Clans contracting forces with other Clans?

[Alan Grant]

I'm trying to size up all examples of one Clan "contracting" forces from another Clan.

We know the Horses did this with the Crusader Wolves. The other example I can think of is the Ravens contracting out parts of their naval forces to Invading Clans during Revival.

Do we have any others? There may even be examples that don't specifically use the word "contracting" but essentially are the same concept. If it puts a Clan unit under the command of a different Clan, it qualifies.

More broadly, if you want to discuss. I'm trying to understand the norms of how this is done. What might be consider acceptable and what wouldn't be (and why?).

[tassa_kay]

Examples I could think of off the top of my head:

- I think the actual concept of Clan "contract warfare" (as coined by the Horses) was the Horse/Coyote collaboration against the Smythe-Jewels, so I thought I'd include this first!

- The Harvest Trials, especially knowing that hundreds of warriors from other Clans intentionally offered themselves up for this in order to get a shot at the Inner Sphere. It's actually how Vlad and Malavai ended up coming to their arrangement.

- The Golden Ordun was originally formed by the Horses submitting their Fire Horse Galaxy to Malvina Hazen and merging it with her own Omega Galaxy, and she later straight up stole the Galaxy later on in a Trial of Possession. The Horses' Gamma Galaxy I know was pretty involved with Malvina as well, and likely other Galaxies that I'm just not remembering.

- The Burrocks contracting themselves out to the Star Adders and Nova Cats to transport their exploration and scientific teams and share in any profits via futures trading.

- The Burrocks, and later the Adders, sharing in the garrisoning of the Tanite Worlds with the Cobras in exchange for a cut of the profits.

- The Steel Vipers garrisoning worlds for the Ghost Bears would seem to qualify, I'd think.

- The Sharks offering up their Potemkins and Beta Galaxy to the Nova Cats for the evacuation and defense of Barcella during their Abjuration in exchange for the Cats' assets there. Didn't the Ravens help them move as well?

- Maybe the Adder naval forces that were placed under Terrance Moffat's command when the Viper/Adder naval force ambushed that big Raven convoy, since the operation was specifically under Viper command?

- Maybe the Exiled Wolves (and even more of a stretch, Wolf's Dragoons) when they were under Alaric's command for the home stretch of the invasion of Terra?

- A very peripheral and quasi-canon example: in MechAssault: Phantom War, the Hell's Horses had formed an alliance with the primary antagonist of the game, a Lyran militia commander.

[WONC]

With the Cats and the Ravens, Kappa Garrison Galaxy stepped in and fought viciously to buy the Cats time to evacuate one of their worlds (Circe, I think.) They then provided Kappa's naval star as escort and transport for the surviving Cat warriors and evacuated civvies. In other situations the Ravens did arrange Trials for Cat holdings that were quite favorable to the Cats. Now, the Ravens are famous for always having an angle, but a part of me suspects that there might've been some good relations between them and the Nova Cats pre-abjuration for them to be willing to risk their Touman so readily in the hopes of picking up a handful of new enclaves.

[Alan Grant]

Hmm, thanks for all the examples. I hadn't put some of those in this category and others I had just forgotten about.

That is helpful.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

Didn’t the Bears and Ravens cooperate on a few ventures?

[rebs]

Other than planning and helping to construct the Leviathans, not really.  Rather, nothing mentioned.  Doesn’t mean somebody couldn’t write a story with another example of this.

The Ravens also contracted part of their WarShip fleet to the Jade Falcons for escort duty during Operation Revival. 

[Drop Bear]

Scorpions have a history of Contracting Warriors or whole units to other Clans (normally Wardens), it's how many Seekers get around when the Scorps are tight on transport assets.

Coyote is big on contracting out to Wolf and occasionally the Sharks and Horses when they have their Warden on.

Lots of Clans will contract out Forces to their Allies especially when facing off against Clan Enemies.

[Frabby]

I have a dim memory of a single Goliath Scorpion star joining another Clan (Nova Cats?) in the initial Clan Invasion, for... reasons.

[Gaiiten]

Another one:

In the Wars of Reaving, the joint operation of Clan Star Adder and Cloud Cobra in assaulting the Tanite worlds. Huge multi-galaxies operation.

[Fire Scorpion IIC]

I have a dim memory of a single Goliath Scorpion star joining another Clan (Nova Cats?) in the initial Clan Invasion, for... reasons.

Crimson Seeker Star was with Steel Vipers on Tukkyid but it was more case of Scorpions asking Vipers for permission to tag along because they needed a ride for a Seeker quest

[Alan Grant]

To be clear, I wasn't asking about joint operations or joint endeavors. I'm talking about one Clan putting their forces under the command of a different Clan.

Plenty of multi-Clan "Coalition" operations out there. Plenty of situations where Clans worked side-by-side or agreeing to work together, yet retained independent command and control over their own separate forces. Not asking about those. Asking about one Clan contracting their forces to another Clan. Putting their forces under the command of another Clan's leadership.

It's a tricky line. But if they invoke words like "Joint" or "Coalition" or "allies", it's probably not contracting. It's just Clans agreeing to work together, yet retaining their own separate command structure. If one Clan places its forces/assets under the command of another Clan's leadership at any level, that's more along the lines of what I'm thinking of.

[Stormlion1]

Ravens contracted out ships to the Jade Falcons during the Clan Invasion i think. Which would include crews.

[Metallgewitter]

Operation Sable Sun comes to mind: the overall command was from Clan Star Adder but other Clans lend forces for this mission

[Frabby]

Operation Sable Sun comes to mind: the overall command was from Clan Star Adder but other Clans lend forces for this mission

In this sense, Wolf's Dragoons.