Okay, Curtis, I love the scenario and how you are making it more realistic and all. But that's where my qualifier of 'more' comes in. The Harrowing sounds like it is worse than the OTL version, and the 3 Clans left have zero chance of taking the Inner Sphere or realistically any of the other...
Thinking about this problem concerning contacting the Inner Sphere, it seems that a polity that is as advanced as the Empire seems to be would be able to set up a string of HPG satellites in uninhabited systems all the way back to the Sphere. If one can navigate the stars as the Empire does...
And the Soviets were,by 1945, absolutely bled white. If Berlin had turned into a Russian Stalingrad, the Russians would have had to turn to using females in front line combat or not be able to fight at all.
Here in lovely Rockville, Indiana we do not cite for jay-walking. Usually, our officers don't even say anything to anyone unless it becomes safety related. Nor do we routinely stop people for no reason. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.
To build off of what mmgaballah is saying, and I do know this scenario is really AU, but the Rim Worlders weren't ever great shipwrights and tech people. The only battleships they were building were the Amaris Class, which were comparable if slightly inferior to a Texas. Where is all this...