#595
The Wars of Reaving, a shattering conflict that tore Nicholas Kerensky's 'new order' of Clans apart. The destruction of Clan Wolverine and absorption of Clan Widowmaker aside, the 2830s and 2840s were a period of stability as the Clans appeared to be settling out into their new society, but under the surface there were continuing issues.
The 'Dark Caste' who had escaped conquest by the Clans still haunted the borders of the Kerensky Cluster and had found backing elsewhere - much later this would be found to be the Tanite worlds, which had encountered refugees from Operation Klondike and and realised they were entirely too close to this new threat. Their leaders were only too happy to trade vital supplies to the Dark Caste and their fledgling hidden colonies in exchange for samples of SLDF and later early Clan technology, which was flooding into the toumans through the 2820s and early 2830s. The Tanite population wasn't much smaller than the Clans at the start of this period but the Clans saw a dramatic population increase to more than double - exceeding to their original Exodus fleet numbers by the 2850s.
The destabilising issue arose with Omnitechnology and Elemental battle armour. Clan Coyote's first deployment of the Coyotl set off a wave of conflicts as the Coyotes tried to leverage their advantage for maximum effect and the other Clans ought to obtain the technology for themselves. The election of an ilKhan was proposed to regulate these conflicts, but the leading candidate was Zenos Danforth of Clan Burrock and when he was discredited as having been involved with the Dark Caste the proposal faltered. Clan Wolf - already resented for their relative size and power - faced a similar dichotomy once they were traded omnimech technology and brought the Elementals into use a few years later. Constant battlefield losses even when they won eroded the numbers of the warrior caste, limiting their ability to control the enclaves they'd conquered - many of the inhabitants of whom which remained loyal to the Clans they'd been born into. Clan Sea Fox and Clan Goliath Scorpion, having obtained these technologies while being less powerful to begin with were similarly exhausted.
The sudden absorbtion of Clan Mongoose by Clan Smoke Jaguar briefly satiated the Jaguars and the Star Adders, but it also made it clear that failing Clans would pay the ultimate price. By the 2870s the four Clans were over-extended and had been forced to recruit heavily from the civilian castes to keep their toumans viable, while losing their exclusive control of the new combat technology. They weren't the only clans struggling - Clan Fie Mandrill's fractious nature had become apparent and Kindraa Smythe-Jewell had declined to share omnimechs and elementals with the rest of their Clan. In 2872 the Coyotes and Hells Horses formed a temporary alliance and destroyed the Kindraa completely, exteriminating their bloodlines and causing massive collateral damage to their civilian holdings. The reavings of the Kindraa's bloodlines set off a plethora of similar challenges, nearly gutting the prospects of the Coyotes' current bloodnamed.
These brutal practises spread with Clan Ghost Bear and Clan Hells Horses engaged in lengthy and costly campaigns to control the Tokasha Mechworks, both sides discarding zellbrigen. Clan Sea Fox's totem animal was specifically targeted by Clan Snow Raven, leading to bitter war between thse two Clans. The election of an ilKhan was proposed again, this time by Khan Victoria Wolf, but this was seen as an attempt by Clan Wolf to secure dominance as the ilClan and the Grand Council broke up in feuding. Within a year there was no Clan Wolf, which might have eased the tensions a little... except for the sudden collapse of Clan Cloud Cobra.
The Cobras, it turned out, had traced Zenos Danforth's ties through the Dark Caste to the Tanite worlds and tried to conquer the three inhabited worlds. Tanite aerospace fighters had used weight of numbers and nuclear weapons to gut the fleet and the transported ground forces, although they themselves were virtually wiped out. Four years of efforts by the Cobras to occupy the surface had bled out their remaining equipment and personnel reserves, while sucking their internal economy dry... and the acceptance of defeat by the leadership led to more internal conflicts (constant trials of bloodright due to deaths among the bloodnamed had hurried that along) and by 2875 Clan Cloud Cobra was unable to protect most of their enclaves.
A feeding frenzy began as the Cobras and the other weakened Clans' holdings were fought over. A desperate Clan Coyote, dominated by bloodnamed who'd re-entered the warrior caste and won their names after time in the scientist caste, also turned to weapons of mass destruction. Losses by every clan mounted and enclaves burned under increasingly extreme measures...
And then the Tanites arrived, using warships stolen from a naval cache to cover invasions of the Pentagon worlds. Just like Nicholas Kerensky sixty years before, they were going to put an end to the fighting and restore peace - at the point of the sword.