AU: Der Tag (The Day)

[beachhead1985]

Also looking forward to seeing CGB fleet list.
I don't think the DC's fleet will likely deter the clan at the moment. O0

Great! Cause They were the first of the New Clans I profiled in this way and here they are.

Before I get into that though; No, you are right: No fleet the Combine can field has any great likelihood of dissuading the Ghost Bear Dominion from doing whatever they feel they have to and the days of friendly gestures; like returning captured warships after the first Combine-BG war are over with. Relations between the Bear and the Dragon are decidedly icey; as a matter of fact the Bears could almost make a national identity out of isolationalism if left to their own devices. Thankfully they are still interested in the experiment of being a "New Clan" and integrating with the natives RasalHaugians (RasalHaugers?). Unfortunately that process isn't far enough along by 3100; if it was then the DC strategy would be on the right side of a fair chance.

As it is?

Look; with the investment in the other two Leviathans, plus the other ships they lost in the War, the Bears basically had their fleet gutted during the Jihad in order to simply do what they feel like they had to do. And even though rebuilding a third time would crush their economy; they are willing to do so. It's generally best for everyone not to poke the bear.

So, without Further Adieu...

      Ghost Bear Dominion Warship Fleet, Circa Dec 31, 3099

Leviathan-II Class Rasalhauge
Leviathan-III Class Tseng, Jorgensson
Leviathan-Prime Class Tyr Miraborg
Leviathan-I Class Thunder Bear
Leviathan Heavy Transport Naglfarg
Night Lord Class Ursa Major
Volga Class Ursine Boatman
Carrack, Den Mother, Yggdrasil, Rhune Ark, Freeman

As you can see; the Ghost Bear Fleet is built around their Battlewagons and they have a few.

Again, it is worth noting in my AU timeline that societal pressures are different. In Canon; there is no fleet, besides the Ravens to Challenge the Bears and the Ravens are still, or again; allies by 3150 when we first hear the Leviathan-III Class. In Der Tag; the Ghost Bear finish the War, in the Terran System, fully aware in the worst way that they are not the biggest kids on the block; shortly after the war ends, the Coalition tries their gambit to get the SLDFiE to disband and it fails. But a huge part of the reason that it does and McKenna is able to tell them to go take a flying leap, is that he has the most powerful fleet save the Snow Ravens and most of it is in good shape and in the Sol system. The SLDF is able to complete operations in a timely manner and evacuate in good order, under the guns of the remainder of the Coalition, because the Bears cannot face them down or oppose them with any chance of success.

Thus in Der Tag; the Bears face a credible threat, from that day forward; their warship program is not going to continue in a vacuum (lol) for 80ish years.

In Der Tag, however, up to that stage; the Jihad plays out much as it does in canon; so the Bear's fleet gets pasted. What wasn't destroyed recently in the titanic foul-up that was the Novacat trial for the Rasalhauge, is basically taken off the board, save five vessels; Rasalhauge, Ursa Major, Ursine Boatman, Den Mother and Yggdrasil. In other words; trumping the Bears and whatever assets the Coalition still has floating about in Sol isn't that lofty a task.

Having lost most of their lighter assets; the Bears rebuild around a core of Leviathans. Despite loosing two thirds of the class; the Leviathans proved their worth during the Jihad and they have a great deal of faith in them for many reasons. For escorts; they *will* be relying on PWS and assault dropships though through at least 3125.

Outside the Leviathans; they build two more Carracks, because being able to move supplies and troops in a brisk, efficient manner is going to be key to their survival; that they make good fleet tenders helps as well. It's also a necessity, as jumpship production is basically non-existent at this time in Dominion space. It's warships and dropships; not even wartime losses in jumpships will be start to really be replaced until the early 3100s. Until then, it's mainly the Carracks and the Ursine Boatman porting the Ghostbear Touman around until Naglfarg gets launched in mid 3099.

As for the heavy hitters; Ursa Major is the odd man out; the rest of the combat fleet is a Leviathan for every season; two of the Bear/Raven collaboration III-Models joining Model-II Rasalhauge, The Tyr Miraborg, built on plans stolen from the Clan Homeworlds by the Raven Watch as a Leviathan-Prime and finally; one built to the original plans as GBDS Thunder Bear. Naglfarg is supposed to alleviate the Bear's transportation difficulties all on her own by reviving the original Heavy Transport configuration as a permanent solution.

The rest are a sort of experiment-in-waiting; only the Model-II is really a combat-proven design in a way which is objectively true for the Bear's situation; the Prime saw action in the Homeworlds, but under very different circumstances and not in such a way that the Bears can really place the two ships as points of data on a line. The Model-III is the latest, incorporating lessons learned from the Jihad and the Bears are reasonably sure that this is the best configuration available. The problem is that the recent SLDF Advanced Warships are mainly an unknown quantity; it's not so much that the bears doubt they can incorporate the technology into their fleet, as the question: "Is it worthwhile to do so?". With the Model-II serving as the control, the Prime as data from "Another Lab" and the Model-IIIs as the best guess, it's bizarrely the Model-I, never before produced in whole form which is the most experimental. Note that the term "Block" is not used, as each model of the Leviathan represents a true variation; a different "model", not a progressive development of the original design.

The long-term plan is to test each subtype in combat; determine which is best and which best suits the needs of the Dominion and then convert all but Naglfarg to that standard. Two side benefits to this process have been the familiarization with a generation of labour-castemen and native Rasalhaugians in cutting-edge, large-scale orbital/vacuum construction projects; both the rebuilt Ghost Bear Fleet and the facilities to support it. The other benefit has been the beginnings of the development of still-theoretical "Omni-Warship technology". Barely off the drawing board, the idea is barely a physical concept, but the potential is there for the Bears to initiate their own revolution in military affairs in Naval Warfare and technology.

The weaknesses of the Bear fleet, however (lack of smaller ships means too much area to cover for the remainder of the fleet, difficulty supporting extended fleet ops and simultaneous planet-side operations due to the lack of available support ships) are manifest.

[Smegish]

Well, the lesson here is never anger the bears enough that they gather the whole fleet together to come say hello...

SIX Leviathans is a battlegroup that should scare the pants off just about everyone.  :o

[snakespinner]

I think the Leviathans need some training.
Visiting the Combine and having a friendly fight would not hurt. >:D

[beachhead1985]

Well, the lesson here is never anger the bears enough that they gather the whole fleet together to come say hello...

SIX Leviathans is a battlegroup that should scare the pants off just about everyone.  :o

Yeah, but if you do that then the rest of the Dominion is going to be undefended at that level, which is part of the issue; forcing the bears into a defensive posture, because their fleet is based on a few huge ships; they lack smaller ships to perform other missions.

FYI, those Leviathans began to be laid down in the late 3060s.

[beachhead1985]

Before I go any further, I need to deal with the Society and the Wars of Reaving.

I have not read that book yet. I have it, I just never found the time and when I first heard of the event, having wondered WTF was going on with the Clans during the Jihad, I realized it was something big. I also realized that it wouldn't fit with my AU, as-is. But it still sounded really cool and I wanted to minimize the breaking changes.

But first; To summarize, because this is a large-ish post; SOG: The Solution To; and Cause Of; all of humanity's existential threats...Except for the Jihad...They have an alibi for that one.

***

Flashback to the old Fasa-Wizkids-FanPro transition days; one of the big things on the horizon, following the partial repudiation of the great refusal was the renewal of the Clan Invasion, we all know why that didn't happen *now*, but at the time, that was one of those big events I thought I saw coming that felt like it would be great.

While reading the Twilight of the Clans books, a particular passage jumped out at me; a company of SLDF/Lyran tanks; Alacorns or Challengers, was in a blocking position, awaiting some Smoke Jaguars on a planet, somewhere. They show up with two Kodiaks and the Company Commander remarks or thinks that, "This will be good practice for when we take down the Ghost Bears." Now there are problems with that statement; the Bears are Wardens at this time period, why antagonize them? But also a tantalizing detail; people aren't sure this whole thing is going to work. Tend to forget about that little detail.

At least *some* people in the various task forces/SLDF/Coalition think they may have to take down more than just the Smoke Jaguars to make this whole thing stick. Possibly, all the Clans.

In making my AU, I had these two fragments, amongst others; a renewed Clan invasion and this underlying idea that the whole TF Serpent idea might fail to sway the Clans.

I figured; the Clans are not stupid; naive doesn't quite do it justice either (it's a titanic understatement at some points in the BTU history)...but I prefer my protagonists to have some variety. Myopic 2-D facades get boring fast; it's more fun if you run into people who can actually learn from their mistakes. This isn't a kids cartoon show, afterall. If I am going to have someone do something irrational over time; I like it to be because they are human, or because they are crazy. I prefer my Clanners human...slightly crazy, but human.

A renewed invasion is going to feel like their raison d'etre, but there will be people who are going to be on the side of; "Whoa; lets stop and think; this may be too big a job for us right now, maybe we need to rethink our lives" and people who are going to to be like; "Pffft! They are not Clan, Quiaff? We will not allow spheroid inferiors to turn our whole culture against us."

There are going to be incredible discussions happening at every level; emotional and philosophical arguments will rock the Clan Coucil Chambers and in the heart of every warrior will be the question; "What does it mean to be Clan?" And being Clan; many will feel they already know the answer, one way or the other. Trials will be rife and occur at every level, up to between the Khans themselves.

These are big, resonating questions that can touch all of us; defining our own identity; what it means to us and how, or if we can redefine it, within a new paradigm... and do we have what it takes to mould our world in such a way to make *it* fit *our* identity?

But this great debate also seeks to frame current events in a more practically useful way for the Clans; is this just a clash of cultures or a continuation of the narrative of the Clans as an expression of human evolution and societal development in a Darwinian framework?

But nothing happens in a vacuum; while this is going on the political and military leaders will be asking themselves similar questions. They will be under immense pressure to have those answers and for them to conform to the political pravda of the time. But; this is my AU, there will be pragmatists; men and women who need to *know* what is going on in the homeworlds.

Anything the IS does now is dangerous, anything could upset the great debate, one way or another and they don't even know it's going on.

Eventually; someone has to say: "Better to bring it on ourselves now, while we are strong and know for certain, than to live in a vacuum, convinced in our own safety and have the Clans fall upon us at a time of their choosing."

This is an idea which reflects a grasp of both the military and political realities of the times; it is the ultimate in hoping for the best and preparing for the worst; it is Anastasius Focht's idea.

The general good will and prosperity of the inner sphere must be allowed to continue and grow for as long as possible; as such, there can be no serious hint of any unease with the notion that there has been a final and comparatively cheap and peaceful solution to the Clan Problem.

As such, no house, or Star League unit, no matter how trusted or elite can be trusted with this mission, you need someone who won't be missed, who a lot of people would just be glad to see gone. Thus; disposable, thus; mercenaries. At this time, the unit at the top of the list in terms of a balance of competence and expendability is called The Studies and Observations Group. They aren't the bravest, or the best shots; but they know their tradecraft and they are exactly as loyal to their contract as their employer is. They are the top of the heap for unbonded units in the Mercenary Trade.

They also just got done killing Star League troops in the Capellan Civil War (lasts longer in my AU). Contracted for their unique talents by the St. Ives Compact; up until the last day of the war, SOG has been prosecuting the most painful insurgency campaign to be endured by a major power since the fighting in the periphery preceding the Amaris Civil War. They have a record of successful long-range/duration deep penetration missions and come with a recommendation from ComStar's ROM. SOG's Special Forces troops and Striker Cadre fought in Operations Bird-Dog and Bulldog; clearing the way for Star League Troops; training the locals and making successful uprisings against the Smoke Jaguars possible. Then they were ambushing and mortaring the ELH in St.Ives. They have that unique sort of bloody-minded indifference that is the definition of professionalism in mercenaries.

So, this is Operation Munin; SOG will infiltrate the Clan Homeworlds and OZs and conduct a reconnaissance-in-force with the following objectives:
1. Determine the current capability of the Clans to renew the invasion in a successful manner.
2. Determine the intent of the Clan leaders and warriors to do this, if any, following the refusal.
3. Establish among the Clans an impression of prowess and respectability of spheroid military forces. reinforce the cultual legitimacy of the Refusal.

In order to accomplish these objectives;
1. SOG will be temporarily granted the right to call themselves members of Star League Defence Force.
2. Assets from the SLDF (ComGuards) and Star League Diplomatic Corps will be attached with plenipotentiary powers and as advisers.

So, this is sort-of a spheroid take on the Dragoon compromise; not wiping out the Clans in a campaign of cultural genocide (WOB! *cough!*) and not ignoring the potential problem.

Op; Munin comes off; not even close to without a hitch; but it works out. SOG even manages a supply drop/mail run and a no-hard-feelings handshake with the ELH on Huntress and protecting the Star League embassy.

What this does to the Clans psychologically is manifold; for many, this confirms every fear they have been nurturing that the Inner Sphere is going to come and wipe them out. For others; the conduct of the Studies and Observations Group helps them accept spheroids as peers who can engage the Clans on a cultural level in a way which they can respect.

The Ilkhan at this time is a surpassingly stoic and reasonable individual in my AU. I do not know his/her name yet. The ilkhan decrees that at this time the future is unknowable to the Clans. He chooses to see Op; Munin in a diplomatic framework; for how else would you communicate with a people like the Clans? This combination of talk and fight really works for the Clan-Sphere dialog on a level which plugs into cultural mores on both sides. The Star Adder's Upsilon Provisional Galaxy wins the trials to be sent to the Inner Sphere on a similar mission. But; following the Loose-Small/Win-Big principle; the Clans will undergo a military build-up. Using information from the Upsilon Reconnaissance; the Clans will build forces which will be the equal of a renewed and successful invasion or resistance of the Inner Sphere. And whichever course of action proves necessary will be pursued. Should neither prove necessary; then will follow the next step in the Clan's Darwinian Eugenics program. They will cast their Toumans against eachother in trials until they are reduced to a sustainable corps of only the strongest, best warriors before re-examining their destiny again.

This conversation is taking place while Op; Muinin is still going on; SOG is hopping around the homeworlds; talking and trialing with Clan Forces when they trip over an unmarked outpost in a remote system. They issue communiques and Batchalls, but receive no response until being fired on by Planet-to-space weapons. SOG attacks in earnest, what they suspect to be some kind of large Dark Caste enclave and face advanced Clan equipment. The action is noticed by Steel Viper forces in the system and a full Galaxy, supported by the massive warship Perigard Zalman moves to interdict the ongoing battle.

Both sides hastily evacuate and the unknown forces are unable to fully sterilize the facility. This is; you guessed it: The Society, revealed years early. This incidents prompts the Society to roll the dice and their forces reveal themselves all over the homeworlds, just as the Ilkhan's balancing act has been completed. But they are far under strength and out of position; most of the traps and tricks are not ready. Most of their strength is in hidden armies and Dark Caste forces; not the larger suborned Clan units.

It's a brutal surprise attack; glitched warships helpless, HPGs down, Nukes and EMPs everywhere. But no fancy viruses yet; they are ready, but still held in secret, secure locations. Not in the hands of the troops who will deploy them.

All the Clans in the homeworlds are savaged. But not a patch on the Wars of Reaving in Canon. The Clans wobble, but they don't go to a knee; they bounce back. Revealing themselves early has cost the Society dearly in terms of security and they loose most of their covert assets and facilities in the counter-attack. The Clans react badly to this betrayal by their scientist caste and they all conduct brutal purges. Having the history of the society back to it's inception following the attacks keeps them from jumping to the wrong conclusions, but an attitude of better safe, than sorry prevails. Even the abjured clans; the Nova Cats and the Diamond Sharks (3060 in my AU) conduct purges when they learn of the Society through their watch.

In the aftermath, with the Society broken, but too many having fled to parts unknown, their erstwhile allies abandoned; the Clans need no excuse to rebuild and then build-up. The employment by the society of a limited number of Warships leads directly to a Grand Council-mandated census of all Clan Naval Caches and finds many ships missing; the rest are to be restored for better safe-keeping in active service or scrapped if unrecoverable. Following the Clan Civil War; The Watch will be greatly reinforced with more personnel and funding in all the extant clans.

Following these events, the massive infiltration and manipulation of Clan Jade Falcon by the Society is discovered by Watch assets after the fact; the Falcons are abjured; chased out the homeworlds and their survivors absorbed. Another marathon Grand Council session follows; it is decided that all the Clans with extant OZ holdings are suspect of un-clan-like contamination by the inner sphere; the Wolves, Hell's Horses, Snow Ravens and Ghost Bears are abjured and suffer the same treatment as the Falcons. This is the beginning of the Clan Civil War.

It rapidly becomes a purity contest; Clans arguing and fighting over who is more pure, more-Clan than Clan. It's a more civilized conflict than the Wars of Reaving, but the trials are endless. This is what occupies the Clans during the Jihad in my AU. The aftermath is that all the Clans still in the Homeworlds are left with Skeletal Toumans of elite warriors, even as Upsilon returns following the Jihad; they return to a home totally unlike that which they left. The Scorpions are gone and the Ice Hellions and Fire Mandrills have been mostly wiped out.

By the time the Jihad is over, the Clan Toumans are shattered. They are having good luck getting their warships back online and having kept their fleets mainly out the trials in order to not risk such valuable assets, so things are good there, but in terms of ground troops; they're pooched for decades. Without the Clan Civil War, they could have waited to hear back from Upsilon, who returns like the parents at the end of a Kids-left-alone-for-the-weekend movie and then steam-rolled most of the inner sphere, but instead; here you have it.

Militarily; the Society did some damage to the breeding program with their nukes and sabotage, but the Great Blood Chapel is intact, though it will slow down rebuilding the Toumans. The Clans now have access to all the tech the Society has been developing/holding back, but some of it (like protomechs) they see as inherently tainted. Things like the Elstar program may or may not have more room to grow here.

The Hell's Horses and Snow Ravens manage to see their abjurment coming, but the Wolves still manage to be surprised (HOW CAN WE *NOT* BE THE PUREST CLAN?!?!) and suffer almost as badly as the Falcons. They do get away with a few assets though. The Bears are already gone from the homeworlds by this time and have just been keeping it a secret and the Scorpions have already decided as of the Great Debate to go their own way.

After all this; the themesong still remains the same, the words themselves have hardly changed: Clan intent is to undergo a major buildup and rebuilding program and re-examine the potential of the inner sphere as an existential threat or conquest. By the time they are ready, with armies to do either though, it will be at least the early 3100s, possibly into the darkage era in Canon.

But this time, not only will the revolution *not* be televised; there will be no pre-invasion trials; all of the remaining homeworld Clans will take part, or else.

[Shadow_Wraith]

 O0  Nice take on the Clans for your AU! 

[beachhead1985]

O0  Nice take on the Clans for your AU!

Thanks, I just think the Clans should be both a credible threat and less cartoon-villainy and more serious about how they are going to practically either survive the Inner Sphere or conquer it, all without becoming tainted by it.

Later on, I have some cool tech to roll out for the Clans which will keep them on the cutting edge, even as IS tech continues to advance and the more high-tech powers begin to produce it.

One thing I noted more and more was that as the timeline advanced, there was so much ClanTech available to the IS, that I wondered how that must make a Clan Player feel; sure they were getting a bit of new stuff, but nothing like the 3050 divide we saw in the Invasion. In WoR, we learn that the Society has been holding things back for...reasons I'm not clear on.

From the Current Perspective, we can see how the Clans in the 3050s and into the 60s continue the Paradigm of Superiority on the Battlefield that characterizes the original SLDF, more or less. That gets eroded as time goes on. In Der Tag; locally-made Clan Tech is supposed to be the great equalizer and the RAF and FedSuns pursue this capability doggedly; it is supposed to compensate for the smaller armies. The other powers all buy what they can from the Sharks.

The SLDF measures their upgrade level not by the benchmark of 3050, but by Clan Tech; by Dec 31 3099, approximately 1 in 3 Mechs, Ground Vehicles or Fighters is built or modified to Clan-Spec.  In the Infantry; the backbone of the SLDF, Clan Tech is omnipresent in small ways. They plan to have their entire force up to Clan Standard, save when IS equipment is the same or similar, by 3105-3115 at the latest. They can also produce and understand Clan Tech to a degree, but their advancements tend to go in directions the Clans would never waste time on, like upgraded artillery and NARC systems.

By contrast; the post-Civil War Clans in Der Tag, are interested in direct battlefield advancements; things that will make individual units more effective. Especially stuff that can be Omni-Pod mounted. What this means in practice is the beginning of Clan Equipment that is just *better*. Not yet an revolution in Military Affairs, better; but the goal is to provide their Warriors with kit that makes their form of warfare more practical again.

Since we've been talking Warships, what this means in that context is rebuilding their yards and refitting their fleets. The Clans have a lot of ships that were either boondoggles from day-one or just are not suited for the shape of modern warfare. These will need to modified to become more effective. But, bear in mind; the Clan context for what characterizes Modern Warfare derives directly from Upsilon's Recce mission and their own limited experiences fighting the Society. This grants shades of building to fight the last war, but it's better than ships designed to fight in the 2700s.

The 3rd League SLDF was originally organized to be able to fight the Clans, Tukayyid-Style, but as a secondary mission to fulfilling the needs of the Inner Sphere powers. This is the army they took to war in the Jihad. That sounds crazy, but remember this is in a post-Munin Context. I never did tell you what Op: Munin found, did I? having the operation come off is not the same as completing all objectives to an absolute standard. What SOG found was that the Clans were divided on the subject; the 2nd League read that as a continuation of the manageable aggression seen since Tukayyid. It wasn't seen as a big enough issue to contemplate something like cultural genocide and building an army to make that happen. That trickled down to the planning group for the New Model Army as; The Clans will be a low-priority mission.

Also; to be clear: Yes, the Planning Group was looking at SOG as SLDF Cadre before Op: Munin.

Post-War the SLDFiE have used the same TO&E, reorganized and built an army to fight the RAF.

One thing the Clans have learned from is Tukayyid; they have not adopted the tactics of the Inner Sphere wholesale, or much at all really, but they do train and innovate ways to counter them.

This is a better, smarter Touman concept than found in 3050; it looks similar, but it's organized and equipped better. What you are still going to find, if they finish building it is a sub-warship mix that is mostly Mechs and Battle Armour, supported by the minimal number of vehicles and enough Aerofighters to do the job of providing air cover and support. This is a very Mech-Heavy, Omni-Heavy Force. The RAF in this time period is also very Mech-heavy, but they have a different mission from the Clans. In building and organizing to fight them, the SLDF have put a lot of effort into Infantry, vehicles, artillery and air power. They have plenty of Mechs, but not nearly as many as they could have, if they diverted more resources. The mechs they do have are well-made (mostly) and high-quality designs (they think). This has sort-of worked out as the demographics of the 3rd League produce a high number of good soldier and leader candidates, most of which would go un-utilized if the SLDF followed a Mech-Heavy model. There are some other economic issues which dictate the SLDF's manning system, but for now we'll leave them. Lets look at some numbers;

***

RAF and SLDF Dec 31, 3099 and Clan (potential invaders) Planned Future Touman.

***

In Mechs, the RAF has a 300-500% Superiority over the SLDF (3-5 times), of middling technological advancement, some of these being MODs in certain formations. The Clans will have (if it works out) an additional 125-275% superiority over the RAF in raw numbers, mainly Omnis and  about 60% being in the heavy and assault class.

In Super-Heavy Mechs, the RAF owns the show; with the Ares, Posidon, Orca and Omega designs, which they can field in company-sized formations, whereas the SLDF only has the Behemoth, in Lances. RAF superiority is deffinite, but hard to put numbers on, as they shroud their super-heavy mechs in a great degree of secrecy.

The SLDF has a super-heavy industrial mech as well, but also a telling superiority in Super-Heavy Tanks, of which the RAF has very few, mainly Gulltoppers. Aside from Gulltoppers in WiE service, the Clans employ no super-heavy units.

The SLDF has between a 200-350% superiority in fixed-wing assets of all kinds over the RAF and just their Aerofighters top the Clan forces by 200% or more.

The SLDF enjoys a marked superiority over known RAF naval assets, but gives up over 100 hulls to the Clans, though their fleet trends heavier and they employ Advanced Warship technology, which the Clans have no idea of.

It could be estimated that the SLDF enjoys a 1000% superiority over the Clans in conventional infantry and theirs are better equipped by a great margin, but despite having a large number of Battle Armour formations; both the Clans and the RAF enjoy roughly a 200% superiority in numbers of powered suits estimated to be in service.

The Clans employ very few artillery systems; the odd Naga or Bowman here and there, A few Tubes in garrison clusters and solahma formations. the odd fortress dropship. Mainly, they fill this role with air power. The RAF has a larger number of systems, but prefers the Arrow-IV, Thumper and Sniper over the Longtom. The SLDF has massive artillery assets at all levels and will rely on them to level the playing field in area where they are weak. I couldn't put it to numbers, but it wouldn't even be worth the Clan's time to catch up. The RAF probably could, but their systems won't be as advanced and it would cost them dearly in other areas.

Neither the RAF or Clans have any equivalent of the SLDF's LAM and CAAN assets. The RAF has some equivalence in dedicated Special forces units. For the Clan Watch, it is too early to tell.

Lastly; Combat Support assets; The RAF has come to rely on Dropships for most heavy supply movement and boast sporadic specialist units attached to larger command; a major task force might have a battalion of mixed engineers, per say. The Clans have significantly reinforced their transport, resupply and recovery capabilities, or at least they will. They are more likely to use impressed labour castemen, prisoners or untrained solahma in engineering roles, or just skip over the problem with a combat drop. The New Model Army was built like the Kell Hounds; from the support echelon-up.

Hope you enjoyed this look at the state of the Clans and general military capability on Der Tag. Next we'll look at what shape the Clan Warship fleets are in, continuing with the Hell's Horses.

[beachhead1985]

        Hell's Horses Fleet, Circa 31 Dec, 3099

Congress-class Buchephalus
Potemkin (Clan)-class Armageddon, Steel Shield, blood horse
Lola III-class Black Knight, gold knight
York-class Stampede
Cameron-class Sleipnir
Volga Class mount Olympus
Vincent mk.39-Class Lancer
Potemkin (SL)-Class Beer Sheba
Lola-III (SL)-Class Old Knight
Aegis-Class Destrier, Chevalier
Bug Eye-Class Paint

The Horses are the last Clan to be driven from the Home Worlds, but they could see the writing on the wall long since. A lot of other Clans look at the Horses as impure for their embrace of combined-arms tactics, their limited success in the Inner Sphere was merely a pretext.

The Horses managed to recover six warship from their caches which they could get to and get working fast enough to be useful. Aside from the two upgraded Aegis, the rest were all ships which had lain in deep reserve since the formation of the Clans. As such; they have never been upgraded to modern Clan standards and the Horses will need to do that if they intend to keep them in service, which they certainly do.

The Potemkin would have been very welcome during the evacuation, even with recovering dozens of dropships and jumpships from the various Caches. This allowed the Horses to get out of the Homeworlds in better shape and faster than they otherwise would have.

In the Inner Sphere, that Bugeye will help the Hell's Horses keep tabs on their neighbors and the Watch will be glad to have it, you can be sure. For the number of worlds they control, the Horses are rather well set-up in terms of a fleet.

The biggest handicap the Horses have is that as of their punting from the homeworlds, they have exactly zero yards in their occupation zone, so since they will need those warships in order to survive, is going to be a high priority in the near future.

***

A word on Clan Naval Caches.

I used a RAT I made up with some help from Vition2. I then rolled a D100 through a die-roller program to randomly assign additional ships from the caches. I allowed a certain number of rolls based on what I thought I could imagine each give clan recovering.

These caches would have included at least Jumpships and Dropships and possibly small craft as well as Warships, so you can figure on each clan recovering 5-15 DS and JS per warship.

The known Caches are depleted by Dec 31, 3099. Everything usable as more than scrap and parts is history. You might cannibalize perhaps 2-5 more warships by combining parts of the most common types to make one functional ship, but that's just not economical right now and the remaining homeworlds and near-homeworlds clans are now scrap-mining the Caches. A lot of what should have been there when the census was completed was not and not all of it can be accounted for by the society. It is likely that the society and/or dark caste recovered and re-mothballed numerous ships and hid them elsewhere or are using them away from prying eyes.

Between the time the Census was conducted and all of the Clans began pulling hulls out of them in earnest, additional ships had gone missing. Mainly from other clans, especially the Scorpions, scooping the best candidates.

Not all the Caches were found. Some of them appear to have been...mislaid...the clans either lost the location, entered it incorrectly initially, hid it intentionally, even from themselves or someone else moved the cache after it was established.

It is likely that at least 2-3 Clans did not report all their census finding in terms of hulls and Caches to the Grand Council. It is entirely possible that at least one or more homeworld Clan retains a secret cache of good, usable hulls they cannot, themselves restore at this time.

It is fair to say though, that officially and as far as is known; Any further Warships will have to be built more or less, in order for the Clans to field them after 3100.

[Shadow_Wraith]

 O0

[snakespinner]

The Cameron class for the Hells Horses is that supposed to be Sleipnir Odin's horse or a spelling mistake.

[beachhead1985]

The Cameron class for the Hells Horses is that supposed to be Sleipnir Odin's horse or a spelling mistake.

Spelling mistake, thanks!

[beachhead1985]

So...About those Jade Falcons...

The Falcons were the First of the Clans to be punted from the homeworlds in the opening shots of what would become the Clan Civil war. They didn't see it coming and were somewhat roughly handled; they didn't want to go afterall. They managed to savage the Ice Hellions and pack up a few key facilities, but things did not go well and the Falcon fleet was left in a battered state.

Initially this left them in a poor position, but the Falcons, having brought the largest warship fleet in Op; Revival were in a better spot in terms of having some support already in place. They Possessed a few orbital facilities which could at least service warships and were able to restore the Dark Nebula Facility in short order.

Sometime during the early 3090s, the Falcons executed a covert mission with the aid of their more capable Watch services back into Clan space to recover several Warships from a Naval Cache in the homeworlds and two along the exodus road.

         Falcon Warship compliment, circa 31 Dec 3099


Aegis-Class Chaos Sailor, Red Talon, Blue Talon, Jade Talon
Fredasa-Class Swift Bait
Night Lord-Class Emerald Talon
Black Lion-Class Jade Aerie, White Aerie
Cameron-Class Turkina’s Pride
Congress-Class Raptor
Cameron-Class Falcon's Pride
Aegis SL-Class Razor Claw, Laser Beak, Rocksteady

To-date, only the Congress and Cameron have been rebuilt to Clan standards, but just being able to do this in the OZ proves the Falcon's capabilities beyond doubt.

The Aegis-class have begun to be recalled, with the Clan-spec ships going first to the Dark Nebula facility for a significant refit. What this new Aegis model will look like when it debuts is anyone's guess, but three ships have so far gone in for overhaul and two have emerged. The Falcons are keeping them under wraps so far though and pursuing a triage policy when it comes to upgrading their remaining original Aegis-Class.

The Falcons had to have a long sit down with what was left of their scientist Caste after the evacuation and the purges. Simply put; what was before is no more; the scientist Caste are now watched like hawks and are working hard to prove their loyalty and win back the trust lost to them by their collusion with the society.

***

A note about Peregrines. I would really liked to have tossed in a Peregrine or three amongst all the Clans in their recovered Warship fleets, but as it is, I have no indication as to their capabilities or specs, so though best to wait out on that.

Here's hoping for TRO: Golden Century! (Also; Storm Giant mechs and Rhino BA!)

[truetanker]

I now want to be in your Der Teg Hells Horse clan....

I just love them, 3 Potemkins and some serious drop transport!  O0

TT

[beachhead1985]

Warship Assets, Novacat Touman, SLDF

-Vision Naval Pursuit Star
Vincent Mk.42 Class Far Vision
Fredasa-Class Future Triumph
Lola-III-Class Growler
Lola-III-Class Ranger
Lola-III-Class Rover
York-Class Anna Rosse
Carrack-Class True Path

-Transcendent Naval Cruiser Star
Congress-Class True Vision
Aegis-Class Path of Honour
Aegis-Class Vision Quest
Aegis-Class Principle
Riga Block II-Class First Claw
Carrack-Class Perilous Vision

-Mystic Naval Assault Star
Black Lion-Class Severen Leroux
Aegis-Class Chronicle
Aegis-Class Principle
Aegis-Class Remembrance
Black Lion-Class Night Paw
Carrack-Class Void

-Merchant Fleet
Carrack-Class (Merchant) Far Star
Carrack-Class (Merchant) Enlightened Path
Carrack-Class (Merchant) Nebula
Carrack-Class (Merchant) Glory Road
Carrack-Class (Merchant) Pathfinder
Carrack-Class (Merchant) Guiding Vision
Carrack-Class (Merchant) Bright Star
Carrack-Class (Merchant) Faithful rite

It is well worth remembering that the inspection required of 1st SLDF-SOG, prior to their acceptance as SLDF troops, intentionally did not extend to naval forces. If it had, the inspection would have been scheduled for years later.

Warships were considered integral to the operation of any modern expeditionary force from the mid 3060s-onward, as demonstrated by the ELH experience in the Capellan Civil War. As such it was always intended that the SLDF should have it's own Capitol Ships. These were provided initially by Clan Novacat and the ComGuard, mainly by happy coincidence. This fact of life rather highlighted the issues common people and their leaders alike had with the new SLDF; no matter where you came from: "They weren't *us*". And when it came to naval power, "they" had some very big guns.

So naturally, the New Model Army project had to include naval forces from the beginning and indeed, this resulted in most of the sunk cost, as it was modeled (mainly by necessity) as an infrastructural program, rather than a capital one; you couldn't simply *buy* major warships on behalf of "Parties Unknown". That was how periphery rebels and pirates had acquired so many of their warships during the age of war and later.

The result of this was that by the dawn of the Jihad; the SLDFiE had access to more support facilities and support units for a major warship fleet than it did anything like a space-worthy hull.

New Model Army extra-planetary capabilities had been built from the group up. First in modifying and modernizing the motley assortment of dropships and jumpships SOG had acquired and had inflicted upon it in the initial equipment dump to fit-out the New Model Army. Then later in developing their own facilities to build and service the droppers and jumpers they would need, with an eye to a warship program in it's infancy by the time of the dissolution of the 2nd Star League.

The earlier "Pitcher Plant" Incident, following Op; Munin had done a lot to speed up the warship time-table, once it was finally done with, but even after evacuating the so-called "Pitcher-Plant" system, the Proto-SLDF still had no serviceable warships, though it did have a wealth of expertise on the subject and a proliferation of what would eventually prove workable hulls and salvage.

When war suddenly came, the SLDF, now officially "In Exile"; was already in the midst of Operation: Reindeer Games, following the revelations of Col. Donner; and aware, in specific circles, that something was in the wind, but uncertain what. With measures already under way to gather the Eridani Light Horse and no successful contact with SLDF forces on Tukayyid (At the time; 1 RBMR, Royal Black Watch Regiment, 472nd ComGuard Division "Invader Galaxy", Fury units and others), warning orders to dispatch forces for a link-up under-fire with Clan Novacat had already been issued.

While Task Forces: Dancer, Vixen, Blitzen and Rudolph were already on the way out, or coming back; Task Force Dancer, a much larger force consisting of the strength of the SLDFiE's Combat Naval Assets and including the majority of The Galactic Marine Corps, then in existence was still organizing, however. The delay was inevitable as it was already known from SLDF Naval Intelligence that they would be sailing into the teeth of the Word of Blake Jihad. As it was Task Force Dancer, managed to get away from their staging area at Ardennes before the remainder of the Op: Reindeer Games Task Forces were able to be formed and dispatched.

Arriving in the Irece Prefecture; contact was quickly made with Clan Novacat forces and an understanding reached.

Typically for the 'Cats, the Jihad had been forseen in some symbolic form by one of their warriors and the opening shots of the war found The Clan, disillusioned by the dissolution of the Star League, but on high military alert. With the revelation of the survival of some part of the Star League and their place (however tenuous and suspect) within a greater whole once more, it took only McKenna's simple soldier's words to convince the NovaCats to support a breakout of remaining SLDF forces on Tukayyid.

This campaign was the first taste of war for many soldiers of the SLDF, but also WOB's first taste of 1st SLDF-SOG; as the main force of the Division combat-dropped into the administrative and service-support areas for their forces on planet. While SLDFiE Ground Forces fought a major battle against WOB on the dusty world, Clan NovaCat laid into WOB fleet assets throughout the system, closely attended by what was then the majority of the SLDFiE's combat naval assets. From this point forward, no NovaCat Fleet assets would ever be without support and escort from either Fleet Marine Force ships or SLDFiE Navy assault dropships.

The final extraction of the Furies and Killer Bees was opposed with tactical nuclear weapons and supported by orbital bombardment, but ultimately the mission had to be labeled a success with the evacuation of the majority of Invader Galaxy and all known survivors of the 1st Royal Battlemech Regiment, The Royal Black Watch Regiment and the SLDF support forces on-world. The Furies however were reduced to a handful of survivors, alongside the Killer Bees. That 1st SLDF-SOG was willing to spend so much in lives and rescoruces to fulfil what was only an implied promise from a part of the SLDF the publicly-acknowledged forces never even knew existed did a lot to cement the loyalty of the remaining SLDF units and bought a lot of credit with Clan NovaCat as well.

As a result; The NovaCats knew, almost from the outset of the Jihad that they were not alone and the cause they had suffered abjurement to support was not wholly dead. While the Cats would ultimately choose to adopt a pragmatic wait-and-see approach to the idea of a Star League-in-Exile, they refused to commit heavily to any other alliance during the War.

From Operation: Reindeer Games onwards, NovaCat fleet assets enjoyed the services of the SLDF in the form of additional escort and support elements. While the most prominent of these would be the Newgrange-Class Yardship SLS Resolute Bay, translating to NovaCat space and a pile of work before the end of the year, it was the attentions of SLDF FleetCom and the dark navy-blue ships and fighters of the Galactic Marine Corps, in particular which were most widely noticed and appreciated by the Cats. It is thought now that this added escort strength saved over a dozen NovaCat ships during the Jihad: there are numerous instances where a timely capital missile strike on a Blakist ship, screen-launch or fighter sweep seems to have made enough difference to see a NovaCat ship limping away, rather than rapidly expanding as a ball of gas and metal fragments.

The arrangement doubtless benefited the SLDF as well; the NovaCats were attentive teachers for the SLDF's inexperienced ship crews and NovaCat ships were at least as protective of their escorts as their escorts were of them.

This has manifested today in what is an open mutual admiration society between the NovaCat Fleet and the Galactic Marine Corps and the elaborate ceremonies and bonds of comradeship with draw the NovaCat fleet together with the main strength of the SLDF.

Facing the new century, the NovaCat's are one of the few Clans in any bloc still deploying anything like a true Naval Star; the NovaCat Fleet operates as a distinct and separate force, within the Touman; not slaved to ground forces as in other Clans. If the capability grows in the future, the Khans would like to see medium-sized warships assigned to each Galaxy as dedicated assets, but for now the three Stars of the NovaCat Warship Force are needed more as  flexible assets protecting their worlds in the Irece Prefecture (their 3rd League Holdings enjoy SLDF Fleet protection). The Entire NovaCat Warship fleet relies heavily on mobile HPGs and Lithium-Fusion Batteries, but these are not yet universal in all their ships.

Vision Naval Pursuit Star normally operates broken up into pairs of warships which are regularly shuffled and exchanged between sub-groups. These patrol teams range throughout the Irece Prefecture and along major trade routes.

Trancendant Naval Cruiser Star is the Rapid-Reaction Force; assigned a tighter patrol area; this Star is moved around more for security purposes to keep from being ambushed and destroyed early in any preemptive strike by hostile forces.

Mystic Naval Assault Star is the Clan reserve Naval Strike Force. Kept mainly in the prefecture capital system; Mystic Naval Assault Star trains constantly in case they are needed.

The Cat's early expulsion from the Homeworlds kept them from salvaging any additional hulls, but they were gifted with two from different sources by the 3rd League; a Riga from the Pitcher Plant boneyard and a Clan-Upgraded Black Lion from Operation: Vril.

At the end of the War, SLS Resolute Bay returned to service with the SLDF Fleet support flotilla, but the Cat's continue to have access to these and other FleetCom assets and regularly train alongside the SLDF Fleet and the Galactic Marines' Blue Ships. In practice; getting wounded ships to the Canton Worlds is logistically difficult and getting any kind of Fleet assets to the Irece Prefecture is dicey operationally and politically, so long-term the Cats would like to acquire a Yardship of their own, but this, along with a Potemkin and other, smaller fleet assets are likely to remain on the Cat's wishlist for a while yet.

The Cat's boast a large fleet of Carracks however; three original/upgraded models and eight delicate merchant-grade ships. The milspec ships sail with the three Naval Stars as tenders and the merchants are allowed to sail anywhere but the republic and the FedSuns as free traders, though it has stretched the Cat's badly to provide any escort at all, following the dropship drawdown at the end of the war; essential to get the Warships back up to full capability and only now being reversed. Even so; the Cat's will be short of Dropships and Jumpships until at least sometime in 3103. It is fortunate then that so-called "Cat Cruises" Remain popular taskings for SLDF FleetCom forces, despite the difficult passage to the Irece Prefecture.

Being more prosperous, the Cat's were quickly able to purchase more stations to add to the gift set given to them when they officially joined the 3rd League and they have no issues supporting the fleet they currently field and have not-inconsiderable spare capacity as well. While they have no interest in a World Tree-Class Yard like the Sharks maintain, their other factories, habitats and smaller yards have done a lot to get their Clan and their protectorate back on their feet.

Most NovaCat production capacity has lain fallow these past few years as the Yard over Irece finishes work on the SLS Sabretooth; a Leviathan-Prime Class ship to be the Clan's newest warship and the first built in the Inner Sphere. A powerful message; when Sabretooth slips her moorings sometime in 3101, she will have established that the NovaCats can do anything they set their minds to and will have done much to balm perceived past failures and errors in judgement. Producing Sabretooth has stunted the recovery of the Irece economy and the civilians are looking forward to more contracts for labour in the coming years, with less spent on resources and elite workers for a prestige project and more access to consumer goods.

Of the three Clans in the 3rd League; Civilian petitioners to the NovaCats are least common and this has hurt the Clan; still seen as occupiers by some within the worlds surrendered or ceded to the Cats at the end of the Jihad by the Combine. The ways of the NovaCats continue to set them apart from the people they protect; while the Dianmond Sharks offer adevnture and the Blood Spirits offer camaraderie, NovaCats mysticism remains difficult to buy into for many spheroids, though a strong attraction for some. The Novacats posted double-digit shortfalls in their Scientist, Technician and Labour-Castes for the 4th year in a row in 3099.

I now want to be in your Der Teg Hells Horse clan....

I just love them, 3 Potemkins and some serious drop transport!  O0

TT

Ah; four. Four Potemkins; the 4th is an SL-tech ship which is space-worthy, but not-yet upgraded to Clan-specs ;)

Glad you're liking it truetanker!

Thing with all the Potemkins in Clan hands is that some of them don't need all those drop-collars unless they intend to take-off again. We already know the Falcons have an upgraded Aegis on the table; expect someone to have a prototype Potemkin refit as a dedicated warship (or yardship!), sooner rather than later.

[truetanker]

Oh wow, ok.

I can totally dig it...

So 3x Lola III's eh... I like!

TT

[beachhead1985]

Oh wow, ok.

I can totally dig it...

So 3x Lola III's eh... I like!

TT

Yeah, contrast them to the Bears; they came out with a very well-rounded fleet, no?

That Cameron though; that's their big battlewagon. And yet zero established yards as of 31 Dec, 3099.

Now, how about the biggest fleet in known space as of Der Tag?

[snakespinner]

The Nova Cats are doing well.
And now with a Leviathan.
I can enjoy that. O0

[beachhead1985]

Clan Snow Raven Naval Forces; Order of Battle, current as of 31 Dec, 3099

-Ice Storm Naval Star

Levithan-II-Class Butcher Bird
Cameron-Class Ice Storm
Conqueror-Class Ark Royal
Congress-Class Magpie
Whirlwind-Class Drake
Vincent Mk.42-Class Muninn
Conqueror-Class Black Squall

-Conqueror Naval Star

Leviathan-III-Class Unkindness of Ravens
Conqueror-Class Conqueror
Cameron-Class Kerensky’s Hope
Sovetskii Soyuz-Class Storm Crow
Thera-Class Raven’s Nest
Liberator-Class Sharp Shooter
Whirlwind-Class William Adams

-Windshear Naval Star

Leviathan-II-Class Windshear
Conqueror-Class Stacked Deck
Cameron-Class Blizzard
Samarkand Block II-Class Hunting Club
Vincent Mk.42-Class Hunnin
Lola-III Class Cold Hunter
Sovietskii Soyuz-Class Avalanche

-Eden Rose Naval Transport Star

Potemkin-Class Bonaventure, Eden Rose, Epimethius, Treachery and Wild Swan 
Volga-class Scavenger

-Grand Aerie Naval Support Star

Newgrange-Class Grand Aerie, Winghaven, Fiddler's Green
Potemkin-Class Snowflake, Rook
Bug Eye-Class Hawkeye, Copernicus

-James McKenna Naval Reserve Assault Star

Night Lord-Class Snow Raven
McKenna-Class James McKenna
Texas-Class Mountbatten
Farragut-Class Northern Sky
Black Lion-Class Black Fire
Pinto-Class Deep Voyager
Pinto-Class Sandman
York-Class Corvidea

-Cosmic Corvus Naval Pursuit Star

Fredasa-Class Black Beard, Star Sabre
Congress (SL)-Class Cosmic Corvus
Vincent Mk.42-Class Final Hurdle
Vincent Mk.39-Class Trois Pistoles, Barret's Privateer

-Merchant fleet

Carrack Transport-Class Nestling, Venture Star, Traveler
Potemkin-Class Von Luckner
Volga-Class Tenacity

-Clan Snow Raven Strategic Naval Reserve

Aegis-Class Morning Violence, Blue Lancer, Tombstone, Lord Death, Black Justice
Sovietski Soyuz (SL)-Class Red October, Navy Cross
Lola-II-Class Collier Seaman
Congress (SL)-Class Punisher
Lola-III (SL)-Class Kiel Maiden
Davion-Class Nightsword
Baron-Class Bermuda
Naga-Class Ratha

Here it is folks; the biggest, more powerful fleet in known space on Der Tag. For sheer number of hulls, nothing can match the Snow Ravens; though the SLDF FleetCom comes close, they lack the depth the Snow Ravens have.

So; we already have the who and the what; to lay "where" to rest, we have to look at the Raven exodus and how it conjoins with their abjurement. Even before Op: Munin; the Snow Ravens were sniffing around the Outworlds Alliance and preparing to return their Clan wholesale to the Inner-sphere. Activating their reserve naval stars and hull-mining their Naval Caches in secret was a big part of this; efforts went as far as tugging derelict hulls into place to mascaraed as usable hulls which were being reactivated: this kept the Snow Raven efforts from being revealed too soon.

Any workable jumpcore was refurbished alongside every space-worthy dropship hull; for the next few years; that is all any ship is to the Snow Ravens: a jumpcore or a drop-hull. Boot-strapping warships consisted of waking up the reactors and jump cores and getting the station-keeping drives online. As many dropships as were practicable were then filled with personnel, supplies and equipment, welded to the hull and jumped---in convoy---along the route to the Outworlds. Once there; the hulls were emptied and cached again in deep space outside the OA Borders for many years and the cargo stockpiled in camps and staging areas. Efforts were such that the yards at Lum were so badly taxed that they could be neither destroyed or removed to any great extent; quite simply the yards were operating at maximum capacity up until three days before the Steel Vipers seized the deserted facilities. However; the Ravens were kind enough to leave behind a sleeper program and were able to keep a record of all production and refit activity at Lum until roughly 3079.

By the time the vote comes down to abjure the Ravens; the enigmatic Naval Clan have been keeping the lights on with Solahma and skeleton lower castemen for several years and the other Clans gain very little in material terms from their abandoned holdings.

Getting into the How; in Der Tag; the *Raven-Alliance* is more of a literal title, even before the Jihad than it is in Canon at any point up till 3150. The union of the Clan and the State is formal, amiable and complete; having the Clan basically become the military of the Alliance maintains the fiction the Alliance Civilians require in order to be both safe and ideologically pure in their nature; "Oh no! We don't build warships for the *Alliance!*, We build them for the *Clan!*; it's simply a part of their culture and they use their strength to protect us, not for territorial gain like the corrupt successor states. We build unarmed jumpships and and merchant dropships for the *Alliance*; to sell our quilts and candles abroad."

The Raven Labour, Technician, Merchant and Scientist castes enjoy many of the benefits of pre-Raven Outworlds citizens. Alliance Civilians even retain the right to vote on representatives, up to the President. The main difference is that the Snow Ravens now form the semi-autonomous military of a Government they also take part in as equal partners. Because this lifts responsibility for their own defence from traditionally pacifistic Outworlds citizens, it creates a kind of moral welfare the civilian population is very happy with, even with the massive temporal power the Ravens wield. Meanwhile; all military and paramilitary forces of the Alliance are now formally controlled and integrated with the Clan Touman.

What does this all mean? Well it makes for a lot of happy Outworlders on both sides; the civilians, alongside the growing under-castes of the Clan are happy to work and work hard in exchange for enhanced living conditions, freedoms and social supports and the Outworlds Military forces, long occupying a difficult to explain position in the Alliance have a happier existence as part of the Clan. They get much more respect and understanding and prefer this to the often confusing reverence/revulsion paradigm faced by armed forces in the Alliance, prior to the coming of the Snow Ravens.

Since the arrival of the Snow Ravens, the Alliance has advanced technologically by leaps and bounds and the common man has benefited. Industry and infrastructure have rapidly improved and this is all without figuring the material assets of the Clan itself. The bottom line is that in only a few short years, the Raven Alliance has conjured itself onto the scene with all the support and industry they need to build and maintain a powerful military, very much to the taste of the Ravens. It's worth noting that aside from the induction of a comparatively larger number of young alliance citizens into the various Castes; the Clan-based ground forces of the Touman have not expanded at all outside the Order of Battle extant in 3060; while most Galaxies and Clusters have expended to their Table of Organization and Equipment limits; no new Galaxies have been formed, not even provisional ones.

It's worth noting though that the Ravens now boast all Five Alliance Air Wings as independent formations, alongside the 1st and 2nd Long Road Legions, Avellar Guard, Alliance Borderers and Grenadiers. Under the Ravens, these formations have all benefited greatly with upgraded technology and higher morale. the Air Wings especially have been welcomed as kindred spirits by the Snow Ravens.

So that explains the how; even prior to the Jihad in Der Tag; the Ravens benefit from a muscular military industrial complex; well supported by the people of the Alliance and the former AMC.

So what about the why? The Draconis Combine may be trying to have a Warship Navy again, but it's so far behind the Ravens as to be laughable. The Federated Suns is just in sorry shape; so why do the Ravens bother in the Der Tag AU? They could save a lot of cash, resources and personnel (even with the induction of vast numbers of Alliance freeborns) and roll that into infrastructure, good will projects, ect.

it would be temping to blame this too on the SLDFiE and the 3rd League, but frankly the Ravens don't care about those noisome upstarts; they may be their closest competitors in terms of hull strength, but Clan Snow Raven is looking beyond mere military strength to personal survival and cultural evolution. The Snow Ravens see themselves as pursuing not just Kerensky's great experiment, but the next stage of societal evolution. They realize that in the context of a Galaxy with other Clans in it who are *very* concerned about ideological purity and staying true to the founder's vision that this makes them public enemy number one. The Ravens know first hand that True Clans plan to return and that the Snow Ravens will be the greatest ideological threat to them. The RAF or the SLDF might be able to stop the combined might of the Clans militarily and even survive themselves, but they can not stop the idea that is The Clans short of totally cultural extermination.

The Snow Ravens *can* challenge the other Clans on an ideological level, which the Inner Sphere has been proven incapable of in the eyes of the Clans in the Der Tag AU.

As such the Snow Ravens see their fleet and empire in the form of the Raven Alliance as key to their survival when The Clans return. Whether or not The Clans directly attack the Raven's first, or not; the Snow Ravens see themselves as needing to maintain the Terran Hegemony standard in Naval Strength; the goal is a fleet able to stand against the combined might of all the homeworld Clans at once, and prevail.

***

That's the background, now lets look at the foreground; The CSR Fleet.

The Snow Ravens deploy three "Naval Stars"; flexible formations, filled out by different kinds and classes of ships, but each built around a core of a newly-built Leviathan and one or more Conquerors. These three un-specialized Stars are the main strength of the fleet and able to handle any given mission. These formations have two main strengths; the firepower and resilience of their Leviathans and the versatility of the formations as a whole; each is able to fulfill any mission, save fleet reconnaissance and in common with all CSR Naval stars are well provided with escorts in form of PWS, Assault Dropships, Fighters and even combat small craft.

Eden Rose Naval Transport Star is a strictly military formation; not a merchant-caste franchise. The mission of the Eden rose Star is to move heavy ground forces around the map. They were integral to efforts during the Raven migration to the Alliance and boast some of the best pilots and navigators in the Snow Raven Touman.

Grand Aerie Naval Support Star is the service-support backbone of the fleet, which is otherwise supported by stars of tender dropships. It's three Newgrange Yardships can provide most of the serious maintenance and repair needs of the fleet, but fall short of accommodating the massive Leviathans the Ravens have begun deploying in the last 10 years. While the accident last year with CSRV Butcher Bird (inadvertently collided with and destroyed the CSRV Nest Mother, a Carrack-Class Ship) proved that while the Newgrange-Class has no difficulty servicing a ship pulled up alongside, it's a far cry from taking it inside it's repair bay hold and taking advantage of all the internal equipment and repair systems the Newgrange possesses. The Snowflake and Rook make excellent heavy tenders and haulers to support extended fleet operations and the Two Bug Eyes; Hawkeye and Copernicus, now heavily refit provide advance reconnaissance and electronic intelligence to the Raven Alliance as a whole. A solution to full maintenance for the Leviathans outside a static yard remains hypothetical for the Ravens.

Whereas the three undifferentiated Naval Stars are flexible formations, capable of performing a variety of missions; James Mckenna Reserve Naval Assault Star is either a hammer for smashing opposition into atoms or a spear for thrusting deep into the heart of an enemy. Built around a hard core of progressively older, but still potent battleships and their escorts; the Black Lion-Class Black Fire seems like an after-thought, but may serve as a game-flush in certain situations. This formation's designation as "Reserve" is thought to be more operational than strategic; not to be piddled away in general operations, but saved for vital counter-attack and penetration missions, or as a final resort against a heavy assault delivered against the key worlds of the alliance itself. The two Pinto-Class escorts are from a boneyard discovered as the remains of a Periphery-uprising era rendezvous in deep space outside the Alliance borders by Raven explorers seeking potential systems for colonization, basing and exploitation.

Cosmic Corvus Naval Pursuit Star is the Snow Raven's main patrol formation and equipped with lighter ships. It normally operates it's ships separately, but making frequent rendezvous. Of all the front-line formations, it is most in need of modernization for it's busy ships and the addition of the newly-built Star Sabre has only served to highlight the obsolescence of Cosmic Curvus, Trois Pistoles and Barret's Privateer; all of which were from the Raven's oldest Naval Caches and have been untouched since their reactivation.

The Raven's Merchant caste, though blessed with a useful and competitive fleet, has been over-shadowed by canny Outworlds traders in the last few decades and their influence with the Clan has actually waned, though it shows signs of recovery in the last five years. The Carracks and Volga are all Merchant-Crewed, but the Potemkin-Class Von Lucker is a Warrior-Caste ship on onerous merchant detail. The Warrior-Crew allow it to "self-escort", but it's here because it simply isn't required elsewhere and the Ravens need the added shipping capacity over their regular jumpship fleet. Furthermore the ship was delivered directly to it's current duty from from clantech refit at the Quatre Belle yards where it was rechristened, some suspect; rather suggestively. It is theorized that during wartime, Von Lucker could serve as a commerce raider, without impacting fleet support duties. Though why the Ravens could be this clever and at the same time; this unsubtle is itself a mystery.

The Clan Snow Raven Naval Reserve is a large collection of mostly outdated ships, held in a ready-reserve status. While all the Clan's Aegis-Class vessels currently lay in this collection, the rest are varying degrees of obsolescent and obsolete. Many of the smaller hulls come from the deep-space boneyard and other unspecified near-space locations. These have received limited upgrades to their small-scale weaponry and armour, where needed for repair and supply line purposes, but are otherwise mostly in original, restored condition; ready to be employed on 24 hours to 3-months notice. The remainder are Star League-Vintage ships from the Raven's post exodus caches and more modern, but the Aegis are something of a mystery. It is thought their relegation to the Clan reserve is from a combination of personnel shortages and a perceived lack of faith in the potential and performance of the aegis in modern fleet engagements. Whether or not the ravens will pursue any further upgrade programs on any of their older ships, or consign the Naval Reserve to mothballs, remains to be seen.

[beachhead1985]

Wolf Clan Warship Complement, Circa 31 Dec, 3099

McKenna-Class Mckenna's Pride
Black Lion-Class Stealthy Kill
Sovetskii Soyuz-class Dire Wolf, Lone Wolf
Cameron-Class Bloody Fang
Congress-Class Rouge
Liberator-Class Jerome Winson, Victoria Ward
Vincent Mk.39-Class Vindicator

The Wolves got hammered badly in the Home Worlds; as the Clan of Kerensky, they truly did not expect to be abjured and were able to save little of their holdings in the Homeworlds. One coup they did manage was to hijack the McKenna's Pride and get away clean with it, leading the navies of the Home Clans on a merry chase, giving the rest of the clan a chance to escape, with the picked crew eventually slipping away entirely.

[snakespinner]

Borrowing(stealing) the McKenna's Pride, that should get a lot of clansmen upset. O0

[beachhead1985]

Borrowing(stealing) the McKenna's Pride, that should get a lot of clansmen upset. O0

They weren't thrilled, that's for sure. But they were already willing to wipe the Wolves out, if necessary to drive them from the homeworlds, so it's not like it could get much worse.

***

Clan Wolf-In-Exile; Extant Capital Naval Forces, Circa 31 Dec 3099

Potemkin-Class Full Moon

CWiE has pretty much the same war they did in Canon; loosing most of their warships in the process. Post-War, they benefit from Lyran and native fleet support facilities; what's left of them, but they are forced to put their faith in PWS and have been building them at as fast a rate as being rabid Republicans will allow.

The Wolves in Exile, *could* especially with Kell Hound help build a more expansive fleet support base and could have even been producing warships themselves by now, but politics; needing to keep the Lyrans and Devlin Stone happy have prevented this.

Full Moon is in good shape though and the Lyran Commonwealth is secretly really happy to have her and the Wolves in Exile around, as it allows them to draw-down more of their own troops; which in turn keeps the Republic happy, while at the same time benefiting from having more allied military forces within their borders. They aren't half as worried about the WiE being clan as they put on.

[beachhead1985]

Capital Naval Assets: Clan Blood Spirit Touman, SLDF; Circa 31 Dec, 3099

Carrack-Class Karianna Schmitt
York-Class Stooping Kite
Aegis-Class Exsanguine
Aegis (SL)-Class Admiral Raeder
Potemkin (Clan)-Class Ironsides
Congress (SL)-Class Red Dreams

When the 3rd League was in it's infancy and the SLDFiE was casting about for allies, the Blood Spirits were on their last legs with hostile, more powerful Clans closing in from all sides.

The situation had not been exactly sanguine when The Spirits were reconnoitered during Op: Munin and things had gotten worse from there. The disruption of the unexpected intercession of supposedly Star League forces had allowed the Spirits to displace and hide more of their dwindling assets, but the Adders and Vipers had been closing in ever since.

The 3rd League had reason to believe from their own projections and intelligence from the Scorpion Watch, that the Blood Spirits had had enough and would take an out if it was offered to them, but any kind of coordination beforehand would be impossible as the Scorpions reported the loss of the last spirit HPG in march of 3077.

Operation: Rope was launched in mid 3083 with the hope of bringing the spirits into the fold and included significant Warship assets along with additional hulls from SLDF Logistics Command in order to make sure of getting all the Spirits away.

When the Task Force jumped into the York System in early 3084, they translated into a scene of chaos. The Adders were in the process of finally closing the noose on the Spirits with a combination orbital bombardment and massive ground assault and the SLDF forces had jumped in behind them at a pirate point discovered during Op: Munin.

The Task force deployed and laid into the shocked Star Adders heavily damaging a number of ships with Naval Gauss fire in the first few moments of the engagement. finding themselves in a totally unexpected situation they knew nothing about; the Adders began recovering what troops they could and jumping out of the system.

The 1st Cavalry Division deployed onto the world as communication was established the Blood Spirits and fought to contain the Star Adder and Steel Viper Forces on York, while discussions continued. Still suffering from their Losses on Terra, 1st Cav was at far from full strength and lacked the ability to simply crush the Adders and Vipers and instead had to be content to keep them away from the spirits and worry away at them.

For their part; the Blood Spirits were of the opinion, generally that they were in no need of rescue and indeed the Khans took the intercession of SLDF forces as an unwanted and hostile act and ordered their forces to attack their would-be saviours. While the anemic Blood Spirit Touman rose to the wishes of their leaders, all communication was lost for about three days, while SLDF forces on York and in space dueled with both the Spirits and their Star Adder and Steel Viper Adversaries, who had also fallen to fighting amongst themselves.

Early on the 4th day, communication was restored; The Blood Spirit Leadership had fallen to a coup in the form of various trials of grievance, possession and refusal and the new leadership desperately wished to Join the 3rd League and be evacuated. All fighting between the spirits and the SLDF ceased and they turned their combined forces on the remaining Star Adders and Steel Vipers, while ships were dispatched to signal the other Blood Spirit vessels and forces in hiding elsewhere to rendezvous at York.

The Blood Spirits were in rough shape from top to bottom; most of their industry was gone and what was left was crudely hacked out of it's foundations and hurriedly loaded on dropships; much of the lower castes were intact, but basically reduced to disposed refugees and the Spirit Touman was a shadow of itself. Task Force Rope ended up filling every dropship and drop-collar and most of the cargospace available elsewhere; almost more salvage from the fighting was recovered than operational Blood Spirit military assets, but enough of the people were there to matter.

The Spirit Navy had been scattered and reduced to a mere three warship hulls, a handful of nomadic jumpships in hiding and a few dozen operational dropships. Not all of the jumpships and dropships could be located in the York System of elsewhere and it is though some must have been lost or joined the dark caste out of desperation. While the Invader-Class CBS Red Raven managed to link up with the rest of the clan in early 3092, the remainder of the Clan Blood Spirit fleet unaccounted for when TF: Rope jumped out of York has been written off.

While CBS Exsanguine had been hiding in the work system, out of ammunition and  looking for it's shot at a death ride, Stooping Kite and Karianna Schmitt had been hiding in other systems and it took some weeks to contact them and bring them in, meanwhile the Star Adders and Steel Vipers were regrouping.

The inevitable happened on 24 March, 3084 when a Steel Viper Task Force, led by the impressive CSV Perigard Zalman, jumped into the York System. All extent material recover operations were halted and SLDF and Spirit forces attempted to sabotage or destroy what was left as the last dropships fought to claw their way up, out of York's gravity well.

Battle Group Continuation of Politics attempted to keep the Perigard Zalman and her escorts at range, dueling with long-range accurate NGR fire, while the Task Force's most recent arrivals' jump cores struggled to build a safe enough charge to jump and the last of the Blood Spirit genetic legacy was transferred to the holds of the CBS Karianna Schmitt.

At combined barrage from the dreadnoughts Kongo and Continuation of Politics disabled the Perigard Zalman's jump and interplanetary drives as their flanking claw maneuver with Arizona finally bore fruit. The Vipers formed a Pickett around the Zalman with their other damaged ships just as the Star Adder's jumped in. The three small ships nearest to them were unfamiliar designs of light displacement and they rolled in to attack. Three minutes into their attack runs, the CSA Bright Lance and Journey learned what the Word of Blake had over Terra; it is most unwise to an Ericsson-Class Space-Going Monitor by it's size; as both the Lola-III Class ships were erased by combined fire from the Roberts, Monadnock and Dictator while the farther Zheleznyakov menaced the Adder dropships.

Before any further action could take place; Admiral Al Kalivicchi signalled the task force to jump and the 3rd League ships left the Adders and vipers behind. Badly wounded and with their LF batteries mostly expended; they chose not to pursue.

***

Clan Blood Spirit warships made little impact in the final battle of York; badly damaged and low on ammunition, the entire Spirit fleet would remain in dry dock until the early 3090s once they finally returned to friendly space.

Since then, the 3rd League has done as much as possible, without alienating the Novacats and Diamond Sharks to rehabilitate the Blood Spirits as a 3rd League Member State. This has included assigning them three warships from Operation: Vril, by way of the joint Scorpion/SLDF project: Roadshow and the basically standard "Giftset" complement of starter-orbitals. These the Blood Spirits have put to good use rehabilitating their shattered fleet; the CBS Admiral Russel Nga will begin post-refit shake-down trials next year as a Conqueror-Class Ship and the Brand-New Night Lord-Class CBS Spirit of York will launch sometime in 3103. Upgrading their two Star League-fit ships remains a low priority, but both will complete upgrade of their secondary weapons to Clan-Spec early in the new year.

For their own part the Blood Spirits have proven productive allies and remain eager to establish their worth among their brother-Clans in the Inner Sphere. Their dearest wish is for the likes of the Sharks to acknowledge that they have paid their debts and earned a place beside them.

While the Spirit's technical contributions to the 3rd League cannot be ignored (Their Blood Lasers alone, almost won the Novacats over in one move) their greatest contribution has been their throughput of acclimatized refugees ready to become 3rd League citizens. Following the Jihad; the 3rd League continued the tradition began with the New Model Army of building a nation out of people displaced and disillusioned by the politics of the inner sphere. This almost destroyed the program before it began as these populations ghettoized and began fighting amonst themselves. Ever after much more effort was put into assimilation and "population-alloying"; the coup of 75 again proved their was much work to be done at home and power-blocs outside the SLDF's preferred individualist model were still dangerous.

Following the Jihad, the SLDF took in over 200 million of refugees with them from all over the inner sphere over 15 years. The Blood Spirits, when they arrived assigned themselves a role as guardians, allies and advocates for these huddled masses and their education programs churned out more and more effectively assimilated refugees than any other measure before or since.

It is not a shock then that of the three Clans in the 3rd League, the Blood Spirits continue to have to the highest numbers of petitioners to join all of their castes each and every year.

What is a shock is how quickly the Spirits were able to get their own breeding program up and running again with zero outside assistance. With resettlement complete by 3086, the first totally new trueborn Sibkos graduated in autumn 3097 with a pass rate that speaks for quality over quantity and a faith in their new freeborn foundlings. Up till this point; very few Sibkos had been around to recover from York and only a few dozen occupied Iron Wombs were still functional when they were evacuated.

[marauder648]

I've just started reading this and will take a look later when I'm not feeling ill but DAMN you've put a LOT of thought into this!  This is really good and I look forwards to sinking my teeth into it and reading later on today :)

[beachhead1985]

I've just started reading this and will take a look later when I'm not feeling ill but DAMN you've put a LOT of thought into this!  This is really good and I look forwards to sinking my teeth into it and reading later on today :)

if you like this, just wait till I start posting Order of Battle.

But thank you very much! I've been working on this and loving it for a while, so I am really glad that other people can enjoy it too! I hope you get a real charge out of it.

A lot of the fluff is a result of me applying my own "If-Then" logic to events. The weakness here is that I am what you might call "Neuro-diverse" if you were being really PC; I have a form of Autism. What that means is that what makes sense for me in terms of human behaviour, may not makes sense to anyone else. Normal human behaviour and decision-making rarely does make sense to me.

I am trying to componsate on the BG-side with doing two things; sprinkling randomness here and there to simulate "Fuzzy logic" and remembering always that people will always prefer to do what feels good and not what is smart.

Another note i'll make is that it seems like I'm placing a lot of emphasis on warships in Der Tag, as if they are the hinge upon which the AU turns; they are not. The critically poor ideas and policies of the republic are the axis of the story; with the wrinkle of a counter-weight to the republic. But I wanted to start with a Strategic overview and discussing warship complements was a good way to continue that, without getting right into the opening shots of Der Tag.

Warships are strategic weapons; so are WMDs. No one knows how many of what kind anyone else has access to.

Want to look at the Escorpion Imperio next?

[marauder648]

Well you're doing an amazing job, there's obviously a lot of research and thought put into this TL, i'm curious about the SLDFiE's naval strength but the Scorpio sounds great! :)

[beachhead1985]

Well you're doing an amazing job, there's obviously a lot of research and thought put into this TL, i'm curious about the SLDFiE's naval strength but the Scorpio sounds great! :)

I really appreciate that Marauder648. And your spaced-out cat. I love your spaced-out cat avatar.

SLDF FleetCom has less than the Snow Ravens on average; fewer hulls and/or lighter weight. I'll do them last. I'm hesitant because none of the specs for the ships are on paper in any way. The SLDF is supposed to possess "Advanced Warship Technology" I have some idea what that means, but no rules-backup. If you combined all three Clans and FleetCom, the Raven's are badly out numbered, but the SLDF has a lot more territory to cover and it's scattered all over the place. In any direct conflict, the Ravens could easily count on tactical superiority.

***

Escorpion Imperio, Naval Assets, Circa 31 Dec 3099

The Imperio assigns it's warships directly to it's Galaxy formations, in five "Battlegroups" and a Fleet Reserve. Tau, Rho and Chi Galaxies are currently without Warship assets. The Goliath Scorpion Fleet has been radically re-organized to better serve a defensive role in the new Imperio.

-Alpha Galaxy, Einherjar Battlegroup

McKenna-Class Lei Kung
Congress-Class Bernlad
Vincent Mk.39-Class Black Sting
Potemkin-Class Coterie

-Beta Galaxy, Fire Wheel Battlegroup

Nightlord-Class Atropos
Lola-III-Class Sagitta
Lola-III-Class Newfoundland
Potemkin-Class Karttikeya

-Gamma Galaxy, Wild Hunt Battlegroup

Farragut-Class Warhammer
Lola-III-Class Auriga
Potemkin-Class Encaladus
Carrack-Class Collerane
Congress SL-Class D'Jinn

-Delta Galaxy, Southern Cross Battlegroup

Du Shi Wang-Class Swift Strike (Formerly Quicksilver Mongoose)
Essex-Class Fencer
Potemkin-Class Prometheus
Volga-Class Andromeda

-Mu Galaxy, Wolfpack Battlegroup

Cameron-Class Hephestus
Aegis-Class Corona Austrina
Vincent Mk. 42-Class Ambush Predator
Potemkin-Class Cornucopia (Formerly Osis Pride)
Black Lion SL-Class Gun Fighter

-Fleet Reserve

Newgrange-Class Yardship Strongarm
Newgrange-Class Yardship Masterwork
Newgrange-Class Yardship Mary Ellen Carter
BugEye-Class Evening Star
BugEye-Class Sun
Tracker-Class Gotcha
Aegis SL-Class Reforger
Sovietskii Soyuz-Class Hunter's Lance
Mako-Class Cutty Sark

The Scorpions have naturally benefited greatly from Operations: Vril and Dragonfire. Lacking established infrastructure for Warships in the Nueva Castile worlds, they have been forced to upgrade primitive jumpship servicing yards and build from scratch. As such, much of their take from the raids on Clan Naval Caches came in the form of hulls which were cannibalized to provide spare parts if they were not immediately capable of a return to service.

So while totally adequate warship production and service capabilities are decades away, the Scorpions boast a fleet of fully functional warships and a healthy stockpile of spare parts. While the later is irreplaceable, it is generally felt that barring an invasion of Imperio Space by the Homeworlds Clans in the next 20 years, the Scorpions should be in a good position.

However, it might be fair to say that the Scorpions got the pick of the litter out of the joint SLDF-Imperio endeavour; adding a fully functional Farragut and the former Quick Silver Mongoose to their fleet. The addition of the Coterie and former Osis' Pride however were coups that are owed to the Scorpions alone; the Coterie won in fair trial of annihilation from the Ice Hellions and the Osis' Pride an opportunistic capture by marines from the Atropos. Both have been returned to full service with parts from the hollowed-out Clan Naval Caches.

Benefits to the rest of the Imperio Militar del Escorpión have been more pronounced however; with equipment flooding in from Caches all over know space; the Scorpions now face a manpower shortage in filling out all the potential slots they might have to fill. As it is; they have re-cached many mechs, fighters, tanks and even dropships and jumpships, following refurbishment, but now deploy eight healthy Galaxies.

That almost all this equipment is obsolescent or obsolete goes without saying, but in a situation where the Scorpions find themselves almost bereft of fully-functional modern Clan manufacturing facilities; the fruits of Vril and Dragonfire have been a boon.

Shortages in battle armour plague the Scorpions at this time; as the Elemental Sibkos and productions capacity for battle armour have not kept up with the influx of other units into the strictly-organized formations of the Imperio Militar. The Scorpions have not been eagre to admit larger numbers of native Castilians into the trials for higher caste membership; preferring to rely on their own Sibkos for the foreseeable future. Over the next ten years, the Scorpions plan to found one more Sibko than the year before, each and every year in the hopes of expanding their strength enough to withstand the coming of their former brethren, when the day comes.

With this in mindl one of the greatest prizes of the Clan Civil War for any Clan may turn out to be the absorption of the entire 87th Scorpion (Formerly Mandrill) Airborne (Red Skies Cluster). Integrating this formation into the Touman and expanding it to five Super Nova Trinaries has allowed the Scorpions some uncharacteristic variety in their strictly regimented Order of Battle. This came at a time when the Scorpions were in serious danger of stagnation in their military thinking and the  expansion and experimentation in the Red Skies Cluster has spread to the rest of the new Imperio Militar in the form of new and different Super Nova formations; previously a rarely used concept in Scorpion military organization. That this serves as a means to rapidly expand the military capacity of the Imperio, while reducing pressure on the over-taxed Sibko system to produce yet more qualified officer-candidates.

The 87th Scorpion Airbone has expanded to Smallcraft Lander and vehicles operations, deploying VTOLs from high atmosphere, daring Mech Combat drops, parachute infantry jumps and a very close dropship-ground troop cooperation. That the Cluster still boasts a comparatively huge number of battle-armour equipped elementals and a stunning four stars-worth of Khirgiz Heavy OmniFighters makes them a powerful asset for offensive and defensive operations. Possibly the most incredible aspect of the former-Mandrill's integration into the Goliath Scorpion Touman is that it worked out so well. Now almost three generations into their absorption and the Cluster yet maintains their military identity, while they have embraced the Scorpion variation of Clan Culture.

The Seekers have naturally been exalted for their role in strengthening the Clan and naturally it hasn't been just war machines they have gathered; but ancient artifacts and priceless data as well. Just the same, the completion of their mission and the end of the Seeker movement can now be seen on the horizon and the Seekers themselves, even as they occupy honoured and elite positions with the the Imperio Militar have been first in asking; "what's next?"

Tau, Rho and Chi Galaxies being without Naval support is an issue unlikely to be solved any time soon. The Khans made some enemies in keeping the Fleet Reserve together, rather than sharing out Reforger, Cutty Sark and Hunter's Lance as the core of the naval support of the three junior Galaxies in the Imperio Militar, but the argument that they are more useful as unattached trouble-shooters and escorts for the three Scorpion Yardships has the weight of good military sense behind it.

[snakespinner]

The Scorpions are very effective in this AU.
Once they re-establish manufacturing and orbital facilities they will rule. O0

[truetanker]

Are the Widomakers around? Or have they been absorbed

TT

[beachhead1985]

The Scorpions are very effective in this AU.
Once they re-establish manufacturing and orbital facilities they will rule. O0

Pardon me Snakespinner, you missed an "if" in there.

Are the Widomakers around? Or have they been absorbed

TT

Long gone and recently joined by the Ice Hellions and Mandrills. Note that the Steel Vipers are still around though.

The timeline diverges with the birth of the key OCs in the early-mid 31st century. Everything before that is as-per.

[marauder648]

Interesting to see the Scorpions doing so well, I assume they got out of dodge early and now have one eye constantly over their shoulder should the Homeworlds come a calling.  I'm surprised the Scorps don't get in contact with the Ravens and Bears and form their own power bloc.  Between them they probably have the numbers to stave off all but the most serious of assaults and the Bears and Ravens share the same kind of sensible outlook in regards to their culture and what they are building.