My original plan was for the players to establish a friendly neighbor before they moved onto the Coreward Confederacy but that idea lies in tatters and is being stomped further into the ground. The Blood Spirits have now occupied the former proto-nation worlds (five systems, six habitable worlds), and freed from occupation another four systems, two of which have been mentioned before. The other two worlds are lightly inhabited by IS standards - less than a million souls each - that had each had a small garrison that the Blood Spirits took out without any trouble. The proto-nation's worlds and inhabitants are now Blood Spirit property and the Blood Spirits have made a series of agreements with the other four. The new nation's official title is the Blood Spirit Union. There's a further six independent worlds that the proto-nation knew about but hadn't occupied, that they raided or traded with every few years. Debate continues on what the Union will do.
Internally the Union is basically split between the Blood Spirits and the industrial world, with the other three planets all in theory being also equal partners but aren't really. The industrial world has an overly large military for being a single world, call them "space America" if you will. They have an army, aerospace force, (surface) navy, a marine corps but it's all equipped with age of war era technology. "Space America" can't sustain the military at it's current size without an opponent bearing down on it - its populace is tired of conflict and with the threat of the proto-nation gone they'll soon want to downsize in order to refocus on rebuilding. The rebellion world also has it's revolutionary forces but together are a fraction of what the industrial world has. The other two alliance worlds got nothing but aspirations. The deal is to reorganize the Alliance forces along Clan lines but with a more conventional ranking system and organizational changes. Then there's the ex-military forces of the proto-nation that the Blood Spirits are keeping together for a number of reasons - they might suck, but right now the Blood Spirits need every body they can get. They also know they can't risk letting that many military personnel loose to potentially cause havoc. The Blood Spirits have essentially segregated these remnant forces from their own and will orient them to the Clan way, viewing them sort of like wayward children and recruits who don't know any better. The best of them will be culled and incorporated into the Blood Spirits Touman eventually/
The Blood Spirits themselves are exhausted and badly need at least three to five years to reorganize themselves. The players are planning a relocation of all the Clan population to the former capital binary system of the proto-nation while relocating the natives to the other three systems and establishing enclaves on each of it's allied worlds but that'll take decades to do it all. Militarily, the Clan is in rough shape. All four of it's Galaxies are about 50% of what they were when they left the Homeworlds and replacement equipment is scarce. Salvage from their recent conquest will help, but the Clan won't stoop to using the proto-nation's militiamechs. Personnel wise they're in much better shape. They've got an accelerated training program that'll see them get three clusters worth of troops from the Sibkos and another cluster, maybe two out of recruiting from lower castes but they just don't have the equipment to outfit them out yet.
Technology wise, the Blood Spirits bring allot to the table. They've got centuries of experience of getting every last ounce out of what they got to work with and for the first time in generations they've got access to more resources than they could hope to ever use. The technological advantages they can share with the alliance worlds will greatly benefit everyone and if integration proceeds well, the Blood Spirit Union will be potent indeed. The greatest asset the Clan possesses, are the various mobile facilities it possesses, including the Society space station which is a Godsend after the partial destruction of the proto-nation's shipyard. The Clan figures it can setup a temporary facility within a year and have a permanent facility started in two years with full production resuming in five. The Union has chosen to mothball all the primitive jumpships and dropship it captured in favor of using the Clan fleet until they can be scrapped for material and re-manufactured into modern vessels. They got quite a few primitive factories out of the proto-nation but it's most likely they too will be scrapped and re-made because updating the facilities as they are to Clan standards is just about impossible. That said the Blood Spirits did bring what they could from the Homeworlds. Aerospace Fighter, Battlemech and Omnimech production are all desperately need and are a focus of much effort to get going. Protomech and Battlearmor facilities will come online soon, as will vehicle production. The allies also bring considerable industrial capability but it's AoW level of technology again makes it difficult for upgrading wholesale.
All in all, they've got potential but they also have internal disputes to settle. The alliance is shaky, with nobody yet convinced that it's going to last. The Blood Spirits still have divisions over what some view their Khan. His Bloodline is considered poor by the traditional powers that be and the uprising he crushed during the flight from the Homeworlds didn't endear him to the Clan as a whole. He's seen a transitory Khan at best and while he still has a few years left it before pressure becomes too great. He may surprise his detractors yet though. To keep his opponents from coalescing he's sending out units on missions that will take months to accomplish while he consolidates the Clan and his power base. The biggest hurdle facing the Union isn't the proto-nation worlds, theyv'e accepted Clan rule quite readily, might makes right was already part of their lives but instead it's the industrial and rebellion worlds. The industrial world is extremely wary of the Blood Spirits. They suspect something is going on that the Blood Spirits haven't explained yet. The rebellion world likes the BS but it's far from a unified world itself so it's divisions of it's own to deal with.
