Ariel Suvorov
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Ariel Suvorov was Khan of Clan Goliath Scorpion until her death in 3079.
Ariel Suvorov | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Personal | |
| Born | 3018 |
| Died | 3079 |
| Affiliation | Clan Goliath Scorpion |
| Profile | |
| Profession | Khan |
Contents
History
Ariel Suvorov was the first aerospace pilot in more than a hundred years to be elected Khan of Clan Goliath Scorpion. Her renewed emphasis on the development of the Clan's aerospace assets has paid dividends in recent conflicts on the world of Tokasha. She believed that the Scorpions had to quickly claim their rightful place in the forefront of Clan society and step out from the shadow of their historically more powerful ally, Clan Wolf.[1]
Following the Great Refusal on April 23, 3060, Khan Suvorov was both angry and disgusted at the Crusader Clans' failure to defeat the SLDF under Prince Victor Steiner-Davion on Strana Mechty. [2] “The Crusaders have doomed us all by underestimating these Inner Spherers,” she told her equally outraged senior commanders. Bound by the results of the Great Refusal like the other Clans, the Goliath Scorpions therefore had to “find a path in a universe now forced into peace.”
When Alpha Galaxy (Escorpión Imperio) Commander Rik Myers urged a preemptive strike against the new SLDF enclave on Huntress to eliminate it as a threat to the Homeworlds and also to get ahead of the other Clans in reaping the spoils there, Khan Suvorov was cautious. Not wishing to trigger a massive SLDF retaliation in which the Goliath Scorpions would share the Smoke Jaguars' fate, she ordered Myers to come up with a more limited “middle ground” course of action that would demonstrate the Goliath Scorpions' strength to the other Clans without provoking a critical response from the Star League. “We have time and patience on our side,” she insisted.
Myers returned to Suvorov with a plan to capture the continent of Abysmal and its Smoke Jaguar artifacts and facilities.[3] These were, in Myers' words, “the antiques of the future,” and may even include treasures of the old Star League taken as isorla from the Inner Sphere. Myers also suggested that the Goliath Scorpions might capture relics held by the Eridani Light Horse, a storied SLDF unit that would undoubtedly be sent to defend the continent, and even take some of its MechWarriors as bondsmen, who “would be living history among our people.”
While tempting Suvorov by appealing to her mutually strong sense of history, Myers' real aim though was to harvest the remainder of the Smoke Jaguar warrior caste and their precious Bloodlines.[4] Suvorov saw through Myers' manipulation though but authorized the strike anyway, on the condition that Myers' Alpha Galaxy would have to bid against the Goliath Scorpion's other galaxies for the right to make the attack. Suvorov further ordered that the strike would not take place until after the bulk of the SLDF departed Clan space and returned to the Inner Sphere. Later, she scaled back the scope of Myers' plan, from taking the entire continent to establishing a 200 km circular enclave centered on the Abysmal Manufacturing Complex at Rakt-Jabada on Abysmal, which produced Warhawk OmniMechs, and its attached spaceport.[5] “We run the risk of winning the day, but having insufficient force to defend against other Clans that would come,” she told a frustrated Myers. Moreover, she feared that he would be unable to administer such a large territory.
In August 3060 Myers won the ensuing Trial of Possession for the Abysmal enclave but most of the former Smoke Jaguar warriors and personnel he was targeting had been evacuated before the battle or had escaped, rendering his victory somewhat hollow.[6] After some 3,000 former Smoke Jaguars, led by Paul Moon, dramatically fled Huntress using commandeered former Jaguar dropships on August 24, 3060, Myers pursued them down the Exodus Road with the detached Thirty-fifth Scorpion Cuirassiers to Wayside V, where they planned to establish a new colony and become something "other" than Clan. Myers neither sought nor received Suvorov's authorization for the pursuit, and he only took enough provisions for the one-way, year-long trip to Wayside V, intending to resupply there after harvesting the colonists.
Consequently, Myers' second Trial of Possession for the former Smoke Jaguars ended in debacle in June 3062 when he was soundly defeated by an ad hoc cluster comprised of the trinary of former Jaguar troops which had accompanied Moon to the new colony as well as an abandoned Binary of aged MechWarriors and poorly maintained mechs from the 47th Garrison Cluster of the Smoke Jaguars Zeta Galaxy.[7] Moon took Myers and the Scorpion survivors as prisoners of war, and forced them to work as laborers and farmers to produce enough food for their return journey back to Clan Space.[8]
Suvorov was furious at Myers when he and most of the survivors from his Cluster returned to Huntress in March 3064, ragged, hungry, and humiliated.[9] She dressed him down harshly:
“You took one of our Clan's best Clusters and set off along the Exodus Road in hopes of capturing the Smoke Jaguar warriors. This was not for our Clan, but for your ego. You traveled all of that way only to fail. Now you stand before me, a Galaxy Commander who left the majority of his command in the hands of subordinates, with nothing to show for your efforts. Your Cluster lost all of its equipment. It is only by the grace of this Paul Moon that you were allowed to return here. Rarely has a warrior in any Clan ever failed as completely as you did and still live, Rik Myers.”
While Suvorov was considering his fate, Myers explained that he had learned a great deal about himself, that he had been broken by Moon and remade as a new man, and had paid a heavy price for his arrogance. He therefore asked for a second chance, a chance at redemption and to present himself as a warrior, and to restore his honor in the Khan's eyes. Suvorov took pity on Myers and agreed to give him that chance, but he would have to retest for his position as Alpha Galaxy commander, and should he succeed, she would then tell him her plans for the Eridani Light Horse.
Wars of Reaving
In 3067, the Second Star League had disbanded and the Truce of Tukayyid has expired. This would allow the remaining Home Clans to focus on renewing another invasion. To rectify this event, the Grand Council would elect Khan Garret Sainze of Clan Fire Mandrill as ilKhan (with the backing of the Snake Alliance). As ilKhan, Sainze's decree was to focus on concentration his efforts on carrying out the aftermath of the Great Refusal. Dissatisfied with the Grand Council's vote, Ariel would challenge the new ilKhan over his conduct in a Trial of Refusal, successfully defeating the ilKhan in combat.
Death
When information spread about the Scorpions blending tainted spheroid genes to the other clans, the remaining Home Clans would abjure them from clan space. However, the abjuration would be carried out slowly. While the Scorpion took their time to depart, the warriors left behind, including Khan Suvorov, would sacrifice themselves to ensure the Scorpion's escape. She would eventually be killed in 3079, defending the abjuration of Clan Goliath Scorpion. Before her final battle she instructed her successors to find a new path for their Clan, which would go on to establish Escorpión Imperio.
Personality and Appearance
Fond of predatory birds, Suvorov would keep a jade falcon as her familiar, which has brought her the ire of that bird's namesake Clan.[10]
Quotes
“Leave behind the husk of our history and move onward to carve a new path.”[11]
-Khan Ariel Suvorov's final orders for her successors
References
- ↑ Field Manual: Warden Clans, p.110, Description of Clan Goliath Scorpion rulers.
- ↑ Forever Faithful, pp. 56-61
- ↑ Forever Faithful, pp. 81-86
- ↑ Forever Faithful, p. 165
- ↑ Forever Faithful, pp. 136-138
- ↑ Forever Faithful, pp. 165-167
- ↑ Forever Faithful, pp. 239-240
- ↑ Forever Faithful, pp. 268-269
- ↑ Forever Faithful, pp. 272-274
- ↑ Field Manual: Warden Clans, p.110, Description of Clan Goliath Scorpion rulers.
- ↑ The Wars of Reaving, p. 192