William Derer
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 | This article needs to be updated with material from Historical Turning Points: Tortuga. Once these titles clear the Moratorium period, or if they already have, please consider revisiting this article and updating it with the new material. |
William Derer | |
|---|---|
| Personal | |
| Affiliation | House Derer |
| Profile | |
| Rank | Precentor[1][2] |
| Family | |
| Siblings | Kyle Derer[3] |
| Children | Gannon Derer[3] |
History[edit]
William Derer was a Word of Blake Adept.[3]
After being sent to the Periphery, he reappeared in 3076 as the Precentor of the HPG on Tortuga Prime.[1][2]
The Blakist's efforts - and the steady improvement in Tortuga Prime's standing - could easily have been derailed when Paula Trevaline returned in force to the Dominions. Trevaline struck at Fuchida's Fusiliers, destroying them, and wiping out any vocal opposition she found on Tortuga Prime or the other Dominion worlds.[4] The inherent value of the various improvements that had been made on Tortuga Prime was recognized by Trevaline, however, and she chose to leave Tortuga Prime to run itself whilst she took her pirate band, the Death's Consorts, into the Malagrotta Cooperative to subvert control of that fledgling breakaway state for herself - provided that Tortuga Prime continued to supply Trevaline with her demanded tribute.[4][1] In the absence of Trevaline, the Blakists assigned Precentor William Derer to Tortuga Prime, and he became the de facto ruler of the world.[4]
For the majority of the population of Tortuga Prime, Derer's rule was a largely hands-off regime, but he did institute a number of changes, great and small. The planetary militia were reorganized, adopting the base-six configuration common to Word of Blake formations. He insisted on the militia engaging in constant live-fire exercises that swiftly removed the weak and incompetent, whilst pouring funding into the manufacturing of combat vehicles by Vengeance Incorporated, increasing the size of the militia tenfold and swiftly turning them into a well-trained military force.[4] Derer had a particular combination of an affinity for organization and a willingness to accept distasteful means if a desired end was secured. Derer knew that the best way to ingratiate the Word of Blake with the local population was to maintain their way of life, and in addition to his focus on defense, he also improved the standard of living for slaves by putting into place rulings on proper treatment and support of slaves, although his attitude towards slavery shifted over time from overlooking the use of slaves to being largely desensitized to their fate on Tortuga Prime.[5] Tortuga Prime's mining industry became a major industry due to the relatively poor availability of resources on other worlds within the Dominions, which relied on importing industrial metals from Tortuga Prime.[1]
In October 3076 pirate bands from Tortuga Prime struck against several worlds within the Filtvelt Coalition simultaneously, targeting the Coalition's tiny industrial base. The raids were a great success for the pirates, capturing supplies and humiliating the Filtvelt Citizen's Militia, but a number of pirates were captured and revealed their homeworld under interrogation. The Coalition Council responded by ordering their only professional military unit, the Thumpers, to destroy the weapons industry on Tortuga Prime; furthermore, a contingent of the FCM was sent along with the Thumpers in an attempt to redeem their poor performance in defending against the October raids.[4]
The Thumpers' attack was a disaster. The Thumpers' Commanding Officer, Major Buck Tripp, had no clear idea of the dramatically improved defending forces available to Derer on Tortuga Prime, and his planned surprise strike went wrong almost immediately. Tripp deployed his command company into Raider's Roost, while the Filtvelt DropShips continued on to a landing zone close to the outskirts of the city to offload the rest of the Thumpers and the FCM forces. Tripp's company quickly engaged the Strychnine Slavers, only to learn that the troops attempting to disembark from the grounded DropShips were under attack from massed units of Tortugan armor. Tripp led his company through Raider's Roost to rendezvous with the DropShips despite constant ambushes, only to receive word as he reached the outskirts of Raider's Roost that the Tortugans had used chemical weapons against the FCM infantry and armor with devastating effects, leaving few survivors - even the FCM's tanks provided no protection, as the poorly maintained vehicles allowed the gas to enter, killing the vast majority of the crews. While the BattleMechs used by the Thumpers were largely protected from the gas, they were effectively cut off from retreat when the DropShip crews closed their bay doors to protect themselves from the gas.[4]
Tripp was able to battle through to his beleaguered forces and inflict enough damage to force the Tortuga militia to retreat back into Raider's Roost; determined not to fail, Tripp used footage obtained during the initial flyover of Raider's Roost to identify likely industrial sites and led the Thumpers in an assault intended to destroy those sites, only to find his troops falling victim to the brutal efficiency of the Tortugan militia and their ambushes. A few minor industrial sites took damage, but few of Tripp's forces managed to escape, and the entire force was left no choice but to retreat to Filtvelt space, the mission a lamentable failure[4] - although forces from the Thumpers Third Company had managed to level Trevaline Palace, residence of William Derer, and Paula Trevaline before him.[6] The Thumpers had lost half their numbers during the abortive attack, and losses amongst the First Filtvelt Citizen's Militia were even higher.[7]
After the failed assault in 3076 things returned largely to the previous status quo for Tortuga Prime, even after Death's Consorts were wiped out and the Federated Suns reabsorbed the Malagrotta Cooperative.[4] Both Derer and the leader of the Tortugan Phalanx, Naxamander Anabasis, were appalled at the use of chemical weapons, leading to Anabasis leading the Phalanx on a rampage through Raider's Roost, before relocating his command to another city on Torment.[8]
Derer remained in charge until the allied coalition turned the tide against the Word of Blake; at that point, Derer elected to flee from Tortuga Prime, simply because he was a known Blakist;[4] Derer had already been under observation by Blakist overseers for some time, as a consequence of his communications in the wake of the horrors being unleashed during the Jihad revealed a contrary philosophy to that of the main Blakist tenets.[5] It was these same overseers who had supplied the Tortugan militia with the chemical weapons used so effectively against the Filtvelt forces in 3076.[8]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Masters and Minions: The StarCorps Dossiers, p. 239: "Planet Profile"
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Historical Turning Points: Tortuga, p. 3: "Tortuga Prime"
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Total Chaos, p. 20
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 Historical Turning Points: Tortuga, p. 4: "Tortuga Prime"
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Historical Turning Points: Tortuga, p. 7: "William Derer"
- ↑ Historical Turning Points: Tortuga, p. 21: "Desperate Disobedience"
- ↑ Historical Turning Points: Tortuga, p. 22: "Wasting Away Again on Tortuga Prime"
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Historical Turning Points: Tortuga, p. 17: "The LZ Massacre"