Galatea

This article is undergoing revision as part of Project: Planets, a collaborative effort to improve BattleTechWiki's coverage of planets and systems. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can add your name to the list of volunteers.

This article has completed Phase 5 of the Overhaul effort.

Property "Update Needed From" (as page type) with input value "FedCom Civil War (sourcebook)]], [[Star Lord (novel)" contains invalid characters or is incomplete and therefore can cause unexpected results during a query or annotation process. Note: X and Y are coordinates (light years on XY plane) relative to Terra at (0, 0)

Galatea
← 3135 3151
240px Galatea nearby systems (Map Legend)
System Information
X:Y Coordinates	-53.77 : 34.07
Spectral class	F8II
Recharge time	179 hours
Recharge station(s)	Zenith
Planet(s)	8

The Galatea system was home to at least one habitable world, Galatea VI, and as at 3145 was the administrative capital of the Galatean League.

System Description

The Galatea system is located near the Summer and Syrma systems and consists of eight planets orbiting a class F8II primary. During the Thirty-first century a recharge station was in place at the system zenith jump point.

System History

The Galatea system was colonised by the Terran Alliance in 2250.

Galatea VI

Galatea VI - more commonly known simply as Galatea - is the sixth planet in the system and has a single moon named Galatea Minor.

Planetary History

Early History

The original settlers on Galatea were surprised to discover the primitive local ecosystem in place, dominated by the Galatean Mole, but attempts to determine if a more complex ecosystem existed underground were delayed by the arrival of a second wave of settlers. The second wave of settlers were drawn from a mix of religious sects with an anti-technology focus, looking to avoid the increasingly technology-dependent lifestyles common to the Terran Alliance. Drawn predominantly from the Amish, Native American and Central African populations of Terra, the new colonists managed to establish a thriving colony that was largely free of technology, although some would refer to them as Luddites.

The settlers had made great progress in taming the world by the time the Terran Hegemony chose to annex it in 2337; Galatea was one of the worlds targeted in the third of the "campaigns of persuasion" launched Director-General James McKenna to expand the Hegemony's holdings, although when the third campaign began in 2333, it was the first planetary assault in which James McKenna's son, Konrad McKenna, commanded both the black water naval forces and the ground forces. Konrad McKenna didn't bother with the in-depth reconnaissance that had been a staple of previous campaigns by the Hegemony Armed Forces, anticipating little resistance from the population given their stance against technology. This proved a costly misjudgement; the locals were more than willing to embrace simple slug-throwing weaponry when invaded, and had intimate knowledge of the local terrain; the net result was a year-long battle that finally saw the Hegemony victorious in late 2337 or early 2338, after taking heavy casualties.

Star League Era

Galatea became a jointly-administered world during the Star League era, and the Star League Defense Force developed it as a military training ground. SLDF developments included the sprawling Galaport spaceport, while the Terran Hegemony encouraged mining and refining companies to invest in Galatea as it opened up the mineral resources to commercial exploitation. The naturalist segment of the population found itself increasingly sidelined, and the planetary economy became dependent upon the Star League. Lightly industrialised prior to the Reunification War, Galatea's role as a key supply point for SLDF and Free Worlds League Military units deployed during the War played a significant part in the early industrialization of Galatea.

Amaris Civil War

During the Amaris Civil War Galatea became a battleground between the Amaris Empire Armed Forces and the SLDF, with the naturalist population often caught in the crossfire. The sundering of the Star League left Galatea in a shambles.

Succession Wars

The majority of the anti-technology elements of the Galatean population gradually relocated during the Succession Wars, moving them settlements to the southern hemisphere and reestablishing their roots there. The northern hemisphere of the planet, which had been subject to greater industrial development, struggled to survive on an economy based on exporting minerals and metals and a small amount of off-world trade.

Galatea began to prosper when a clever treaty was negotiated with ComStar, via which the planetary government managed to establish Galatea as the center of the mercenary trade. The influx of trade led to a boom in the economy that almost matched the heights reached during the Star League era, although it also resulted in a significant increase in crime. The aftermath of the Fourth Succession War caused the economy to plummet again, however, as the establishment of Outreach as a new mercenary trade hub administered by Wolf's Dragoons pulled away the majority of Galatea's trade. The crime rate on Galatea soared; while there were still mercenaries working from Galatea, the focus on Outreach as the hub of the "honorable" element of the mercenary trade led to Galatea becoming the hub for the less savory elements of the mercenary community, and crime spiked as an inevitable consequence.

FedCom Civil War

During the period immediately before the FedCom Civil War, Galatea's economy began to improve slowly as the demand for mercenaries steadily increased, but the Civil War devastated Galatea. Thousands of innocent people were killed as the battle for control of Galatea descended into a planet-wide brawl between BattleMech gangs; Group W managed to restore order to much of Galatea, but not before the planet had been left in a state only marginally better than it had been in after the Amaris Civil War three centuries before.

The Jihad

While Outreach had drawn much of the mercenary trade away from Galatea, the Blakist-backed mercenary uprising on Outreach, followed by the extensive bombardment and devastation of the planet led to the Allied Mercenary Command relocating their hiring business to Galatea. Although the mercenary trade was being rocked by the chaos of the Jihad and by the manner in which the Blakists used mercenaries as catspaws to perform war crimes, the regeneration of Galatea as a mercenary hiring hub saw the world begin to become more prosperous once again.

A Word of Blake force consisting of the Eleventh Division, Forty-seventh Shadow Division, Bullard's Armored Cavalry, the Gray Ghosts and the Martian Cuirassiers disguised themselves as the Northwind Highlanders to allow them to assault Galatea in October 3072, quickly occupying Galatean City and the surrounding areas. While the Eleventh had landed at Galaport initially and secured a safe landing zone for the Blakist mercenary commands, the Forty-seventh Shadow Division had landed in a series of nearly suicidal hot-drops within Galatea City, intent on using intelligence already gathered to hit key defense and security points as well as decapitating various mercenary units with headhunting attacks. One of the casualties of the Blakist assault was the mercenary command known as Harlock's Warriors, who had retreated to Galatea after taking damage from incidents where the Warriors had ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time more than once. The occupation of Galatea drove much of the remaining mercenary trade to other locations, such as the splinter states within the former Free Worlds League region.

The Blakists maintained control of Galatean City, and during their regime manymembers of the MRBC were arrested, but between 3072 and 3075 Galatea became a hotbed of resistance revolving around the mercenary groups who went to ground and formed active resistance groups, although they were unable to force the Blakists off Galatea.

The first major attempt to liberate Galatea occured in early November 3075 when allied forces under the command of Devlin Stone and led by the Com Guard First Army attempted to force the Eleventh Word of Blake Militia off the planet. Operating alongside the First Army was the Com Guard Fourth Army and the First Skye Jaegers.

The initial allied landings, performed by the Seventh-ninth and 103rd Divisions with support from the Skye Jaegers seemed to go well. It took the Coalition forces twelve hours to capture Galaport, and a week to capture Galatea City. The Blakist forces put up a dogged resistance, and while the initial allied landings were successful, the campaign soon bogged down.

The Eleventh was able to regroup, ready to face attacks from the Seventh-ninth Division thanks to how protracted the fighting for control of Galatean City was, with heavy house-to-house fighting throughout the city. The Skye Jaegers attempted to move to support Precentor Lousia Draga and the Seventy-ninth, but encountered a new Blakist combat vehicle, the Bolla Stealth Tank, which blocked the Jaegers' efforts to reinforce the Com Guards.

The Com Guard 103rd Division arrived to reinforce the allied forces just in time, with Precentor Styven Kimmelry and his troops preventing the invasion from stalling. Even after the allied forces had managed to push the Eleventh out of Galatean City the Blakists put up a fanatical resistance, using various prepared positions and holding key strategic locations that bogged down the coalition advance. Just as the Blakists had made the mistake of assuming that control of Galatea City equated to control of the planet - an easy assumption to make, given that the majority of the planetary population lived within a hundred kilometers of Galatea City - the legacy of Galatea's history as an SLDF training ground worked against the Coalition forces. Just like the mercenary resistance before them, the Blakists took advantage of the proving grounds, concealed roadways, bunkers and other features left behind by the SLDF to take to the countryside and mount their own resistance effort, coordinated from bases in two Star League forts designated Paphos and Pygmalion. The Eleventh fought a hit-and-run campaign, punctuated with bouts of terrorism perpetrated by their Manei Domini troops. Stone had underestimated the ability of the Blakists to defend Galatea, based on the successes made in the opening weeks of the campaign, and had withdrawn a large portion of the allied forces - particularly aerospace forces - in anticipation of Galatea quickly returning to Lyran control.

In December 3075 the Blakists successfully killed Precentor Kimmelry in a headhunter attack, leaving Precentor Draga in overall command of the coalition forces; with the allied coalition tied down into fighting the main Blakist strengths at Paphos and Pygmalion, Draga responded by calling for additional reinforcements. Arch-Duke Morgan Kell responded by deploying two mercenary units - the Knights of St. Cameron and the Tooth of Ymir - to reinforce the allied forces. Stone also sent additional forces, and soon Clan Wolf's Delta Galaxy, Stone's Lament and the Battle Corps Legion were also embroiled in the fighting. Having spent 3075 performing small garrison contracts, the mercenary command Gannon's Cannons also found themselves under contract to the coalition and deployed to Galatea, with the Cannons joining with elements of the Com Guard to raid a bunker in Cone City on the 2nd of January 3076, securing valuable intelligence and information on Blakists strengths, operations and locations.

Taking advantage of the reinforcements, Draga pulled the Seventy-ninth away from Paphos, leaving the Skye Jaegers to block attempts by the Blakists there to break out or reinforce their compatriots at Pygmalion; Draga then led the Seventy-ninth and both mercenary units in an extended, three-day attack on the Blakists at Pygmalion, which represented the largest single group of Blakist forces left on Galatea. When the allied coalition finally cracked the defenses and began pouring into Blakist lines, the defenders tried to break out and link up with the force at Paphos, but were blocked and crushed by the coalition forces. This prompted the Paphos contingent to break for their DropShips, fleeing and leaving Galatea to the allied coalition. The remains of the Eleventh Division managed to escape, but had taken enough damage that the Division couldn't muster a single full Level III. They fared better than Bullard's Armored Cavalry and Gray's Ghosts, who were utterly destroyed during the battle for Galatea. With the seige of Pygmalion broken, Coalition mercenary forces including the Battle Corps Legion moved to reinforce the Skye Jaegers at Paphos, knowing that the Blakist forces would likely make a break for concealed DropShips somewhere on Galatea. The Coalition forces managed to identify where the Blakists were retreating as they broke away from Paphos, and hounded them; by the time the surviving Blakist elements made it to their DropShips, hidden at a remote training base, they numbered just two damaged Level IIIs, even after integrating elements of their mercenary forces.

Galatea reopened for business in February 3076; and the mercenary commands who had participated in the liberation of the planet received both rewards and discounts on services across the planet. The liberation of Galatea was a valuable success for the Coalition, as Stone had made it a priority target to allow it to function as a mercenary clearing house again, allowing the Coalition to recruit more mercenary commands.

Dark Age

With millions dead, and Galatea City and Galaport left in ruins along with eighty percent of the settlements in the northern hemisphere, Galatea's shell-shocked population welcomed incorporation into the Republic of the Sphere, which restored peace and order to the planet. The Republic spent a considerable amount of effort rebuilding both Galatea City and Galaport, but it took the better part of four decades for work to be completed. During the Dark Age Interstellar Expeditions continued to maintain their mercenary outreach programme from a satellite location on Galatea. A decade after the Jihad, the director of the Interstellar Expeditions mercenary hall on Galatea was Maxwell Giordano, a retired AFFC leftenant with experience of serving in a number of commands, including the Fifth FedCom RCT. An experienced mercenary liaison, Giordano was responsible for securing contracts with IE for dozens of small mercenary units, providing security to numerous IE operations.

The various dune buggies and cross-country bikes manufactured on Galatea had long been popular with mercenary forces, who would often refit them or embody field modifications; the Republic Armed Forces also made use of these same buggies and bikes after the founding of the Republic of the Sphere, with local units such as the Galatean Support Wheels becoming known in the mid-3080s as possibly the best example of a mechanised machine-gun infantry platoon anywhere in the RAF.

In the early 3140s the bulk of Hansen's Roughriders were stationed on Galatea; when Galatea was raided in late 3141, the Roughriders' infantry forces were forced into heavy combat to protect the mercenaries' command and control post located in Galatea city. As the raiders tried to reach their target, the Cardinal Transports that the Roughriders had bought in considerable numbers from Clan Sea Fox in previous years came into play; by ferrying the Roughriders limited infantry forces from conflict to conflict, they increased the effectiveness of the infantry dramatically. One particularly notable Roughriders pilot, Lieutenant Bianca Robertson, and her Cardinal - aptly named Vomit Comet - performed more than 140 troop deployments as well as engaging and destroying three enemy 'Mechs, including a Hollander II.

Duchess Tara Campbell was nearly captured by forces from Clan Jade Falcon on Galatea in 3144; the Duchess had been cut off by Jade Falcon Elementals on two flanks during a particularly brutal battle outside Galatean City when a scratch battalion of Republic Remnant forces consisting largely of battle armor and JI2A1 Attack APCs surprised the Jade Falcons. Striking from the Falcons' rear, the Republic Remnant forces killed a number of Elementals using tandem-charge missiles - one noted gunner on a JI2A1, Sergeant Bryan Charles accounted for three Falcon Elementals single-handedly - before launching a savage battlesuit-to-battelsuit clash that gave the Duchess time to escape. The remaining Republic Remnant forces on Galatea, including Sergeant Charles and the survivors from his unit, all subsequently left Galatea at the request of the newly-formed Galatean League.

Political Affiliation

• 2250 - Terran Alliance
• 2271 - Inhabited world
• 2337 - Independent world
• 2338 - Terran Hegemony
• 2596 - Lyran Commonwealth
• 2750 - Lyran Commonwealth
• 2765 - Lyran Commonwealth
• 2767 - Amaris Empire
• 2771 - Amaris Empire
• 2772 - Terran Hegemony (from September)
• 2782 - Terran Hegemony
• 2783 - Lyran Commonwealth
• 2786 - Lyran Commonwealth
• 2822 - Lyran Commonwealth
• 2864 - Lyran Commonwealth
• 3007 - Draconis Combine
• 3022 - Lyran Commonwealth
• 3025 - Lyran Commonwealth
• 3030 - Lyran Commonwealth
• 3040 - Federated Commonwealth
• 3050 - Federated Commonwealth
• 3052 - Federated Commonwealth
• 3057 - Lyran Alliance
• 3063 - Lyran Alliance
• 3067 - Lyran Alliance
• 3072 - Word of Blake Protectorate (from November)
• 3075 - Word of Blake Protectorate
• 3076 - Lyran Alliance (from February)
• 3081 - Republic of the Sphere
• 3085 - Republic of the Sphere
• 3130 - Republic of the Sphere
• 3134 - Republic of the Sphere
• 3135 - Independent world
• 3145 - Galatean League

Planetary Rulers

3067

• Duke David Nowakowski

3076

• Duke David Nowakowski

3130

• Planetary Governor Bradford Nowakowski
• Planetary Legate Celine Richtofen

Military Deployment

2786

• Smithson's Chinese Bandits

3067

• Devil's Brigade (Battalion)
• First New Hessen Irregulars
• Second New Hessen Irregulars
• Third New Hessen Irregulars
• Brock's Buccaneers
• Devil's Brigade
• HeavyHell Raisers (Battalion)
• Raging Horde (1 Cluster)
• Reed's Brew (Battalion)
• Rubinsky's Renegades (1.5 Lances)
• Sathen's Snipers
• Wannamaker's Widowmakers

3072

• Martian Cuirassiers
• Bullard's Armored Cavalry
• Gray's Ghosts

3145

• Hansen's Roughriders

Geography

Galatea has a single continental land mass named Lubbocks, which encloses three landlocked oceans - the Amersia Sea, located in the northern polar region, and the Kileri and Paradise Oceans in the southern hemisphere. Galatea has a largely barren environment, particularly in the equatorial and tropical zones, and even outside these regions much of the soil has been sterilized by the ultraviolet radiation from the system primary. Despite these conditions there is a primitive native ecosystem on the surface of Galatea that predates human habitation, located primarily along the banks of the rivers that flow from the various oceans. A much more advanced ecosystem exists beneath the surface of Galatea, located around the subterranean oases discovered underground.

Planetary Locations

• Cone City: a city on Galatea.
• Galatea: the planetary capital city.
• Galaport: the planetary spaceport, located north of Galatea.
• Paphos: a Star League-era fort and site of a major battle during the Jihad.
• Pygmalion: a Star League-era fort and site of a major battle during the Jihad.

Industrial Centers

• Dynamic Ordnance and Ammunition Corp

Nearby Systems

Systems within 60 light-years (distance in light years) Closest systems first:
Syrma	6.5	Summer	12.3	Mizar	13.5	Zebebelgenubi	13.5
Skye	17.6	Menkent	19.1	Cor Caroli	20.5	Alioth	20.8
Alkalurops	21.0	Nusakan	21.1	Alcor	21.6	Haddings	22.4
Alphecca	28.8	Zollikofen	28.9	Skondia	30.7	Lyons	31.1
Kochab	31.9	Muphrid	32.4	Milton	33.0	Lipton	34.1
Alchiba	35.2	Unukalhai	36.5	Pacifica (Chara)	37.0	Ko	37.0
Afleir	37.1	Rocky	38.3	Denebola	39.1	Thorin	40.0
Gacrux	40.2	Seginus	40.5	Zavijava	40.8	Phecda	41.2
Atria	41.6	Alkaid	42.3	Carsphairn	42.7	Wyatt	44.5
La Blon	44.6	Zosma	44.6	Dromini VI	45.9	Oliver	46.6
Sabik	47.1	Vindemiatrix	47.3	Yorii	47.6	Glengarry	48.7
Alula Australis	48.7	Carnwath	49.2	Wing	49.8	Callison	49.9
Marcus	49.9	Laiaka	51.0	Imbros III	51.7	Tau Ceti (New Earth)	51.7
Lone Star	51.8	Shiloh	52.0	Devil's Rock	52.4	Castor	52.5
Dubhe	52.9	Killbourn	53.0	Graham IV	53.8	Chertan	53.9
Pollux	54.4	Balkan	55.1	Zaniah	55.5	Alhena	56.4
Gladius	56.6	Ryde	58.3	Asta	58.5	Alrakis	58.6
New Dallas	59.5	Dyev	59.8	Rigil Kentarus	59.9

Bibliography

• Dark Age: Republic Worlds (3130)
• Era Report: 2750
• Era Report: 3052
• Era Report: 3062
• Era Report: 3145
• Field Manual: 3085
• Field Manual: 3145
• First Succession War
• Handbook: House Kurita
• Handbook: House Marik
• Handbook: House Steiner
• Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 1
• Historical: Reunification War
• Historical: War of 3039
• House Kurita (The Draconis Combine)
• Interstellar Players 3: Interstellar Expeditions
• Jihad: Final Reckoning
• Jihad Hot Spots: 3076
• Jihad Hot Spots: Terra
• Jihad Secrets: The Blake Documents
• Map of the Inner Sphere 3130
• Masters and Minions: The StarCorps Dossiers
• Mercenaries Supplemental
• Mercenaries Supplemental II
• Technical Readout: 3085 Supplemental
• Technical Readout: 3145 Federated Suns
• Technical Readout: 3145 Mercenaries
• Total Chaos