Kjirstin Kolbek was the heiress of a landhold on Trondheim and dispossessed-MechWarrior-turned-partisan. She joined the Dust Devils after the unit rescued what was left of the Trondheim Freedom Defenders in 3052 and it became clear that the shattered KungsArmé had no plans, or even capability, to liberate Trondheim from the Ghost Bear invaders.
MRBC Dossier - 3065[]
BattleMech[]
Draugr was one of the early 10E Thugs to walk off the Earthworks lines after the main production facilities of the more advanced 11E model were destroyed. The 'Mech has been passed down through generations of Kolbeks since it was captured by Tai-i Brynjar Kolbek during the early years of the Second Succession War.
Kolbek led a company of the Dragon's Infantry attached to the Rasalhague Regulars during one of the many attacks on Tamar, but his unit was cut off during a Lyran counter-offensive, reduced to barely a squad and trapped behind enemy lines. Attempting to rejoin the DCMS forces still on-planet, the survivors stumbled upon a lance of Tamar Pikemen resting and cooling their machines, including the nearly mint-condition Thug that had been acquired by the mercenaries during a raid on Keystone only months before. Taken by surprise, the Pikemen never made it to their cockpits, and the triumphant footsloggers managed to limp the captured 'Mechs through the night, avoiding the notice of Lyran forces, to rejoin the Dragon's warriors before they withdrew.
As was the custom of the time, Brynjar Kolbek was allowed to keep the captured 'Mech, which he named Fimbulvetr. By the time he mustered out of the DCMS, his success as a MechWarrior, as well as his bravery and commitment to the code of bushido saw him elevated to the rank of shugo, and granted a landhold on his homeworld of Trondheim. From then on, Kolbek heirs would pilot the old Thug in defense of the Combine, and then the Republic, for the next two hundred years, until the day the Ghost Bear invasion saw the destruction of the Trondheim Freedom Defenders. Kjirsten Kolbek acquitted herself well at Fimbulvetr's controls, but no amount of skill could save the Thug from superior numbers of furious Clan warriors, and the 'Mech would fall as Kjirsten ejected during the running battle on the Millargro Fields.
When the Devils rescued the surviving resistance fighters from Trondheim two years later, they also recovered what was left of Fimbulvetr. Virtanen's team painstakingly reassembled the machine, whereupon Kjirstin renamed it Draugr after the vengeful revenant of Old Norse myth. After a number of upgrades over the years, the reincarnated Thug is far deadlier than the day it walked off the assembly lines. The original engine was replaced with an XL version, and the Devils' 'Techs used the weight savings to improve Draugr's capabilities across the board. Four jump jets and upgraded myomers provide a surprising level of mobility for such a heavy 'Mech, while an additional ton of armor and CASE for the ammo bins help to compensate for the increased vulnerability of the bulkier engine. The machine's reach and bite has been increased dramatically with the replacement of the stock PPCs with ClanTech extended-range models and the SRM-4s with more flexible and harder-hitting MML-5s, as well as the addition of a ClanTech ER medium laser to each arm. Finally, swapping out the heat sinks for ClanTech freezers and a T3 thermal exchanger keeps Draugr running cool through continuous fusillades, yet another nasty surprise for opponents expecting to take advantage of a chassis known for heat-management issues.
Draugr is extensively decorated with granite knotwork inspired by patterns handed down from Old Terra's Nordic peoples and Furthark runes in coral over a base of the Devils' typical camel.