Franklin Osis

Franklin Osis OpKlondike.jpg
Franklin Osis
Character Profile
Born 8 July 2778[1]
Affiliation Clan Smoke Jaguar
Rank Khan
Profession MechWarrior
Parents Simas Osis (father)
Lena Osis (mother)
Siblings Simon Osis (brother)

Franklin Osis was the first Khan of Clan Smoke Jaguar and the founder of one of the two Osis Bloodnames.[2]

History[edit]

Early Life[edit]

Franklin Osis was born in the Federated Suns in 2778. His parents, Simas and Lena Osis, were both tank commanders in the SLDF 238th Armored Division and fanatical followers of General Aleksandr Kerensky. In 2784, Kerensky led some 80% of the SLDF into exile in the Exodus; among them was the Osis family, who later settled on the planet Eden.

Simas and Lena tested out of the SLDF ranks and became farmers, but most of the other former SLDF soldiers were unable to adapt to civilian life as easily as the Osis family did. Since Eden was settled by refugees from the Federated Suns and the Capellan Confederation, two rival nations with centuries of distrust and animosity between them, it was inevitable that tensions would rise amongst the colonists. As friction built up between the Davion and Liao sides, nationalistic youth gangs formed. Franklin and his younger brother Simon joined a Federated Suns gang, but young Franklin found the nationalistic pride and pointless violence repulsive, and only joined to protect himself from harassment by both sides.[3]

In 2800, Franklin's gang set fire to a Capellan-run factory, but was spotted by a Capellan gang member. When the Davion gang beat the Capellan boy to death, Franklin intervened and was attacked by his own comrades. When the local police responded to the fire, they arrested Franklin and his gang, and all of the arsonists were sentenced to a year of hard labor on Circe. Franklin hoped for a respite from the gang violence on Eden; instead the casual brutality of camp life left him all but broken in spirit. Out of the brutal work camp and into the violence of the Exodus Civil War, Franklin was horrified when Kerensky, responding to the murder of his close friend General Aaron DeChavilier, ordered entire settlements razed in what became known as the DeChavilier Massacre. Seeing the man he had idolized as a guardian of peace turn so easily to violence as anyone else, Franklin became convinced that humans were predisposed to war and killing, and that only a completely new society could offer any hope of moderating this. When Nicholas Kerensky called for a Second Exodus to build just such a society, the Osis family departed with Nicholas to the planet Strana Mechty.[3]

From Pacifist to Warrior[edit]

On Strana Mechty Franklin found some measure of peace in his life, becoming something of a biologist. He focused his efforts upon the lush jungles in an attempt to deal with the violence in his past; the smoke jaguar in particular generated equal fascination and revulsion within him. It was an incident involving this animal that changed Franklin forever.[3]

In the spring of 2809, Franklin and Simon were moving into the jungle to observe a pride of smoke jaguars when a huge jaguar leaped onto Simon and began mauling him before he could draw a weapon to protect himself. Frozen in fear and shock, Franklin did nothing while his brother was killed. Only when Simon's screams abruptly ended did Franklin move; seized by a sudden rage, he leapt onto the jaguar and butchered it with a small hunting knife. Feeling triumph in violence for the first time in his life, Franklin turned from a pacifist into a warrior.[4]

From that day forward, Franklin Osis would be as merciless and bloodthirsty as the animal that killed Simon. Franklin became a MechWarrior and was assigned by Nicholas to the newly formed Clan Smoke Jaguar; due to his unparalleled vicious fighting skill, he quickly won the respect of his fellow warriors, who elected Franklin Osis as their first Khan.[5] The Jaguars adopted an individualistic approach to war, with the warriors honing their skills as each saw fit, and Khan Osis displayed talent as a leader with his ability to keep his near-anarchic warriors acting as a coherent unit.[6]

Khan Osis[edit]

During Operation KLONDIKE, Khan Osis led Clan Smoke Jaguar in the conquest of Eden. Like their Khan, the Jaguar touman adopted a ruthless and brutal mindset in its approach to war, showing little mercy to their opponents. In the city of Kaliningrad, exaggerated rumors of Jaguar brutality led to a general revolt and the deaths of several Jaguar warriors. Untrained for riot control and with the combatants intermingled with the town's civilian population, Osis saw only one solution. He ordered his artillery and aerospace forces to bombard Kaliningrad until no building was left standing. With the survivors easily cowed, and the ilKhan making no comment about the Jaguars' tactics, Osis and his saKhan Liam Ismiril decided to adopt total destruction as their standard response to defiant towns.[7]

These brutal methods eventually resulted in many towns capitulating to the Jaguars and ensuring that they completed their objectives a week ahead of schedule with light casualties. Osis' sole response about the vast damage to the civilian infrastructure and consequent loss of life was simply: "They should have surrendered after the first object lesson." While Kerensky never rebuked the Jaguars publicly, he was privately furious at both the damage and the ill-will that Osis and his warriors had wrought, and while unwilling to simply discard any tool in his arsenal he resolved to keep Osis on a tight leash thereafter.[8]

In the subsequent fighting against the Ascendancy Martial Foundation, Osis continued responding to resistance with bloody reprisals. When discussing the difficulties the numerically small Clans would face in assaulting Novy Moscva, Aleksandr Kerensky's old capital, Osis suggested to Nicholas a "Bến Tre" solution (razing the city completely), which was rejected. In the street fighting that ensued, the Jaguars became frustrated at their lightly armed opponents' use of guerrilla tactics, until they finally leveled one apartment block and killed over 80 civilians along with their dug-in enemies. Confronted by the ilKhan, Osis argued that since the enemy was ignoring the rules of civilized warfare, then the Clans should utilize the same tactics.[9]

In the post-KLONDIKE era Osis and his best warriors issued Trials of Possession for nearly every Brian Cache remaining on Eden, winning over half of them. To maintain his warriors' edge, Osis instituted a more brutal training regimen for Smoke Jaguar sibkos than that found in nearly every other Clan. However, despite his warlike outlook and glorification of his warrior caste, Osis also respected the Jaguars' civilian castes to some degree, acknowledging that their efforts were necessary to support the warriors.[5]

Later in life Osis slew Clan Ghost Bear Khan Sandra Tseng in 2848 during a Trial of Possession for her genetic legacy. Despite this personal victory, the Ghost Bear forces won the Trial and defeated the Jaguars.[10] He also saw a need for some peace, even if that was simply pause for breath between battles.[5]

Death and Legacy[edit]

Khan Osis led Clan Smoke Jaguar until his death sometime during the Golden Century. Always influenced by the violence of his early life, Osis imprinted his warlike views onto Clan Smoke Jaguar so thoroughly that it remained the most violent and brutal of the Clans. While this martial prowess would allow the Jaguars to remain preeminent among the Clans, even absorbing Clan Mongoose not long after Osis' death, subsequent Khans inherited Osis' bloodthirstiness without his moderation toward Jaguar civilians, leading to a stunted economy and an overreliance upon Trials for supplying the Clan's needs.[11]

His descendants struck fear and loathing into the hearts of their fellow Clans and later the Inner Sphere, particularly the Draconis Combine. Ultimately the violent mindset that Osis imparted to his Clan would lead to its destruction in 3059-3060.

Quotes[edit]

Remember Franklin Osis,

Father of his Clan.
Three strengths he gave us:
The jaguar's spring that brings the enemy down,
The jaguar's claws that rend the enemy's heart,
The jaguar's taste for the enemy's hot blood.

  — From The Remembrance (Clan Smoke Jaguar), Passage 104, Verse 18, Lines 5–10[12]
Like a favorite dish, war loses its flavor when tasted too often.[5]

References[edit]

  1. Historical: Operation Klondike, p. 117: "Franklin Osis Profile"
  2. Historical: Operation Klondike, p. 36: "Origins of the Bloodnames: The Clans' Founders"
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 Invading Clans, p. 48
  4. Invading Clans, pp. 48–49
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Invading Clans, p. 49
  6. Historical: Operation Klondike, pp. 90, 92
  7. Historical: Operation Klondike, p. 92
  8. Historical: Operation Klondike, p. 93
  9. Historical: Operation Klondike, p. 96
  10. Invading Clans, p. 15
  11. Invading Clans, pp. 49–50
  12. Invading Clans, p. 47

Bibliography[edit]