Snow Fire

Snow Fire assassinated Yoguchi Kurita, Coordinator of the Draconis Combine, in 2850. She was an operative of the Lyran Intelligence Corps and "Snow Fire", the alias under which she became posthumously famous, was but her Kuritan Courtesan School name. Her true identity and personal history remain a state secret of the Lyran Commonwealth till this day.

Character History

Early assignment

Born in the Lyran Commonwealth in 2825, she joined the Lyran Intelligence Corps, being assigned to the Bodians. After the end of her training she was planted in the Rasalhague Military District of the Draconis Combine where she spent several years as a low-grade geisha, secretly obtaining information from her clients. Under unknown circumstances she attracted the eye of one of the Coordinator's closest personal advisers, who bought out her contract and brought her to the Imperial Palace in Luthien.

Snow Fire served as a source of valuable information, sending and receiving coded messages to her "mother", in fact the highest ranks in the LIC.

Operation Prying Mantis

In 2848 Snow Fire received a coded message from Archon Claudius Steiner for Operation Prying Mantis along with the news of the complete destruction of the 4th Royal Guards at the hands of Yoguchi's son Hugai.

She spent a year and half steadily advancing her standing in the Imperial Palace and attempting to attract the eye of the Coordinator himself. She was successful and became Yoguchi's favorite concubine, when fate forced her to delay. In the face of a highly successful Federated Suns offensive, Yoguchi chose to lead the defense of the world of Tishomingo himself, but greatly underestimated the size of attacking forces. With both House Davion and Kurita unaware he was alive, Yoguchi led resistance forces on-planet until his sister Roweena suspected he lived and organized a successful rescue operation.

On Yoguchi's return in 2850 after his first night back on Luthien, Snow Fire quietly slitted his throat with a plasticine knife. After placing a hand embroidered patch of the House Steiner 4th Royal Guard on his body, Snow Fire quietly took her own life with poison secreted in a hollow tooth. She was only 25 years old.

Aftermath

The death of Yoguchi so soon after his miraculous return shook the Draconis Combine, while Claudius Steiner never lived to see the success of Operation Prying Mantis, dying himself under clouded circumstances in 2849.

The official version of the Combine was that Yoguchi was killed while heroically fighting against a whole team of assassins. The truth was known only to the House Kurita inner circle which felt great shame in the very concept that a lone Lyran spy could get so close undetected and assassinate the Coordinator. Yoguchi's successor, his brother Miyogi, felt honor-bound to avenge this insult which lead to the largest Kurita offensive against the Lyran's center of 'Mech production Hesperus II and the loss of the last active Successor State WarShips until the arrival of the Clans.

The fact that Snow Fire was able to remain undetected whilst maintaining contact with her "mother" lead to a large and varied array of conspiracy theories about how she was able to complete her mission. Some point to ComStar shielding the messages from House Kurita, lent credence due to the later knowledge ComStar actively fanned the flames of the Succession Wars. Others point to Yoguchi's alienation of the ISF, placing the organization under the command of the DCMS, allowing his murder as the climax of a shadow war against him.

The fact that her true love was apparently a member of the destroyed 4th Royal Guard lent her actions the air of tragic romance and helped inspire endless countless paintings, dramas, and ballads about her actions and possible origins and reasons across the entire Inner Sphere.

Bibliography

• House Davion Sourcebook
• House Kurita Sourcebook
• House Steiner Sourcebook