Retry
08/04/19 04:56 AM
174.70.184.145
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This is a timeline that covers the formation of the Crossroad Republic until the end of the Jihad. The Crossroad Republic is sometimes referred to as "the Forgotten Clan" by the Inner Sphere, and sometimes even (incorrectly) as "Clan Wolverine-In-Exile".
Hopefully this iteration makes more sense and helps to better explain the circumstances surrounding Crossroads, which I have as the origin of some of the vehicle designs I've posted.
Note that the Crossroad Republic continues to exist past the Jihad, but the post has already become far longer than I was shooting for.
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Short Version:
The Crossroad Republic is an advanced deep periphery nation, formed as an offshoot from Kerensky's Exodus Fleet. The point of divergence is the Prinz Eugen mutiny, which fails to take off. Aleksandr Kerensky decides to split off a part of the fleet to set up colonies closer to the Inner Sphere as a waystation for the returning fleets. The colonies becomes the Crossroad Republic after communications with the main Exodus fleet are lost in the chaos of the Pentagon Civil War.
The Republic, separated by a substantial distance, develops into a decidedly more egalitarian nation than the Clans. While a pirate state threatens the state for a short time, the Republic comes out on top while liberating the pirate state's tributaries and eventually integrating many. While not quite as big as the clans, the Republic doesn't suffer from anything as devastating as the Pentagon Civil War or the Succession Wars and is able to economically thrive in its corner of space, not only maintaining Star League era tech but improving on it.
The Republic clandestinely supports the Inner Sphere during the Clan Invasion. No big changes happen to the Clan Invasion, except that during the Great Refusal, Crossroad volunteers provide enough of an edge that Comstar forces beat Clan Jade Falcon (total of 6-1-1 Comstar victories-Clan Victories-Draws).
The success of the volunteers leads to a more hawkish Republic populace that's more willing to become directly involved in affairs. During the Wars of Reaving and the Jihad, Crossroads operates "humanitarian fleets" to evacuate at-risk populations, indirectly acquire salvage, and at times coordinate with Clans to knock out Society cells. A WoB Terrorist attack on Crossroads leads to a volunteer group being formed to fight the WoB directly. In the process the faction is also lifted out of isolation and is revealed to the world at large.
The Republic avoids making the Inner Sphere clans overly angry (with the exception of the Jade Falcons). By the time the Jihad ends, technology and salvage from the Society and WoB, plus the influx of scientists and engineers that know how to work with them, result in a Technological Renaissance by 3081. The most likely near-term threat to the Republic's sovereignty is the Home Clans who are not pleased with the Republic's origin story or meddling with the humanitarian fleets.
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THE ORIGIN OF CROSSROADS
July 8, 2784: General Aleksandr Kerensky gives his famous "Exodus" order. A massive fleet of SLDF warships and jumpships carrying millions of SLDF soldiers and civillians prepares to leave the Inner Sphere to a location unknown.
2785: The stress of a year of jumping around uninhabited territories begins to put a strain on the self-exiled fleet. Rumors that Kerensky was simply wandering aimlessly through the deep periphery began to spread, and increase in dissent leads to an attempted mutiny by Admiral Voltok on the Texas-class Prinz Eugens.
The mutiny fails before it even begins. A slight misreading of the general mood on the ship leads to Voltok declaring his intentions too early. Pro-Kerensky officers and soldiers (as well as those of a more neutral opinion concerned about repercussions of mutiny) rapidly wrest control of the vessel after an extremely fast escalation in an ensuing firefight that takes the lives of several dozen, including the ringleader Voltok. A replacement leader is found to captain the ship who informs Kerensky of the situation.
The news shocks Kerensky, who was aware that morale was dwindling but hadn't expected anything so blatant as a mutiny. Kerensky places permanent command of the Prinz Eugens into a much more loyal admiral, and swaps some of the personnel who are rumored to have, if not openly pro-mutiny, certainly great travel fatigue.
After deliberation with counsel, Kerensky does the following two actions:
1.Kerensky issues General Order 137, to boost morale of the entire fleet.
2.Kerensky makes a slight alteration to his exodus plan: A small detachment of Warships and Jumpships, named Task Force Beholder, will depart from the main fleet to search for suitable worlds near the Vela Sheet. Officially, the reasoning for this is for the detachment would be able to develop a base of operations near the Inner Sphere to act as a Springboard to help the main part of the Exodus return and become a "Crossroad between the old world of the Inner Sphere and our fleet once it is finally our time to return." Unofficially, it was a way to satiate the more rebellious elements and separating them to keep their dissent contained from the main fleet, while keeping some control of them.
The main Exodus fleet left with almost all of the Warships, Aerospace and Battlemech equipment. Task Force Beholder leaves with mostly conventional armor assets, and a few Warships, including the task force's flagship Prinz Eugens. As far as people goes, a significantly higher proportion of people aboard Task Force Beholder were civillians compared to the Exodus Fleet.
January 2786: Task Force Beholder locates the first suitable habitable planet on the 2 o'clock of the Vela Sheet, effectively hidden from the Inner Sphere but in range with what would become the Pentagon Worlds and the Clan Homeworlds. A significant chunk of the task force sets up shop here with basic infrastructure, and send a message to Kerensky's fleet of their success by HPG. The world is named Aleksandria, in honor of SLDF general Aleksandr Kerensky.
March 2786: Task Force Beholder locates another, more suitable planet between the Vela Sheet and the Gum Nebula. The planet has a partial view of the Inner Sphere, including the planet Terra and most of the Draconis Combine. The planet has a full view of Aleksandria but is obscured from the clans by the Vela Sheet. The two planets are also within 50 LY from each other and thus within HPG range. The new planet is named "Crossroad."
Having established colonies in sight of the Inner Sphere, Task Force Beholder's goal was accomplished. Task Force Beholder sent a message to Kerensky via a "messenger network" of strategically-placed HPG-equipped jumpships and warships placed expressly for that purpose. The good news couldn't have come at a better time, as the grumblings of mutiny in the main Exodus fleet was beginning to emerge again.
August 2786: Kerensky's Exodus Fleet discovers a cluster of 5 habitable planets that become known as the Pentagon Worlds. Kerensky announces the end of their journey and the Exodus fleet settles down. Task Force Beholder, hundreds of light-years away, celebrates their brother's good fortune. The messenger network temporarily disbands to the two separate systems for resupply before being re-established, with the two separate networks communicating frequently with each other.
2795: Cracks between to form in the Pentagon Worlds as people, especially in the military, begin to show their loyalties to the Successor States. The more civillian-heavy Task Force Beholder, in combination with the Aleksandr-Loyal military crew, fails to suffer the same extent of faction polarization.
2801: Full-Scale Rioting breaks out in the Pentagon Worlds and rebels culturally loyal to various great houses begin to declare their independence from the Star League In Exile. Aleksandr attempts to restore order and sends General DeChavellier to pacify the rebels. He and most of his forces die in what becomes known as the DeChavellier Massacre. The Jumpship communication network connecting Task Force Beholder and the main Exodus colony decays as some jumpships attempt to return to the Pentagon worlds and others to Aleksandria. Task Force Beholder is left in the dark.
Coordinates and much of the data on Task Force Beholder is lost in the fighting. Meanwhile, the Task Force continues to develop its infrastructure and colonizes another two planets in between the Vela Sheet and the Gum Nebula (now known as the Vela Corridor), named Serenity and Tranquility.
Aleksandr has a heart attack and dies. His son, Nicholas Kerensky, leads the remaining loyalists on a second Exodus.
2807: Nicholas Kerensky forms the Clans out of the remaining loyalists.
2821: Nicholas Kerensky returns to the Pentagon Worlds in Operation Klondike. The civillian population is at first relieved, but Nicholas quickly makes it apparent that life under his rule is no gentler than it was during the Pentagon Civil War. Resistance to Nicholas Kerensky coalesces around Clan Wolverine.
2823: A Trial of Annihilation is declared on Clan Wolverine. While the Clan attempts to secede from the rest, the clan's Warriors are caught and killed, and the civillian castes are castrated. Some Wolverine jumpships managed to successfully escape.
2825: A handful of Jumpships carrying Wolverine refugees arrive at Aleksandria. These particular Jumpship captains had family on Aleksandria and had enough memory of the coordinates to make it, despite physical data being lost. This is the first outside contact Task Force Beholder has received in decades.
The populace initially thought that whatever trouble was happening at the Pentagon Worlds was finally over and that Kerensky was finally re-establishing communications with the colony. Their welcome and intrigue of the new visitors quickly developed into disgust as they learned of the situation in the Pentagon Worlds and the Clan Homeworlds. While Task Force Beholder and its civillian section was very much pro-Aleksandr, they were not pro-Nicholas, and found the idea of the clans and their caste system alien and very much undesirable. That Nicholas and the clans in general apparently did not so much as bat an eye at massacring and castrating an entire group of people for dissent horrified the colony. It sounded much like a dystopia to the civillians, while the military elements of Task Force Beholder felt that Nicholas had betrayed Aleksandr's ideals.
2826: Task Force Beholder integrates the refugees that wish to stay into their colonies. The task force itself ends the pretense that it is another arm of the Star League In Exile and renames itself the Crossroad Republic, both as a reference to Aleksandr Kerensky and because their second colony had grown to become a cultural hub for the isolated community.
Some of the surviving warriors of Clan Wolverine forms the Minneapolis Royal Division.
BAD NEIGHBOURS
November 2832: Several unmarked Jumpships appear in Crossroad Republic space above Serenity. Multiple Dropships descend planetside to unveil a group of raiders in tanks and APCs. The raiders smash several towns, pillage some supplies, and depart a week.
The raid shocked the planet, and Serenity's inhabitants clamored for better protection. Other than militias, The Republic only had its existing Combat Vehicles, Warships and Jumpships for self defense, and almost all of these were based on Aleksandria and Crossroads, which were a few jumps away from both Serenity and Tranquility. The response was to move some of the infantry units to Serenity, but this wasn't viewed sufficient by the populace.
March 2833: The first Charger MBT comes off the production line at Serenity. The Mk.I is a hastily-built 55-ton, tracked vehicle with an ICE, primitive armor and a heavy rifle, not much more advanced than a 22nd-century MBT. Unlikely to be particularly effective against anything heavier than a Scorpion Tank, the Charger was mostly designed to be mass produced quickly, easy to produce and pilot by local militia, and able to fight off infantry and light vehicles like that which took place in the November Raid.
The Republic's navy, searching for more Wolverine refugees and any signs of potential Clan invaders out near Star Cluster A51, is not available.
June 2833: Multiple unmarked Jumpships appear above Serenity. The Dropships again descend planetside, in tanks and APCs. Again, they wreak havoc on the surface, pillage the locals, and depart within a week.
However, this time, they met much more resistance. Local Republic Infantry regulars equipped with Star League era equipment coordinated with militia units with their bolt-action rifles, technicals, and a few Chargers knocked out multiple Scorpion tanks and Wheeled APCs in a rapid advance, leading to the unexpected capture of a modified Leopard-class Dropship.
Information from the Leopard Dropship and the crew reveals that the attackers refer to themselves as the Skaret Empire. Founded by expelled Jarnfolk and populated by a hodge-podge of pirates, scorned Mercenaries, and other folks of dubious origin, the self-fashioned Empire is outside the Inner Sphere's influence and consists of 1 directly own planet (Skaret) and a network of nearby small, weak and largely uncharted colonies from which Skaret's jumpship fleet frequently collects tithes from, and occasionally culls the population in the event that the colony is perceived to be becoming too strong, too uncooperative, or sometimes simply if the Skaret's commander is bored. The Skaret Empire, apparently, is undergoing a phase of expansion of "economic assets".
The Republic, not wishing to be brought under the heel of a bunch of space mongolians, enacts mandatory conscription and prepare for a mobilized war economy.
2834-2835:Raids along Serenity and Tranquility continue with varying degrees of success. As the months go by, the raids tend to become less and less successful as the militias are trained and are better equipped, and more Charger MBTs are pumped out of the factories and placed into strategic positions.
2835:Irritated by the resistance the fledgling planets are posing, the Skaret Empire attempts to make an example out of the stubborn nation. The Crossroad Republic gets intel that the mainstay of the Skaret Fleet is amassing to strike and subjugate Serenity.
Crossroad's Naval Fleet, lead by the Prinz Eugens, finally arrives back at Aleksandria and is informed of the situation.
January 2836: A massive (by Periphery Standards) Jumpship fleet appears over Serenity. A massive and bloody brawl ensues on the planet between the reinforced Crossroadian Militia & infantry Regulars against the invading forces.
Simultaneously, the Prinz Eugens and the rest of her supporting fleet jumps to Skaret. Equipped with Star League Era combat vehicles, and a few 'Mech Lances, the fleet manages pacifies Skaret within days. Much more information on the Skaret Empire and its tributaries are discovered planet-side.
February 2836: After a month of bloody fighting, the Skaret task force fails to take control of Serenity. The remainder of their battered troops limp to the dropships and jump pack home...
...Which, unbeknownst to them, still had the Crossroad Naval fleet orbiting it. The Crossroadian Warships easily capture most of the exhausted Jumpships and Dropships, although some elected to destroy themselves rather than allow themselves to be captured.
A LIGHT AMONG DARKNESS
The Skaret episode showed how woefully unprepared the Crossroadian was to handle foreign raids. It was thought that if the Clans or an Inner Sphere power were to invade in earnest, the Republic would be obliterated, unless it started taking steps to ensure its strength and very survival in times of hardships.
The period of 2837 through 3049 was a period of relative peace for the republic. Without suffering the devastation of the massive Succession Wars or the Exodus Civil War, the Republic was able to maintain and expand the industrial capabilities and technological prowess of the Star League in their little world in the deep periphery.
2837: The Republic approaches former Tributaries of the now-defunct Skaret Empire. They are offered trade agreements with the Republic. Most of them agree.
The Crossroad Republic mostly trades high-tech and high-value goods such as medicines and fusion engines, in exchange for raw goods, various types of foods, and C-Bills.
2837-2850: The beneficial economic arrangement provides the Republic with the boost required to vastly expand its industry. Aleksandria, Crossroad, Serenity and Tranquility rapidly industrializes to to a technological level equivalent to a Great House.
2840: The Crossroad Republic Armed Forces decides upon a ground military doctrine heavily dominated by infantry and conventional vehicles, based upon experiences in the Crossroads-Skaret War and the realities of the nation's industrial state.
2852: The Republic enacts the Communications Act, which, among other things, include provisions for creating planet-based HPGs for Crossroad's trading partners. The purpose of the act is to help connect the Republic to other backwater periphery colonies and to help entrench Crossroad's culture among the colonies. A robust HPG Network also has strategic benefits in times of war. The act also allows Crossroad Jumpships to travel and trade with the Inner Sphere, under the guise of one of their trading partners (Officially, the Crossroad Republic did not exist).
2851-2880: Crossroadian Industrial Capacity grows further. The technology level achieved by 2880 is roughly similar to the Star League at its peak.
2864: Crossroads enacts the Migration Act, which allows for citizens between the Republic and its major trading partners to travel relatively freely between each other. Gifted citizens stuck in backwater periphery worlds start to frequently travel to Crossroad Republic's cultural and intellectual hubs.
2875: Crossroad develops the Shocktrooper PA(L) suit, as a way to drastically improve the firepower and performance of conventional infantry.
2881-3010: Crossroadian Industrial Capacity grows further. The technology level achieved by 3010 is roughly similar to the Clans.
3012: Crossroads enacts the Brothers-In-Arms act, which allows for a military alliance between Crossroads and her major trading partners to defend each other from mutual threats.
3025: Crossroads enacts the Integration Act, which provides a method for other nations, specifically the other deep periphery trading partners, to directly join the Republic.
3026-3049: Many of Crossroad's trading partners decide to join the Crossroad Republic, with the full benefits of citizenship.
THE CLANS RETURN
3049: The clans initiate Operation Revival, the invasion of the Inner Sphere.
3050: News of the Clan Invasion reaches the Crossroad Republic. Still a quiet nation unknown by most of the Inner Sphere, the Republic Parliament vigorously debate on what, if anything, to do about the invasion. Content being anonymous to the greater world in their personal sector of space, the Inner Sphere factions were a "known known" and fairly decent neighbors. It was unclear how the Clans would react if they were to rediscover the descendents of Task Force Beholder, which would become vastly more likely if the Clans conquered the Inner Sphere. The Republic also had no experiences with the Clans or their military structure since communications broke down during the Pentagon Civil War.
Parliament passes the "Shield Act", which creates a state-sponsored volunteer task force temporarily under the name of one of Crossroad's client states that current or former military members can join. Armed with mostly old, surplus tanks, VTOLs, some 'Mechs and even some surplus Shocktrooper PA(L) suits (the more modern higher-tech versions being reserved on the mainland), the task force quickly filled with decent to well-trained, highly motivated men, especially from the Minneapolis Royal Division (nowadays mostly filled with Clan Wolverine descendants), enough men volunteer to form about a Division's worth of troops.
3051-52:The volunteer "Task Force Buckler" travels to the Inner Sphere to provide its services.
May 3052:Task Force Buckler joins Comstar's defense in the Battle of Tukayyid, assigned as part of an effort to retake a city captured by clan Jade Falcon, taking heavy casualties but gathering valuable intel on the Clans for the Republic, including their technology (including Omnitechnology and BA, when Elementals were found to vastly outmatch the Shocktrooper PA(L)), their tactics and method of fighting.
3052: The Truce of Tukayyid is signed. Some of Task Force Buckler's forces are rotated out and reinforced by new volunteers. Parliament extends the Shield Act to allow Task Force Buckler to continue operating to help continue the push-back.
3055: Due to the suprising technology advantage the Clans had, Task Force Buckler is permitted to refit their older technology with higher tech weaponry manufactured from the Republic.
3059-3060: Due to their performance in the Battle of Tukayyid, Task Force Buckler is asked to join multinational Task Force Serpent in the ultimately successful invasion of Huntress and the destruction of Clan Smoke Jaguar. Afterwards, Task Force Buckler joins the Great Refusal, and is once again pit against Clan Jade Falcon alongside Comstar.
While the attacking Comstar "Invasion Galaxy" took considerable damage attacking Clan Jade Falcon's fortified position on Zhaloba Mountain. While Jade Falcon seems on the cusp of victory, the Comstar Commander calls for aid of Task Force Buckler, kept in reserve at the time. The quick influx of combat hardened veterans, enhanced by the mobility advantage of newly modified VTOLs, Conventional Fighters, and Shocktrooper Suits manages a surprise upset to Clan Jade Falcon, resulting in a Comstar victory. The ultimate result of the Great Refusal is a SLDF win, and the end of the Clan Invasion.
While the victory did not change the result of the Great Refusal (6 SLDF wins, 1 Clan win, 1 Draw), the defeat of the Jade Falcons by what was mostly a conventional vehicle force from what was thought to be a backwater periphery nation was considered embarrassing to the Falcon Clansmen, who would develop a long-lasting grudge.
With the end of the Clan Invasion, Task Force Buckler's objective was accomplished. Task Force Buckler grabs spoils from the Smoke Jaguar homeworld and Falcon wreckages, and returns to the Crossroad Republic and disbands.
3061: A series of design studies are launched using some unique clan concepts and technologies, like Omnitechnology, Ferro-Carbide, and other technologies, gathered from salvage and spoils from Task Force Buckler.
3065-68: The Crossroad Republic sets up a series of space stations, and a few planets in Star Cluster A51, leading near the Kerensky cluster to assist in monitoring the Homeworld Clans.
BRAIN DRAIN
3067: The opening salvoes of the Jihad are fired.
3070: Clan Jade Falcon is effectively ejected from the Clan Homeworlds, with only effective territories remaining in the Clan Occupation Zone.
Prototypes of the Crossroadian specialist Spidermechs like the Nephilidae and Salticidae, the general-purpose S-Series Omnimechs, and the Mirage Omni-Chopper start to come off the assembly line.
3071: The Wars of Reaving begin at the hands of ilKhan Brett Andrews. Expected to resume the invasion of the Inner Sphere, the ilKhan instead begins a massive Clan Civil War.
3072: The ilKhan declares the Reaving of bloodnames. In response, a secret cabal known as the Society, along with Dark Caste allies, strike out at the clans with both conventional weapons and biological weapons.
Between the destruction of the Jihad and the Reaving, a ton of deaths and purges were occurring in what seemed to be an exceptionally short period. Still riding the high from Task Force Buckler's successful military adventures, the Crossroad Parliament was now filled with more hawkish members instead of the isolationist ones that used to dominate.
The Republic initiates Operation Stronghold to extract affected refugees, items of significant cultural and social value, and other "items of interest". Such items of interest usually came in the form of technology, weaponry, research, and occasionally even specific individuals.
Several Republic task forces of Jumpships, Dropships, and Warships form for that purpose. The task forces would jump into a system, broadcast themselves as humanitarian fleets, offload foods and medicines, extract refugees and vulnerable populations, as well as some "strategically important" material, and jumping back out of a system with all due haste.
Operation Stronghold was itself split into two sub-operations, one oriented towards the Clan Homeworlds and the other towards the Inner Sphere Clans. The ground force component of Stronghold consisted mostly of swift vehicles like hovercraft and VTOLs.
The Clan reaction was mixed, with some worlds being either neutral to the fleet's presence or even cooperative in the case of more liberal clans once it was clear the task forces were not invasion fleets, with at least one incident of intel sharing between Clan Diamond Shark and a Crossroadian fleet resulting in the identification and destruction of a Society cell.
Others were more cautious or hostile, but the "Phantom Fleets" almost never stayed around long enough for Stronghold task forces to encounter Clan fleets or ground elements. The far most common engagement was by Crossroadian "Humanitarian Raid" encounters with Society Patrols, with incidents rarely lasting longer than a few minutes.
3073: By now, Crossroads is effectively revealed to the Inner Sphere and is put on modern-day updated starmaps. Due to the chaos of the Jihad and Wars of Reaving, the sudden revelation has surprisingly minimal overall initial impact.
May 3073: A major cultural center on Aleksandria is attacked with a chemical weapon in Aleksandria, killing thousands. The attack is the worst mass killing in the Republic's history.
June 3073: Infiltrators are discovered attempting to tamper with the HPG array in Aleksandria and are interrupted by the security detail. The HPG is slightly damaged and a dozen security men are killed in the corresponding shootout before the infiltrators are neutralized.
The Infiltrators turn out to be Manei Domini Wraiths, and are also believed to be the ones behind the Aleksandria terrorist attack. The Wraiths smuggled themselves in disguised as refugees. Crossroads enacts much more stringent screening of incoming refugees, particularly those from those near WoB borders.
The majority of the population desires a formal declaration of war against the WoB in response to the attack, but the military continues its gray area operation of "humanitarian fleets" with no formal declaration. Some former military members form the "Jason's Jolly Rogers" volunteer group in response to that and the terrorist strike. The group's goals are to join the allied coalition fighting the WoB and to "March all the way down to Terra and blast away the rest of those bloody cyborg thugs".
July 3073: Parliament enacts technological initiatives and research incentives, especially for the field of Cybernetics and military technology.
3074: The Society as an organization is routed, and the clans begin to clean up the rest of the rebellion. Clan Jade Falcon is perhaps the most brutal in the clean up, ultimately purging more than 50% of their scientist caste.
A task force is found by Falcon Watchmen evacuating people from Sudeten, mostly of the scientist castes. The Falcons are furious about this meddling and claim the task force is rescuing Society fugitives and war criminals, though the task force commander (unsuccessfully) tries to mellow the situation by insisting that any persons found to have committed high crimes will be promptly returned to the Falcons. The task force leaves, but not before a short shootout accidentally breaks out planet-side, killing a few dozen citizens and militia. The Falcons are furious, but are too focused on the rest of the Wars of Reaving to retalliate.
3075: As the Wars of Reaving come to a close, Operation Stronghold pulls back to Crossroad Republic space.
The clan Homeworld Grand Council holds a meeting on the McKenna's Pride. Among the issues discussed were the Crossroad Republic's interdictions into Clan Space. The Homeworlds declare the Republic a "tainted traitor state that abandoned the original vision of Aleksandr Kerensky". The Bastion clans prefer to isolate themselves from them and the Inner Sphere, while the Aggressors prefer to subjugate them, but the current priority was to reave the Steel Vipers and rebuild.
The clans in the Inner Sphere are more neutral to positive on the presence of Crossroads, with the exception of Clan Jade Falcon. The Inner Sphere clans generally view the Crossroad Republic as a sort of long-lost brother, having originated from the same Exodus Fleet. With that, plus generally positive cooperation between each other against Society forces and a timely return of historically significant Clan relics that the Crossroad Republic had acquired for "safe keeping" results in the Council of 6 Clans voting to allow diplomatic relations with the Inner Sphere clans.
3076: Jade Falcon Khan Marthe Pryde is assassinated on Sudeten by unknown actors. The Falcons claim Crossroad Republic collaborators are responsible, despite lack of evidence. The Republic denies all involvement
3077-3078: The volunteer group "Jason's Jolly Rogers" grows as members from the task forces of Operation Stronghold join to fight the Blakists. While the Crossroad Republic is still officially neutral on the subject of the Jihad, a sharp influx of high-tech weaponry including still experimental prototypes and pre-production models, as well as arms sales to numerous enemies of the Blakists, suggest the Republic's opinion on the conflict.
The Jolly Rogers join Operation SCOUR. By the time of the Liberation of Terra, the volunteer force has grown to the strength of nearly two divisions.
The Jolly Rogers assist in the North America campaign, assisting in the capture of a Castle Brian and several factories against WoB militias and remaining Manei Domini elements.
At one point outside of Devil's Tower, a Jolly Roger Shocktrooper PA(L) Company met stiff resistance from the militia. Nearly having cleaned them up, one of very few massive Omega superheavy battlemechs guarding the installation lumbered into view. The sheer size of the behemoth and the roar of its first volley was enough to rout the Shocktroopers.
A pre-production Nephilidae Assault Mech was assigned to the PA(L) company as integrated support, and engaged the Omega from a lightly wooded position. Despite being 50 tons lighter and without nearly the firepower of the Omega, the Nephilidae holds its own, providing enough time for the Shocktroopers to fall back and regroup. Unable to achieve a fatal blow, the Omega pulls back, and the engagement ends in a draw with both mechs heavily damaged. The engagement is eventually exaggerated and romanticized and contributes to the rising popularity of the Nephilidae.
By the end of the campaign, the Jolly Rogers had captured plenty of salvage, industrial machinery, weaponry, technical documents, and a few live examples of Blakist technology, including examples of Drone battlemechs, LAMs, Superheavy battlemechs, sub-capital weapons, and cybernetic implants. Some high-level researchers and engineers associated were also captured.
3079: With the chaos of the Jihad winding down, official diplomacy between the Crossroad Republic and various factions begin to ramp up. Embassies open between Crossroad and other factions, including the Draconis Combine,
3081: The Jihad officially ends with the death of The Master. The Republic of the Sphere rises from the WoB's ashes. Jason's Jolly Rogers return to the Crossroad Republic and disbands.
The influx of captured technology, the earlier-implemented research incentives, and integration of refugee Clan and Terran scientists and engineers into the Republic's society starts off a technological renaissance. Tons of military projects are green-lighted.
These project vary from simply reproducing various weapons and equipment found in the campaigns (like iATMs, Sub-capital weapons, cybernetics, and Nova CEWs, to re-designing more exotic technologies like Protomechs, Drones, and LAMs in an attempt to make practical, effective versions. The former projects are generally more successful and widespread than the latter.
The technological renaissance also spreads to the civillian sector, especially in the biomedical field. Various research on Blakist cybernetics result in a wave of newer, improved, and more accessible cybernetics with various applications. Civillian versions of filtration lungs and livers find their way to medical use as treatment options for those with weakened or vulnerable organs, and the Republic's Prosthetics technology leaps from where it was only 10 years ago. Myomer limbs become more prevalent, cheaper, accessible, and nearly indistinguishable from a natural arm. Bionic and Cybernetic eye and ear implants also become more common and cheaper. The Crossroad Republic starts to gain a reputation and soon rich, influential individuals travel to the Republic to make use of their top-tier medical procedures.
While most of the implants from the Manei Domini are technically documented, only some are actually made use of. Prosthetic Arm Shotguns are very illegal, for instance. While there are some healthy people who elect to be operated on to improve themselves, priority is based on need (Amputees get priority on prosthetic limbs, for instance). The vast majority of implants are designed to be about as effective and natural-looking as biological implants. Minimal advanced limbs are produced (like Infrared Eyes) and the ones that are built exist only for experimental purposes.
Edited by Retry (08/04/19 04:58 AM)
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