Even more than most Clans, the Diamond Sharks can trace their history back to direct involvement by a founding member at the time of the Clans’ formation. Only Clan Wolf, whose warriors purchased Nicholas Kerrensky’s Bloodheritage with their remarkable display of battlefield prowess during the Pentagon campaign, can make a stronger claim to the foundation of Clan society.
Over the centuries since, the Diamond Sharks have often been at the forefront of controversy within the Clans. Challenges to Trial and threats of Absorption or Annihilation notwithstanding, the Diamond Sharks have never backed away from responsibility, whether within their own Clan or the Clans as a whole. More than any other concepts or ideals, “controversy” and “doing what needs doing” are the constant themes in Diamond Shark history.
When General Aleksandr Kerensky led the bulk of the Star League Defense Force on the Exodus from the Inner Sphere, he was attempting to save his people from the madness of civil war. But the jealousies and rivalries that led to the treachery of Stefan Amaris and sundered the Star League flared anew on the Pentagon worlds, coupled with humankind’s natural tendency toward aggression in the face of hardship. Civil war erupted within a generation after landfall.
Even as conflict tore apart the fragile beginnings of a new society, Karen Nagasawa -- who would become one of Clan Diamond Shark’s most significant leaders -- was making an attempt to hold things together in the midst of chaos. A journalist with a flair for the written word, she labored through her writing to make people see the futility of carrying on with petty hatreds. Her writings brought her to the attention of Nicholas Kerensky, the Founder; she worked with him and his wife Jennifer Winson in a final effort to restore sanity. In the end, it fell to Karen to write some of the most difficult words ever set to paper: the speeches in which Nicholas Kerensky proposed the second Exodus. Their eloquence and power initially drew many of his followers to him.
Over the next two decades on Strana Mechty, Karen Nagasawa continued to assist in the formation of the Clans by turning the grand ideas of Nicholas and Jennifer -- and, some say, several of her own -- into eloquent calls for support. As each Clan was formed and named for a totem, Nagasawa helped write the address in which the Founder attributed the qualities of the totem to that Clan. Kerensky named Clan Sea Fox for a predator native to Strana Mechty’s freshwater oceans. He was impressed with the honor the sea fox appeared to show its intended prey, bowing to it before striking.
David Kalasa, a Capellan native and a newly commissioned officer in the SLDF at the time of the first Exodus, was one of those drawn to Nicholas Kerensky’s dream through the writings of Nagasawa -- first to the call a second Exodus and later to the vision of Clan society. When it came time to form Clan Sea Fox, Kalasa’s impressive combat skills and total devotion to the Founder’s cause earned him the position of the new Clan’s first Khan. He took the post on the condition that Nagasawa, now an aerospace pilot with the rank of Star Colonel, be added to his Clan’s roster. What better place for her, he argued, drawing a parallel between the sea fox’s nobility and Nagasawa’s prose.
Clan Blood Spirit at first contended this request, as Nagasawa had been slated for their Clan, but only as a matter of form. Though Khan Collen Schmitt of the Blood Spirits appreciated Nagasawa’s work, she had noticed certain progressive leanings that troubled her. For Clan Blood Spirit, focused toward keeping alive the esprit de corps that had originally bound Nicholas Kerensky’s followers, Nagasawa represented a potential source of conflict. Ultimately, the Blood Spirits agreed that Nagasawa belonged in the Sea Fox Clan.
Unfortunately for the other Clans, Clan Sea Fox was proved right; the fight to retake Babylon stalled out almost immediately. Only quick thinking on the part of Star Colonel Nagasawa saved the assault, when she led a single aerospace Star in a bombing run against a rebel stronghold. But instead of rallying to the Sea Foxes, the other three Clans struck out on their own, leaving Clan Sea Fox unsupported. Clan Sea Fox took the primary target, but at the cost of Khan Kalasa’s life. SaKhan Dianne Sennet led the Sea Foxes onward, still without support from the other Clans. When Babylon was finally pacified, Caln Sea Fox had performed as well as any of the other three despite the lack of aid from the Clan’s fellow combatants. SaKhan Sennet publicaly recognized Star Colonel Nagasawa as instrumental in the Sea Fox effort. In a remarkable display of loyalty, when Nicholas Kerensky chose Nagasawa for a khanship in Clan Sea Fox, saKhan Sennet supported Nagasawa for the superior position.
Upon gaining control of Clan Sea Fox, Khan Nagasawa took immediate steps to ensure her Clan’s long-term viability. Her historical studies had led her to believe that the Star League’s greatest strength had come from its material prosperity and the value it placed on the individual citizen. She saw both as compatible with the Clan way, including the Clan’s caste system. She therefore supported cooperation and interdependence between her Clan’s castes, a policy that paid dividends.
First, cooperation reduced the friction that quickly became common within other Clans between warriors and the lower castes. The Sea Fox military functioned more smoothly because of it, confident that disputes with the merchant and technician castes would not hamper its logistics. Other castes, treated with respect for their labor, performed to higher standards and quickly vaulted the Sea Fox Clan into prosperity. The emphasis on individual worth allowed Clan Sea Fox to become a leader in scientific and economic achievements as well as remaining on par with other Clans’ military efforts. Clan Sea Fox scientists perfected the iron womb technology and genetic engineering techniques that became the basis for the Clan warrior eugenics program. In addition, the scientist caste claimed a freedom of thought that allowed them to improve the quality of life for the Clan as a whole.
The merchant caste benefited most, especially in the Clan’s formative years. With the freedoms granted them, Sea Fox merchants quickly dominated trade in the valuable commodity of information. As each Clan moved to isolate itself from the others, the value of information soared. In response, the merchants created the Chatterweb, an information-exchange network that soon became as much a military tool as an economic asset. Its military value first became apparent when information gleaned by Sea Fox merchants from the Chatterweb allowed that Clan to bid sharply against Clan Coyote in a Trial of Possession for the colony world of Delios -- a prize that Clan Sea Fox ultimately won.
Such cutthroat bidding practices quickly became common for Clan Sea Fox, at one point prompting a Trial of Grievance from Clan Wolf. The Sea Foxes fought the Wolves to a draw, defending their right to bid as they saw fit. This successful defense gave rise to a popular saying among Sea Fox merchants as well as warriors: “Do not place your foot in the water unless you are prepared to get soaked.”
The future of Clan Sea Fox looked bright, even seeming to promise a leadership role among the Clans. Then came two events that helped the Clan define itself, and turned it down a different path than many might have expected: the Annihilation of the Not-Named Clan and the Absorption of Clan Widowmaker.
Both of these events should have been opportunities for the Sea Foxes to gain power, their bidding skills placing them as favorites in winning the right to either action. But thought the Sea Foxes voted in favor of the Annihilation and the Absorption, they abstained from bidding when it came to deciding who would be allowed the honor of carrying out the Clans’ will. The Sea Foxes chose to uphold the Clan way and strive to strengthen themselves, but not at the cost of another Clan’s death. Wherever they might go, the Sea Foxes would get there on their own strengths.Clan Sea Fox’s success in areas other than military conquest drew a mixture of self-righteous indignation and jealousy masked by scorn from many other Clans. Despite the increasing controversy, the Sea Foxes refused to back away from any honorable course that stood to increase their Clan’s profits or military might.
In the years of growth later known as the Golden Century, Clan Sea Fox joined the Nova Cats in futures speculation. Prompted by the merchant caste, the Sea Fox exploration and colonization programs far outstripped those of most other Clans. The Sea Foxes established many of the first trade routes to the Clans’ colony worlds, and the strategic placement of a few colonies ensured them of a healthy influence over that trade. Clan Hell’s Horses, as part of its limited colonization effort, contracted with the Sea Foxes to help stock the world of Niles with flora and fauna, thereby establishing a stable ecosystem. The Wolves, also racing for colony worlds, availed themselves of Sea Fox information and so gained an edge over many other Clans in the expansion of their territory.
Clan Sea Fox visited numerous worlds on what they called “fishing expeditions” for new resources, including worlds already visited by other Clans. This relentless search brought one of the Clans’ most significant discoveries: the substance dubbed HarJel. Found on the world of Strato Domingo, this jellylike liquid could be quickly hardened sufficiently to withstand the stress of vacuum. The demand for HarJel was astoundingly high, as it could be used for everything from repairing heavy machinery to reinforcing damaged armor on ships’ hulls and -- much later -- Elemental suits.
This single discovery led to several new trading pacts, and raised an already strong Sea Fox economy to new heights. Strato Domingo became a hotly contested world, which the Sea Foxes defended time and again. The Jade Falcons made particularly stubborn efforts to claim Strato Domingo; they had once built an outpost there, but abandoned it when their own colonization program fell through.
While the merchants busied themselves with exploration, the scientist and technician castes brought to the Sea Foxes an important breakthrough in military technology: OmniMechs. The Chatterweb brought Clan Sea Fox word of Clan Coyote research into this area. Quick to see its potential, they offered Clan Coyote their own vast scientific and technical skills to aid in the new technology’s development. Clan Coyote is deservedly credited with the OmniMech invention. Clan Sea Fox, however, was instrumental in bringing it to life. Barely a year after Clan Coyote’s first field tests, the Sea Foxes fielded OmniMech designs of their own. The military upgrade to Omni technology allowed the Sea Foxes to win several important battles, though they downplayed their strengths in order to let Clan Coyote shoulder the brunt of the political struggles that resulted from the OmniMech’s emergence.
OmniMechs were not the only technological advantage to be developed in this era, however. In 2868, Clan Wolf fielded the first of its Elemental battle armor designs, shocking many Clans with the resurrection of a useful infantry force. Quick to realize the potential of HarJel with regard to Elemental suits, Clan Sea Fox used preemptive batchalls to arrange for a Trial of Possession with Clan Wolf, swapping a guaranteed HarJel supply at reduced cost for the suit technology. Wolf and Sea Fox technicians worked together over the Chatterweb to incorporate HarJel patching systems into the elemental suit, an upgrade that Clan Sea Fox later sold to the other Clans as they acquired the Elemental technology. Clan Coyote, apparently offended that they did not receive a similar preemptive batchall after the two Clans’ shared work on OmniMech technology, launched an immediate Trial of Possession for the world of Strato Domingo. The upgraded Elemental suits ensured the Coyote s loss.
Only Clans Smoke Jaguar and Hell’s Horses obtained the upgraded suits without hard mercantile bargaining. Clan Smoke Jaguar won the upgraded suit technology from Clan Sea Fox in a Trial of Possession. The heavy forces brought to bear virtually assured the Jaguars of victory, after many losses to Clan Wolf for the same technology. Merchants of other Clans noted at the time, with more than a tinge of jealousy, that the Sea Foxes did not put up much of a struggle to withhold the Elemental suits from Clan Smoke Jaguar, but that the Smoke Jaguars thereafter paid a hefty premium for HarJel. Clan Hell’s Horses, on the other hand, possessed something that the Sea Foxes wanted: the genetic material and procedures for producing the infantry warriors who would become known as Elementals. In a deal brokered by Sea Fox merchants, Clan Hell’s Horses was given a colony site on Strato Domingo -- the only other Clan ever allowed on the planet -- and limited rights to HarJel resources in return for assisting Clan Sea Fox in creating its own Elemental bloodlines. Both Clans were happy with the arrangement, considering it a sharing of resources more than a trade agreement.
For all the scientific breakthroughs and military successes, the Golden Century belonged most to the Sea Fox merchant caste. The merchants turned any advantage into profit for the Clan, and leaders of this caste acted as advisors to the Sea Fox Khans. Warriors, though convinced of their own superiority, fought as many battles for merchant concerns as they did for clear military reasons. Other Clans saw the rise of the Sea Fox merchant caste as cause for disdain or concern, but could not act as long as the Sea Foxes held to the Way of the Clans.
In 2984, Damon Clarke was installed as senior Khan of Clan Sea Fox. Far more conservative than most in this progressive-minded Clan, Clarke won election to the post mostly through his string of military successes. He supported strengthening the warrior caste over all others, and many feared he would try to remake the Clan in accordance with that vision. Khan Clarke would indeed oversee one of the greatest changes ever to occur within any Clan, though not in a way that his critics expected.
As was customary for a new Sea Fox Khan, Clarke traveled to Strana Mechty to pay a tribute of fish to the Clan’s totem. After an unusually long wait for the appearance of a sea fox, the Khan’s party finally spotted one, and the Khan cast the tribute to it. But before the sea fox could partake of the offering, a huge shark -- unlike any seen before -- leapt from the water and attacked it. The sea fox fought valiantly, but after a brief struggle the shark pulled its prey beneath the waves.
The incident sparked an uproar in Clan Sea Fox, and Khan Clarke dispatched Elementals to capture one of the sharks. Sea Fox scientists named the creature diamond shark for its coloration and the ridges of diamond-hard spines along its sides. Detailed analysis of the diamond shark and its shared habitat with the sea fox led the scientists to predict the eventual extinction of the sea fox. After careful consideration of the fate of the sea fox against such a worthy hunter, there was only one clear choice. Khan Clarke drafted a proposal to change the Clan’s name to Diamond Shark.
Bringing the proposal before the Grand Council for approval touched off an immediate and fierce debate. Many sympathized with Clarke’s desire to take the name of a predator that had proven itself genetically superior. The opposition, led by Khan Howell of the Snow Ravens, argued against it as an affront to the wisdom of Nicholas Kerensky. During the debate, however, Khan Howell made a disastrous error; he revealed that his Clan’s scientists had genetically engineered the diamond shark and that he had released it into the waters of Strana Mechty to punish the Sea Foxes for what he considered their unClanlike ways. Outraged, Snow Raven saKhan Niamh Sukhanov immediately challenged his Khan to a Trial of Grievance and killed him.
The damage to the opposition had been done, however. The final vote was eight to nine agaisnt the Sea Foxes, who called for an immediate Trial of Refusal. Snow Raven Khan Sukhanov won the right to oppose the Sea Foxes. Damon Clarke, showing the flair for vicious assaults that had won him the post of Sea Fox Khan, dominated the battle from the start and decimated Sukhanov’s forces.
Clarke’s victory in the Trial settled matters as far as the Grand Council was concerned, but Clarke still had to decide how best to put the matter before his own Clan. His conservative nature argued for allowing only the warriors to vote; however, upon reflection he realized that disregarding the lower castes, who were used to certain freedoms, might cause severe backlash. He went into seclusion, studying the writings of Nagasawa for insight. Meanwhile, Sea Fox warriors were screaming for Snow Raven blood and vengeance. Trials of Grievance flared up, directed by the Sea Fox saKhan toward Liam Howell’s most loyal supporters. History would later call this time the “Month of Grievances.”
While his warriors fought the Snow Ravens, Khan Clarke waged his own private war. Impressed by Nagasawa’s writings, he decided to throw the name-change proposal open for voting by the entire Clan. Eight of his best warriors, led by Galaxy Commander Bret Leroux, promptly challenged him to Trials of Grevance over the issue. These warriors had welcomed Clarke’s pro-warrior stance and felt betrayed by his change of heart. Clarke won every Trial, dominating through sheer power just as the diamond shark had. Only two days after Clarke’s final Trial, the Sea Foxes fought and won another Trial against Clan Snow Raven, after which they allowed the new Raven Khan to invoke the right of surkai. As their surkairede, the Snow Ravens refitted the Diamond Shark orbital dockyards around Babylon.
The Clan-wide vote to change the name of Clan Sea Fox to Clan Diamond Shark went forward in September of 2985. Each caste had an equal say, which gave the warriors strength beyond their small numbers. Voting results remained tight, with the warriors and merchants coming down on the side of the name change and the technician and scientist castes showing strong opposition. The results stood at this 50 percent standoff until the laborer caste voted. Showing their gratitude for Khan Damon Clarke’s newfound liberalism, 95 percent of the laborer caste voted for the change. September 30, 2985 would forever after be known in the Clan as Genus Day, the day in which Clan Sea Fox officially changed its identity to Clan Diamond Shark.
Clan Diamond Shark’s current records do not indicate why hostilities with Clan Snow Raven ceased so abruptly. But cease they did, and not long afterward the Snow Ravens and Diamond Sharks entered into several trade and service agreements.
The military battles had ceased, but the merchants of Clan Diamond Shark continued an aggressive campaign of their own. The Snow Ravens invariably ended up with poor deals, while the Diamond Sharks continued to profit. The Grand Council, at the instigation of Clan Coyote, eventually made a brief inquiry into the matter, wanting to make sure that the Diamond Sharks were not violating the spirit of surkairede. Not since their involvement with the impeachment of ilKhan Khatib in 2947 had the Snow Ravens garnered so much attention from the Grand Council, and they did not find it welcome. The Snow Ravens swiftly and vehemently denied feeling persecuted by the Sea Fox/Diamond Shark incident, and the business dealings continued. As a result of the investigation, relations cooled for a while between Clan Snow Raven and Clan Coyote. Clan Coyote continued to maintain that the Diamond Sharks must be holding something over the Snow Ravens for the Ravens to agree so meekly to agreements that appeared to cheat them.
In the last few decades of the thirtieth century, the Great debate raged throughout the Clans over whether or not to return to the Inner Sphere. The issue split the Clans into two factions; those calling themselves the Crusaders argued that the time had come to restore the Star League by force, while the Wardens opposed invasion on the grounds that Nicholas Kerensky had meant the Clans to protect rather than invade the Inner Sphere. Clan Diamond Shark remained neutral for some time, at first out of indifference and then through preoccupation with internal matters. As the debate escalated and the lines were drawn, Clan Diamond Shark realized that the Crusaders’ invasion would take place; the only question remaining where when and -- most importantly to the Diamond Sharks -- how.
Though the Sharks at first leaned toward the Warden view, they slowly shifted to the Crusader faction over the next two decades -- less from zealous support of invasion than from the realization that it is easier to direct the course of the inevitable from within. Khan Clarke had come to believe that the liberal Diamond Sharks most closely resembled the Star League of old, and that only they could turn what was shaping up as a Jade Falcon/Smoke Jaguar-inspired bloodbath into a true liberation of the Inner Sphere.
Trying to navigate this middle course won the Diamond Sharks few friends. Relations with Warden Clans cooled, and Crusader allies were likewise dismayed when the Diamond Sharks voted in favor of the Dragoon Compromise in 3000. By the time of the final invasion vote in 3048, changes in the leadership of Clan Diamond Shark had brought it firmly into the Crusader fold. Ian Hawker, the elected Khan in 3046, had instigated radical changes dramatically curtailing lower-caste privileges and limiting freeborn warriors to garrison duty. To justify such changes, Khan Hawker demanded a positive vote in 3048 -- and with several other Clans voting “yes” in reaction to the capture of the ComStar vessel Outbound Light over the Jaguar capitol of Huntress, the Crusaders finally won the argument. The invasion had become a reality.
Placing sixth out of seventeen Clans in the Trials for a place in the invasion force, the Diamond Sharks were relegated to the role of a reserve Clan. Ian Hawker and his command Trinary would accompany several strikes in the Periphery and during the first wave of attacks on the Inner Sphere to observe and hopefully participate in the conquest. Meanwhile, saKhan Barbara Sennet reviewed the changing battlefield situation with an eye toward merchant activities.
Under saKhan Sennet’s orders, goods were brought forward from the Diamond Shark homeworlds to take advantage of the healthy market in supplying civilian merchants and the Clan garrisons left behind while frontline units rolled toward Terra. This arrangement lasted through the second invasion wave and part of the third, surviving a challenge by ilKhan Leo Showers when Khan Hawker backed his junior Khan in the face of Showers’ wrath. Hostilities flared briefly in the homeworlds between Diamond Shark and Smoke Jaguar forces, but quickly calmed as the invasion progressed.
Bad fortune coupled with political motivations eventually brought about an order for the Diamond Shark merchants to leave the Inner Sphere. When the merchants attempted to defy the order, Khan Hawker used military might to force them home. He was soon to follow them. After the sudden death of ilKhan Showers in the Radstadt system of the Free Rasalhague Republic, all the Khans returned to Strana Mechty to elect a new ilKhan. The Diamond Shark Khans voted in favor of Ulric Kerensky as the new ilKhan -- Khan Hawker to support the plans of his Jade Falcon allies, and saKhan Sennet out of a preference for the Wolves’ favorable treatment of their conquered worlds.
IlKhan Ulric activated the Steel Vipers and Nova Cats as reserve Clans, and allowed the Diamond Sharks to contest a single Ghost Bear world to be used as their staging area should their Clan be activated as well. With a new foothold in the Inner Sphere, Diamond Shark merchant vessels once again swept forward to strengthen the Clan. Then came the battle for Tukayyid, a backwater world serving as a proxy for the glittering prize of Terra. Leaving a Cluster of Omega (Bloodscent) Galaxy to defend the staging world, Khan Hawker committed almost every other Diamond Shark unit in the Inner Sphere to the conflict.
Disregarding the sharp bidding practices learned from the merchant caste, Khan Hawker failed to win a prominent position in the battle. The inferior position from which Shark forces began soon turned the battle against the Clan. Alpha (Deathstrike) and Gamma (Snapping Jaws) Galaxies met overwhelming force from the world’s ComGuard defenders, and could make no headway against them. With no hope of taking their assigned objectives, the Diamond Shark Clusters were ultimately forced to retreat. Only the heroic sacrifice of the remnants of Omega Galaxy, the very freeborn warriors Ian Hawker had tried to discard as useless, allowed any front-line warriors to survive -- and those were not many.
Tukayyid had decimated two front-mine Galaxies, and more military setbacks were in store. Clan Ghost Bear retook the Diamond Shark staging world, shattering and claiming as isorla two more Omega Galaxy Clusters -- thereby gutting a Diamond Shark garrison Galaxy. Weakened, the Diamond Sharks pulled all military assets back to the homeworlds lest another Clan scent blood in the waters and fall on them in a frenzy. The Diamond Sharks had not accomplished much militarily in the Inner Sphere, but in the homeworlds they still had vast holdings to protect. Fortunately, the treason trial of Ulric Kerensky and the resulting Refusal War between Clans Wolf and Jade Falcon occupied the attention of most Clans long enough for the Sharks to recover.
Having already rescinded the order barring freeborn warriors from serving in front-line Galaxies, Khan Ian Hawker was forced into further concessions. While he and saKhan Sennet had concentrated on the political side of events, effective control of the Clan passed to Angus Labov, a retired trueborn warrior who had become the head of the Diamond Sharks’ merchant council. Labov’s orders were clear: do whatever is necessary to rebuild Clan Diamond Shark’s military force. Diamond Shark merchants flooded the Clan occupation zones in the Inner Sphere and drove hard bargains in the homeworlds, all with an eye to large profit margins or military concessions. The merchants demanded and received WarShips to cover their convoys, as well as to harass the merchant shipping of other Clans. Such a hard tack prompted Clan Coyote to resurrect an old saying: “If you see fins in the water, do not go swimming.”
The Diamond Sharks managed to buy the time to rebuild their strength. Labov worked wonders, bridging the gap between warrior and merchant to forward the goals of both castes. At one point, he even answered a Trial of Grievance from Star Colonel Jeremy Hawker, an officer in Khan Ian Hawker’s Alpha Galaxy, who was dismayed to see a merchant with such power. SaKhan Sennet lent Labov a Glass Spider, with which he defeated the Star Colonel in two minutes flat.
The eradication of the Smoke Jaguar warrior caste and its own humiliations may have finally driven home to Khan Hawker the futility of his Crusader views, at least with regard to Clan Diamond Shark. When Victor Steiner-Davion led his task force to Strana Mechty for the Grand Refusal, Hawker bowed to the will of his Clan and voted along Warden lines, though undoubtedly he hoped for a Clan victory. When the dust settled, the Star League had successfully defended its refusal to the entire invasion, and the Clans found themselves unexpectedly at peace. A disillusioned Khan Hawker decided to pass from this life, stating, “I might have led my Clan to victory, but I do not know how to lead it through peace.” Barbara Sennet became Khan and Angus Labov was elected as saKhan.
The Ghost Bear withdrawal to the Inner Sphere, the death of the Smoke Jaguars, and the Nova Cat defection to the SLDF threw the Clans into chaos. In the absence of an Inner Sphere invasion, territorial wars began over the Nova Cat and Smoke Jaguar holdings. As always, Diamond Shark profited.
Eschewing Jaguar territory, the Diamond Sharks at first simply worked to hold the worlds given them by the Ghost Bears. The Sharks surrendered territory to the Jade Falcons, but held on to the extensive gains on the world of Paxon. The Paxon enclaves alone were a rich addition to the Diamond Sharks’ spread of worlds and colonies; the merchants smelled additional profit in the Nova Cats’ predicament.
Forced to make a fighting withdrawal from the Clan homeworlds after their Abjuration, the Nova Cats traded warriors for time as they tried to relocate their lower castes and infrastructure. On Barcella, the Nova Cat capitol, Clan Diamond Shark arrived with several Potemkin-class troop transports. Leasing these large population-movers to Clan Nova Cat, the Diamond Sharks also entered into a contract to defend the fleeing Clan. The Diamond Sharks’ Beta Galaxy made planetfall and helped to tie up the Ice Hellions and Jade Falcons, earning for the Diamond Sharks the animosity of those two Clans, but also a large portion of Barcella. The fighting on Barcella has yet to settle down, though saKhan Labov predicts “a profitable settlement in the near future.”
But no profit from Barcella can
match Clan Diamond Shark’s latest endeavor: the recent opening
of a new market with fathomless potential. In the rough waters of war
or the becalmed seas of peace, the Shark will ever seek out prosperity.