Introduction to the Protectorate
The ComStar Protectorate is an interesting convergence of corporate interests and Terran heritage in a fusion loosely described as a corporate republic. Between the monarchy-like First Circuit and the motley town assemblies, the Protectorate stands in stark contrast to its Hegemony forefather. The modern ComStar Protectorate is also a far cry from the small collection of worlds first drawn together beneath Jerome Blake’s banner. Since the start of Operation SILVER SHIELD in 2788, the ComStar Protectorate has expanded its borders and exercised its military might a number of times throughout its history. While most of the absorptions were welcomed, a number of times the Protectorate has been forced to deal with neighboring political entities and dubious claims of ownership. Despite the righteousness of the Protectorate’s claim to protect these worlds from war and famine, blood has been shed to bring them into the corporation’s warm bosom. At its current height, the Protectorate is a XX world strong nation centered on Terra.
Once one of the most productive and powerful sectors in the Inner Sphere; today every world of the Protectorate bears some scar from war, but continues to be a bastion of economic and scientific strength. While Terra might be the beating heart and soul of the Protectorate, it is worlds like Athenry, Saffel and New Home that provide the muscle that keeps the Protectorate healthy and thriving.
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Neighbors helping neighbors
One of the hallmarks of Protectorate governance is the idea of local investment. Born during the reconstruction of the Terran Hegemony after the Star League Civil War, the notion of reinvestment was first implemented by Jerome Blake as a means to help alleviate the logistical burden of the SLDF and to speed the Hegemony’s early recovery. What started as a way to give recovery efforts a shot in the arm soon blossomed into the Resource and Reclamation Act. Long considered a good neighbors policy, the RRA eventually became a cornerstone of early Protectorate governance by providing the mechanism for ComStar’s oversight without annexing old Hegemony worlds and installing a totalitarian regime. While control of the planet may have been firmly in corporate hands, local civilian investment, coupled with corporate avenues of advancement created a fair system where invested civilians could become invested citizens in their world’s continued prosperity.
The key component in this system is the separation between civilian and citizen. Protectorate Civilians are native born members of the nation that enjoy basic civil rights, access to education and the opportunity to find their way in life. Citizens of the Protectorate on the other hand are fully vetted employees with voting rights, and additional benefits like free medical care and complimentary retirement monies. While opponents of the system tend to focus on the negatives of ComStar’s corporate culture and means of indoctrination, proponents of the same system are quick to point out the shear number of opportunities for advancement available, and the propensity for change permitted by the system.
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Planetary Data – The Protectorate
New Earth
Star Type: G8V
Position in System: 4 (of 6)
Number of Moons: 1 (Lanna)
Days to Jump Point: 6
Surface Water: 74%
Atm. Pressure: Standard (Breathable)
Surface Gravity: 1.00
Equatorial Temp: 31C
Highest Native Life: Mammals
Population: 1,408,000,000
Representative: Laurna Cabot
Commander: Garrett Krauss
Originally known as Tau Ceti IV, the first habitable world seen by human eyes beyond the Terran solar system was so much like home, its discoverers on the TAS Pathfinder were quick to rename it New Earth when they arrived in orbit in December of 2108. Almost as diverse and bountiful as Terra herself, from abundant water supply to deep mineral, chemical, and metal ore deposits, eager colonists and corporate entities alike flocked to this new world. At the peak of the Star League, New Earth was one of the most heavily industrialized and developed planets in the Terran Hegemony. There were at least five major SLDF contractor headquarters on New Earth, along with numerous other successful enterprises. All five continents–McKenna in the northwest, Lanhold to its east, the massive Neoasia in the south, the island continent of Kellargo, and even the north polar continent of Arctiqua–boasted major cities and heavy industry. Numerous Castles Brian were set up on New Earth as well, and the Star League even built the famous Combat College of New Earth outside the capital city of Foundation Point, on McKenna. During the Amaris crisis, the college, most of the Castles Brian, all the major factories, and close to half the planet‘s largest population centers were destroyed by Amaris troops using every means available when it became clear they could not hold the planet. The world’s gutted infrastructure and war-ravaged environment left the survivors shocked and demoralized, victims of widespread famine and disease–particularly the virulent New Earth Pox. Jerome Blake and ComStar spent vast sums of money and resources to bring New Earth back from the brink. While other worlds of the nascent Protectorate were allocated reconstruction efforts, the recovery operations on New Earth dwarfed all others. ComStar used stored DNA samples to reseed large tracks of New Earth, while water filtration and an ambitious resettlement program brought surviving animal stock to recently cleaned areas. While the ecosystem would take centuries to fully rebound, New Earth was on the way.
Perhaps because of the devastation of the Amaris Coup, New Earth was sparred the worst of the Schism. Order attacks used only conventional weapons aimed at isolating the world from Terra and the rest of the Protectorate. The worst affected areas were the still-struggling centers of light industry relocated to the planet to help in the reconstruction effort. In the aftermath of the Schism, New Earth once again became a quiet, sleepy world in the greater Protectorate. What little industry remained worked to ensure reconstruction of the planet’s ecology continued. The planet’s biggest industries (which includes remnants of the New Earth Trading Company brand) provide conventional transports for export, and new corporate recruits. The few functional Castle Brian structures have been used to house and train ComGuard divisions, and remain the only military installations on the planet.
Keid
Star Type: G6IV
Position in System: 5 (of 8 )
Number of Moons: None
Days to Jump Point: 7
Surface Water: 73%
Atm. Pressure: Standard (Breathable)
Surface Gravity: 0.94
Equatorial Temp: 27C
Highest Native Life: Mammals
Population: 3,294,000,000
Representative: Kalvin Landrey
Commander: Morgan Skaarsgard
One of the many worlds colonized in the first Terran exodus, Keid’s fertile lands and predictable climate led the early settlers to establish their home as a major agricultural and food-production world. The discovery of several major deposits of rare metals and chemicals during the Age of War further enhanced Keid’s importance to the powerful Terran Hegemony, and several major agribusinesses, food companies, mining operations, and heavy industries established offices and facilities on Keid. The HAF built two Castles Brian (Forts Grisson and Settlemyer) and a naval academy on Keid, as well as the planetwide Academy of Keid, a civilian college focused on the study of metallurgy, economics, and diplomacy. During the Amaris crisis, three of the four college campuses were destroyed, along with both Castles Brian and the naval academy. Several cities, all the null-gravity factory stations established by some of the planet’s largest industrial concerns, and a space-born shipyard were also obliterated by the Usurper’s troops. Fortunately for Keid, however, Amaris’ forces did not resort to the same use of nuclear and biological weapons they used on other Hegemony worlds, and enough of the planet‘s economic and administrative infrastructure survived the fighting to allow Keid to recover from the scars of war.
Before the Schism, Keid provided food and rare metals to the Protectorate, and is one of the major suppliers of refined chemicals for ComStar. During the reconstruction of the early Protectorate, Keid’s status as a breadbasket world meant the corporation invested heavily in Keid, utilizing its resources in the most efficient manner. A new shipyard and a few of the old zero-G factories were rebuilt to take advantage of the local resources. Before the Blackout the planet was one of the shining jewels in ComStar’s corporate crown. The Schism was unkind to Keid, but through shear determination the planet managed to retain much of the industry it had rebuilt. Today, Keid is a major source for ComStar-built DropShips – the same DropShips that transport thousands of tons of Keid-produced goods across the Inner Sphere each year.
Thorin
Star Type: G7V
Position in System: 5 (of 8 )
Number of Moons: 1 (Thorin’s Twin)
Days to Jump Point: 7
Surface Water: 74%
Atm. Pressure: Standard (Breathable)
Surface Gravity: 1.02
Equatorial Temp: 36C
Highest Native Life: Birds
Population: 2,021,900,000
Representative: Toni Sakumori
Commander: Theodred Ngu
An early colony world when humanity first reached for the stars, Thorin was a beautiful, terrestrial planet, blessed by an abundance of resources including rich mineral deposits, immense woodlands, and diverse animal life. To preserve their world‘s natural beauty against possible contamination by corporate industrialization, the early settlers established planetary zoning laws that restricted heavy industries to the northern continent of Olympus. By contrast, the southern continent, Freda, was reserved for those seeking a more agrarian way of life. As a result of this charter, high-tech cities came to dot the Olympian shoreline and riverways by the time of the Star League, while large agricultural communes and logging industries formed the backbone of the Fredan economy. The Terran Hegemony established Thorin as a jewel of education and learning when they built the massive University of Thorin, a liberal arts school, in the Remington Valley. Located a short distance away from Ecol City, the planetary capital and site of the legendary Public Library of Thorin, the University of Thorin held to the highest academic standards of the day, but was destroyed along with the Library during the planet‘s occupation by Amaris troops.
Thorin was invaded in the early days after General Kerensky’s Exodus by forces from the Lyran Commonwealth. The Steiners easily subdued the local population, which proved to be relatively docile. That changed when Separatists for Free Skye began using the world as a base to strike at the LCAF. Thorin was soon a planet on the brink of chaos as ComStar-armed guerillas fought the Commonwealth in a brutal underground campaign that bordered on sanctioned terrorism. With the death toll rising and brutal retaliations having little effect, the Lyran Commonwealth abandoned the planet. However, before they left the local garrison made a point of completely demolishing the planetary capital of Ecol City. In the aftermath of the Lyran withdrawal, ComStar stepped in to provide humanitarian aid and assistance to the battered survivors – many of which took to Thorin’s wilderness to escape the violence – and in one fell swoop was able to assume control of the planet in a brilliant public relations coup. With the Lyrans gone, the remaining guerillas lost what little civilian support they still enjoyed. While some violence did ensue, Thorin was quietly folded directly into the Protectorate.
With the planet secure, ComStar invested heavily in recovery and investigatory operations around the ruins of the university and library. While the library failed to turn up anything significant (at least known to the general public), the university ruins provided a great number of useful artifacts. The company used the surviving parts of Fortress Laiacona to coordinate the digs and to catalogue their finds. In a move typical of the era, the company hired most of their labor needs on-planet, emphasizing the dig as a return of Thorin prosperity and as a center of learning. What little dissent still remained in the aftermath of absorption disappeared overnight.
During the Schism, the Order targeted Thorin for the research and development operations taking place around the ruins and at Laiacona. In one of the most brutal acts of the coup, the Order detonated a tactical nuclear weapon that destroyed the remains of the massive fortress, and with it, all of the recovered research and artifacts. Today, only the ruins of the university in the heart of what is now Remington Forest testify to the lost treasures of the Star League. Ironically, the Order failed to target the university ruins and future digs at and around the site have turned up a few more useful relics from that bygone era.
Athenry
Star Type: F8IV
Position in System: 1 (of 2)
Number of Moons: 4 (Batha, Illusa, Kylos, Zule)
Days to Jump Point: 12
Surface Water: 88%
Atm. Pressure: Standard (Breathable)
Surface Gravity: 1.04
Equatorial Temp: 40C
Highest Native Life: Birds
Population: 2,798,640,000
Representative: Hailey Chelonkov
Commander: Charles Winters
A warm world, with an oppressive atmosphere and active volcanoes in all four of its great island chains, Athenry resembles prehistoric Terra in many ways. Tropical foliage and steep mountains dominate most of the four island chains that make up the planet’s large landmasses. Too close to its sun for polar ice caps to form, the world’s most habitable regions for early colonists were the highlands of the large islands in the northern and southern latitudes, where the air was thinner and the heat more bearable. Frequent rains kept the lowlands of Athenry lush, and gave rise to exotic flora and thousands of interesting animal species. Many of the planet’s native life forms, scientists learned, held great medicinal potential, leading to the founding of the Athenry Institute of Medicine on the primary northern island of Golas, in the Larsen Chain. Sadly, the AIM was destroyed by a tactical nuke just before the First Succession War, leaving only a radioactive hulk where the facilities once stood. Largely abandoned by the Lyran Commonwealth when the Federation of Skye was formed, ComStar inherited Athenry when it became the only cohesive power left on the planet.
Today, ComStar continues to conduct medical research on Athenry, albeit in limited quantity, in a new facility south of the old AIM. While a far cry from the research and development power of old, the Athenry Medical Institute of ComStar (AMIC) has worked for decades to rediscover medical advances made during the Star League. Discoveries made at the AMIC and their production account for a huge part of the planet’s exports and are a major source of pride for local Athenrians, who recognize that their work saves lives. ComStar understands the value of the planet and maintains a large garrison of troops, despite Athenry not being attacked in well over a century.
Athenry has also become something of a tourist trap for Protectorate citizens over the last few decades when ancient ruins were uncovered in the thick jungles of the southern Zubeckis Chain, particularly on the secondary island of Vasquez. Studies of these ruins revealed that they are the remains of colonies established almost a full century before the first settlers were thought to have made planetfall on Athenry. Though no one knows what fate befell these colonists, the so-called Zubeckis ruins, which exhibit architectural styles and techniques common to Southeast Asian cultures of the 22nd century, have become a local attraction and an archaeological curiosity, drawing thousands of new visitors each year. The apparent capital of these ruined colonies has been dubbed – “City of the Lost,†and parts of the site were opened to the public in 3015. Athenry’s capital city of New Senna is perched in the rocky mountains of Lisbon, the primary mass of the southern polar Espalar Chain. Though cities dot much of the Espalar, Zubeckis and Larsen Chains, only a few towns have been established on the mostly equatorial Wandessa Chain, largely due to the extreme temperatures and humidity of that region. Largest among these settlements is the seaport city of Ricobar, which serves as a port of call for the planet’s oceangoing trade.
Nirasaki
Star Type: F3IV
Position in System: 1 (of 4)
Number of Moons: 2 (Nagano, Okinawa)
Days to Jump Point: 17
Surface Water: 57%
Atm. Pressure: Standard (Breathable)
Surface Gravity: 1.11
Equatorial Temp: 37C
Highest Native Life: Mammals
Population: 3,108,000,000
Representative: Kato Jan-si
Commander: Tywin Wilson
Communal idealists who hoped to create a perfect society, in which everyone would live in harmony and in the virtual absence of government or a policing force, settled Nirasaki. The experiment was only partially successful, as infighting between settlers and the early colonists’ insistence on barter-based trade made it difficult to deal with other worlds for needed goods. Eventually, a basic planetary government, structured as a loose coalition of the various communes on Kalifax and Ouanii, Nirasaki’s two largest continents, was established. Based on democratic principles, the Nirasaki government required a simple majority vote for any decisions affecting a planetary region or interplanetary relations and helped create a basic planetary economy based on work credits and a standard for determining the relative values of products and services. Beyond these basic functions, which included an emergency powers clause in case of an external threat, the Nirasaki government had no other authority. Farms, cattle ranches, fishing communities and artistic communes made up the bulk of Nirasaki’s population until the rise of the Star League.
Though Nirasaki was left to its semi-anarchistic government under the Hegemony, the planet began to draw the attention of entrepreneurs. However, few corporate entities could make headway on Nirasaki, due to lax government practices and the work credits system, until the native Nirasaki Computers Collective was founded in the large Blue Heron Commune. The NCC developed computer systems of astonishing efficiency and quality, including the famous Blue Lotus personal computer line, which was cutting edge in the Star League’s day. For this reason, the Hegemony contracted the NCC to develop software for use in the Space Defense Systems throughout its holdings. As it happened, the NCC did its job too well in this regard. When the Amaris coup occurred, the brightest minds of the Collective were forcibly relocated to Terra, and their work pitted the liberating SLDF forces against SDS networks that used some of the most sophisticated pseudo-artificial intelligence ever produced. It was not until years later, when returning SLDF forces uncovered technical specs hidden away for their benefit in the abandoned NCC headquarters, that their artful programming was defeated and the worlds Amaris had turned into deadly gauntlets were retaken.
Following the Amaris Coup, the Protectorate absorbed the planet so ComStar could protect Nirasaki’s important computer industry, which had already been hit hard by DCMS raids. Once in the Protectorate, Blake wisely left the planet’s communes alone, who seemed more than happy to provide advanced computing systems and products to ComStar for sale. It was a good arrangement that benefitted both parties until the Schism. Conrad’s Holy Shroud attacks on the Blue Heron Commune and other surviving NCC facilities were terrible, and much of Nirasaki’s industry was destroyed in the fighting. After the Schism, a few of the remaining NCC communes banded together to form Blue Heron Computers – a major computing brand sold by ComStar – and created a new agreement with ComStar to survive.
Granted communal autonomy and limited self-governing rights in exchange for resources, materials, and product, Blue Heron Computers and other Nirasaki communes exist today as semi-independent communal-corporate entities outside of direct ComStar control, with BHC providing many of ComStar’s most advanced systems. The population of Nirasaki, regardless of affiliation, remains significant as the only Protectorate entity to enjoy recognized dual citizenship by the authorities without being corporate employees.
Capital of Nirasaki and the Blue Heron Commune, is located on the southern peninsula of Ouanii. Nirasaki’s third major landmass, Arkatis, is in the planet’s south polar region and is home to the Nirasaki Communications Community, a planetwide information and entertainment company based in the city of Arkatis’ Unity.
Bryant
Star Type: F5IV
Position in System: 4 (of 5)
Number of Moons: 3 (Jarra, Sennu, Summersdale)
Days to Jump Point: 15
Surface Water: 64%
Atm. Pressure: Standard (Breathable)
Surface Gravity: 0.98
Equatorial Temp: 37C
Highest Native Life: Mammals
Population: 1,896,075,000
Representative: Hanson Boques-Saunders
Commander: Jennifer Buskirk
A world of violent storms first colonized in the twenty-second century by the Terran Hegemony to exploit the planet’s chemical and material resources, fertile soils, and deep seas. Bryant’s earliest colonists kept close to the world’s polar regions, where the weather was calmer. In the days of the Star League, a series of storm inhibitors were used to negate much of the fury of severe weather systems by focusing solar radiation on the storms as they gathered over the planet’s oceans. This innovation made possible the colonization of Bryant‘s lower latitudes, which allowed Bryant’s population to explode. A wealthy world, Bryant was hard hit during the Amaris Coup. Republican aerospace fighter pilots used the Storm Inhibitors as target practice, and destroyed many of them to bring the planet to heel and curb any resistance. Thankfully, Bryant was spared the worst manmade atrocities, but the loss of the important Storm Inhibitors took their toll. During the decade-long occupation, dozens of powerful storms bracketed the planet’s equatorial belt, costing the lives of thousands and caused billions in unnecessary damage. While most of Bryant’s equatorial cities were built to withstand the brutal weather, the population was still forced to withdraw to the safer equatorial regions until Bryant was liberated by the SLDF.
After the fall of the Star League the Capellan Confederation raided the planet, where they hoped to take advantage of a growing equatorial mega storm to land unopposed. Unfortunately, the CCAF soldiers did not count on the presence of ComStar-led ex-Star League troops on the planet, which were attempting to secure Bryant and recover important materials before the storm arrived. The resulting fight left few survivors and even fewer Storm Inhibitors, (most were destroyed out of spite as the CCAF lifted off-world) and the Confederation made off with a load of parts and supplies.
Under ComStar rule Bryant was able to recover some of its former glory when the company was able to repair a number of damaged Storm Inhibitors, and even construct a few new ones. With the additional Storm Inhibitors, new refuges to the planet were able to recolonize parts of the hazardous equatorial bands with some success, though cities located there had to be further hardened against the weather. Until the Schism, Bryant was a successful research and manufacturing center for the budding Protectorate. Sadly, Conrad’s fanatics were particularly hard on the planet, disabling the two Inhibitor control centers while destroying Bryant’s research facilities. After the Order’s failed coup, Bryant was left a dilapidated world dotted with ruined cities, poisoned lands and even more unpredictable weather patterns. Worse still, repair of the control centers was only partially successful, with only manual control restored. Manual control of the inhibitor network has created some unexpected results (and plenty of damage) throughout the decades, but recently ComStar has begun an ambitious project to repair the automated control software using a partial copy found in an old equatorial defense bunker. While experimental by modern standards, the software is a far cry from the sophisticated monitor and command software used by the Star League, but bodes well for Bryant’s future.
Caph
Star Type: G5V
Position in System: 3 (of 7)
Number of Moons: 2 (Lupus, Felis)
Days to Jump Point: 7
Surface Water: 42%
Atm. Pressure: Standard (Breathable)
Surface Gravity: 1.01
Equatorial Temp: 41C
Highest Native Life: Reptiles
Population: 1,062,095,000
Representative: Pavel Lyndon
Commander: Lars Gustafson
Settlers first came to Caph during the early exodus from Terra, and found a world of primitive, tropical forests, fertile lands, and great mineral wealth potential. The only problem was the planet’s deadly local wildlife, dominated by creatures very similar to the long-vanished dinosaurs of Terra. Efforts to overcome the indigenous species and spare entire settlements from destruction by giant, rampaging lizards are largely credited for the development of early BattleMech design theory. In fact, much of the preliminary research into early BattleTechnology was conducted on Caph. Once the threat was contained, during the age of the Terran Hegemony and the Star League, Caph became a center for advanced learning and chemical research, home to some of the Star League era’s largest chemical and pharmaceutical corporations, as well as the Caph Institute of Technology. Unfortunately, when Stefan Amaris usurped the Camerons and took over the Hegemony, Caph suffered from the liberal use of nuclear and biological weapons that destroyed most of the large settlements and ultimately caused the virtual extinction of the Caph dinosaurs.
A broken world, ComStar invested a great deal in its repair following the fall of the Star League, with Caph’s damaged ecosystem on the verge of a full recovery before the Schism. In a process that would take decades to achieve, Brunnel began to shape itself into a prime area for relocation, which ComStar would later use to its advantage. While far from pristine, the continent’s poisoned regions were close to being cleaned, and the soil reseeded with native and Terran plants. The only thing missing was the dinosaurs. During the Schism the Order chose to ignore Caph, probably because the world had nothing of value. However, later reclamation of some of the Brunnel’s ruins yielded a number of examples of Star League technologies thought lost to the civil war. Only the continent of Caph Prime remained in disarray.
Today, Caph is a split world. The continent of Brunnel is a thriving center of light industry and agriculture, while Steam, a tropical blanket is virtually untouched by man. The discovery of surviving dinosaurs in the thick jungles there in the 2930s has transformed the continent into a permanent biological preserve. Nicknamed–The “Cretaceous Zone†by Caph locals, Steam’s human population consists only of a few small outposts and research centers funded by the Caph Planetary Council to maintain and study the native inhabitants. The third continent, Caph Prime is a barren wasteland of hard poisoned earth and radioactive craters – stark reminders of the planet’s terrible past.
