Battletech: An Alternate Future

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A couple of years ago, before the last batch of Battletech books came out, a guy named Lerxst and I discussed in great detail an alternate future of the Battletech universe. This future was based on plot points from the Field Manuals for the Warden and Crusader Clans, and snippets from Prince of Havoc by Michael Stackpole. While I’ve never actually played in this alternate future, it still has many merits that bear mentioning. For the beginning of this timeline, there are two different paths, Clan and Inner Sphere, which combine later on.

Battletech: An Alternate Future

Date	Inner Sphere	Clan
3062
March	Victor S-D sends ComGuards into the St. Ives Compact.	Star Adders Absorb remaining Jaguar holdings.

April	Teddy K asks Victor to remove his troops from St. Ives Compact.	Star Adder Khans begin lining up the Grand Council votes for the IlKhan position.
	Katherine offers Kai complete aid against Capellan Confederation.	Star Adder Khan becomes IlKhan.

May	Victor flatly refuses to remove his troops from St. Ives Compact.
	Using troops and supplies from Katherine, Kai uses the Lancers to begin an offensive against the CC.
	Katherine sends troops with questionable loyalty to help.
	After being reprimanded by the League Council, Victor agrees only to use ComGuards for defensive operations.

June	Despite requests otherwise, Thomas Marik agrees to sell the St. Ives Compact mechs and refit packs.	IlKhan calls for a new Invasion. The vote fails.
	After several failed requests to halt said sales; Katherine releases info about Thomas being fake. FWL breaks into breaks into chaos as Isis attempts to depose Thomas. Civil War ensues.	The Star Adders begin building a large invasion force. They begin a new Harvest War against its allied Clans.

September	FWL Civil War continues.	Second Harvest ends. Star Adders add several clusters worth of troops to their armies, plus a contingent of Snow Raven Warships and Aerospace Wings.
	Thugee Cultists attempt to kill Kai’s wife and children.
	1^st St. Ives Lancers return to the Compact for refit and rearmament.
	Katherine hires the Assassin to kill Omi.

November	Massive invasion force appears over Capella. 1^st St. Ives Lancers, under Kai, and large contingents of FC troops and ComGuards, under Victor, attack.	Star Adders’ second call for Invasion succeeds. While the Trial of Refusal is not completely repudiated, only those Clans who actually won their battles are allowed to fight.
	Marik Civil War continues.	Star Adder fleet leaves for Inner Sphere.

December	St. Ives force conquers Capella. Sun Tsu and Kali killed in final fighting. Kai declared ruler of reunited Capellan Compact.	The Scientist Caste, allied with the Bandit Caste, attempts to form their own Clan with a cadre of warriors and advanced Mech designs.
	Once again, Victor is called before the Council. He is once again reprimanded. He has several very public fights with Teddy K.
3063
January	Assassin strikes at the Luthien Defense Celebration. He misses Tommy K, but hits Omi. Omi dies and the Assassin is killed.	Star Captain Joanna organizes a force from her oldest sibkos using second-line Clan mechs and captured I.S. mechs. Joanna dies in the fighting, but the sibkos go on to crush the Insurrection.
	The Assassin’s background looks like he was a member of Comstar’s ROM. Victor is implicated.	All leaders of the Insurrection are executed. All Scientist Warriors are executed. Scientist Castes are purged of anyone even remotely responsible for the Insurrection

February	Generals in the Dieron and Benjamin Districts openly rebel against Teddy K.	Scientist Castes are reorganized into one overall organization, which holds a non-voting seat on the Grand Council. Peri Watson is appointed First Doctor.
	Unrest breaks out in the CC against Kai’s Rule. It is instigated by Daniella, who has had Sun Tsu’s son.
	Marik Civil War Continues.

March	Rebel generals attempt to remove Teddy K from power.
	Daniella claims the Capellan Throne for her son.
	The Star League breaks apart.

April	Loyal forces retake Benjamin District after fierce fighting. Rebel generals remaining in district are executed.	Star Adders approach the Periphery.
	Victor acquires info needed to prove Katherine had Omi killed. Also confirms from the same source that Katherine had Melissa killed.
	Federated Suns openly rebels against Katherine. Peter leads rebellion and forces Katherine out. She flees to Lyran Alliance.
	Peter agrees to be First Prince. Changes his last name to Davion. Victor is made Field Marshall.

May	Several generals ask for forgiveness from Theodore. Several others continue to hold the Dieron District.	Star Adders set up supply bases in the Periphery.
	Kai crushes Daniella’s Claim.
	Marik Civil War begins to wind down with Isis as the probable winner. Katherine offers aid from a much-diminished L.A.
	Katherine is indicted in F.C. high court of multiple counts of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and High Treason.
	After refusing aid from Katherine, Isis does accept aid from Victor.

July	Star Adders invade the Draconis Combine and begin retaking the Smoke Jaguar’s original Invasion Corridor.
	The Wolf Clan attacks the Steel Viper Corridor, while the Falcons begin attacking the Lyran Alliance.
	The Ghost Bears take Rasalhague and several other planets before the Hell’s Horses stop them.
	The Wolves-in-Exile attack the Steel Vipers from the Arc-Royal Defense Cordon.

September	The Second Battle of Coventry Begins.
	The two Wolf Clans meet in the middle of the Steel Viper Corridor and declare Trials of Absorption against each other.
	The Star Adders continue taking the Smoke Jaguar corridor.
	Hell’s Horses and Star Adder Harvested Clusters continue to hold the Ghost Bears.
	Loyal DCMS troops move to fight the Star Adders. Dieron Rebels isolated and ignored.
	Kai stabilizes the CC and begins to rebuild.
	Marik Civil War ends with Isis Marik as new Captain-General. She begins the task of rebuilding her nation.
	Katherine is convicted of all crimes. A warrant for her arrest is ordered.

November	Star Adders launch their second wave of attacks.
	Second Battle of Coventry continues. 5 LAAF regiments completely destroyed. Falcons lose 2 Galaxies.
	The Wolves Absorb the Wolves. Vlad is killed. Phelan is severely injured. Marialle Radick becomes the new Khan. Ranna Kerensky becomes new Sa-Khan. Phelan becomes Loremaster and leader of Kell House.
	The Hell’s Horses and Harvested Clusters are expelled from Wolf space.
	The Wolves begin a rapprochement with the Ghost Bears.

December	Hell’s Horses & Wolf Harvested Clusters arrive in the Star Adder border area near the Ghost Bears. They begin raiding the Ghost Bears territory.
	The Draconis Combine loses 10 systems to the Star Adders. Theodore accepts aid from the Federated Commonwealth and Comstar.
3064
January	On the anniversary of the Defense of Luthien, the Star Adders attack Luthien. 10 Galaxies descend on a force consisting of the elite units of the DCMS and the Nova Cats, roughly 15 regiments.
	The Second Battle of Coventry ends with the LAAF holding the planet. Loses number at 15 LAAF regiments and 5 Jade Falcon Galaxies.

March	Luthien Falls. Theodore Kurita and the Dragon’s Claws hold the spaceports long enough for the remaining 1^st Sword of Light, Otomo, and Nova Cat units to retreat off-planet. Theodore Kurita is killed in the holding action.
	Hohiro takes control of the remainder of the Draconis Combine from Benjamin. The first FC and Comstar units arrive in the Benjamin District.
	Star Adder loses at Luthien estimated at 6 Galaxies.

May	Star Adders lick their wounds as they gobble up several systems surrounding Luthien and prepare to invade the Benjamin District.
	The Wolves and the Ghost Bears agree to an alliance and form the Greater Rasalhague Dominion. The GRD consists of the Free Rasalhague Republic (including Comstar), the Wolf Corridor, the Ghost Bear Dominion, the captured Steel Viper Corridor, and the Arc-Royal Defense Cordon.
	The Wolves begin an exodus of all personnel from the Kerensky Cluster. This won’t be finished until September.
	The ComGuards are cut loose from Comstar (which decides to concentrate solely on its communications interests) and become a sort of mercenary unit with loyalties to no one other than the Precentor Martial, Victor S-D.
	Kai Liao and Isis Marik approach Victor in a series of secret talks.
	Katherine continues to rebuild her army in anticipation of further Jade Falcon attacks.
	The Jade Falcons continue to lick their wounds.
	The DCMS reforms in the Benjamin District under Hohiro.
	The Star Adders, Harvested Clusters, and Hell’s Horses units attack all along the GRD border, taking more than a dozen systems.

June – August	More than a dozen further systems fall to the Star Adders in both the Xinyang Prefecture of the DC and the Thessalonica Prefecture of the GRD.

September	Jade Falcons resume their assault on the Lyran Alliance.
	The Star Adders attack the Benjamin Prefecture.
	GRD raids the Jade Falcon zone, forcing the Falcons to slow down their operations against the Lyran Alliance.
	Lyran Alliance counterattacks, retaking several systems around Coventry.
	The DCMS and ComGuards initiate a counterattack to retake Luthien. After several epic battles with the Harvested Clusters, the counterattack stalls.

November	The Star Adders take several systems around Benjamin, including Kajikazawa, but eventually bypass it as they head into the Dieron District.
	The LAAF attempts to retake several additional systems from the Jade Falcons, but are stopped cold by a vigorous defense.
	Victor, Isis, and Kai come to an agreement to make an alliance between the FWL, Capellan Confederation, and the Federated Commonwealth. Victor and Isis would marry, cementing the bond between the FC and the FWL, and the first girl resulting from their union would be arranged to be married to David Liao, Kai’s son.

December	Facing little resistance from the demoralized and decimated regiments of the Dieron District, the Star Adders approach Dieron almost unopposed.
	The Word of Blake, seeing that Dieron will only offer piecemeal resistance, contacts the Star Adders and proposes a proxy battle for Terra to take place in the Dieron System.
	The WOB will defend with all available forces at their disposal; while the Star Adders will attack with all remaining forces, plus several elements of the Harvested Clusters that hadn’t previously fought, including the Snow Ravens.
3065
January	The largest buildup of military forces since Operations Bulldog and Serpent takes place on Dieron and Styx, as the Star Adders and Word of Blake rally their forces and prepare for all out war.
	Victor and Isis announce the plans for the new alliance to the Inner Sphere. While there are some protests in the Capellan March and isolated incidents in the FWL and Capellan Confederation, most people accept the alliance peacefully.

February	The Battle of Dieron begins as the warship fleet of the Snow Ravens invades the system. As the WOB Fleet engages, the Star Adder invasion force arrives in-system. In the largest space battle since the days of the original Star League, the Star Adders break through the Word of Blake lines and begins their invasion of Dieron.

	The Dieron Campaign lasts for months. Civilian and military losses will be estimated at more than 5 billion lives lost. Dieron, for all intents and purposes, is destroyed.
	While there are other campaigns and battles that take place during this time period, pretty much everything else is secondary to the fighting on Dieron.

May	Victor and Isis’s Wedding takes place on Sarna.
	The final battles of the Dieron Campaign take place. The Word of Blake is destroyed. While the Star Adders are the recognized victor and are proclaimed the Il-Clan, their military is decimated. Out of their entire Touman that participated in the campaign, they are only able to scrape together the equivalent of one cluster.
	The Star Adders invite the other home Clans to come to the Inner Sphere and help formalize their formation of a new Star League. An offer that is accepted by most of the Clans and contingents are sent to fight under the new Star League banner. The Jade Falcons are also asked to join the new Star League, an offer they accept provisionally.
	The GRD asks for and agrees to a truce with the new Star League. They also agree to a truce with the Jade Falcons.
	The Star Adders take over the administration of Earth and begin the long task of rebuilding their military. The Hell’s Horses units and the remainder of the various Harvested Clusters are released back into the Toumans of the various Clans. They become the advanced forces of the soon to be arriving Home Clans.

June - November	An uneasy truce takes hold as the various realms consolidate and reinforce their units. Raids take place all along the long Draconis Combine – Star Adder/League border.
	Between the earlier rebellions, the initial fighting, Luthien, and the Star Adder’s march to Terra, the DCMS is down to barely 1/3^rd their original number of units.
	Between the Coventry campaigns and the various battles in the Coventry District, the LAAF has lost more than 35 regiments
	While they have remained untouched by the renewed Clan fighting, due to their various civil wars, the Free Worlds League, Capellan Confederation, and Federated Commonwealth have lost nearly 50% of the pre-war strength.
	With the new alliance in place, the FWL, CC, and F-C begin moving regiments from their borders with each other to their borders with the Lyran Alliance and the Clan League (as the Inner Sphere has taken to calling the Star Adders’ Star League).

December	The first units from the Home Clans arrive in the Inner Sphere and begin setting up base worlds within the Star Adders’ territory.
	An envoy is sent to Hohiro to suggest a new Star League be formed based on marriages and blood, rather than political expediency.
3066
January	Hohiro responds in the affirmative with one condition. His condition is that no current ruler, or their children, should be allowed to hold the Star Lord position. He proposes that the first grandchild of the Marik-Steiner-Davion-Liao unions be given the title of Star Lord, and the surname of Cameron to signify the birth of a new bloodline. To cement that bloodline, the Star Lord’s mate would be the oldest eligible grandchild of the Kurita line.
	Until such time that the Star Lord is born, the new Star League will be administered by two Co-Regents, Victor and Kai at first, then David and his bride (when they come of age).
	In the meantime, the Inner Sphere Star League is reincorporated under the new provisions. The various elements of the SLDF reform and begin planning renewed joint operations.
	Elements of the various arriving Clans begin attacking the Lyran Alliance and the Draconis Combine. The Jade Falcons also begin attacking the Lyran Alliance around Coventry.

March	While the Clan League easily gobbles up the last of the Dieron District, the DCMS and SLDF stop them cold in the Benjamin District.
	The Star League refuses to intervene in the Lyran Alliance for so long as Katherine is Archon.

May	Fighting in the LA is fierce as the LAAF tries to fight a two front war, and does poorly on both fronts. The Isle of Skye and Rahneshire are completely absorbed by the Clan League.
	Once again, the Jade Falcons are posed to strike Coventry. The LAAF stations 5 additional regiments to Coventry.

July	In a series of lightning strikes, Jade Falcon strike forces attack and capture Tsinan, Pobeda, Sarava, Krievci, Stoflors, Upano, and Vorzel. A warship strike force attacks the LAAF warship contingent around Coventry, destroying and crippling most of the warships and jumpships stationed there. In effect, Coventry is cut off from the rest of the Lyran Alliance.

August	The Jade Falcons begin attacking Tharkad’s support planets in the District of Donegal and the Alarion Province.
	Finally getting fed up with her inability to deal with the Clans, several factions within the Lyran Alliance attempt to remove Katherine from power. Loki stops an assassination attempt.

There are additional events that take place after this point, but I never got around to detailing all of them. Among the highlights of the later part of this timeline include:

The SLDF is finally called in to help the Lyran Alliance. They manage to hold Tharkad, several of the systems around it, and the Alarion and Bolan Provinces.
Katherine is arrested by a victorious Victor, and promptly executed.
The Jade Falcons and the Clan League link up in the District of Donegal, thereby combining the two areas into one large territory.
After about a year of additional fighting, the Leagues War winds down.
In October of 3067, Uther Marik-Steiner-Davion is born to Victor and Isis. Melissa Marik-Steiner-Davion is born in May of 3069. The youngest child, Jerome, is born in November of 3070.

There are also several events listed further down the line, like a 5^th Succession War taking place from 3085-3088 between the Clan League, the Star League, and the Greater Rasalhague Dominion, and David and Melissa’s wedding in 3086. The last big event was Arthur Cameron’s birth in 3088. From there, things were a lot more open, with the possibilities being endless.

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