Warrior for warrior, the Diamond Sharks can hold the field against almost any Clan. The Diamond Shark edge is the solidarity that exists between castes, specifically the relationship between our warriors and merchants.
The merchant caste, dealing in information and monitoring the Chatterweb, supplies the military with some of the best information among the Clans. Even Clan Star Adder, with a dedicated intelligence branch, has difficulty with matching the Diamond Shark merchants’ savvy in this area. The merchants directly advise the military, often assisting in choosing targets or subordinate objectives. When the Sharks fight, they usually have secondary and tertiary objectives in addition to primary concerns. Achieving any one of these can give the Diamond Sharks a net gain even if they lose the overall battle, or at least mitigate the defeat. The merchants also maintain the Diamond Shark logistic corps, which ties them to every other caste. This solid logistics foundation was the basis of Clan Diamond Shark’s strong recovery after Tukayyid.
As a result of liberal attitudes about intra-caste relations, and especially prominent role of the merchant caste, the Diamond Sharks consider it a minor loss of face for a warrior to accept a position in a lower caste. Many in Clan Diamond Shark regard this practice as an extension of hegira, allowing a defeated warrior to withdraw from the field with no further loss of honor. And for those who have proven themselves, winning a Bloodname and guaranteeing their inclusion in the eugenics program, no stigma exists at all. This tradition of accepting warriors into lower castes means that Clan Diamond Shark maintains fewer solahma units than other Clans, as its aging warriors may retire gracefully to other pursuits. Diamond Shark solahma units are typically staffed by diehard warriors who are too proud to change castes, or who have been disgraced in some way and seek a final measure of honor in death.
Bloodnamed warriors who have retired to a lower caste -- almost always the merchant caste -- may choose to remain on active reserve status by taking a Trial of Position every year alongside new sibko cadets. All others are considered inactive, but can be called back if needed. Until Tukayyid, Clan Diamond Shark had never needed to avail itself of this large body of reserve warriors. Indeed, the Clan had taken heavy criticism for allowing its warriors to demote themselves to a lower caste. In the aftermath of bitter conflicts such as Tukayyid and the Refusal War, however, Clans such as Wolf and Jade Falcon could only stew in silent envy at the Diamond Sharks’ ability to recall large numbers of proven warriors.
Even with the reserve testing pool, rebuilding was a slow process. Khans Hawker and Sennet stood united in their refusal to debase their front-line units by forcing on them inferior technology or warriors not up to their demanding standards. Also, gutting their garrison Galaxies as Clans Wolf and Jade Falcon had been forced to do could only spell disaster for the Clan’s widespread territories. Angus Labov solved the problem by inventing what he called the Minus-One Testing program.
Minus-One Testing became a way that a retired warrior could re-enter service in the Diamond Shark Touman. Bloodnamed warriors who had remained on the active reserve roster could enter a vacant Garrison or Spina Galaxy billet one rank under their last tested rank -- for example, a Star Captain could accept a voluntary demotion to Star Commander. Inactive reservists could undergo a new Trial of Position, with the final result subject to the same minus one drop in rank. Once on active duty, these warriors could advance through the usual methods, and so ranks temporarily lost were regained as the best of the swelling Garrison and Spina Galaxies fought their way up the chain of command and into front-line service.
<A second and rarer method provided a way for retired warrior to re-enter service at his or her current rank or position. If an active-duty warrior challenged a reservist and lost, that reservist could assume the challenger’s rank and position. Angus Labov returned to his old rank this way, and so was eligible for the post of saKhan.
To prevent undue loss of material resources, Trials of Position for the command positions of Star Captain and below were temporarily relegated to simulated fire. That restriction has since been lifted, with all Trials returning to live-fire engagements.
Like its namesake, Clan Diamond Shark relies on varying levels of offensive and defensive capability: a sharply honed assault force for its death strikes, a solid garrison force to protect the body of the Clan, and second-line forces that may be used in either capacity (much like the diamond spines that flank the Clan’s totem).
Mixed Clusters are the rule in Clan Diamond Shark, a combined-arms approach common since the days of Karen Nagasawa. Trinaries often remain pure for ease of organization and logistics support.
Clan Diamond Shark relies on fewer front-line Galaxies than most Clans, fielding only three Galaxies of four Clusters each. However, each Cluster numbers five or six Trinaries, often with a Supernova Trinary bulking the Cluster up even further. The command Trinary is typically an independent command Star with a support Binary. The command Star is a feature that mimics the Inner Sphere command lances that were successfully against Clan forces, but more often follows Clan Wolf’s strategic command Star of four OmniMechs and a Point of OmniFighters. Front-line Galaxies want for nothing with regard to military supplies -- a condition that existed even when saKhan Labov controlled the operations of the Clan in his capacity as a merchant caste leader.
The two secondary Galaxies, known as Lambda Spina (Starstrike) and Rho Spina (Steelsoul), also use larger Cluster formations, but only three to a Galaxy. One Cluster in each is outfitted with OmniMechs and OmniFighters, as are all command Trinaries. Independent command Stars are not as useful in the roles traditionally given to the Spina Galaxies, and so are not used. Though these Galaxies are normally deployed in defense of Clan territory, ignoring their offensive capability is a mistake for which many Clans have paid heavily. The secondary Galaxies were put to greater use after Tukayyid; they formed the primary defense against Star Adder predation and have made some significant gains during the ongoing territory wars. Lambda and Rho Spina trade some regular aerospace assets for a higher concentration of Elementals, relying on the naval fleet for aerospace support.
Garrison Galaxies, though by necessity outfitted with standard technology, are not sneered at by front-line warriors or ignored by the Clan logistics corps. Every member of Clan Diamond Shark is aware that the power of their Clan relies on its vast territorial holdings and the mercantile concerns of each. What the garrison forces lack in OmniMechs and other superior technology, they compensate for in non-military items awarded to them by the merchant caste. This gives them a greater appreciation for their duty, according to the merchants, though outsiders claim that the merchants hope to create more warrior-traders. It is true that more garrison warriors than front-line troops turn merchant later in life. In contrast to the front-line and Spina Galaxies, garrison Galaxies tend to rely on five medium-strength Clusters of four Trinaries each.
Diamond Shark breeding programs remain at the cutting edge. The originators of the iron womb technology, Clan Diamond Shark has also come up with most of the improvements to equipment and genetic manipulation techniques. The Diamond Sharks are not adverse to taking chances on new technology or procedures, even knowing that most will fail, because those that succeed will produce viable warriors of a superior breed.
Though certain MechWarrior and aerospace pilot bloodlines owned by the Diamond Sharks have benefited from experimentation, the most significant breakthroughs have come with Elemental bloodlines. While the primary techniques and genetic material came from Clan Hell’s Horses, Diamond Shark breeding techniques solved many of the problems that had caused such high attrition rates in Elemental sibkos. These improvements have given the Diamond Sharks an edge over many Clans with regard to proven Elemental bloodnames, five of which the Clan has kept under its exclusive control despite many Trials of Possession.
Because of their mercantile concerns and the spread of colonies and enclaves throughout Clan space, the Diamond Sharks have maintained a large fleet of WarShips to defend their space-borne interests. The fleet’s primary ships are five large Potemkin-class troop transports which are often used to transport merchant DropShips and thereby move huge quantities of goods under excellent security. The Potemkins are traditionally assigned combat-oriented DropShips which, when hidden among a dozen or more merchant vessels, can act as a handy reserve element.
The five Potemkins are the Poseidon (given to the merchant caste as a flagship), Titanic, Tsunami, Red Tide, and Kraken. The Diamond Sharks also control the Fredasa-class Swift Strike; the Carrack-class Star Swimmer, Devourer, and Bloodletter; the Essex-class Sharon and Tracy; the Lola III-class Predator and Space Hunter; the Aegis-class Bloodlust; the Volga-class Bold Venture and Speculator; the Sovetskii Soyuz-class Nagasawa, and the Nightlord-class Terror of the Deep. The latter is the military flagship, often simply called the Terror.
Though the Diamond Sharks see value in gathering information, they will not sit and wait for it once a strike has been deemed necessary. A heightened state of readiness and the ability to move on an enemy quickly have been the keys to many a Diamond Shark victory, in emulation of the Clan totem. To make such victory possible, intelligence -- whether gleaned from the Chatterweb or other sources -- is always up-to-date and in the hands of those officers who require it.
Thought many Clans point to Tukayyid as a failure of Diamond Shark tactical doctrine, the Diamond Sharks see it as a supporting example. The intelligence needed to win the battle was available, in the form of data and advice from ilKhan Ulric Kerensky. Khan Ian Hawker, through a Diamond Shark born, did not adhere to his predecessor’s charge to “recall our Sea Fox heritage and continue to show honor to our opponents.” His contempt for the Inner Sphere led him to ignore the information that might have brought victory; instead, he charged blindly forward and so never knew how or when to place the death blow.
The Diamond Sharks are among the cleverest bidders in the Clans, equaled only by Clan Wolf. But where the Wolves rely on their warriors, the Sharks place more emphasis on the intelligence they have gathered. Bidding within the Clan can be fierce, as nearly all officers can avail themselves of the same information. When bidding against another Clan, the Diamond Sharks often use the cutdown to masterful effect. Through presentation of information, the cutdown can be made to appear higher or lower than it truly is, and so force an opponent into taking the bid at impossible odds or giving up to the Diamond Sharks at an easy level. Diamond Sharks also employ the “dive bid” tactic, dropping their bid from well above the cutdown to just below it. This leaves them a wide margin of error should they be given the bid and reduces the opponent’s margin to negligible should he try to bid just a notch lower.
Once battle is joined, the Diamond
Sharks attempt to locate any weakness and exploit it to the fullest. Terrifying
and relentless, they fight like their namesake. They consider zellbriggen
a guideline for combat, not an absolute, unless an enemy officer invokes the
right to challenge and singles out his Diamond Shark opposite. The Sharks
do not consider such tactics as sending out Elementals to assault an enemy
supply cache or calling in aerospace assets on a bombing run against a hardened
position to be violations of the Clan Way. The former situation promotes
victory with less material waste by reducing the enemy’s ability to
inflict damage. The latter reflects the Diamond Shark attitude that
any tactical or strategic asset is a viable target. If enemy machines
take advantage of a fortified position, they have essentially bid those defenses
into the order of battle, and so aerospace assault is merely the Diamond Shark
counterbid.