An Overview of the BattleTech Timeline
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- Pre-Star League
2012-2570 - Star League
2570-2780 - Succession Wars
2780-3028 - 4th Succession War
3028-3049 - Clan Invasion
3049-3058 - New Star League
3058-3067 - Jihad
3067-3081
- Mankind took the first steps toward space during this period, greatly expanding its ability to travel with the invention of faster-than-light travel. The first successful actual testing of this technology took place in 2107. This system was theorized by scientists Thomas Kearny and Takayoshi Fuchida as a type of jump drive and allowed large ships to travel instantly to areas light years away. It proved to be the turning point in humanity`s efforts to explore the stars.
The Kearny-Fuchida drive (K-F drive) was the basis for interstellar exploration, though it requires an elaborate deployment of a delicate solar sail to absorb the energy necessary for each jump made on its journey. Even more importantly, the recharge time lasts 6-9 days during which the jumping ship is vulnerable to attacks. Jumping ships are normally called Jumpships, though their well-armed cousins are known as Warships.
Jumpships allowed humanity to spread across the stars, eventually leading to large interstellar governments. Though these governments were independent of one another at first, things would soon change with the formation of the Star League.
In the later years of this time period, new technological breakthroughs allowed scientists to create another type of extremely important technology. BattleMechs, a type of mechanoid robot that could walk and theoretically cover terrains that many vehicles could not, were designed for all kinds of combat. These BattleMechs, or Mechs, were a hot commodity among the powerful interstellar governments who hoped to secure new worlds through military might. The technology to create them soon proliferated across the explored space that humanity had populated with interstellar colonization. This area became known as the Inner Sphere, and was centered three-dimensionally around Terra (Earth). The edges of known space came to be known as the Periphery.
Eventually the interplanetary fights for power became bad enough that new rules of warfare were drawn up and agreed upon. These rules, collectively known as the Ares Convention, forbid any nuclear warfare or even the possession of nuclear armaments. These rules also forbid any attacks against Jumpships, whose technology was invaluable to the exploration of space.
Despite these rules and new limits on destruction, constant warfare continued to take place in grabs for power, especially among the larger political powers.
- Though the large interstellar powers of the Inner Sphere plotted against one another since their early days, partnerships and alliances did exist. Largely however the system of government was that of several feudal interstellar political groups ruled by powerful political dynasties. In 2571, the largest and most successful alliance came to fruition. The largest five political powers united under one leader, Ian Cameron of the Terran Hegemony.
The five powerful allies of Cameron - listed in the order in which they agreed to the proposed alliance - were: the Capellan Confederation - led by the House of Liao family, the Free Worlds League - led by the House of Marik family, the Lyran Commonwealth - led by the House of Steiner family, the Federated Suns - led by the House of Davion family, and the Draconis Combine - led by the House of Kurita family. Collectively the five powers and their Terran Hegemony ally became known as the Star League. Terra once again became the center of political power, as peace amongst the dominant political groups was ushered in.
The period of rule under the Star League proved beneficial to much of the Inner Sphere. While its contributions to technology and the advancement of medical science are sometimes romanticized, the Star League government also proved too controlling for some of the smaller interstellar powers. This was especially the case with those smaller powers whose leaders had much individual power to lose. These smaller political groups were largely on the frontier of humanity, literally on the edges of known space.
The end of the Star League came at the end of this period, when the plotting of one man ended the Cameron family's rule of the Star League. Stefan Amaris, a leader of a political group in the Periphery, killed the young Cameron lord and tried to take his place. The general of the Star League, one Alexander Kerensky, refused to obey Amaris, instead regrouping with his loyal Star League military.
Kerensky fought Amaris to a bitter end. Though Kerensky's army had won, their victory was a hollow one. The leaders of the five political powers refused to accept one another as leaders of the Star League, and the Star League and all the progress it stood for dissolved.
Kerensky sought peace and took it in the only way he devised possible. He asked for those loyal to him and him alone to gather their families and leave with him to find a new home in the unknown - far beyond the Inner Sphere and its outer Periphery. His army and their collection of BattleMechs, vehicles, and interstellar spacecraft disappeared, leaving the five political powers to their petty fights over who would lead a new Star League and rule over Terra.
- Kerensky's analysis of the Inner Sphere's political future proved accurate. In the decades and even centuries after the fall of the Star League, the remaining political powers saw fit to gain power with any means available or necessary. The resulting interstellar wars and nuclear decimation became known as the Succession Wars. These wars' effect on both humanity and its technology was crippling. Years and years and years of constant warfare eventually de-evolved some interstellar governments, leading to civil wars and even the loss of technology in most of the Inner Sphere and the outlying Periphery.
The constant warfare of the Succession Wars really began to take effect on supplies and military assets. Where large groups of BattleMechs had once protected planets, now entire worlds were often protected with single lances (groups of four Mechs) or companies (groups of 12 Mechs). It made for a new kind of strategy, one that relied on deploying small contingents of troops that could quickly move to other continents or even planets if needed. The level of technology on worlds varied dramatically from one to the next. Some had the most advanced science discovered from centuries past. Others were reduced to scraping out a living on bleak drought-ridden radioactive battlefields where the best transportation available meant gas-burning engines or horses and other native wildlife.
Indeed technology became such a commodity that old storage depots of equipment were a boon to any who discovered their existence. The largest of these lost technology troves came in the form of forgotten fortresses of the now-extinct Star League military. They were known as Castle Brians. The smallest lostech treasures could be found anywhere and might even be the simplest weapons or communications devices. As a new crutch for those handicapped by a loss of technology, these lost and found treasures became known as lostech. Just as in the past of Terra, treasure hunters became commonplace as everyone hoped to become rich through the discovery of significant lostech.
Meanwhile in the far reaches of space beyond the Periphery, Alexander Kerensky's descendants carved out a way of life, forming a new culture and society by organizing themselves into clans. Each clan adopted a totem creature as a symbol of its power. The organization of these clans however did little towards finding the peace Alexander had sought. Instead the society - formed by his son Nicholas - organized war into shortened challenges that minimized loss of equipment and emphasized genetic manipulation in the hopes of creating the strongest warriors.
Effectively the new society, which Nicholas christened the Clans, made the art of war into its primary goal by centering the most important resources around advancing military power.
- In the end, the Succession Wars ended in a truce between the Davion and Steiner families. With the marriage of Hanse Davion to Melissa Steiner in 3028 and the formation of the Federated Commonwealth, the two large political houses targeted the remaining political dynasties - Liao, Kurita, and Marik. It was a major change, a shift in power that had somehow eluded the Inner Sphere during all the previous Succession Wars.
The first target was the Liao family's Capellan Confederation, which immediately suffered attacks even as the wedding itself was ending. Though the Capellan Confederation weathered a terrible assault, they did manage to survive after losing dozens of planets to the Federated Commonwealth.
Acer's Hueys formed shortly before this war took place, and were on the world of New Hessen when it was invaded. The Hueys mercenary team fought hard to protect their homeworld, but like many small mercenary teams supporting House Liao met defeat in the end.
With the end of this war, known as the Fourth Succession War, Houses Davion and Steiner turned their attention to another opponent, the Draconis Combine. The Combine had long been ruled by the Japanese Kurita dynasty and was suspected to be a weak opponent. Hanse Davion hoped he could crush his longtime foe, Takashi Kurita, with a quick victory.
However in 3039 when Hanse Davion attacked, the Draconis Combine's military roared back with a vengeance. Its counterattacks immediately cut the Davion family's hopes short. This War of 3039 as it came to be known proved that even the combined might of the Davion and Steiner families would not be enough to secure the position of First Lord of the Star League.
The Acer's Hueys mercenaries also fought in the war of 3039. It was during this time that they were used by the Draconis Combine in an effort to recover a Star League-era lostech Warship. This mission led to the Hueys team fleeing and losing their good standing with the regulating Mercenary Review Board operated by Wolf's Dragoons.
Wolf's Dragoons was a mercenary group who had mysteriously appeared from nowhere but instantly earned itself a respectable standing in the Inner Sphere. Wolf's Dragoons boasted unseen technology, and in fact the group was a scout team sent by the descendants of Alexander Kerensky - the Clans. The Clans had not only found a place to live far out in unknown space, but they had also thrived after creating their goal-oriented new society. Their technology now rivaled and even surpassed some of the original Star League's.
Seeking to reclaim the birthplace of humanity, Terra, the Clans now plotted and scouted the militaries of the Inner Sphere. With the Wolf's Dragoons reports, they began preparing an invasion that would let them return fair rule to the Inner Sphere. While some believed this rule would best be led by the Clans themselves, others believed the Clans would instead prove to be saviors of humanity from some other sort of opponent. These two emerging political groups within the Clans became known as the Crusaders and the Wardens, respectively.
- In 3049, the descendants of Alexander's loyal followers invaded the Inner Sphere as the Clans. Competing for control of their conquered areas of the Inner Sphere, the groups dominated their Inner Sphere military opponents on almost every single occasion. They punished the Inner Sphere and its Periphery, quickly conquering the Outworlds Alliance and Rasalhague Republic (2 small political powers). The Clans hardest hitting attacks came on Houses Steiner and Kurita as the invaders made their way towards Terra.
The Clans fierce competition with emphasis on declared targets and strict rules of combat seemed almost sports-like amongst the Clans. For the people of the Inner Sphere however, the war brought much more death and destruction than honor or glory. Entire worlds were falling left and right in the Periphery, with no real word on who or what had struck the fallen planets. Never fully understanding who or where their opponents had come from, some believed the Clans were actually aliens. This concept gained momentum even further when the genetically engineered giants that made up Clan infantry appeared on battlefields across the Inner Sphere.
This alien theory was eventually disproved with the Draconis Combine's eventual victory over Clan Smoke Jaguar on the planet of Wolcott in 3050. Cleverly negotiating with their opponents beforehand, the Combine military challenged the Clan invaders on their own terms and won through a series of quick-strike attacks that left the Clan warriors unable to defend themselves. This was the first turning point in the Clan Invasion as it came to be known. It was also the first time that an Inner Sphere military had actually captured intact Mechs and weapons from their Clan opponents.
From out of the destruction of much of the Inner Sphere, major progress actually materialized when Wolf's Dragoons gathered the leaders of the Inner Sphere and warned each power of the Clans' true intentions. Though they had once been members of the Clans and would never truly not be, the Dragoons decided to ally themselves with their Inner Sphere friends with whom they had fought alongside for nearly three decades. With this help, the Inner Sphere was able to launch coordinated attacks against the Clans.
The powerful interstellar communications group called Comstar also rose up against the Clans. Though they first plotted against the Inner Sphere also, their strategy shifted quickly after their corrupted leader was silenced and replaced by one Anastasius Focht. Anastasius had his own plan for Comstar, and it entailed making use of the organization's hidden power to protect what was left of the Inner Sphere by forming a 10-year treaty with the Clans.
With the successful negotiation of the treaty after a battle on the world of Tukayyid worked in Comstar's favor, the Inner Sphere and Clans' relationships changed. Eventually Warden factions of the Clans even left the Clan government, making their own way of life in the Inner Sphere and a selected few even joining the Inner Sphere to create a new, re-christened Star League.
- The new Star League was born with an uneasy alliance among those Inner Sphere leaders who remained in power even after the Clans settled in large swaths of Inner Sphere space. The first act of the new Star League was one that would prove itself authentic to the Clans by making an example of the most powerful Crusader Clan - the Smoke Jaguars.
As the new Star League and its Nova Cat Clan allies worked to rid the Inner Sphere of the Smoke Jaguar Clan forever, other major events began occurring around the Inner Sphere. Many minor shifts in power took place, one of which caused the Comstar organization to splinter into two parts. The new faction, calling itself the Word of Blake, quickly took possession of Terra from Comstar in a well-executed attack.
Though it had lost the cradle of humanity, Comstar fought the Word of Blake through a massive covert intelligence war. However it largely lost the fight. Instead of weakening, the group of Blakists found a home in the Free Worlds League and began building a power base that few could even begin to suspect. Though they were primarily organizing themselves for a major anti-Clan operation with a secret buildup of military assets, the Word of Blake would soon change their plans and seek total control of the Inner Sphere.
During this period, in the year 3058, Mike Strider founded Strider's Strikers. Though the group was small at first, it soon gained the attention of the Nova Cat Clan and was used by the Clan as a social experiment for its warriors. Lost in their new Inner Sphere home, the Nova Cats sought any and every way they could to be accepted by the Inner Sphere peoples.
Devon Carns of the Nova Cat Clan joined the mercenary team. His performance helped the team grow into a much more formidable force. However the Striker mercenaries soon took contracts with the Marik political dynasty and were ordered to monitor Word of Blake actions on the world of Wasat. Though the Strikers did their job, they were soon tricked, manipulated and forced off-world by a series of Blakist attacks against them.
After Strider's Strikers left Wasat for their Nova Cat allies' homeworlds, Wasat was secured by the Blakists. It became a large-scale staging ground, a planet on which the Blakists amassed a powerful militia which would later invade other sovereign worlds of the Inner Sphere. Not content with having won the planet, the Blakists sent one of their more radical factions to pursue Strider's Strikers. They hoped to gain more knowledge by spying on the team and testing them and their Nova Cat allies. Any data they could collect might help them in their future war against the other Clans that now made their homes in the Inner Sphere.
- In 3067 the Star League held a meeting to determine its next First Lord. However this meeting led to catastrophe. The Word of Blake had finally secured a position in the New Star League, a longtime goal of the group because of the recognition it achieved for them. However other members of the Star League boycotted the meeting due to their own agendas.
The result of the boycott was the dissolution of the new Star League. This enraged the Blakists, who quickly determined that the rest of the Inner Sphere was not fit to command or rule what they now did. The Blakists declared a Jihad, a semi-religious war in which they forced their own rule over large parts of the Inner Sphere and Periphery. They used their hidden reserves, political power, and even brainwashing tactics to bring the Inner Sphere to its knees.
Lostech Warships and Jumpships secured by the Blakists sent their forces wide across the Inner Sphere, tactically striking at each political power's capital world with nuclear weapons and orbital bombardments from space. The Blakists ignored the Ares Conventions, instead raining death and destruction on all who they thought unfit. Eventually they even betrayed their allies in this cause, groups like the Liao dynasty and the Black Dragons of the Draconis Combine.
Because of their grudge against Strider's Strikers, the Blakists spared few expenses to destroy the mercenary team. Though their forces were busy elsewhere, they supported their radical Denouncement faction in terrorist attacks against Striders's Strikers. They also sought revenge against The Crusaders mercenary group, who had now allied with the Strikers team to return the planet of Miranda in the Irece Prefecture to Nova Cat rule.