Colleen

Colleen
Colleen 3151.svg
System Information
X:Y Coordinates-146.566 : 1837.816[e]
Star names1[1]
Spectral classG7V[1]
Recharge time188 hours[1]
Planet(s)6[1][2]

The Colleen system was home to at least two habitable worlds, Colleen II and Colleen IV, and as of 3067 was located in the Deep Periphery close to the region known as the Clan Homeworlds.[3]

System Description[edit]

The Colleen system is located near the Grant's Station and Homer systems[3] and consists of a class G7V primary orbited by at least six planets.[2][1]

System History[edit]

The Colleen system was discovered by a merchant caste JumpShip from Clan Blood Spirit named the Coral Gulf. The Coral Gulf and a second merchant caste JumpShip, the Cyprus Dream, had been dispatched as part of a Blood Spirit task force sent to raid enclaves belonging to Clan Star Adder in the Arcadia and Tathis systems, but with orders to split off from the task force en route and then investigate neighboring systems in an effort to find a world that could be used to start a new Blood Spirit colony. The exploration mission was an effort by the leadership of Clan Blood Spirit to hedge against the worst possible outcome on York; the Cyprus Dream visited five systems without finding a habitable world, but the Coral Gulf successfully discovered the Colleen system in 3067 and identified that there were two habitable worlds, the second and fourth planets in the system. Neither world was a paradise in the making, but both were identified as having enough resources and being habitable enough to provide at least minimal sufficiency. The Coral Gulf deposited the bulk of the colony expedition on the second planet in the system, which was named Haven; the colonists consisted of a mix of personnel from the laborer, scientist and technician castes, along with the Forty-second Crimson Vanguard Cluster, and returned to the Clan Homeworlds to report the discovery. Under the cover of various other subsequent task forces active within the Homeworlds the Blood Spirits dispatched the Coral Gulf back to colonize the fourth planet in the system, dubbed Honor, in early 3068, and then continued to dispatch additional ships for several years, accelerating the colonization efforts on both worlds.[4]

Under the leadership of Khan Boques and saKhan Bryce Schmitt Clan Blood Spirit began to withdraw from the Clan Homeworlds in 3076; the Clan Blood Spirit touman had taken significant losses during the Wars of Reaving battles fought on Circe and New Kent, while the bulk of the industrial facilities belonging to the Clan on York and Albion had been destroyed, leaving the Clan with no way of rebuilding quickly.[5]

The Blood Spirits withdrew from every holding in the Homeworlds other than Strana Mechty, and while saKhan Schmitt was active in the Grand Council the Blood Spirits reduced their touman's presence in the Homeworlds solely to a contingent of solahma on Strana Mechty itself. The Blood Spirits managed to keep the existence of their colonies in the Colleen system secret until 3082, when a scout vessel from Clan Stone Lion arrived in-system. The arrival of a ship from another Clan started an inexorable slide towards conflict, as knowledge of the existence of Colleen spread amongst the other Clans, none of whom would willingly allow the Blood Spirits to retain sole ownership of two potentially bountiful worlds.[5]

Clan Cloud Cobra were the first Clan to deploy forces to the Colleen system following the Clan Stone Lion discovery, swiftly winning a Trial of Possession for the right to found two colonies on the southern continent of Honor. The Trial was tightly fought using aerospace forces and won easily by the Cloud Cobras.[5]

A series of massive earthquakes devastated Honor in March 3083, destroying the bulk of the enclaves there and leading to an evacuation effort that managed to rescue less than fifteen thousand people. A month later, contingents from Clan Coyote and Clan Stone Lion arrived in the Colleen system, intent on launching Trials of Possession for a range of enclaves on Haven. By the time both Clans had announced their Trials, virtually every enclave on Haven had been bid for; Clan Blood Spirit opposed the Trials with the bulk of their surviving touman, facing the Stone Lions' Psi Galaxy and the Coyotes Nu Galaxy. The Blood Spirit touman amounted to just three understrength Galaxies: Alpha, Iota and Omega Galaxies. By June 3083 Khan Boques was dead and the Blood Spirits retained just two holdings in the Colleen system, defended by the battered remnants of Clan Blood Spirit.[5]

Faced with resistance from civilians intentionally armed by the Blood Spirit leadership in their annexed holdings, the Coyotes and Stone Lions launched a Grand Council in the Homeworlds to present evidence of the behavior exhibited by the Blood Spirits, with the Coyotes calling for the Blood Spirits to be Abjured. This prompted Clan Star Adder to launch a call for a Trial of Annihilation against the Blood Spirits, but the Star Adders couldn't muster the support for this measure; instead, against the opposition of the Cloud Cobra Khan and saKhan, the Star Adders successfully called for and won a Trial of Absorption against the Blood Spirits.[5]

The Star Adders began by defeating the newly elected Blood Spirit saKhan, Lucas Campbell, on Strana Mechty; the bulk of the Blood Spirit warriors stationed there died in combat, and the Star Adders chose to execute the surviving Blood Spirit population on the planet. Between the launch of the Trial of Absorption and the arrival of the Star Adder forces in the Colleen system in October 3084, the Blood Spirits managed to extract as many survivors as they could from Honor, including the remains of Beta Galaxy, and prepared for a last stand on Haven. While the Star Adders assembled a task force to take the Colleen system the Coyotes and the Stone Lions withdrew from the system, taking as much as they could with them from their captured holdings on Haven in the process.[5]

The Star Adder task force was escorted by the McKenna-class battleship CSA Sovereign Right and the Nightlord-class battleship CSA Absolute Truth. Leading a task force consisting of Gamma, Epsilon and Xi Galaxies, the two battleships summarily crushed the two surviving Blood Spirit WarShips, the York-class destroyer CBS Stooping Kite and the Carrack-class transport CBS Karianna Schmitt at the system zenith jump point.[5]

After the Star Adder ground forces had similarly crushed all of the opposition on Haven and looted as much isorla as could be transported off the planet by the end of November, the Absolute Truth began a two-to-three-week campaign of orbital bombardment that targeted every holding and enclave on both inhabited worlds. The Absolute Truth then left the Sovereign Right in the system for several months to continue destroying any Blood Spirit survivors discovered. The Sovereign Right kept a watchful eye on the system for some time afterwards, destroying a small number of DropShips that attempted to escape from the system in January 3085, a month after the catastrophic bombardment. By July 3085 no signs of life could be detected on Honor and only minimal signs of life on Haven.[5]

Political Affiliation[edit]

Colleen II (Haven)[edit]

Haven
Astrophysical
Also known asColleen II
System positionSecond[2]
Jump Point distance6.57 days[2]
Moons1[2]
Geophysical
Surface gravity1.2[2]
Atmospheric pressureStandard (Breathable)[2]
Equatorial temperature30°C[2]
Surface water30%[2]
History and Culture
Colonized3067[4]
PopulationMinimal/None (3085)[5]
Government and Infrastructure
CapitalGlasgow[5]

Colleen II, more commonly known as Haven, was the first world in the Colleen system to be settled by Clan Blood Spirit.[4]

Planetary History[edit]

Following the initial colonization of Haven in 3067 Clan Blood Spirit continued to deploy resources and personnel to the planet in an effort to accelerate the colonization efforts.[4] In 3070 the Clan leadership relocated the Clan's sole remaining genetic repository to Haven from York.[5]

Clan Coyote and Clan Stone Lion successfully Trialed for a series of enclaves and other possessions on Haven in April and May 3083, reducing the Blood Spirit presence to just two enclaves guarded by the remains of Alpha Galaxy. The Coyotes and Stone Lions had both taken losses, with the Stone Lions' Psi Galaxy being reduced to two battered Clusters and the Coyotes' Nu Galaxy reduced to tattered remnants, but both Galaxies were too strong for the Blood Spirits' Alpha Galaxy to defeat. The Coyotes had seized Glasgow, which had been the Blood Spirit capital city, as well as three BattleMech factories the Blood Spirits had constructed. The Stone Lions had captured a number of enclaves dedicated to mining and agriculture, along with two ProtoMech factories near Lovell and the ProtoMech warrior Phenotype developed by the Blood Spirits.[5]

Increasingly desperate, Khan Schmitt armed the civilian population in the Blood Spirit enclaves and launched a counterattack against the Coyotes in August 3083. The Coyotes and Stone Lions had both been faced with constant resistance from the Blood Spirit population in their conquered holdings, as the local population refused to assimilate; having armed almost a Cluster of infantry from the lower castes, Schmitt infiltrated troops into Glasgow by night and attacked the Coyotes, driving them back into the warrior quarter. Khan Koga of the Coyotes was incensed by the un-Clanlike behavior displayed by the Blood Spirits, and declared that every Blood Spirit who held a weapon was dezgra. The Coyotes launched a bloody assault outwards from the warrior quarter, cutting down anyone who opposed them; the Blood Spirit Red Guards arrived to reinforce the civilian infantry, but the Coyotes successfully pushed their way out of Glasgow and into the nearby Crimson Langur factory.[5]

Having successfully redeployed to the factory, Khan Koga contacted Loremaster Jackie Ravenwater, the commander of the Stone Lion forces on Haven, and discussed the situation at Glasgow. Both Clans were in agreement that the Blood Spirits were undeserving of any respect; while the Stone Lions had been facing fewer problems integrating the population at Lovell, they announced that the population had to stand down or suffer the consequences. A number of groups of civilians in Lovell refused, and responded to the declaration by firebombing the warrior quarter; the Stone Lions responded to this act of aggression by executing any civilian found with a weapon, although the number of armed civilians in Lovell was approximately a tenth of that in Glasgow. Despite the executions the situation in both Clans' holdings continued to degenerate, and Khan Koga called for a Grand Council to address the situation.[5]

The end result of the Grand Council was a Trial for Absorption against the Blood Spirits by Clan Star Adder. Relocating as many survivors from Honor to Haven as possible and continuing to arm civilians gave the Blood Spirits a total strength of some eight Clusters on Haven when the Star Adders arrived in October 3084, although five of those Clusters were armed civilians rather than warriors.[5]

The Blood Spirits attacked the three Galaxies being dropped onto Haven by the Absolute Truth and the Sovereign Right with everything they could get into the air to fight, but the results were minimal, and the Star Adders' Gamma and Epsilon Galaxies made groundfall approximately ten kilometers from Glasgow while Xi Galaxy moved towards Lovell. The first ground attack came as the Forty-second Adder Cavaliers and the 212th Battle Cluster were crossing the Sidhe River; a force of armed civilians mustering almost four Clusters ambushed the two Star Adder Clusters, inflicting enough damage on the Forty-second to force it to withdraw, but not enough damage to prevent the Star Adder troops pushing through the ambush. As the 212th continued towards Glasgow the retreating Forty-second was strafed by a pair of Broadsword-class Blood Spirit DropShips; the surviving warriors of the Forty-second manage to throw up enough fire to cause one of the two Broadswords to crash, but the crew of the critically damaged DropShip steered it into a crash on top of a number of 'Mechs from the Forty-second, destroying three more.[5]

SaKhan Wyatt Talasko was leading Gamma and Epsilon Galaxies in the attack on Glasgow, and he responded to the reports of the ambush and subsequent strafing attack launched by the Blood Spirits by pushing both Galaxies forward into a direct engagement with Khan Schmitt's defending forces, which were deployed in a line of battle five kilometers long. The Star Adder attack killed Khan Schmitt, weakening the defensive line, and Talasko took advantage of this weakness, leading the Third Assault Cluster directly into Glasgow, with the Star Adder forces gunning down any living person they saw. Within an hour the Blood Spirit defensive line had collapsed, but none of the Blood Spirit warriors requested hegira or attempted to surrender, and by the time night fell Alpha Galaxy had been destroyed and most of Glasgow was on fire.[5]

As Glasgow burned, Xi Galaxy — led by the Star Adder Loremaster, Fletcher Daniels — traveled nonstop, pushing into Lovell in the face of resistance from the remaining Blood Spirit Clusters of armed civilians. The first Star Adder casualty was Daniels, who was lost along with his command Star when a building next to his Hellfire exploded, burying them in rubble. The 522nd Adder Sentinels responded by immediately firing on the buildings around them, dropping several and igniting several fuel lines transporting natural gas. The explosions from the gas lines set off a number of mines that had been laid in the surrounding area and brought the last of the Blood Spirit armed civilians flooding into the area.[5]

Xi Galaxy turned the battle for Lovell into an extended execution, spending the next forty-eight hours destroying buildings and gunning down any living target. The nearby factories were purged by Stars of Elementals, and the Star Adders began systematically loading as much isorla gathered form the factories and warehouses on the planet as they could, using as many of the surviving Blood Spirit DropShips as they could.[5]

The Star Adders had finished looting Haven by the end of November, at which point saKhan Talasko withdrew his forces to their landing zone and deployed the Absolute Truth in a campaign of saturation orbital bombardment, targeting key infrastructure locations at the various Blood Spirit enclaves across the world; each attempt at resistance on the part of the surviving Blood Spirits was put down swiftly. Every Blood Spirit enclave and holding on the planet had either been crippled, destroyed or was on fire by mid-December, and the Blood Spirit military presence on the planet had been completely eradicated, at which point the Star Adders withdrew from Haven.[5]

A small number of DropShips attempted to escape from either Haven or Honor in January 3085, but were destroyed by the Sovereign Right, which had remained in the system to patrol for any sign of life; by July 3085, Haven was showing just a few, minimal signs of life. Although the Star Adders stopped patrolling the system constantly, they continued to visit the system on an irregular basis, and in October 3085 the Star Adders managed a final act of contempt towards the Blood Spirits by destroying the side of Mount Schmitt near Glasgow, burying the Blood Spirit genetic repository under hundreds of thousands of tons of rock and ice, forever destroying their legacy.[5]

Military Deployment[edit]

3083[edit]

  • Clan Blood Spirit
  • Alpha Galaxy[5]
  • Iota Galaxy (destroyed April/May 3083)[5]
  • Omega Galaxy (destroyed April/May 3083)[5]
  • Clan Coyote
  • Nu Galaxy (from April/May)[5]
  • Clan Stone Lion
  • Psi Galaxy (from April/May)[5]

3084[edit]

  • Clan Blood Spirit
  • Alpha/Beta Galaxies (3 Clusters)[5]
  • Armed civilian infantry (5 Clusters)[5]

Planetary Locations[edit]

  • Glasgow: the planetary capital city.[5]
  • Lovell: a notable city.[5]

Colleen IV (Honor)[edit]

Honor
Astrophysical
System positionFourth[1]
Jump Point distance6.57 days[2]
Moons1[2]
Geophysical
Surface gravity1.2[2]
Atmospheric pressureStandard (Breathable)[2]
Equatorial temperature18°C[2]
Surface water20%[2]
History and Culture
Colonized3068[4]
PopulationNone (3085)[5]

Colleen IV — more commonly known simply as Honor — was the second planet in the Colleen system to be settled by Clan Blood Spirit.

Planetary History[edit]

Clan Blood Spirit began colonization efforts on Honor in earnest in 3068, and in 3076 the bulk of the Clan retreated from the Clan Homeworlds to the Colleen system, spreading across both Haven and Honor. The Blood Spirits were the sole colonists on Honor until 3083, when the discovery of the Colleen system by Clan Stone Lion led to Clan Cloud Cobra launching a Trial of Possession for the right to build two enclaves on Honor in 3082. By 3083 the two holdings were bustling colonies, both focused on strip-mining ore from nearby mountains. The Cloud Cobras also began the construction of a large OmniFighter factory at one of their enclaves when, on the 19th of March 3083, the planet was devastated by several huge earthquakes.[5]

The earthquakes were immense in scale, rippling through the highlands of Baruna; each measured 9.0 or higher on the Clan scientific scales. The mountain range was the largest mountain range in Clan space, stretching almost three-quarters around the north-south circumference of Honor, and heavily volcanic even before the earthquakes; when the earthquakes struck, every volcano in the chain began erupting. Every enclave on the planet suffered major damage, and tidal waves rolled inland for miles, wiping out both of the Cloud Cobra enclaves and the city of Osterling, the largest Blood Spirit city on the planet.[5]

The Blood Spirits reacted as quickly as they could to try and evacuate people from Honor, but the Clan's efforts were hampered by a lack of DropShips and by the position of the two planets, which were at almost opposing positions around the system primary at the time. The destruction on Honor was catastrophic for the Blood Spirits, and less than fifteen thousand people were successfully evacuated from the planet.[5]

The Star Adders targeted Honor after completing their campaign on Haven in mid-December 3084; from positions in orbit the Star Adder WarShips (the CSA Absolute Truth) repeated the same bombardment campaign used on Haven, targeting the few remaining Blood Spirit holdings on the planet hat had survived the constant volcanic eruptions and the various seismic aftershocks. The last Blood Spirit surviving military unit, the Seventeenth Crimson Guards, were destroyed via orbital bombardment.[5]

The Star Adders continued to actively patrol the Colleen system for a number of months as they had stationed the CSA Sovereign Right, destroying several DropShips that attempted to escape the system in January 3085, and by July there were no signs of life anywhere on Honor.[5]

Military Deployment[edit]

3076[edit]

Geography[edit]

Honor had at least two continents, a main continent named Baruna and a smaller southern continent.[5]

Planetary Locations[edit]

  • Osterling: the largest Clan Blood Spirit city on the planet.[5]

Notes[edit]

  • According to the "The Wars of Reaving" sourcebook entry for Haven (Colleen) (p. 233), the Colleen system has both a G7V star and a recharge time of 187 hours. This is contradicted by the Primary Solar Stats Table in Campaign Operations, according to which the recharge time of a G7V star should be 188 hours, and the later Honor (Colleen) (p. 234) entry.

Image gallery[edit]

Map Gallery[edit]

Nearby Systems[edit]

Closest 20 systems (0 within 60 light-years)
Distance in light years, closest systems first:
Zara 78.2 Grant's Station 79.8 York 81.8 Paxon 86.5
Albion 106.7 Londerholm 110.0 EC821-387D 120.1 Kirin 123.0
Delios 133.9 Barcella 136.1 Gatekeeper 137.1 Brim 140.3
Tamaron 145.8 Priori 153.3 Strato Domingo 163.1 Shadow 169.2
Vinton 171.2 Lum 172.1 Hellgate 187.0 Hoard 190.6

References[edit]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 The Wars of Reaving, p. 234: "Honor (Colleen System)"
  2. 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 The Wars of Reaving, p. 233: "Honor (Colleen System)"
  3. 3.0 3.1 The Wars of Reaving, p. 227: "Clan Homeworlds (3067)"
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 The Wars of Reaving, p. 14: "Voyage of Desperate Discovery"
  5. 5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 5.11 5.12 5.13 5.14 5.15 5.16 5.17 5.18 5.19 5.20 5.21 5.22 5.23 5.24 5.25 5.26 5.27 5.28 5.29 5.30 5.31 5.32 5.33 5.34 5.35 5.36 5.37 5.38 5.39 5.40 5.41 5.42 5.43 5.44 5.45 5.46 5.47 5.48 The Wars of Reaving, pp. 154–156: "Clan Blood Spirit (Annihilated 3085)"
  6. The Wars of Reaving, p. 226: "Political balance Table, 3067"
  7. The Wars of Reaving, p. 248: "Political balance Table, 3075"

Bibliography[edit]