| Official & Private
Histories of the
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Clan Wolverine (Annihilated by Clan Wolf in
2823)
Excerpt from Lore Masters'
Office on Strana Mechty, Grand Lore Master Breen, February 2823,
Clan Press.
The Wolverines were among
the most vocal critics of Nicholas Kerensky's authoritarian rule
over the Clans. Official Clan history states that they were
annihilated for espousing anti-Clan sentiments, such as democracy
and independence, but the reality is somewhat different. Many clans
were suffering internal strife at the time of the Clan Wolverine
incident, and Nicholas saw that the Clans as a whole were on the
brink of rebelling against his authority. The Wolverines served as
both object lesson and common enemy against whom the other nineteen
Clans could unite. Clan Wolf carried out the Grand Council's
sentence against Khan Sarah McEvedy and her Clan, but a later
investigation strongly suggested that some individuals -
predominantly civilians and second - line troops- had been able to
flee. Officially put down to bad book keeping, the whereabouts and
disposition of any survivors remains unknown.
Wolverine
"Treachery"
Official Clan History
& the Journals of Nicholas Kerensky
Nicholas Kerensky's new society, with its
formalized rules of combat, was not completely accepted by all his
followers. In 2823, Clan Wolverine rejected a Grand Council decision
on the division of equipment found in a Brian Cache in Wolverine
territory, claiming that the cache belonged to Clan Wolverine alone.
They invoked a Trial of Refusal and lost. They did not accept the
ruling, but shocked the rest of the Clans by declaring Clan
Wolverine totally independent. IlKhan Nicholas Kerensky declared
that Clan Wolverine had become "tainted by the old ways of lust for
power." He urged the Grand Council to vote for a Trial of
Annihilation against the rebellious Clan. The resulting vote was
swift and unanimous, and Clans Wolf and Widowmaker won the honor of
annihilating Wolverine.
The first rumblings of discontent
came from a surprising source: Clan Jade Falcon. Many of their ranks
were upset that Nicholas had chosen to join the Wolf Clan rather
than the Falcons at the end of Operation Klondike. Disappointment
made them question Nicholas’ ideals (though not his methods), and
for a time walked a fine line between criticism and treason.
Eventually the Falcon Khans cut out what they termed the “cancer” at
their core. In July 2823, they purged dissident elements, in effect
cutting off part of themselves so that the whole Clan would survive.
The Falcons that emerged from what they called “The Culling”, though
weaker militarily, were totally committed to Kerensky’s vision and
were thenceforth counted among the most traditional-minded Clans.
However, the Falcons were not alone in their treasonous
mutterings.
Trial of
Annihilation
Official Clan
History
Wolf and Widowmaker took the
opportunity of the Trial of Annihilation to expand their prestige,
each at the cost of the other. The longtime rivalry between these
two Clans was fierce and bitter. The bidding between the two Clans
for the honor of destroying Clan Wolverine turned the bitterness
into hate. The Wolf Clan version of The Remembrance states that Clan
Widowmaker deliberately drove the bidding down to dangerous levels,
then withdrew, leaving the warriors of Clan Wolf facing the majority
of Clan Wolverine at very poor odds. Clan Widowmaker was pleased
when Clan Wolf suffered major losses in the battle, but their hatred
was fanned higher by Clan Wolf's eventual triumph over Clan
Wolverine. The warriors of Clan Wolverine were dead, and the Grand
Council moved to purge its tainted ways from Clan society. The
Wolverine Bloodnames were eliminated from the gene pool, all
Wolverine lower-caste citizens were sterilized, and all mention of
Clan Wolverine was removed from Clan documents.
Rumors among
the Clans say that some Clan Wolverine warriors escaped and fled the
Clan worlds. It is probably no coincidence that the "Minnesota
Tribe" that attacked the perimeter of the Combine struck in 2825, a
year after the annihilation of Clan Wolverine. This tribe was
reported as using brand-new 'Mechs, fighting in ways alien to the
Inner Sphere.
Tensions between Clans Widowmaker and Wolf
escalated into a bitterly fought battle that would mark the end of
an era for the Clans. Warriors from Widowmaker claimed Wolf had
cheated in its victory that annihilated the Wolverines. Clan Wolf
responded by accusing Clan Widowmaker of misusing the bidding system
to deliberately place Wolf warriors in hopeless situations. This
animosity lasted through a decade marked by vicious Trials of
Possession that often skirted the limits of the Grand Council's
rules of combat.
Crossing the Line
The Journals of Nicholas Kerensky
& excerpts
from the Grand Council security tape; 8 October
2823.
Most of what follows is
recreated from Nicholas’ journals. Unlike official Clan records,
they were never purged of their references to the Not-Named Clan.
Nicholas feared (probably correctly) that his grip on the
Clans was slipping, and flexed his muscles as IlKhan against the
main opposition to his authority: Clan Wolverine. At Nicholas’
urging, on 28 August, 2823, the Grand Council declared that the
Brian Cache on Circe—which the Wolverine had used to supply their
Touman----was no longer Wolverine property. The Council ordered them
to share it with their neighbors, Clan Snow Raven. Violating the
Clans socialist principles, the Wolverines objected strenuously. The
ensuing political battle raged for several weeks. On 30 September,
while the Wolverine saKhan was attending to business on Circe, the
Council called for a vote (the Wolverine saKhan cast his vote via
HPG). The Wolverines’ protest was rejected, whereupon they demanded
a Trial of Refusal as was their right under Clan law. The Trial was
fought on 7 October: the Wolverines lost.
The situation
deteriorated further in the Grand Council chamber, as frayed tempers
led to increasingly acrimonious exchanges. Wolverine Khan Sarah
McEvedy hoped to win over other Clans to her cause; she knew that
Nicholas’ dictatorial actions worried several of her fellow Khans.
However, Nicholas was a canny politician and knew McEvedy’s
weaknesses. As her support grew, he goaded her into making a fatal
mistake. In a particularly blunt exchange, she insulted him
directly—and by extension, the Clans themselves. With a few
ill-chosen words, McEvedy destroyed her power base and any hope of
liberalizing the Clans. To make matters worse, when Nicholas called
for a Trial of Grievance, McEvedy committed the ultimate sin: she
declared the Wolverines independent of the Clans. In doing so, she
gave Nicholas exactly what he wanted—an excuse to destroy his
opposition:
Kerensky[ilKahn): My honorable friend the Khan from Clan Wolverine
continues to ignore the decisions of this body, as verified by the
recent trial. I do not care that the cache is that of the 331st
Royal Division, her father’s command. This body is agreed that the
caches are a resource belonging to the Clans as a whole. In the old
order, her paternal loyalty would be commended, but this is not the
old order. We are the Clans. We stand on our own merits, not those
of our ancestors.
Sarah McEvedy
[Wolverine}: Except
you.
Kerensky [IlKhan}:
I beg your pardon?
McEvedy: I
said, except you. You seem perfectly happy to bask in your father’s
achievements. He was a visionary who sought justice and peace for
all. You seek control.
Mitchell Loris
[Mongoose]: Khan McEvedy, you go
to far.
McEvedy: Do I? I know many of you in this chamber found our
IlKhan’s actions to secure control of the Pentagon population
offensive. The Star League did not believe in torture and brutality.
Those are the tools of the power-hungry madmen. Is that what you
have become, Nicholas Kerensky? A power-hungry madman?
<< Raised voices from all
parties >>
Kerensky: SILENCE!
McEvedy, Khan of Clan Wolverine, I, Nicholas Kerensky, IlKhan of the
Clans, do call for a Trial of Grievance. By our laws, you
may----
McEvedy: Hang your laws. Does the truth hurt so much,
Nicholas?
Kerensky: Fellow Khans, our colleague is clearly
overwrought. I call for a vote of censure. Loremaster Ward,
please—
McEvedy: Don’t bother, Nicholas. I’ll leave. In fact, we’ll
all leave. Clan Wolverine no longer recognizes the authority of the
IlKhan or the Grand Council. From this point forward, we are an
independent power. We decide our own fate, fairly and according to
the Star League.
Kerensky:
You cannot do this.
McEvedy: I can
and I have.
<< McEvedy moves to leave
>>
Kerensky:
Arrest her!
<< McEvedy draws her pistol; the Khans
and security guards back off. A detachment of Wolverine troops
arrives >>
McEvedy:
If you want to face us fine—but
we will not hold back. Prepare to reap the
whirlwind.
<< McEvedy storms out >>
Kerensky: My Khans, we face a serious
decision......
The Escape of Clan
Wolverine
Excerpted from the
private journals of Nicholas Kerensky
Correlated against the Star
League Defense Forces' historical database from the Former Clan
Wolverine
Khan McEvedy escaped Strana
Mechty and returned to Circe, where saKhan Franklin Hallis had
already placed the Wolverine Touman on full alert. When Snow Raven
forces acting on their own initiative probed the Wolverine border on
10 October, the Wolverines counterattacked. They showed no mercy,
and after a short battle sacked the Raven capital of Dehra Dun. They
retreated in the face of Clan Mongoose and Nova Cat forces massing,
but not before making an object lesson of the city. After driving
all civilians from the area, they used a low-yield nuclear weapon to
destroy the Raven genetic repository. The message was simple and
brutal: You have backed us into a corner, and we will do anything
and everything to stop you. Cowed by this “barbaric” action, the
Mongoose, Nova Cat, and Snow Raven forces withdrew pending the Grand
Council’s final deliberations. With the destruction of the
repository, the question of how to punish the Wolverines took a new
twist. The Grand Council had voted on 8 October to censure McEvedy
and the Wolverines, but had ultimately intended to bring them back
into the Clan fold. Now they enacted the ultimate punishment. On 11
October, the Khans voted for the Annihilation of the entire
Wolverine Clan. As sentence was passed, Nicholas delivered what
became his most famous quote: “Those who break faith with the Unity
shall go down to darkness.” Over the next few days, the remaining
nineteen Clans battled for the honor of destroying the rebels;
eventually the contest came down to Clans Widowmaker and Wolf.
However, in order to win the bidding, the Wolves were forced to go
below the accepted cut-down.
Khan McEvedy arrived back on
Circe on 13 October and took charge of the preparations of the
impending assault. The Wolverine Khans suspected was Nicholas
planned , and saKhan Hallis deliberately absented himself from the
Council for the fateful vote. Following McEvedy’s orders, he was
preparing for a third Exodus. McEvedy and Hallis both knew that the
Wolverines would never be safe in Clan space. To ensure their Clan’s
survival, they scattered small units throughout the Pentagon worlds
and the Kerensky Cluster, collecting material from supply caches and
preparing to flee. The Ghost Bears spotted one such unit, but kept
the information secret for decades.
Wolf Clan forces began
their assault on 25 October, beating off a Wolverine counterattack
on their landing zone. They fought the rebels on land, in the air,
and in space. The battle raged for two days, and though outnumbered,
the Wolves prevailed. A running battle ensued as the Wolverines
attempted to flee Clan space. Many vessels on both sides were
destroyed, but after nineteen days the Wolves were victorious.
Almost eighty percent of the Wolf force died; there were no
Wolverine survivors. Nicholas Kerensky killed Hallis in a brutal,
three-hour duel on Circe. No trace was ever found of McEvedy. For
the next two months, the Wolf force systematically destroyed the
Wolverines’ holdings, demolishing buildings, and forcibly
sterilizing their civilian castes. All sibko’s containing Wolverine
genes were terminated.
Despite these measures, on 22 January
of 2824, the Wolf Loremaster presented a troubling report to the
Grand Council. A census of Wolverines’ population and equipment
showed numerous discrepancies, While most of the front-line troops
had been accounted for on Circe, many of the second-line warriors
appeared to be missing—along with most of the 331st Division’s
equipment from the disputed Brian cache. Similarly, there were fewer
civilians than expected. Officially, the discrepancies were put down
to bad record keeping. In reality, however, the Grand Council
suspected a sizable portion of the Wolverines had escaped, probably
to the Inner Sphere...
To be
continued...
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