Scorpion Empire
Sarna News
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| Scorpion Empire | |
|---|---|
| Faction Profile | |
| Time period: | 3140 – present |
| Classification: | Deep Periphery Nation |
| Controlled systems: | 45 |
| Capital world: | Bremen |
| Ruler title: | Khan |
| Military: | Imperio Militar Del Escorpión |
| Secret Service: | Clan Goliath Scorpion Watch |
The Scorpion Empire is a Deep Periphery military power, created in the mid-thirty-second century after the Escorpión Imperio conquered the Hanseatic League and unified the Hansa with the peoples of Clan Goliath Scorpion, Nueva Castile, and the Umayyad Caliphate.
Contents
History
After Clan Goliath Scorpion was Abjured from Clan Space in December 3078, it evacuated most of its assets to Waypoint 531, leaving half its touman and a Galaxy of solahma, Watch personnel, police subcaste, and malcontents behind as a rearguard, who were ultimately overrun and destroyed by Clans Star Adder and Cloud Cobra. Under former Ice Hellion and new Khan Connor Rood, the surviving Scorpions gathered at Waypoint 531 in the deep Periphery, and then invaded and conquered Nueva Castile and the Umayyad Caliphate, establishing the Escorpión Imperio in 3080. The Scorpions chose to integrate the Castilians and Umayyads into their Clan and its caste system using the Ghost Bear-Rasalhague model and to rule as partners rather than as conquerors. The Scorpions modified it somewhat from Clan norms, adding two new castes---the support and garrison castes, to augment the customary technician, scientist, merchant, and laborer castes.
The integration did not go smoothly over the next five years though, as the Scorpions struggled to break decades of mistrust between the formerly hostile Umayyads and Castilians by imposing the Clan doctrine of "might makes right" for conflict resolution. With a more developed and refined feudal society governed by ranked nobility, the Castilians adapted more easily to the system of Clan honor. But the Umayyads despised their general placement within the lower castes, and fostered an underground resistance movement that engaged in rioting and terrorism against the Imperio, such as murdering a Scorpion Head Merchant in broad daylight.[1] To complicate matters, Clan Watch agents from the Cloud Cobras, Coyotes and Stone Lions infiltrated the Escorpión Imperio to gather intelligence and spread rumors about the Umayyad's alleged ancestry to the Not-Named-Clan. In order to alleviate the problems and promote unity, the Scorpions decided to accelerate planning for the invasion and conquest of the Umayyads' and Castilians' mutually hated foe, the Hanseatic League.
Shaping the Imperio
Over the next sixty years, the Scorpions carefully developed and shaped the Imperio into a powerful Periphery nation by fusing the Castilians and Umayyads together into the ruling Goliath Scorpion caste and honor systems, by crushing Umayyad dissent, rioting, and terrorism, and killing or capturing and expelling enemy Clan Watch agents back to the Homeworlds. To further secure the Castilians' and Umayyads' investment and cooperation within the Imperio, the Goliath Scorpions also created new Bloodnames from their best warriors for the Clan's breeding program as a gesture of goodwill. The Scorpions also prioritized the construction of modern Clan production facilities so that they could rebuild their touman, build new infrastructure, hyperpulse generators, and manufacturing capacity to raise the Imperio's technology level to the 32nd century standards, and open new schools and academies to instruct and train its citizens and warriors the Clan way. Khan Enrico Kirov, who succeeded Khan Connor Rood in 3108, also shifted the Scorpions' capital to Valencia, sparking a technological and cultural revolution there, and established new colonies closer to the Hanseatic worlds to extend the Imperio's reach toward that target. Kirov also preserved the wisdom and experience of his older Scorpion warriors, particularly Galaxy commanders, by creating the reKhan position and reassigning them there as they reached middle age rather than consigning them to solamha units. Likewise, he relaxed many of the traditional Clan customs and restrictions among the castes to further ease the integration of the Castilians and Umayyads into Imperio society. Although it took much time, Kirov's rebuilding and reform program paid off greatly as the Imperio regained the Scorpion's capability to produce Clan technology, including OmniMechs. By 3140, the Goliath Scorpions had recovered much of their pre-abjuration strength and were ready finally fall upon the Hanseatic League.[2]
Campaign against the League
While the Escorpión Imperio spent decades preparing for the inevitable invasion, the 29-world Hanseatic League wasted little time improving its defenses against this rising new threat, investing heavily in its military at the expense of its economy and the quality of life of its people. Among its preparations were the hiring of experienced officers and mercenaries from the Lyran Commonwealth and the expansion of its forces to include three additional Regional Defense Forces and three new Convoy Defense Forces. [3]
The Escorpión Imperio's invasion finally came in January 3140 when nine fully integrated Galaxies of Goliath Scorpion, Umayyad, and Castilian troops, led by Khan Magon Scott, stormed into the League to take on nine of its Regional Defense Forces and its three Convoy Defense Forces, commanded by Captain-Marshal Rudolf Schmidt. The ensuing three-month campaign was brutal with heavy loses on both sides but in March the Imperio forces reached the League capital of Bremen, where Elementals were dispatched to capture the governing Council of Merchants. However, the council members chose suicide over surrender or being taken as bondsmen. Schmidt soon ordered the surviving Hansa forces to surrender, but a few die-hard remnants and mercenaries refused and fought to the bitter end. With the conquest of the Hanseatic League, Khan Scott announced the creation of the Scorpion Empire, comprising the territory of both the former Escorpión Imperio and the League, bringing its vast military industries and merchant trading networks under Scorpion control. Scott's victory secured, Clan Goliath Scorpion emerged as the second-most powerful entity of the Deep Periphery, rivaling even the powerbase of Clan Star Adder and the remaining Home Clans.[4]