Hegira War

Hegira War
Start Date April 3061 Location Clan Jade Falcon Occupation Zone Result Clan Steel Viper defeated and is forced out of the Inner Sphere permanently.
Commanders and leaders
Khan Marthe Pryde; SaKhan Samantha Clees	Khan Perigard Zalman; Star Colonel Natalie Breen
Forces involved
Clan Jade Falcon touman	Clan Steel Viper touman
Environment
n/a

The Hegira War was a short conflict between Clans Jade Falcon and Steel Viper. The Steel Vipers launched a surprise attack upon the Jade Falcons in April 3061, hoping to evict them from their shared Occupation Zone in the Inner Sphere. While initially successful, the Vipers were blindsided by a Falcon counterattack and by July had been forced to withdraw from the Inner Sphere entirely.

Background

Clans Jade Falcon and Steel Viper had a long history of rivalry prior to Operation REVIVAL, but the Viper's advancement to the front lines of the Clan invasion during its Fifth Wave accentuated this enmity as the two Clans were forced to share their Occupation Zone. The Vipers carved out their own small empire within this region during and after REVIVAL, with most of their holdings being previously conquered worlds taken from the Falcons.

Following their Pyrrhic victory in the Refusal War the Jade Falcons had suffered heavy losses to their touman, leading the Steel Viper leadership to conclude that the Falcons were weak enough to be driven out of the Inner Sphere entirely. Rebellions and unrest throughout their holdings, coupled with political strife within the Clan itself after Christopher Ahmed was deposed as saKhan and replaced with Brett Andrews, prevented the Vipers from immediately capitalizing upon the Falcons' weakness throughout 3058. The tumultuous events of 3059 and 3060—the election of ilKhan Lincoln Osis and the destruction of Clan Smoke Jaguar by the reborn Star League—further delayed any planned attack on the Falcons.

Another bone of contention which sparked the war was the Jade Falcons' growing use of freeborn warriors to replenish their depleted touman. In particular, the Falcon Khan Marthe Pryde allowed a Freeborn warrior Diana (daughter of the legendary Aidan Pryde) to compete for a Bloodname. The Steel Viper warrior caste, trueborn supremacists who banned freeborns from the Viper touman entirely, were outraged and Viper Khan Perigard Zalman unsuccessfully attempted to have the Grand Council prevent Diana from competing.

Campaign History

After a year of covertly transferring warriors and equipment to the Inner Sphere, the Vipers struck at the Falcon holdings in April 3061. Their surprise attack swiftly overwhelmed all thirteen of the targeted worlds between 1 April and 15 May: Toland, Steelton, Winfield, Butler, Denizli, Alyina, Apolakkia, Devin, Dompaire, Colmar, Sudeten, La Grave, and Quarell. A second wave of attacks, undertaken between May 16th and June 1st saw the Vipers add Maxie's Planet, Romulus, Seiduts, Evciler, Leskovik, Zoetermeer and Baker 3 to their new holdings. These massive gains in territory were partly due to the speed and strength of the Viper assault, but also to the Jade Falcons' strategy of conserving their forces by giving ground. While the Vipers appeared to be on the verge of claiming the entire Occupation Zone for themselves, the fortunes of war would soon shift dramatically.

Falcon Khans Marthe Pryde and Samantha Clees blindsided the Vipers by mounting a two-pronged counterattack throughout June and July. Having left their coreward holdings lightly defended, the Vipers quickly lost these worlds to Falcon reinforcements. Khan Vladimir Ward of Clan Wolf also tacitly allied himself with the Falcons by allowing them to transit through Clan Wolf's Occupation Zone and strike the Viper's spinward flank. From this unexpected direction Pryde and Clees led their forces in an assault on the Viper's new gains that saw several worlds reclaimed within two weeks.

During the war's last phase the fighting shifted to the Steel Vipers' longtime holdings, with the decisive battle taking place on their capital Waldorff. A brutal clash involving several Galaxies on each side took place here, with zellbrigen abandoned by both Clans. The Vipers successfully split the Falcon force and then concentrated on the smaller portion, including the Falcon Guard. Khan Zalman's obsession with wiping out the 'stain' of a Bloodnamed freeborn warrior led to his downfall; during the fighting along Daemon Beach Diana Pryde managed to take Zalman down. This defeat shattered the Vipers' morale and when Khan Pryde offered Zalman hegira the Viper Khan accepted. In short order the Steel Vipers withdrew from the Inner Sphere entirely, leaving the Jade Falcons in full control of their Occupation Zone.

Legacy

For the Jade Falcons, their resounding victory cemented Marthe Pryde's position as leader of a reinvigorated Clan after its post–Refusal War nadir. Between battlefield salvage, new matériel produced both in the Homeworlds and the Inner Sphere, and their expanded holdings, the Falcons rebuilt their touman and solidified their position as a power among both the Clans and the Inner Sphere.

For the Steel Vipers, in contrast, their total defeat and loss of any place in the Inner Sphere forced the Clan into a complete reorientation. In the short term Perigard Zalman conceded that his anti-freeborn stance may have hurt his Clan and allowed for a small number of freeborns to aspire to a place in the Viper touman. This and the defeat itself led to several challenges to Zalman's rule, which he defeated.

In the long-term, the loss of its Occupation Zone drove Clan Steel Viper to instead seek dominance in the Clan Homeworlds before returning to the Inner Sphere. While they were successful in this during the years 3062 - 3071, culminating in the election of Brett Andrews as ilKhan, the Vipers' grudge against the Falcons and envy of those Clans still in the Inner Sphere led to the devastating Wars of Reaving and, in the end, the annihilation of Clan Steel Viper itself.

Bibliography

• The Clans: Warriors of Kerensky
• Era Report: 3062
• Falcon Rising (novel)
• Field Manual: Warden Clans