Wayside

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Wayside
System Information
X:Y Coordinates[e]

Overview

Featuring one inhabited planet (the fifth), Wayside is a Deep Periphery system along the Exodus Road between the Inner Sphere and the Clan Homeworlds, in striking distance (implicitly, 2 jumps away) of EC-EY-4170 aka Cat's Eye 009, EC-EY-4189 aka Boltin, and Tarnby.

Wayside V (Wildcat)

The planet Wayside V was struck by an immense meteor at some point, which cost the world its atmosphere and most of its water. Only a few habitable zones remain the deepest (former) sea beds on the mostly airless planet, while the heights continents rise above the "stratosphere" with airless moonscapes.[1] Santin West recalled the old continents to be devoid of life and air, and what seas remained to be shallow; he also remembered storms when he was there.[2] The planet had ample plant and animal life. The planet possessed ample mineral and metal deposits under the old seas.[3] The planet is located in a not well traveled route (in the shortest Exodus Road from the Clan Homeworlds to the inner Sphere.

Planetary History

The Jaguars installed atmospheric processors, terraforming the planet slowly, but in 3061 the effects were visible and the sky already had clouds.[4]

It is said the Smoke Jaguars seeded it with organics to make the garrison self-sufficient.

As of 3058, Clan Smoke Jaguar maintained a major resupply depot on Wayside V and had named the planet "Wildcat". In that year, the Northwind Highlanders attempted to capture the world but found the defenders far stronger than anticipated. The Highlanders then attacked nearby Clan Nova Cat installations at Cat's Eye 009, Boltin, and Tarnby posing as Smoke Jaguars, to draw them to Wildcat where the two Clan forces proceeded to decimate each other, allowing the Highlanders to salvage vast amounts on Clan technology before returning to the Inner Sphere.

Because of the defeat, Clan Smoke Jaguar Khan Lincoln Osis had stripped the world of the name "Wildcat" by 3060.[5]

After the battle, the Combine intended to claim the planet.[6] Evidently this did not happen, as before the launching of the Second Star League the Jaguars assigned a new garrison there, a Binary of solahma warriors, led by Star Captain Av Weaver, of the Forty-seventh Garrison Cluster of Zeta Galaxy.[7]

During Operation Bulldog the Inner Sphere forces bypassed Wayside, and the garrison was left abandoned without knowing of their Clan's annihilation. In 3061, a group of exiled Smoke Jaguar Warriors arrived, led by Paul Moon and Baldur to rebuild their Clan, and both groups joined forces, founding a viable colony.[8]

These colonists, later known as the Fidelis, set up a colony on Wayside V in 3061 after fleeing from Huntress and assimilating the local Smoke Jaguar garrison. The Jaguars used the existing garrison structures (it is implied WildCat Station) as the core of the small city they built.[9] They improved the world's habitability considerably. The colonists started oil drilling for plastic manufacture and lubricants, iron and limestone mining, and bringing in ice asteroids and rare ores from within the system by means of their spacecraft.[10]

The planet was subsequently attacked twice. In 3062 Clan Goliath Scorpion warriors of the Thirty-fifth Scorpion Cuirassiers under Rik Myers attempted to claim the Smoke Jaguar remnants as isorla. The Scorpions were defeated and forced to serve as farming laborers before they had grown enough food to return home in disgrace.[11] The second attack occurred in 3077 during the Jihad when a Word of Blake Precentor, mistaking the inhabitants for Clan Wolverine descendants, attempted to force them to join the Jihad at his side. The former Jaguars, now calling themselves the Fidelis, refused, destroying their forces easily before migrating to the Inner Sphere and joining the war against the Blakists.[12]

Planetary Locations

  • McCormac Sea: little sea in the west side of the planet.
  • Marion Sea: little sea at south of the east of the planet.
  • New Northwind continent: continent at the east of the Jaguar base.
  • New Scotland continent: continent at the west of the Jaguar base.
  • Kurita Prime continent: continent at the south of the McCormac Sea.
  • Wildcat Station: Jaguar base at the northeast of the planet.
  • Jaguar Air Strip: located between the Straits and Wildcat station.
  • The Straits: narrow pass between New Scotland and New Northwind continent, place of battles between the Jaguars and Northwind Highlanders, and the Fidelis and Scorpions.
  • New Sherwood Petrified Forest: forest of dead trees, in the heart of New Scotland continent.

Nearby Systems

Systems within 60 light-years (distance in light years)
Closest systems first:

References

  1. Northwind Highlanders scenario pack, p. 44
  2. Forever Faithful, p. 199
  3. Forever Faithful, p. 127
  4. Forever Faithful, p. 242
  5. Forever Faithful, p. 177
  6. Impetus of War, p. 37
  7. Forever Faithful, p. 240
  8. Forever Faithful, p. 241
  9. Forever Faithful, p. 244
  10. Forever Faithful, pp. 244–245
  11. Forever Faithful, chs. 34–37 (PDF version)
  12. Forever Faithful, ch. 38 (PDF version)

Bibliography