ComStar Historical Archives

Childhood

Those who have the fortune of being born into the famous Eridani Light Horse mercenary unit and raised among its ranks are said to have been "raised in the saddle". Ariana Winston, perhaps one of the most famous of this unit's commanders, was one such child. Both of her parents were members of the Eridani Light Horse: her father, Colonel Charles K. Winston, was commanding officer of the Twenty-first Striker Regiment; her mother was a physician in the Light Horse's M.A.S.H. corps. Born in February 3013, Ariana knew from an early age that she wanted to follow in her father's footsteps and become a warrior. While her younger sister Gloria pursued an education in history, Ariana (called "Ria" by friends and family) devoted her early years to the study of warfare. She was helped and encouraged in this effort by family friend Scott Hinesick, himself a young MechWarrior in the ranks of the Light Horse, and, after his near fatal heart attack on the battlefield in 3029, by her retired father. Shortly after her nineteenth birthday, Ariana realized her dream and joined the cadet corps in the Eridani Light Horse training program.

Early Career

These early years of her career were tough on Ariana. Never a particularly good student, she struggled through basic training, determined to live up to the reputation of the unit and the standards set by her father. For his part, Colonel Winston ordered that no special treatment be shown to his daughter so that whatever she accomplished would be solely her achievement. This tactic worked and Ariana fought her way to the top of her class, graduating with honors and winning placement in a strike lance of the Twenty-first, her father's former command.

From this auspicious beginning, Ariana's career soared as she rapidly rose through the ranks. By the time war broke out again in 3039, she was in command of a battalion as the mercenary unit participated in Duke James Sandoval's thrust into the Benjamin District of the Draconis Combine. In the same year, tragedy struck someone close to her; Scott Hinesick, her oldest friend, was seriously injured in a training accident and his right arm had to be removed. Through the years, Ariana had built a reputation as a rising star among the ranks of the Eridani Light Horse, so it was little surprise (to all but her, that is) when she was picked to succeed the retiring Brevet General William Erik Petersen as commander of the entire mercenary unit in 3045.

In Command

Although there had always been aspects of command that made Ariana rather uncomfortable, she accepted the Generalship with a promise to uphold the high moral standards that were part of the unit's legacy from its days as a Star League RCT. Winston found it easy to inspire her troops, a quality she inherited from her father, and though she had a tendency towards gloomy introspection, her broodiness was kept in check by her friendship with Scott Hinesick, now recovered from his injuries and assigned to the unit's Training Command.

In the aftermath of the War of 3039, the Light Horse was placed on garrison duty in the Sarna March of the Federated Commonwealth. They were still stationed there when the Clans arrived.

As one of the FedCom's' most prestigious units, the Eridani Light Horse was transferred to the front lines of the Clan invasion. In July 3050, Ariana attended a strategy session conducted by Marshal Morgan Hasek-Davion. Among the results of this meeting was the development of a strong friendship between Hasek-Davion and the mercenary General, a friendship which they would maintain across years and great distances, trading personal messages as their assignments permitted. A few months after this strategy session, the Clan invasion temporarily halted and during this breathing space, the Inner Sphere learned the truth behind the Clans' origins: they were the descendents of Aleksandr Kerensky's exiled Star League army.

This news hit the Eridani Light Horse like a lightning bolt. For three centuries they had held themselves to the high standards of morality and honor professed by the Star League Defense Force and had declined to follow General Kerensky on his Exodus out of the Inner Sphere, feeling that their honor demanded they remain behind to help prevent the coming chaos. Now, learning what the descendents of their heroic idol had become, the Light Horse was horrified and their morale plummeted. Ariana requested, and was granted, a one-year moratorium on combat duty for her people, hoping that this time could be used to come to grips with the dissolution of their dreams. Though many in the unit found it hard to cope, eventually General Winston deemed them ready for duty again in late 3052. By this time, however, the Clan invasion had been halted by ComStar's valiant action at Tukayyid. The Light Horse was posted to garrison duty in the Kikuyu Command of the Tamar March, across the lines from Clan Jade Falcon. They did not have long to wait for a chance to prove themselves against Kerensky's children.

In July 3053, two Jade Falcon Clusters struck at the unit's baseworld of Kikuyu, garrisoned by the Seventy-first Light Horse Regiment. In this first major engagement, the Seventy-first were unfortunately decimated, leading the Falcons to assume the entire Light Horse was a lesser unit. Several more assaults by the Falcons followed, none of which went as easily for them as their initial attack on Kikuyu. Though the Light Horse regiments were hurt by these attacks, they always managed to repel the Jade Falcons.

The year 3053 was also one of personal tragedy for Ariana. Years after suffering a near fatal heart attack on the battlefields of Kawich in the Fourth Succession War, Colonel Charles Winston died. He had lived long enough to see his daughter achieve even greater career heights than he himself and had tried to impart to her the wisdom he had accumulated in his many years of command. Among the last pieces of advice he gave to Ariana was to ease her discomfort at unit officers being attended by orderlies, explaining to her that by removing the necessity for officers to concern themselves with mundane details like setting up their field quarters and arranging meals, this custom allowed the officers to devote their attention where it belonged: the safety and preservation of their troops in the face of war. It was a lesson that Ariana took to heart, even if she never fully got over her discomfort at being waited upon.

By 3055 activity along the border with the Clan Occupation Zones had settled down and internal unrest was beginning to affect both the Clans and the Federated Commonwealth. Ariana hoped to keep her people above the building dispute between Victor Steiner-Davion and his sister Katherine, but events conspired against her. In early 3058 Clan Jade Falcon, recently devastated by a war with Clan Wolf, sent an expedition into the heart of Lyran space, ultimately targeted at the world of Coventry. The Seventy-first Light Horse, along with Waco's Rangers and two regiments from Wolf's Dragoons, were sent to Coventry to relieve the local defenders but ended up bogged down themselves. During this conflict, Ariana developed a high opinion of the abilities of Colonel Sandra Barclay, commander of the Seventy-first, and began to consider her as a possible successor, though she later questioned that judgment after Barclay seemed adversely affected by her experiences on Coventry. All Inner Sphere units on Coventry took heavy casualties, with the Seventy-first losing nearly one-third of their strength in the siege of the city of Leitnerton. The arrival of a multinational relief force led by Victor Steiner-Davion saved the forces on Coventry from complete destruction and provided the impetus for an historic conference on Tharkad that Fall. As one of the commanders during the action on Coventry, Ariana attended the Whitting Conference and was witness to the culmination of the Eridani Light Horse's most cherished dream: the resurrection of the Star League.

Task Force Serpent

The first act of this new Star League was to order the complete destruction of Clan Smoke Jaguar to show the Clans that their invasion of the Inner Sphere had been misguided and wrong. In addition to a massive assault against the Smoke Jaguar Occupation Zone, a second force would be sent deep into the Periphery to strike at the newly-located Clan Homeworlds, specifically at the Jaguar capital of Huntress. This mission, codenamed Task Force Serpent, would be entrusted to units from across the Inner Sphere, welded into a single fighting force by Morgan Hasek-Davion. In recognition of her abilities, the Eridani Light Horse's origins as a Star League unit and their friendship, Hasek-Davion personally selected Ariana to act as his second-in-command. She assisted him in training the Serpent forces on the Federated Commonwealth world of Defiance for several months before the expedition launched in mid-3059. During the course of this training, Ariana was greatly impressed by the abilities and performance of the Rabid Fox and DEST teams that had been assigned to the taskforce. So impressed, in fact, that she sent orders back to the Light Horse Training Command to form and train a special forces unit for the mercenary command.

The voyage to the Clan Homeworlds was long and trying and the unity among the disparate forces nearly came to a breaking point several times along the way. The first incident in particular seriously strained the relationship between Ariana and Morgan Hasek-Davion, when the latter ordered the execution of the leaders of a group of pirates the taskforce had routed in the Deep Periphery. As upholders of Star League traditions, the Eridani Light Horse objected to what they saw as dishonorable treatment of prisoners and Ariana made her displeasure known to Hasek-Davion then cut off all contact with him except for necessary military business. Even this limited contact between the two friends was strained. After two weeks of this, tentative overtures were made and the friendship was patched up, though questions over the treatment of Clan Ghost Bear prisoners taken weeks later in a naval battle threatened to reopen those wounds.

Task Force Serpent, and Ariana personally, was dealt a devastating blow on 3 January 3060 when Morgan Hasek-Davion was found dead in his cabin aboard the taskforce flagship. Although his death was at first attributed to natural causes, it soon became clear that Hasek-Davion had been murdered. Assuming command of the mission, Ariana ordered a stem-to-stern search of the vessel in an attempt to find the assassin. The search was only partially successful but the assassin then revealed himself by taking Ariana hostage. She managed to kill the assassin, a man going by the name Lucas Penrose who had no apparent history before joining ComStar. With the death of Penrose, investigation of the murder of Hasek-Davion was put on hold to await the conclusion of the mission.

Ariana led Task Force Serpent in the completion of their journey to Huntress and oversaw the launch of the Inner Sphere assault on Clan space. The initial attacks went surprisingly well and soon the Serpent forces controlled the planet. Following the orders of the Star League Council, the attackers began to dismantle the military capabilities of Clan Smoke Jaguar. They were soon interrupted in this task by the arrival of Smoke Jaguars from the Inner Sphere, fleeing the massive assault that had hit their Occupation Zone. Ariana divided her troops into three major forces and stationed them to meet the Smoke Jaguar attack. The Serpents were soon forced out of their positions and into the mountains and swamps of Huntress.

At the head of an army that had been forced out of the planetary capital of Lootera, Ariana led the retreat into the nearby Jaguar's Fangs mountains. Repeated Jaguar attacks forced them deeper and deeper into the range and attrition wore the Inner Sphere forces down dangerously low. By 30 March, the defenders were near collapse. Ariana took to the field in her Cyclops and jumped into the thick of the fray. Facing a Smoke Jaguar Thor, her 'Mech was savaged by PPC fire and Ariana fell, just moments before news reached the ground forces from the orbiting Serpent fleet that reinforcements from the Inner Sphere had arrived under the command of Victor Steiner-Davion. These fresh troops were able to rapidly destroy the remaining Smoke Jaguar forces and regain control of Huntress. In the days following the end of the campaign, the surviving Eridani Light Horse troops buried their fallen comrades in the time-honored tradition of the unit. Ariana Winston lies on Huntress, interred in the very soil on which she fought and died.

Legacy

General Ariana Winston will be forever remembered as one of the greatest commanders of the Eridani Light Horse. She led the unit into service with the reborn Star League, fulfilling a long-held dream of three centuries of Light Horse warriors. As commander during the Clan invasion, she presided over one of the darkest periods in the unit's history and then commanded them through the massive campaign against Clan Smoke Jaguar. To honor her memory, the Eridani Light Horse named their new base on Dieron, to which they relocated upon formally entering service with the reborn Star League, after General Winston. Fort Winston stands as a memorial to Ariana's service with the unit and the esteem in which her memory is held.

A further legacy of her leadership is the Light Horse's new Pathfinders unit. Created at the order of General Winston, this special forces unit is patterned after the Federated Suns' Rabid Foxes and the Draconis Combine's DEST units. Although the current leadership has promised that the Pathfinders will never be used against civilian targets, many within the Light Horse equate them with terrorists, feeling that the very existence of such a unit goes against the precepts of honorable warfare that they have upheld for centuries.

Physical Description and Personality

Tall and muscled, Ariana Winston possessed the build of a decathlete. She was dark-skinned and attractive, wearing her hair cropped short in deference to the necessities of wearing a neurohelmet. Though dissimilar in appearance, Ariana shared many of the qualities that made her father a good commander. They both possessed an almost innate ability to bring out the best in their troops, even if they sometimes had to resort to using their thunderous voices to get a point across. Gloomy by nature, Ariana carried a spent pistol cartridge in her pocket as a good luck charm and had a tendency to play with it whenever she was nervous. Long-time friend Scott Hinesick was one of the few people she felt she could open up to and the pair frequently shared a glass of Ariana's favorite liquor: Cromarty Black, a product of Northwind and the finest whisky produced outside of Scotland. Her preferred sidearm was a Mauser combat autopistol.

BattleMech

As commander of a large unit like the Eridani Light Horse, Ariana piloted a specialized BattleMech, a Cyclops CP-11-A. Favored by many commanders, the Cyclops sports, in addition to its devastating weaponry, advanced communications gear that allows a commander to more efficiently coordinate troops in the field. Equipped with an Olmstead 840 communications module, complete with SatNav satellite hookup, this model has superior capabilities in coordinating a battle. The communications gear is so complex, however, that a dedicated operator is required to work it, allowing the pilot of the 'Mech to concentrate on moving and fighting. This operator is seated in a second cockpit located directly behind the pilot; the usual modification to allow for this is to remove the Cyclops' SRM-4 rack and accompanying ammo bins. Ariana's commtech was Warrant Officer Ian "Kip" Douglass, who died in the same battle that claimed her life. In keeping with standard military protocol, Ariana was addressed during field actions by her callsign, "Dancer."

• Sources Used:
• BattleTech Field Manual: ComStar;
• Dagger Point;
• Historicals: War of 3039;
• Lethal Heritage;
• Malicious Intent;
• NAIS 4th Succession War Military Atlas Vol. 1;
• Shadows of War;
• Sword and Fire;
• The Battle of Coventry;
• The Hunters;
• The Mercenary's Handbook;
• Twilight of the Clans