Hey Folks, today we’re taking a bit of a break from our typical Monday Rules article because we’re gearing up for Thanksgiving here in the US. Today I'm going to lay out a FAN PROJECT. This is not official CGL material, nor is it endorsed by the powers that be at BattleTech, but it is something that i find interesting. It’s also a “My Dudes are cool” sort of project. Unlike most of those projects, i’m not looking at building my own Merc unit or House Command. Today, we’re taking a look at a Clan. (That’s right, friends, today we’re going to work our way through the mental exercise of building a clan).
Let’s see what weird ass direction my brain goes on this one, shall we?
So, The official BattleTech Discord (Which is an absolutely hopping place, full of interesting people to chat with and ideas to bounce) keeps bringing up Hyperspace Squids as something that keeps eating ships that don’t show up at their destinations when jumping. This started another conversation, and i thought the word salad Void Kraken sounded cool. Then i put the word Clan in front of it, and we were off to the races.
So, what the hell is Clan Void Kraken, why are they, and where do they come from?
Why Clan Void Kraken?
Our strength is a fellowship, and it is long since time our numbers grew again. I submit that each of our clans will apportion warriors, technicians, merchants, laborers, and scientists to grow our fellowship, and return our numbers. For far too long, we have been four. Now we shall be eight.
Illkhan Hannibal Bannacek,
January 9th 3101.
Clan Void Kraken was spun off the Star Adders following the Illkhan’s declaration. Taking a galaxy’s worth of warriors, and approximately 25% of the other castes, Clan Void Kraken was also gifted with Lum as a home world. Lum had been abandoned for nearly thirty years at that point, but that didn’t dissuade Khan Gideon Bannacek from his appointed task. He set his civilian castes to work immediately restoring the planet’s infrastructure and by the end of the decade, the Krakens had been able to restore the surface enclaves of Lum to livable (if frosty) conditions.
Sinister Discovery
During the excavations and repairs done by the civilian castes, the Krakens discovered a Society Lab that been used to experiment on unfortunate snow ravens and jade falcons who’d been captured during the Reaving. Upon discovering the lab, the Krakens immediately brought this to the Grand Council and invited their Watch agencies to evaluate and decide what to do with the research.
Most of the research had been developing strains of bio weapons and other horrors of war, but within the deepest vault, untainted samples of both clans warrior castes were found. Further, a vast facility of Iron Wombs was also discovered in the same complex. The Bio weapons were destroyed, but the genetic legacies were a touchier subject, as was the Iron Womb complex.
The Coyotes declared a trial of possession for the entire complex, which the Void Krakens objected to. The two clans fought on the surface of Lum, bidding down to a reinforced Cluster, including Khan Bannacek and his Void Haunt Keshik. The Coyotes tried for three days to break the Krakens, but their resolve held. However, a lucky strike from a Coyote Ristar, Jacob on Bloodhouse Winson, felled Khan Bannacek as the trial ended. The Cloud Cobras were ready to step in, should honor be violated, but the Krakens were cold at the death of their Khan. they invited the Cobras to stay and observe while escorting the Coyotes back to their dropships and a fighter escort returning them to their waiting transports in orbit.
Growth and Innovation
The Cloud Cobras were given leave by the Void Krakens to build a small enclave on Lum, and watched their new neighbors curiously. The Void Krakens were industrious, building new agriculture complexes, mining sites, even restarting old factories that had been abandoned by the Snow Ravens.
Their true masterwork however, was the Kraken itself. High above Lum, the Void Krakens built an orbital station to serve as a contact point for other clans. From this central point, over the next twenty years, they poured every ounce of raw materials into restoring the old Raven yards. By the dawn of the 3030s, they had the largest naval yard in clan space, and had offered its services to their sibling clans to refit and repair their aging fleets.
Also during this time, Khan Jerimiah N’Buta (who’d taken over after the death of Bannacek) commissioned a new Night Lord class Battleship to serve as the flagship of the Void Krakens. Soon, their jumpships and technical crews could be found throughout clan space, working on aging orbitals and other space based tasks. The Krakens seem to have an aptitude for it, and the other clans traded favorably (other than the Coyotes) for their technical assistance.
New Blood
The Sibkos of the integrated Falcon and Raven blood houses came of age in the 3130s, and with them, the first groups of warriors came of age and joined the Touman. Their trials of position were broadcast across Lum, and the Warrior caste, in a rare display of empathy, declared a holiday, and the entire clan watched as their new warriors took their places. Simultaneously, the Void Haunter (their Night Lord) slipped its moorings and began its shakedown cruise around the system.
The Cloud Cobras watched quietly, almost contemplatively as the Void Krakens celebrated their growth and their hard work. They hadn’t expanded out of Lum’s system, but had a thriving network of Orbital stations, shipyards, and other space bound constructions. Unbeknownst to the Cobras, naval weaponry had been mounted on at least some of their stations. The other clans watched with curiosity as the Krakens moved about Clan space, building and fixing things. While they were always ready to defend themselves, should a trial be declared, they were not as bellicose or confrontational. Several times, the Coyotes and the Stone Lions found out that their seemingly placid nature was not an indication of weakness. Both clans lost enclaves to the Void Krakens after declaring trials of possession for their assets.
The End of an Era
Khan Jerimiah N’Buta died at the age of 94 in 3144, and the fighting among the Krakens to replace him was fierce. Eventually, Galaxy Commander Ezmerelda McKenna claimed the top position, with Edwin Pryde becoming her Sakhan. Galaxy Commander Jordi Bannacek became Loremaster, and the Void Krakens had their first home grown leaders that hadn’t come over from the Star Adders. These new leaders, however, were cut from the same cloth. They didn’t pick fights, but defended their possessions with vigor.
Decades of cohabitation with the Cloud Cobras on Lum had inspired the Krakens, who built a small orbital enclave above Roche, with the permission of the Cobras. Soon, Kraken Orbital enclaves became very common sights throughout clan space. The Krakens had started to expand, and their next project would take a lot of people by surprise.
In June of 3149, The Khan McKenna announced to the Grand Council that a portion of her fleet was going to survey star systems to examine worlds for additional resources and possible targets of expansion. It was time, she said, for the Clans to grow beyond the shadow of the war thad had nearly destroyed them a half a century earlier. The debate in the council chamber was furious, but eventually, the rest of the clans agreed with the understanding that the Void Krakens would not travel the Exodus Road and would not move towards the Inner Sphere. Now, as 3151 begins, the Krakens are poised to start exploring space again, looking for new worlds and resources.
Void Kraken Touman
The Void Krakens maintain three frontline Galaxies, Alpha, Beta and Gamma, as well as two Provisional Galaxies, Omega and Zeta. Further, each of their explorer fleet task forces has a reinforced Cluster (taken from a Sigma Galaxy) as military escorts.
Void Kraken Navy
The Krakens have one of the largest fleets of Jumpships and dropships in the Homeworlds. As a result, their ships are a common sight, usually an Invader carrying a Sassanid escorting technical crews on a Monarch. However, they maintain the following Warships
Alpha Naval Star
Void Haunter (Night Lord Class)
Grim Tidings (Sovetski Soyuz Class)
Bannacek (Aegis Class)
N’Buta (Aegis Class)
Gethsemane ( Congress Class)
Beta Naval Star
Perdition (Texas Class)
Dark Depths (Sovetski Soyuz Class)
Sea of Stars (York Class)
Veil of Tears (Cameron)
Great Wave (Aegis Class)
Gamma Naval Reserve
Ark (Potemkin class)
Reciprocity (McKenna class)
Chandler, Cooper, Cobbler (Vincent Class)
Sextant, Chronometer (Lola III)
They also maintain four Newgrange class ships (the Eastwind, Southwind, Westwind, Northwind) and each of those has a pair of Carracks and a pair of Fredessas as escorts
They’re also building another McKenna class Battleship, as well as two Black Lions and a pair of Potemkins (thought to be used as the core of future colonization efforts, if Khan McKenna’s plan bears fruit).
Alpha Naval is usually in orbit of Strana Mechty, guarding the Kraken orbitals there and showing the flag to the rest of the clans. Beta is often traveling the clan homeworlds (unless off hunting pirates) while Gamma guards Lum itself. Gamma may seem light, by comparison to the other two stars, but Lum is also heavily fortified with naval weapons in orbit and on the surface.
Combat Doctrine
The Krakens typically deploy medium to heavy weight machines in their front line galaxies. Atypically, most are not omnimechs, unlike the other clans. The omnimechs the Void Krakens do use are frequently used in their U configurations for space operations. On the ground, they practice a sustained combat model where they will try to overrun a foe and turn a single weak point into a catastrophic breach with an over application of force.
To facilitate this, they have extensive aerospace fighter coverage, and every fighter star is well versed in air to ground combat and have been used as high speed elemental delivery systems in the past.
Strangely, the Void Krakens have a very large Elemental population, and maintain several active clusters and an extensive paramilitary police force of suit equipped Elementals for spaceborne operations.
Sigma, Zeta, and Omega galaxies all use an anvil style of combat, often gathering the heaviest elements into assault and battle stars to hold ground and buy time for the front line galaxies to respond, (though in the past, the assault and battle stars of both Omega and Zeta have seen off the attacking forces without any assistance from the front line formations).
Freeborns make up approximately 25% of the total Touman, with more serving aboard the Warships than in ground forces.
Void Kraken Culture
The Void Krakens owe a lot of their beliefs to Gideon Bannacek. He was a bit of an idealist, and a rabble rouser among the Star Adders. However, he was popular with the Touman, and the Star Adders decided that making him the Illkhan’s problem was a better solution than trying to bring him into their line of thinking. He had a belief that the purpose of the clan’s military was to protect the clan, to allow it to flourish. So, Clan Void Kraken adopted this belief, and as a result, their civilian castes have high standards of living compared to other clans historically. The Void Krakens work very hard for the collective good, but everyone shares in the benefits.
Their technical expertise is partially inspired by this work ethic, but it was helped along by Snow raven data recovered on Lum. They have been very industrious in rebuilding Lum as their home, and expanding outward slowly. They believe that time is on their side so long as they keep their shoulders to the collective grindstones. They also, apparently don’t get angry.
Not once in their recorded history has a Void Kraken broken zelbringen. They’re considered cold, emotionally distant by most other clans, but the Cobras have been around them enough to surmise that their emotional distance is more an affectation than a repression. They have no deep interest in seeing what a pissed off Void Kraken will do, however.
Void Kraken Colors
Most Void Kraken units are a combination of Black and Purple with silver accents.
(So, that’s what i’ve got for Clan Void Kraken for right now. This is an alternate future for the battletech timeline of what “Could” be happening in the clan homeworlds in the aftermath of the Reaving. Does this sound cool? Would you like to know more? Should i continue working on this idea? Let me know folks.)
Y’all have fun, and i’ll have something more official for Wednesday. Love you all, travel safe for the holidays those of you that are traveling
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