Montauban Base

CLASS: Gouges

GRAVITY: Complete

DOCKING: Yes

AMENITIES: Yes

CREW: 260

Most of the Gallic Brigands who came from Languedoc with the Council fleet stayed on Toulouse, but some chose to secure their own outpost at the very beginning. Within the gloaming depths of the Ariege Nebula, they found a suitably large asteroid in orbit of Planet Prades. Docking ports and hallways were built inside the asteroid by Brigand workers and IMG engineers that were hired to help with base construction.

Nicknamed Le Donjon Cramoisi - The Crimson Keep - the romantic, swashbuckling hedonism that holds such a grip over Brigand bases in the core worlds like Salbris and Pelussin is notably absent from Montauban. The Brigands of Roussillon lack the luxury of earthly pleasures, and the station is more often than not home to various criminals hiding from the preying eyes of the Gallic authorities.

## News

Professor Nagel and her team are certain the Pulse originated from outside Sirius, but are otherwise no closer to identifying its source or mitigating a future Blackout event. "Following the Blackout, we began to see immediate signs of jump hole destabilization in multiple different regions, with many ultimately falling out of phase alignment altogether", she commented. The dramatic upending of Sirius' jump hole network has already prompted many groups to abandon stations and withdraw from systems that appear to risk being cut off.
While months-long trips between the stars are possible thanks to the Liberty Engine and many centuries of innovation, few ships are designed or provisioned to make such arduous journeys. Those who were displaced by Sirius' redrawn map hope that system connections will return, while adventurers and explorers rush to discover new routes.

The most notable of these figures is the former Marquise of Marseille, Renée Hennequin d'Avignon, who retreated from the Provence system during the Minarchy's uprising. d'Avignon, who records now show to have been the head of the Crown's spy network on Planet Marseille, possessed close ties to both the upper echelons of Royal Intelligence and high ranking Gallic nobility. The displaced Marquise claims to be acting under authority of King Charles XI himself, citing a letter of regency allegedly left in her care during the final days of the war.
While such a decree, if legitimate, would make the former Marquise Queen Regent of the Kingdom of Gallia, d'Avignon has rejected this title, instead fashioning herself Director-Regent. This is likely a calling to her position of Director within the GRI, which she rose to near the end of the war, as well as an attempt to garner favor with the unusually robust military demographic of the new state.
d'Avigon's first edict as Director-Regent of the Royal Enclave was to declare the authority of Grand Duke Trintignant null and void. She has also issued the immediate expediation of construction efforts on Planet Bordeaux, the Enclave's capital. Flooded with hundreds of millions people, primarily displaced nobility, servicemen, and Bretonian serfs, the incipient nation-state currently faces a great food and housing crisis. The Director-Regent has authorized the use of whatever means necessary to clear arable farmland and extract resources needed for the erection of more permanent housing in lieu of Bordeaux's tent cities.
Despite these challenges, the Royal Enclave refuses to surrender to Bretonia, and the three system state maintains a military disproportionately large to its small size. Analysts have surmised that the Enclave's position within the Hebrides is a tenable one, should they be able to resolve their present issues and avoid succumbing to civil unrest. The Enclave's fleet has shifted to a more defensive posture, and it appears that the only system outside their borders which they presently have a vested interest in is Dublin, where Enclave patrols have been seen engaging Bretonian forces on roughly equal footing. Elsewhere, the Enclave's military activies appear to be limited to smaller scale anti-shipping raids and hit and fade strikes on soft targets.
While it remains to be seen whether or not the Enclave will stand the test of time, it appears that if so, they could remain a thorn in Bretonia's side for years to come.

We will welcome any ships willing to explore Gallic space and establish relations with local factions. In exchange for the passage, we ask for guarantees of neutrality towards the Council, its military and civilian personnel. We also warn that any capital ship fleets or other large military detachments will be denied passage, by force if necessary. Our goal is to prevent the war, not to encourage attacks of other Houses who might consider Gallia its enemy. Gallia is no one's enemy, and our task is to prove it. We hope that after our actions in the Gallic Border Worlds the King of Gallia will demonstrate responsibility and discretion by establishing diplomatic relations with all four Houses and by canceling plans of Sirius-wide aggression.
However, even if the relations will be established, we, the Council, will still remain sworn enemies of the Crown, and the Second Gallic War will continue. Our current goal is to hold the passage in Languedoc open for everyone for as long as possible. However, the Royal Navy has assembled an overwhelming fleet in Languedoc that will soon head towards Languedoc. Our casualties has been very high during the recent years of fighting in this system, and odds to win the battles that will follow are very low. Languedoc detachments of the Council, and all civilians willing to escape the prosecution by Gallic government, will have to seek refuge in the Sirius Border Worlds. We are already looking for possible locations where we can build our bases and defensive installations.
We are also aware that Sirius space has its own unlawful factions, much like Gallic Brigands and Unione Corse in Gallia. Since our situation is complicated right now, we might seek help of those factions in order to survive and prevent unnecessary casualties. But we also realize that our equipment, ships and weaponry contain Gallic technologies that many Sirius parties are willing to appropriate. We are not trading or exchanging any of our military technologies. If any attempts to capture or attack Council personnel and ships occur, we reserve the right to retaliate with deadly force.

Where did we get those ships? The Council was aided substantially by using our supply lines from the Core Gallic Systems. Supplying the Council comes for a price, and while they usually avoid dealing with us directly, caring about the "public eye", the Maquis trade with us freely and simply transfer goods that they purchase from us to the Council. While we are not much concerned by the political motives of the Council, we share their hatred for the government, a rotted monarchy that has no sense of style, and corrupt corporations. If the Council needs help, we will provide as much as they can buy. Since money is not the only thing we need, the Council's new factories on Marne provide us a wide range of various goods necessary for a brigand's life, including ammunition, side arms, ship weaponry, and, most important, new ships. Maquis deliver the stuff to our installation of Epernay, and from Epernay they come to many other Brigands' bases all around the Gallic Border Worlds.
Now, as the path to unfamiliar new worlds in Sirius has been opened, the Brigands consider the future possibilities of this unexpected change. While the information on Sirius is now much less expensive than before and is easily accessible from anywhere within Gallia, we still do not have sufficient data on the unlawful groups that most surely exist in the Houses of Sirius and in other populated areas. We are now negotiating with Maquis to see if our survey parties could be granted passage through the mine field to gather intelligence and to find places where we could establish new bases of operations.

## Rumors

*NOTE: Page generated on the 28/10/2023 at 17:59:45 UTC*