Clan Steel Viper & Freeborns

[Sellsword]

The Battle Cobra entry in TRO 3058 indicates that Steel Vipers started to allow Freeborns into their Touman.

3 Questions:

Why did they start doing this?
When did this start?
When did this stop or are the Steel Vipers continuing to allow freeborns in a combat role?

[Stormfury]

They started that after the events in Falcon Rising. Being drop-kicked out of the Occupation Zone cost them a lot of troops and prestige, so swift steps needed to be taken to bulk up. One way to do that was to allow some Freeborns into the Warrior Caste.

Given the Vipers' exacting training, only the very best would make it. Even so I would expect most would be assigned to rear-echelon units to free up Trueborns for front-line combat roles.

How long it would continue depends on how long it is necessary (phasing out Freeborn recruitment once the manpower crisis has passed would certainly be consistent with the Viper outlook) and/or if the Vipers are even around after the Homeworlds stopped communicating with the Invading Clans.

Basically, that tidbit was one of the last things we know about what the Vipers were up to. The focus has not really been on the Homeworlds.

[GreyJaeger]

It is said that part of the reason Khan Zalman enacted the program was because of his loss to Diana Pryde. Then there is the practical aspect as stated by Stormfury.

Truth is, I would think any Freeborns who make it, will probably be hard as coffin nails.

[Nibs]

It is said that part of the reason Khan Zalman enacted the program was because of his loss to Diana Pryde. Then there is the practical aspect as stated by Stormfury.

Did Zalman's death cause the program to be redacted by Brett Andrews?

[Stormlion1]

Think so, though any Freeborn warriors were left in place.

[Johnny 'NKH' Leyland]

FM:U says that Perigard Zalman's plans to bolster the numbers of freeborn Warriors were abandoned, but those who can prove themselves are still allowed to serve.

My interpretation is that the Vipers were still accepting new freeborns, they just weren't increasing the numbers as Perigard had planned.

[Crimson Dynamo]

I always took the current-tense tone of that passage to mean those Freeborn who can pass the annual re-testings (and the Trials of Grievance issued by Trueborn Vipers between those) as being kept on. It was Perigard's plan to take them on, it probably wasn't popular, and I don't think there should be any real drive to keep adding them on after he bought a permanent patch of Lum's near-orbit.

[Stormlion1]

Those Freeborns who became warriors, stay warriors, until they die or a Trueborn kills them. Simple logic.

[GreyJaeger]

I always took the current-tense tone of that passage to mean those Freeborn who can pass the annual re-testings (and the Trials of Grievance issued by Trueborn Vipers between those) as being kept on. It was Perigard's plan to take them on, it probably wasn't popular, and I don't think there should be any real drive to keep adding them on after he bought a permanent patch of Lum's near-orbit.

Not sure if it was his decision to allow Freeborns into the Touman, or the Viper's getting booted from the IS, probably both, but sources stated that he defended four challenges to his leadership in between the IS and the Homeworlds.