Bjorn Jorgensson
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 | This article needs to be updated with material from Era Report: 3062, Invading Clans, Shattered Sphere, The Wars of Reaving, Dawn of the Jihad, Lethal Heritage, Wolf Clan Sourcebook, Field Manual: Warden Clans, Masters and Minions: The StarCorps Dossiers, Shadows of War. Once these titles clear the Moratorium period, or if they already have, please consider revisiting this article and updating it with the new material. |
Bjorn Jorgensson | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Personal | |
| Born | 3018[1] |
| Died | 22 January 3073[2][3] |
| Affiliation | Clan Ghost Bear |
| Profile | |
| Rank | Khan |
| Profession | Aerospace pilot |
Bjorn Jorgensson was an aerospace pilot and eventual Khan of Clan Ghost Bear during the Clan Invasion.
Contents
History
Early Life
Bjorn was originally brought up in a MechWarrior sibko, but failed in his initial Trial of Position. However, he was given a second attempt to join the Warrior Caste in a different branch of the Clan touman per Ghost Bear tradition. He would excel in his new training as an aerospace pilot and won the rank of Star Captain by defeating three opponents in his second Trial of Position.
Clan Invasion
Bjorn served in the 140th Striker Cluster in the early waves of Operation Revival. However, he would only see combat in the second wave when elements of Delta Galaxy were used to retake worlds that had rebelled. Shortly thereafter, he tested out as a Star Colonel and was about to take command of 140th when outside events changed his path.
The deaths of Khans Nornian Tseng and Ursula Jorgensson during the Clan Wolf-called Trial of Refusal to REVIVAL caused great change within the Ghost Bears. Bloodhouses Tseng and Jorgensson, traditional leaders of the Ghost Bears, were set aside, leading to the election of Khan Karl Bourjon and saKhan Theresa DelVillar. The failures of the Clan in the opening waves were manyfold and resulted in the death of saKhan DelVillar in 3051. The Bloodnamed of the Clan would choose Aletha Kabrinski as saKhan to replace Theresa. Almost immediately upon taking the office, Aletha would issue a call for dismissal against Khan Bourjon for his lack of foresight. The Bloodnamed of the Clan quickly supported this call and nominated Bjorn for the position of Khan. Karl Bourjon would issue a Trial of Refusal against this unanimous move by his fellow Bloodnamed and challenged the call. After a brief battle in his Kirghiz, Bjorn defeated Karl and offered him hegira thus assuming the title of Khan.[4]
Upon taking office, Bjorn worked to correct several of the mistakes that the Clan had made. With his training as both a MechWarrior and an Aerospace pilot, as well as his strategic thinking, Bjorn quickly initiated much-needed reforms for the Ghost Bears, including calling up REVIVAL's reserve, the hated Clan Steel Viper, to garrison key worlds and free up front-line forces. Khan Jorgensson also instituted new tactics for dealing with conquered populations. Instead of walling off Clanmembers from the Inner Sphere, as other Clans had done, rebellious elements were conscripted to repair infrastructure damaged in the fighting. This allowed their vassals a chance to see the Clan as a positive rather than as their new overlords, a policy that eventually grew to see the merging of the Free Rasalhague Republic and Clan Ghost Bear into the Ghost Bear Dominion and later Rasalhague Dominion. Though losing the bid for the taking of Rasalhague, the Clan would take more worlds than any other Clan in the fourth wave, save Clan Wolf, and were supremely positioned to take the lead toward Terra in the next wave.
The death of ilKhan Leo Showers halted the Invasion but allowed the Ghost Bears and their Khans time to reflect. Jorgensson's Warden views, well-concealed due to a rivalry with the Warden championing Clan Wolf and Jorgensson's respect of ilKhan Showers, began to find a match in those of the previously staunch Crusader saKhan Kabrinski. Their united front began to turn those of the Clan, leading the clan away from the Crusaders and in directions unforeseen until later years.[4]
The return to the Invasion and Wave 5 was an unmitigated success for the Clan. However, the Battle of Tukayyid would alter the fate of the invasion.
Tukayyid
ilKhan Ulric Kerensky's announcement of the proxy battle with ComStar on Tukayyid caused division between Bjorn and his saKhan: while she held complete confidence in victory, he disapproved of the entire batchall for its inclusion of the fifteen-year truce. Ultimately, however, the Bears took part in the Battle of Tukayyid, earning the right to descend in the fifth hour of combat with an official bid of three front-line Galaxies: Alpha, Beta and Delta.[5][6][7]
Assigned the primary and secondary targets of Spanac and Luk, the twin cities were defended by the veteran-ranked Com Guard First Army supported by the green Fourth Army. Confident in the strength of their troops, the Bear Khans laid out a simple and direct plan, sending their elite Alpha Galaxy to target Spanac while Beta and Delta focused on Luk. While the First Army commander Precentor Katherine Luarca's refusal to commit the extremely green Fourth Army to the fight and the Bears' superior skills allowed Alpha to easily take Spanac, the Com Guards succeeded in blunting the Bears' assault against Luk, with the Bear Khans redeploying Beta and Delta to reinforce Spanac.[5][6][7]
Leaving Beta and Delta to defend their captured primary target, the Bears' Alpha Galaxy advanced towards Luk, the Fourth Army coming close to folding until Precentor Luarca commanded the remains of the First Army in a strike against the Bears' primary supply depot at Spanac. As she hoped, Luarca's attack forced the Ghost Bears to choose which was more important: the now vital ammunition or continuing the offensive against Luk. Eventually choosing to return to Spanac, while Alpha fought off the raid, they suffered such losses in the process that they could not resume the attack on Luk.[5][6][7]
With the Ghost Bears able to hold Spanac but lacking the strength to take Luk, ilKhan Kerensky declared their campaign ended with a partial victory. When Precentor Martial Anastasius Focht began preparing to redeploy additional Com Guard troops to face them, Bjorn and his saKhan chose to safeguard what they had won and accepted the judgment with minimal complaint.[5][6][7]
Post-Tukayyid - Ghost Bear Dominion
Khan Jogensson reversed overbearing warrior oversight of local governments and trade, allowing limited Merchant Caste - Inner Sphere contact, and expanded industrial projects, leading to a boom in their Occupation Zone. By 3054, however, the months-long delay to the Homeworlds slowed the expansion and Ghost Bear members in the Inner Sphere enjoyed far better conditions. The resentment challenged the Ghost Bear family, leading to a secret warrior caste vote to relocate to the Inner Sphere en masse, beginning in 3055.[7] In October 3057, Khan Bjorn Jorgensson would approve the first Clawing Ritual held in the Inner Sphere. This occurred on Trondheim due to a Ghost Bear, originally meant to be taken to Alshain, surviving a DropShip crash on world.[7][8]
In 3060, Khan Jorgensson announced the relocation of the Clan to the Ghost Bear Dominion, led to the repudiation of the Crusader-led Invasion, and the dismissal of Warden participation in the Great Refusal Trial. The Grand Council voted down the Abjuration of the Ghost Bears, as it held the Nova Cats guilty of the same, though the Ghost Bear held limited historical enclaves awarded by Nicholas Kerensky on Arcadia and Strana Mechty.[7]
Jihad and Death
Bjorn is believed to have been killed on Arc-Royal in a bombing in January 3073.[3] Bjorn was attending a summit called by Victor Steiner-Davion in an attempt to organize those resisting the Word of Blake. The summit was attended by leaders from the Lyran Alliance, Draconis Combine, Federated Suns, ComStar and the Clans. Fritz Donner, the former commander of the Black Warriors unit from the Circinus Federation, attended as a key witness testifying on Word of Blake operations and activities within the Word of Blake Protectorate; unknown to the other attendees, Donner had been implanted with a sophisticated suicide bomb. The bomb was detonated on the 22nd of January, killing or injuring many of the delegates and paralyzing or disrupting attempts by the various allies to coordinate efforts against the Blakists.[9][10][2]
It was speculated that the death of Bjorn was one of the reasons for the driving hatred of the Word of Blake displayed by Clan Ghost Bear forces during the Jihad, as well as the ferocity of their actions towards both the Blakists and the allied forces caught up in the Ghost Bear campaign.[3]
Quotes
| “ | Proud upholders of the Great Kerensky's words, heed me, for I must relate a tragedy. Our leader is dead. Leo Showers, Khan of Khans, leader of the noble Clan Smoke Jaguar, commander of those who would raise the Star League up from the ashes, is physically no more. Yet mourn not the loss of his physical presence, for his blood legacy will course through the veins of countless fierce warriors of future generations, all awaiting the command to revenge his most foul death. | ” |
| — Khan Bjorn Jorgensson from the recall orders issued to Clan Ghost Bear after the death of ilKhan Leo Showers in 3050[11] | ||
| “ | Centuries ago, the Great Father promised a return to the Inner Sphere for his children. Many believed that we could only achieve this by conquering Terra in the Great Father's name, forcing the corrupted peoples of the Successor States to see the truth of the Way of the Clans. I believe this was a hasty and misguided assumption. Destiny is within our grasp, and we have only to reach out and take it!
We of Clan Ghost Bear have won many worlds from the Draconis Combine and the Free Rasalhague Republic through legitimate Trials of Possession. In return, we have administered these worlds fairly, and instructed their peoples in the Way of the Clans. While our neighbors continue to skirmish for centimeters of land, we have cemented our position. As a result, losses to raids and civil disorder have been minimal, and our Clan has prospered. I stand before you today to announce that Clan Ghost Bear has moved from the blighted tundras of the Kerensky Cluster to the blessed pastures of the Inner Sphere: to the Ghost Bear Dominion, thirty-nine worlds claimed by rightful conquest. This area will henceforth be considered Clan territory, administered from the new Ghost Bear capital on Alshain. I urge the Grand Council and the Houses of the Inner Sphere to recognize our claim peacefully, to the mutual benefit of all. Challenges to this claim will be dealt with harshly, until none remain to raise a dissenting voice. |
” |
| — Khan Bjorn Jorgensson's post-Great Refusal address to the Clan Grand Council, Strana Mechty, 27 April 3060[7] | ||
Bjorn Jorgensson at age 27 from ER:3052
Jorgensson at age 37 from ER:3062
Jorgensson at age 38 from Shattered Sphere
References
- ↑ Era Report: 3052, p. 88: "Bjorn Jorgensson profile"
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Jihad Secrets: The Blake Documents, pp. 36–37: "Around the Sphere - The Lyran Alliance - Bombings and Barbarism"
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Jihad Hot Spots: Terra, pp. 17–18: "Righteous Fury"
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Field Manual: Warden Clans, p. 81
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Tukayyid, pp. 48–56: "Campaign: Clan Ghost Bear"
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Invading Clans, p. 29: "Tukayyid: World of Fate"
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7 Field Manual: Warden Clans, p. 82: "The Roaring Bear"
- ↑ The Clawing
- ↑ Jihad: Final Reckoning, p. 51: "The Jihad in Review"
- ↑ Jihad Hot Spots: 3076, p. 26: "Timeline of the Jihad"
- ↑ Wolf Clan Sourcebook, p. 41: "Year of Peace and Dread"