View source for Jade Falcon School of Conflict on Blackjack

{{InfoBoxAcademicInstitute
| name = Jade Falcon School of Conflict on Blackjack
| image = 
| imagewidth = 
| caption = 
| type = Academy
| Previous Names = Blackjack School of Conflict
| Location = [[Blackjack (system)|Blackjack]]
| Founded = Jihad Era
| MilCourse01 = 
| MilCourse01Dates = 
| MilCourse02 = 
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| MilCourse03 = 
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{{InfoBoxAcademicInstitute
| name = Blackjack School of Conflict
| image = Blackjack School of Conflict logo.png
| imagewidth = 150px
| caption = Blackjack School of Conflict Logo
| type = Academy
| Previous Names =
| Location = [[Blackjack (system)|Blackjack]]
| Founded = Succession War era
| MilCourse01 = [[MechWarrior (pilot)|MechWarrior]]
| MilCourse01Dates = 
| MilCourse02 = 
| MilCourse02Dates = 
| MilCourse03 = 
| MilCourse03Dates = 
}}
Located on the planet of [[Blackjack (system)|Blackjack]], the '''Blackjack School of Conflict''' was the only privately run military academy in the [[Lyran Commonwealth]] until its destruction during the [[Clan Invasion]], finally reopened by [[Clan Jade Falcon]] during the [[Jihad]] as the '''Jade Falcon School of Conflict on Blackjack'''. It would continue to operate under the [[Alyina Mercantile League]].

==Officers==
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! scope="col" width="220" style="background: #dedede;" | Rank
! scope="col" width="220" style="background: #dedede;" | Name
! scope="col" width="220" style="background: #dedede;" | Command
|-
| colspan="4" style="background: #efefef;" | '''Commanding Officers of the Blackjack School of Conflict'''
|-
| [[Kommandant]]||[[Katrina Bigelow]]||[[3025]]<ref name=HS:TLCp124>''House Steiner (The Lyran Commonwealth)'', p. 124</ref>
|-
| Kommandant||[[Dean Bristow]]||[[3050]]<ref name=DD>''Double Down''</ref>
|-
| colspan="4" style="background: #efefef;" | '''Commanding Officers of the Jade Falcon School of Conflict on Blackjack'''
|-
| Head Falconer||[[Derek-Jaim Clees]]||-[[3151]]<ref name=TRp49-50>''Tamar Rising'', pp. 49-50</ref>
|-
|}

==History==
The Blackjack School of Conflict was the only privately run military academy in the Lyran Commonwealth, and was known for producing graduates with a flair for corruption, despite being excellent warriors otherwise. Founded by tutors who'd failed the entrance exams at other academies, Blackjack School of Conflict prided itself on being open to any student who could afford the entrance fees, making it the option of choice of those lacking the political or social connections to enter other more prestigious academies. The school also differed in other ways, supposedly offering "unofficial" courses on the shadier side of real military life, with Blackjack graduates supposedly more likely to survive their military careers and retire with healthy (and questionably acquired) nest eggs than those of the [[Nagelring]]. The [[LCAF]] made no effort to clean up the school, or even force it run [[Katrina Steiner]]'s mandated course on Military Ethics, for the simple reason that for all its shady dealings, the Blackjack school produced excellent soldiers.<ref name=HS>''House Steiner (The Lyran Commonwealth)'', pp. 126, 128</ref>

The Blackjack School of Conflict's final class was held in August [[3050]] when the world was attacked during Clan Jade Falcon's fourth invasion wave. The inexperienced and outgunned [[Blackjack Training Battalion]] impressed the Jade Falcon's [[2nd Falcon Jaegers (Clan Jade Falcon)|Second Falcon Jaegers]] with their bravery and honorable combat. While the [[battalion]] suffered an 80% casualty rate, the impressed Falcons took a number of cadets as [[bondsmen]] and allowed the remainder to evacuate. But earning the Jade Falcons respect also earned the [[Clan Steel Viper|Steel Vipers]] scorn, the Vipers razing the school completely after their successful post–[[Battle of Tukayyid (3052)|Battle of Tukayyid]] [[Trial of Possession]] for the planet.<ref name=JF>''Jade Falcon Sourcebook'', p. 41</ref><ref name=DD/>

With control of Blackjack then traded back and forth between the Falcons and the [[Lyran Alliance]], it wasn't until the Falcons recapture of the world in the lead-up to the Jihad and being cut off from their [[Clan Homeworlds|Clan Homeworld]] training facilities on [[Ironhold]] that consideration was given to rebuilding the school. While located on the same site as the Blackjack School of Conflict, the Jade Falcon School of Conflict on Blackjack had a much more Clanlike appearance and training focus, with [[trueborn]] ''[[sibko]]s'' raised in the Clan style while [[freeborn]]s were allowed to try out for the school upon turning thirteen. The first class of this rebuilt school was scheduled to graduate in [[3077]].<ref name=M&M>''Masters and Minions: The StarCorps Dossiers'', p. 134</ref>  One notable departure was an adjacent militia school, with a shorter program for training ''solahma'', warrior police, and civilian caste enforcers as garrisons and law enforcement for the lesser [[Inner Sphere]] holdings of the Falcons as the Jihad stretched the ''[[touman]]'' to its breaking point. This militia school was initially staffed by particularly ethically questionable faculty from the pre-Falcon Blackjack School, who taught the Falcons brutal but effective ways to handle dissent and prevent revolutions.<ref name=M&M/><ref name=TRp102>''Tamar Rising'', p. 102: "Blackjack"</ref>

The first trueborn ''sibko'' graduated from the Jade Falcon School of Conflict on Blackjack in [[3079]]. This was a particularly impressive achievement since many of the Falcon's genetic repositories were damaged during the [[Jihad]] by local uprisings.<ref>''Field Report: Clans'', p. 5</ref> The Jade Falcon School of Conflict on Blackjack trained trueborn and freeborn warriors as well as providing police training to certain individuals. The two main courses of study were focused on MechWarriors and police.<ref>''Objectives: Clans'', p. 15</ref>

When the Falcon occupation zone [[Hinterlands|splintered]] in [[3151]] in the wake of most of the Clan leaving for [[Battle of Terra (3151)|Terra]], Blackjack fell under the control of the School's head Falconer, [[Derek-Jaim Clees]]. Under pressure from the neighbouring [[Alyina Mercantile League]], on 31 December 3151, Clees offered Blackjack and the School if, and only if, his cadets were defeated in a Trial of Possession. [[Battle of Blackjack (3151)|Fighting]] mock objective-focused battles with powered-down weapons, the cadets lost, but earned the respect of the [[Mercantile Militia]] for their skills and for their willingness to use trickery and decoys. Clees invoked ''[[bondsref]]'' afterwards, leaving the much-desired School of Conflict to [[Marena]] and the AML without its head Falconer.<ref name=TRp49-50/>

==References==
<references/>

==Bibliography==
* ''[[Double Down]]'' (short story)
* ''[[Field Report: Clans]]''
* ''[[House Steiner (The Lyran Commonwealth)]]''
* ''[[Jade Falcon Sourcebook]]''
* ''[[Masters and Minions: The StarCorps Dossiers]]''
* ''[[Objectives: Clans]]''
* ''[[Tamar Rising]]''

[[Category:Military Academies]]