Location: Number of Worlds: Current Ruler: Military Strength: Technology Level: Literacy Level:

The Periphery, between the Circinus Federation and the Rim Collection 22 Regent William Sandringham 11 Regular Divisions, 10 Territorial Army Divisions, 1 Mercenary Battalion Average to High (3058 standard) High

Origins & History

When the Word of Blake seized control of Terra in 3058, a number of citizens of the small island nation of the United Kingdom, decided that, rather than submit to the rule of the fanatical techno-zealots, they would look for a new home. A popular underground rebellion began, to co-ordinate the biggest exodus since General Kerensky led the SLDF from the Inner Sphere.

Over the course of the next 5 years, over a quarter of a million people from all walks of life, industrialists, scientists, engineers, labourers, medical and military personnel, left their homeworld in groups of a few thousand, using dropships and jumpships owned by wealthy businessmen. Five entire warship crews of the Blake Guard also joined the rebellion, though only three ships made the journey from Terra. ROM agents operating on board the other two vessels discovered the their intentions and blew the whistle. Blake Guard infantry units were dispatched to the naval yard and the crews were arrested, prior to being sent to one of the notorious "re-education" centres.

Unsure of their exact destination, the first group of defectors left behind radio beacons on uninhabited moons in each system they passed through, to guide those who followed, transmitting the co-ordinates of their next intended destination.

Eventually, everyone who embarked on the 6-month trip through the Rimward border of the Lyran Alliance, found their way to the first habitable planet beyond Alta Cruz, a world on fringe of Lyran space. Almost inevitably, the world was christened Britannia in memory of their homeland.

As sizeable colonies built up on this previously uncharted world, following convoys were encouraged to search neighbouring star systems for suitable worlds. Mindful of the damage inflicted on Terra by overpopulation, the settlers vowed not to repeat the mistakes of their ancestors and restricted initial colony sizes to just a few tens of thousands, knowing that they would expand with successive generations.

By the time the colonisation process had finished in 3063, a total of twenty additional worlds had been discovered, over a region of space roughly the size of the Arc Royal Defence Cordon. On the Anti-Spinward (Eastern) border of the Coalition is the Albion Administrative & Defence Region (ADR), consisting seven star systems; Britannia, Wellington, Halifax, St Helens, Newcastle, Arundel and Torpoint. Britannia naturally plays host to the state's seat of government and is also the location of the Regent's official residence. Much of Albion's industrial capacity is located on Halifax, Newcastle and St Helens. Arundel and Torpoint are largely unspoiled by human activity. The latter is a popular holiday resort, the latter a residential world.

Beyond this region are three other groups of star systems. On the Coreward (Northern) side is the Caledonia ADR, on the Spinward (Western) side, the Ulster ADR and on the Rimward (Southern) edge is the Mercia ADR. Almost inevitably, many of the worlds in these regions have strong Celtic influences. However, in keeping with the multicultural make-up of the UK and reflecting the peoples' links with the old British Empire, there are also sizeable African, Asian and Antipodean populations. Their worlds range from temperate Terran-like climates to barely habitable ice-planets and desert worlds.

After extensive exploration, the entire region of space was found to be littered with planetoids, asteroid belts and uninhabitable moons. Although devoid of life, many of these stellar bodies were found to contain large mineral and ore deposits...enough to kick start the Coalition's industrial base. Some of the larger, more stable planets and moons were later terra-formed, so that permanent facilities could be built there, allowing people to work for long periods without suffering the side effects of working in low/zero gravity and artificial atmospheres for prolonged periods. The bulk of the Coalition's industrial base is now located on these worlds.

Most of the Coalition’s income is generated from the export of refined fuels, minerals, metals, gemstones and military hardware to the Circinus Federation, Lyran border worlds and the Royalist Alliance. Its main imports are advanced military technology, hi-tech consumer goods and luxury items not available domestically.

Worlds of the Coalition

For administrative and defence purposes, the Coalition is divided into 4 zones...imaginatively titled Administrative and Defence Regions. Taking their names from areas of the old Terran United Kingdom, they are known as Albion, Caledonia, Ulster and Mercia. During the early expansion of the Coalition, a large nebula was discovered. Navigation through the nebula proved to be hazardous, due to large amount of debris, vast electrical storms, caused by forming stars etc. However, a young, relatively stable star system was located near the centre, the oldest part of the nebula, with one marginally habitable world.

Christened Ripley IV, after its discoverer and its position in the star system, it was soon decided that its location in the Neutral Region, at the heart of the Coalition, would make it the perfect emergency command centre, in the event of a large-scale invasion from one of its larger, more aggressive Periphery neighbours. To this end, a fortified underground command, control & communication facility was built, from which the government and military could continue to direct operations and affairs of state.

As the nebula became more accurately charted and jumpship crews found a handful of safe routes through the stellar cloud, the base on Ripley IV started to be used to hold the annual planetary governors' conference.

Government

The Britannic Coalition is a democracy, unlike the neo-feudal system in place in most of the other Inner Sphere states. Instead of hereditary rulers succeeding their forebears, planetary governors and the head of state are elected by the people, with elections held every five years. Elections take place on a Planetary, Regional and State-wide basis and candidates may stand for re-election as many times as they wish.

While governors may be affiliated with any of the political parties that make up the Coalition Parliament (the main governing body), the Regent must remain politically neutral. The Regent technically runs the Coalition in conjunction with Parliament, but for practical purposes, most of his duties are ambassadorial and involve forming relationships with the rulers of the other Inner Sphere states. He does, however have executive powers, which he may invoke as he sees fit. These include changing legislation and exercising military force, among others.

Industry

The Coalition currently has four defence companies - Coldstream Defence Technologies, Vulcan Armaments, Cygnus Astra and the newly-created De Havilland Aerospace. Vulcan produce a small range of conventional military equipment and vehicles, while Coldstream concentrate solely on the design and production of battlemechs, which roll off the assembly line at a rate of roughly one per month. Both companies' freight yards currently have small, but growing, stockpiles of equipment because the BCAF's recruitment and training programs cannot turn out new soldiers, pilots and mechwarriors fast enough. Cygnus Astra produce everything from civilian dropships and jumpships, to warships. Their order books are currently full to bursting point and are struggling to keep up with demand. De Havilland specialise in aerospace fighters and conventional small craft.

Britannic Coalition Armed Forces (BCAF)

The Britannic Coalition Armed Forces have risen from quite humble origins. After the colonisation process was complete, the military's inventory numbered just a handful of privately owned mechs and a battalion's worth of conventional equipment. Within two years, however, the TOE stood at two fully equipped Divisions. This was pretty good going, considering the Coalition's industrial base had been only recently built from scratch. There was also the small matter of staffing the production plants with trained personnel.

Realising the need for the Coalition to be able to defend itself as soon as possible, one of Regent Sandringham's first decrees was to order a state-wide recruitment campaign, to swell the ranks of Com Guard military personnel who had joined the exodus. The colonists, being pragmatic people, volunteered readily, but initially, there were simply too few to create a force large enough to protect all the fledgling state's worlds. Despite a significant recent increase, this remains the case and there are still a number of worlds without a regular military garrison. For the time being, the Coalition is heavily reliant on its fleet of warships to protect its worlds by preventing would-be invaders from making planet-fall in the first place.

The senior command structure and general organisation of the BCAF can be summarised as follows:

Commander In Chief: BCAF Chief of Staff: Chief of Naval Staff: Chief of Air Staff: Regular Units: Mercenary Units: Aerospace Assets: Naval Assets:

Regent (Marshal) William Sandringham Precentor Commander Robert Jackson Precentor IX James Brassington Precentor VIII Timothy Vaughn 11 Divisions, 1 Training Level III, 10 TA Battalions 1 Battalion 3 Divisions 12 Warships

Out of loyalty to both Primus Sharilar Mori and Precentor Martial Anastasius Focht, Regent Sandringham and Precentor Jackson, the head of state and head of the armed forces respectively, declined to adopt these titles. Instead, the Regent accepted the honorary rank of Marshal of the Armed Forces, while Robert Jackson holds the new position of Precentor Commander.

When it became obvious that, even after a massive recruitment drive and a greatly expanded training programme, there simply would not be sufficient regular forces to garrison every world, without drawing personnel from vital civilian industries, a number of planetary governors called for permission to create their own militia units. Wary of allowing individual worlds to have independent military forces, the Regent initially denied these requests until a full Council meeting could be convened. It turned out that an overwhelming majority of the governors shared this wish and a ruling was passed, allowing the creation of planetary militias.

However, in order to prevent governors from abusing their power, the Territorial Army Command centre was created, assigning liaison officers to each TA unit to report on its activities. Mostly an administrative body, formed to monitor the planetary militias, the TAC can also call upon regular BCAF units to deal with any infractions of their operational code of conduct.

The Coalition also contacted the Coyote Cavaliers mercenary unit, via the Mercenary Review & Bonding Commission on Outreach and negotiated a contract for one of their battalions to perform garrison duty and assist with training new units until the BCAF is strong enough to stand alone.

The Coalition has only begun to design and build its own warships during the last five years. In this time they have commissioned four new ships in addition to the three that sailed from Terra. Another three mothballed Star League era vessels, towed by the three manned ships, have also been refitted, bringing the total number to 12. A quick-thinking officer also downloaded a copy of the blueprints for the Suffren Class destroyer from the naval yard's database before escaping, but as yet the Coalition does not have the technology to build them.

Britannic Coalition Navy (BCN)

The Cygnus Astra shipbuilding company, based on the Andromeda orbital shipyard at Newcastle, is currently working on building a number of entirely new classes of warship, unique to the Coalition, in an effort to ensure the Coalition Navy has a presence around every world. It will be some time, however, before this aim is achieved.

Uniforms & Equipment

Style-wise, BCAF dress uniforms are based on Comstar designs, mainly white, with differing trim and flashes, depending on service branch (silver for mech units, green for regular army, black for navy and blue for air force). Fatigues are typically olive drab, khaki or one of a variety of camouflage patterns, issued according to the environment. The majority of mechwarrior and fighter pilot equipment is on a par with that of the Successor States circa 3052, although some newer equipment, as recent as 3058, is starting to find its way to front line units.

3068 Update

The Coalition has recently established relations with the nearby Royalist Alliance, whose origins can be traced as far back as the 28th century. With a more advanced transport and communications infrastructure and with significantly greater industrial and military capabilities, the Alliance should prove to be a welcome ally. In return, the Coalition will make available data from its Comstar and Clan memory cores, for study by Alliance scientists, as well as providing whatever political and military assistance it can.

The recent incursions into the Albion and Caledonia Regions has led to a surge in recruitment figures for the BCAF. The unusually high number of recruits successfully completing basic training and going on to full combat training has led to the creation of several new Divisions, bringing the total number to 11. At present it is unknown if there will be enough battlemechs for all the new pilots completing mechwarrior training, but it is hoped that PenderCorp, recently relocated to Halifax after the attack on its Black Isle facility in the Royalist Alliance, will be able to help on that score.

A number of armour and infantry units are expected to complete their final training and begin active duty in the coming months. With the announcement that the aircraft manufacturer De Havilland Aerospace is to begin production within the next few months, at its Halifax plant, the Air Force is beginning a recruitment drive in an effort to swell its ranks.

You can learn more about the history, technology, worlds and armed forces of the Coalition in the Field Manual (click the link below). At the moment it is very much a work in progress and a fair amount of work remains before it is complete.

Field Manual: Britannic Coalition