Oberon Confederation

Property "Update Needed From" (as page type) with input value "Interstellar Players 3: Interstellar Expeditions]], First Succession War (Source Book), and [[Touring the Stars: Butte Hold" contains invalid characters or is incomplete and therefore can cause unexpected results during a query or annotation process.

Oberon Confederation
Faction Profile
Time period:	2775 – ca. 2795 3012 – 3049
Classification:	Periphery state
Controlled systems:	approx. 10
Capital world:	Oberon VI
Ruler title:	King
Military:	approx. 2 regiments, organized in planetary guards
Secret Service:	unknown

The Oberon Confederation was a Periphery state, located on the coreward rim of the Lyran Commonwealth near the Draconis Combine border. Originally a short-lived successor of the Rim Worlds Republic the Confederation appears again during the late Third Succession War as an outright Bandit Kingdom, which became increasingly respectable over the years, and by 3025 was grudgingly accepted as a minor Periphery power. The Confederation's technological level was above average (by periphery standards at least), and the population included many skilled scientists and technicians.

Besides the fairly well industrialized capital world of Oberon VI, which held a class B ComStar station with a functional Hyperpulse Generator, the Oberon Confederation included the worlds of Blackstone, Crellacor, Drask's Den, Ferris, Gustrell, Paulus Prime, Placida, Sigurd and The Rock, plus a varying collection of others most of the time.

The Confederation was vanquished by forces from Clan Wolf in 3049, who absorbed the worlds into their occupation zone.

History

The Rim Worlds Republic

The first nation to bear the name of the Oberon Confederation was a small, three-world state consisting of the worlds of Oberon VI, Crellacor and Sigurd; born in the aftermath of the 2773-2775 war between the Lyran Commonwealth and the Rim Worlds Republic, the original Oberon Confederation kept the Republic nationalist cause alive for almost two decades, before succumbing to a combination of isolation, repeated bandit raids and breakdowns in irreplaceable technology. While settlements survived on the three worlds as isolated towns and villages despite the dwindling level of technology available on each, the Oberon Confederation ceased to exist in all but name.

Inception of the Oberon pirates

The first Colonel Hendrik Grimm was a Lyran Commonwealth officer in command of the 65th Lyran Regulars regiment. Believing that the Lyran military high command had left them to die after the unit was battered by Free Worlds League troops on Graham IV, the surviving members deserted the Commonwealth and made for the Periphery, eventually settling on the temperate world of Oberon VI around the year 2855. Soon after, many deserting Inner Sphere soldiers who were weary with the endless warfare traveled to Oberon in search of an alternative.

During its early years, the people of the Oberon state conducted pirate raids against both the Lyran Commonwealth and the Draconis Combine, usually in search of spare 'Mech parts and electronics. For the most part, however, the descendants of Hendrik Grimm concerned themselves with the welfare of their subjects rather than with plunder for its own sake.

The Jolly Roger Affair

Starting in 3001, an influx of war materials from an unknown source started to trickle into the general periphery area beyond the Steiner and Kurita realms. During this time, several new bandit kingdoms sprung up, some of them operating from hitherto unknown bases or forgotten Star League sites. Pirate activity quickly soared to new heights all around Oberon until events calmed down somewhat after 3004; although no detailed data is available on how the Oberon pirates fared in these times it is safe to assume that they were in the thick of it, and emerged stronger.

Inception of the Oberon Confederation

The Oberon Confederation was founded as a mockery of a state by the grandfather of Hendrik Grimm III in 3012. Piracy and slavery continued unabated. It was still a pirate kingdom and not by any means a stable state, frequently gaining and losing worlds through conquests or shifting alliances. However, most of these were insignificant worlds with only a few thousand inhabitants and little if any industry; their value was negligible compared to Oberon VI and the aforementioned core of the confederation, and gaining or losing them had little consequence.

Unlike most other bandit kingdoms, the Oberon Confederation was largely self-sufficient. Most importantly, it possessed several water-rich planets besides the electronics industry on Oberon VI, making it independent from raiding its neighbors.

The rule of Hendrik Grimm III

Beginning in 3012, Hendrik Grimm III slowly changed the social and political reality of the Oberon Confederation he ruled. He attempted, largely successful, to turn his realm into an increasingly stable and diversified state. Where Grimm's grandfather had founded the state as a mockery of a government, and his father had simply continued the family business of brutality, King Hendrik III took the duties of his office much more seriously.

On a social level, a limited form of democracy brought about an educational system for the young, training facilities for MechWarriors, technicians, and even a modest pension plan for officers and enlisted personnel who have served the Confederation.

Instead of sponsoring pirate raids, Hendrik III chose to rent out his troops as mercenaries to the highest bidder. This gave the Oberon Confederation a veil of legitimacy, although slavery and piracy apparently still continued behind the scenes. Apparently seeking respectability through standard interstellar trade, Grimm forbade his forces to raid the nearby Elysian Fields. He managed to create cordial relations with the Elysian worlds and several trade and territorial agreements were made, the most important of which offered Grimm's navy docking rights in return for military protection against other Bandit Kingdoms in the area.

Tacitly recognizing the utility of stability on their borders, representatives from both House Steiner and House Kurita approached Hendrik III with offers of formal alliance. However Grimm was reluctant to commit himself one way or the other, remaining cautiously neutral, and probably playing one Successor House against the other.

By 3025 Hendrik Grimm III was leading a loose coalition of 12 other former bandit kingdoms. Relations with the Elysian Fields continued to grow and a provincial unification between the two states - similar to that which led to the foundation of the Free Worlds League and Capellan Confederation seven centuries ago - became a real possibility.

Redjack Ryan

The infamous Redjack Ryan was a renegade from the Oberon Confederation. He made his first appearance in the Inner Sphere as a lieutenant commanding one of Hendrik III's mercenary units. In 3017 his unit was hired out to occupy or garrison the world of Fianna, which at the time was contested between the Lyran Commonwealth and the Free Worlds League. Ryan and his men wrought utter destruction on the world including, among other atrocities, the destruction of a fusion power plant which led to contamination of the world's atmosphere. Before either Hendrik III or House Marik could assemble a force to deal with him, he fled and established himself as pirate leader on the world of Butte Hold, adjacent to the Oberon Confederation.

Maria Morgraine

In the wake of Ryan's desertion, his lover Maria Morgraine, also a lieutenant in Hendrik III's forces, also broke away from the Oberon Confederation in 3021 and founded yet another ministate, Morgraine's Valkyrate which she ruled from the capital world of Gotterdammerung. Between 3021 and 3023 she extended her control over five ice worlds.

Trellwan

Mercenary forces from the Oberon Confederation, including Sigurd native Lori Kalmar, carried out the dishonorable sneak attack that destroyed Carlyle's Commandos on Trellwan in 3024. In this action, the Oberon mercenaries pretended to have been hired by the Lyran Commonwealth but actually acted on orders from Duke Hassid Ricol, the infamous Red Duke from the Draconis Combine, and attacked their Lyran employers upon arriving to ostensibly reinforce the garrison.

A report regarding this particular instance suggests that the troops were hired through a corrupt commander and not through Hendrik III himself; however, the source of this information (BattleTechnology#Issue 0102), while official, is not considered canon anymore.

The Greater Valkyrate

In 3028 Redjack Ryan and Maria Morgraine would marry and merge their domains to create the Greater Valkyrate, a Periphery power strong enough to curb the Oberon Confederation. Reacting to this new threat, the Oberon Confederation built up its military beginning around 3035. Instead of attacking Butte Hold, however, Oberon began raiding the Federated Commonwealth, Rasalhague, and even the Draconis Combine.

Blackout

In 3045, all contact was lost with Oberon VI as well as the Elysian Fields, Oberon's protectorate, and nearby Santander V, but that was not very unusual in this unstable region and thought to be a consequence of an internal coup, or simply an equipment failure.

The Clan invasion

In 3049, the worlds of the Oberon Confederation were quickly overrun by the Clan invasion. Forces from Clan Wolf defeated the defenders in short order, their technology ahead of the defenders by centuries. Because of the Hyperpulse Generator blackout, only rumors of the invasion reached the Inner Sphere at first, barely ahead of the invasion. Contact with the periphery region of the Oberon Confederation had not yet been re-established since the blackout when the Clan invasion struck.

In the same year, the Kell Hounds conducted a punitive raid against Kenny Ryan's pirates on the asteroid Sisyphus's Lament in the Oberon Confederation system of The Rock. They witnessed the pirates being brutally defeated by an unknown third party, then came under attack themselves. Phelan Kell ordered the Hounds to withdraw but his Wolfhound was destroyed and he was thought killed (in fact he was captured and made a Bondsman by Clan Wolf). The remaining Kell Hounds aborted their mission and fled from the superior unknown enemy, providing their employers with first-hand information about the invaders where previously only sketchy rumors had been known and widely dismissed as Periphery gossip.

Also in the Oberon Confederation territory, a small group of mercenaries and Oberon bandits managed to escape from Clan captivity during the first wave of attack in the Leopard-class dropship "FireStalion" [sic] and flee to the Free Rasalhague Republic, where the unlucky Oberon crew was summarily executed for piracy. (It should be noted that the source of this particular information, MechWarrior II: Mercenaries, is of doubtful canonicity.)

Legacy

Given the Clan attitude towards pirates, it seems likely that they did not only raid or occupy the Oberon Confederation but conquered it, deliberately terminating its existence as a political entity. Hendrik Grimm III reputedly died by his own hand when his Oberon Guards were defeated, choosing suicide instead of surrender. Other sources claim Grimm and his men were captured and executed by the Clan invaders.

As of 3054, a ComStar report lists a unit called the "Oberon Guards (Disarmed by Clans)" as an independent regular military unit based on Oberon VI, with "Reliable" loyalty and under the command of General Johann Grimm. Although the unit is probably only a planetary militia used to garrison the planet for the Clans, the report features the insignia of the Oberon Confederation (a lizard's eye).

One company of Oberon 'Mechs had been on a raiding mission abroad when the Clans invaded. By 3057, this homeless unit had joined the ranks of Stefan Amaris VII in his bid for power. Most of their 'Mechs were destroyed by Duncan's Demons in the final battles on New St. Andrews between 11 and 13 July 3057. Subsequent mop-up operations carried out with extreme prejudice by the Knights of the Inner Sphere suggest the former Oberon unit was obliterated.

Bibliography

• BattleTech 2nd Edition boardgame rulebook
• Handbook: Major Periphery States
• House Steiner (sourcebook), p. 58 (pdf file version)
• The Periphery (sourcebook), p. 148-149
• The Periphery, 2nd Edition (sourcebook), p. 79
• Objective Raids, p. 49
• 20 Year Update, p. 76
• Star Lord (novel), p. 276
• BattleTechnology#Issue 0102
• MechWarrior II: Mercenaries