History of Clan Goliath Scorpion

Clan Goliath Scorpion Emblem
This article details the history of Clan Goliath Scorpion. For more information, see Clan Goliath Scorpion.
For the history of the Clans as a whole, see History of the Clans.

Founding

The Scorpions' first Khan was Cyrus Elam, a former member of the SLDF Corps of Engineers, chosen to lead his Clan because of innovative tactics he demonstrated in training on Strana Mechty. His saKhan was Jenna Scott, a young infantry commander known for predicting her enemies' movements. Under their Khan's instruction, the fledgling Clan developed flexible combat tactics and fielded combined-arms forces. They would soon come to embody their totem animal and earn a fearsome reputation for swift and deadly strikes.[1][2]

Operation Klondike

The Scorpions were assigned to retake the world of Dagda. The cluster made the first landing on Dagda, and faced off against the McMillan Collective, the best-equipped and best-led faction on the planet. The crux of the fighting was at Firebase Delta, a functional Space Defense System facility. While the Scorpions took the facility, it cost them nearly a quarter of their strength.

After crushing some smaller factions on the Riva continent, the Scorpions faced The Chosen, a doomsday cult who thought to ride out the war in an upland mining facility-turned-monastery. After grinding the Chosen's military to pieces, the Scorpions laid a siege against the monastery itself. When the time came to storm the structure, many of the inhabitants committed suicide rather than be taken by the clans.

Dagda had three remaining seaborne atolls (large man-made habitats built to harvest naval resources). The first two surrendered peacefully to the Clans, but the final atoll ambushed the Scorpion landing party and wiped them out to a woman, Naomi Djerassi, who was taken as a prisoner. Trained in commando tactics, she escaped and waged a campaign of terror against the vicious inhabitants until they surrendered to Scorpion reinforcements who arrived later.

The Scorpions moved on to the Tenno continent, where they faced the Drakkars. Khan Elam intimidated the Drakkar into surrendering by threatening to subject their headquarters to orbital bombardment. The Drakkar leader was later adopted into the Scorpions' technician caste.

Infantry officer Naomi Djerassi would claim a single-handed victory for her Clan on Kepler Atoll against vastly overwhelming odds as the Dagda campaign bogged down prior to the Siege of the Black Brian.

The Scorpions' heavy losses ruled them out from participating in the final battles of the Dagda campaign.

Rebuilding

The Goliath Scorpions would be awarded a portion of Dagda to settle, setting up along the rocky coasts and on the ocean floors to create their first enclave. Khan Elam utilized his skills as an engineer to construct extensive deep-sea mining facilities on Dagda, while the planetary defense base on Satan's Table was rebuilt and served as the Clan's primary home. Similar resource-gathering efforts were started on Roche and Tokasha as territory was ceded to their control. The Goliath Scorpions became famous for their ability to exploit overlooked or underutilized areas for resources, bringing in a steady supply of materials needed to rebuild following the Pentagon conquests. However, the Clan and its very character would be most influenced by a chance discovery on Babylon.[3]

In the days following the pacification of the Pentagon worlds, a patrol from Clan Ice Hellion discovered General Ethan Moreau, sunburned and scared, atop a jagged obsidian rock in the Spiked Heart Desert. While apparently suffering from the stings of a goliath scorpion, Moreau demanded he be given an audience to Nicholas Kerensky, referring to his old friend as ilKhan. That someone not of the Clans would refer to Kerensky by this word has been attributed to the visionary power of the goliath scorpion's venom, though the truth of the incident is muddled by Goliath Scorpion mythology. In any case, the Ice Hellions brought Moreau before Kerensky and the general, through parched lips, begged forgiveness from his friend for rejecting to join him on the Second Exodus. Kerensky accepted, and began the tradition of surkai among Clan members seeking forgiveness.[4]

Citing the likelihood of infirmity from his wounds, the Ice Hellions refused to take in the veteran MechWarrior and last survivor of the Gunslinger Program. Khan Elam therefore won the petition to take on Moreau as a trainer, though like others who refused the Second Exodus his genes were denied a place in the Clans' eugenics program. Moreau also became Goliath Scorpion's first Loremaster, writing down the lessons he learned into their portion of The Remembrance.[3]

The Clan would play a role in the Annihilation of Clan Wolverine in 2823 and again a decade later in the Absorption of Clan Widowmaker. Although Clan Wolf had been given the right to Absorb the rebel Clan by themselves, both Khan Elam and Loremaster Moreau would take part in the last battle against the Widowmakers on Roche, where the Widowmakers had been pursued to their final stronghold of Porthos. From their enclave on Priam Plateau above the city, the Scorpions watched as the Wolves stumbled into a trap laid by the Widowmakers. Compelled by his surkairede to defend the legacy of the great Kerensky, LoreMaster Moreau drove his Black Knight into the city, with Khan Elam and the rest of the Scorpions following. They succeeded in saving the Wolves, although Khan Elam would die in a mysterious artillery strike which also claimed the life of the Widowmakers saKhan, Kyle Vordermark. In spite of being saved from destruction Clan Wolf was initially outraged at the interference in a Trial they alone had won the right to prosecute. Khan Jerome Winson eventually accepted that Moreau's surkairede was an honor debt to his entire Clan, and so in thanks to their timely aid granted the Goliath Scorpions much of the Widowmaker enclave on Roche, including their massive military fortress known as the Spiderholm.[3] A new Khan, Shandra Dinour, would replace Elam as leader of the Goliath Scorpions and play an important role in shaping their future character.

The Golden Century

During the Golden Century the Goliath Scorpions would help revolutionize Clan society with the creation of underwater industrial exoskeletons in 2842. Known as "water elementals" to their laborer-caste operators, these suits allowed the Clan to harvest the mineral wealth buried beneath the planet's watery depths, which impressed visiting merchants from Clan Wolf. In exchange for mineral rights to almost all of Dagda's oceans, Goliath Scorpion granted the Wolves the technology behind their diving suits, and used their new mineral wealth to become the planet's dominant industrial power and expand their colonies on Roche and Tokasha.[5] The Scorpions were just as surprised as everyone else when the Wolves unveiled their Elemental Battle Armor in 2868, though they quickly recognized where the technology had originated, and were equally impressed by their performance in battle. Petitioning the Wolves for a reciprocal trade, the Scorpions acquired the design plans and twenty of the new suits in exchange for breeding rights to the Collesano, Baba and Shaffer Bloodlines.[6]

The Clan had much more trouble acquiring the technology behind OmniMechs, however, which Clan Coyote debuted in 2854. Three separate operations to seize the technology were frustrated as Coyote warriors would invoke zellbrigen to reduce the conflicts to a series of duels between warriors. Though easily winning each full-scale battle, the result would be nullified as the Coyotes' superior machines allowed them to handily defeat the Scorpions in single combat. It would take years before the Goliath Scorpions finally began fielding their own OmniMechs, taking them in a raid against Clan Fire Mandrill's Payne kindraa, by which time the other Clans were already fielding large numbers of OmniMechs.[5] In response to their poor showing, Khan Dinour instituted a series of gladiatorial tournaments based upon the Martial Olympiads in what became known as the Circus Honorae, or Circle of Honor. These tournaments would continue into the modern day as a means of sharpening warriors' dueling skills.[5]

The Golden Century also saw the beginning of many other Goliath Scorpion traditions. Loremaster Moreau, having survived the effects of the goliath scorpion venom himself, petitioned Khan Dinour to institute a rite of initiation for young Scorpion warriors. Each recruit would allow a goliath scorpion to sting them, thereby proving their fortitude. The fatality rate from this rite, however, quickly became too much for the Clan to bear. In response, the scientist caste devised a drink called necrosia based upon the scorpion venom which, while safe to ingest in controlled quantities, kept the hallucinogenic side affects and allowed for "prophetic visions."[3] It was in 2845 when Moreau, after one of these visions, gathered together the Clan's warriors and charged them to find a cache of Star League relics left behind by Clan Wolverine on Marshall. Five years of fruitless searching provided no clues, whereupon a patrol by the Ice Hellions found a grotto matching Moreau's description a mere two months later. Khan Dinour issued a batchall to take the site by force, and within the week drove off the Ice Hellions, revealing a sizable amount of Star League artifacts and weapons. The Ice Hellions however began a series of Trials of Possession for the cache which would last a year with no clear winner.[5]

This left both Clans vulnerable to elements of Clan Fire Mandrill who, seeking to take advantage of the situation, began harrying both sides in 2851. Both sides were outraged at this intrusion, but for Goliath Scorpion this anger was compounded when a young Kindraa Mattila-Carrol warrior, catching Loremaster Moreau stuck in swampy terrain, refused the Loremaster's request for hegira and executed him. The Hellions and Scorpions made a temporary truce and drove back the Mandrills, however the losses they had suffered thus far made further conflict pointless. Coming to an understanding with each other, the Hellions were allowed to keep the Star League weaponry while the Scorpions took possession of the remaining contents and the caves themselves.[5][7]

The new Loremaster, Lan Kirov, was inspired by Moreau to continue his brand of mysticism and quest for knowledge. Within the next two decades, Kirov created a special cadre of warriors called Seekers, charged with finding artifacts of the lost Star League scattered throughout the Pentagon and Kerensky Clusters and bringing them back to the Clan to serve as a basis for rebuilding the Star League. The Seekers quickly became a force throughout Clan space, discovering many forgotten caches of and winning many duels for Star League technology and cultural items, which the Clan dutifully collected in order to study and understand the League and its highest ideals.[6] However, the Seeker movement ran into trouble when it threatened to split the Clan's warrior caste. Seekers had begun wearing their own uniforms - silver and red clothing meant to distinguish them from the rest of the Clan - and expanded the Spiderholm fortress in 2785 to incorporate the Temple of the Nine Muses, a storehouse for Star League artifacts and the movement's unofficial headquarters. When Loremaster Kirov called for the Seekers to begin searching the worlds of the Inner Sphere, events finally came to a head. With the split threatening to leave the Clan vulnerable to its enemies, saKhan Scott challenged Kirov for leadership of the movement, and in a legendary knife-fight defeated him despite being thirty years the Loremaster's senior. She forced the Seekers to swear an oath to the ideals of Kerensky before their own or be eliminated by their fellow Clansmen, before dying of her own wounds.[8]

The Great Debate

Such was the Clan's self-involvement that the growing split within the greater Clan society over the question of returning to the Inner Sphere went completely unnoticed. When the vote to invade the Inner Sphere was brought before the Great Council in 3000, it came as a puzzling surprise, though the Clan's leadership quickly rejected the idea. Siding with their close ally Clan Wolf and the Warden ideology, they believed the Inner Sphere was meant to be protected, not conquered and dominated. As an alternative, they backed Wolf Khan Kerlin Ward's Dragoon Compromise, sending a force of volunteer trueborn and freeborn warriors to scout the Inner Sphere and determine its military readiness. In an unforeseen move, the Scorpion's saKhan Ren Posavatz issued a batchall to train Wolf's Dragoons and won the bid unopposed.[8]

The elite Heartvenom Cluster, the Clan's special forces unit, trained the Dragoons for two years in unconventional tactics. Drawing upon the Star League military doctrines and holovids stored within the Scorpion archives, they transformed the unit into an elite fighting force the equal of any front-line Cluster. Protestations against this methodology as being in opposition to Clan ideals fell on deaf ears, with Wolf Khan Kerlin Ward giving them his support and permission to depart in 3004.[8] A number of Goliath Scorpion volunteers accompanied the Dragoons on their mission, while Star Colonel Vlad Dinour, commander of the Heartvenom Cluster, was won by Clan Wolf in a Trial of Possession and used to mold the 4th Striker Cluster along Scorpion lines, becoming a model assault unit for Epsilon Galaxy. Reports provided by the Dragoons and Scorpions on Inner Sphere tactical doctrine became of vital importance to the Wolves during the invasion.[9]

When the ComStar Explorer Corps JumpShip Outbound Light accidentally discovered the world of Huntress in 3048, concern about the discovery of their homeworlds spurred the Clans into action. Smoke Jaguar Khan Leo Showers played upon these fears and rallied the Clans in a hasty Great Council vote to approve Operation Revival. Though the vote was passed by a wide margin, Goliath Scorpion leadership, in a show of disdain for Showers' brinkmanship, cast their vote with the toss of a coin.[9]

Operation Revival

In the Trials to determine who would participate in the invasion, Clan Goliath Scorpion was left out of the initial wave, although they were able to take advantage of the situation. With so many units away from the homeworlds on their Crusade, many Seekers began searching through areas previously considered too heavily-defended. SaKhan Posavatz himself was nearly killed on the Smoke Jaguar world of Tranquil during one such raid, barely escaping from a terrible battle outside the city of Blood River. He would later win a Trial of Possession against Clan Steel Viper in 3049 for the right to accompany them into the Inner Sphere, taking with him his retinue and a Star of 'Mechs. Rising military tensions between the so-called Home Clans also saw in that same year Khan Nikolai Djerassi stepping down from his post, announcing his intention to reshape the Clan's sibkos in preparation for conflict not only with the Inner Sphere, but with their fellow Clansmen as well.[9]

Posavatz would not return from his quest to discover Star League relics, disappearing during the fighting on Tukayyid when the Steel Vipers were forced to retreat from Devil's Bath. The sudden loss of leadership in the wake of defeat on Tukayyid was fortunately filled quickly. Khan Ariel Suvorov promised to modernize the Clan's aerospace forces and expand their territory within the homeworlds, while saKhan Nelson Elam counseled a conservative strategy to bolster their defenses against their aggressive Clan brethren. This mix of ideologies gave the Clan a focus and resiliency missing since the Golden Century.[9]

Times of Turmoil

The years following the Truce of Tukayyid saw great fluctuation within Clan society. For their part, Goliath Scorpion strengthening their bond with Clan Wolf as, in the wake of the Refusal War of 3057, the Scorpions gladly bid away an entire Trinary of Crusader-minded warriors to the Wolves. Their part in the Harvest Trials was rewarded with the gift of an ancient Mackie from Galaxy Commander Katya Kerensky. The Scorpions stood by as Clan Smoke Jaguar was destroyed in the Great Refusal, and in the period afterwards that become known as the Wars of Possession - the Absorption of Clan Burrock, the defection of Clan Nova Cat and mass relocation of Clan Ghost Bear - the Scorpions played only a minor role and made few gains.[9]

Chief among these was the capture of an enclave on Huntress' Abysmal Continent, a move which gained them a Warhawk factory and several resource complexes, and the capture of Fort Fairchild and Tokasha MechWorks Alpha on Tokasha. However in a decisive defeat, which saw the loss of a WarShip and nearly a third of their territory on the planet, the fort and the MechWorks facility were both taken from the Scorpions by Clan Hell's Horses on April 13 in 3065. The Scorpions also made efforts to improve their trading with Clan Snow Raven and reached out to Clan Jade Falcon for a military alliance.[10][11]

Jihad

At some point in 3068, Clan Goliath Scorpion took part of the 71st Light Horse Regiment of the Eridani Light Horse Brigade as bondsmen.[12][13] As living relics of the original Star League, the Light Horse have been the source of intense fascination to the Scorpions. When Clan Diamond Shark could no longer provide communications and provisions, Khan Ariel Suvorov authorized the Seekers to approach the Star League embassy and its ELH garrison. Subsequently, the Scorpion merchant caste was allowed to provide those services to the mercenaries while inculcating them on Goliath Scorpion culture.

When the Jihad plunged the Inner Sphere into chaos and destruction, some of the remaining Star League embassy staff chose to be evacuated by the Diamond Sharks back to the Inner Sphere. The 71st Light Horse and other staff did not share those sentiments. Colonel Sandra Barclay used her newfound knowledge of Clan customs to declare a Trial of Possession for the Scorpions' Huntress enclave. If they lost, they offered themselves up to be Absorbed by the Clan. The Trial was a hard-fought victory for the Scorpions, whereupon they took the light battalion that remained as abtakha in what could be described as a celebratory atmosphere.

After going through their Trial of Positions, a few individuals were dispersed throughout the Scorpion Touman, while the majority along with several Seekers were formed into two new Clusters, the 1st and 2nd Eridani Lancers. It should be noted that unlike other Clans' Inner Sphere Abtakha, the Scorpions were apparently impressed enough with the ELH that they allowed the former mercenaries to continue using their surnames. Colonel Sandra Barclay managed to achieve the rank of Star Colonel and took command of the First Eridani Lancers.

Wars of Reaving

The Scorpions emerged from the Wars of Reaving as the second most powerful Clan, having avoided much of the bloodshed and having Absorbed the last remains of Clan Ice Hellion. They had established forward outposts at Waypoint 531 and resumed the Seekers' operations.

In 3074 saKhan Connor Rood was charged to lead a task force, composed of Beta Galaxy with the Bernlad, Lei Kung and Karttikeya as escort, in a reconnaissance mission to Nueva Castile. Upon arriving to Waypoint 531, they found no sign of the Binary that was left behind. There was a battered Black Lion-class Warship with its crew transferring the cache to its holds. The ID-codes revealed the ship as the CSJ Streaking Mist. In the following battle, the Streaking Mist dealt significant damage to the Bernlad, then vanished taking half of the cache with it.

Rood was forced to adjust his plan and moved the rest of the cache onto the Lei Kung, then continued on with his mission. In July, they jumped to Cordoba on the fringe on Umayyad space outside the normal jump points so as to not be discovered. A DropShip with a Trinary of the First Cateran Cluster attacked the world, gathering intelligence and a few local leaders. While the raid on Cordoba was underway, the Lei Kung had moved to Valencia and repeated the process. By the end of September, the Scorpions raided six worlds, collecting various civilians and intelligence. By the end of the year, the mission was completed and the task force returned to Clan Space.

In December 3078, the Scorpions defended Hector against a Clan Cloud Cobra assault. During the fighting at the Bright Ledge genetic research station, one salvo from a Scorpion 'Mech blew the main bridge dropping half of the 73rd Cobra Guards into the ravine; the Cobras declared the remaining Scorpions dezgra and crushed them. Upon claiming their isorla, they discovered that the Scorpion scientists, without authorization from the Khans or the Clan Council, had been experimenting with integrating Eridani Light Horse genes in the Clan legacies. The matter was brought to the Grand Council, and a Trial of Abjuration was immediately approved. Despite this, the Clans moved slowly to carry it out, and this allowed the Scorpions to evacuate much of their assets to Waypoint 531. The forces left behind fought valiantly, but were ultimately defeated. The survivors gathered at Waypoint 531, then moved on and conquered Nueva Castile forming the Escorpión Imperio.

  1. Historical: Operation Klondike, p. 80 -- "Clan Goliath Scorpion Cluster".
  2. Field Manual: Warden Clans, p. 101
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Field Manual: Warden Clans, p. 103
  4. Field Manual: Warden Clans, p. 102
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Field Manual: Warden Clans, p. 104
  6. 6.0 6.1 Field Manual: Warden Clans, p. 105
  7. Field Manual: Crusader Clans, p. 76
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 Field Manual: Warden Clans, p. 106
  9. 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 Field Manual: Warden Clans, p. 107
  10. Field Manual: Updates, p. 62
  11. Field Manual: Updates, p. 12
  12. Blake Ascending, p. 288
  13. Jihad Hot Spots: 3070, p. 128