Hello, everyone! Today, I have a community group world-building exercise for us to polish up our skills on. I will set the basic parameters of the exercise, but it will be up to YOU to flesh out this new realm. By which I mean history, military forces, planets, industry, anything you might want to add . . . the sky is the limit.
First, we need a name for our new little home . . . and I just so happen to have one handy to suggest (if you folks don’t care for it, that can be changed): the Commonwealth of the Southern Cross.
Okay, back story. In the first years of James McKenna’s rule over the Terran Hegemony, a group of discontented individuals decided to make their own go. Loading up some ships, they embarked outwards, passing by Circinus and New St. Andrews and leaving them in their wake. Their company was led by a man named Alex Cross, an native of Earth (Australia, to be precise). Many jumps (how far YOU will determine) past New St. Andrews, Cross and his followers found a cluster of stars, including several perfect for settlement.
The initial world to be settled was named Perth, after the city of Alex Cross’s birth. Perth would become by the time of our story the capital of the CSC.
For more than century, the colonists were on their own; struggling at times, but they weren’t a failed colony by any means. In fact, they had already colonized several of the surrounding worlds when an SLDF exploration vessel discovered them in 2712. Contact was established and (unlike their forefathers), the men and women of the Commonwealth jumped at the chance to forge relations with those they left so long ago.
The SLDF eventually established a small garrison and set up a communications lane; they also helped develop the colony worlds (which began to receive new colonists, sometimes unwilling colonists).
However, the increasing tensions in the Periphery (and the discovery of the location of the Southern Cross by House Amaris) led to extremely violent pirate raids from 2743 to 2749. In response, Simon Cameron ordered the secret formation of a new SLDF Corps (a small one) and Fleet to provide the CSC with a means of combating these pirates.
LXXIII Corps was formed up from personnel scrounged from existing units in 2745 and arrived on station in 2747 . . . and they put a quick end to the violent raids. But then Simon Cameron died in 2751, and things took a turn for the worse.
Isolated so far beyond the Rim Worlds Republic, the CSC contact with the Star League was often interrupted, and valuable supplies captured en route by unknown (at the time) hostile forces. And the escalation in the Periphery states grew ever more violent. General Kerensky almost recalled LXXIII Corps at the start of the Periphery Uprising—but the CSC was attacked by nearly two divisions of rebels at the same time (Rim Worlds troops, actually).
Then the Coup happened. General Zachary Montoya disregarded orders to return to the Inner Sphere—citing the damage wrought on the worlds of the Southern Cross by the sudden and extremely violent attack by those hostile Divisions.
Unable to impose his will upon them, Kerensky wrote the entire Corps off.
That is the bare-bones outline of this, gentlemen. It is up to you to determine where this goes. Here is what LXXIII Corps and the Southern Cross Expeditionary Fleet had at the time of the Amaris Coup:
LXXIII Corps
7th Mechanized Infantry Division (Lucky Seventh)
155th Royal BattleMech Brigade (Dixie Thunder)
95th Mechanized Infantry Brigade (The Rifle Brigade)
177th Mechanized Infantry Brigade (Arrowhead)
20th Armored Brigade (Iron Fist)
507th Pathfinder Regiment (Ghosts in the Night)*
476th Ground Air Wing (The Flying Tigers)
479th Artillery Brigade (Steel on Target)
555th Engineering Brigade (Black Eagle Brigade)
333rd Support Brigade
223rd Mechanized Infantry Division (The Americal Division)
194th BattleMech Brigade (Axe and Mace)
193rd Mechanized Infantry Brigade (Pathfinders)
197th Mechanized Infantry Brigade (Sledgehammer)
278th Armored Brigade (Tennessee Volunteers)
504th Pathfinder Regiment (The Reccies)*
332nd Ground Air Wing (Redtails)
210st Artillery Brigade (Warrior Cannons)
225th Engineering Brigade (Swamp 'Gators)
87th Support Brigade
Independent Regiments
304th Dragoon Regiment
317th Dragoon Regiment
342nd Dragoon Regiment
366th Dragoon Regiment
11th Light Horse Regiment
24th Light Horse Regiment
14th Striker Regiment
120th Striker Regiment
544th Independent Aero Wing
*Pathfinder Regiments are Scout/Recon/Pathfinder units that include LAMs and specialized ‘Mechs such as the Exterminator and Spector.
Southern Cross Expeditionary Fleet
27th Battle Squadron
Texas-class Battleships Mississippi* and Montana**
Cameron-class Battle Cruisers Hood and Princess Royal
Black Lion-class Battle Cruisers Lion and Tiger
Lola III-class Destroyers Randolph and Talbot
33rd Cruiser Squadron
Sovetskii Soyuz-class Heavy Cruiser Birmingham, New Orleans, President*, and Republic
Riga-class Fighter Carriers Brisbane and Geneva
Lola III-class Destroyers Burke and Jamison
15th Transport Squadron
Potemkin-class Troop Cruisers Raleigh and Scharnhorst*
Congress-class Frigates Constellation and Destiny
Essex-class Destroyers Cabot, Eagle, Oriskany, and Valley Forge
52nd Escort Squadron
Congress-class Frigates Challenger and Endeavor
Lola III-class Destroyers Adams and Barstow
Vincent-class Corvettes Kitty Hawk, Independence, Liberty, and Valiant
*Denotes Squadron Flagship
**Denotes Fleet Flagship.
So, how does this evolve? Where does the Southern Cross go? It is up to YOU. What I hope is that we can all add a little bit to this, our own ideas on different worlds, the government, the military, relations with the Inner Sphere, EVERYTHING. From this sketch, where do we go?
MA
