .DOC): CLICK HERE
