Barcella

Barcella
Barcella 3151.svg
System Information
X:Y Coordinates-23.703 : 1896.374[e]
Spectral classG6V[1]
Recharge time187 hours[2][1]
Planet(s)9[2][1]

The Barcella system is the location of a habitable world, Barcella III, and as of 3085 was located in the Deep Periphery region known as the Clan Homeworlds.

System Description

The Barcella system is located near the Londerholm and Vinton systems. In relation to the capital of the Clan Homeworlds, Strana Mechty, Barcella is located at the coordinates -64:-122.[2] The Barcella system consists of a G6V class primary orbited by nine worlds.[2][1]

System History

Political Affiliation


Barcella III

Barcella III
Astrophysical
System position3rd[2][1]
Jump Point distance7.01 days[1]
Moons1[1]
Geophysical
Surface gravity1.3[2][1]
Atmospheric pressureStandard (Breathable)[2][1]
Equatorial temperature35°C[2][1]
Surface water60%[2][1]
Highest native lifeBirds[2]
History and Culture
Population37,000,000 (3062)[2]

Barcella III - more commonly known simply as Barcella has been held by - and contested by - several Clans at the same time for the majority of its history as a settled world. Barcella has a single moon.[1]

Planetary History

Early History

Barcella was an early Kerensky Cluster colony world. The planet became the capital of Clan Nova Cat. It was later colonized by other Clans in the following years, however the Nova Cats held a large percentage of this world. When Abjuration of that Clan occurred in 3060, Clan Diamond Shark took over the lands and enclaves that the Nova Cats were forced to abandon.[14]

The Wars of Reaving

In the closing weeks of 3069 Clan Steel Viper launched an aggressive campaign to absorb or destroy all Clan Jade Falcon holdings in the Clan Homeworlds. The campaign began shortly after a Grand Council meeting on the 5th of November 3069 with a ferocious assault on Ironhold,[15] followed up by campaigns on Marshall, Eden, Huntress, Tokasha, Gatekeeper, Barcella, and Glory. The Steel Vipers were victorious in each planetary campaign, and the Jade Falcon presence on each planet had been removed by the end of January 3070.[7]

Clan Snow Raven were under serious pressure from the allied forces of the Cloud Cobras, Star Adders and Steel Vipers in early 3070, and attempted to distract the three allied clans from their attacks by revealing information highlighting that the Diamond Sharks were preparing to trade Clan technology with the Federated Suns. The Snow Ravens were in desperate need of time to finish their preparations to evacuate their diminished holdings in the Clan Homeworlds, and their attempt to distract their enemies was successful - at least in part because of supporting information that the Jade Falcons released to corroborate their own.[16] The Snow Raven ploy worked; the Cloud Cobras, Star Adders and Steel Vipers decided to punish the Diamond Sharks for daring to consider treating a Spheroid faction with the same level of honor as the children of Kerensky, and the three Clans began planning attacks against the Diamond Sharks. The Cloud Cobras needed time to rebuild after earlier combat actions, but both the Star Adders and Steel Vipers launched attacks on Diamond Shark holdings.[10]

The Star Adders swiftly attacked several Diamond Shark enclaves located on Barcella; the defending forces consisted of a few merchant-warriors who were unable to oppose the Star Adder forces for long, and the Star Adders gained a number of enclaves located conveniently close to Clan Ice Hellion enclaves on Barcella.[10]

Following the failure of a vote of no confidence in the Grand Council held on the 2nd of March 3070, Khan Sainze of Kindraa Sainze of Clan Fire Mandrill entered into an agreement with saKhan Boques of Clan Blood Spirit that saw Kindraa Sainze work with the Blood Spirits to seize a number of Clan Star Adder holdings on Huntress in exchange for half of the isorla the Blood Spirits had recently managed to capture on Albion. The arrangement was successful, and gained considerable prestige for both Kindraa Sainze and the Blood Spirits, although Clan Cloud Cobra soon assisted their allies by striking at the Sainze holdings on Albion, costing the Kindraa most of its reserve force and its holding, although not before the Kindraa had taken away absolutely as much isorla as could be crammed into their transport DropShips.[17]

The political gains made by Khan Sainze as a result of the cooperation between Kindraa Sainze and the Blood Spirits impressed the Diamond Sharks, who offered a proposition to the Kindraa. In exchange for several Jumpships and cargo DropShips, the Diamond Sharks offered Kindraa Sainze all of their remaining enclaves and storehouses on Barcella, holdings that included several cities - albeit small ones - and a Brian Cache full of Star League era combat machines along with the natural resources available on Barcella.[8]

Khan Sainze accepted, trading almost a third of the Kindraa's available transport assets to the Diamond Sharks for the Barcella holdings; he then used the contents of the Brian Cache to re-equip both the Kindraa Sainze forces and the forces from an allied Kindraa, Kindraa Mick-Kreese-Kline.[8]

In August 3071 allied forces from Clan Blood Spirit arrived on Barcella. saKhan Boques and Loremaster Bayle Campbell of the Blood Spirits had brought the Blood Spirit Omega Galaxy to Barcella to reinforce Kindraa Sainze, who were allied to the Blood Spirits and who had been assisting the Blood Spirits in attacks on Albion and Arcadia against the Star Adders, partly to distract the Star Adders from Blood Spirit attacks gains obtained from the Snow Ravens but also to raise the stance of Kindraa Sainze within Clan Fire Mandrill.[18]

The Blood Spirit forces assisted the Sainze Fifty-third Assault Cluster in the defense of their newly-acquired former Diamond Shark enclaves against an attack by Ice Hellion forces, although the valiant defense of the eastern gate of one of the enclaves by Loremaster Campbell's command Star held off a determined Ice Hellion assault, it also saw Campbell fall in battle.[18]

In 3072 the Clan Homeworlds were in a state of chaos as a result of a carefully organized series of events orchestrated by the group known as the Society. The Society crippled the bulk of the HPGs within the Homeworlds, and with the assistance of allies in the Dark Caste and others, seized a number of planets and enclaves. With most communications down, all of the Clans began to suffer from the effect of a lack of communication, inability to organize supplies, and predation at the hands of the Society and their allies, with the smaller Clans faring the worst. Clan Ice Hellion was in the process of an abortive invasion of the Jade Falcon Occupation Zone in the Inner Sphere at the time, leaving many of the enclaves with minimal defenses at best, and a number of the other Clans had noticed the lack of defenders. The Clans began raiding each other for the resources needed to sustain their own enclaves, and the Ice Hellions were easy prey.[11]

The Ice Hellions were in control of four enclaves on Barcella by this point; Clan Blood Spirit was desperate for resources and urgently needed to rebuild its touman, and the Blood Spirits used their forces on Barcella - augmented by some second-line units from their secret enclaves on the planet Honor in the Colleen system - to capture three of the four Ice Hellion enclaves on the planet. The Ice Hellion garrison on Barcella had been reduced to just a single Binary of forces, and the Ice Hellion enclaves hadn't had any communications from the Clan leadership in six months by the time of the Blood Spirit attack. The Ice Hellion warriors elected to defend their various stations through a series of wrestling matches, a bid the Blood Spirits accepted and won.[11]

The fourth and last Ice Hellion enclave on Barcella was named Glacier Rock, and it was also quickly annexed, but by forces from the Steel Vipers, rather than the Blood Spirits. Glacier Rock was the largest Ice Hellion city on Barcella, and the Steel Vipers decided to attempt to capture it after receiving news of the outcome of the Trial between the Blood Spirits and Ice Hellions at the other three enclaves. Following the capture of Glacier Rock the emboldened Steel Vipers decided to strike at one of the key Kindraa Mattila-Carrol industrial enclaves on Barcella.[11]

Molten was defended by the Sixty-first Firestorm Cluster, who mounted a determined defense against the Steel Vipers; half of the Sixty-first died in battle before the Mattila-Carrol forces retreated to Mockva, where they met up with the First Fire Assault Cluster. The Mattila-Carrol forces were keen to gain revenge, but were wary of the Steel Vipers, and decided to respond to the loss of the Molten enclave by attacking Reston, an enclave recently captured by the Blood Spirits' Seventy-ninth Blood Hussars. The resulting battle was brief but turned bloody after several storage tanks near the Ice Ferret manufacturing facility located at Reston exploded. Each side blamed the other - although it was possible that Dark Caste forces in hiding on the planet at the time were responsible for the explosions - and with both the Blood Spirits and the Fire Mandrills accusing each other of violating the spirit of the Trial, the two forces tore each other apart. The final victors were the Seventy-ninth, but the victory cost them more than a Trinary of troops.[11]

Matters grew steadily worse for the Blood Spirits when a Bandit Caste force launched an assault on the Blood Spirit enclaves on Barcella. The Bandits attacked in late October, and within a week had seized every enclave on the planet not controlled by the Steel Vipers. The Bandit Caste forces and the Steel Vipers then squared off against each other, with the Steel Vipers having no way to communicate back to their leaders the situation on Barcella due to the loss of their JumpShips to Bandit Caste aerospace fighters.[11]

Society cells continued to cause a problem within the Homeworlds, with secret enclaves being uncovered and destroyed in 3077 on Babylon, Barcella and Ironhold.[19]

Political Affiliation

3062

  • Clan Diamond Shark (47%)[4]
  • Clan Ice Hellion (38%)[4]
  • Clan Jade Falcon (15%)[4]

3067

3070

  • Clan Diamond Shark[10]
  • Clan Fire Mandrill (Kindraa Sainze)[8]
  • Clan Ice Hellion[5][9]
  • Clan Star Adder[10]
  • Clan Steel Viper[7]

3072

  • Clan Blood Spirit[11]
  • Clan Fire Mandrill (Kindraa Mattila-Carrol)[11]
  • Clan Ice Hellion[11]
  • Clan Steel Viper[11]
  • Dark Caste (from October)[11]

3075

  • Clan Cloud Cobra (10%)[12]
  • Clan Coyote (60%)[12]
  • Clan Goliath Scorpion (12%)[12]
  • Clan Star adder (18%)[12]

3085

  • Clan Coyote (100%)[13]

Military Deployment

3059

3061

Clan Diamond Shark

3067


Planetary Locations

  • Glacier Rock: large city.[11]
  • Mockva: enclave.[11]
  • Molten: industrial enclave.[11]
  • Reston: industrial enclave.[11]

Industrial Centers


Map Gallery

Nearby Systems

Closest 20 systems (6 within 60 light-years)
Distance in light years, closest systems first:
Londerholm 30.1 Vinton 35.1 Strato Domingo 37.9 Tamaron 45.0
Paxon 50.0 Kirin 59.1 Hoard 65.2 Grant's Station 74.7
Hellgate 83.2 Delios 91.7 Priori 92.6 Roche 95.3
York 101.0 Albion 107.5 Zara 111.8 Tiber 114.9
Gatekeeper 117.0 Brim 127.8 Marshall 133.6 Colleen 136.1

References

  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 The Wars of Reaving, p. 232: "Barcella"
  2. 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 The Clans: Warriors of Kerensky, p. 112: "Planetary info"
  3. Clan Homeworlds 3052 Poster (Kickstarter)
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 The Clans: Warriors of Kerensky, p. 114
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 Field Manual: Updates, p. 39
  6. The Wars of Reaving, p. 228: "Political Balance Table, 3067"
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 The Wars of Reaving, p. 46: "The Viper Strikes"
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 The Wars of Reaving, p. 50: "The Strange Rise of Kindraa Sainze"
  9. 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 The Wars of Reaving, p. 228: "Political balance Table, 3067"
  10. 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 The Wars of Reaving, p. 51: "Closing the Net"
  11. 11.00 11.01 11.02 11.03 11.04 11.05 11.06 11.07 11.08 11.09 11.10 11.11 11.12 11.13 11.14 11.15 11.16 11.17 11.18 The Wars of Reaving, p. 110: "The Hellion Fades"
  12. 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 The Wars of Reaving, p. 248: "Political balance Table, 3075"
  13. 13.0 13.1 The Wars of Reaving, p. 249: "Political Balance Table, 3085"
  14. The Clans: Warriors of Kerensky, p. 77: Diamond Sharks/Possessions - Information regarding ownership of Barcella.
  15. The Wars of Reaving, pp. 46–47: "Exodus Requiem"
  16. The Wars of Reaving, p. 50: "The Raven Absorption"
  17. The Wars of Reaving, p. 49: "The Measure of No Confidence"
  18. 18.0 18.1 The Wars of Reaving, p. 54: "Fuel For The Blood Feud"
  19. The Wars of Reaving, p. 164: "Clan Coyote"
  20. Field Manual: Crusader Clans, p. 155: "Crusader Clans Deployment Table"
  21. 21.0 21.1 21.2 21.3 Field Manual: Warden Clans, p. 162: "Warden Clans Deployment Table"
  22. Field Manual: Warden Clans, p. 163: "Warden Clans Deployment Table"
  23. Field Manual: Crusader Clans, p. 152: "Crusader Clans Deployment Table"
  24. Field Manual: Updates, pp. 72–73

Bibliography