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The aftermath of the Trial of Refusal came with a number of consequences.

Firstly, of course, the decision of the Grand Council had been confirmed and it was now accepted that the Invasion was going to be approved.

Secondly, the leadership of Clan Wolf was facing a shake up with four contenders for the office of senior Khan: saKhan Jenna Vickers, former saKhan Cynthia Ward, Delta Galaxy commander Conal Ward and Beta Galaxy commander Garth Radick.

And thirdly the status of the Wolf Dragoons was secured. Although the Cluster had been on the verge of defeat, they had also inflicted heavy casualties upon the Third Battle Cluster, a feat that few Clusters anywhere in Clan Space could have hoped for. While not likely to be regarded as the elite of the Wolf Touman, the survivors - roughly half, although disproportionately few infantry - had unquestionably earned a place in the touman.

Jaime Wolf, now fine-tuning his plans for the Invasion in consultation with senior Crusaders of Clans Steel Viper, Snow Raven and Star Adder was balancing time spent on that against that needed to rebuild the Dragoons. To replace the casualties suffered on Eden he was recruiting a mix of elder warriors and young freeborns, although he also accepted one young bloodnamed named Anton Fetladral who requested a transfer from the Choyer Garrison Cluster, in which Jaime had once served.

Fetladral was an ideal aide in re-acclimatizing the Star Colonel to Clan society, something that could not happen too soon since Jaime was functioning as a close advisor to Lincoln Osis and Yvonne Hazen as they tried to balance the needs of the Crusader coalition against their personal ambitions to be elected ilKhan and also to Conal Ward and Jenna Vickers in the contest of the Khan's throne. Both also felt that they would have a reasonable chance of winning the title of ilKhan with Jaime's help.

On the advice of Fetladral, Jaime pointed out to Conal that he was unlikely to win election against Cynthia Ward as being in opposition to the senior member of House Ward would damage his standing. However by throwing his support to Garth Radick or Jenna Vickers, Conal could position himself to be a likely successor at a later date. Unwilling to take second place to Radick, his former protege, Conal elected to throw his support to Vickers and with the Crusaders clearly in ascendance, Jenna Vickers was confirmed as Khan and successfully pushed through the election of Conal as saKhan. In order to sideline Cynthia, now acting as a rallying point for the Wardens within Clan Wolf, she was appointed commander of Alpha Galaxy and tasked with preparing it to participate in the Invasion.

Matters were settled in a far more savage fashion in the Grand Council. Yvonne Hazen and Lincoln Osis managed to convince the Council to elect an ilKhan as the leader of the invasion. By a narrow margin Hazen was elected, only to be challenged by Osis to a Trial of Refusal which the Smoke Jaguar Khan won. However, his blatant desire for the post led to his own failure to secure a majority. Realising that her own chances were no better, Jenna Vickers elected to reward the Nova Cats for their change of heart and nominated their Khan, Sevren Leroux, to lead the Invasion. Leroux accepted the opportunity gladly and was confirmed by an substantial majority of every Crusader Khan save for Osis who abstained.

With that decided, the Grand Council were about to disperse until the two vacated seats could be filled but the Khans of Clan Burrock took the opportunity to launch a sudden attack upon Clan Blood Spirits, whose Khans had belatedly arrived on Strana Mechty in response to frantic messages from their Fire Mandrill and Snow Raven allies. The Burrocks asserted that the Blood Spirits withdrawal from Clan Society and failure to participate in such a crucial matter as the decision to Invade, had failed to meet their basic obligations to the other Clans and therefore should be Absorped by another Clan in order that their resources would be available for the Invasion.

Understandably, the Blood Spirits did not respond well and had to be phsyically restrained from assaulting Khan Bart Polczyk. The newly elected ilKhan called for an immediate vote (which condemned the Blood Spirits by a landslide) and then declared that to avoid the waste of resources in a lengthy trial that the Blood Spirit Khans would be allowed to fight an immediate Trial of Refusal against the Khans who had voted against them.

The resultant bidding to participate, with the implied opportunity to absorb the Blood Spirits, pitted the pair against the Khans of Clan Coyote and Clan Burrock. Khan Polczyk was granted the right to choose how the fight would take place and selected unaugmented. In response, the young Blood Spirit saKhan Karianna Schmitt selected the roof of the Hall of Khans. Five minutes of desperate scrambling across the gothic spires of the Hall left sent four Khans tumbling to their deaths and Bart Polczyk sprawled with a broken back upon one balcony, Khan Schmitt declining to end his shame by killing him.

The Grand Council reconvened on January 2, 3033 with each pair of Khans bringing with them a detailed breakdown of their Clan's strength in preparation for any bidding that might take place. Much to the surprise of the Khans, Wolf's plan included two years of preparation to stockpile supplies and establish waystations in the deep periphery before the Invasion Forces even left the Clan Homeworlds - which would of course have to be followed by a year travelling to the Inner Sphere. However the ambitious scale of the plan was convincing as to the requirements.

Wolf's plan called for forces to be sent by twelve Clans, of which two would act as reserves. In the first stage, four Clans would seize key worlds in the Draconis Combine: Luthien, Galedon, Benjamin and New Samarkand, while four more clans would begin a systematic invasion of the four outlying Prefectures of Pesht District. It was anticipated that this would lead to the DCMS responding in a disorgaised fashion, flinging themselves against the Clans with more concern for the honour of being first to fight the invaders than in amassing sufficient forces to fight effectively.

In the second phase the first four Clans would despatch strike forces towards other important worlds, while the second group would consolidate and take bypassed worlds, leaving a secure expanse of worlds along the Combine's periphery border. Clan civilians would be relocated to these worlds to construct factories that could provide replacement equipment and supplies to the invaders. At the same time, since the MIIO and LIC would no doubte report the Combine's disarray, it was expected that the Federated Commonwealth would move to seize border regions. Therefore two more clans would enter the Inner Sphere, carrying out a series of raids leading from the periphery towards Tharkad and New Avalon respectively, to spread confusion and draw off forces. If possible these forces should seize the two capitals.

The third stage would be to engage AFFS and LCAF troop concentrations that presented themselves. As the Combine constituted the primary adversary of the Fedrated Commonwealth, these would be among the best available troops but they should also have expended supplies and energy fighting for Combine border worlds while their reserves are hopefully trying to defend their capitals. Their destruction would have a crippling effect upon the military capabilities of the two states, but might require commitment of the two reserves given the large number of regiments involved.

The fourth stage of the Invasion would be to seize control of the Terran corridor, including Terra itself. This would cut the Federated Commonwealth in two and deprive it of many valuable industrial worlds. From here, the Clans would need to launch at least three campaigns: one toward Tharkad, a second towards New Avalon and the third towards Atreus. It was expected that each would require three Clans, which would leave one Clan's forces as a reserve against misfortune.

Wolf estimated each stage of the invasion would take approximately six months and that each Clan would require a minimum of three frontline galaxies and an equal number of garrison forces (except for the divisionary attacks of stage two which should have four or even five frontline galaxies but would need very few garrison units. However, knowing Clan bidding practises, he quoted four galaxies of each and recommended that a Naval Star to protect supply lines would be advisable, if not a requirement.

Since the proposed plan promised that there were very good odds of most clans participating, it was approved by a simple vote. The ilKhan declared that the twelve assignments would be randomised, with the Clans bidding for each in turn.

The first slot to be opened for bidding was a reserve slot and Clans Wolf, Cloud Cobra and Burrock dropped out immediately. Everyone else was willing to make at least some bid, to take the measure of their opposition although most hoped for a better place. The Star Adders and Diamond Sharks bid conservatively and were the next dropped out while Khan Lucien Carn opted the Nova Cats out suddenly and unexpectedly. The Smoke Jaguars then elected to cease bidding, since Osis would certainly not risk being actually placed in reserve and the Jade Falcons, Snow Ravens and Hell's Horses followed this example. Clan Goliath Scorpion also withdrew, followed by the Blood Spirits, the Ice Hellions and the Steel Vipers.

Clan Coyote at this point declared that they had no intention of participating in the Invasion and both newly elected Khans withdrew abruptly from the meeting. The Fire Mandrills ceded the first place to the Ghost Bears who were reasonably content to be held in reserve while the other Clans encountered whatever surprises might await them in the Inner Sphere.

The next option was who would win the right to invade Albiero Prefecture, the most prestigious of the four frontier invasions since its flank would be exposed to any counterattack out of Rasalhague District. Seven clans engaged in a serious bidding war before Clan Diamond Shark secured the position. This was followed by the highly desirable chance to be the only Clan attacking the Federated Suns, with the possible prize of seizing New Avalon. The Nova Cats seemed to be well on their way to winning this before stepping aside, allowing Clan Fire Mandrill to underbid Clan Snow Raven.

After early excitement, the voting for Qandahar prefecture was desultory with Clan Burrock's new Khans able to secure with with relatively little competition over the least risky of the places. This was followed by another difficult and therefore glorious role: the chance to invade the Lyran Commonwealth. After considerable bidding in which Clan Nova Cat and Clan Jade Falcon appeared likely winners, Clan Ice Hellion eventually took the prize with a daringly low bid.

Clan Steel Viper became the second reserve clan and then Luthien, the most desirable target emerged as the next bidding target. The Blood Spirits, Cloud Cobras, Goliath Scorpions and Star Adders were quickly eliminated and Clan Nova Cat also opted out although many thought it would be appropriate to have the ilKhan's Clan invade the capital of the Combine. The Jade Falcons, shamed by the death of Yvonne Hazen, bid poorly and were also eliminated. Khan Jenna Vickers secured the prize by an unmatchable bid: pledging to spearhead the assault on Luthien with garrison clusters and the Wolf Dragoons.

Clan Nova Cat finally secured a place, ending whispering that the ilKhan's Clan were so backward, when they won the right to invade Galedon, the place from which the despised Grieg Samonov had waged a vicious smear campaign against the Dragoons. Clan Cloud Cobra appeared very likely to gain the right to seize Bjarred Prefecture before their Khans came to their senses and realised they were already straining to hold the Tanite Worlds and were Wardens besides that. They dropped out, making no further bids and Clan Star Adder accepted their victory with equanmity.

With only three more places open and six Clans bidding on them, the contests grew extremely fierce. Ningxia's only merit was as a last chance to participate but New Samarkand, as the jump-off point for the Exodus was highly prized and Benjamin would be the closest of any target to Terra itself. The Goliath Scorpions, with their historical focus, bid perilously low for the right to take New Samarkand and the Smoke Jaguars only very narrowly outbid Clan Jade Falcon for the privilege of Benjamin.

Before bidding could begin on the last place in the invasion, Khan Elias Crichell of the Jade Falcons suggested that the last place in the invasion force be decided by a grand melee. ilKhan Leroux agreed that this would be suitable and two points each from Clans Blood Spirit, Hell's Horses, Jade Falcon and Snow Raven faced off in a training field outside Katyusha. Fighting on the ground disadvantaged the Snow Ravens who were quickly torn down by Khan Schmitt and Lair Seidman, saKhan of the Hells Horses. Kael Pershaw and his protege Vandervahn Chistu held back and allowed Blood Spirit and Hell's Horse to weaken each other, each Khan defeating a mechwarrior of the other Clan, before closing in suddenly and inflicting crippling damage upon the two Khan's Mechs. Schmitt survived but Lair Seidmann was killed immediately when a shot from Pershaw's PPC decapitated his Kingfisher.

Elias Crichell rewarded Pershaw by nominating him to command their Clan's premiere assault force: Gamma Galaxy, sometimes called the Jade Falcon Galaxy. It was plain that he was grooming the relatively young warrior, whose career had previously stalled when his patron Sejanus Buhallin was defeated by Crichell to become saKhan. This proved a political embarassment when a supposedly freeborn Star Commander petitioned to compete for a vacated Pryde bloodheritage, claiming to be a trueborn warrior inserted into a freeborn sibko by Pershaw after failing his offical trial of position.

The evidence was overwhelming, particularly as Jorge, AKA Aidan, failed to conveniently die in the Trial of Bloodright and instead won a bloodname. The blot was finally hidden, if not forgotten, when Jaime Wolf elected to launch a Trial of Possession for both Pershaw and Pryde's blood heritages. Almost no Jade Falcons were willing to fight for the duo and Anton Fetladral was able to secure both as bondsmen, along with five other Jade Falcon mechwarriors in the resulting Trial.

This scandal was only the slightest of distractions as the warrior caste of most Clans were heavily engaged in preparing for the invasion. Vast quantities of munitions and spare parts were built up and Clan Snow Raven were able to take some consolation in being contracted by the Grand Council to use their fleet to seek out suitable worlds to use as stepping stones between the Homeworlds and the Inner Sphere.

It was one of these expeditions that shed the first blood of the Invasion. In May 3034 the Snow Raven warship Avalanche located Inner Sphere forces making use of a Star League facility in the Epsilon Pegasus system. Judging that the risk of this being used as a staging ground to raid Clan supply lines more serious than the risk of being identified, Star Commodore Hermione Lankenau used the pirate jump point between the fourth planet and its small moon to launch a surprise attack. Within moments, Snow Raven aerospace fighters disabled three jumpships and the Avalanche destroyed the ground base's HPG via orbital bombardment before landing Elementals to take control of the facilities.

The base turned out to be regional headquarters for ComStar's Explorer Corps and Lankenau had obtained hundreds of prisoners as well as intelligence on events taking place since the Dragoon's departure from the Inner Sphere three years previously. After several weeks of exploring the site and gathering all the useful information that they could, the Snow Ravens utilised a thermobaric warhead to destroy the administrative facilties and inflicted sufficent damage on the docks to prevent their use without time-consuming repairs - thus leaving the opportunity to restore them at a later date.

All ComStar vessels in the system were taken back to Clan space under guard and thus the Snow Ravens were reasonably confident that the ComStar would not be able to learn of the attack from investigation of the site. Their caution was recognised and approved by ilKhan Leroux and the Grand Council but was in fact insufficient. A single ComStar shuttle had been orbiting the far side of Columbus at the time of the attack and made an emergency landing before they were spotted. Although the occupants were on short rations and had limited information, they did know that they'd been attacked by a warship and they did survive long enough for an Explorer Corps jumpship to arrive and recover them.

first things first - ilKhan Severn Lervoux - whiskey-tango-foxtrot - lmao

Then I saw Galedon and almost cried remembering the Jihad this could be a very poor invasion.

Otherwise great stuff

In the Inner Sphere, all eyes were on Rasalhague, where two months before Haakon Magnusson had made his historic Declaration of Freedom. Due to a secret agreement with Myndo Waterly, even the Draconis Combine had recognised the new Republic. Despite this, many DCMS refused to withdraw and Warlords Vasily Cherenkoff and Marcus Kurita rallied a number of regiments to destroy what they considered to be a rebellion.

Although Theodore Kurita declared these DCMS soldiers to be ronin, it was causing considerable friction with ComStar who had not envisaged this degree of opposition and had expected more worlds to be ceded. Although Theodore needed ComStar's aid in rebuilding the DCMS, he was also benefiting through the destruction of many of his enemies within the Combine by the nascent Kungarme and by his loyal forces. In hope of appeasing Primus Waterly, Theodore met with her on Dieron and in addition to justifying his actions presented her with Frederick Steiner, captured at the height of the Fourth Succession War.

As a close relative of Archon Katrina Steiner and a senior military and political figure of the Commonwealth, Steiner - who now went by the name Anastasius Focht - was a valuable intelligence resource. However he would also, if he could be trusted, be even more useful as an agent of ComStar. Based on previous knowledge of Focht, Primus Waterly believed that she had the perfect inducement: previously he had sought the Archon's throne and if Waterly's plans for ComStar's domination of humanity came to fruition she would be in position to emplace him as ComStar's viceroy on Tharkad. In return she would have have one of the finest military leaders of his generation at the head of her ComGuards.

At first though, Focht was assigned to ROM - partly for an extensive debriefing and also to use him as an analyst, the latter being a test naturally. One of the first matters he was asked to evaluate was the reports from Columbus and he, like the other analysts, came to a grim conclusion. Someone in the Periphery possessed at least one warship and was using it aggressively. While the nature of the warship was unknown, even the most minor of warships would be more than able to devestate the virtually unarmed navies of the Successor States.

ComStar had managed to retain a small number of warships, although most of them were in long term storage and they had only a limited number of personnel to crew them. Focht's recommendations, which Waterly considered carefully, were to reactivate half a dozen warships and use half of them to enhance the security of Terra and train up additional crews while the other three would form a squadron sent out to locate and if necessary destroy the warship responsible for the Columbus attack.

Given the precedent of the White Wings incident, the plan is approved with the addition of Waterly ordering a complete review of the readiness of Terra's SDS and proposals for its improvement. Four Essex-class destroyers are marked for reactivation (Deliverance, Hammerstrike, Deathblow and Defender of Versailles) and also two Congress-class frigates (Cleansing Fire and Hollings York). Funds were also set aside for the construction of two more Dante-class frigates at Titan. Waterly rejected the idea of sending Focht - still an untested quantity - to the Periphery but she did cut short his time with ROM and despatch him to Sandhurst as part of an expansion that would double class sizes there from 3035 onwards.

More than a thousand light years away, the Khans of Clan Snow Raven were looking at disquieting reports of their own. The Tanite Worlds, fifty light years closer to the Inner Sphere than the Pentagon, had been a natural stepping stone but their warriors had found that although the worlds were notionally under the control of the Cloud Cobras (and garrisoned by Clan Burrock) that they were not being governed in accordance with Clan law.

The break they needed came when a jumpship IFF in the system was positively identified as being that of a Cloud Cobra vessel that had been contracted to the Steel Vipers in the Kerensky Cluster. This could only mean that it was a bandit caste ship. Further investigation suggested - but did not prove - that the Burrock garrison was aware of this deception. The Khans knew that it was their duty to report this to the Grand Council, but they also knew that it was best to do so in a way that would benefit their Clan.

Eventually they decided that the best way to exploit the situation was wait until Clan Burrock's best forces were embarked from the Invasion. In deep space, hundreds of light years from their homeworlds the Burrock Touman would be highly vulnerable. However, there was every possibility that the Cloud Cobras could also be complicit, in which case they would support the Burrocks rather than be exposed themselves. With the Cloud Cobras as one of the more aerospace-orientated Clans, Khan Rua Magnus decided that this offered the possibility of eliminating them as well. However, to bring about the fall of two Clans would require the military power of more than one Clan's touman. Fortunately, the Snow Ravens had a potential ally not involved in the Invasion who might be willing to assist them...

On 6 November 3034, following from the Exodus Day celebrations all across the Clan Homeworlds, ilKhan Sevren Leroux led the Invasion Armada away from Strana Mechty. All thirty-five Khans, along with scores of the most distinguished warriors of the Clans had dined with the ilKhan the night before and there had been visible tension between the ten Khans who would not be participating and their peers.

Ironically, ComStar's new 'Second Warship Squadron' left the Titan yards the same day. CSS Deliverance and Deathblow engaged in simulated attacks upon their flagship CSS Hollings York as the little force made transit to a safe jump distance.

Although the hundreds of jumpships from the Kerensky Cluster made their way to the Pentagon as a single convoy, for reasons of logistics they seperated into clan contingents over the five worlds as they were joined by latecomers. Each convoy was equipped with hundreds of HPG buoys to leave in remote star systems or even in the interstellar void once they left their final jump off points. The Snow Ravens had seeded the principal routes back to the Inner Sphere with these buoys over the last two years, providing a network of interstellar communications that would allow the Grand Council to confer during the Invasion.

Rather than fighting alongside Clan Nova Cat, Sevren Leroux had elected to travel alongside Clan Wolf and particularly with Jaime Wolf. The two were of a similar age and had struck up a friendship that was in someways akin to that Wolf had shared with Minobu Tetsuhara. Thus it was the Wolf Clan troop cruiser Full Moon that Rua Magnus rendevoused with, two months out from the Tanite Worlds. The Snow Raven Khan laid out carefully the evidence amassed against the Burrocks and the extrapolation from which they and the Cloud Cobras were accused of conspiracy against the Law of Kerensky, said conspiracy continuing even though - given the invasion - the Clans were at war.

While the evidence was horrifying, Jaime Wolf was less than surprised - it wasn't as if the hiring of pirates by a government to carry out deniable attacks was unheard of in the Inner Sphere. To the ilKhan it was a shocking breach of Clan law and he ordered an immediate kurultai so that these accusations could be placed before the Khans. Inflamed with anger at these charges, every other Khan agreed to condemn the two Clans to Absorption, with all guilty parties and their genetic heritages to be annihilated. Before bidding began, ilKhan Leroux also declared that the Burrocks, even if they succeeded in a Trial of Refusal were to surrender their invasion zone to Clan Ghost Bear. If the Burrocks exonerated themselves then they would stand in reserve. If not, another clan would have the opportunity to join the Invasion's reserves.

Pre-alerted the Snow Ravens then argued that the other Invading Clans should not waste their warriors and supplies in fighting the Burrocks. They and the other Home Clans would handle the matter. While the Hells Horses and Coyotes each bid essentially their whole touman for the Absorption, the Snow Ravens and Blood Spirits had constructed a careful joint bid with Snow Raven assets contracted to the Blood Spirits in return for substantial assets from the two Absorbed Clans. The difference was so evident that they were awarded the right of Absorption by the Grand Council.

Within an hour, the well prepared Blood Spirit Alpha and Omega Galaxies had landed on the Cloud Cobra capital of Homer while Omicron Galaxy, backed by Snow Raven air power, was advancing upon the Cobra's Brim enclaves. For the moment, Burrock Garrison forces on Albion, Dagda and Hoard were subject only to a naval blockade as the Cloud Cobra's best were exposed to sudden and furious assaults.

In the same timeframe a Naval Star of Snow Raven warships - two battleships and three cruisers - engaged the Burrock convoy. Although equal in number the Burrock warships were far smaller ships and the crews were not equal to the crack Snow Raven squadron that reduced all five to wreckage (in exchange for the crippling of the cruiser Black Justice and repairable damage to the other warships) before turning their guns on Burrock transport dropships. Expecting a boarding action rather than this ruthless bombardment almost a third of the Burrock touman was exterminated before the last surviving Galaxy Commander offered an unconditional surrender.

Within days, the Cloud Cobra Gamma and Zeta Galaxies had been functionally destroyed, while Delta Galaxy, after only token resistance, surrendered to the Blood Spirits. Alpha Galaxy, although savaged, managed to make a fighting retreat: heading for Babylon to join forces with Epsilon Galaxy. Satisfied for now, the Blood Spirits began what was intended as a rapid reduction of Burrock enclaves on Albion and Homer only to fight that their long-time rivals put up a fervent resistance. Karianna Schmitt considered bringing in more Snow Raven support but instead encouraged them to strike at Babylon and Dagda while using the newly acquired Delta Galaxy to suppress defenses on first Homer and then Albion.

On Dagda the Burrocks elected to surrender to the Snow Ravens, disgusted with their leaders' crimes (which they had now found ample evidence of) and sure that the Blood Spirits would slaughter every member of every Burrock caste. Over Babylon, the Cloud Cobra fleet put up a spirited resistance, buying time for the majority of the Cloud Cobra's remaining warriors and support staff to escape, taking with them the collected libraries of most of the Cloisters. The surviving Anasaz cloister elected not to join this retreat, instead bargaining with the Snow Ravens for the opportunity to be absorbed by the Blood Spirits.

Although the Snow Ravens attempted to trap the fleeing Cloud Cobra warriors at Tanis, the convoy did not appear them. Once it became apparent that the trap would remain empty, Snow Raven warriors landed and began the slow and expensive process of subduing Tanite resistance, a campaign that would eventually leave more than half of the Tanites dead and many survivors sterilized.

Overall the Absorption was considered a great success for the two Clans. The Blood Spirits were able to replenish their losses from the Anasaz and other Cloud Cobra abtakha, as well as adding Delta Galaxy to their ranks. Per previous agreement the genetic stock from each targeted clan was divided evenly, with the Blood Spirits taking first pick from the Burrocks (most of which they summarily destroyed), and the Blood Spirits received control over Albion and most of Homer, the latter making the Steel Vipers nervous about holding onto their enclaves there.

The Snow Ravens had first pick of Cloud Cobra genetic stock and took the Tanite worlds along with potentially lucerative holdings on Babylon, Dagda, Hoard and Brim. While the Cloud Cobra fleet was no use for anything but salvage, much of the Burrock fleet was counted among the Snow Raven isorla (two Lola III-class destroyers were claimed by the Blood Spirits). More importantly, by absorbing thousands of Burrock warriors the Snow Ravens now gained a powerful ground force. Their equipment was sufficient to fully equip Gamma and Kappa Galaxies as frontline galaxies and the surplus hardware and Burrock warriors have been used to add three new Galaxies for use as garrison forces.

With the Blood Spirits and Snow Ravens engaged in Absorption and then their recovery, the Hells Horses were uncontested in claiming the open reserve slot in the Invasion Force. IlKhan Leroux ordered a two week delay in beginning the invasion in order to give the Hells Horses more time to prepare forces (although they would inevitably not arrive until fighting had begun) and further insisted that the Snow Ravens must provide shipping assistance to them. In order to reduce grumbling, Jaime Wolf suggested that Clan Steel Viper could seize Port Krin on the original invasion date to gather more current intelligence on the state of the Inner Sphere. Keen to get some early action, the Steel Vipers agreed enthusiastically.

So long, farewell.

Nice to see the Blood Spirits get a "second chance" here. Also very nice to see the Ravens doing well. Great stuff here. Keep it coming.

Although the Steel Vipers were quick to boast that they would be the first Invading Clan to fight against the Inner Sphere (taking liberties with the exact location of Port Krin and ignoring Clan Snow Raven's battle for Columbus Base), they would in fact be cheated of this privilege. While the eleven remaining Clans of the Invasion force were scattering to their jumping off points, Clan Hells Horse were rushing to catch up. Rather than sending a single massed force, they had broken their forces into five convoys, each despatched as rapidly as it could be assembled, escorted by only a single warship.

They were also cutting corners on the route and risked passing near the Epsilon Pegasus system, which the main invasion force had pointedly avoided in case they ran into anyone looking for the inhabitants of the former base. While the Hells Horses weren't reckless enough to visit the system themselves, the convoy carrying Delta Galaxy and elements of a hastily organised Gamma Galaxy did enter a system containing an Explorer Corps automated observation station.

Even worse, they did so only four days after Precentor Oddell's three-ship squadron had jumped into a system only seventeen light years away. When Oddell realised that the convoy was using comm procedures almost identical to those of the destroyers of Columbus he transferred from his flagship (unlike the clan-refit Congress Bucephalus that was escorting the Hells Horse force, CSS Hollings York did not have a lithium-fusion battery) to CSS Deathblow and jumped the convoy with both destroyers.

Although the ComStar ships had the advantage of numbers and surprise, the Bucephalus was a considerably more formidable vessel and the crew were unmistakeably more experienced. Although the Hells Horse ship was battered heavily it managed to destroy the Deliverance and force the Deathblow away from the convoy with one shot having torn open the bridge and killed Precentor Oddell and the command crew. Demi-Precentor Alain Beresick, the senior officer left aboard CSS Hollings York ordered the jump-core of the frigate hot-charged from its reactor and jumped into the system with guns blazing. The first salvo tore the already damaged starboard side of Bucephalus open like a tin can, reducing the once-proud frigate to a drifting hulk with no option but abject surrender.

The Hollings York had suffered no casualties aside from Beresick's black eye (the chief engineer had strongly objected to hot-charging the drives andwas  very fortunate to get away with confinement to her quarters until after the battle). However, noen of the other three warships were in a fit state for anything, including jumping. Taking aboard the surviving crew of the Deathblow allowed for small prize crews to take over the command decks of the Hells Horse jumpships. While these crews were wholly insufficient to control Clan Warriors (or even a single one of the hundreds of Elementals being transported) the presence of the Hollings York was enough to ensure that their directions were obeyed since Galaxy Commander James Ravenwater had concluded that Beresick had deliberately expended the two destroyers to wear down the Bucephalus down and lure it into position for his attack. He therefore had no doubt at all that the ComGuards officer would destroy a jumpship with no regard for the prize crew aboard and was unwilling to pointlessly sacrifice the lives of his warriors.

From Ravenswater, Beresick learned that this convoy was only one small part of a vast Invasion force but little else as the trueborn warrior was highly resistant to the chemical interrogation techniques at ComStar's disposal and information could only be gained from him through trickery. Fortunately the technicans and labourers who made up much of the ship crews in the convoy were far more talkative and while few knew very much, Beresick was able to build up a rough picture of the storm about to hit the Draconis Combine.

Even as the HPG stations began to relay Beresick's warning back to Terra - with painful slowness since each transmitted only once every fifty hours in order to spare wear and tear - the Steel Viper touman began to jump into the Antallos system.

The intial reaction on the planet was blithe ignorance on the part of states no longer able to draw any useful information from the skies above and an assumption that the Draconis Combine was making one of their periodic shows of force in the region. Most of the elite of the planet were more concerned about finding hiding places for their wealth than they were with mounting a unified defense. The handful of pirates that knew that they had high enough prices on their heads to be in real trouble managed to put a number of aerospace fighters in the sky. All they got back was panicked screaming about giant spaceships before every last fighter was destroyed.

Radio signals were enough for the Steel Vipers to idenfity population centres and small forces dropped on everywhere that seemed remotely significant, engaging the warbands of local strongmen and pirates with equal force. Both groups were far more familiar with obtaining submission from lightly armed infantry than with fighting a serious military force and several of the less civilized groups were still bleating that Elementals were demons when they were overrun.

Not all the defenders were so easily dealt with however. Those veterans familiar with the actions of House Kurita in punitive expeditions reacted the same way: run, avoid action where possible and never ever fight fair. Those who were wise abandoned wealth and property in favour of protecting their lives: while those hoping that the invaders would be diverted by capturing material wealth, some were sufficently lightly burdened to go to ground.

By the dawn of the second day, Antallos was the property of Clan Steel Viper. Port Krin, which had risen to prominence on the back of slavery, was burned to the ground by the Vipers as an object lesson. Foresightedly the Khans of Clan Steel Viper began remaking the world's cities in the shape of Clan enclaves and it's society into the rigid caste system that they were familiar with. While unquestionably brutal tyranny by the standards of most worlds, it was a drastic improvement for most of the people of Antallos and since it was the only world that their Clan would be able to lay claim on for quite some time, the Steel Vipers had every reason to do whatever they had to in order to make the transformation work.