TOCR-7

<<Next Chapter - Return to Sourcebook Index - Next Chapter>>
==History - The Outer Colonies Region==
----
Just got a data-packet from my contact out on Cyclops Station; it seems those prospectors she'd played cards with made it back after all, nearly six years after they set out. They stopped off just long enough to refuel, replenish their supplies and then took off again for parts unknown, running like the devil himself was after them.
Two days later, a pristine Kimagure class Pursuit Cruiser and a pair of Dart class Light Cruisers turned up. At first the locals assumed the Clans had come calling, but the ship squawked a Star League transponder, locked their weapons onto the station and demanded the location of the prospectors. Knowing a one-sided fight when she saw it, Queen Jennifer II gave them all the information her people had, and then allowed a pair of NL-42 Battle Taxies to dock with the station. Marines in a previously unseen variant of the Nighthawk power-armor scoured the station from one end to the other, interrogating the already nervous inhabitants and sucking the computers dry of any relevant information before departing again without so much as a 'by your leave'.
At no point during all of this were any names or exploitation given, and the ships have not been seen since.
Thankfully, my contact's no stranger to smuggling information past people who might be looking for it, and she managed to get me a copy of an updated version of the text book I sent you all extracts from last time. The first book was almost unbelievable, but with what happened at Cyclops Station, this new one is downright terrifying.Here are the highlights.- Starling
----
== 3065 Update==
----
===The Council of Eleven (3065)===
----
The Right Honourable Helena Stark(Chairwoman, Port Stanley)
The Right Honourable Robert McDevitt(Vice-Chairman, New Jersey)
The Right Honourable Sun Li(Secretary of the Treasury, New Tasmania)
The Right Honourable Hank Stankowski(Home Secretary, San Antonio)
SaKahn Mary Mroczkiewicz(Secretary of Defense, Rorke's Drift)
The Right Honourable Jo Gant(Foreign Secretary, Rockall)
The Right Honourable Pun Garang(Secretary of State for Justice, Last Post)
The Right Honourable Gideon Coxall(Education Secretary, Vision)
The Right Honourable Silvester Hunt(Secretary of State for Health, New Jamaica)
The Right Honourable Dr Holly Reeman, Ph.D.(Secretary of State for Science, Malloy's World)
The Right Honourable Quentin Flynn (Minister of State, Ticonderoga. Provisional; non-voting)
General Viktor Kravinoff(Commanding Officer OCDF, non-voting)
Mak Takara(Attorney General, non-voting)
----
=== Flame Of Redemption ===
----
Formally an independent world three jumps away from the Outer Colonies, the mainly agrarian world of Redemption had regressed to a very basic level of technology, with people in the outer lying regions going back to using horses and draft animals for transport and heavy labor. That all changed when a roving pirate gang decided to set up shop there, believing that they were far enough away from the Outer Colonies to be considered not worth dealing with. What they didn't know was that the Colonial Marshals had a small outpost on-planet to keep an eye out for anyone trying to escape justice, and word of the occupation, and the brutality that followed, soon reached the Council of Eleven, and unanimous vote sent an expeditionary force, led by the elite Grenadier and McEvedy Guards, was dispatched to liberate the planet.
The pirates attempted to blockade the planet, but their hastily assembled armada of DropShip's was swept aside by the SLS Ivanhoe and her escorting assault ships. Behind them came the troop carriers, battle armored infantry going in first to secure the landing ground before the Mech's landed. While evenly matched for numbers, the pirate machines were a collection of obsolete, badly maintained junkers; against them stood two of the best equipped and trained regiments in the Outer Colonies Defense Forces, backed up by three regiments of armor and an infantry brigade. The battle that followed was more a slaughter than a fight, with the pirates turning on each other in a bid to get away, allowing for them to be dealt with piecemeal.
The only thing keeping the battle from being totally flawless was the death of Colonel Carl Knute, commanding officer of the McEvedy Guards. Pursuing a group of high-ranking pirates, he found himself in a residential area that the pirates had rigged with incendiary devices. Surrounded by flames and helpless civilians, Colonel Knute ignored the pirates and instead turned his weapons on the burning buildings, cutting a way out for the locals. Unfortunately, the combined heat from the fires, his own weapons and the relentless pirate attacks proved too much for the the Colonel's Black Knight, and it went into emergency shut-down, trapping its brave pilot as the flames consumed him.
To this day, the blackened remains of Colonel Knute's BattleMech remain where it fell, a reminder to one all of the personal bravery of one of the finest officers the OCDF has ever known.
Spurned on by the loss of their beloved commander, the McEvedy Guards charged the last pirate strong point, throwing themselves at their defenses in a tidal-wave of death and destruction that ended when the last pirate Mech was brought down.
With most of the planets former leaders dead or just missing, it was decided to grant Redemption protectorate status, with a re-enforced combined-arms regiment and a larger detachment of Marshals left behind to take care of.
----
=== A New Rising Stars ===
-----
With a population now in excess of 25-million, Ticonderoga has been granted provisional status as a full Colony, taking the non-voting seat previously held by the head of the OCDF. For administrative purposes they have been officially designated part of the New Jamaica Military Region. Many are now starting to question whether or not the more highly populated and developed protectorate worlds of Arixo and Pacifica will follow suit and petition for full Colonial status.
33rd (Provisional) Division
(Ticonderoga)
Division Headquarters
Command Company
Regimental HQ Staff
HQ Transport
MP Platoon
53rd BattleMech Brigade
The Green Mountain Boys
1st Royal Lancers
2nd Royal Lancers
74th BattleMech Brigade
Benedict's Grenadiers
14th Dragoon Guards
79th Dragoon Guards
330th Cavalry Brigade
7th Air-Cavalry Regiment
19th Mechanized Cavalry
21st Mechanized Cavalry
29th Infantry Brigade
The Concordia Rifles
4th Regiment Of Foot
19th Gurkha Rifles
Non-Brigade Attached Units
5th Battalion, 21st Royal Artillery Regiment
6th Battalion, 41st Combat Engineers
11th Battalion, 4th Long Range Patrol Regiment
Combat Support Brigade
Brigade HQ Staff
5th Battalion, 4th Combat Support Group
171th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital
3rd Battalion, 26th Combat Engineers
2nd Battalion, 41st Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers
MP Company
Signals Company
----
=== Wolverine Resplendent ===
-----
It seems that the people of Rorke's Drift have been busy; using their storehouse of genetic samples and their Iron Womb technology, they've been secretly building up a much stronger military then anyone thought, using a massive series of hidden factories and Castle Brian's in the Wolf's Bane Mountains, as well as a hidden base on the nearby and previously independent Foster's World, which they have now claimed as their own. They have also laid claim to the old Star League outpost on Fort Dixie and the protectorate world of Redemption. As well as the 331st Royal BattleMech Division, Rorke's Drift is now also home to Alpha Galaxy, while Delta Galaxy is deployed to Foster's World, Gamma Galaxy to Fort Dixie and Epsilon Galaxy to Redemption. They have also doubled their planetary militia, raising the equivalent of another Star League Division, all be it of very low quality, if fanatical, troops.
There is also talk that they have secretly reactivated the dormant shipyards in orbit of Rorke's Drift and used it to refurbish several warships taken from the Hamunaptra system's bone-yard.
The Council of Eleven has called them to account for these actions, but so far they have made no overt military actions against the other Colonies. They have, however, relinquished their military control over the Helios system, forcing New Tasmania to step in and pick up the slack.
Alpha Galaxy(McEvedy's Pride)
1st Wolverine Guards (McEvedy's Own)
2nd Wolverine Guards (The Lone Hunters)
38th Assault Cluster (True Vision)
9th Strike Cluster (The Blood Pack)
64th Wolverine Guards (The Night Stalkers)
Delta Galaxy(Kerensky's Lamont)
163rd Battle Cluster (Safe Haven)
124th Battle Cluster (The Cowboys)
189th Strike Cluster (McAlpinmeâ€™s Fusiliers)
89th Strike Cluster (Always Faithful)
73rd Wolverine Dragoons (The Pale Riders)
Gamma Galaxy(The Rabid Wolverines)
106th Battle Cluster (The Dark Hunters)
137th Battle Cluster (Amazing Grace)
138th Battle Cluster (Blood of the Wolverine)
103rd Strike Cluster (The Unseen Enemy)
104th Assault Cluster (Law of the Wild)
Epsilon Galaxy(The Shadow Hunters)
197th Battle Cluster (Full Moon Rising)
103rd Battle Cluster (The Fighting Irish)
24th Battle Cluster (Lone Stars)
205th Striker Cluster (The Rangers)
88th Assault Cluster (The Crazy 88)
----
=== The Outer Colonies Region Map (3065) ===
-----
-----
The first two sections are standard fair, and no real surprises, apart from the fact that there's a bunch of pirates dumb enough to set up shop next to a army with Star League era equipment, just looking for a chance to use it. Even Ticonderoga I saw coming, after reading the first book: small outposts like that tend to undergo huge population booms before they level out.But it's the events on Rorke's Drift that surprised me the most; I had assumed that the descendant of the fleeing Wolverines would be content to just sit back and let the universe go buy. But it sounds like they've been building a secret army for some unknown purpose.Sound like anyone else we know?Not saying that the Outer Colonies have any link to Word of Blake, but it is a worrying president. And given the state of the Inner Sphere right now, three divisions, four full Galaxies and who know how many warships could make a major difference to either side.That's if the other Clan's don't go charging off into the Deep Periphery, no doubt strait into defenses designed specifically to handle them...-Starling
----
<<Next Chapter - Return to Sourcebook Index - Next Chapter>>
7