In 3049, the Clans invaded. First contact was made on August 13, 3049, and through to Halloween, 3050, the Clans punched the assholes of the Free Rasalhague Republic inside out. Wave after wave of Clan attacks followed with blinding speed and efficiency, hitting the neighboring Draconis and Lyrans as well. Between their OmniMechs and armored infantry called Elementals (basically powered armor that can take on Inner Sphere light 'Mechs. Yeah. Clans OP.) and the element of surpirse, the Clan warriors cut down their Inner Sphere opponents like wheat before a scythe. The first four Clans to roll into the Inner Sphere were the Smoke Jaguar, GHost bear, Jade Falcon, and Wolf. All took their share of worlds though Wolf took the most, and the Clan juggernaut thundered on (just like grandma) and was only stopped when their war leader died when some Rasalhagian pilot flew her spaceship into the bridge of the Clans' main command ship.

So with Genghis Khan (seriously I don't remember his real name, and I got tired of the Zombie Kerensky joke) dead, the Clans retreated back to their home world of Strana Mechty to elect a new ilKhan. Fo several months, the Inner Sphere had a respite while the Clans debated, but by mid-3051, the Clans had returned under a new ilKhan, Ulric Kerensky from Clan Wolf. Meanwhile, Colonel Jaime Wolf of the Wolf's Dragoons, secretly clan warriors from Clan Wolf (how many more times can I say clan or wolf in this sentence) was like "hey guys I'm Jaime Wolf of the Wolf's Dragoons and we're secretly Clan warriors from Clan Wolf" and told the Inner Sphere all about the Clans, which I'll cover in a later wall of text. The Sphere made a PLAN to fight the CLAN(s) and so they did.

Part of this plan involved Hnase Davion and Theodore Kurita kissing and making up with an alliance to fight the Clans. Ol' Hanse also promised Thomas Marik, head of the Free Worlds, that he'd help find a cure for Thomas' cancerous son Joshua in exchange for material aid from the Free Worlds, who'd been riding three centuries of not losing a war up to that point. Thomas agreed. In November of 3051, the Clans launched an attack on the Combine capital of Luthien, and in a display of not being a shithead, Hanse sent his armies to help defend it, and as a result, Theodore and Hanse decided their wives sucked and decided to be hetero life partners and get a flat together on the lower west side.

I may be making that last part up.

BUT W/E

So the Clans penetrated deeper into the vulnerable hole of the Inner Sphere in spite of their apparent unity and ComStar was like "How can we be even bigger shitheads than usual?" Their leader, Primus Myndo Waterly (you know she was made fun of in school), came up with an answer to that question. She figured she could negotiate with the Clans somehow, first offering to administer their conquered worlds for the Clans so the Clans could focus on fighting. She abruptly changed her plans when she learned the Clans were after Terra and struck a deal with the invaders at the urging of her Precentor Martial (uh. main general dude.) Anastasius Focht and challenged the Clans to a batchall (battle challenge; a Clan tradition of picking a battlefield and then bidding forces against one another until both commanders agree on a proper size of engagement and which weapons to use) for Terra on the backwater world of Tukayyid in 3052. If the Clans won, they'd get Terra. If ComStar won, the CLans would halt their invasion for 15 years.

ComStar won. However, Focht decided he didn't like being a shithead so he shot Waterly in the face, took her hat, and decided to reform ComStar. The reactionary elements, in opposition to his reforms, renamed themselves the Word of Blake and emigrated to the Free Worlds League because Thomas Marik wanted their technology and gave them a world for their own. Elsewhere in the Inner Sphere, Hanse Davion died a faggot shitface and left his throne to his son Victor. Romano Liao of the Capellans died and left her throne to Sun Tzu, back from the dead, who married Thomas Marik's daughter Isis (the fuck kind of name is Isis). Takashi Kurita died of whatever, leaving his throne to Theodore Kurita. Ryan Steiner declared independence on the world of Skye and no one would care until, like, 13 years later.

Shit gets crazy in 3055, but I'll stop here, because there's a lot of shit getting a lot of crazy and I need to think of how to phrase it properly.