Clan Invasion

The Clan Invasion (officially called Operation REVIVAL by the Clans themselves) was a massive incursion into the Inner Sphere by the forces of The Clans between 3049 and 3052.

It is one of the most significant events of Battletech History, as well as one of the most explored.

Prelude

In Clan Space in the early 31st century after two centuries of growth, there was increasing pressure by the Crusader Faction to return to the Inner Sphere and restore Star League. The Warden Faction had managed to stall efforts through various means, from sending the Wolf's Dragoons to spy on the Inner Sphere and various other stalling tactics. Given that even the Capellan Confederation still outnumbered the totality of The Clans by a significant margin this was a reasonable position to make. Nevertheless, both sides of the isle kept badgering each other about the issue, before things came to a head in 3048.

One of ComStar's many side projects was the Exploror Corps, a fleet which probed beyond the Periphery in part to see what happened to the Exodus Fleet. The Explorer Corps ship Outbound Light eventually found the answer to that question in the worst way, having stumbled not only into Clanspace, but also onto the capital system of Clan Smoke Jaguar, who were both staunch Crusaders and even stauncher assholes. They captured the exploration ship, interrogated her crew and told the Council that the Inner Sphere had found them, and it was the time to act.

Of course, that meant that there needed to be an all-out tournament arc among the 17 clans as to who actually got to go invading the Inner Sphere; as is/was Clan Tradition for the Clans to do politics and also basic military strategy through ritual combat. The only guaranteed spot being that of Clan Wolf's, who it was decided had to be among them, which surprisingly made almost everyone happy; for the sentimental among the Clans, it meant that Kerensky's bloodname would finally return to the Inner Sphere as the rightful IlKhan and rebuild the Star League. For the Crusaders, most of whom didn't care for Clan Wolf's moderating presence, it felt like appropriate retribution after forcing them to wait so goddamn long.

After two days of bidding, a number of combat trials began among six Clan finalists, which were then whittled down into Smoke Jaguar, Ghost Bear, and Jade Falcons, all of whom would follow Clan Wolf into the Inner Sphere along three separate corridors in order to conquer enough worlds to destabilize the Inner Sphere, and inevitably conquer Terra. The Clans would be coming in waves behind them, but often found they were sending more vanguard than even the first wave was expecting to bring as their warriors became too overexcited.

Invasion

The Invasion began in the "northern" Periphery if looking at the map of the universe from top down, though most of the gains there were minimal at best, and most of the key powers they could've interacted with (and almost certainly wipe out in a matter of months) were lightyears away, and any resistance they actually ended up meeting was token at best, sometimes only a few Mechwarriors or Aerospace Fighters using horrifiyingly outdated materials. As they cleaned up and resupplied for the journey into the Inner Sphere proper, they ended up in contact with ComStar. Since they were both megalomaniacal and planning on taking complete control of Man's destiny through the forceful re-implementation of the Star League, they actually ended up getting along famously, and through careful negotiation, a devious plan was hatched: ComStar would jam communications coming and going from Clan-targeted worlds, and the Clans would give up some of the worlds conquered by them and stay out of their way. While not everybody was on board, it seemed to fill both side's agendas perfectly fine.

Wave One: The Clans draw first blood

A common refrain of Clan Commanders shortly after reaching the Inner Sphere

Clans Wolf, Jade Falcon, Ghost Bear, and Smoke Jaguar entered the Inner Sphere for the first time in March of 3050, using ComStar's blackout as their cover. Each of which had it's own invasion corridor moving in from the "North" down "South". At one end Jade Falcon's Corridor pushed into Lyran Space at the "East", as did the Wolf's. The Ghost Bears pushed into the Raselhauge Free Republic with the Smoke Jaguars on the west pushing into the Draconis Combine.

The Battle of Tukayyid

The Battle of Tukayyid was a massive Trial of Possession with not just Terra, but the fate of ComStar and the Inner Sphere as a whole up for grabs. ComStar designated 14 objectives that they would defend on the planet of Tukayyid, of which the Clans would be attacking. If the Clans took the majority of them; they'd be given free reign to finish the race to Terra, and ComStar would willingly merge with the clan who reached it first, forfeit the Inner Sphere's rights to any HPG Network usage, and become administrative staff. But if ComStar managed to hold the line, then the Clans would have to agree to a 15 year truce and conquer no worlds closer to Terra than Tukayyid. Given that ComStar themselves had offered the fight, pretty much every clan was more than willing to jump onboard to fight under these rules, barring the IlKhan himself, who repeatedly cautioned that the Inner Sphere hadn't done this before and was suspicious as to why they'd suddenly be so willing to do it now. The other clans, sick of Ulrich's bullshit, basically told him to mind his own business. Naturally, the bidding process got ferocious among the Clans, who saw ComStar's religious trappings as like taking candy from a baby, and eventually created an order of operations for the battle: Smoke Jaguar got to land first and attack the two largest cities on the planet, then Nova Cats, then Ghost Bear, then Steel Vipers, then Diamond Sharks, then Jade Falcons, and finally Clan Wolf; who would be given the "least glorious" task of beating whoever was left at two of the smaller settlements on the planet, five days after Smoke Jaguar showed up.

That was the plan anyway, but ComStar was under no compulsion to actually follow such a thing through to the end.

ComStar hadn't chosen Tukayyid for no reason; it was an agricultural planet with lots of wide open, flat space that ultimately meant there were few places to hide, and fewer places to bunker down to repair and resupply; something that the Clan OmniMechs desperately needed. After months of analyzing the clan's strategies and their attack patterns, it was discovered that Clanner warfare had a major weakness; one tha only Clan Wolf had learned of. Their strategy was played directly into their strengths as they picked and chose their battles; covering the critical strategic weakness of having never really fought wars of attrition, and that was exactly what ComStar was banking on to win the day. Further, with the Clans deciding to each attack their own objectives without networking, ComStar was at a significant advantage where Focht could basically lead the entirety of Com Guard from a single Bunker and coordinate his forces, making sure everybody knew their part in the battle before the Clannerscum ever hit the ground. Just to make sure, most of the area around the objectives became deathtraps and pincer points, designed to drag out the fighting as long and as hard as possible before AeroSpace fighters and artillery could soften up the Clans just enough to receive the killing blow. And just to make sure he could handle this grueling effort, Focht ensured that there were enough supplies to keep the Com Guard going for over a month of sustained fighting.

How did it go? The easiest way to put it is that Focht played most of the Clanners like a goddamn fiddle.

• Smoke Jaguar had gotten reamed as you no doubt learned, and were more than eager to try to regain their lost glory, but in the process of bidding had basically undercut themselves by a third. Further, they thought the two Galaxies of troops/mechs were more than enough to attack the largest city on the planet, and by the time they had found that the initial attack was a cover for two whole divisions to crowd the valley that the city was in, and basically spent their time getting suckered into fight after fight until the IlKhan called them off. One Galaxy saw the writing was on the wall and left, but the other was incensed by what they thought was Clan Wolf cowardice that they vowed to fight to the death. And they were summarily routed. While they only lost 30% of their forces, the Clan lost over 80% of the materials they had brought to the planet in order to conquer what they thought was going to be a pretty easy fight.
• Clan Nova Cat's strategy of dive-bomb into position with DropShips, dump all the troops from atmosphere without the use of a drop pod was countered hard by Focht basically ensuring that the DropShips couldn't get near the planet surface, and the Alpha Galaxy was almost completely taken out by a pilot going on a suicide run to blow up their principal DropShip, and forced most of Nova Cat's forces into a stalemate with minefields and surprise attacks. Nova Cat would finally begin to push against ComStar's stoic defense, getting exceptionally close to the targeted cities and managing to get some much needed supplies...only to find themselves attacked by the entire garrison in one of the cities, forcing them and all the other Nova Cat forces off the planet by hammering them as hard and as fast as possible; taking the win for ComStar.
• Ghost Bear was the first Clan to actually gain some real ground against ComStar, as they'd been fighting in Rasalhague space for awhile, and were more than aware that the Inner Sphere probably didn't give a shit about the Zellbringen code, telling their troops to advance slowly and just attack both cities they were expected to face at once. While the fighting was fierce, they were able to take one, but then had trouble taking the other. Both sides were battered and bruised until the Preceptor in-charge offered the chance to call it a partial victory, since the defeat of other Clans on the surface meant that any of her not-broken down troops/mechs could be moved elsewhere. Ghost Bear, a conservative clan that was more than willing to stop fighting if it meant they didn't have to expend any further resources, took the agreement happily and left the planet; satisfied with their small victory.
• Steel Viper got to fight in a not-so-open space, getting stuck in the worst toxic mudpit in the entire planet. While they naturally tried their damnedest to not go through the pit, Com Guard artillery eventually forced them into the mire, and when they began to slow down, Com Guard's trap was sprung; forcing them into the mudpit had ultimately negated all of their advantages in technology and speed, and Com Guard's positioning was like that of a beartrap. And just before they considered retreat, the Preceptor in charge got on Xbox Live to tell the Viper's Khan that her mother was fat and they should fight about it. Not taking that lying down, they tried to divebomb into Com Guard territory with further resolve, but had their supply lines cut off, and had to expend almost all of their reserve Galaxies' work to fight their way across the mire...right into the arms of two untouched divisions, who had been waiting for them to show up. Both of their Khans were wounded in the attack, but the Vipers took plenty of ComGuard down on their way to their defeat.
• Diamond Shark had shown up late to the Invasion, and were desperate to show that they meant business. However, they had also chosen two of the cities that were closest from each other, meaning that their defense might as well have been one gigantic megacity with a road in between both sides. While Diamond Shark took their time setting up, ROM spent their time making sure they knew exactly what was coming, and it had disastrous consequences for the Clan; while they put up a grand old fight, their leadership made the critical mistake of focusing down on One division that had particularly insulted them, leading to them being completely overwhelmed when the forces that had finished up fighting Ghost Bear and Steel Viper showed up as support. The resulting melee was so devastating and so destructive to Diamond Shark that much of their Warrior Caste was decimated in the fighting, leading to their transition to the Merchant Caste, and inevitably back into becoming Clan Sea Fox.
• Clan Wolf, Mary Sues of Mary Sues that they were, were fed up with their brother clans basically telling them to kick rocks, and decided that they would bid to be last in line to see what ComStar did. It worked out fantastically for them, as they basically beat Focht at every possible turn, easily grabbing the two cities and by extension, their objectives.

Aftermath

ComStar's victory was more or less absolute, and as a result the Truce of Tukayyid was signed. It devastated both sides of the conflict, unsurprisingly. The Clans had lost tens of thousands of good soldiers at minimum, and some clans had to replace their Khans. Further, it more or less broke their entire society, and both of the ideologies that were prevalent, simply by seeing just how willing the Inner Sphere was to protect themselves from their influence, and now that they were stuck, they had to deal with what would become years of guerilla warfare from the conquered populace, and the wrath of the Inner Sphere, who had then been "gifted" OmniTech technology and Clanner strategy by ComStar. By this win, the Inner Sphere was allowed to fortify to the point that any Clan that had a hope of trying to invade again would be stymied almost immediately. Further, with their defeat, the Second Star League was founded under the machiavellian eye of Sun-Tzu Liao, and they began a massive counteroffensive to punish the Clans, but Smoke Jaguar specifically for their treachery and brutality, ultimately wiping them out completely, snuffing out any hopes that a Clan Invasion could feasibly restart, all ending in the "Trial of Refusal", which ended the invasion for good.

However, it was not without pain for the Inner Sphere. The Free Rasalhague Republic, once a necessary border-state, was now a mere eight worlds large, the Combine and the Lyran Commonwealth had lost dozens of worlds to Clanner hands, and as the dust settled, it was clear that the rebirth of the Star League was an alliance of Convenience rather than that of a genuine want to reform. Further, ComStar was terrified of their secret of having helped the Clans at all to have come out, and thus attempted to secularize and purge elements that might've attempted to enforce the issue.

The consequences of this were not fun for anybody.