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SLS Daedalus
Zenith jump-point
Dumb Luck
Deep Periphery
March 24th 3066

Captain De L'Isle sat in his command chair, going over the previous-days reports, trying desperately not to yawn. The seemingly never-ending paperwork was the one part of commanding his own ship he hated, even if it was almost entirely electronic these days. Still, it needed doing, so he took advantage of a quiet moment or two to catch up on as much as he could. He was lucky in that he had a core of veteran officers who could be trusted to keep an eye on you younger, less experienced hands and keep them out of his hair for the most part. While he preferred to be a little more hands-on, part of the Captain's job was to be a distant, almost mythical figure for the rest of the crew, someone who's word was second only to that of God while the ship was operating independently of the rest of the fleet.

Grand-Duchess de Mendosa had, thankfully, been able to reign in the more troublesome members of her retainer, and there had been a sharp drop-off in the complaints about them. It helped that she truly believed in the concept of Noblesse Oblige; that those born of wealth, power and influence had a duty to use those advantages to help those less fortunate. It was a view that Queen Annabel  and her family had been attempting to popularise in the Alianza Española for decades, with mixed results. Some of the other nobles seemed willing to follow the crowns example, but there were still those that believed that their birth entitled them to do as they pleased. While the Alliance's written constitution allowed for such a view, it was publicly frowned upon by the Queen, who was known to come down hard upon those who were caught abusing their power.

“Sir, I'm sorry to disturb you, but we keep picking up a faint echo on the edge of sensor range.” Commander Raju Jaffrey, the ship's XO, interrupted his train of thought, “We've run a full diagnostic, but it's still there. If I didn't know better, I'd say someone was trying to shadow us from outside our sensor range, but didn't know about our remote drones.”

De L'Isle nodded in agreement; the recently developed remote sensor drones had been introduced to improve and expand upon a warships field of view. Based on the frame of a Barracuda capital missile, they came fitted with a sabot that allowed them to be fired out of any missile tube, and could be recovered and reconditioned, saving space for offensive missiles. While each carried a limited sensor suit, when tied into the ship's main computer by laser tether, they could almost double the range of the ships sensors. There was still a limit to what they could do, and space was vast, but any advantage could be the difference between life or death.

“Probably just a sensor glitch: I've never known BueWeaps to pass for service something that wasn't full of bugs.” De L'Isle rubbed his eyes, “But what the hell, it'll wake everyone up and remind them that this is still a warship on a mission, not some royal yacht on a pleasure cruise.”

“Aye-aye, sir.” Jaffrey nodded as he sounded General Quarters, “Ready-alert fighters in the tubes, CAP forming up for fly-by.”

“All hands, this is the Captain. We have a contact at the edge of sensor range, and they're not squawking a beacon.” De L'Isle announced over the ships PA system, “Could be pirates, could be smugglers, or it could just be that they're some independent merchant who's beacon broke and they haven't gotten around to fixing it. Doesn't matter; our orders say not to take any chances, and without our sail deployed, we can't jump without cutting it free, something I'd rather avoid. So we're going to move into a defensive posture while the CAP goes to check it out. Captain out.”

“All stations report fully manned and ready.” Lieutenant-Commander Valerie Hoban, the ships gunnery officer reported, “Targeting sensors ready.”

“Chief McAndrews reports engineering locked up; full power at your digression.” Jaffrey announced as the lights before him turned from red to orange and then green as the various compartments and stations reported in a ready, “Sickbay standing buy.”

“Have the Purser round up our 'guests' and see them back to their quarters.” De L'Isle ordered, “The last thing we need is one of them getting under our feet.”

While everyone on the bridge prepared their own station, they couldn't help but glance at the main plot from time to time; the green arrowheads of the CAP were slowly moving away from the middle of the screen towards the distant red pulse that signified the unknown contact.

“We'd better do this buy the book.” De L'Isle pointed out as a yeoman quickly and silently collected the forgotten reports, “Send a standard challenge.”

“Attention unknown contact: this is the Outer Colonies Defence Force Warship Daedalus.” Jaffrey spoke slowly and clearly into a microphone linked to the ships communications array, transmitting on all frequencies, “Identify yourself immediately and state your intentions.”

He repeated the challenge in Russian, Spanish and Reman, the three most commonly used languages in the sector, then waited for the time-lag to run out.

“No response from target.” He announced when the clock run out, “CAP entering sensor range in thirty seconds.”

All eyes returned to the main plot; the distances involved meant that there as a small but noticeable delay between an action and when it was picked up on their sensors due to the limiting effect of the speed of light. In most combat situations this was minimal, as for all their power, ships normally did battle within a few thousand kilometres of each others, but the unknown was so far way it took almost ten whole seconds for a radar pulse to leave the Daedalus, strike the target and return. Even the drones did nothing to diminish this; they were closer, but their data still had to travel back to the cruiser.

“Energy spike!” Jaffrey announced as the target on the main plot started to pulse faster and faster, “IR flare; looks like a pre-jump trace...” His eyes shot round to the main plot, “They're gone; whoever they were, they jumped out before the CAP could get close enough to identify them.”

“That's not at all suspicious.” De L'Isle lent back in his chair, rubbing his chin, “Recall the CAP and stand down from General Quarters, but I want the ship maintained at Defence Condition Four from now on, and I want to see all department heads in the wardroom at 2100 hours tonight. Something about all this has me on edge.”

That concludes the information I have about the so-called Outer Colonies and their area of space. And, as ever, we are left to ask just how true any of this is?

We know from other examples that it is possible for isolated pockets of humanity to maintain a relatively high stand of technology after the fall of the Star League. We know that there are a number of still unaccounted for Star League colonies, supply dumps and military outposts that are mentioned in surviving documents. We also now know, from bitter experience, that if someone really wants to make some planets vanish, it's possible, even in the Inner Sphere.

So the question should be, how likely is this?

Using nothing but Occam's Razor, the answer is not very, but I for one have never been to quick to disregard something simply because logic tells me it's unlikely: logic really has much to do with human affairs.

These are the facts we know:

• There was once a Star League outpost located on a deep periphery world called Port Stanley.
• This base was home a Star League Defence Force garrison of division strength, with warship support, tasked with imposing Star League rule over the local area.
• Port Stanley was located so far from the Inner Sphere that it had its own factories and shipyards to reduce the need for an over-extended supply chain.
• Warships captured by the SLDF during the Reunification War were often mothballed in isolated, deep periphery locations if it was impractical or uneconomical to return them to the Inner Sphere.
• Records show that a SLDF formation named the 7th Armoured Division existed at the time of the Amaris Uprising, but there is no evidence of them taking part in the conquest of the Rim World Republic or the war to liberate the Terran Hegemony that followed.
• Nor, it should be noted, is there any evidence of them leaving with Kerensky on the Exodus. Like so many other Star League formations, they simply vanished into the chaos that followed the fall of the House of Cameron.
• We know that a percentage of Clan Wolverine escaped Clan space, shortly before the appearance of the mysterious Minnesota Tribe. Just how they apparently managed to either cross or circumnavigate the entire Inner Sphere without being seen is beyond me, but I have been advised that it is at least feasible.
• We know that someone sent a trio of warships, in SLDF livery, to Cyclops Station, looking for the LostTech prospectors who supposedly stumbled upon the Outer Colonies and managed to escaped. We know that these same people had access to Star League vintage power armour.
  

Taken together, it would be easy to believe that there is indeed a lost outpost of the Star League over whom the Cameron Star still flies as if the past three hundred years never happened. But then the human mind has a tendency to see patterns where none exist. The 7th Armoured Division could have simply been annihilated, the files relating to it lost. The mothballed ships could still sitting out there, waiting. I've seen reports that claim the Minnesota Tribe was assimilated by ComStar, travelled into the future, or was eaten by giant space sharks.

Read into that what you will.

The only hard evidence we have that something is going on is the appearance of the warships and power-armoured marines at Cyclops Station, something that I have had verified by multiple independent sources. But is that enough, on its own, to prove the existence of the Outer Colonies?

To a rational mind, no; there are other groups out there with access to that kind of hardware who might want to spread disinformation. Word of Blake, or at least some faction there of, is the most obvious candidate, but there are others. There is also the fact that I know copies of my reports have a tendency to find their way into the position of the known Clans; information broking is a two way street, after all, and none of them seem to have made any move to investigate further. Given their stance on the Wolverines, this can be taken as evidence that they for one don't believe it.

Do I believe the Outer Colonies exist?

Let's just say I'm open to the possibility...
-Starling

I'll be continuing the prose story; I've just reached the end of the background fluff.

Castle Brian Masada
Rorke's Drift
Outer Colonies
Deep Periphery
March 31st 3066

If there was one advantage to being director of the Ministry of Intelligence, David Wolfsbane felt sure it was that security checkpoints were something other people had to worry about, while he was free to travel unhindered, wherever he felt like. No door in the Outer Colonies, and several worlds beyond, was closed to him, no secret beyond his ability to dig up.

But, until very recently, even he had been unaware of just what was happening on Rorke's Drift.

The elevator doors opened with a soft chime, and he was unsurprised to find himself standing face-to-face with Mary Mroczkiewicz, Secretary of  Defence for the Outer Colonies and a whole, and elected planetary representative of Rorke's Drift. She also held the rank of saKahn, making her the leader of those who considered themselves to be 'Of The Blood', descendent of the surviving members of Clan Wolverine that had managed to make it to the Outer Colonies. It was a little known fact, even within the order, that the refuges who had made it that far represented only a fraction of those who had left the distant world of Circe in a bid to escape the genocide launched against them by the followers of Nicholas Kerensky.

Just what happened to the rest remained unknown, a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.

“David.” Her voice was cool, calm and professional, impressive for anyone who found their actions under scrutiny of a man who's powers were effectively limitless, even here, at the very heart of her power-base, “I wasn't expecting you until next week.”

“Yes, I know.” Wolfsbane smiled, “I find it best to arrive when least expected; it keeps people on their toes.” He looked around the drab hallway, “Shall we get started?”

“If you'll follow me.” Mroczkiewicz gestured towards a nondescript door at the end of the hall.

The thin, minimalist carpet was typical of any military establishment in human occupied space; intended to be hard wearing and resistant to stains, it offered little in the way of comfort or noise dampening, and Wolfsbane could feel the distant rumbling of heavy machinery through the soles of his shoes. The doorway opened out onto a service tunnel cut into the living stone of the mountains that surrounded McEvedy City. A small utility vehicle was waiting for them, and Mroczkiewicz walked around to the driver's seat.

“I thought it best if we conducted our conversation in private.” She explained as she started the engine, the low rumble of the turbine barely audible.

“A good idea.” Wolfsbane took the passengers seat and fastened the seatbelt before the vehicle started off down the tunnel.

“This part of the base was originally constructed by the Star League Corps of Engineers over three centuries ago.” Mroczkiewicz nodded towards the Cameron Stars carved into the rock-face at regular intervals, “It has taken us fifty years to expand upon what took them ten.”

The tunnel opened up into a massive chamber that seemed to stretch out into the distance, the vaulted ceiling several stories high overhead; a maze of catwalks and stairways servicing a galaxy of spotlights and buttresses that were lost in the gloom. But below them, parked in neat, perfect rows, were line after line of combat vehicles; tanks, APC's, self-propelled guns, and a dozen types of support units, ranging in size from motorcycles intended for dispatch riders, up to massive prime-movers large enough to carry the biggest BattleMech on their backs. Each and every one was painted the same drab, olive green of the Star League Defence Force, and each was as pristine as it was when it had rolled off of the assembly line, centuries ago.

The car reached the far all of the chamber and passed through a massive blast door into a second short tunnel, emerging into a second, equally massive chamber beyond. This one played home to an fleet of aerospace fighters, ranging from sleek interceptors and ground-attack craft all the way up to heavy bombers and escorts. They were spaced out perfectly to allow maintenance crews to inspect them as and when needed, but where otherwise untouched.

At first glance the third chamber looked like it was playing host to an army ready for inspection, but a closer look revealed that the ranks of BattleMech's were inert, holding a silent visual in anticipation of a war that might never come. Most wouldn't have looked out of place on a SLDF reciting poster, but here and there were lances and entire companies of more modern designs, slotted in as space permitted.

The forth chamber was filled floor to ceiling with shelves holding crates and boxes. The car was travailing slow enough to make out individual labels indicating camping equipment and entrenching tools, portable generators and mes kits, blankets, beds, boots and enough small arms to take a small plane stretching off into the distance. Each container was tagged and logged, perfectly preserved by still intact vacuum-seals. Automated forklifts stood gathering dust, ready to retrieve any given item on command.

Once, the contents of the storage facility had been intended to equip an army to carry the Reunification War to the New Americas, and once and for all bring them to heel. But that plan had been overtaken by events on distant Terra, and since then, the equipment had sat, unused, in this and a dozen other caches across the worlds that had gone on to form the Outer Colonies. It was from these treasure troves that the remaining garrison troops and their locally raised militia had armed themselves against the gathering darkness, guarding the flame of civilisation. Yet even after they had plundered these vast storehouses, much remained untouched, a stark reminder of the unparalleled size of the Star League Defence Force.

Passing into a longer, curving tunnel, the car picked up speed as it approached a distant light.

“There are another two floors, just like this.” Mroczkiewicz explained, “I hope you have a head for heights, because you're about to see what we've been up to.”

The tunnel opened out into a shaft that was at least a kilometre across, maybe more. Rising up in the middle was a massive freight elevator, upon which sat a Confederate class DropShip baring both the Cameron Star and the snarling emblem of Clan Wolverine. The distant sparks of welding equipment indicated that the ship was being worked on even as it was being transported towards the surface. Other, smaller elevators hugged the side of the shaft, some high above, others lost in the depths below.

“The foundries and fabrication plants are a kilometre below us. Below that you have the geothermal generators and one of our genetic depositories.” Mroczkiewicz stopped the car just short of the low barrier that separated them from a long, long drop, “Above us are the new warehouses, as well as the munitions stores, live-fire ranges and combat simulators. Then above that you have the launch facilities and planetary defence emplacements. They tell me that the mountain can withstand a sustained bombardment by nuclear weapons and remain secure. We have another two nearly identical complexes here on Rorke's Drift, two on Foster's World, one under construction on Redemption and plans for one on Fort Dixie.”

“You've certainly been busy.” Wolfsbane nodded in appreciation, “I am not sure exactly what my predecessors had in mind when they commissioned this project, but I'm glad to see that all that black-budget money has born fruit.”

“I'm glad you think so, David.” Mroczkiewicz smiled, “I'm glad you think so.”

Oh Yes I have miss this.

outer colonies field manuel
www.angelfire.com/empire/jef_b/index.html

Yeah, that was the first draft of the Outer Colonies, before I went back over it all and removed pretty all the munch and tried to at least make it realistic.

Hi I can not access these items

Try these links:
Field Manual: The Outer Colonies
Field Manual: The Royalist Alliance
Field Manual: The Britannic Coalition

All three are somewhat interconnected, and there is even official fan-fiction for the The Britannic Coalition, with a sequel/continuation