Laura Payne
Sarna News
Laura Payne | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Personal | |
| Born | 11 January 2790[1] |
| Affiliation | Clan Fire Mandrill |
| Profile | |
| Profession | SaKhan of Clan Fire Mandrill |
Laura Payne was the first saKhan of Clan Fire Mandrill and the ancestor of Kindraa Payne.
History[edit]
Early Life[edit]
Born into a Capellan community on Eden after that world's colonization by the Exodus Fleet, Laura's mother, Anita Payne, had been an SLDF war hero during the liberation of Terra. With this background, Laura was taught from early childhood to disdain the Great Houses and venerate the Star League.[1] [2]
After the Pentagon Worlds collapsed into civil war, Payne's staunchly pro–Star League rearing made her a strong supporter of Nicholas Kerensky and the new society he was forging. Her warrior skills secured for Laura a place in Clan Fire Mandrill's touman, where she earned the rank of saKhan. Kerensky, for his part, was mostly reliant upon older veterans to carry out his vision - most of the first Clan Khans were in their fifties or older - and saw in Laura one of the younger generation who could ease the transition between the old SLDF and the new Clans.[1]
Operation KLONDIKE[edit]
Unfortunately, Nicholas Kerensky's confidence in Payne would prove over-optimistic. Payne's very youth and energy caused friction with the Mandrill's senior Khan, Raymond Sainze, and the two were at odds from the outset of Operation KLONDIKE. Before commencing combat operations on Dagda's Salò continent, Sainze challenged Payne for the right to land first. This pattern continued as the two Khans dangerously underbid each other for the honor of leading each engagement; only the poor equipment of their more numerous and determined opponents prevented the Mandrills from losing the campaign outright. The final operation on Salò epitomised this sorry state of affairs: what should have been a simple and easy search-and-destroy operation in the Night Labyrinth instead dragged out for months as the two Khans bid away crucial assets which would have ensured swift victory.[3]
Though ilKhan Kerensky did not formally punish Payne and her colleague, he was not reticent in expressing criticism of their leadership. The ilKhan's displeasure was made most manifest towards the end of the Dagda campaign. Although the Mandrills succeeded in attaining their objectives on Garda continent and the Mimosa and Penn atolls, their continued bickering resulted in delays that did nothing to ease Kerensky's concerns, and so he informed them that Clan Fire Mandrill would not have the honor of cracking Dagda's last stronghold, the formidable Black Brian. Instead the Mandrills would form part of the surrounding perimeter while the Wolves and Jade Falcons gained the glory from the Clans' final triumphant operation in the Pentagon.[4]
Legacy[edit]
Laura Payne's ongoing feud with Raymond Sainze would contribute to her Clan's slide into factionalism in the years after KLONDIKE, and in turn to her Clan's ultimate demise two and a half centuries later. It is unknown when she died or whether she was still serving during the aftermath of Clan Widowmaker's Absorption in 2834, but it was in this period that her descendants formed Kindraa Payne in response to the newly-established Kindraa Sainze.[5] The resulting Payne-Sainze rivalry severely hampered Clan Fire Mandrill throughout its entire history and helped to cause the Clan's final disintegration during the Wars of Reaving.