Editing Red Corsair

{{otheruses|the 3055 pirate band and its leader|the identity of [[Katrina Steiner]] during her adventure in the [[Periphery]]|Red Corsair (3004)}}

[[File:Nekane Hazen OTPRedCorsair.jpg|right|thumb|Nekane Hazen, known as the Red Corsair; commander of the Red Corsairs pirate band.]]
[[File:The Corsairs logo.jpg|right|thumb|The Corsairs unit insignia.]]
'''Red Corsair''' refers both to a woman whose name was later revealed to be [[Nekane Hazen]], and her pirate band acting on behalf of the [[Clans]].

==The Corsairs==
Very little is definitively known about this group, with much of what is concluded about them due to circumstantial evidence. What is known is that between [[3054]] and [[3055]], a large force of pirates equipped with [[Clan]] technology began raiding planets along the [[Federated Commonwealth]]'s border with the [[Clan Occupation Zones|Clan Occupation Zone]]. It was strongly suspected by both the [[Federated Commonwealth]]'s [[Victor Ian Steiner-Davion]] and Khan [[Phelan Kell|Phelan Ward]] of [[Clan Wolf]] that the group was being used by the [[Crusader Clans|Crusader movement]] to try to destabilize the [[Truce of Tukayyid]], and perhaps restart the [[Clan Invasion]]. (Support for this theory was found when the [[31st Wolf Solahma (Clan Wolf)|31st Wolf ''Solahma'']], under the leadership of [[Conal Ward]], joined forces with the Red Corsair on [[Elissa]].)<ref>''Operational Turning Points: The Red Corsair'', p. 27</ref>

During a series of engagements with Phelan's Wolves and the [[Kell Hounds]], the pirates were eventually hunted down and eliminated, though not before [[Conal Ward]] of the Wolves was implicated in their activities. Their leader, a woman who only ever called herself the ''Red Corsair'', was killed by her former prisoner, [[Nelson Geist]].<ref>''Mercenary's Handbook 3055'', p. 62</ref>

==Leadership==
During the [[Refusal War]], the [[Clan Jade Falcon|Jade Falcon]] Khans [[Elias Crichell]] and [[Vandervahn Chistu]] briefly discussed the Red Corsair in familiar terms, naming one Nekane Hazen as the leader of this secret operation. This lends further credit that the pirates' origins were with the Jade Falcons, since the name "Hazen" is a familiar one among the Jade Falcon bloodnames.<ref>''Bred for War'', p. 242</ref> Genetic examination of the Red Corsair's remains confirmed that she was in fact Nekane Hazen.<ref>''Operational Turning Points: The Red Corsair'', p. 9</ref>
Once, she told Nelson that she may have been the one that mutilated him. If this is true, it may indicate she served in the [[Gyrfalcon Galaxy]] in the first stages of [[Clan Invasion]].<ref>''Jade Falcon Sourcebook'' p. 39</ref>

==Targeted Worlds==
*[[Kooken's Pleasure Pit]]
*[[Pasig]]
*[[Zhongshan]]
*[[Deia]]
*[[Zanderij]]
*[[Arc-Royal]]

==Additional Battles==
*[[Yeguas]]
*[[Elissa]] (Final Stand)

==Red Corsair Campaign Timeline==
{{#ask: [[Category:Red Corsair Campaign]]
|?Red Corsair Event=Date
|?Red Corsair Description=Description
|?Red Corsair Attackers=Attackers
|?Red Corsair Defenders=Defenders
|?Red Corsair Outcome=Outcome
|format=timeline
|timelineposition=middle
|timelinebands=MONTH,YEAR
|timelinesize=150px
}}

==BattleMechs and other equipment==
The Red Corsairs seemed to use [[Inner Sphere]] BattleMech designs refitted with Clan technology. Furthermore, it seems that the entire unit was using energy-based weapons exclusively. This gave them a significant logistical advantage during their campaign, as they had no need to replenish ammunition, and usually simply seized food and other mundane supplies from their targets. The unit's aerospace fighters seemed to be [[Star League]]-era designs, possibly also refitted with Clan weapons.

The Red Corsair herself piloted a ''[[BattleMaster#Custom Variants|BattleMaster]]'' that included a [[Dual Cockpit|Double Cockpit]], two [[Extended-Range Particle Projector Cannon|ER PPC]]s and a [[Large Pulse Laser]]. It also retained the four forward-facing medium lasers, naturally also using Clan versions of those weapons. An uncertain number of [[double heat sinks]] were remarkably successful in reducing the machine's heat buildup.  

For transport, the Red Corsair's fleet of [[DropShips]] and [[JumpShips]] included a ''[[Congress]]''-class [[WarShip]] later identified as the ''[[Fire Rose]]''.<ref>''Operational Turning Points: The Red Corsair'', pp. 20, 23</ref> During the Red Corsair's assault on [[Arc-Royal]] the ''Fire Rose'' was replaced by a ''[[Black Lion]]''-class battlecruiser.<ref>''Operational Turning Points: The Red Corsair'', p. 25</ref> This was strong evidence that the pirates were backed by the [[Clans]].

==Tactics==
The Red Corsair's troops fought like Clan warriors, engaging and destroying the garrison units they faced before moving on to acts of piracy. To keep their clan safe of reprisals, all of the fake pirates refused to surrender and committed suicide when their 'Mechs were disabled.<ref>''Operational Turning Points: The Red Corsair'', p. 12</ref>

==Notes==
* [[Katrina Steiner]] also used the alias "Red Corsair" during a stint in the Periphery in the early 3000s. Her adventure was referred to, but not detailed, in [[Michael A. Stackpole]]'s [[Warrior Trilogy]]. His 1992 novel ''[[Natural Selection]]'' was initially meant to tell that story but the publisher wanted no stories set in the late [[Succession Wars era]] as the universe storyline had progressed to 3054 already. Stackpole rewrote the story, keeping only the "Red Corsair" nucleus and thereby introducing a new, distinct Red Corsair persona.<ref>according to Stackpole himself in [http://www.michaelastackpole.com/?p=1736 a blog entry on his homepage]</ref> He would revisit Katrina Steiner's backstory almost twenty years later in the 2009 short story ''[[Vanish]]''.
*The Red Corsair's unit symbol was identical to the flag supposedly flown by the eighteenth-century pirate, [[w:Stede Bonnet|Stede Bonnet]], except that it was red instead of white. Nelson Geist noted after his capture that the Red Corsairs did not seem to be true pirates, but instead were Clan bandits trying to pose as pirates, seemingly getting many of the details wrong. He suspected that what the Red Corsair knew of pirate culture had been gleaned from Inner Sphere holovids or some other pop culture source.<ref>''[[Natural Selection]]''</ref> This may explain why the Red Corsairs were reusing an already existing pirate flag. Note that the flag design itself was never flown by the real pirate Stede Bonnet; this particular flag layout dates only to the twentieth century, likely from a 1959 German book of pirates.<ref>Little, Benerson. "[https://www.skyhorsepublishing.com/9781510758346/the-golden-age-of-piracy/ The Golden Age of Piracy: The Truth Behind Pirate Myths]." New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2016.</ref> This too may reinforce the idea that Hazen was using pop culture references without getting the actual "pirate" details correct.

==References==
<references/>

==Bibliography==
* ''[[Bred for War]]'' (novel)
* ''[[Mercenary's Handbook 3055]]''
* ''[[Natural Selection]]'' (novel)
* ''[[Operational Turning Points: The Red Corsair]]''

[[Category:Clan Invasion Era Military Operations|Red Corsair]]