Editing History of Clan Burrock

[[File:Clan_Burrock.png|right|thumb|Clan Burrock emblem]]
:''This article details the history of '''''Clan Burrock'''''. For more information, see [[Clan Burrock]].''
:''For the history of the Clans as a whole, see [[History of the Clans]].''

===Founding and Operation KLONDIKE===
Clan Burrock's founders and first two [[Khan|Khans]] were the twin brothers [[Herve Polczyk|Herve]] and [[Nigel Polczyk]], a pair of [[Rim Worlds Republic|Rim Worlds]] expatriates who joined [[Aleksandr Kerensky|Aleksandr Kerensky's]] [[Operation Exodus|exodus]] from the [[Inner Sphere]]. Like their Clan's totem, which was initially viewed as a pest but later appreciated for the benefits it brought to Dagda's colonists, the Polczyk brothers symbolized the new beginning that Nicholas Kerensky's society would offer to all, even former enemies. The Burrocks as a whole would also famously emulate their totem's stoicism and determination, though future enemies such as [[Clan Blood Spirit]] would also label the Burrocks as unimaginative and lacking in initiative.<ref name=HOK123>''Historical: Operation Klondike'', p.123, "Clan Burrock"</ref>

Clan Burrock was assigned to Dagda during [[Operation Klondike]], with its first [[Cluster]] primarily featuring heavy and assault [[BattleMech|'Mechs]] and [[aerospace fighter]]s, while its single vehicle [[Star]] contained light and agile scout vehicles.<ref>''Historical: Operation Klondike'', p.80, "Clan Burrock Cluster"</ref> On Dagda the Burrocks primarily fought on the continent of Dratha, operating alongside [[Clan Widowmaker]]. Their overall performance was slow and steady, and while this met Kerensky's expectations he still preferred to rely upon other forces for the final operation on Dagda. As a result, Clan Burrock was sidelined during the final operation of the Pentagon campaign, securing the area around the Black Brian while [[Clan Wolf|Clans Wolf]] and [[Clan Jade Falcon|Jade Falcon]] assaulted the fortress itself.<ref>''Historical: Operation Klondike'', p.82, 84, 86-87</ref> Several support units, including ''[[Ostscout]]s'', were also used in this campaign.<ref>''Recognition Guide: ilClan, vol. 2'', p. 4</ref>

===Golden Century and Blood Spirit Feud===
The Burrocks had been successful in their part of KLONDIKE, but the matériel losses they sustained during the campaign led to a shift from heavy-class units to lighter (and cheaper) units.<ref name=HOK123/> The losses in personnel led to a far more ominous change: several Burrock warriors expressed disillusionment with Kerensky's new society. While the [[Clan Wolverine#Annihilation|Wolverine Annihilation]] and subsequent feud with Clan Blood Spirit gave these malcontents a focus for their energies, the pressure continued to build.<ref name=FMCC115>''Field Manual: Crusader Clans'', p.115, "Clan Burrock"</ref>

Shortly after the [[Trial of Annihilation|Annihilation]] of Clan Wolverine, Clan Burrock called for Clan Blood Spirit to undergo the same purging, believing them to have abandoned the Way of the Clans. Though the [[Grand Council]] decided otherwise, its reprimand of the Spirits signaled the beginning of a feud between the two Clans that would last until the Burrock's own Absorption. The Burrocks spearheaded a multi-Clan campaign against the Spirits, and after a series of brutal battles reduced them to their capital of [[York (Clan System)|York]] and an enclave on [[Arcadia (Clan System)|Arcadia]].<ref>''Field Manual: Crusader Clans'', p.22</ref> The Burrocks continued striking at Blood Spirit targets over the next two centuries, preventing that Clan from expanding its power, and also frequently battled [[Clan Fire Mandrill]].<ref>''Field Manual: Crusader Clans'', p.23, 38-39</ref>

In the years following Operation KLONDIKE, the Burrocks were contracted by other Clans, including the [[Clan Star Adder|Star Adders]] and [[Clan Nova Cat|Nova Cats]], to transport scientific and colonization teams from those clans to other worlds in the [[Kerensky Cluster]], for which the Burrocks would receive a percentage of any usable discoveries.<ref>''Field Manual: Crusader Clans'', p.113</ref> 

After the debut of [[OmniMech|OmniMechs]] in [[2854]], Burrock Khan [[Zenos Danforth]] was elected [[ilKhan]] in [[2858]] to oversee fair play in the [[Trial of Possession|Trials of Possession]] for the new technology. Danforth served long enough to fulfill a similar role in the Trials for [[Elemental (Battle Armor)|Elemental battle armor]] and the Absorption of [[Clan Mongoose]], dying in office in [[2870]].<ref>''Era Digest: Golden Century'', p.10</ref>

===Dark Caste Connection and Tanis===
In the middle of the thirtieth century the pressure that had been building since Operation Klondike finally erupted. A [[Trinary]] of Burrock warriors and over a thousand civilians deserted their Clan to join the Dark Caste. Ordered by the Grand Council to destroy these renegades, a joint Burrock-[[Clan Cloud Cobra|Cloud Cobra]] task force spent the next two years hunting them down. Upon the mission's conclusion, Burrock Khan [[Tabari Danforth]] declared the renegades to have been exterminated. It would be over a century before his lie was exposed.<ref>''Field Manual: Warden Clans'', p.21</ref>

This event began a connection between the Dark Caste and the Burrocks that would last for over a century. Clan Burrock used the Dark Caste as a means of circumventing merchant caste rules, as a source of cheap labor, and to provide subjects for various scientist caste experiments. The Burrocks were never true allies of the Dark Caste and simply tolerated it as a means to an end, periodically culling Dark Caste groups and using the captives as slave labor.<ref>''The Wars of Reaving'', p.29, "The Dark Caste"</ref>

Following the discovery and conquest of the [[Tanite Worlds]] by the Cloud Cobras in [[2965]], that Clan made an agreement with the Burrocks for assistance in garrisoning Cobra enclaves, both in Clan Space and the Tanite Worlds themselves.<ref>''Field Manual: Warden Clans'', p.22</ref>

===Political Century and Operation REVIVAL===
As the [[Crusader Clans|Crusader]]/[[Warden Clans|Warden]] divide arose during the late thirtieth century, Clan Burrock drifted into the Crusader camp. However the Burrocks were more opportunistic than truly committed to the Crusader cause, and were viewed with distrust by both the Wardens and the more fanatical Crusaders.<ref name=HOK123/>

When the invasion finally received the approval of the Grand Council in [[3048]], the Burrocks were part of the four-Clan force that upheld the measure in Clan Wolf's [[Trial of Refusal]]<ref>''Operational Turning Points: REVIVAL Trials'', p.12</ref> Though the Burrocks subsequently fought for a place in [[Operation REVIVAL]], they were defeated by [[Clan Steel Viper]] and their hated Blood Spirit rivals.<ref>''Operational Turning Points: REVIVAL Trials'', p.15</ref> In the years following this setback, the Burrocks managed to seize territory on Dagda from the Fire Mandrills.<ref>''Field Manual: Crusader Clans'', p.41</ref>

===Trial of Absorption===
{{main|Burrock Absorption}}

The Burrocks' dealings with the Dark Caste were discovered by Star Adder Khan [[Cassius N'Buta]] in early 3059. Ironically enough, this situation was brought about by the Burrock Khan's own efforts to distance her Clan from the Dark Caste<ref>''The Clans: Warriors of Kerensky, p.23</ref>; regardless, N'Buta called for the Burrocks' Absorption to deliver that Clan's warriors and civilian castes from their leaders' corruption.<ref name=FMCC114>''Field Manual: Crusader Clans'', p.114</ref>

The motion was passed by the Grand Council, and to the outrage of the Blood Spirits the Adders won the right to carry out the Trial. The Burrocks bid their entire ''[[touman]]'' against the Star Adders but the reinforcements intended for their capital Albion were stranded aboard their transports by Adder WarShips. After two days of brutal fighting on Albion, both Burrock Khans and [[Galaxy Commander]] [[Seth Marghar]] were dead, all three of whom had been implicated in the Dark Caste dealings. [[Star Colonel]] [[Carlos Hutchinson]] then offered himself as a proxy for all Burrock forces on Albion, hoping to prevent the Absorption from becoming an Annihilation, but his gesture was interrupted by the unexpected interference of the Blood Spirits. Outraged, the Burrocks joined the Star Adders against their age-old foes and repulsed the Blood Spirits. Hutchinson's duel with Star Adder Khan Cassius N'Buta went ahead and after three hours, Hutchinson was defeated.

On other Burrock worlds the situation was much the same: the combined Burrock-Star Adder forces trounced the Blood Spirits. Afterwards the Burrocks would offer proxy battles and then go over to the Star Adders. While the fighting against the Blood Spirits cost all sides dear, the Absorption proper was the easiest in Clan history, as most Burrocks were horrified by their Khans' doings and refused orders to fight to the death.<ref>''The Clans: Warriors of Kerensky, p.99</ref> Most Burrock losses that were incurred during the Trial were caused by the Blood Spirits; in total the Burrocks lost four Galaxies.<ref>''Field Manual: Crusader Clans'', p.115</ref>

Afterwards, all surviving members of Clan Burrock joined the ranks of Clan Star Adder. While the majority of former Burrocks served their new Clan willingly enough, several within both the warrior and civilian castes chafed under the Adder's authority. Many older warriors had trouble fitting in with the tight-knit Adders<ref name=WORp15>''The Wars of Reaving'', p.15</ref>, while the civilians preferred their former Clan's looser ways.<ref name>''The Wars of Reaving'', p.189</ref> Khan [[Stanislov N'Buta]] attempted to resolve these problems by reassigning the worst civilian malcontents to heavy labor in the Tanis system and forming [[Zeta Galaxy (Clan Burrock)|Upsilon Provisional Galaxy]] as a place of exile for ex-Burrock warriors. While successful in the short-term, these measures also set the stage for Clan Burrock's short-lived rebirth.

===Resurrection===
The assignment given to Upsilon Provisional Galaxy - to roam as they saw fit throughout the [[Deep Periphery]] - gave the former Burrock warriors within the unit their chance to resurrect their Clan. In [[3072]], Galaxy Commander N'Buta was quietly removed by Star Colonel Naman Hutchinson, who then falsified Clan Watch reports under N'Buta's name to cover her actions. The few Adder sympathizers were killed as well and the newly renamed [[Zeta Galaxy (Clan Burrock)|Zeta Galaxy]] moved to capture the entire Tanis system. <ref name=wor88>''The Wars of Reaving'', p.88 </ref>

Zeta Galaxy ambushed the [[Beta Galaxy (Clan Ice Hellion)| Ice Hellion Beta Galaxy]] at the [[DS-822]] waystation in 3072, heavily damaging their escorting [[WarShip]] and waylaying three of their five JumpShips.<ref name=wor98>''The Wars of Reaving'', p. 98 </ref> During early 3073, the Galaxy split itself into three task forces, each with WarShip support, and set about a campaign of raiding the fringes of the [[Kerensky Cluster]] and outposts on the [[Exodus Road]], destroying all [[HPG]] stations within fifty light years of the Tanis system. The Galaxy fought two major space battles against [[Clan Diamond Shark]] in the [[Salonika]] system, capturing forty-eight merchant vessels.<ref name=wor102>''The Wars of Reaving'', p. 102 </ref>

One Burrock task force traveled to [[Nouveaux Paris]], which had already fallen to a Society Cell. Here, two Clusters defeated a [[Clan Hell's Horses]] attempt to recapture the planet. <ref name=wor120>''The Wars of Reaving'', p. 120 </ref>

In late 3074, the remains of Zeta Galaxy were on [[Tanis]], where they were destroyed by orbital bombardment by Clan Star Adder forces. <ref name=wor144>''The Wars of Reaving'', p. 144 </ref>

==References==
<references/>

==Bibliography==
* ''[[The Clans: Warriors of Kerensky]]''
* ''[[Era Digest: Golden Century]]''
* ''[[Field Manual: Crusader Clans]]''
* ''[[Field Manual: Warden Clans]]''
* ''[[Historical: Operation Klondike]]''
* ''[[Operational Turning Points: REVIVAL Trials]]''
* ''[[Recognition Guide: ilClan, vol. 2]]''
* ''[[The Wars of Reaving]]''


[[Category:History|Clan Burrock, History of]]