Refusal War

The Refusal War

The refusal war was a name given to the trial of refusal between Clan Jade Falcon and Clan Wolf in the year 3058 over a chage of Genocide leveled against ilKhan Ulric Kerensky. It was unprecedented for its scale; Trials of refusal were most often invoked by single warriors or small groups of warriors. Even the attempt to block Operation Revival -the Clan invasion of the Inner Sphere- by Clan Wolf in 3048 only involved cluster level units in combat.

This trial of refusal however would pit Clan against Clan in a fight to the death with far reaching consequences and so would be refered to as either the Refusal War or War of Refusal.

Background

The reasons behind the Refusal war do not lie in the charges against Ulric Kerensky which were simply a means to an end, but in the impassioned and often violent disagreement between the philosophical views of the Warden and Crusader factions in the Clans. To truly understand the depths of this disagreement, one must turn to the last 50 years of Clan history and the events that led to the invasion.

Clan Wolf, a strong Warden clan, had opposed the invasion from long before the invasion took place. Wolfs Dragoons were publicly sent into the Inner Sphere in 3001 as a long range reconnaissance force to gather data on the Inner Spheres current status. While covert trading by the merchant cast over the last century had gathered some data on the status of the Inner sphere, the periphery states they contacted provided little solid information on the true strides towards recovery they had made after the horrors of the succession wars.

Consequently, when Wolfs Dragoons reported to the Clans on just how far and how quickly the Inner Sphere was rebuilding itself, alarm broke out in the Clans, along with debate between the Wardens and Crusaders over what to do. Seeing the long term danger of a Clan invasion, the Khans of Clan Wolf secretly met with the leadership of the Dragoons with final instructions in 3019. They were to from this point on ignore orders from the Grand Council and begin long term preperations to prepare the Inner Sphere for a possible invasion, delivering to them the full technical readouts of the most current Clan technology at the time, all in case the Wolves failed in their quest to stop any invasion attempt and give the Inner Sphere a chance.

Over the next thirty years, the debate raged and Clan Wolf led the Warden faction in opposing any return as conquerers to the Inner Sphere. However the scales tipped in the balance of the Crusaders when the ComStar Explorer Corps vessel 'Outbound light' arrived at the Smoke Jaguar world of Huntress. The Crusader clan immediately seized the vessel and leaned much about the current state of the Inner Sphere. Wildly exaggerating the threat of the Federated Commonwealth absorbing the Successor states - declaring itself the Star League reborn and launching an invasion of Clan Space - the Crusaders swung the Council firmly behind launching an invasion of the Inner Sphere.

Clan Wolf was the only dissenter and immediately called a trial of refusal. Although the vote was astonishingly one sided at sixteen to one, pre battle bidding reduced the odds against the Wolves to a 'mere' four to one. The Wardens fought like fanatics, taking many more crusaders down then they lost, but in the end were unable to beat the odds. The way was now open for the invasion of the Inner Sphere.

But the Crusader Clans did not wish to simply beat the Wolves, they wished to humiliate them for their long opposition. By order of the Grand Council, the Wolves would be one of the four invading Clans, honor bound to invade that which they had sworn to protect. And a humiliation it might well have been, if not for the cunning, patience and leadership of Khan Ulric Kerensky.

Invasion and basis of the Refusal War

Clan Wolf immediately set about preparing for a long term long range campaign into the Inner Sphere. The Crusader Clans fighting with him were convinced they would face minimal opposition, that their superior warriors and technology would annihilate any Freebirth unit that dared to face them. Indeed, the other clans assumed they would face little more then a long string of "trial" like encounters, with their transport ships not bringing spare parts, replacement Mechs and ammunition, but empty holds to haul back the riches of the Inner Sphere. And initially this was vindicated when the Clans tore into the Inner Sphere, cutting a wide swath through the successor states undefended 'northern' borders. However as time passed, the Clans progress started to slow dramatically, with the exception of Clan Wolf whose logistical network and willingness to work with conqured populations to ease the transition to their rule allowed a continues series of attacks without pause. The rest of the Clans however faced increasingly stiff opposition and started to bog down. Indeed, the swift progress of the Wolves annoyed the other Clans so much that they called a Grand Kurultai at Radstadt, where the ilKhan would work to reign in the Wolves.

Fate intervened however when a Rasalhauge pilot whose name would become a legend (Tyria Miraborg) rammed the ship aboard which the Khans were conferencing, killing the ilKhan and forcing a year long delay in the invasion to elect a new ilKhan. Once again in an attempt to control him, the Council elected Ulric to this position. After all, the ilKhan ruled in accordance with the wishes of the (Crusader dominated) Grand Council. Once again they failed as Ulric continued the invasion. His goal then became clear. The Clan that took Terra, the Clans ultimate goal would become "ilClan", ruling over all others with total authority. The Wolves in sprinting ahead would get there first, then be able to order a half to the invasion. As the invasion continued, the other Clans often badly overreached in their attempts to match the Wolves progress, a situation intensified by bickering as Ulric activated reserve Clans who immediately started to fight as much with their invasion partners as the inner sphere forces they nominally faced as enemies, leading to defeats such as the crushing Smoke Jaguar / Nova Cat loss at The Battle of Luthien.

Finally, ComStar provided an opportunity and a trap for the Wardens and Crusaders respectively. A proxy battle for control of Terra. If the ComGuards lost, Terra would be theirs. If however ComStar won, the Clans would not advance any further into the Inner Sphere for 15 years. And although Ulric negotiated the terms, they were ratified by the Grand Council of the Clans who once again anticipated an easy battle and swift victory on the planet known as Tukayyid.

This time however, the Clans were in for a very rude shock. The Precentor Martial had not been idle in his study of the Clans during his time with them and had correctly predicted that the Clan style of fighting, heavily influenced by their trials, heavily favored short straight up battles between units, with little concern towards any ability to withstand a long term engagement or battle of maneuver. The Crusader clans, with the exception of the Ghost Bears were devastated at best, while the most tactically inflexible Clans such as the Smoke Jaguars never recovered from the horrific losses they suffered at the hands of the ComStar armies. The Wolves once again however had prepared carefully with expect guidance from former Inner Sphere warriors such as Natasha Kerensky and Phelan Wolf. Despite taking moderate losses, they succeeded. But their victory meant little. The Clans had lost the battle and now were honor bound to a fifteen year truce with Comstar, something that horrified and infuriated the Crusaders.

The charges against Ulric

The problem with the 15 year truce at its core was that unlike the Inner Sphere, the Clans cycle their warriors through at a very high rate. In 3067, when the truce ended, the Clans would be free to take up their crusade. But this was far beyond the service time of the warriors in the Clan Galaxies, they would be long retired by this time, disgraced older warriors who wouldn't see any action outside of suicidal canon fodder teams. After a taste of all out war with the Inner Sphere, dissatisfaction rapidly started to grow with the state of peace they now found themselves in.

Clan Wolf was no exception. Ironically, it was Ulric's huge success as a General that doomed him. While most of the Crusader Clans had lost on Tukayyid, they had suffered huge losses in the process. This left plenty of open slots for the surviving warriors to compete for promotions, bloodnames and advancement in their Clan, as well having as fresh replacements arrive to fill out the lower level commands. Clan Wolf with relatively few casualties from the battle, no prospect of a war that would kill warriors and let their subordinates advance was in a difficult position. Crusader elements inside the Clan started to agitate the new hot blooded warriors over this very fact. Challenges mounted against the Wolf Leadership to the point that Khan Natasha Kerensky was 'doing wonders' in thinning out the ranks of Crusaders by killing those foolish enough to challenge her in personal combat. Ulric however saw the long term consequences. For every Crusader she killed, another would step into his or her place.

While most of the Wolves senior officers remained Wardens, the young new warriors cycling into the Clan over the years were far more in line with the Crusader sentiment, chaffing under the truce. As they had undergone their final training, reviling in the glowing stories of their Clans awesome progress in the invasion, it had seamed they would arrive in the Inner Sphere just in time for the final glorious battles in the liberation of Terra. Instead, they arrived to peace and they would be cycled out of the warrior cast in that peace as they grew old. Even worse, as Natasha herself proved, the Wolves were not inclined to remove their older warriors from command as fast as the other Clans did, meaning they would be stuck at the bottom of the rank ladder their entire lives.

Finally, the pressure building up exploded.

The Crusader Loremaster of Clan Wolf Dalk Carns, along with the future Khan and saKhan of the Wolves, Vlad Ward and Marialle Radick, launched an investigation against Ulric and charged him with treason. He accused Ulric of deliberately entering the Truce of Tukayyid for the express purpose of letting the Clans loose to the Comm Guards. And that he had worked to raise Khan Phelan Ward - whom Carns claimed was an Inner Sphere agent - to his rank to spy on the Clans for the Inner Sphere.

Ulric took on the challange. The Battle for Tukayyid after all had been in fact ratified BY the Clans Grand Council, Ulric had only presented the terms for their ratification or veto. It was not his fault that the other Clans had horribly underestimated the Com Guards abilities and indeed the fact that Ulric's own Clan had won showed he had not been trying to loose, just that the other Clan Khans had repeatedly ignored his advice in the Campaign when he attempted to offer it. Such a claim of conspiracy with ComStar HAD been leveled at him in the Grand Council after the battle, he had been exonerated. At the same time, Ulric pointed out that Khan Ward had been made a Bondsmen of Clan Wolf as many of the Grand Council had been, he had fought his trial of Position, he had earned his Bloodname against eligible opponents and he had been elected to the office of saKhan by the unanimous vote of the Grand Council. Then in a final humiliation after ridiculing their logic, Ulric pointed out that as the ilKhan of the Clans, he had (and did indeed invoke) the ilKhans authority to dismiss the charges out of hand.

However then the Loremaster made an unexpected move by introducing a third charge against the ilKhan on the spot, claiming it had been on the charge list and mistakingly left out. The Charge of conspiracy to destroy a Clans genetic heritage.

The charge shocked the Grand Council, even hardcore Crusaders such as Vlad were dumbfounded. The most serious possible charge in the history of the Clans, it had only been leveled against one Clan in the history of the Clans, when Clan Wolverine destroyed another Clans genetic repository with a Nuclear weapon and been exterminated to the last man women and child in retaliation. The charge was on the equal of accusing Ulric to be on the same level as Hitler or Stefan Amaris and was expected by no-one.

The logic was direct, if flawed; Ulric had entered the Truce in an attempt to populate the Wolves with warriors who would be inexperienced and untested when the Truce ended. They would be going up against a now ready Inner Sphere which would mate their far superior numbers with equivalent technology and seasoned warriors, resulting in the destruction of the Clans.

Although the charges were farcical, the Loremaster had inadvertently found a successful avenue of attack for the Crusaders against Ulric. Ulric could not simply dismiss this charge as he had the others. Ulric was as always however, was a master of strategy. He refused to battle the charge out in his own Clan, fearing it would tear the Wolves apart along Warden and Crusader lines and even if he DID win, the serious charge would simply moved to the Crusader dominated Grand Council at any rate.

So he directed the charges to be forwarded to the Grand Council. In this way, it would be Clan Wolf being pressured from outside rather then from within which would help unite them behind Natasha and Phelan (who followed Ulric's orders without hesitation despite his position as ilKhan rather then a Wolf Khan) when the charges were laid against him. Ulric knew how this final battle would end, but he did not shy away from his fate, planning as carefully as any other of his other military campaigns as he prepared his final battle with the Crusaders. The Smoke Jaguars were fervent in their beliefs of the Crusader philosophy, but had been severely weakened in the invasion. The Ghost bears although they had participated in the invasion, retained strong Warden sentiments and were long time allies of the Wolves. The Jade Falcons however, long time enemies of the Wolves were the strongest of the Crusader Clans. The 'Red Corsair' incident also proved that the Jade Falcons were aggressively trying to find a way to break the Truce and were the greatest danger to the Inner Sphere, leading the Crusader movement.

It was this clan that was to the ilKhans final target.

When the charges were presented in the Clan Grand Council (by the Jade Falcons), Ulric was narrowly voted guilty despite a strong Warden opposition and an impassioned speech by Khan Phelan Ward that debunked the thin arguments logic effortlessly. Once again however the Crusaders underestimated the now deposed ilKhan. Their vote deposed him as ilKhan, but the Crusders had never had any interest in truely pressing the charges of Genocide. They had expected that the truce would simply be repudiated legaly, Ulric would return to a less position in the Wolves and the Clans would return to the attack...and the Jade Falcons having stockpiled and prepared in the last weeks for a running restart to the invasion, were well prepared to copy the Wolves earlier success and charge hard towards Terra.

Instead, Ulric initiated a trial of refusal against his guilty verdict.

Not of himself against a proxy warrior, or warriors from the Grand Council. Not of a unit of Wolves against, Units representing the Grand Council. Ulric bid the entire Clan Wolf in his defense.

This was something the Jade Falcons, with their occupation zone adjoining the Wolves had never anticipated. The former ilKhan, now officially reduced in rank to a Star Colonel (but still followed unquestioningly by the two Wolf Khans) had all but declared a Trial of Annihilation against the Jade Falcons. Ulric would simultaneously cripple or kill the strongest Crusader Clan and by sending the Warden elements of the Wolves into exile and safety into the Inner Sphere, he ensured his Clan would survive. By then placing all the Crusader Wolves into his own personal Galaxy, he would force Crusader Wolf to fight Crusader Jade Falcon in a war of mutual annihilation. With the Smoke Jaguars still crippled and their strength kept low by constent raids by House Kurita, the Clans would be in no shape to resume the invasion even IF the Truce was repudiated.

None the less, Ulric and Natasha prepared to fight their final battle, sending Phelan against his emphatic protests to the Inner Sphere with a Galaxy of Warden troop and enough supplies and personnel to establish a safe haven in the Inner Sphere.

The Refusal War

The refusal war specifics here.