Warriors of the Watch,
In 3060, Clan Diamond Shark won the rights to all Nova Cat holdings on the planet Barcella following the Nova Cat defection to the Inner Sphere. Due to the pathetically-mercantile leanings of the Sharks, they have not fully consolidated their grip on that world, and several Nova Cat installations have remained entirely abandoned in the intervening years. We have learned that a group of Dark Castemen have entered one of these holdings and discovered a great number of cached weapons and equipment, which they have used to make raids upon outlying Ice Hellion and Diamond Shark holdings. Jade Falcon holdings are far enough from the abandoned caches that they are under no immediate threat. While we believe they have not yet discovered them, a records search has revealed that a cache in the immediate vicinity of their operations area contains several atomic devices, primarily tactical in nature. This development means that we cannot wait for the various Clans on Barcella to complete their Trialing process; nuclear weapons in the hands of Dark Caste are a threat to potentially the entire Kerensky Cluster, and thus fall under the purview of the Watch, quiaff?
Your forces will make planetfall out of immediate air defense range, and advance upon the target area, sweeping away anything in your path. There will certainly be BattleMech-equipped defenders, though they will not of course match your skill. Wipe out their defenses, and clear the way for our reconnaissance forces to localize their base of operation.
...
Warriors of the Watch,
Your assault as swept the Dark Caste before you. Now their shattered remnants seek to fall back upon their fortified cache. Pursue and destroy them before they reach safety!
...
Warriors of the Watch,
We have pushed the stravag Dark Casteman back to their lair. The Nova Cat cache dates back to the days of Operation Klondike, and thus is a strong defensive position, unsuitable for the combat traditions we celebrate today. The assault against their cache will therefore be an unusual and complex operation. I beg your indulgence as Clan Warriors, but there will be glory enough for all, tomorrow.
...
Warriors of the Watch,
The final remnants of the Dark Caste resistance have melted away into the wilderness. Recee flights have shown the final organized remnant fleeing south. Their path has been analyzed and it appears that they are heading for a small group of structures which do not appear on our maps or surveys, located at an extreme latitude While they will reach their destination before our assault can take place, you are to deploy to the east of the structures, move west and reconniter the structures to find out why they are heading here, and eliminate all resistance. Leave no survivors.
...
Warriors of the Watch,
The year 3069 has drawn to a close, and the situation in the Homeworlds is grim. More unrestrained large-scale interClan conflict is occurring than has happened in perhaps the previous 200 years, and it looks only to get worse. Between the twin naval engagements over the Lum shipyards, to the Ice Hellion false-flag assault on the Star Adder holding on Tanis, to the Coyote/Mandrill engagement on Shadow that saw the annihilation of two full Coyote Clusters and serious damage to one of their WarShips, this year seems to mark the beginnings of a different sort of conflict between the Clans. Perhaps most disturbing is the engagement between the Steel Vipers and Jade Falcons on Marshall.
During this engagement, the 2nd Falcon Velites and the Viper Fusiliers (Beta Galaxy) met in battle. By all fair measures, the Falcons were seriously beaten by the Vipers. The defenders then called their remaining units into battle, and coordinated artillery strikes on the Fusilier positions. This clearly dishonorable action and the attendant heavy casualties forced the Vipers to retreat. The Viper Khans demanded an apology from the Falcons for the use of dishonorable Inner Sphere tactics, but the Grand Council decided in favor of the Falcons. The Vipers did not accept this ruling, and in November condemned the Falcons in front of the Council, claiming that they were doomed as a Clan due to their actions in battle, that they allowed freeborn to rise to influential positions, and that since they used Inner Sphere troops to test their sibkos their genetic lineage was clearly weak. When the Grand Council once again dismissed the Viper accusations, the Vipers unilaterally launched an assault on Jade Falcon worlds across the Kerensky Cluster.
It is clear that the Viper claims have some merit aside from petty jealousy, but the Watch has not yet been called to investigate possible Falcon perfidity. In the absence of a call to action, the Watch will take this time to train our warriors and to ensure that all sub-commands are operating at full capacity with their newly-modified orders of battle.
...
3 December, 3070
Clan Homeworlds
Late in 3070, word reached the Clan Grand Council of the dishonorable actions of Clan Sow Raven in the Inner Sphere. Their effective sterilization of several planets - including Galedon - set an ominous precedent for the future. The Steel Vipers, especially, protested that the Raven actions were dishonorable in the extreme, and the Viper Khans pushed has to ensure that the Snow Ravens would be severely punished at a level unseen among the Clans since the outright Annihilations of Clans 200 years ago. While the final vote went narrowly against the Vipers, their found strong ideological allies in Clans Star Adder and Cloud Cobra, and before the year was out a sort of "Snake Alliance" would be formalized between the three Clans, forming a power bloc among the Homeworlds hitherto unseen. This triumvirate openly declared their intention to launch a coordinated attack against the Homeworld holdings of the Snow Ravens.
Meanwhile, information has come to the Watch from an unknown and highly secretive source which intimates that the Diamond Sharks are dealing Clan technology directly to the Federated Suns in the Inner Sphere; this action would go directly against the Grand Council's specific restrictions on their trade practices, and if true the consequences for the Sharks would be dire. At the dictate of the IlKhan, Watch forces will land on Priori and locate the Diamond Shark Merchant Caste coordination facility so it may be seized and inspected in the name of the Grand Council.
...
6 December, 3070
Clan Homeworlds
A short time ago, information came to the Watch from an unknown and highly secretive source which intimates that the Diamond Sharks are dealing Clan technology directly to the Federated Suns in the Inner Sphere; this action would go directly against the Grand Council's specific restrictions on their trade practices, and if true the consequences for the Sharks would be dire. At the dictate of the IlKhan, Watch forces landed on Priori and located the Diamond Shark Merchant Caste coordination facility so it may be seized and inspected in the name of the Grand Council.
Upon identifying the contraband and Diamond Shark headquarters facility in a compound far from any other settlement on the planet, Watch forces issued an ultimatum to the defending Diamond Shark forces. Surrender the facility under the authority of the Watch and the Ilkhan, or forfeit Clan conventions and be bombarded into dust from afar. The Diamond Sharks, showing their negotiating acumen, proposed a counter-offer: they invoked the right to declare a Trial of Refusal against the Ilkhan's orders, a trial would would double as a Trial of Possession for the facility. If the defending forces were victorious, the Ilkhan's orders would be refused and the Sharks would grant hegira - the right of retreat - to the Watch forces. If the Watch was victorious, they could take possession of the facility and all contents thereof.
Seeing that the alternative is to bombard the facility and lose the intelligence data, the Watch commander acquiesced to the proposed Trial.
...
March 1st, 3071
Clan Homeworlds
The aftermath of the Watch's revelation that the Diamond Sharks were in fact engaging in covert dealings of ClanTech materiel with Inner Sphere powers sent shockwaves throughout the Homeworlds. A Grand Council was hastily convened, and though accusations and counter-accusations ran wild, after three full days of Council it became clear that a decision was needed. By a slim majority, the Council agreed that they could not - as a body -punish the Sharks for engaging in commerce which had not been expressly forbidden by Grand Council edict. However, by a heavy majority, a censure was put against the Diamond Shark to cease all trade with non-Clan powers by the end of calendar year (allowing time for word to reach the far-flung Diamond Shark merchant fleet).
Meanwhile, encouraged by the Council's lack of action regarding their extra-legal "punishment" of Snow Raven holdings, the triumvirate Snake Alliance of Star Adder, Cloud Cobra, and Steel Viper agreed once more to unleash their fury against lightly-defended Diamond Shark territories, heedless of the Council's ruling. The Grand Council attempts to dictate a halt to Snake Alliance plans, and is rebuffed ue to the strength of the Snake power bloc and their network of favors.
The non-Snake Alliance members of Clan Grand Council are incensed at this challenge to the authority of the august body; the Snake Alliance actions are now consistently highly aggressive and not in keeping with the natures of the Cloud Cobras and Star Adders, and the Watch suspects some outside influence may be at work. On March 1st, 3071, a Clan Watch force set down stealthily on Lum through Snow Raven territory. Their mission is to take and hold a Steel Viper Command and Control center long enough for a Watch operations team to infiltrate the hub, extract a copy of the computer core, and all forces then exfiltrate the area.
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Topic: Campaign Timeline (Read 1355 times)