Mica Majority

Overview

The Mica Majority is an independent star system located in the Periphery between the Federated Suns and the Outworlds Alliance. It consists of three colonized planets, which survive off of their relatively rich mineral fields. The system also serves as a substantial trade hub, thanks to the large station built at its jump point when the system served as a Draconis prison colony.

History

Founding

The Micanos system was originally colonised by the Draconis Combine in the second half of the twenty-sixth century to take advantage of the rich mineral deposits on three of the worlds within the system. The Combine established expensive environmental domes on the worlds to support the worker population, and the revenues from the mining quickly exceeded the cost of setting up the operation in the first place, even with the cost of fabricating and installing the domes.

The Draconis Combine used various enemies of the state as workers in the mine, with those enemies most commonly being protestors and political prisoners. Even with the domes, conditions in the mines were harsh, and within the first decade of operation more than half the workforce was rumoured to have died.

Succession Wars

The cost of running entire worlds as prisons mounted during the chaos of the Succession Wars, and the Draconis Combine began pulling out of their various forced mining concerns; this included the Micanos system, which found itself suddenly independent. The remoteness of the Micanos system and the harsh environment actually served as viable forms of defense and protection for the inhabitants, and the population continued to survive where many of their contemporaries across the Inner Sphere died.

With so many political prisoners and protestors amongst the workforce, the various planets found themselves possessed of a largely well-educated workforce who had established a functioning social order, and the newly-formed Mica Majority returned to operating the mines, with the huge station located at the system zenith jump point continuing to serve as a hub for the trade convoys that continued to move in and out of the system. The mining operations would become steadily more difficult and dangerous over time, as the more easily worked lodes and veins had already been exhausted during the Combine administration; while the mining operations were still viable, the inhabitants were paying an ever-increasing cost in terms of both resources and lives to keep up their trading operations.

In the 3030s the Majority was briefly conquered by bandits from the Tortuga Dominions, but Lady Death and her forces stayed for less than a month; there was simply nothing of worth in the system to make a continued occupation worthwhile.

By the 3060s the majority of the original domes had been converted for agriculture, growing just enough food to support the local population, and the mining operations had all moved to the system's asteroid belt, with output being a fraction of that maintained during the early years of operation. The economy of the Majority had shifted; the huge station floating at the zenith point had become a waystation for those travelling in the Periphery, with bazaars, tarverns, brothels, shops and all the other establishments needed to encourage travellers to stop a while.

The Mica Majority had also experienced an increasing tourism trade, of a nature that rather baffled the original inhabitants; rich inhabitants of the Inner Sphere had begun paying to come and work in the mines as a kind of thrill-seeking experience or adventure holiday. Although somewhat bemused, the locals were only too happy to take the Spheroid's money and subject them to a few weeks of the same treatment miners had experienced under the Combine occupation. The FedCom Civil War had a negative effect on the tourism trade in the 3060s, but the Mica Majority began exploiting a nearby system in 3064 with a resulting boost in trade of five hundred precent by 3067.

The Jihad

With the rise of Clan Snow Raven in and around the Outworlds Alliance, the Mica Majority was keeping a low profile in the closing years of the Jihad. With inexplicable numbers of tourists continuing to visit the Majority, tourism and the export of mineral ores remained the main contributors to the local economy by the beginning of the 3080s. While the veteran Larsen's Loners remained employed by the Mica Majority for defensive purposes, the five lances of 'Mechs owned by the Loners would offer little resistance against a determined attack from the Ravens.

In addition to more traditional ores, the Mica jump station has become a hub for small scale traders, lostech prospectors, and drifters of all kinds. Among this varied band, Clan Diamond Shark representatives have been spotted. It is speculated that they may want to add the Mica station to their Periphery trade network in order to take advantage of the recent mineral finds in a nearby system, which have quintupled the Majority's trading profits since 3064.

Dark Age

The population of the Mica Majority became more isolationist and libertarian in the decades after the Jihad. Bandit raids damaged the sun shield around Mica II and hundreds died in 3096. Mica V and Mica VII suffered similar attacks and equipment failures in 3097. Eventually the government couldn't collect taxes, and collapsed completely in 3111. Eventually a new government was created by mining concerns, and taxes were paid by taking a percentage of raw materials mined. These taxes were then sold and the funds used to prop up the Mica Military and keep a few emergency engineering teams ready. When the government fell in 3111, the citizens brigades also disbanded. The Majority Military in 3145 is entirely handled by mercenary forces. Larson's Loners stationed an overstrength battalion on each of the Majority's worlds in 3145, primarily based around the mining and terraforming equipment.

Planetary Data

• Colonized Planets: Mica II, V, VII
• Star Type: K3V
• Positions in System: 2, 5, 7
• Time to Jump Point: 4.3, 4.6, 5.1 days
• Recharging Station: Zenith
• HPG Class Type: B

Historical Maps

• 

  Mica Majority as at 3079

• 

  Mica Majority as at 3130

Bibliography

• Field Manual: 3145
• Field Manual: Periphery
• Field Manual: Updates
• Field Report: Periphery
• Handbook: Major Periphery States
• Map of the Inner Sphere 3130
• The Periphery (sourcebook)