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Star's End

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Planetary Flag of Star's End
File:Star's End Neighbors.png
225px

(References to Star's End)

Note: X and Y are coordinates (light years on XY plane) relative to Terra at (0, 0)

X: -83.18 Y: 435.25[e]


The Star's End system is renowned for its asteroid belts that make navigation in the system extremely hazardous without intimate knowledge of the system. It has only one planetary body, Novo Cressidas, and several large asteroids.

A former mining system, Star's End is particularly well-known for being the system where First Lord Simon Cameron died in a mysterious accident, and for being a pirate haven with a JumpShip yard by the 31st century. It resisted the Clans longer than any other world in the invasion corridor before being conquered.

System Data[1]

  • Star Type (Recharge Time): M5V (206 hours)
  • Position in System: 3
  • Time to Jump Point: 2.44 days
  • Number of Satellites: 0 (Asteroid Ring)
  • Surface Gravity: 0.03 or less (Asteroid Ring)
  • Recharging Station: None
  • HPG Class: A (Clan)

Novo Cressidas

  • Surface Gravity: 0.75
  • Atmosphere Pressure: Vacuum (asteroids; possibly a breathable atmosphere on Novo Cressidas, see below)
  • Equatorial Temperature: −270.15 °C (asteroids; unknown for Novo Cressidas)
  • Surface Water Coverage: 0 percent (Asteroid Ring)/15 percent (Novo Cressidas)
  • Highest Native Life: 30%, Mammal[2]

Era Specific Data

3076[1]

  • Population: 55,000
  • Tech Level USIIR: A-B-D-C-F

Garrisoning Military Force

3079

Owner History

History

Mining Outpost

The inhospitable asteroid system of Star's End was originally settled by miners looking to exploit rich sources of germanium and other precious metals. The Lyran Commonwealth and the Rim Worlds Republic spent many years arguing over who had the rights to the system. It was one of the systems targetted by Maxwell Rowe during his efforts to build up the Rim Worlds Republic, beginning in 2330; Rowe began by negotiating a series of trade and barter pacts with worlds like Star's End, carefully avoiding any suggestions of a military alliance, defensive or otherwise. He added offers of social and technological favours including access to new Rim Worlds Republic university facilities over time, and through guile and slow but steady progress persuaded the natives of Star's End to join the Republic.[4]

After the Reunification War, Star's End was settled by armed refugees from the Rim Worlds Republic. They took to a predatory lifestyle, executing a steady stream of scavenger raids against the Lyran Commonwealth and Draconis Combine alike and reforming into a pirate society.[19]

Pirate Haven

At the fall of the Star League, the mineral veins played out. With nothing to keep them there, most of the residents left, leaving only the Belt Pirates. These pirates rapidly discovered that their livelihood depended on their ability to maintain their fleets. As a result, Star's End became one of the few places that could actually repair and even assemble DropShips and JumpShips. This was helped by the discovery of significant Germanium deposits in the mid-2800s under Novo Cressidas' northern ice cap, leading to rumors about the capability to construct Kearny-Fuchida Drive cores.[19]

Both the Lyran Commonwealth and Draconis Combine used the Belt Pirates' facilities during the Succession Wars to service their own ships.[1][19] Efforts to capture the system or drive out the pirates failed, mostly because the vast asteroid belts in the system were converted into a primitive Space Defense System by the pirates who lived there.

Clan Invasion

During the Clan Invasion the Wolves initially bypassed Star's End to hit richer Inner Sphere targets, judging them neither honorable nor dangerous enough to fight (and also put off by the difficulties of navigating the defended asteroid fields).

According to an apocryphal source, Head Merchant Raul of Clan Jade Falcon negotiated a "surrender" of the Belt Pirates to his merchants. In order to secure a local monopoly on space ship maintenance, he then used Morgan Fletcher's pirate forces (augmented by fugitive mercenaries from other worlds hit by the Clan Invasion) to destroy at least one Clan Wolf installation. Before long, frictions between the pirates and one Star Colonel Darius on Novo Cressidas came to a head and Darius sent 'Mechs into a trial-style battle. The Jade Falcons were defeated through the destruction of the asteroid on which the battle was taking place through demolition charges. Darius was duped into believing the entire pirate infrastructure, which was actually spread out over many individual asteroid facilities, had been destroyed. Disgusted by their dishonor, he could not be bothered to hunt them down and the Jade Falcon forces left the system.[20]

The Wolves responded to the attacks by sending several Clusters of solahma troops to purge the system. These troops were able to deter the pirates briefly, but the pirates eventually became bolder. Vlad Ward later sent a Galaxy of troops to eradicate the pirates, but this unit was also unsuccessful. They did, however, manage to break the alliance between the pirate leadership.[1]

Shortly after the Battle of Tukayyid, Susie Morgraine-Ryan arrived at Star's End with the remnant of her troops and proposed to join forces with the Belt Pirates under joint command with Morgan Fletcher. Thus, the New Belt Pirates were formed. The Refusal War between Clans Wolf and Jade Falcon created a power vacuum in which the New Belt Pirates fourished.

Jihad

During the Jihad, Clan Hell's Horses launched an invasion of the Clan Wolf holdings in the Inner Sphere, acquiring holdings for their own relocation to Spheroid space. Star's End was one of the first systems targetted, and was attacked in the opening wave of attacks that fell between the 21st and 28th of February 3071.[16]

The pirates later took advantage of the fighting between Clan Ice Hellion and Clan Hell's Horses during the early part of the Jihad. After dealing with the Hellions, the Horses sent their Beta Galaxy to end the pirate presence once and for all. The pseudo-SDS system created by the pirates worked very well against DropShips and AeroSpace Fighters, but it was very vulnerable to attacks by Battle Armor and ProtoMechs. The previous alliance between the pirate leadership had been destroyed by the Wolf attack, and when Susie Morgraine-Ryan chose to abandon the system and her pirate comrades, the Horses quickly overpowered the defenders, killing most of them.[1]

The repair facilities the Horses found were primitive and had limited capacity. Despite these limitations, these facilities are the only ones available to the Horses in the Inner Sphere, and are therefore critical to their ongoing colonization efforts.[1]

Nearby Planets

Planets within 2 jumps (60 light-years)
Closest planets first:
Planet Distance (LY) Jumps 2750 3025 3030 3040 3052 3057 3062
Icar 18.52 1 RWR LC LC FC CW CW CW
Steelton 24.76 1 RWR LC LC FC CJF CJF CJF
Toland 32.87 2 RWR LC LC FC CJF CJF CJF
Persistence 34.91 2 RWR LC LC FC CJF CSV CJF
Butte Hold 35.29 2 N P P P CW CW CW
New Caledonia 36.19 2 LC DC LC FRR CW CW CW
Chateau 37.81 2 LC LC LC FC CW CW CW
Winfield 39.49 2 RWR LC LC FC CJF CJF CJF
Csesztreg 43.55 2 LC DC LC FRR CW CW CW
Maxie's Planet 45.04 2 LC LC LC FC CJF CJF CJF
Verthandi 46.43 2 LC DC DC FRR CW CW CW
Apollo 46.68 2 RWR LC LC FC CJF CJF CJF
Bensinger 47.58 2 RWR LC LC FC CJF CSV CJF
Oberon VI 50.27 2 RWR P P P CW CW CW
Sigurd 52.32 2 RWR P P P CW CW CW
Romulus 53.61 2 LC LC LC FC CJF CJF CJF
Trell I 55.19 2 LC LC LC FC CJF CSV CJF
The Edge 56.11 2 LC DC LC FRR CW CW CW

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Masters and Minions: The StarCorps Dossiers, p. 144, "Clan Hell's Horses Key Worlds"
  2. ↑ The Periphery, 1st Edition, p. 144
  3. ↑ Field Report: Clans, p. 13, "Clan Hell's Horses Deployment Status"
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 The Periphery, 1st Edition, p. 18, "From Rim to Tamar"
  5. ↑ Handbook: Major Periphery States, p. 18, "Rim Worlds Republic after Age of War [2571]"
  6. ↑ Handbook: House Steiner, p. 25, "Lyran Commonwealth after Age of War [2571]"
  7. ↑ Historical: Reunification War, p. 158, "Inner Sphere Map [2596]"
  8. ↑ Handbook: Major Periphery States, p. 25, "Rim Worlds Republic At the Fall of the Star League [2750]"
  9. ↑ Handbook: House Steiner, p. 36, "Lyran Commonwealth after First Succession War [2822]"
  10. ↑ Handbook: House Steiner, p. 40, "Lyran Commonwealth after Second Succession War [2822]"
  11. ↑ Handbook: House Steiner, p. 47, "Lyran Commonwealth after Third Succession War [3025]"
  12. ↑ The Periphery (sourcebook), p. 157, "Map of the Periphery"
  13. ↑ Handbook: House Steiner, p. 56, "Lyran Commonwealth after Fourth Succession War [3030]"
  14. ↑ Handbook: House Steiner, p. 59, "Lyran Commonwealth after War of 39 [3040]"
  15. ↑ The Periphery, 2nd Edition, p. 115, "Greater Valkyrate, Oberon Confederation & Elysian Fields"
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Jihad Hot Spots: 3076, p. 12, "Timeline of the Jihad"
  17. ↑ Field Report: Clans, p. 25, "Clan Hell's Horses Deployment Map"
  18. ↑ Map of the Inner Sphere 3130
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 The Periphery, 1st Edition, p. 143, "Belt Pirates"
  20. ↑ Fallout (Comic Series)

Bibliography

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