Clover Spear: The War of '56 is a BattleTech AU fanfiction begun by Panzerfaust 150, with Omakes by Yellowhammer and Gladiusone, that asks a simple question: "What if Hanse Davion had survived that heart attack in 3052?" Major changes to the universe and timeline occur when Hanse Davion paints what could be called his masterpiece in the humbling of the Clans. And, it may also change the face of war in the Inner Sphere forever.
The story can be read at Fanfiction.net: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11573171/1/Clover-Spear-The-Story-of-the-56-War
Clover Spear: The War of '56 provides examples of:
- Always with You: A good example of this is Katherine Steiner-Davion's thoughts before the launching of ACTIVE PANTHER.
- Alternate Universe Fic: The entire basis of the fic.
- Anyone Can Die: The author has pointed out that 16 major characters have died thus far in the story (and more probably have died off screen with the Grand Council Melee).
- Apocalypse Cult: Word Of Blake. Enough said.
- Better to Die than Be Killed: Minoru Kurita goes out like a boss, and takes a lot of Black Dragons with him., could also be Taking You with Me
- Beware the Nice Ones: Katherine Steiner-Davion and Omi Kurita..yeah, somebody should have thought twice about ticking them off. Both ladies get big into inflicting painful vengeance.
- Career-Ending Injury: Victor Steiner-Davion survives a bomb attack by the Word of Blake that kills his parents. but at an unfortunate cost.
- Child Soldiers: A particularly poignant scene involves the Capellans training school girls to meet the coming Davion invasion of Sian, and some do not want to be a part of it, with lethal results. There is also the Jade Falcon sibko led in an doomed defense of Maakar Island on Sudeten.
- Civil War: The Combine Civil War, and all that comes with it.
- Cold Sniper: A scene from the battle of Sarna is a classic demonstration of this trope.
- Death from Above: A major part of the story. The Fedcom makes artillery a force to be feared, and uses new (or really rediscovered technologies) to turn the tables on the Clans.
- Decisive Battle: There's three of em! Sudeten and Waldorff on the Clan front, and Sarna on the Capellan front. Luthien might also count, but then again, it might qualify as more of a Last Stand.
- Doom Troops: Von Strang's Legion on Sudeten.
- Elites Are More Glamorous: Loki and the Rabid Foxes make several appearances in the story.
- Evil Versus Evil: When the Jade Phoenix Cluster makes its appearance on Sarna, and what they do to the Nightrider Regiment of the "Big MAC". Could also make a case for Even Evil Has Standards with regards to the Falcon view of the Capellans. Also could be Curb-Stomp Battle due to the ease in which the Jade Phoenixes disposed of the Nightriders.
- Fallen Princess: Omi Kurita faces this during the events of the story after the Smoke Jaguars take Luthien in a Pyrrhic Victory.
- Fantasy Conflict Counterpart: Some have mentioned the story adopts elements of Bagaration, the offensive that destroyed Army Group Center in World War II, and the Pacific War on the Capellan front.
- Fix Fic: More than a few fans think this story is a good fix for the story lines of the Federated Commonwealth Civil War, the Jihad, and Katherine Steiner-Davion.
- Heroic Sacrifice: There's a bit of it, especially most of the Kurita family, with the exception of Minoru, the Bolivian Army Ending might also apply.
- Heroic Willpower: Katherine Steiner-Davion and her struggle with the family curse of Dombrowski-A
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Sun-Tsu Liao, from his decision to to open his war with the Federated Commonwealth by attacking New Avalon and killing Hanse Davion and Melissa Steiner-Davion, and badly wounding Victor, (A Blakist plan to be sure, but he didn't object at all) to his stupidly thinking Katherine would be the royal he could actually force to the peace table, he's defining this trope rather well here.
- Humongous Mecha: Somewhat subverted, but not totally. Combined Arms, which was a way of life in the AFFC before all this, is taken to a more logical extreme.
- I Warned You: Talon Zahn's fatal "I told you so" moment with Sun-Tsu Liao.
- La Résistance: The Fedcom uses this to prepare the battlefield against Clans Jade Falcon and Steel Viper, with (mostly) successful results.
- Let’s You and Him Nuke Each Other: The Blakist regiments on Sian killed a Capellan platoon, then fired a tactical nuke from their location at an AFFC headquarters in order to try to trigger a nuclear battle and cover the regiments’ escape. Katherine and Victor discuss the situation and refuse to take the bait, knowing that nuking the Forbidden City would only stiffen rebellions on captured worlds and boost the eventual death toll astronomically.
- Line in the Sand: A particularly poignant version of this is shown involving a field hospital.
- Meaningful Funeral: The funeral of Melissa and Hanse Steiner-Davion
- Nuclear Weapons Taboo: Subverted at several points in the story.
- Pyrrhic Victory: Luthien is all but referred to as this, being described as "That poisoned and radioactive chalice is riddled with resistance cells who are still killing the warriors who are occupying his 'great prize" by Natasha Kerensky, who also makes reference to the crippling losses the Smoke Jaguars took defeating the Combine, along with very un-clanlike methods like Orbital Bombardment, and of 14 Clusters involved in the invasion, only five being anything near combat capable.
- Retail Therapy: Omi Kurita, Katherine Steiner-Davion, Yvonne Steiner-Davion, one DMI operative, and the Federated Commonwealth treasury. It's described in the story as a "terror raid." It is complete with a lovingly described Shopping Montage and a Shockingly Expensive Bill of 53 pages!
- Retired Badass: Hanse Davion pretty much embodies this with his role in planning Clover Spear.
- Revenge by Proxy: Several characters are engaged in this during the course of the story. Katherine Steiner-Davion's rampage against Sun-Tsu Liao is legendary. See also Roaring Rampage of Revenge due to the sheer scope and creativity of the revenge. Katherine sends him a message to taunt him as a hit goes down on Sun-Tsu's sister, and his head of the Maskirovka
- Robbing the Dead: What the Nova Cats do to the Smoke Jaguars after their "victory" on Luthien.
- Sanity Slippage: After Katherine launches a retaliatory assassination raid on his relatives with LOKI and Rabid Fox operatives in revenge for his asassination of Hanse and Melissa and sends him a video recording of it as a warning, Sun-Tzu Liao snaps and begins to show signs of his family's more negative eccentric traits, one of the symptoms being hallucinations. Even earlier in the story, there were signs that he was close. He bitterly remarked that his mother's laughter was in his head.
- Shoot the Messenger: Sun Tzu Liao caustically thinks to himself about how his family made doing so into an art form, and how he's still writing out pardons to previous messengers killed or subjected to a Fate Worse than Death. He then shoots one of the messengers giving him a briefing himself, albeit one of his mother's less than competent sycophants. He then compliments the person that had the courage to tell him unfavorable news and promotes her to his personal advisor.
- Shopping Montage: Katherine, Yvonne, and Omi undergo an epic shopping spree at the largest mall in Avalon City. Victor remarks he'll have to sell off multiple regiments to pay the bill.
- Silk Hiding Steel: Omi Kurita, pretty much describes her in ANY Battletech story, but especially this one.
- Soldier Versus Warrior: The Clans get an education on the Patton quote of "The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his."
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Played straight at first, but later subverted when, between the Smoke Jaguars taking Luthien and the Black Dragon Society doing their thing, Omi Kurita is forced to flee to the Federated Commonwealth and is at Victor's bedside when he wakes up from his coma.
- Tactical Withdrawal: The Steel Vipers manage to do this...leaving the Jade Falcons in a bit of a lurch.
- The Coup: Between the League and the Combine, there's plenty of that sort of thing to go around.
- The Starscream: Marthe Pryde attempts to forestall the absorption of her Clan by shooting dead Ulric Kerensky, and her own Khan, and ordering the Jade Falcon Navy on the mother of all death rides. All she manages to do is touch off 'The Harrowing', a civil war so bad, the author won't write about it directly.
- The War Room: Quite a few scenes take place at Mount Davion or the Triad.
- This Banana is Armed: Hanse Davion's mapcase.
- Trading Bars for Stripes: There is a bit where we see the Capellan Confederation's way of filling the ranks of the "Corrective Infantry Battalions."
- Urban Warfare: Sarna in all of it's ugly horrors. It's got it all, bitter block to block fighting, snipers, atrocities, booby traps, and landmines. It's the stuff of nightmares.
- You Are What You Hate: Miyoko Kurita. Her grief is her undoing.
