[[index]]
* ''Awesome/BattleTech2018''
* ''Awesome/MechWarrior''
[[/index]]
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* The backstory involving the Amaris Coup and the Liberation of Terra has many:
** The last stand of the Royal Black Watch Regiment. Woken up by alarms triggered when First Lord Richard Cameron was assassinated, with nukes dropping on their base, and despite facing a numerically superior force, the Black Watch still nearly managed to stop the Amaris Civil War before it started. Black Watch marines stormed the palace and almost killed Amaris right off the bat. The TWO remaining lances of Black Watch [=MechWarriors=] held off the entirety of the Amaris 4th Dragoons for so long and at such a heavy cost to the latter that the Amaris forces ultimately had to surround the Black Watch and pin them down long enough to zero in a SECOND nuclear attack, sacrificing even more of their own elite troops to get the job done. After all that, five members of the Black Watch still survived to carry out a campaign of guerilla warfare against the Amaris Empire for the rest of the civil war.
** Aleksander Kerensky's course of action after the Amaris Coup. In a very short time, the SLDF deployed against the Periphery Uprising goes from an army putting down a rebellion to a military without a country. Their units are battered, their equipment badly needs refit, and precisely nobody is offering aid. They have no supply caches to draw on, no bases to live in, no pay to buy anything with, no reinforcements to call on, and accordingly no morale. So what does Kerensky do? He calls a cease-fire with the Taurian Concordat (who had cost him over a million men), then turns around and ''takes over the Rim Worlds Republic''[[note]]Bear in mind the Taurian Concordat and Rim Worlds Republic are on directly opposite sides of the Inner Sphere, meaning the SLDF had to travel almost a year just to get there[[/note]] in a brilliantly-staged campaign, taking multiple planets ''per month'' despite having essentially no reserve forces or supplies besides what they could scavenge from planets they conquered, until they land on the capital planet of the Republic and find themselves greeted as liberators. Did he invade out of a "you take mine, I'll take yours" sort of spite? No. He needed a base to operate from so they could regroup and resupply, and the Republic had a massive industrial base he could both make use of and deprive Amaris of.
-->'''[[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSolk-6yJ_-cJPJLtA4UB0A Tex Talks Battletech]]''': They needed a fucking miracle. What the Star League Defense Force had, though, was General Aleksander Sergeyevich Kerensky, and angry Russians tend to make it into the history books.
** After Kerensky took over the Rim Worlds Republic and went public with Amaris's crimes, the House Lords gave a long list of excuses for their lack of prior support and gave token support, but the true reinforcements Kerensky received came from another source: a wave of volunteers, soldiers, sailors, marines, pilots, mech jocks, anyone who could help. [[ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight Many of them were effectively AWOL from House militaries or other units and were bringing stolen equipment after they felt their own Houses had failed to do the right thing.]] Kerensky wound up with ''thirty-six regiments'' of them by the time the invasion of the Hegemony began.
** Task Force Leonidas, the prelude to Kerensky's liberation of Terra. Kerensky and the SLDF have freed the rest of the Terran Hegemony, and are ready to retake humanity's homeworld from Stefan Amaris. The problem is, Terra is guarded by an estimated 250 drone warships - ships which have already cost the SLDF numerous ships (and many divisions' worth of embarked ground forces) during the campaign to retake the Hegemony, and in numbers like those around Terra could end the final invasion before it even begins. So Kerensky does the only thing he can to give the attack a fighting chance: he tasks 40 warships with a simple, straightforward mission - jump to Terran orbit ahead of the main SLDF invasion fleet and destroy as many drone warships as possible before they fall. It's a textbook SuicideMission, which is why Kerensky gives every crewman assigned to those 40 ships a chance to back out, without any loss of face. Of the eight thousand people assigned to those 40 ships, fewer than ''thirty'' take this offer. By the end of the 42-hour engagement, which saw all but two SLDF ships destroyed (those two were scuttled and the surviving crew evacuated due to cascade failures), ''106'' drone warships have been taken out, severely thinning out Amaris' orbital defenses. The rest of the SLDF fleet still has a tough fight ahead of it, with the battle over Terra becoming the largest naval engagement in human history, but the brave sacrifice of Task Force Leonidas keeps the invasion of Terra from becoming even ''more'' of a bloodbath than it eventually becomes.
** Finally, after a brutal campaign of neutralizing Amaris' forces all over Terra, we get possibly ''the'' iconic image for ''[=BattleTech=]'' history buffs: General Aleksandr Kerensky literally kicking in the front door of Amaris' palace in his 75-ton ''Orion'' [=BattleMech=], pointing that ridiculous amount of firepower at Amaris' face, and demanding his surrender.
* Jerome Blake manipulating all the Successor States into recognizing the neutrality of [=ComStar=] and its properties. He then ''conquers Terra'', forcing the Great Houses to recognize the neutrality of the entire planet. He's a technician, not a warrior, general, or politician but he still managed to get one over on the Inner Sphere's most powerful and dangerous people and preserve the HPG network. Without Blake, the CrapsackWorld of the Inner Sphere would have been much worse. And to top it all off, his announcement of his takeover was pure RefugeInAudacity.
-->"People of the former Star League. I am Jerome Blake, Prime Administrator of [=ComStar=]. As of now, 0900 hours Terran Standard Time, military forces under my direct command have seized control of the Sol star system. [=ComStar=] is now officially in control of Terra and all former Star League facilities remaining in the system. From this time forward, I proclaim Terra and the entire Sol system as neutral under the protection of [=ComStar=], under the terms and conditions of the Communications Protocol of 2787. As the previous broadcast has made clear, [=ComStar=] has sufficient military force to defend the homeworld of mankind from any aggressor. Our goals are peaceful. We seek the unity and prosperity of mankind. This action was taken to save life in the devastating war that is unfolding. [=ComStar=] will continue to offer its communications services to all member states, as long as the Sol system and our neutrality are honored."
* Say what you will about Nicholas Kerensky, but his reforming of the Star League Defense Force into the Clans is an extended moment of awesome. First, with his twenty original Clans composed of just forty warriors each, he ends the Pentagon Civil War. Then, Nicholas continued to press societal reforms to bring his envisioned utopia about, and somehow got most everyone else on board with this program. There were dissenters, of course, but on the whole, the nascent Clans ate Nicholas' vision up with spoons. Perhaps most amazingly, despite his personal charisma and cult of personality being the primary means by which he exerted influence and control, the society he built was stable and adaptable enough to survive his death, the return to the Inner Sphere, and all the chaos and war that followed. While Nicholas Kerensky would probably be disgusted with what some Clans (especially his own Clan Wolf) ultimately became, his legacy is in zero danger of dying out completely.
* The War of 3039. Hanse Davion tried the same blitzkrieg attacks that gutted the Capellan Confederation in the Fourth Succession War on the Draconis Combine. Theodore Kurita answers with newly-mustered 'Mech units not bound by the HonorBeforeReason mentality that hampered the Combine previously, bogging down Hanse's offensive ''and'' counterattacking into Davion space. Shocked at this sudden reversal, Hanse backed down and the war ended inconclusively. The best part? ''Theodore was bluffing.'' The units he deployed were the only ones he had interested in following his reforms (or even, really, his orders), and Hanse could have thrown a few more [=RCTs=] at the problem, crushed Theodore's new guard, then waltzed all the way to Luthien. Theodore admits as much to Hanse's face during the Outreach Summit, Hanse is [[WorthyOpponent impressed]] and [[ActuallyPrettyFunny amused]].
* The first real victories by the Inner Sphere during the Clan Invasion:
** In the Federated Commonwealth, a Young Officer's Group lead by Victor Davion brainstorms ideas to deal with the Clans. Realizing the concept of a "front" in a space war is an illusion, Victor reasons that attempting to guess which worlds the Clans will hit next is a fool's gamble, and if you want to fight the Clans you have go where you know you'll find them: the worlds they've already taken. Victor picks Twycross because its inhospitable terrain and large dust storms will bring the fight into the close-in brawl the Inner Sphere warriors are best at, negating the Clans' range advantage. Even when a Front-Line Cluster (the Falcon Guards, one of Clan Jade Falcon's most storied units) turns out to have been grounded by the storm and ready to join the fight, Kai Allard-Liao singlehanded eliminates the entire Cluster by touching off a prepared booby trap. The salvage from this battle would benefit the [=FedCom=] for years to come.
** In the Draconis Combine, Theodore and Hohiro Kurita decide on, perhaps unsurprisingly, a more conservative but substantially more devious plan. They're pretty sure the Smoke Jaguars will hit Wolcott in their next wave, so rebrand some elite Genyosha regiments and alter their military records to include only their actions under their new names (so, none), making them appear to be raw green troops instead of skilled and battle-hardened veterans. When the Smoke Jaguars arrive in the Wolcott system, Hohiro greets them personally, stabbing a big red-hot needle into Smoke Jaguar pride (the Jags had captured Hohiro on Turtle Bay, but didn't realize it until after he'd escaped). The Combine uses the Clans' ''batchall'' against them, claiming that if the Combine wins, the Jaguars will never attack Wolcott again (giving the Combine a staging area deep in the Smoke Jaguar occupation zone) and the Jags will ''give them'' four Clan [=OmniMechs=] and four suits of Elemental [=BattleArmor=]. Victor scored a bunch of interesting salvage, Hohiro got the Clans to '''hand over intact pieces of cutting-edge military hardware'''. By basically taunting the Smoke Jaguars, simple false intelligence, and carefully choosing where to fight, after only a handful of exchanges of fire the Smoke Jaguar commander admits he lost this battle before he even landed. One of the keys to the Combine victory? The humble [[https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Savannah_Master Savannah Master]] hovercraft, zipping through the swamp to carve chunks off Clan 'Mechs before vanishing and denying the enemy a target. This battle, probably more than any other, convinced the Clans to carefully evaluate any ''batchalls'' from Inner Sphere forces, and if it's obvious on examination they're trying to game the system, the Clans can ignore it with no loss of honor.
** And last but the exact opposite of least, in the Free Rasalhague Republic, the fleeing Elected Prince and his personal guard stumble on the Clan Wolf flagship, carrying [=ilKhan=] Leo Showers. Scrambling against what they think is an ambush, the plucky Rasalhagians put up one hell of a fight, sorely outmatched by all the firepower Clan Wolf has at their disposal but desperately fighting for the sake of their sovereign. During the battle, [[https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Tyra_Miraborg Tyra Miraborg's]] ''Shilone'' [=AeroSpace=] fighter is crippled. Disengaging her thrust safeties, she slams the 65-ton fighter into the bridge of the ''Dire Wolf''. [=ilKhan=] Leo Showers is ejected into space, and Wolf Khan Ulric Kerensky is nearly killed, and the invasion grinds to a screeching halt as the Clans now have to regroup, elect a new [=ilKhan=], and even really reflect on if this invasion was such a good idea. This buys the Inner Sphere near a year off to rest, rearm, shift troop deployments, and at least try to unite against this strange new threat. It's not a stretch to say that if not for Tyra Miraborg's sacrifice, the Invasion ultimately may have gone far worse for the Inner Sphere. The Clans themselves greatly respected Tyra's Hail Mary play by adding her to their Remembrance verses, immortalizing her in their lore for her daring sacrifice. They also named a [[https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Miraborg DropShip class after her.]]
--->''Tyra of the Rasalhague led,\\
Forth her fiery flying Drakøns,\\
Gallant in bronze. A warrior woman whose hands\\
Were unskilled in the ways of hearth and home,\\
In skills of war she was hard and trained\\
To leave behind the airy winds and fight\\
Where the void is eternal and life fleeting.\\
Tyra and her warriors fought\\
Like crazed demons above Radstadt.\\
When her fighter was crippled by ours,\\
And her life leaked away into the endless night,\\
She chose to die\\
And sent her fighter like a spear\\
Through the'' Dire Wolf, ''claiming as'' isorla\\
''Our mighty ilKhan's life. Sing of our loss, warriors!\\
Sing, but of Tyra also,\\
[[WorthyOpponent For though an enemy, her courage none can deny.]]''
* During the year-long pause in the Clan Invasion, the Wolf's Dragoons bring the leadership of the Inner Sphere to Outreach to coordinate a defense against the Clans.
** They bring the heirs of the Houses together in a sibko-like training environment, hoping that the old blood hatreds haven't yet taken root. As the young nobles are waiting, they notice a bomb under the table, and start working to defuse it. This quickly devolves into a shouting match and soon fistfight between Victor Davion and Hohiro Kurita, with Shin Yodama and Galen Cox both trying to join in and hold each other back. Christian Kell reveals this was a SecretTestOfCharacter, and gives a blistering TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to explain to the young nobles how badly they'd failed. But what really drives the point home is Hanse Davion and Theodore Kurita, exactly the kinds of leaders the Dragoons feared were too entrenched in the old blood feuds, apologizing to each other for their sons' behavior and being perfectly friendly, cordial, and polite. Later, the group is on a training exercise to steal some Wolf's Dragoons 'Mechs. Victor, Hohiro, and Sun-Tzu Liao are the first three to get into their 'Mechs, and as Sun-Tzu powers his up, the arms briefly take aim at Kai Allard-Liao, who Sun-Tzu has expressed extreme hatred for. Cue Victor and Hohiro pressing the guns of their 'Mechs to Sun-Tzu's cockpit and simultaneously threatening to wipe out the Capellan Confederation if he even ''thinks'' about harming Kai. This is a huge step in Victor and Hohiro going from blood enemies to best friends.
** Another element in Victor and Hohiro's bonding is Victor and Omi Kurita, Hohiro's sister, falling in love. Hohiro storms up to Kai, demanding to know where they are, and Kai tells Hohiro to stop being an asshole about it, since they can't have any kind of real relationship and Victor would never behave dishonorably towards Omi, Hohiro should trust his sister, and just maybe that Victor and Omi becoming friends would be a ''good'' thing for the Inner Sphere as a whole, curbing the endless war and death. A deeply chastened Hohiro can only apologize. He later gives his blessing for Omi and Victor to take a walk together, a thing that is ''very'' SeriousBusiness in the Combine.
** Hanse Davion putting Thomas Marik over a barrel, forcing him to put the Free Worlds' League industry towards making upgrade kits for [=FedCom=], Rasalhague, and Combine 'Mechs. Hanse offers to have Joshua Marik, very ill with leukemia, taken to the New Avalaon Institute of Science for treatment -- ''if'' Thomas will stop screwing around and commit to making and shipping the kits. Thomas is aghast that Hanse would use a child's life as a bargaining chip, but Hanse replies that he doesn't give a damn how the Inner Sphere remembers him, so long as there is an Inner Sphere to do the remembering.
** Hanse also makes an informal but honorable non-aggression pact with Theodore, promising that, while the Clans remain a threat, [=FedCom=] troops will not enter the Combine. Then the Smoke Jaguars and Nova Cats team up to send a ''massive'' invasion force to Luthien, the Combine capital. On hearing the news, Hanse fears that if Luthien falls the Combine will collapse, and he'll have to invade to meet the Clans before they reach the Suns half of the Commonwealth. On the eve of battle, [=DropShips=] enter Luthien's orbit, the Combine generals fear Hanse is attacking in advance of the Clans, but the forces are the entirety of the Wolf's Dragoons and Kell Hounds, here on Hanse's dime to aid in Luthien's defense. Because Hanse promised ''[[ExactWords [=FedCom=]]]'' troops would not enter Combine space. Upholding both the spirit and letter of this informal agreement convinces Theodore to clue Hanse in about [=ComStar's=] Opertaion Scorpion.
* The Battle of Tukayyid. [=ilKhan=] Ulric Kerensky "accidentally" lets slip to [=ComStar=] Primus Myndo Waterly and Precentor Martial Anastasius Focht that the Clans' ultimate goal is to conquer Terra and reform the Star League. [=ComStar=] is based on Terra and has their own ambitions of being at the head of a reformed Star League. Waterly authorizes Focht to come up with a plan to stop the Clans. It should be noted that, since the invasion started, [=ComStar=] has been working closely with the Clans to administer their conquered populations, and Focht himself has been among the Clans for almost the whole invasion, at Ulric's side and learning how the Clans prepare for and engage in battle. So when Focht issues a challenge to the Clans for a proxy battle to decide the fate of Terra on the planet of Tukayyid, the Clans are surprised but agree, and Ulric as [=ilKhan=] negotiates the terms of the battle. If [=ComStar=] wins, the Clans advance no deeper into the Inner Sphere than the world of Tukayyid for fifteen years. If the Clans win, [=ComStar=] cedes Terra to their control. Focht announces his intention to defend Tukayyid with '''twelve armies''' of [=ComGuards=], inexperienced but highly trained troops with access to Star League era technology. Seeing what [=ComStar=] is prepared to bring to the field, Ulric advises the other Clans to prepare for a long, drawn out, total warfare campaign. The Clans ignore him, considering Focht and his forces little more than glorified technicians. But Ulric knows something they don't. Focht's MysteriousPast rasied a flag for Ulric, who asked Phelan to look into it, and Phelan came to the conclusion that Focht had once been Frederick Steiner, one of the finest military minds of the otherwise-rather-inept Lyran Commonwealth Armed Forces. And Focht put all his considerable military experience and knowledge into breaking the Clan invasion over his knee. He prepared a defense-in-depth at Tukayyid, hitting the Clans mercilessly with hit-and-run attacks. Knowing many Clan [=OmniMech=] configurations (and many Clan warriors) favored ammunition-heavy loadouts for quick, decisive battles, he goaded them into overextending their supply lines and squandering their ammunition, then raided their supply lines and depots. He hammered them with artillery, strafed them with [=AeroSpace=] fighters, ambushed them before fading away, and threw everything the [=ComGuards=] had at the Clans. Because of their bidding for the "honor" of drop order, the Clans hampered themselves with minimal forces, and the staggered drops of Clan forces meant that Focht could redeploy forces that would have otherwise been occupied because they'd already driven their Clan off Tukayyid. It was a meatgrinder that gutted the Clans and [=ComGuards=] almost equally; the Clans estimated total losses were 40% absolute, and far more so badly mangled it wasn't even good for scrap. Clans Smoke Jaguar, Nova Cat, and Diamond Shark lost effectively or actually ''their entire deployed force''. Clan Wolf was the only Clan to attain a victory, and that still came at the cost of one of their Khans, and it wasn't enough to keep the truce from going into effect. [=ComStar=] stopped the Clan advance cold and introduced the Clans to the horror of total warfare. And the best part? The whole thing played out exactly as Ulric wanted. This blow sent the Clans reeling for years, and while there were attempts to repudiate the truce and restart the invasion, the Clan war machine had been so badly mauled Ulric was able to stall them. Tukayyid set the stage for Operation: Bulldog and Task Force Serpent, which would culminate in the Great Refusal that effectively ended the threat of Clan invasion of the Inner Sphere for good. Not bad for a jumped-up telecom company CargoCult.
** There were even ulterior plans in place to seed sleeper agents in the Clans; several ROM agents were tasked with being deliberately captured and declared Bondsmen during the battle so they can infiltrate the Clans and find the Exodus Road, the route to the Clan Homeworlds. One such agent, Judith Faber, ended up the bondsman of Trent, a Smoke Jaguar warrior who was perennially screwed out of his due by dishonorable backstabbing politics. The two would eventually become the catalysts of the Jaguars' obliteration at the hands of the combined might of the Inner Sphere, and the Great Refusal that repudiated the whole invasion. All yet another strategic nuance to Focht's plan for the Battle of Tukayyid.
* In the aftermath of the War of Refusal, Clan Jade Falcon has been so badly mauled by Clan Wolf that not only is restarting the invasion now impossible for them, but it's only a matter of time before another Clan comes to Absorb them. So Khan Marthe Pryde empties her sibkos of prospective warriors and throws them into combat against the Lyran Alliance, making it as far as Coventry. [[BatmanGambit Because Coventry is just above the Tukayyid Truce Line, and only a few jumps from Tharkad, Katherine Steiner has to send the very best troops she can muster to reinforce it.]] Two regiments of Wolf's Dragoons, the Eridani Light Horse, Waco's Rangers (not counted among "the best") join the remnants of the existing defenders, including Caradoc "Doc" Trevena's "[[ReassignedToAntarctica Recon Company]]." After months of heavy fighting, more reinforcements arrive, in the form of Precentor Martial Anastasius Focht and [=ComStar's=] Invader Galaxy, Victor Davion and his Davion Heavy Guards, Kai Allard-Liao and his 1st St. Ives Lancers, Hohiro Kurita and the 1st Genyosha, the Knights of the Inner Sphere, the rest of the Wolf's Dragoons, the Kell Hounds, and more. Due to Katherine [[UriahGambit deliberately misleading Victor about the strength of the Falcon forces]], this thirteen regiments are going up against eight Galaxies, making the forces roughly equal. One side or the other will probably win, but both will be horribly mangled. Casualty projections are looking worse than Tukayyid. Then Victor gets an idea, thanks to Ragnar of Clan Wolf advising him on how to properly bid to fight the Clans. You see, before the second wave of reinforcements arrived, Doc Trevena had led his Titans on a raid on a Jade Falcon command post in Whitting. The last action on the planet before Victor's arrival was a Jade Falcon defeat engineered by Doc. So when Victor Davion and Marthe Pryde meet to fomalize their bidding, the Inner Sphere forces opening bid. . . is for Doc to offer ''hegira'', a rite by which the victor offers their vanquished opponent honorable withdrawal from the battlefield. Additionally, backroom deals between Katherine and Vlad Ward of the newly revived Clan Wolf result in the Wolves attacking the Falcons' exposed back ranks. Marthe, not wanting to destroy the forces she's trying to quickly get trained and experienced, accepts, and the months of brutal fighting are resolved peacefully, amicably, and 100% acceptably under the Clan rules of honorable combat.
* From the AnimatedAdaptation. There's something undeniably awesome about Adam Steiner having his 'mech shot out from under him in the duel in the last episode, ''and still winning''.
* Space Pope going on a personal crusade against Space Japan sounds like something that would only happen in ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000''. And yet that's exactly what happens in 3146 when the Draconis Combine invades New Avalon and executes the New Avalon Pope and his Cardinals.[[note]] It should be stated that there is a difference between the New Avalon Catholic Church and the Roman Catholic Church.[[/note]] In response, the surviving archbishops elect Grand Master Goodnight as Pope Leo XXI. The Pontificate now goes into battle in his 'Mech with his Knights Defensor against the Kuritans.
** What makes this even more awesome is the fact that Pope Leo XXI was a fan submission from the Kickstarter that was made canon.
* The Davion garrison on Xhosa VII defeating a Kurita batallion with ''Blackjacks'' and ''Locusts'' commanded by a green cadet fresh out of the Academy. Their success singlehandedly reversed the ''Blackjack's'' bad reputation.
* The story "Three Points of Pride" from the "Onslaught: Tales of the Clan Invasion" anthology turns what had been a throwaway joke into an epic tale of willpower and determination.
** The planet Sheliak has been invaded by Clan Ghost Bear. In desperation, they bid their All-Star Football team against the Clan, figuring they'd have a chance at a game they never would in a pitched battle. . . only to discover that not only did Clan Ghost Bear know the rules and strategy of the game, they had also brought Elementals - eight-foot tall genetically engineered supersoldiers - who easily brute-force their way past the best players Sheliak has to offer.
** Down by 84 points and with two minutes left on the clock, the Sheliak All-Star team decides that their pride will not allow them to end the game without putting some points on the board. How does one get into field goal range against a team of eight-foot tall supersoldiers? By running two of the most audacious trick plays in the history of American Football. . .
** And finally, the "Battle" of Sheliak was one of the cleanest games of Football ever played, as the Ghost Bears considered it a blot on their honor to commit a personal foul. Even the Sheliak All-Stars were highly impressed with the Bears' professionalism and sportsmanship. The surrender ceremony was taken live on the post-game show as if it were the awarding of a championship trophy.
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