Omniss Seed
Sarna News
| Omniss Seed | |
|---|---|
| Vessel Profile | |
| Type | DropShip |
History[edit]
The Omniss Seed was a DropShip, possibly a Pocket WarShip, associated with an attack on a flotilla of Clan Snow Raven ships in the Dante system in March 3071. The Omniss Seed was strongly involved in the highly critical media coverage within the Outworlds Alliance of the conduct of the Snow Ravens during the battle in the system.[1]
The source for the media reporting was a transcript believed to be the communications log of the Omniss Seed, as recorded during and immediately before the attack. According to the transcript the Omniss Seed was a commercial agrifreighter engaged in a standard trade run to the planet Dante from Dindatari when it was challenged and logged by the Aegis-class heavy cruiser CSR Morning Violence. According to the transcript, as the Omniss seed was being logged, a JumpShip jumped into the Dante system, arriving almost on top of the Morning Violence, inflicting heavy damage on the cruiser; a second JumpShip was then logged as arriving in-system and launching two DropShips including a Union that subsequently engaged and destroyed the Clan Carrier-class DropShips CSR Ebony Claw and CSR Night Wing before the Lola III-class destroyer CSR Bloody Talon assumed control of the Snow Raven forces in-system and ordered them to fire at will, including the Omniss Seed in with the hostile vessels despite frantic protests from the crew of the civilian vessel.[1]
Unbeknownst to whoever prepared the transcript of the Omniss Seed's communications logs, both the Bloody Talon and the Morning Violence had been destroyed during two destructive Trials of Possession fought between the Snow Ravens, Clan Star Adder and Clan Goliath Scorpion for ownership of the shipyards at Lum in late 3068.[2] The Snow Raven flotilla present in the Dante system had been engaged in preparations for a Clan Council following the Grand Council meeting held in March 3071 after the removal of ilKhan Garrett Sainze of Clan Fire Mandrill from office. The Clan Council meeting had been called in the knowledge that the Home Clans were becoming increasingly vitriolic and hostile towards the Snow Ravens and the other Clans with a presence in the Inner Sphere.[3]
The Clan Council had barely begun, with only a minority of the Snow Raven Bloodnamed in attendance, when the assembled Snow Raven ships came under attack. The first blow was a JumpShip which deliberately jumped on top of the Nightlord-class battleship CSR Snow Raven, fatally interpenetrating the two ships, with few surviving on the Snow Raven to be recovered later.[3] The Snow Raven records also showed that before the other Snow Raven ships could begin responding to the attack on the Snow Raven, a second hostile JumpShip arrived and disgorged a trio of Pocket WarShips which proceeded to attack the Snow Raven vessels, destroying the Ebony Claw and Night Wing before being destroyed themselves in turn.[3]
The Snow Raven response was heavy-handed; the Snow Raven ships lashed out with extreme prejudice, destroying fourteen merchant JumpShips and more than a score of nearby DropShips.[3] The total Snow Raven losses included the Snow Raven, a Galaxy of Snow Raven forces and nearly the loss of saKhan Broderick Sukhanov - Sukhanov was heavily injured in the attack, but subsequently recovered alive from the wreckage of the Snow Raven.[4] The heavy-handed reaction prompted outrage from the Outworlds Alliance Senate, whose furious members called for the Snow Ravens to be removed outright from Alliance space. It took a year of effort from President Mitchell Avellar to restrain the Senate and bring the two groups back to the negotiating table, and the Snow Ravens' invidious position in the Clan Homeworlds left them with little choice but to agree to many of the new concessions levied on them during their negotiations with the Alliance.[3]
The transcript logs presented as being from the Omniss Seed were subsequently identified to be propaganda material, presumably released by the Word of Blake forces responsible for the attack.[5]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Jihad Hot Spots: 3072, pp. 21–22: "Suicide Jump"
- ↑ The Wars of Reaving, p. 40: "Lamentations and the Raven"
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 The Wars of Reaving, pp. 64–65: "Machinations and Manipulations"
- ↑ Jihad: Final Reckoning, p. 49: "The Jihad in Review"
- ↑ Field Report: Clans, p. 18: "Fleet Assets"