OBT Forum

In 3000 Khan Nadia Winson of Clan Ghost Bear proposed to the Grand Council that the Clans should return to the Inner Sphere. The motion was opposed by Khan Kerlin Ward of Clan Wolf, who proposed as a compromise that a scout force be sent to the Inner Sphere to determine what they would face if they returned in force. After a great deal of debate, the motion was voted on and (inevitably) a Trial of Refusal was fought. The outcome was that the Clans would indeed return to the Inner Sphere. The Crusader faction had won.

The question of how they would return was the next to be decided. A leader was needed and Nadia Winson's prestige in securing the vote made her selection as ilKhan a simple choice. After discussing the issue with a number of her allies, she proposed a conservative and inclusive plan in keeping with the Ghost Bear's usual caution: all seventeen Clans were to prepare a force of around five galaxies divided between frontline and garrison forces in whatever proportion they found preferable. Each Clan must contribute at least five small warships and one large warship as escorts and to carry a reserve of supplies. If a Clan's forces made this difficult they were welcome to activate cached warships and each clan was to provide a pool of supplies and cached equipment into a general pool the ilKhan could disburse in order to support a Clan that had difficulty participating.

While several stronger clans felt this was unnecessarily generous, this tithe wasn't very heavy and the votes of the smaller Clans were valued even if their fighting power wasn't. The only serious dissent came from a hard core of Wardens, primarily the Clans Kerlin Ward was able to strongarm: his own Wolves, the Coyotes and the Goliath Scorpions. These three Clans declared they would not invade, which was accepted as long as they paid the same tithe and agreed not to prey upon the homeworld enclaves of the fourteen invading Clans. All three Clans were noted to be increasing their secondline forces, which they explained as needed to deal with an expected upswing in banditry while the other Clan's best warriors were away. They also allowed some of these units, staffed with their Crusader minority, to be claimed by the invaders - although most of these Crusaders were disappointed to learn they were only going to be guarding supply lines or even filling out homeworld garrisons.

After years of preparation the invasion force set out - seventy galaxies of warriors and eighty-four warships, arguably the largest single military force deployed by any part of humanity since the First Succession War. In 3005 they reached the Inner Sphere and Kerensky's heirs were unleashed upon the Inner Sphere with devastating effect. Despite valiant efforts, the Draconis Combine and Lyran Commonwealth were almost entirely unable to to hold back the Clans, even with covert aid from an increasingly worried ComStar. Coordinator Takashi Kurita died fighting a stubborn and glorious defence of Luthien, inspiring thousands of Combine samurai to fight to the bitter end and millions of humbler Combine citizens to resist in their own ways. Archon Katrina Steiner bled the Clans over and over in scores of brilliant ambushes that ground away their fine edge and the expense of almost entirely destroying the LCAF. After two years of war, the Clans had almost reached Terra, and despite their losses they remained a powerful force. With their supplies depleted, they paused briefly to regroup and await convoys from the Homeworlds.

But these convoys did not arrive.

Waystations ceased to report and HPG connections to the homeworlds fell silent.

Kerlin Ward had known exactly where the bases were and where the convoys would be. And the three Clans had only promised to avoid targeting the homeworld enclaves. Unobserved in the frenzy of the invasion, fast squadrons had ranged after the invasion and in a single month they took control of the key links connecting the invaders to their homeworlds. And it took precious time - almost another three months - for this to become clear, with a Cloud Cobra jumpship arriving to report of mass revolt on the Tanite worlds and a 'relief force' from the Wolves and Coyotes that simply seized and stripped the Cobra's remaining assets on the colonies.

Nadia Winson's native caution might have avoided the pitfall but angry Khans from almost every Clan forced her hand - a massive vote by the Council proclaimed the Wolves, Coyotes and Goliath Scorpions as dezgra. And the Wolves had seized the HPG links, not broken them. Cast out by the invaders they were no longer bound not to assail their enclaves... and their secondline forces had been expanded for two years as the other Clans exhausted themselves. Many of the garrisons facing them offered only token resistance, having been taken from these three clans to begin with or resenting being left behind by their peers. Critical nodes of defense were seized first and resistance could not possibly be coordinated between more than a dozen Clans - especially as their relief were at least a year away.

The year is 3008. The Invading Clans, exhausted, stand on a precipice. Behind them they have their hostile brethern and a vast void separating them not even from fresh supplies and reinforcements but from homes that will be well prepared to resist their return. Ahead of them is a rough and ready coalition led by Ian Davion, Janos Marik, Maximilian Liao and the newly elected Julian Tiepolo - determined that they will not follow the Combine into annihilation or the Commonwealth into submission to their ancient FWL rivals by the sliver of worlds still free to follow Katrina Steiner.

And all around the Clans lies their occupation zone, not a proud and shining new Star League but bitter and resentful conquered provinces, barely garrisoned and ready to turn knife, gun or improvised explosive device against any Clan warrior who lowers their guard.

The Crusade is over. Now the battle for survival begins.