Snow Fire

Snow Fire (b. 2825 - d. 2850) was the Kurita Courtesan School name of a Lyran Commonwealth covert operative who successfully assassinated Coordinator Yoguchi Kurita in 2850.

Operation Prying Mantis

Born in the Lyran Commonwealth and trained by Lyran Intelligence Corps, Snow Fire was planted in the Rasalhague Military District of the Draconis Combine and spent several years as a low-grade geisha, secretly obtaining information from her clients. Skillfully she attracted the eye of one of the Coordinator's closest personal advisers, who bought out her contract and brought her to Luthien. Snow Fire received and sent coded communications to her "mother", in fact the highest ranks in the LIC, serving as a valuable source of information deep in Kurita space. In 2848 Snow Fire received orders direct from Archon Claudius Steiner for Operation Prying Mantis along with knowledge of the sadistic destruction of House Steiner 4th Royal Guard at the hands of Yoguchi's son Hugai.

With no hesitation given her final fate, she spent a year and half steadily advancing her standing in the Imperial Palace and attempting to attract the eye of the Coordinator himself. She was successful and became Yoguchi's favorite concubine, when fate forced her to delay. In the face of a highly successful Federated Suns offensive, Yoguchi chose to lead the defense of the world of Tishomingo himself, but greatly underestimated the size of attacking forces. With both House Davion and Kurita unaware he was alive, Yoguchi led resistance forces on-planet until his sister Roweena suspected he lived and organized his extraction.

Both Yoguchi and Snow Fire eagerly awaited being reunited for very different reasons, and on his first night back on Luthien, she quietly slitted his throat with a plasticine knife. After placing a hand embroidered patch of the House Steiner 4th Royal Guard on his body, Snow Fire took her own life with poison secreted in a hollow tooth.

Aftermath

The death of Yoguchi so soon after his miraculous return shook the Draconis Combine, while Claudius Steiner never lived to see Prying Mantis come to fruition, dying himself under clouded circumstances in 2849. Publicly Combine propaganda put forth the idea that Yoguchi was killed while heroically fighting a whole team of assassins, but the House Kurita inner circle felt great shame in the very concept that a lone Lryan spy could get so close undetected and assassinate the Coordinator. Yoguchi's successor, his brother Miyogi, felt honor-bound to avenge this insult which lead to the largest Kurita offensive against the Lyran's center of 'Mech production Hesperus II and the loss of the last active Successor State WarShips until the arrival of the Clans.

The fact that Snow Fire was able to remain undetected whilst maintaining contact with her "mother" lead to a large and varied array of conspiracy theories about how she was able to complete her mission. Some point to ComStar shielding the messages from House Kurita, lent credence due to the later knowledge ComStar actively fanned the flames of the Succession Wars. Others point to Yoguchi's alienation of the ISF, placing the organization under the command of the DCMS, allowing his murder as the climax of a shadow war against him.

The fact that her true love was apparently a member of the destroyed 4th Royal Guard lent her actions the air of tragic romance and helped inspire endless countless paintings, dramas and ballads about celebrating her actions and possible origins across the Inner Sphere.

References

• House Steiner Sourcebook
• House Kurita Sourcebook