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.