Alarion

Alarion
Alarion 3151.svg
System Information
X:Y Coordinates-319.706 : 138.602[e]
Spectral classG0V[1][2]
Recharge time181 hours[2]
Recharge station(s)Zenith[1][2]

The Alarion system was home to at least one habitable planet, Alarion III, as well as orbital industrial facilities operated by a number of manufacturers including Bowie Industries, Ioto Galactic Enterprises, Nashan Diversified and Port Sydney Naval Shipyards. As of 3067 Alarion was located in the Alarion Province of the Lyran Alliance.

System Description[edit]

The Alarion system had at least one recharge station in service by 3067; that station was located at the zenith jump point.[1][2]

System History[edit]

The Alarion system was settled during the Age of War or earlier.[3]

Political Affiliation[edit]


Alarion III[edit]

Alarion III
Alarion Flag.jpg
Astrophysical
System positionThird[2]
Jump Point distance7.47[2]
Moons1 (Tiber)[2]
Geophysical
Surface gravity0.98[2]
Atmospheric pressureStandard (Breathable)[2]
Equatorial temperature45°C (Warm-Temperate)[2]
Surface water80%[2]
Highest native lifeFish,[2] 10%[1]
Landmasses2 (New Brunswick, New Jordan)[2]
History and Culture
Population3,465,000,000 (3067)[2]
Government and Infrastructure
Noble RulerDuke of Alarion
Political LeaderPresident
CapitalCraiova[1]
HPG ClassA (3025),[1]
B (3067)[2]
HPG RepresentativePrecentor Berle Spadoni (3025)[1]

Alarion III was the third planet in the Alarion system, and was commonly referred to simply as Alarion. Alarion was the administrative capital of the Alarion Province within the Lyran Commonwealth and later the Lyran Alliance and was home to a number of industries including JumpShip and WarShip manufacturers. The surface of Alarion was also home to a manufacturing facility owned by Bowie Industries and the Alarion Naval Academy.

Planetary History[edit]

Early History[edit]

Colonized at some point after the formation of the Lyran Commonwealth, the first attempts to settle on Alarion were nearly the last. The arrival of the first settlers inadvertently wiped out large sections of the local wildlife, while half the settlers died from the effects of a combination of native and terrestrial diseases. The Commonwealth was still a young nation at this point, but the Commonwealth government moved to salvage the colonization effort by imposing strict regulations on planetary development. The government measures were intended to encourage commercial and industrial growth in a sustainable fashion, while also strengthening the local ecology.[2]

The combination of a strict quarantine and stringent settlement directives proved effective, and remained in place throughout the history of Alarion; despite the restrictions Alarion became a heavily industrialized world, a provincial capital and a major defense manufacturing asset, producing aerospace fighters and BattleMechs along with various spacecraft.[2]

The settlers who colonized Alarion were mostly either German, Romanian or English in origin or heritage and this influenced both the local architecture and the languages that became dominant on the planet over the centuries. Even as late as the thirty-first century the architecture was noticeably European in feel, while German and Romanian remained the most popular languages in use among the population. The population were largely opposed to conflict, but at the same time remained committed to maintaining a strong defense on the world.[2]

Age of War[edit]

Alarion was the site of one of the Lyran Commonwealth's earliest BattleMech factories in the years after Lyran commandos stole the technical and manufacturing information on these large engines of war from the Terran Hegemony. Unfortunately for the Commonwealth, in 2462—just three years after the Lyran armed forces first successfully deployed BattleMechs on the battlefield—a number of disaffected employees from the BattleMech factory on Alarion defected to the Free Worlds League, taking the technical details needed for the League to begin its own manufacturing program with them. Archon Alistair Steiner was furious at the loss and had the security staff responsible for guarding these industrial and technological secrets tried for treason through inaction, imprisoning many for life and even executing several.[3]

Reunification War[edit]

As the Star League Defense Force completed the first wave of attacks in Operation MAILED FIST—the name given to the Star League intervention into the civil war that had been raging across the Rim Worlds Republic since 2575—reprisal attacks from Republican forces against worlds within the Lyran Commonwealth were anticipated. What wasn't anticipated was the Rim Worlds Army launching a successful deep raid against Alarion, a secure interior world within the Commonwealth and an important industrial world.[33]

The unit responsible for the raid was the Fourth Amaris Fusiliers, a unit which supported the Rim Provisional Government and which was assigned as the garrison unit for the worlds of New India and Urjala. A battalion from the Fourth managed to evade the various border patrols established by the SLDF and the Lyran Commonwealth Armed Forces and traveled to Alarion, which at the time was three jumps away from the border between the Republic and the Commonwealth.[33]

The raiding party from the Fourth grounded on Alarion on 9 December 2581, having been mistaken for an ore-carrying vessel from Carlisle that was expected to arrive at around the same time; the Fusiliers landed at the port facility attached the planetary capital of Craiova, achieving total surprise over the local forces when their BattleMechs emerged and began to wreak havoc. The Fusiliers managed to inflict substantial damage to the port before retreating back to their DropShip and fighting a running eight-day space battle with the local LCAF contingent all the way back to their waiting JumpShip.[33]

The repercussions of the raid on Alarion went beyond the substantial disruption to the local economy caused by the raid itself; Archon Viola Steiner-Dinesen believed that the raid was evidence that the Rim Worlds Army was far more capable and aggressive than the planning assumptions made by the SLDF had indicated, and that the scope of Operation MAILED FIST should be broadened to include the entire of the Rim Worlds Republic rather than those worlds in close proximity to the Dark Nebula. This put the Archon at odds with General Nathan Isaacson, the SLDF officer commanding Task Force MAILED FIST, causing a rift that would last for the duration of the campaign, but the threat of the Archon removing the logistical and economic support provided by the Commonwealth was enough to convince the SLDF to broaden the scope of Operation MAILED FIST.[33]

FedCom Civil war[edit]

By the end of the FedCom Civil War, the population of Alarion had settled almost all of the islands on the planet as well as the vast majority of the two major continents, with five million people living in the planetary capital city, Craiova, alone. Craiova was also home to the second largest spaceport on the city; the largest spaceport was actually located within the Bowie Industries factory complex. Alarion was ringed with satellite facilities that supported the Port Sydney Naval Shipyards, which at the time were the only shipyards in the Lyran Alliance capable of both maintaining and manufacturing WarShips, and the Alliance had founded the Alarion Naval Academy on the planet accordingly.[2]

Despite the damage inflicted on worlds in the Alarion Province by the deep raids conducted by the Free Worlds League Military during the late thirtieth century the population of Alarion itself held no particular grudge against the Free Worlds League, placing blame instead at the feet of Archon Alessandro Steiner. As a consequence many companies on Alarion were still willing to trade with the League.[2]

Despite the apparent equanimity of the population regarding the League, tensions were high on the planet because of Duke Anatoly Serfass' actions during the FedCom Civil War, with pressure mounting among the public for him to step down because of his support for Archon Katherine Steiner and his jailing of a number of prominent antiwar protestors.[2]

The Jihad[edit]

The Word of Blake struck at Alarion on 12 April 3069, the same day they attacked the Federated Suns world of Galax, evidently targeting systems capable of manufacturing WarShips. The Blakist forces didn't only use WarShips to demolish the shipyards in the Alarion system and seize every vessel capable of jumping for their own purposes; they also poisoned Alarion's ecosphere with an intensely powerful bioweapon. The only vessel to avoid capture or destruction was the Mjolnir-class WarShip LAS Fylgia, which managed to escape from the Alarion system.[34]

The news agency Donegal Broadcasting Company sent a vessel packed with advanced sensor equipment to the Alarion system in early April 3078 to investigate Alarion from orbit, to see if they could identify any signs of life; the ship spent five days in orbit, looking for hope that someone had survived the combination of nuclear and biological weapons the Word of Blake had rained down the planet. The sensors confirmed that the satellites in orbit were still transmitting, but that no signals were being broadcast for them to carry; equally, while two broadcasting stations were found to be active in the northern hemisphere of Alarion, investigation confirmed that the two stations were running on emergency power and were simply bouncing static back and forth to each other.[35]

Military Deployment[edit]

Geography[edit]

Alarion has two continents, which the colonists named New Brunswick and New Jordan, as well as numerous tropical islands.[2]

Planetary Locations[edit]

Industrial Centers[edit]

Local Flora and Fauna[edit]

Map Gallery[edit]

Nearby Systems[edit]

Closest 32 systems (31 within 60 light-years)
Distance in light years, closest systems first:
Vendrell 13.3 Noisiel 14.8 Nuneaton 16.1 Quilino 16.4
Kvistgard 18.4 Abejorral 23.2 Tiruppur 27.8 Stardawn 30.3
Ciampino 30.7 Albion 35.6 Vihtijarvi 35.6 Logres 37.1
Stellaris 38.2 Reese Station 42.1 Nuelson Minor 42.3 Zaprudy 45.8
York 46.8 Rijeka 47.3 Calafell 47.6 Vermezzo 48.2
Carlisle 51.9 Novara 52.0 Burnt Rock 53.7 Batajnica 54.1
Tapihue 54.4 Jatznik 55.7 Duran 56.9 Richvale 57.1
Kostinbrod 58.4 Lancaster 58.7 Triesting 59.4 Enzesfled 61.6

References[edit]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 House Steiner (The Lyran Commonwealth), p. 164: "Alarion" planet profile
  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 2.15 2.16 2.17 2.18 2.19 2.20 2.21 2.22 2.23 2.24 2.25 Handbook: House Steiner, pp. 73–74: "Alarion"
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 House Steiner (The Lyran Commonwealth), p. 21: "Lyran Military Superiority"
  4. Handbook: House Steiner, p. 13
  5. Handbook: House Steiner, p. 25
  6. Historical: Reunification War, p. 158
  7. Handbook: Major Periphery States, p. 25
  8. Era Report: 2750, p. 36
  9. Field Manual: SLDF, p. xi: Inner Sphere - [2764]
  10. Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 1, p. 10
  11. First Succession War, pp. 24–25
  12. Handbook: House Steiner, p. 36
  13. Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 2, pp. 122–123
  14. First Succession War, pp. 112–113
  15. Handbook: House Steiner, p. 40
  16. Handbook: House Steiner, p. 47
  17. Handbook: House Steiner, p. 56
  18. Handbook: House Steiner, p. 59
  19. Historical: War of 3039, p. 132
  20. Era Report: 3052, p. 10
  21. Era Report: 3052, p. 22
  22. Era Report: 3062, p. 11
  23. Era Report: 3062, p. 29
  24. Handbook: House Steiner, p. 70
  25. Jihad: Final Reckoning, p. 43
  26. Jihad Secrets: The Blake Documents, p. 64
  27. Field Report: LAAF, p. 19: "Lyran Alliance Deployment Table [3079]"
  28. Jihad: Final Reckoning, p. 63
  29. Field Manual: 3085, p. 126
  30. Era Report: 3145, p. 11
  31. Era Report: 3145, p. 39
  32. Field Manual: 3145, p. VI: "Inner Sphere - 3145"
  33. 33.0 33.1 33.2 33.3 Historical: Reunification War, pp. 132–133: "Alarion (December 2581)"
  34. Jihad: Final Reckoning, p. 46: "The Jihad In Review"
  35. Jihad Hot Spots: Terra, p. 66: "Alarion: World In Recovery?"
  36. 36.0 36.1 First Succession War, p. 139: "First Succession War Deployment Table - LCAF"
  37. 37.0 37.1 House Steiner (The Lyran Commonwealth), p. 118: "Unit Deployment Table"
  38. NAIS The Fourth Succession War Military Atlas Volume 1, p. 44: "Operation GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG"
  39. NAIS The Fourth Succession War Military Atlas Volume 1, p. 45: "Operation GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG"
  40. 20 Year Update, p. 71: "Com Guards Deployment Table"
  41. 41.0 41.1 Shattered Sphere, p. 51: "Lyran Alliance Deployment Table"
  42. 42.0 42.1 Field Manual: Updates, p. 179: "Lyran Alliance Deployment Table"
  43. 43.0 43.1 43.2 Handbook: House Steiner, pp. 142–143: "Bowie Industries (BowInd) - Ioto Galactic Enterprises (IotoGal)"
  44. House Steiner (The Lyran Commonwealth), p. 42

Bibliography[edit]