Draconis Combine Civil War

The Draconis Combine Civil War, better known as the Nova Cat Rebellion, was short-lived military conflict between the Draconis Combine under the command of Coordinator Yori Kurita and Kanrei Matsuhari Toranaga versus Clan Nova Cat and elements of the Dieron Military District under Katana Tormark. The war was started by the rebellion of the Nova Cat touman against Combine troops, under the pretense of restoring Emi Kurita and her son Daisuke to throne. Secretly however, Khan Jacali Nostra of the Nova Cats was planning on using the conflict as a vehicle to establish an independent Nova Cat Occupation Zone. The war ended in victory for the mainstream Draconis Combine forces, resulting in the de-facto annihilation of Clan Nova Cat, and the imprisonment of Katana Tormark.

Background

Though rooted in a succession dispute of the Kuritan line, the Nova Cat Rebellion was primarily fueled by massive resentment from Nova Cat warriors and lower castemen towards the Draconis Combine following the Second Combine-Dominion War. During that war, the Nova Cat Touman had been decimated, its manufacturing capability destroyed, and millions of its civilians massacred, alternatively by Black Dragon Death Squads or enraged Clan Ghost Bear Clusters. Following the war, the Draconis Combine re-established garrisons on planets in the Irece Prefecture, and limited Clan Nova Cat to reservations on the planets they had formerly ruled de-facto. Clan Nova Cat was also severely limited in rebuilding their manufacturing, and when they were allowed to rebuild it was often under DCMS standards, resulting in subpar mechs and weaponry such as the Avalanche. These humiliations, coupled by feelings of betrayal and xenophobia from the average Combine citizen, drove a wedge between Nova Cat warriors and their supposed benefactors. The rise of the Kesari faction also fomented secession, as members of the Kesari began to turn their backs on the traditional visions that had guided Clan Nova Cat in the past, including those visions that had led the Clan to join with the Draconis Combine in the first place. With the election of Jacali Nostra to the Khanship in 3120, Clan Nova Cat was firmly on the road to eventual separation by any means necessary.

On the Kuritan side, efforts had been made by the Warlord of New Samarkand, Matsuhari Toranaga to replace the Kurita royal family with a pawn of his own choosing. Having groomed Yori Kurita since her early childhood, Matsuhari orchestrated a series of assassinations following the accidental death of the heir to the Dragon Throne, Theodore II Kurita in 3137. Coordinator Vincent Kurita and his son Ryuhiko Kurita were killed along with several court members by a bomb planted in a gift given to Ryuhiko to give to the Coordinator. This murder was followed up by a brutal assassination of Chomie Kurita, pregnant wife of the deceased Theodore II. With the death of nearly the entire royal family, and the supposed death of Emi Kurita, the only daughter of Vincent, the Coordinatorship fell to Yori Kurita, the great-granddaughter of Franklin Sakamoto. Yori then appointed Matsuhari Kanrei, effectively making him co-rule of the Draconis Combine.

Unbeknownst to the Kuritan public, Emi Kurita had survived and with the help of the Order of the Five Pillars, had escaped to Irece in Nova Cat space. There, Emi conceived a bore a son, whom she named Daisuke. Katana Tormark, who had been a good friend to Theodore, was suspicious of Yori and Matsuhari, and held out hope Emi had survived. With an alternative to the throne in hand, Clan Nova Cat waited for the perfect opportunity to announce Emi's survival and launch their attack.