The Inner Sphere: Clan Diamond Shark

The diamond shark prowls through the ocean in search of prey, scorning the smaller creatures of the sea in favor of the more powerful opponents. It sees the sea fox, graceful and lethal, but knows itself more lethal still. Here is a foe worth fighting...here is an enemy against which the diamond shark may test its mettle!

The gray shape glides through the water, every inch of it a weapon so silent that its victim cannot hear it coming. It bides its time, watching and waiting, plotting the best moment to strike. As the sea fox rises from the water, the diamond shark leaps out of the waves behind it and arrows down in a deadly arc. It plunges back into the surf a hair's breadth from the sea fox, so close that the diamond-hard ridges on its side draw the doomed fox's blood. Too fast for the fox to react to the danger it only now sees, the shark leaps again, this time catching its prey in its powerful jaws and snapping its neck with the slightest downward pressure...

-- Clan Diamond Shark story of former and current namesakes.

Clan Diamond Shark began its existence as Clan Sea Fox, named by Nicholas Kerensky for a seallink reptilian predator found in Strana Mechty's freshwater oceans. Nicholas admired this animal for the honor it apparently paid to its prey, seeming to bow to its opponent before attacking. Nicholas saw the ability to honor one's enemy as one of the essential traits that set the true warrior apart from the barbarian killing machine. Clan Sea Fox remained admirably faithful to that trait, as well as to the idealism and adaptability bequeathed to it by its two most influential Khans. Though born more than a century apart, Khan Karen Nagasawa and Khan Damon Clarke did more to shape Clan Sea Fox than any other leaders in this Clan's history.

Tukayyid

The Diamond Sharks' target cities, Kozice Prime and Urcunat, lie a mere 20 kilometers from each other on the far side of the Kozice Valley. All five Clusters of the Shark assault force landed in the valley; Alpha Galaxy's Nineteenth Heavy Cluster and Thirty-ninth Striker Cluster headed toward Kozice Prime, while Gamma Galaxy's 222nd Assault Cluster and 369th Striker Cluster headed toward Urcunat.

Alpha Galaxy's Nineteenth Heavy Cluster met the 182nd and Eighty-fifth Divisions of the Third ComGuard Army in the foothills overlooking Kozice Prime, while the elite Thirty-ninth Striker Cluster clashed with a division of the Eighth Army as the Clan 'Mechs entered the narrow end of the Kozice Valley. The Nineteenth Heavy fared well against the Eighty-fifth, but could only make a little headway toward their objective before the 182nd Division outflanked them. The 182nd held Alpha Galaxy' forces down in a brutal slugging match, while the remaining 'Mechs of the Eighty-fifth joined the Thirty-first and Fifty-sixth in an attempt to disrupt the Sharks' supply lines.

Gamma Galaxy's Clusters quickly turned their attention to this new threat, and the 222nd Assault Cluster won the honor of destroying the raiders. The conflict between the 222nd and the ComGuards' Eighty-fifth Division was particularly brutal, with neither side able to gain the upper hand for some time. Finally, Star Colonel Seth Davis grew so frustrated that he called upon the remaining Clusters of Gamma Galaxy for help. The added 'Mechs enabled him to crush the Eighty-fifth, only to lose all but a single MechWarrior to the avenging Thirty-first and Fifty-sixth Divisions.

While Gamma Galaxy battled the doomed Eighty-fifth and the divisions of the Eighth Army, Precentor Burkenbine's Fifth Army executed a combat drop behind the Sharks' front lines, neatly cutting Alpha and Gamma Galaxies off from their landing zone and supplies. Meanwhile, the ComGuards troops already in the valley received reinforcements from the Eighty-second, 301st, and 182nd Divisions. The shocked Diamond Shark Khans found their Galaxies completely surrounded and dangerously low on ammunition.

Khan Hawker regrouped the surviving Alpha and Gamma Clusters for an all-out frontal assault in a desperate attempt to break through the deadly ring of ComGuards 'Mechs. Meanwhile, Khan Sennet called upon the reserve 'Mechs of Omega Galaxy to rescue the front-line units from the trap. While Omega Galaxy fought its way past the 323rd and 299th Divisions of the Fifth Army, the rest of the ComGuards cut down the charging Alpha and Gamma Galaxy OmniMechs like so much wheat. The frontal assault, so prized by Khan Hawker because he considered it more Clan-like than more devious tactics, proved a fatal mistake in the brutal contest with the well-equipped and far trickier ComGuards.

Despite the heavy damage done by ComStar's forces, Omega's reserve 'Mechs finally managed to punch a hole in the ComGuards' iron net. The remnants of Alpha and Gamma Galaxies limped back to the landing zone, the ComGuards harassing their flanks and rear all the way. Just as the Clan drew within sight of its DropShips, the ComGuards massed for a final killing assault. The Diamond Sharks waited for the deadly blow, but it never fell. Instead, the freebirth MechWarriors of Omega Galaxy silently spread out and met the enemy head-on. The ComGuards destroyed Omega Galaxy, but the freebirths' sacrifice cleared the way for the remnants of Alpha and Gamma Galaxies to make good their escape.

In recognition of the incredible bravery shown by a class of warriors he had always de-valued, a chastened Khan Hawker formally rescinded his ban on freebirth warriors serving in front-line OmniMechs. Despite the courage of its troops, Clan Diamond Shark lost almost all of the troops it had committed on Tukayyid.

The Remembrance

Then Karen Nagasawa said,
"The past holds wise men as well as fools;
Why, then, do we listen only to the foolish
When we have another choice?"

-- The Remembrance (Clan Diamond Shark), Passage 96, Verse 12, Lines 1-5

Front-line Unit Summary

The near-total destruction of their forces on Tukayyid cost the Diamond Sharks many of their finest officers as well as much of their pride. As if to add insult to injury, within a year of the Tukayyid debacle, they lost Nyserta to several Ghost Bear Clusters determined to take their world back. Since the end of 3053, no sources have sighted any Diamond Shark military forces anywhere in the Inner Sphere. Some experts believe that the rest of the invaders forced the Diamond Sharks out of the Inner Sphere as punishment for the magnitude of their defeat; others believe that Tukayyid served as the nail in the coffin of the warriors' political supremacy in that Clan, and that the economically powerful merchant caste has taken over.

Activities observed by several sources within the Clan occupation zones seem to suggest that the merchants are taking a far more prominent place in Diamond Shark society than they did previously, but to infer that the days of the warrior caste's ascendancy are over is a dangerously sweeping assumption. The merchants seem to be making enormous profits from one end of Clan-occupied space to the other, keeping supply lines open to garrison and front-line troops from all the invading Clans.

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#include <stddiscl.h>

Will Day < wd@firstcircuit.net >
John Dutka < jdutka@pcnet.com >
Sep 23, 1996