Troy Boques

Troy Boques
Personal
Died	3074
Affiliation	Clan Blood Spirit
Profile
Profession	Khan

Troy Boques (born 30?? - died 3074) was a warrior of Clan Blood Spirit who would eventually rise to the post of Khan during the Wars of Reaving.

Biography

Said to have idolized his former commanding officer, saKhan Daryl Keller, Troy Boques initially felt some trepidation towards attempting to follow in his footsteps. In time, he would embrace the role of Clan leadership, often living up to the high standards set by his forebears.

Courage Under Fire

A Star Colonel holding command of the Cerise Guards of Beta Galaxy, Boques was with saKhan Keller on Priori in 3059 when Keller perished while fighting Clan Star Adder's 9th Armored Cavalry Squadron during the Absorption of Clan Burrock. The Blood Spirit offensive was reversed, nearly becoming a rout. The Adders and Burrocks ceased their Trial to work together in many cases to fight off the invaders, destroying Beta Galaxy as an effective unit. Boques pulled the 112th Scarlet Battle Cluster back, leading the scattered survivors in a fighting retreat. If not for his leadership in the face of two attacking Clan forces, losses for the Blood Spirits on Priori may well have been total.

Blood Spirit saKhan

Elected to the post of saKhan for his leadership under the guns of their enemies, saKhan Boques worked hard to prove his worth to his fellow Clanners. Quietly, he led his Clan alongside Khan Karianna Schmitt, struggling against the hated Star Adders, while striking back when and where they could. The Blood Spirit loss to the Draconis Combine in the Great Refusal came as a wicked blow, as it did to all Blood Spirits.

In a 3062 Grand Council meeting, the question of naming an ilKhan was raised. SaKhan Boques took the opportunity to nominate a Blood Spirit ally, Khan Garret Sainze of Clan Fire Mandrill, a move that would possibly distract the Star Adders, who had entrenched themselves on the Blood Spirit capital world of York. The gambit came to nothing, and the vote was deadlocked with little being decided.

In a move that would irritate the Star Adders, saKhan Boques challenged the cooperative Snow Ravens to a Trial of Possession for control over their Zeta Galaxy in 3068. Winning control of the unit, as well as a sibko of Aerospace Fighter pilots, Boques bolstered his Clan's available forces, being deployed immediately on York, though the Star Adders would not soon forgive the Ravens for what they viewed as interference with their vendetta against the Blood Spirits.

Politics and War

On the home front, with the Adder's attention focused across much of the Clan Homeworlds as the decade closed, their single enclave on York stood at guard against the Blood Spirits after many years of alternating rounds of warfare and stalemate. SaKhan Boques argued that it was time to pull all of their forces from the hidden worlds at Colleen, and make a final push against the invaders. Khan Schmitt refused to listen, as the Spirits were gaining on other fronts and she did not want to jeopardize the gains that they had made. Boques challenged her to a Trial of Refusal, but lost to the gifted MechWarrior. Khan Schmitt was regarded as ruthless by any standard known within the Clans, but instead of removing him from office over their disagreement (or killing him in Trial), she allowed him to keep his posting, speaking highly of her respect for the saKhan.

In 3070, saKhan Boques and Loremaster Bayle Campbell led Omega Galaxy to Barcella in order to aid Clan Fire Mandrill in defense of their new enclaves. Clan Ice Hellion shared borders with the former Clan Diamond Shark territories, and were pressing relentlessly on the enclaves. The Spirit relief force helped to turn the tide against the Hellions, but at the cost of Loremaster Campbell, who died leading his forces in the battle.

Clan Steel Viper and the Star Adders had turned their attention toward the Snow Ravens. In an attempt to distract the fury of the Snake Alliance, saKhan Boques brought a proposal to the Fire Mandrills asking for assistance in assaulting the Star Adders. Kindraa Sainze agreed to the deal, in which they would gain half of the recently won Blood Spirit enclaves on Albion, striking at three enclaves on Huntress in 3071, winning each of them easily from the Star Adders. The Huntress enclaves were soon abandoned, as the Kindraa Sainze warriors found themselves embroiled on Albion with Clan Cloud Cobra, who attacked in defense of their Star Adder allies. But the Blood Spirit tactic did succeed for a time, giving the Snow Ravens a measure of relief.

The Reavings and Khan of the Spirits

The long years of warfare were taking their toll on the Blood Spirits. After the election of Brett Andrews to ilKhan and his proclamation of the Reavings, the Society rose out of the shadows to prosecute a war against the Clans' warrior caste. The result was a collapse of communications between worlds for several years. Mayhem ruled on the planets effected, many of them succumbing to dark forces at work.

After the disastrous confrontation with Clan Ghost Bear and their saKhan Aletha Kabrinski over Arcadia, Khan Schmitt was removed from office due to suffering a broken back, along with the resounding defeat handed to them by the angered Ghost Bears. Troy Boques was voted by the Blood Spirit Clan Council as her successor, while Loremaster Constans Cluff was elevated the post of saKhan. Warned by now-Star Colonel Schmitt that because York had escaped most of the chaos that enveloped most Clan worlds, that fact by itself would be enough to make it a prime target by their enemies. Sure enough, Clan Star Adder arrived in force in 3072, disabling the CBS Exsangine before driving at the planet. But instead of the assault that was expected, the Adder Dropships instead retrieved their forces from the ground and lifted off to the waiting fleet. An Orbital Bombardment was then initiated, which would last for the next 22 days, laying waste to the planet and plunging it into a nuclear winter.

In 3073, the Blood Spirits struck back, this time at Eden. Landing Omicron Galaxy, they easily overpowered forces from the Star Adders and Clan Hell's Horses, taking isorla and moving on to Arcadia after killing every Star Adder that could be identified. Joining saKhan Cluff, Omicron and Omega discovered that almost no one had been left alive on any of the neighboring Arcadia enclaves.

To better secure needed resources for the Blood Spirits in light of the destruction of York and the struggling colonies at Colleen, Khan Boques next ordered the group to Albion. After saKhan Cluff shrewdly negotiated a small Trial for passage to the planet's surface through a Cloud Cobra naval garrison, Omicron overran the Adder's enclave at Indicass Beta, and Galaxy Commander Darrin Keller also launched a devastating attack on the Adder's 1114th Gatekeeper Cluster. Moving on to Indicass Alpha, the Blood Spirits encountered a stronger Adder defense. The 286th Adder Sentinels fought their way through the Spirit's 22nd Blood Cavalry, into the rear of the Galaxy's operational areas before being overcome by the Blood Spirit 21st Crimson Guard. Led by the 93rd Crimson Guards, the Omega breached the city, clashing with hordes of armed civilians and the Adder's 343rd Sentinels. Before the Blood Spirits could counter this, the city literally exploded, a desperate but effective measure. 7,000 civilians died along with many of the defenders and attackers, crushed under thousands of tons of concrete debris that once belonged to a section of Indicass Alpha. Barely escaping a Star Adder aerospace strike on his command Star, Galaxy Commander Keller withdrew the survivors and ordered the Exsanguine to open fire on the cities below, wiping them from the face of Albion.

Spirits Rising in the Ashes

Khan Boques and Alpha Galaxy set out for Niles in mid 3073, seeking spoils and industrial sites at the expense of the noticeably weakening Hell's Horses. A surprise awaited them, as Clan Coyote had occupied several 'Mech and Battle Armor production sites. Landing uncontested, Khan Boques' batchalls were ignored as they approached Site Facility 3-C. At nightfall, the Coyotes launched a swift assault using new equipment designs and tactics to their advantage, surprising the attackers. Galaxy Commander Jon Church was killed and Khan Boques was injured in the assault, but it would not be enough to stop the Spirits from seizing the site after a pitched battle. The Khan then sent a Star of warriors to the Horses' enclave on the far side of Niles, negotiating an alliance with the diminished faction (rumored to have simply involved much-needed food for the Horses). After negotiating a similar deal with the last remnants of Kindraa Mattila-Carrol in the form of the 202nd Firebrand Cluster, the Horses occupied the spaceport at Wynn, while the combined Spirit and Mandrill force finished off the Coyote forces under the command of Star Colonel Elissa Nash. Grateful for the assistance, Khan Boques offered to Absorb both forces, an easy decision for the Mandrill and Horse survivors, as both groups were starving and had not heard from their leadership in over two years.

Adding the warrior forces to Zeta Galaxy, Khan Boques ordered them to Vinton based on a rumor of happenings in that system. On arrival, they made contact with the lone Diamond Shark enclave that had survived. Offering immediate assistance (and noticing the utter devastation visited upon the planet's surface), the Blood Spirits took in the remaining civilians, transporting them all to Albion, including Shark Merchant Factor Lorenzo.

Death on Tokasha

Having managed to take Tokasha and push the small enclaves of surviving Goliath Scorpions and Hell's Horses into negotiating their surrender, Khan Boques had reason to be optimistic about the future of his Clan. But in late 3074, that changed with the arrival of four Steel Viper Galaxies under ilKhan Andrews' direct command. Having heard about the destruction caused on Atreus - as well as the rumor of the Blood Spirits' Absorption and transport of diseased populations - ilKhan Andrews called a Trial of Possession for the entire planet. Khan Boques accepted, declaring Omicron, Omega and Zeta Galxies in defense. The ilKhan landed all four Galaxies and began in earnest, hammering on each Blood Spirit Galaxy with concentrated force. Ordering his troops to take no bondsmen, the ilKhan's forces would also break zellbrigen at any opportunity. Zeta was destroyed first, followed by Omicron, though the latter battle proved to be of some trouble to the Steel Viper's Nu Galaxy. Omega Galaxy was overran by the Viper's Gamma Galaxy, surrounding Khan Boques' headquarters. There, ilKhan Andrews called out the Blood Spirit Khan for a duel in a Circle of Equals. Initially refusing, calling the Vipers dezgra for their tactics, Khan Boques would soon reverse this position after relentless taunts regarding him and his lineage from the ilKhan. Khan Boques would not survive the duel, and neither would nearly any one else on the planet in the wake of the Steel Viper victory.

Legacy

Doing the best that he could with the resources at hand, Khan Boques fought and died a true Blood Spirit until the end. While many atrocities occurred under his watch during the Wars of Reaving, he also tapped into the spirit of assisting those in need, even those outside his Clan, something unseen in a Blood Spirit leader since the days of their founding. This was not surprising, as Karianna Schmitt before him had realized that the Blood Spirits would have to reach out to allies in order to survive. But in the end, the Wars of Reaving would claim him, as had happened with so many others, leaving his Clan worse for the loss of a strong and experienced leader during some of their darkest hours.

Bibliography

• Field Manual: Crusader Clans
• Field Manual: Updates
• The Wars of Reaving