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Origins and History
Located on the Federated Commonwealth's Steiner border with the Periphery, the
Rim Collection is the newest Periphery state. Six independent worlds --
Caldarium, Slewis, Waypoint, All Dawn, Otisberg, and Gillfillan's Gold -- joined
to created the Rim Collection in 3048. Before the collapse of the Star League,
these six worlds had been part of the Rim Worlds Republic. Three centuries of
unsought independence after the Star League's collapse brought them nothing but
poverty; by the end of the Fourth Succession War, most people on the worlds of
the Rim Collection were barely eking out a subsistence living. Bandit raids,
against which none of the planets had any real defense, added to the misery.
During the Fourth Succession War, when the Inner Sphere's attention was turned
toward their own troubles, the bandit raids became incessant. The people of
these six worlds, unable to see any way to change this dismal state of affairs,
were eager for a savior. Their salvation arrived when James Moroney landed on
Islington in 3041.
Professor James Moroney, a social sciences instructor at the University of
Regulus in the Free Worlds League, felt no ambition to become a political
leader. Several events during the 3030s, however, changed his mind. That decade
was a troubled one in the Free Worlds League -- the perennially rebellious Duchy
of Andurien seceded in 3030, and the assassination of Captain-General Janos
Marik in 3035 was wrongly blamed on Andurien agents. As a native of Andurien,
Professor Moroney came under suspicion from an increasingly paranoid and
heavy-handed central government. In addition to his ancestry, the professor was
known to espouse views on self-determination and political freedom in ways the
Marik government found uncomfortable. Both in classes and outside of them,
Professor Moroney spoke eloquently of humankind's unquenchable desire for
freedom and the futility of any attempt to impose a destiny on any people who
wished to choose their own way. Though he never explicitly advocated his native
duchy's secession, he stated many times that no government could hope to keep
control over a people who wished to be free of that administration. In 3036,
Captain-General Duncan Marik ordered Moroney arrested for treason.
Because the League was by then engulfed in a war to reclaim its wayward duchy,
Moroney's trial was not scheduled to take place until early 3037. In December
3036, Thomas Marik -- initially believed to be dead in the same explosion that
killed his father Janos -- appeared and claimed the Captain-Generalship. With
Thomas's accession, Duncan Marik's death in the field, the successful reconquest
of Andurien, and increasing doubt that the Anduriens had actually been
responsible for Janos Marik's death, the jury for the Moroney trial found the
professor not guilty of treason and sedition. They pronounced him a free man,
subject only to a heavy fine for what they termed "irresponsible public
statements in a time of martial emergency."
The professor soon discovered, however, that his newly won freedom had its
limits. When he attempted to return to work, the University of Regulus informed
him that it had revoked his tenure. His subsequent attempt to earn money on the
public lecture circuit ended with the League government banishing the professor
and his family from Marik space as "political undesirables." In 3038 Professor
Moroney relocated to the Federated Commonwealth world of Aberystwyth, where a
local community college had offered him a part-time teaching job. While on
Aberystwyth, Moroney began speaking out about his trial and expulsion, and also
began writing a personal account of his experiences. His stirring speeches on
the human right to self-determination garnered him considerable attention, not
all of it positive. Members of the Skye separatist movement, the principal focus
of opposition to the merging of the Lyran Commonwealth with the Federated Suns,
obtained copies of Professor Moroney's speeches and circulated them around the
Isle of Skye. Though he had not intended them to, Moroney's speeches and
writings also influenced quite a few citizens of both realms who felt uneasy
about the union. Eventually, the government of the Federated Commonwealth
politely but firmly demanded that Moroney depart.
Lacking funds to go very far, Moroney took his family on a short jaunt to the
independent world of Gillfillan's Gold. On this backwater planet, Moroney hoped
to build a new and simpler life as a farmer. he seemed to have succeeded until
3043, when a local town councilman and friend of Moroney's ran across one of the
professor's taped public speeches on a visit to the Commonwealth. Impressed by
the speech's content and style, Councilman Roberts returned to Gillfillan's Gold
determined to enlist his eloquent friend's aid in a cause dear to the
councilman's heart -- the union of Gillfillan's Gold and five other nearby,
independent worlds into a confederation that might give them some hope for a
more prosperous future.
Initially reluctant to step back into the public arena, Professor Moroney was
soon won over by the dedication of the Unionists and the crying need for some
means of making life better in Gillfillan's Gold and its sister worlds. Within a
year, he was traveling from world to world, speaking for the creation of a new
state to be known as the Rim Collection. Between 3044 and 3046, the Unionists
slowly grew stronger as more and more people threw their support behind the
idea. In late 3046, however, a devastating pirate raid on Otisberg laid bare a
seemingly insurmountable obstacle to the formation of the Rim Collection -- the
lack of a military capable of fending off the Periphery's numerous predators.
The six worlds had not been able to support a standing army since the time of
the Star League, nor did they have the economic resources to pay for reputable
mercenary units. With no means of seeing to their own defense, opponents of the
union asked what good would increased prosperity do them? What could they
possible become, except more tempting targets for bandits? Supporters argued
that bettering their economies would enable the united worlds to buy mercenary
troops eventually, but many people wondered if "eventually" was good enough.
In the midst of this debate, the mercenary unit Able's Aces arrived on
Gillfillan's Gold. Still smarting from a bitter contract dispute with the
Federated Commonwealth, unwilling to work for Houses Marik or Liao, and unable
to obtain a contract from a Draconis Combine still inclined to be suspicious of
mercenaries, the Aces had decided that their future lie in the Periphery. Major
Jerry Able, the unit's leader, was a Periphery native, and many of the unit's
members had come from worlds on the Periphery border. However, the unit had not
yet chosen a specific course of action. Some members were arguing for a contract
with one of the larger and richer Periphery states, such as the Magistracy of
Canopus or the Taurian Concordat. Others were flirting with the idea of striking
out toward the deep Periphery in search of alleged caches of lostech. Still
others contemplated turning pirate and carving out their own bandit kingdom.
Undecided, the Aces made planetfall on Gillfillan's Gold for a brief resupply
stop. While there, Major Able attended a Unionist lecture given by Professor
Moroney. The professor so impressed Able that the major brought his entire unit
to hear Moroney the following night. Major Able then dropped a bombshell. He
proposed that Able's Aces volunteer to serve as the first unit in the Rim
Collection's army, and to train citizens of the six worlds as planetary
militias.
Once the mercenaries got over the shock, many of them supported the major's
idea. If their leader was willing to wait for a payroll until the new nation got
on its feet, so were they -- particularly when Major Able offered to pay those
who stayed with him out of his own pocket. A few members chose to leave the
unit, but most of the Aces voted to stay. Major Able then laid his unorthodox
proposition before them. They accepted with enthusiasm, and the professor lost
no time publicizing the Aces' offer. By the end of 3047, opposition to the
formation of the Rim Collection had virtually disappeared.
In early 3048, all six planets signed the Rim Collection Charter. It provided
for a Council of Planets with one representative from each member world,
presided over by a president. The councilmen were to be elected by the people of
their respective planets; the president by the citizens of the entire Rim
Collection. Each planet had sovereignty over its own affairs, except as
necessary to preserve the well-being of the Collection as a whole. As part of
the charter, Able's Aces agreed to train planetary militias and a
Collection-wide defense force in exchange for a vote on the Council of Planets
in military matters. In addition, the mercenary unit was granted extensive lands
on Otisberg, Major Able's homeworld. By unanimous acclamation, Professor Moroney
was elected the first president of the new nation.
3058 Update
In the first decade of its existence, conditions in the Rim Collection are
slowly changing for the better. The confederated planets began trading grains
and iron ore with the Federated Commonwealth in 3053, and the Lyran Alliance has
announced its intention to continue trade relations. Planetary Councilman
Roberts has begin trade negotiations between Gillfillan's Gold and the Free
Worlds League, with the promise of extending all trading rights to the rest of
the Collection if he succeeds. However, the immense degree of autonomy given to
member worlds by the charter often slows the pace of government to a craw.
Professor Moroney, seeing more possibilities for economic expansion with more
centralized government control, is currently pushing for a temporary expansion
of the president's powers. Councilman Roberts has emerged as the leading voice
of the opposition; he and his supporters fear that any temporary change in the
balance of power would become permanent, much to the council's disadvantage.
Militarily, Able's Aces has filled its part of the bargain admirably. Lacking
the funds to buy large numbers of serviceable BattleMechs, the Rim Collection
still has only two BattleMech battalions; however, the Aces have trained several
militia units on each of the six worlds to serve as a first line of defense
against bandit raids. A few councilmen want the Collection to hire more
mercenaries, but the Aces have stonewalled these efforts as unwanted
encroachment on what they consider their turf. The Rim Collection is not yet
rich enough to attract the attention of large numbers of pirates, but that could
easily change within another decade or so. The pirate band known as Morrison's
Extractors is the most dangerous of the Rim Collection's current enemies; the
Extractors have raided outlying cities on Caldarium and Slewis with devastating
effect. |
