Clan Wolverine

One of the original twenty Clans, Clan Wolverine was Annihilated in the years after Operation KLONDIKE, officially for having detonated nuclear devices to destroy a genetic repository of Clan Snow Raven and for opposing Nicholas Kerensky and the Clans as a whole. (The true story runs entirely different, but this is not known within the BattleTech universe.)

The Clans subsequently went to great lengths to purge Clan Wolverine from their history. They refer to the former Clan Wolverine only as the "Not-Named Clan". Instead of properly referring the "IIC"-style evolution of the Wolverine BattleMech as the Wolverine IIC, it was renamed the Conjurer (Hellhound). More than two hundred years after Clan Wolverine's annihilation, the mere comparison of a Clan warrior to an animal identified as wolverine, in a completely unrelated situation and by a person not accustomed to Clan society, was still considered a shocking insult that might elicit a violent response.

Clan Totem
Clan Wolverine's namesake came from the Terran wolverine, a small predatory mammal, which was genetically engineered for the harsh conditions in Strana Mechty's tundra regions. On Strana Mechty, the wolverines grew in size and ferocity and were capable of taking on animals many times its size. The wolverine was noted for its unwillingness to back down from any challenge, a trait that Clan Wolverine's warriors eagerly adopted.

History
Clan Wolverine came into existence with the other 19 original Clans on 11 June 2807, 6 years after the death of Aleksandr Kerensky.

Operation KLONDIKE, the Clan military operation to re-conquer the Pentagon Worlds, began on 2 July 2821. Together with Clan Snow Raven, Clan Wolverine was assigned to Northern Circe, with both Clans fighting together to defeat the Sand Confederacy before starting to operate independently.

In June 2822, Khan Sarah McEvedy was called to task by ilKhan Kerensky for allowing her people the ability to migrate between castes, against his vision of Clan society. McEvedy had allowed some shifting to the Laborer caste to increase the food output of her Clan, and Clan Widowmaker (spying on Clan Wolverine without the ilKhan's approval) discovered this and reported it to the ilKhan.

The other Clans began to step up military activity against the Wolverines. Further opposition began to solidify itself as the Wolverines completed development of several advanced 'Mech designs, and an improved ER PPC. Clans Wolf, Jade Falcon, Smoke Jaguar, Coyote, and Ghost Bear began to be more belligerent in sessions of the Grand Council. McEvedy quickly realized that her Clan was being singled out as a dangerous threat to the balance of Clan power.

In July 2823, a Brian Cache was discovered in the Tiki Province on Circe. Though technically in Wolverine territory, Clan Jade Falcon attempted to win the Cache in a Trial of Possession. They failed, but Jade Falcon Khan Lisa Buhallin brought the matter to the Grand Council in August 2823, issuing a formal protest. Due to the existence of nuclear weapons in the cache, the ilKhan determined that it would be treated as a council matter, and the Wolverines were initially allowed to complete the inventory of the Cache.

When the inventory was completed and presented to the ilKhan, he determined that no one Clan should have possession of the entire Cache, and that Trials of Possession would be necessary to fairly distribute the contents. McEvedy immediately requested a Trial of Refusal over the decision, which would be fought in October 2823 (and unfortunately lost) by her and her saKhan, Dwight Robertson (who was killed in the battle).

McEvedy then began the planning of Operation SWITCHBACK, an audacious plan to secede from the authority of the ilKhan and Grand Council and return to the Inner Sphere. While McEvedy attended the Grand Council, Hallis headed to the Norfolk Boneyard to liberate WarShips from the mothballed Exodus fleet. Another Wolverine team performed a similar mission in the San Diego Boneyard.

On 8 October 2823, McEvedy protested the results of the Trial of Refusal, claiming that the Grand Council was interfering in the internal affairs of Clan Wolverine. She then revealed the existence of The Watch and claimed that no fair trial was possible in the current climate, claiming (correctly) that as she was not asked to contribute to The Watch, that it was meant to work against the Wolverines. Realizing that nothing she could say or do would stop the inevitability of her Clan's destruction, she repudiated the ilKhan and left the Council chamber.

As a last resort, McEvedy met privately with the ilKhan the next day, 10 October 2823, onboard McKenna's Pride. While the ilKhan complimented her on the strength of her Clan, he expressed disappointment over the attempts to liberalize and change his vision. He made it clear that the Wolverines would be destroyed by the other Clans as an object lesson. McEvedy made several offers to avoid that outcome, but the ilKhan was adamant.

McEvedy would return to the Grand Council a final time on 11 October 2823, shortly after Wolverine forces defeated a multi-Clan force at the Brian Cache on Circe. She attempted to sway the Grand Council by revealing the ilKhan's plans, to no avail. She then renounced her position in Council, announced her intention to secede from the Clans, insulted the ilKhan and Council, and threatened any who would attack the Wolverines. The Khan of Clan Smoke Jaguar called for a Trial of Absorption as McEvedy left the chamber for the last time. Operation SWITCHBACK, Clan Wolverine's last hope, had begun.

Unbeknownst to Clan Wolverine, Clan Widowmaker operatives had stolen one of the nuclear devices from the Brian Cache, and prepared it for detonation in their capital city of Great Hope. Khan Jason Karrige then activated the device when he, the ilKhan, and Clan Widowmaker forces approached the city.

As Karrige had hoped and planned for, the blame fell on the shoulders of the Wolverines. The ilKhan commanded Clan Snow Raven to take the battle to the Wolverines on Circe as he planned the ultimate punishment: the Trial of Annihilation. Clan Snow Raven's attempt to use a nuclear weapon on the remaining Wolverine forces backfired horribly when the nuclear-equipped aerospace fighter was shot down by the Bismark, a mothballed WarShip reclaimed by Wolverine saKhan Franklin Hallis. The activated nuclear weapon detonated in an airburst over the Snow Raven's capital of Dehra Dun. This too would be blamed on Clan Wolverine.

On 25 October 2823, ilKhan Nicholas Kerensky addressed every member of the Clans, announcing the unprecendented Trial of Annihilation against Clan Wolverine, detailing their many crimes against the Clans. All Clan Wolverine Warriors would be killed; all other Clan Wolverine castes would be chemically sterilized and absorbed into other Clans. No quarter would be given. The other Clans were ordered to assemble a Grand Fleet to find and destroy the remaining Wolverines before they could return to the Inner Sphere.

The Clan fleet discovered Hallis' group of Wolverines on 27 June 2824, on a planet codenamed "Barbados", where they had grounded in need of supplies. Ebon's group was out of position and hampered by jump drive failure, and so the naval battle was quite one-sided. Several ships did manage to escape, but on July 7 2824, the Clans bid for the final ground battle.

The outcome was a foregone conclusion, but the treachery of Widowmaker Khan Jason Karrige was revealed by the ilKhan, and Franklin Hallis received the justice of slaying him before he was defeated by Star Colonel Ferris Ward. The rest of the Wolverine forces present were destroyed. However, the second group under saKhan Ebon survived, met up with several other Wolverine units, and fled Clan space.

The ilKhan would heavily alter Clan history regarding these incidents. Karrige's perfidy would be washed away (though his genes would be removed from the breeding program), the accidental nuking of Dehra Dun would be forever blamed on the Wolverines. Any reference to the Wolverines would be as the "Not-Named Clan". Nicholas's diaries, however, would remain uncensored and available to the Clan Wolf, which would later provide Phelan Kell with a more balanced view than available through traditional Clan sources.

Ironically, Nicholas Kerensky would later utilize some of McEvedy's caste reforms to allow limited testing and movement between the castes. Though several Absorptions would occur in Clan history, a true Trial of Annihilation against an entire Clan would not be seen again until the Wars of Reaving (though one might consider Clan Smoke Jaguar's fate to be akin to Annihilation).

On 22 January 2824, the Wolf Loremaster presented a census of the Wolverines' population and equipment to the Grand Council. Most of the Wolverine front line troops were accounted for, but many of the second-line warriors and civilians seemed to be missing, along with the majority of the equipment from the disputed Brian Cache. Operation SWITCHBACK, while not completely successful, did allow military forces and civilians under saKhan Trish Ebon to escape Clan space. How many escaped, and their final disposition, is not known.

Legacy
The Not-Named-Clan and their unclear fate has spawned numerous canon rumors and conspiracy theories. They are thought to be linked to several in-universe mysteries.

Minnesota Tribe
In 2825, after Clan Wolverine's Annihilation, a strange but highly skilled unit using SLDF tactics, painted in Regular Army colors and bearing the insignia of the North American state of Minnesota, entered Draconis Combine space from the Deep Periphery. Dubbed the "Minnesota Tribe" for their insignia and fleet of military and civilian ships traveling with them, the mystery unit attacked a series of Combine worlds picking up supplies and personnel before disappearing as suddenly as they came, despite the efforts of the Combine and ComStar to track them. In the wake of the Clan Invasion, the coincidental timing of the Tribe's appearance in the year of the Wolverine's Annihilation and their use of SLDF tactics, colors and advanced BattleMechs led many to believe the "Minnesota Tribe" were the unaccounted survivors who fled Clan-space.

In 2974, several groups of archaeologists, historians, and anthropologists merged to form Interstellar Expeditions. Ostensibly created to research and advance knowledge of humanity's past, one of its primary, non-public missions would be to learn everything possible about the so-called "Minnesota Tribe." As late as 3045, IE was making "Grand Tours" every ten years, retracing the Minnesota Tribe's known path through the Inner Sphere, visiting the same worlds and sites. Over the years, IE has collected a great number of Minnesota Tribe artifacts, including patches, uniforms, personal equipment, even tissue samples and one corpse. No Clansman is aware of this cache, though IE has made some contacts in Clan space during several Babylon Diets. IE is almost certain that the Minnesota Tribe is in fact the Not-Named Clan — Clan Wolverine.

The case was only reinforced after ComStar's public unveiling of much of its history in the wake of the Schism with the publication of a ROM report on the clothing worn by a Minnesota Tribe MechWarrior killed in the fighting on Richmond. Piloting a pristine Lancelot, the warrior was clad in a more advanced version of the SLDF's full body coolant suits which displayed two patches, the Minnesota tribe's insignia with the numbers "331" stitched on it, appearing to be a revised version of the insignia of the 331st Royal BattleMech Division, Sarah McEvedy's father's command, and the other of a white Terran Wolverine with bloodied fangs.

In September of 3063, Khan Vlad Ward of Clan Wolf formed a new Omega Galaxy almost entirely of warriors holding to the Warden philosophy, assigning it to the Periphery near Clan Wolf's Occupation Zone, supposedly to hunt down raiders with possible links to the Not-Named Clan. After seven months of searching, ambushes, and running battles, two-thirds of the raiders—simple pirates with no ties to Wolverine Clan—were wiped out at a base at Novo Cressidas, Star's End on 11 April 3064. No trace of the Not-Named Clan was discovered.

In June 3095 an Interstellar Expeditions party led by Dr Wade Laurence Beauregard is believed to have located a facility on an un-named Periphery world located 22.7 light years coreward of McEvedy's Folly containing evidence definitively linking the Minnesota Tribe to Clan Wolverine. Beauregard's party were associated with one of the IE "Grand Tours" retracing the Minnesota Tribe's journey through the near periphery around the Inner Sphere, and Beauregard had detected the planet - described as being at the edge of the goldilocks zone for its star, and possessed of more than a dozen moons - via stellar surveys. Having argued in support of previous habitation being detected on the world, Beauregard had received permission and funding to investigate further, deploying his team in a party supported by at least two DropShips, the Howard Carter and the Grave Robber. Unknown to Beauregard, his party had been infiltrated by the Word of Blake; his assigned head of security, Oleg Spector, was a Blakist or Blakist-hired mercenary. Beauregard's team uncovered a largely subterranean facility consisting of multiple levels and tunnels, partially covered by a landslide, and containing a treasure trove of artifacts including non-functional BattleMechs linking Clan Wolverine with the 331st BattleMech Division and the Minnesota tribe; while the bulk of the items were detritus, at least one functional noteputer was discovered containing definitive evidence. Shortly after the discovery, forces believed to be Word of Blake forces due to the use of a Thera-class carrier and Spectral-class aerospace fighters destroyed both IE DropShips and bombarded the excavation site with at least one nuclear weapon. Spector's betrayal was identified by Beauregard during the attack, and immediately before being killed by Beauregard, Spector indicated that the Word of Blake had waited for the authenticity of the noteputer to be confirmed before attacking, and that the discovery was something the Blakists had paid a lot of money to conceal. However, the discovery was reported via a source of dubious authenticity, making the discovery a canon rumor.

The Blood
During the Word of Blake Jihad, Chandrasekhar Kurita would supposedly uncover a series of unconfirmed documents of questionable provenance that apparently revealed the fate of the Wolverines. Indicating the survivors who fled Clan-space—supposedly almost a fifth of the Clan's personnel —indeed reached the Inner Sphere as the so-called "Minnesota Tribe", the document claims that in June 2826 ComStar, rather than losing the trail, met and offered the Wolverines refuge. Upon reaching Terra and settling on Mars, while many of the Wolverines were content to merely rest, scientist and leader of the exiled Clan's civilian population Peter Marillier forged a plan that would transform the Wolverines into a secret faction within ComStar — The so-called Blood — that would first aid then co-opt the organization from within, directing it to ultimate dominion over both the Inner Sphere and Clans.

Despite a lack of any solid proof and large question marks as to its provenance, Chandrasekhar Kurita and Devlin Stone would pass this document to Clan Ghost Bear in 3074, taking the Bears by complete surprise. While previously staying aloof from the maelstrom of the Jihad, the apparent revelation that their most sworn enemy were the driving force behind the Word of Blake prompted them to plunge full-force into the conflict. Despite Ghost Bear scientists genetically testing the remains of every Blakist defeated to try and authenticate the report, no conclusive evidence was ever found linking the Word of Blake to Clan Wolverine.

The Fidelis
Emerging after the enactment of Fortress Republic, one of the more notable theories as to the origin of the mysterious Fidelis was that they were the remnants of Clan Wolverine fighting for the Republic of the Sphere. Those who believe this theory point to both the elite Clan warrior level skills in combat and ability to maintain Clan-tech shown by the Fidelis', as well as the near fanatical hatred displayed when facing Clans Jade Falcon and Wolf on the battlefield, unaware of the group's origin from an entirely different Annihilated Clan.