IlClan Trial

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IlClan Trial
Start Date 16 April 3151 Location Ottawa, Canada, North America Planet Terra Result Clan Wolf becomes ilClan
Commanders and leaders
Khan Alaric Ward; General Chance Vickers	Khan Malvina Hazen; Galaxy Commander Stephanie Chistu
Forces involved
Clan Wolf touman; Clan Wolf-in-Exile touman; Wolf's Dragoons; The Fidelis (as Clan Wolf bondsmen)	Clan Jade Falcon touman
Environment
n/a
Conditions
Republic of the Sphere disbanded

The ilClan Trial was the final battle between Clans Wolf and Jade Falcon to determine which Clan would not only become the ilClan, but to become the First Lord of the reborn Star League on Terra. This would cause both Khans to consider how they should approach the matter to become the contender of being ilKhan. While Alaric took a more liberal, open approach by reaching out to their estranged brethren with the exiled Wolves, Paul Moon's Fidelis and Wolf's Dragoons mercenary unit, while Malvina took a brutal approach as she always did.

Origins

A Major Setback

During the last stages of the Battle of Terra, as Devlin Stone was losing his grip on both Terra and the Republic of the Sphere, he would execute Damien Redburn's plan to assassinate both Khans, Operation Nighthawk. However, this plan backfired when both Wolf and Falcon forces destroyed Redburn and all his group before they could kill either Khan. This would make matters worse for Stone as, with the Republic forces had been crushed. To save lives, Stone would be forced to contact Clan Wolf to surrender. Having already angered Alaric by this decision, he insisted that he also contact Malvina Hazen as well to discuss terms of surrender. Stone, realizing that he had no other choice, agreed to do so despite his dismay. When the Exarch met the two leaders in person, He would propose that he would not compete and surrender to both the Wolves and the Jade Falcons. However, that was not good enough for either Khan, as the Exarch was already on Khan Ward's bad side after the failed assassination attempt, Alaric made his own proposal: to disband the Republic of the Sphere once and for all. Stone resisted and even offered himself to the Wolves to make up for the assassination attempt, but Ward would not accept the offer. Stone, realizing he could not talk his way out of this deal, decided to make good on his promise and disband the Republic as a result. With Stone and his Republic out of the way, Alaric would now focus on his true goal: The rise of the ilClan.

The Battle for Terra

After the end of the battle, Alaric would declare one final Trial to Malvina Hazen, the Trial for ilClanship and to be called the First Lord of the Reborn Star League. This Trial would essentially become a Trial of Refusal. Unlike the Refusal War however, both sides would bid everything they had to fight each other. To mark the ceremonious occasion, both Wolf and Jade Falcon members would have their own ceremonial uniforms and traditions to signify its importance. The two sides would agree to fight on the plains of Canada, in North America, as their staging ground. The Wolf Headquarters will be on Ottawa, to the East, and the Falcon's on Winnipeg, at the West. Both sides bided all their ground forces on land or in the way, but left the orbital assets and WarShips out of the fight.

The Trial of the ilClan. First Day

Both Clans began the Trial launching aerospace sorties before dawn. As the Hunters, the falcons attacked first, trying to destroy Alaric's headquarters and kill him. They failed, and suffered heavy losses. The Wolves attack was much more successful: they destroyed the Falcon's Watch Command post, killing their commander, Abzug Helmer, blinding the Falcons, though shortly.

An hour later, both Clans ground forces approached and engaged each other. The Falcons attacked and retreated, expecting to draw the wolves far away to crush them. They failed; Alaric had ordered his forces to don't cross Phase Line Charlie, a line of advance midway to Winnipeg. All Falcons attacks were repelled by the Wolves. Alaric's forces launched a minor attack southward: a contingent of 'Mechs and Elementals of Beta Galaxy (Clan Wolf) traveled under the Lake Superior waters, taking a beachhead on Thunder Bay, but didn't advance more and the Falcons didn't attack it.

The Trial. Day Two

The Wolves proved the reason for the Thunder Bay's beachhead at first hours of day two: Zeta Galaxy (Clan Wolf) Ninth Wolf Assault Cluster and the Seventy-ninth Wolf Battle Cluster traveled there underwater, striking the Falcons' repair and munitions facilities, in case of the Ninth, and the Falcons primary supply depot, in the Seventy-Ninth's. They achieved total surprise... or almost: Malvina, fearing such attack, had posted all Rho Galaxy (Clan Jade Falcon) to guard the facilities. However, the underwater attack allowed the Wolves to deal massive damage before falling under the Falcon's counterattack: they were slaughtered, and only a Trinary of the Ninth, and a Star of the Ninety-Ninths managed to escape through the lake. However, they managed to eliminate most of the Falcons munitions, which will handicap them in a long campaign.

The initial Falcon's counterattack was the expected: a frontal assault, a suicidal one, using solahma as disposable units. The Falcons' attempts to kill Alaric failed, ironically, thanks to his new bondsman, Tara Campbell. However, that was only the first stage of Malvina's revenge. Three Wolf Galaxies advanced after crushing the Falcons... and then Malvina light the fuse. A huge section of the forest caught fire, trapping three Wolf Galaxies. The hellish region, which was, appropriately, dubbed, The Cauldron became a deathtrap. Alaric called firefighters from Ottawa, but the falcons shoot down their air units and attacked their fire brigades, forcing the Wolves to protect them. However, the blaze became too much hot and big to extinguish it, and the firefighters only managed to contain it, and open a path to those Wolves trapped inside to escape.

The Falcons also killed any Wolf unit which managed to escape the fire, and punished those inside the fire with air and artillery attacks. However, and ad hoc team, led by Star Captain Noran Kerensky managed not only to survive, but to cross the Cauldron and destroy all the falcons remaining artillery units, before retreating to their lines. That was the only positive aspect of the day for the Wolves... but it was a tiny one: Theta Galaxy (Clan Wolf) Iota Galaxy (Clan Wolf) and Upsilon Galaxy (Clan Wolf) have been effectively destroyed, with about a seventy percent of losses.

The Trial. Day Three

With the last stage of the Trial beginning, it was now time for Alaric to bring in all available forces, and he ordered to cut the bondcords of all Republic of the Sphere loyal bondsmen. Meanwhile, the Falcons were suffering the loss of their depot, and most non-Mongol warriors were only partially refilled with ammunition.

Despite its ammo problems, the Falcons attacked frontally again, intending to crush the weakened Wolves. Once again, Alaric was a priority target, but the falcons failed again to kill him. The fight became very intense anyway, and the Falcons were on the brink of broking the Wolves' lines.

By 1400 hours, the Wolves were on the brink of defeat, and, slowly but surely, the falcons were confident of their victory... but they were wrong.

Because then, Alaric played his secret card to finish their final battle on Terra. He called Task Force Athena, his last reserves. The Khan had been preparing for decades for the Trial. Months before, knowing he would need more forces to ensure victory, he launched two secret operations: Operation Reunion, tasked to Anastasia Kerensky, which was to convince Clan Wolf-in-Exile to rejoin the Wolves, and Operation Amalgamation, tasked to Star Captain Marotta Kerensky to do the same with the Wolf's Dragoons mercenary unit. Both formed Athena, a unit so secret than not only the Falcons but almost all Wolves were ignorant of its very existence. The Fidelis would also join as part of the deal with Alaric to reconstitute the Jaguars, but they won't fight. Both Wolves forces would suffer heavy losses, but this was to be expected due to how greatly both leaders wanted to become the First Lord of the Star League. While the Dragoons were ordered to pull back and retreat, Anastasia would be the one to deal the final blow to Chinggis Khan Malvina Hazen, ending the battle for Terra. Caught between two fires, the Falcons were crushed. Galaxy Commander Stephanie Chistu, after Malvina's falling, took the command of the Falcons and ordered to cease fighting. However, most Mongol Doctrine followers ignored her and the Wolves had to kill them to a man, almost annihilating the Falcons.

Aftermath

Both sides suffered heavy losses from the fight. However, the Wolves ended up being the victor after the Jade Falcon Khan was defeated in battle. Each side tended to their wounds and worked on rebuilding their toumans. To brandish his victory with Clan Wolf, Alaric would do a new uniform based on the Star League Army Uniform with a Clan Wolf and Cameron Star Insignias on it. This demonstrated his new ranks of being the First Lord and the ilKhan. As for the Jade Falcon Clan, many of their warriors ended up still wounded from the battle, taking months to recover. As for their leadership, Malvina Hazen finally met her end, not from the Wolves themselves; but from the stepdaughter she abused from the very start. This would be Malvina's true downfall, as the Jade Falcons used this time to replace her and redeem their honor that was tainted during her rule. As for the Wolf's Dragoons mercenary unit that fought beside Clan Wolf, it was revealed that they were being manipulated by Alaric himself as a weapon to be used however he saw fit. Adding insult to injury, the new ilKhan gave them 30 pieces of silver while reminding them that, while they were of Clan Wolf origin, they turned their backs on the Clans during Operation Revival long ago. Angered by this revelation, the Dragoons had declared a vendetta against Alaric and his wolves for what he had done to them.

The last matters that Alaric tended to were both the resurrection of Clan Smoke Jaguar and filling in the voids of Jade Falcon leadership and their fate. For the former, Alaric Ward visited Paul Moon to keep his word on resurrecting his Clan after his people’s participation on Terra. He also saw an opportunity to prove how the Second Star League were indeed a sham. He would instruct Clan Smoke Jaguar to fulfill the roles of both saKhan and Khan in order to lead the future of the new Smoke Jaguars. After a Trial of Position was held, it was declared that Prohaska Moon, a blood descendant of Paul Moon would take her place as Khan of the re-formed Jaguars. From this point on the re-formed Clan Smoke Jaguar would become a Clan once again.

With the latter, Stephanie Chistu was nominated as the new Khan of the Jade Falcons due to the honor she displayed on the field in defiance of the fallen Khan Malvina Hazen. Another Jade Falcon Warrior challenged her out of the respect for the late Hazen and her Mongol Doctrine. After the Trial of Grievance was settled, Stephanie would be chosen as the new Khan and was given Tara Jade Falcon as a way to help redeem the reputation the Jade Falcons that her predecessor tarnished. Also due to the heavy losses, Clan Jade Falcon suffered from both the battle and with Clan Hell's Horses Operation Stampede in retaliation of their manipulation, it was decided that Clan Jade Falcon would become a bodyguard Clan for the ilKhan to fulfill a similar role of the Royal Black Watch. This was done out of respect and heritage for both Tara Campbell and the Jade Falcon's founder Elizabeth Hazen's Black Watch origins.

Legacy

File:Devlin Stone (3).jpg

Devlin Stone's death would mark the end of the Dark Age Era.

The ilClan Trial would not only change the political aspects of the Clans, but the personal aspects as well. When it came to Alaric Ward, he caused the most significant changes of all. One of the first things that his Trial did is change the landscape of the Clan political doctrine. As where the Crusader philosophy was created as a way to take over the Inner Sphere and dominate Terra, it was often derided as a stereotype of why all Clan warriors hated the Inner Sphere by their inhabitants. However, after many generations had passed, the Invading Clans had matured. Alaric had managed to transform the Crusader philosophy into a more peaceful endeavor, possibly due to his own maturity and his genefather being Victor Steiner-Davion. Even when he had the tomb of Aleksandr Kerensky, he grew to understand the reason for why he left the Inner Sphere and why his son, Nicholas created The Clans to return. It was at this moment, he used the Crusader way as a means to defend the Inner Sphere rather than to act as its conqueror as stereotyped by many spheroids as the basic Clanner attitude. Clan Wolf, Clan Jade Falcon, and Clan Smoke Jaguar were the only three Crusader Clans who fulfilled what the Crusader movement was about. For Clan Wolf, they reunited with their Warden brethren into a united Clan Wolf once more. As for the Smoke Jaguars, when it came to their near destruction during the Great Refusal, they became a quasi-Warden Clan, learning from their mistakes of how they had failed the Crusader way, while fighting for the Inner Sphere as a way to redeem themselves as the Fidelis. Lastly, Clan Jade Falcon, a Clan known for their sheer tenacity and honor was tainted from the inside out and turned into a dishonorable Clan that disregarded honor for the sake of brutality and fear under the leadership of Malvina Hazen.

With Clan Wolf as the ilClan, Clan Smoke Jaguar reconstituted as a full Clan once more, and Clan Jade Falcon converted as a bodyguard Clan, it is likely that the three Clans have abandoned their Crusader beliefs and animosity for each other in order to protect Terra and the New Star League as well as begin the healing process between the three Clans.

The ilClan Trial had succeeded in two objectives: completing the Crusader cause and Aleksandr Kerensky's Hidden Hope Doctrine.

Bibliography

• Hour of the Wolf
• IlClan