Ross 248

Ross 248
System Information
Spectral classM6V[1]
Recharge time207 hours[1]
Recharge station(s)Zenith, Nadir[1]
Planet(s)8[1]

System Description[edit]

The Ross 248 system was home to at least eight planets, two of them inhabited, and also hosts one manmade facility.[1]

Similar to Luyten 68-28, Ross 248 was an uninhabitable system approximately 10.3 light years from Terra that served as a Fleet Yard for the Hegemony Armed Forces, Star League Defense Force, Com Guards, and finally the Word of Blake Militia.

Terrelibre was one of three independent Slowboat Colonization to reach a new system and successfully colonize it.[2] Ross 248 was deliberately selected for its lack of habitable worlds.[1]

The two inhabited planets together form the Terrelibre colony. The hostile environments on Mergelée and Rochegelée kept Terrelibrans in enclosed habitats, and inspired a relatively belter-like culture, but the benefits of living in natural gravity and in close conjunction with ComStar have created a society more closely aligned with the Inner Sphere than segregated from it.

Political Affiliation[edit]


Mergelée[edit]

Mergelée
Astrophysical
System positionSeventh[1]
Jump Point distance2.35 days[1]
Moons2 (Timor, Metus)[1]
Geophysical
Surface gravity0.75[1]
Atmospheric pressureTrace (Toxic)[1]
Equatorial temperature–152°C (Cryogenic)[1]
Surface waterNone[1]
Highest native lifeNone[1]
History and Culture
Colonized2145[1]
Population12,150,000 (3095)[1]
Government and Infrastructure
Political LeaderPremier Juan Flores[1]
HPG ClassB (located at the fleet base site)[1]

Planetary History[edit]

Nothing was known on its fate until the 2330s when the records of the slowboat projects were rediscovered by historians. This prompted the Terran Hegemony to launch a much publicized "quest for the lost colonies." By 2338, it was found that Terrelibre was growing, if not prospering. The Hegemony offered them passage to a habitable planet, and some of the population left, though the majority decided to remain as they disliked the Hegemony's oppression of Terrelibre's motherland. In fact, Terrelibre’s population grew soon afterward with a flood of European immigrants.[2]

After that, the colony came to host a THAF fleet base that used the system's astronomical name, Ross 248, for misinformation purposes. This base would be administered by the SLDF, with Terrelibre providing most of the personnel and materials for that base.[2]

Orbiting a red dwarf star, the Ross 248 Fleet Yards was a sizable and virtually impregnable space station buried within a metallic asteroid five kilometers in diameter. Located outside the system's small proximity limit, JumpShips and WarShips could arrive conveniently close to the facility. Set up by the Terran Hegemony and the Star League, much like the Luyten Yards, Ross 248's location would be a carefully kept secret.[1]

Falling into ComStar hands in the wake of the Amaris Coup, the Blessed Order would use Ross 248 as one of the two bases for its hidden fleet of WarShips, becoming the home port for the Com Guard Second WarShip fleet. As part of Operation Odysseus, the WoBS Blake's Redemption and Deliverance raided this system and attacked the ships of the Second Fleet. They inflicted major damage to the ComStar vessels, but were seriously damaged themselves.[3] While keeping its location hidden for security purposes, as part of the Order's efforts toward openness in the wake of the Schism it did reveal the existence of the facility immediately prior to 3062.[1][4]

Taken by the Word during the Jihad, the Blakists allowed the Terrelibrans to maintain their autonomy in exchange for continued staffing of the Fleet Yards. After the Luyten Debacle, Stone's Coalition would take no chances in eliminating the Ross 248 Fleet Station, jumping an unmanned JumpShip into the heart of the facility and triggering a chain reaction with the KF cores of the docked Blakist JumpShips and WarShips. Causing a kiloton-scale explosion, the conventional troops that followed encountered little resistance from surface gun emplacements.[1]

In the wake of the Jihad, the Republic of the Sphere would lay claim to the system and the remains of the Fleet Yards, the Terrelibrans happy to cede the wreckage to Devlin Stone, with a thorough investigation confirmed no lurking Blakists in hiding. With the Republic revealing the system's location after the Jihad, the local population were content to return to the existence they had known for centuries, maintaining minimal contact with the Inner Sphere in general while producing JumpShips at an amazing rate for the Republic's relocation programs.[1]


Rochegelée[edit]

Rochegelée
Astrophysical
System positionEighth[1]
Jump Point distance2.36 days[1]
Moons4 (Dijon, Besancon, Montbard, Langee)[1]
Geophysical
Surface gravity0.75[1]
Atmospheric pressureNone[1]
Equatorial temperature–172°C (Cryogenic)[1]
Surface waterNone[1]
Highest native lifeNone[1]
History and Culture
Colonized2145[1]
Population16,200,000 (3095)[1]
Government and Infrastructure
Noble RulerPremier Juan Flores[1]
HPG ClassB (located at the fleet base site)[1]

Military Deployment[edit]

3062[edit]

  • Com Guard Second Fleet:[4]

References[edit]

  1. 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 1.22 1.23 1.24 1.25 1.26 1.27 1.28 1.29 1.30 1.31 1.32 1.33 1.34 1.35 1.36 1.37 1.38 Interstellar Expeditions: Interstellar Players 3, p. 25: "Ross 248/Terrelibre"
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 Jihad Conspiracies: Interstellar Players 2, pp. 66–67: "Terrelibre"
  3. Field Manual: Free Worlds League, p. 116: These ships are listed as a Vincent and an Essex class, but no information is given as to which ship is which type
  4. 4.0 4.1 Field Manual: ComStar, p. 44: "The Com Guards - The WarShip Fleet"

Bibliography[edit]