Exodus Civil War

Exodus Civil War
Part of Second Exodus era
Start Date June 2801 End Date 26 May 2822 Result Pentagon Worlds split along several petty kingdoms
Factions
Different factions of SLDF	Different factions of SLDF
Environment
Standard
Conditions
Normal

The Exodus Civil War (alternately called Pentagon Civil War) refers to the conflict fought between various nationalistic factions on the Pentagon Worlds. The members of the factions were former Star League citizens who departed the Inner Sphere under the leadership of Commanding General Aleksandr Kerensky. The War began in 2801 and lasted until 2822, ending with Operation KLONDIKE and the Clans conquering all five Pentagon Worlds.

The War Begins

Space battle during Operation Klondike.

On 5 November 2784, approximately 80% of the SLDF, two million soldiers, along with nearly four million loyal Star League citizens who sought to escape the collapse of the Star League and the inevitable Succession Wars, followed General Kerensky in his Exodus. In 2786, these Star League exiles discovered five marginally habitable planets and named them the "Pentagon Worlds." August 24 became known as Founding Day, though landings on the worlds only began in September. The SLDF science corps began surveying the worlds, though General Kerensky was not willing to give them much time and risk keeping his followers cooped up in their vessels. Barely ten days later, prefabrication buildings for the colonists were set up, and the colonists landed on the Pentagon worlds less than a week after. Each of the worlds was settled by people who hailed from the five interstellar nations that comprised the Inner Sphere: the Lyran Commonwealth, Draconis Combine, Federated Suns, Capellan Confederation, and Free Worlds League. However, these five nations had centuries of distrust and even hatred of each other, as their philosophies and cultures dramatically differed from one another. For example, former citizens of the Lyran Commonwealth and Draconis Combine settled Circe, while citizens from the Federated Suns and Capellan Confederation settled Eden. Bringing people from different cultures and national allegiances together on the same world would inevitably lead to conflict. Citing the difficulties of founding a new civilization, three-quarters of the SLDF soldiers were "tested out" and returned to civilian life. There was a limited amount of resistance to the demobilization, as the colonists knew their survival required cooperation. A testing system ensured the best of the soldiers remained in the armed service, and the large excess of military equipment was placed into Brian Caches to be reactivated if needed.

Within five months, factories were online, and the scientists brought with the Exiles were at work solving the problems of the Pentagon Worlds. Two of the five were barely habitable, and the other three harbored microorganisms hostile to the life brought to them. Flora and fauna stored in cargo from the Inner Sphere at General Kerensky's insistence were introduced to the Pentagon Worlds, many genetically modified, and most introduced to the Pentagon by 2790. Nearly all of the later Clan totems were either the most aggressive of the native life or from these modified stocks.

Exploration

Though nearly sixty thousand colonists were reported to have died from the difficult elements, by 2794, the colonies had stabilized and begun to expand. The founding of the Kerensky Cluster gave the Exiles a new frontier as the Pentagon worlds grew increasingly sophisticated. Simple survival had given the colonists a shared purpose, but as they moved on from the basics, old rivalries began to take shape.

With the death of his wife in 2796, Aleksandr Kerensky entered a prolonged mourning period, allowing the calls for the formation of a militia to give the former soldiers a purpose to go unheeded. Luxuries were almost unheard of, and resentment festered. This widespread discontent amongst the former soldiers, combined with the national rivalries, became the powderkeg waiting for the spark that would blow up the volatile situation into outright war. Riots broke out on Eden on 28 November 2800, and by 5 May 2801, former Capellan citizens declared their independence from the Exile government. This seemed to reinvigorate General Kerensky, who quickly ordered General DeChavilier to put down the rebellion. Following the death of his friend and the flurry of death that came to be known as the DeChavilier Massacre, General Kerensky cited General Order 137 in mass reprisals, ordering the execution of every rebel. Nearly twenty thousand were killed by the SLDF, though the reaction was not one of subservience but increased violence. The other four Pentagon Worlds each began to see rebellion, and Kerensky himself began losing the support of those who had followed him for over thirty years. General Keresnsky began preparations for a full-scale invasion of Eden.

On 11 June 2801, General Kerensky died of a heart attack at the age of 100. Although Kerensky had named his elder son Nicholas as his heir, the death of the great leader who led the Star League exiles to their new "Promised Land" sparked a power struggle since most of the factions refused to follow Nicholas (who was at that time, the commanding officer of the 146th Royal BattleMech Division) since he was not as well-regarded as his legendary father, except by his own unit and the bulk of the Navy. The violent struggle to determine which of the factions would lead the "Star League-in-Exile" quickly spread like wildfire to all five Pentagon Worlds. In a strange twist of fate, the Exodus Civil War was being fought at the same time as the First Succession War, which was taking place many hundreds of light-years away in the Inner Sphere, for almost the same reason: to see who would come out on top.

Combined arms battle during Operation Klondike.

The Second Exodus

Nicholas Kerensky was determined not to let his father's dream of a re-formed Star League die. Protected by the still-impressive WarShips under his command, Nicholas traveled to all five Pentagon Worlds, calling for a Second Exodus in order to escape the violence of the Exodus Civil War and to carry on the legacy of the Star League. Thousands of people rallied to Nicholas' cause and departed with him, arriving on a planet that Nicholas named Strana Mechty (Russian for "Land of Dreams"). Nicholas took pains to save what scientific progress he could and was able to round up a quarter of the civilian population, almost a million people. Most of the military joined the war of succession for the SLDF, supporting one former commander or another. Only his 146th Royal and the former command of General DeChavilier, now under the command of General Absalom Truscott, the 149th BattleMech Division, joined Nicholas wholesale.

The Clans

By 2810, Nicholas finished his plans for the new society that his loyal followers would build. Taking "inspiration" from the his own idyllic list of martial civilizations of Terra's history, including the Mongol Empire of the Terran steppe, Samurai-era Japan, and Maoist China he divided his followers into twenty Clans, each to be divided into five Castes led by that Clan's Warrior Caste, and each Warrior Caste would elect two leaders: a Khan who led the entire Clan as a whole, and a saKhan who served as the Khan's deputy and commanded the Clan's military, or touman. The Khans, saKhans, and all bloodnamed warriors would comprise the Clan Grand Council. An ilKhan would not only oversee the deliberations of the Grand Council, but would lead all of the Clans as a collective whole. Each Clan would follow a different philosophy of life, but they all shared property (a heavily modified form of socialism) and the belief that they would eventually re-form the Star League.

Total War

Nicholas' loyalists' departure signaled the beginning of the real Exodus Civil War. Even compared to the savage Succession Wars, the Exodus Civil War was brutal and devastating. Initially, the SLDF army factions who stayed or were left behind divided into factions and began fighting each other. They resorted to Orbital Bombardments and WarShips space battles, but the continuous fighting between them soon devastated the organized armies and fleets, and the survivors of the armies further segregated themselves into warring factions. Barely a year later, only the so-called spacefarers retained control of DropShips, JumpShips, and even some Warships, but they remained neutral in the fights. By 2806, rebel fleets were nearly non-existent. Only the farers managed to maintain space traffic and travel between worlds, and Nicholas Kerensky's Clans faced little outside threat. Like in the Inner Sphere, major cities and advanced industries were the first targeted, so in a few months, the technological level descended drastically. Eventually, the different armies divided into smaller factions, generally oriented into their original communities: Lyran, Davion, Capella, Kuritan, and Free Worlds League. Each faction was often led by a single warlord, and great battles quickly reduced to what can be described into a semi-perpetual state of gang warfare. Though Warships were no longer an option, small bands of armed colonists maintained constant low-level raiding for their warlords.

Perhaps worse, amid that chaos, nature mounted a fierce and devastating counterattack. With the full force of Star League technology in ruins, the environments of the Pentagon worlds were no longer held in check. Atmospheric taints, debilitating infections, devastating microbial lifeforms, and dangerous indigenous species all combined to prey upon the survivors. By 2819, only two million people left behind on the Pentagon worlds remained, and the survivors lived with a standard of living reaching only the eighteenth century of Terra.

The exact number of deaths is unknown, but up to a million died in attacks during the first few years of the civil war, while some million and a half more died due to sickness, disease, and starvation. Moreover, during that two-decade period, the birth rate was never able to increase to a level where the population could begin to increase.

Operation KLONDIKE: The War Ends

Nicholas Kerensky, as the Founder of the Clans, named himself ilKhan. He decreed that one day, his Clans would retake the war-torn Pentagon Worlds and impose the New Order among them, restoring the True Faith that the Star League would be reborn. In 2821, ilKhan Kerensky deemed his Clans to be ready to retake the Pentagon Worlds; the ilKhan called the campaign "Operation KLONDIKE."

Main article: Operation KLONDIKE

Urban battle during Operation Klondike.

ilKhan Kerensky decided each Pentagon World would be conquered by four Clans.

• Arcadia: Clan Blood Spirit, Clan Ghost Bear, Clan Star Adder, Clan Steel Viper.

• Babylon: Clan Cloud Cobra, Clan Coyote, Clan Ice Hellion, Clan Sea Fox.

• Circe: Clan Mongoose, Clan Nova Cat, Clan Snow Raven, Clan Wolverine.

• Dagda: Clan Burrock, Clan Fire Mandrill, Clan Goliath Scorpion, Clan Widowmaker.

• Eden: Clan Hell's Horses, Clan Jade Falcon, Clan Smoke Jaguar, Clan Wolf.

On 2 July 2821, Operation KLONDIKE commenced. The Star League units that did not accompany Nicholas Kerensky and become part of the Clans were no match for the more technologically advanced and better-trained Clan warriors. On 26 May 2822, the ilKhan declared Operation KLONDIKE a success: all five Pentagon Worlds were conquered, and the Exodus Civil War was over. Thenceforth, the Clans celebrate every May 26th as Clan Liberation Day.

Post-War

Many of those who survived "The Coursing" looked to Nicholas Kerensky with reverence. The horrors of the Civil War were exploited and subjected to decades of near-constant warfare. Any military force that was not outright destroyed was hunted down, tried and convicted of treason, and executed. A process known as "Thamzing" shared a genesis with mid-twentieth-century struggle sessions in Maoist China. Public beatings and condemnations of the previous regimes denounced the old order. Anger and violence against former comrades and oppressors gave the new society a point at which the Clan became the focus of life in the Pentagon worlds. Few oustide of the military elite were able to question Nicholas Kerensky's methods. Concern about the brutality carried out in his name did increase, though, eventually leading to the first challenge to his authority led by Clan Wolverine.

Quotes

“

Our victories here have proved the rightness of the Way of the Clans; let it always be so among those of the True Faith. Let these few words always announce our coming and portend our victory.

”

—Nicholas Kerensky, ilKhan of the Clans, speaking at the Clan Liberation Day festivities, 26 May 2822

Bibliography

• The Clans: Warriors of Kerensky
• Invading Clans