Circe

Revision as of 16:09, 20 December 2015 by JubalHarshaw (talk | contribs) (→‎Political History: - Wolverine Annihilation)
This article is about the planet. For the Invader-class JumpShip, see Circe (Invader).
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Note: X and Y are coordinates (light years on XY plane) relative to Terra at (0, 0)

Circe

Circe
System Information
X:Y Coordinates-122.48:1,613.57[e]
Spectral classG2Ia[1]
Recharge time183 hours[1]
Planet(s)4[1]

The Circe system is the location of a habitable world, Circe I, and as at 3067 was located in the Deep Periphery region known as the Clan Homeworlds.

System Description

In relation to the capital of the Clan Homeworlds, Strana Mechty, Circe is located at the coordinates -158:-164.[2] The Circe system consists of a G2Ia class primary orbited by four worlds.[1]

Circe I

Template:InfoBoxPlanetStandard Circe I - more commonly known simply as Circe - has been held by, and contested by, several Clans at the same time for the majority of its history as a settled world.[1]

Political History

Operation KLONDIKE

The four Clans assigned to liberate Circe during Operation Klondike were Clan Nova Cat, Clan Mongoose, Clan Snow Raven, and Clan Wolverine. [3]

Wolverine Annihilation

Both the Clan Wolverine capital of Great Hope (aka The City of McEvedy) and the Clan Snow Raven capital of Dehra Dun suffered nuclear destruction during the Wolverine Annihilation. Great Hope was destroyed by a warhead planted by Clan Widowmaker, while Dehra Dun was accidentally nuked by Clan Snow Raven themselves during a fierce space battle in orbit. In official Clan history, both of these events would be blamed on Clan Wolverine.[4]

Clan Invasion Era

In or around 3067 Clan Snow Raven gave permission for the Third Scorpion Seekers to reside temporarily within their territory on Circe as a gesture of their willingness to assist the Scorpions. The Third Scorpion Seekers were a four-Trinary Cluster at the time, and a part of the Scorpions' Chi Galaxy, a new formation intended to support the Seeker traditions.[5]

The Snow Ravens had seen a number of clashes on Circe in the late 3060s between their Kappa Garrison Galaxy and forces from Clan Wolf. Kappa Galaxy had performed well, but the withdrawal of Alpha Galaxy to secure holdings for the Snow Raven in the Periphery of the Inner Sphere had seen the Snow Ravens steadily losing ground on Circe to the Wolves, although the lost territory was mostly gains the Snow Ravens had made after the fall of Clan Smoke Jaguar and the withdrawl of Clan Nova Cat to the Inner Sphere. The return of the Circe Battle Star to the Circe system in or around 3067 served to bolster the resolve of Kappa Galaxy.[6]

Wars of Reaving

The Snow Raven actions in the Galedon system in the Inner Sphere were reported to the Grand Council by Clan Diamond Shark and became the subject of a Grand Council meeting on the 2nd of March 3070. The shocking casualty figure caused by the Ravens led to calls for a Trial of Absorption against the Snow Ravens by Clan Steel Viper, an action that only failed to pass a vote due to a number of abstentions and a series of votes cast against the motion by Clan Star Adder and their supporters, who had also been looking to Absorb the Snow Ravens.[7]

The failure of the vote to pass led ilKhan Brett Andrews to call for a vote of no confidence in the Grand Council, which also failed; this in turn led to an agreement between the leaders of the Cloud Cobras, Star Adders and Steel Vipers to act together to punish the Snow Ravens for their departure from the Honor Road. The three allied Clans selected a number of Snow Raven enclaves on Bearclaw, Brim, Circe and Hellgate as targets for retaliation and bid amongst themselves for the right to attack the various enclaves. The Steel Vipers won the right to attack holdings across all three worlds, while the Star Adders won the right to attack holdings on Bearclaw and Circe while the Cloud Cobras won the right to attack enclaves on Brim and Hellgate.[7]

By March 3070 the continued Trials launched against the Snow Ravens by the Cloud Cobras, Star Adders and Steel Vipers had made the Snow Raven position in the Homeworlds increasingly tenuous, and accelerated their exodus back to the Inner Sphere. SaKhan Sukhanov of the Ravens approached Clan Blood Spirit, with whom the Snow Ravens had been becoming increasingly cordial in the aftermath of Operation REVIVAL; Sukhanov informed the Blood Spirit leadership of the Ravens' decision to migrate to the Inner Sphere and bargained with the Blood Spirits to exchange a number of Snow Raven enclaves and a large number of people from the lower castes for a number of Blood Spirit JumpShips and DropShips. The Blood Spirits agreed, with the exchanges due to take place by the end of 3071.[8]

Pleased with the potential gains from the agreement, the Blood Spirits launched a number of opportunistic attacks against Star Adder holdings, with the support of their allies within Clan Fire Mandrill, Kindraa Sainze. The gains made by the Blood Spirits and Kindraa Sainze were limited and swiftly lost to Clan Cloud Cobra, but the offensive succeeded in stalling the Star Adder campaign against the Snow Ravens, giving the Ravens a chance to regroup, whilst also boosting the position of Kindraa Sainze within the fragmented Fire Mandrills.[8]

The Blood Spirits then supported the Fire Mandrills Fifty-third Assault Cluster against the Ice Hellions on Barcella in August 3070 bfore consolidating their forces in their new holdings. As a part of the agreement reached with the Ravens the Blood Spirits received several enclaves on Circe, along with hundreds of thousands of lower castemen. These holdings were swiftly contested by the Star Adders, who arrived at Circe and launched a massive planetary assault under a blanket Trial of Possession for all of the former Snow Raven enclaves, both those the Blood Spirits were holding and the two that were still defended by the Second Raven Garrison Cluster and the Seventh Raven Regulars.[8]

Galaxy Commander Fletcher Daniels gave the Snow Ravens a three-day grace period before launching an assault on the two enclaves; trapped on Circe through a lack of DropShips, both Snow Raven Clusters were destroyed after a hard fight. The fight for Circe then became more chaotic in January 3071 when Kindra Mick-Kline-Kreese of Clan Fire Mandrill arrived and proceeded to become embroiled in the fight, ignoring the protests from Khan Karianna Schmitt of the Blood Spirits that his forces didn't need assistance from the Fire Mandrills.[8]

SaKhan Samantha Kline of Kindraa Mick-Kline-Kreese attempted to declare a Trial of Possession for the two Snow Raven enclaves captured by the Star Adders, but Galaxy Commander Daniels refused to honor the request, claiming that the existing trail for all of the Raven enclaves in the system, past and present, was still underway. SaKhan Kline interpreted the semantics of the Trail differently and landed her forces in an attempt to seize the two enclaves, an action that the Star Adders read as a breach of thei Trial. Despite profuse objections from the Blood Spirits, Daniels declared that the Trial had been broken; he then declared the forces from both the Blood Spirits and Fire Mandrills to be dezgra and removed any zellbrigen restrictions from his forces. The Star Adders attacked both the Blood Spirits and Fire Mandrills in a sudden offensive that caught both off-guard, destroying almost two Galaxies of troops.[8]

Khan Schmitt requested hegira from Daniels, but the Star Adders refused to grant it because of Daniels' declaration that the Blood Spirit and Fire Mandrills were dezgra; an intervention by the remains of the Kindra Mick-Kline-Kreese forces managed to allow a few DropShips to escape from Circe without being annihilated by the Star Adders, but at the cost of the Lola III-class destroyer CFM Rancor. Furious with the losses his Clan had taken, Schmitt rebuked saKhan Kline, and attempted to bring the actions of Daniels and the Star Adders to the attention of the Grand Council.[8]

In 3072 the group known as the Society moved to take power within the Clan Homeworlds, and Circe was one of the first worlds targeted by them; unbeknownst to the warrior caste, Circe was a Society bastion, a world containing various sites were production and research were conducted out of sight of the warriors, utilising nests that had been forgotten.[9] By the end of January Circe had gone dark, with all communications with other worlds stopped.[10]

In late 3074 Circe was the site of one of the last major battles fought by the Steel Vipers against the Society; the battle began with the Steel Viper Watch launching an operation to disable the planetary SDS before Beta and Chi Galaxies deployed on the ground. A large percentage of the planetary population had been enslaved by various groups from the Dark Caste, but the military forces facing the Steel Vipers consisted of little more than a Cluster-sized group of Bandits and two Society Septs, none of which worked together in a cohesive fashion. The Steel Viper victory was effectively assured, but they still spent the better part of two months cleansing the various mines scattered along the Cyclopian Mountains of bandits and rebellious forces from the scientist caste which had dug into the various mines there. During the course of the operation the Steel Vipers discovered the existence of experimental pens and genetic labs hidden under the Medusan Sea, which the Society had been using to culture different strains of genetic viruses and which were still in use at the time of the invasion.[11]

Following the Grand Council held on 29 July 3075 the Steel Vipers were declared the subjects of a Trial of Annihilation,[12] and the other Clans spent two months gathering forces before electing Khan Hannibal Banacek to the position of ilKhan. The Star Adders threw open the Annihilation to all of the Clans, rather than pursuing the Trial alone following the initial call by Khan Hollyann Kardaan of the Cloud Cobras at the previous Grand Council. While the other Clans gathered their forces together at Strana Mechty, Khan Boyle Grimani of the Steel Vipers pulled the bulk of the Steel Viper touman back to two worlds: Circe and New Kent.[13]

A multi-Clan fleet arrived in the Circe system on the 30th of October and, after a bargaining process that saw the Cloud Cobras gain the honor of leading the attack, which they began by driving two naval stars directly at the planetary SDS network. The Cloud Cobras lost four WarShips in the assault - the Aegis-class heavy cruiser CCS Consequence, the Vincent Mark 42-class corvettes CCS Hertzog's Staff, the Fredasa-class corvette CCS Perdition's Flame and the Potemkin-class cruiser CCS True Sight - but suceeded in creating a gap in the network, allowing the landing operation to begin. As the Steel Vipers launched a flanking attack the Goliath Scorpions blocked the Viper forces, and the greater part of two hundred DropShips dropped to the surface of Circe.[13]

The initial landing was bloody for the Blood Spirits, who lost nearly half their forces on the initial approach when a number of ground batteries that hadn't been identified earlier ripped into their approach corridor. The Blood Spirits silenced one battery by dropping Alpha Galaxy directly onto the shallow hill it was located, where they were quickly joined by the Cloud Cobra Delta Galaxy. From this inauspicious beginning the combined Blood Spirit and Cloud Cobra forces moved north and captured the enclaves at Ides, Oberon and Wales before being slowed by a Circian storm. The Steel Vipers used the storm as cover, moving their Beta Galaxy into position to attack the Blood Spirit forces; Beta Galaxy broke the Blood Spirit Tau Galaxy before the arrival of several Cloud Cobra aerospace squadrons from Delta Galaxy blunted the Steel Viper attack.[13]

The main Steel Viper enclave on Circe was Tash, which the forces from Clans Goliath Scorpion and Stone Lion drove towards, stalling short of the enclave itself. Clan Star Adder used the Fifteenth Armoured Cavalry and the Seventy-third Adder Cavaliers to attack the eastern reaches of Tash, opening up a hole in the defenses that the Stone Lions exploited, hammering the Twenty-seventh and Thirty-first Iron Guards into the rear of the Steel Viper defenses, destroying the main Viper command bunker in the process. The Steel Vipers attempted to counterattack with the Thirty-eighth Phalanx, but the counterattack was driven back by heavy bombing and the Steel Vipers then found themselves pinned in place by the newly arrived Eighty-first Strike Cluster and the Golden Keshik of Clan Coyote, led by Khan Leo Koga in person.[13]

The Stone Lions pressed the assault, repeatedly hitting the defenders with both Iron Guards clusters until the Steel Viper forces broke; retreating quickly into the ruins of Dehra Dun, the Steel Viper forces skulked in the ruins of the former Snow Raven city until they were hunted down by the pursuing Coyote and Stone Lion forces. The final decisive blow came when the Goliath Scorpions and Blood Spirits wheeled east and attacked the rear of Tashs, catching and killing Steel Viper saKhan George Mercer along with his Command Star; the loss of Mercer led the remaining Steel Vipers in Tash to attempt a call for surrender, but the combined Clan forces ignored the request and continued the Annihilation of the Steel Vipers. By mid-December the campaign on Circe ended, with the Clans moving on to attack New Kent.[13]

Political Affiliation

3067

3070

  • Clan Blood Spirit[8]
  • Clan Snow Raven[8]

3072

3074

  • Clan Steel Viper [11]

Military Deployment

3061

3067

  • Clan Goliath Scorpion[18]

3070

  • Clan Blood Spirit[8]
  • Clan Snow Raven[8]
  • Kappa Garrison Galaxy[8]
  • Seventh Raven Regulars[8]
  • Second Raven Garrison Cluster[8]


Industrial Centers

Notable Species

Image Gallery

Nearby Systems

Systems within 60 light-years (distance in light years)
Closest systems first:
Arcadia 9.2 Eden 10.9 Babylon 14.0 Dagda 14.6
Fasa 24.5

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 The Wars of Reaving, p. 232, "Circe"
  2. The Clans: Warriors of Kerensky, p. 112, Clan-Space Worlds Table
  3. Historical: Operation Klondike, p. 136 "The Pentagon - Circe"
  4. Betrayal of Ideals, "Book III: The Switchback Directive"
  5. Field Manual: Updates, p. 63, "Chi Galaxy (The Eternal Quest)"
  6. Field Manual: Updates, p. 65, "Kappa Garrison Galaxy"
  7. 7.0 7.1 Wars of Reaving, p. 48-49, "The Raven Absorption"
  8. 8.00 8.01 8.02 8.03 8.04 8.05 8.06 8.07 8.08 8.09 8.10 8.11 8.12 8.13 8.14 8.15 Wars of Reaving, p. 54-55, "Fuel For The Blood Feud"
  9. 9.0 9.1 Wars of Reaving, p. 92, "The First Strikes"
  10. 10.0 10.1 Wars of Reaving, p. 94, "Death Rides Forth"
  11. 11.0 11.1 Wars of Reaving, p. 141, "Circian Sunset"
  12. Wars of Reaving, p. 149-150, "Viper's End"
  13. 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 Wars of Reaving, p. 150, "Viper's End"
  14. 14.0 14.1 Field Manual Update p. 39
  15. 15.0 15.1 Wars of Reaving, p. 228, "Political balance Table, 3067"
  16. 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 16.5 16.6 Field Manual: Warden Clans, p. 165, "Warden Clans Deployment Table"
  17. 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 Field Manual: Updates, p. 75, "Theta Galaxy (A Strong Foundation)"
  18. 18.0 18.1 Field Manual: Updates, p. 79, "Chi Galaxy (The Eternal Quest)"
  19. 19.0 19.1 19.2 19.3 19.4 19.5 19.6 19.7 Field Manual: Updates, p. 79, "Kappa Galaxy (Second Line)"

Bibliography