Editing Camelot Command

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'''Camelot Command''' was a [[Star League]] naval base hidden in an otherwise unnamed red dwarf star system in the [[Dark Nebula]]. The particular star system Camelot Command was located in was later also occasionally (inaccurately) referred to as either Dark Nebula or Camelot Command. The facility had been used as the homeport of the Star League's [[12th Fleet (Star League)|Twelfth Fleet]] for capital ship repairs, refitting, and supply during actions against the [[Rim Worlds Republic]] and rogue elements during the Star League era.<ref>''Field Manual: SLDF'', p. 156: "Homeport"</ref> Prior to the [[Amaris Civil War]], the Twelfth Fleet was reassigned to a port in the [[Outworlds Alliance]], but the SLDF reoccupied the facility during their Rim Worlds Campaign. It was abandoned by the [[Star League Defense Force]] on the eve of the [[Operation EXODUS|Exodus]] in the late [[twenty-eighth century]] and only rediscovered centuries later. Stripped of all useful gear, the base was only briefly reactivated to serve as a fleet base behind Clan lines, and eventually abandoned again.

==The Installation==
Camelot Command is a small rotating planetoid, a floating base with a 100-meter-long [[Cameron Star]], the symbol of the Star League, emblazoned on the concrete equator. The massive port was described as large enough to dry-dock a ''[[Black Lion]]''-class battlecruiser. The airlocks leading to the underground complex within the planetoid are protected by an anti-[[BattleMech]] trench that can only be passed at a narrow point. On the inside the base has huge pressurized warehouses, factory facilities and engineering bays, large enough for BattleMechs to walk (and fight) inside. The corridors extend near the center of the planetoid where the main [[fusion reactor]] is located.

Camelot Command broadcast a naval beacon signal, which allowed it to eventually be found in the nebula. However, it also maintained a screen of several dozen (at least) autonomous [[Mark 39]] Attack Drones to destroy or drive away intruders.

By the time of its rediscovery some three centuries after being abandoned by the SLDF, the base's outer surface was described as a barren black wasteland, with stark white lines of concrete etched on. Only some gun turrets, a pitted aerospace landing strip and several [[DropShip]] pads were noted to break up the flat terrain, suggesting the base to be not entirely manmade, but rather a hollowed-out asteroid.

==Rediscovery==
After General [[Aleksandr Kerensky]]'s Exodus, persistent rumors remained that the Dark Nebula was the location of automated Star League shipyards that continued to manufacture fleets of [[WarShip]]s. Legends further tell that one base in the Nebula was a repository for all the useless gold and jewelry that the SLDF soldiers left behind. Countless adventurers braved the treacherous depths of the Nebula in search of the legendary treasure, never to return; they most likely ran afoul of the defending drone fighters that attacked anyone who failed to transmit the proper identification code.

When it was found in [[3050]], the lost base turned out to have been stripped of supplies and almost all its records had been destroyed. Most of the remaining ammunition and spare parts had eroded into uselessness and the base was in rough shape overall, with several systems failing, some of the outer levels flooded and some areas holed and at near vacuum.

Although [[Rhonda Snord]] is generally attributed with the rediscovery of Camelot Command, [[Franklin Sakamoto]] and the [[First Somerset Strikers]] had actually chanced across the base roughly one year earlier over the course of a clandestine mission that demanded their find to be kept secret.

===The First Somerset Strikers===
In 3050 the First Somerset Strikers, a small irregular recon unit from the [[Federated Commonwealth]], jumped into the Dark Nebula and ran afoul of a squadron of tiny automated Mark 39 drone fighters while investigating an old beacon signal. After bypassing the drones by transmitting a transponder code dating from the [[Second Succession War]] era, they discovered an abandoned SLDF base that identified itself as "Camelot Command" and welcomed them in the name of the Star League through an automated message.

By an astounding coincidence, scout forces from both [[Clan Jade Falcon]] and [[Clan Wolf]] arrived at the facility shortly after the Strikers to claim the base for their respective Clan, and a pitched battle was fought through its corridors until the Strikers faked activating the base's self-destruct using its holoprojection systems. The ruse was soon discovered by the Clans, but the First Somerset Strikers' [[DropShip]] ''[[Kwaidan]]'' arrived at precisely that time and claimed to have control over hundreds more of the Mark 39 drones, dozens of which were already strafing the Clan ships. The Clans chose to withdraw at that point.

The munitions bay of the centuries-old abandoned naval base was found empty, and the First Somerset Strikers only managed to salvage a few technical gadgets and some information from Camelot Command. Before long, they left to continue their mission.

===Snord's Irregulars: Operation MERLIN===
Acting independently from the First Somerset Strikers, the mercenary Rhonda Snord set out on [[Operation MERLIN]], a quest to rediscover Camelot Command, unaware of the fact that both the First Somerset Strikers and the Clans had already beaten her to it roughly a year earlier.

She determined that astrographical data from a Star League Astronomical Survey Station on [[Apollo (planet)|Apollo]] might hold the final clue to the exact position of the base, and launched a raid against the Clan Jade Falcon garrison on Apollo in August of [[3051]]. [[Snord's Irregulars]] retrieved star charts and other data files, and even captured some OmniMechs before escaping off-world. However, during the retreat under fire they lost a crate of datachips and the information contained therein revealed their destination in the Dark Nebula to their Jade Falcon pursuers.

With a Clan Jade Falcon task force (including the ''[[Hawk-Eye]]'') in close pursuit, Snord's Irregulars found the base, and managed to defeat and even bond Jade Falcon forces that came to contest their possession in September 3051. [[Star Captain]] [[Christopher Folkner]], commander of the ''Hawk-Eye'', described Camelot Command as "Star League naval base" and a "non-functional [''sic''] naval construction facility".<ref>''BattleTech Compendium: The Rules of Warfare'', p. 68: sidebar</ref>

==Reactivation==
Rediscovered a second time with no need to cover it up this time, Camelot Command was subsequently refurbished by the Federated Commonwealth and used as a base for forward operations against the Clans. Since Rhonda Snord had called for, and won, a [[Trial of Possession]] for the base, it was assumed that their own honor code prevented the Clans from seizing it. In [[3056]] [[ComStar]] obtained unconfirmed reports suggesting the Rhonda Snord's Irregulars were constructing a ''Black Lion''-class [[WarShip]] at Camelot Command with a possible [[3065]] launch,<ref>''BattleSpace'', p. 5: "Current Events"</ref> but there is no supporting evidence whatsoever to suggest this was anything more than a rumor.

Camelot Command was eventually abandoned again after a few years due to its exposed position and the difficulty of bringing supplies that far behind enemy lines.

Clan Jade Falcon apparently maintained a garrison at the base, but lost it to [[Clan Ice Hellion]] during the latter's ill-fated invasion in [[3071]]. Camelot Command served as the rallying point for the remnants of Clan Ice Hellion under [[Connor Rood]] for their last stand in the following year. After a space battle, the ground forces entrenched at the Camelot Command facility were granted ''[[hegira]]''. They accepted it, fully retreating from the Inner Sphere and putting an end to Operation ICE STORM, leaving the base in Falcon hands.<ref>''Operation ICE STORM'', Part II: ''The Winds of Spring''</ref>

==References==
<references />

==Bibliography==
* ''[[1st Somerset Strikers (sourcebook)|1st Somerset Strikers]]''
* ''[[BattleSpace]]''
* ''[[BattleTech: The Animated Series]]''
* ''[[BattleTech Compendium: The Rules of Warfare]]''
* ''[[Field Manual: SLDF]]''
* ''[[Mercenary's Handbook 3055]]''
* ''[[Operation ICE STORM (novel)|Operation ICE STORM]]''
* ''[[Rhonda's Irregulars (scenario pack)|Rhonda's Irregulars]]''


[[Category:Systems|Camelot Command]]
[[Category:Systems with Undetermined Coordinates]]
[[Category:Planets|Camelot Command]]
[[Category: Star League Defense Force Facilities]]