Editing Franklin Hallis

{{InfoBoxCharacter
| image               = 
| caption             = Franklin Hallis
| name                = 
| birthdate           = 27??
| died                = 7 July [[2824]]
| othernames          = 
| affiliation         = [[House Hallis]]<br>[[Clan Wolverine]]
| profession          = [[Khan of Clan Wolverine]]
| parents             = [[Frederick Hallis]] (father)
| siblings            = 
| spouse              = 
| children            = 
}}
'''Franklin Hallis''' (born 27??- died [[2824]]) was the second [[saKhan]] and last [[Khan]] of [[Clan Wolverine]] (though neither rank was officially acknowledged during his lifetime). He was killed in the [[Trial of Annihilation]] that supposedly destroyed his Clan. Historical records pertaining to the Annihilation were later altered, falsified or outright fabricated to vilify Clan Wolverine and its members, including Hallis.<ref>''Betrayal of Ideals''</ref> Hallis' posthumous acknowledgement as Khan by the [[ilKhan]] never became public.

==History==
===Early life===
Franklin Hallis was the son of [[SLDF]] Lieutenant General [[Frederick Hallis]], a much-beloved Commanding Officer of the [[331st Royal BattleMech Division]]. Franklin was an officer who held much sway within the 331st due to his own outstanding reputation and that of General Hallis. He was a close friend and confidant of his superior, [[Sarah McEvedy]], who was the daughter of Lieutenant General [[James McEvedy]], the last Commander of the 331st. Like Sarah McEvedy, Hallis was also a strong believer in the morals and principles of the [[Star League]] and was a loyal follower of SLDF Commanding General [[Aleksandr Kerensky]].{{cn}}

On November 5, [[2784]], Hallis, the McEvedys and the rest of the 331st departed with Kerensky in his [[Operation EXODUS|Exodus]].

Little else is known about Franklin Hallis, as his Clan record and that of all other members of Clan Wolverine were destroyed during the Trial of Annihilation.

===Clan Wolverine===
When the Exodus Fleet reached the [[Pentagon Worlds]] in [[2786]], Hallis and the 331st colonized [[Circe]].

In [[2801]], the [[Exodus Civil War]] broke out. [[Nicholas Kerensky]], son of Aleksandr, called for a [[Second Exodus]] in order to carry on the values of the Star League elsewhere. Moved by Kerensky's words, Hallis joined Nicholas to fulfill his father's dream.

In [[2807]]<ref>''Historical: Operation Klondike'', p. 103</ref>, Nicholas announced the formation of the [[Clans]], a combination of Star League values and socialism, whereupon his followers would be assigned among twenty Clans that were divided into five Castes (Warrior, Scientist, Merchant, Technician and Laborer), each led by a [[Warrior Caste]] of 40 warriors per Clan, and each Clan would elect a [[Khan]], who would lead the Clan as a whole, and a [[saKhan]] who would act as the Clan's second-in-command and lead that Clan's military, or ''[[touman]]''. For the Clan that included the 331st, Kerensky chose to name it Clan Wolverine, after a predatory animal native to [[Terra]] that would not back down from any challenge, no matter what its size or strength. The newly-named Clan Wolverine elected Sarah McEvedy as Khan. Kerensky named himself [[ilKhan]], leader of all the Clans and the [[Grand Council]], which consisted of all Khans and [[Bloodname]]d warriors.

Kerensky had decided that the accursed Civil War raging on the Pentagon Worlds had to end, not only to stop the wanton destruction of lives and property, but to provide resources and manpower for his Clans to grow and flourish. In [[2821]], Kerensky masterminded [[Operation Klondike]], in which the Clans would conquer the Pentagon Worlds. Clan Wolverine formed part of the task force that retook Circe.

===Official History===
:''The following is the official (whitewashed, falsified and fabricated) history of Clan Wolverine's demise and Franklin Hallis' purported role therein:''

The Wolverines found a large [[Brian Cache]] of military hardware on Circe, much of which came from the now-defunct 331st. As the 331st had been Sarah McEvedy's father's unit, Clan Wolverine attempted to claim the entire cache.

IlKhan Kerensky learned of the existence of the Brian Cache and in accordance with the socialist principles of the Clans, ordered that the contents of the cache be shared with [[Clan Snow Raven]], who had taken heavy equipment losses during Operation Klondike. The Wolverines did not take this news lightly, as they considered the Snow Ravens to be one of their chief rivals. This rivalry was inflamed by the fact that Wolverine saKhan Hallis was strongly attracted to Raven saKhan [[Joyce Merrell]], who rebuffed Hallis' advances. It was small wonder when Khan McEvedy protested against what she perceived as the illegal order of a oppressive dictator, that Hallis would be right by her side to also protest freely giving away treasured goods in return for nothing to an enemy.

McEvedy's and Hallis' protests before the Grand Council were ignored. A disgusted Hallis then excused himself from the Council meeting and returned to the Wolverine enclave on Circe. On September 30, [[2823]], the Council held a vote to finally resolve the fate of the Wolverine Brian Cache; Hallis cast his vote via [[HPG]], but in the final tally, the outcome was in favor of sharing the cache. Tiring of the political infighting amongst the Clans and the injustices shown by the ilKhan, a furious McEvedy confronted the Council on October 8 and directly insulted Kerensky, who immediately demanded a [[Trial of Grievance]] against McEvedy, who then declared Clan Wolverine was seceding from the rest of the Clans. When Kerensky ordered McEvedy's arrest, she forced the Council to back off with the threat of violence, then stormed out of the [[Hall of Khans]].

While all of this was taking place on [[Strana Mechty]], Hallis was preparing his Clan for a return to the [[Inner Sphere]], gathering as many personnel and supplies as he could for a hasty retreat. On October 11, Hallis received word that the Grand Council had declared a [[Trial of Annihilation]] against Clan Wolverine, to which Hallis responded by placing the entire [[Clan Wolverine Touman|Wolverine ''touman'']] on full alert. When McEvedy arrived on Circe on October 13, she took over the evacuation, while Hallis would hold off the attackers from [[Clan Wolf]], personally led by the ilKhan himself.

As McEvedy led the Wolverine survivors towards the Inner Sphere, Hallis and his front-line troops on Circe held off the merciless warriors of Clan Wolf. ilKhan Kerensky confronted Hallis, and in a grueling three hour duel, Hallis' 'Mech fell to the ground as a smoldering ruin. Kerensky then finished off Hallis by crushing his 'Mech's cockpit.

===True History===
:''see also:'' [[Betrayal of Ideals]]
A clandestine coalition of disgruntled Clans led by [[Clan Widowmaker]] under Khan [[Jason Karrige]] had begun to secretly undermine the successful Clan Wolverine as of 2822, for fear of being outdone by them. An intelligence gathering conflict followed where Franklin Hallis became involved in the Wolverine counterespionage efforts that ultimately resulted in ilKhan Kerensky forming the [[Watch]]; it was Hallis together with [[Trish Ebon]] who essentially built up the highly successful counterintelligence within Clan Wolverine.

In mid-2823 a Brian Cache was found and claimed by [[Clan Jade Falcon]] in the Tiki province on Circe in what at the time was actually Clan Wolverine territory. Presumably acting in concert with the other conspirators against Clan Wolverine the Jade Falcons insisted the cache should be theirs. In the trial that eventually ensued, Franklin Hallis led the Wolverine forces to victory but this was effectively overturned by the Grand Council when the Jade Falcons revealed that the cache contained several nuclear weapons; thus the cache's content was to be placed under Grand Council control. Khan McEvedy then fought a Trial against this decision, but lost (in part due to the general anti-Wolverine bias that already existed among the other Clans by that time). Clan Widowmaker attempted to kill both Wolverine Khans during the trial in yet another attempt to inflict as much damage on the Wolverines as possible, killing saKhan [[Dwight Robertson]] and wounding McEvedy. McEvedy subsequently appointed Franklin Hallis to replace the late Robertson as Wolverine saKhan, and realized that the entire Clan society was turning against Clan Wolverine, with the apparent consent of the ilKhan. Hallis was tasked with implementing McEvedy's [[Operation Switchback]] plan—Prepare the mass exodus of Clan Wolverine from Clan space and back to the Inner Sphere.

In a Grand Council session on 10 October 2823, ilKhan Kerensky refused to accept Hallis as the new Wolverine saKhan on grounds of rules he made up on the spot, and ordered him to leave. The overall atmosphere deteriorated further anti-Wolverine when McEvedy called the Grand Council out on their bias and double standards. Clan Wolverine then began the clandestine acquisition of mothballed [[JumpShip]]s and [[WarShip]]s under Hallis while McEvedy continued to reason with the ilKhan, if only playing for time.

During the later evacuation of Clan Wolverine under fire from other Clans, Khan Sarah McEvedy was seemingly killed aboard the grounded [[DropShip]] ''[[Huron (Individual Overlord-class DropShip)|Huron]]'' when unknown perpetrators detonated a nuclear device in the city and framed the Wolverines for the act (masterminded by Jason Karrige personally). This prompted Clan Snow Raven to deploy a nuclear weapon in turn, which however misfired and accidentally detonated over their own capital city of Dehra Dun—another atrocity that would later be falsely blamed on Clan Wolverine.

At McEvedy's apparent death, Franklin Hallis assumed the mantle of Khan of Clan Wolverine (though he considered the Wolverines apart from Clan society at that point, and instead described them as the last remnant of the [[Star League]] in Exile). He used the ''[[McKenna's Pride]]'' to support his Clan's fighting retreat from orbit and finally bombarded the Grand Council Meeting Hall and the Halls of selected enemy Clans before shepherding his Clan's remnant back along the Exodus route, following the Switchback plan as originally laid out by McEvedy.

The pursuing Clan fleet finally caught the Wolverine fleet and brought them to battle in the [[Barbados]] system in 2824, largely annihilating the Wolverines. After the conclusion of the genocide, the machinations of Widowmaker Khan Jason Karrige were uncovered (including his part in the nuclear escalation) and Franklin Hallis was allowed to kill Karrige before being effectively executed himself.

Kerensky buried Hallis himself, and marked the grave with "Khan Franklin Hallis" alongside an unoccupied grave for Khan Sara McEvedy. He delivered a private eulogy recognizing Clan Wolverine's promise before it was doomed by their defiance; acknowledging him as the final Khan of Clan Wolverine. After leaving the planet, he then decreed that "Barbados never happened" and issued orders that erased the records of the planets' locations from all databases in Clan space.

==BattleMechs== 
In the latter days of his career and up until his death, Hallis piloted a ''[[Pulverizer]]'' 'Mech after having previously piloted a ''[[Shadow Griffin]]'' [[FrankenMech]].

==Notes==
* Although posthumously acknowledged as the last Wolverine Khan in secret, Franklin Hallis was never officially acknowledged as Wolverine saKhan. It is also arguable if he rightfully ascended to Khan: Unbeknownst to Hallis, Khan Sarah McEvedy had survived the nuclear blast and was kept a prisoner on ilKhan Kerensky's flagship, albeit heavily wounded and in critical condition. Two ambiguous scenes at the end of ''Betrayal of Ideals'' indicate McEvedy may even have outlived Hallis: Nicholas Kerensky heard McEvedy's voice berating him at Hallis' grave though it is unclear whether she was actually present, or only in his head; and later [[Trish Ebon]] encountered a heavily scarred and hobbled female survivor that she disbelievingly recognized as a fellow warrior on Barbados before embracing her. This survivor may or may not have been Sarah McEvedy.
* There is no evidence in ''Betrayal of Ideals'' that Hallis had an unrequited crush on, pursued a relationship with, or even as much as talked to, Snow Raven Khan [[Joyce Merrell]]. Indeed, in the entire ''Betrayal of Ideals'' novel there is only one scene where they are even in the same room—this being the Grand Council session of 10 October 2823 where Khan McEvedy brings Hallis as her new saKhan, only for ilKhan Kerensky to refuse Hallis' rank and order him to leave again.<br />Instead, Merrell was a friend of Khan Sarah McEvedy until the first nuclear bomb escalated the conflict and forced Merrell to chose sides. When it was ultimately revealed to those present on Barbados that the Wolverines had been framed by the Widowmakers, she expressed regret. IlKhan Nicholas Kerensky did what he felt was an appropriate way to deal with her discomfort: After Merrell's death he retroactively declared her to have died in battle even before the Wolverine Annihilation so that historically, she would not have had a part in it. (This seems to explain why forged history creates the otherwise unsupported impression that there was a rivalry or even animosity between Clans Wolverine and Snow Raven, going with the false claim that it had been the Wolverines who nuked the Snow Raven capital instead of the truth over the warhead being misfired after being armed in retaliation for the nuclear detonation in New Hope.) This incidentally also explains why different sources claim different death dates for Joyce Merrell.
* There is a discrepancy regarding the destiny of Hallis's ''Pulverizer'' after his death. After he has been buried, it is said the BattleMech has been salvaged, but Trish Ebon later sees the 'Mech and discerns than Franklin had been shot in the back, in the fashion of an execution. To reconcile this it could be assumed that the 'Mech was merely salvaged for parts, and the empty husk was too damaged (from the back shot or otherwise) to be recovered.
* The relationship between Franklin and Clan Wolverine was the reason why, after the [[Battle of Tukayyid (3052)|Battle of Tukayyid]], [[Clan Steel Viper]] and [[Clan Nova Cat]] engaged on a manhunt for all the remaining Franklin Hallis descendants, more specifically, Franklin's two siblings who stay in the Inner Sphere descendants, killing them all in combat, annihilating all known members of House Hallis.<ref>''Bloodright'' p. 40</ref>

==References==
<references/>

==Bibliography==
* ''[[Betrayal of Ideals]]'' (novel)
* ''[[Historical: Operation Klondike]]''
* ''[[Jihad Secrets: The Blake Documents]]''

[[Category:SaKhans|Hallis, Franklin]]
[[Category:Khans|Hallis, Franklin]]
[[Category:Clan Wolverine Characters|Hallis, Franklin]]