Coup d'Etat
"The lies of Focht's ComStar have gone unanswered long enough. The time has come to drive the heretics from the cradle of humanity".
[Precentor Demona Aziz]
In 3058 Word of Blake wrested control of Terra from Comstar. They date they chose was a symbolic one, as it was the 276th anniversary of Jerome Blake's appointment as Minister of Communications and the date he effectively took control of Terra.
Blakist forces, bolstered by the 21st Centauri Lancers mercenary unit, attacked and destroyed the Hilton Head island headquarters, along with the Sandhurst Military Academy. The defending Com Guard 201st Division suffered heavy losses. As they retreated, their commander ordered everything of value, which could not be taken with them, destroyed. Eventually they were forced off-planet with Primus Mori.
With Anastasius Focht on Tukayyid, attending a strategy meeting with the leaders of the St Ives Compact, Federated Commonwealth and Draconis Combine, there was little that could be done to stop Word of Blake - especially as they had reinforcements already heading for Terra. Instead, Comstar relocated its headquarters to Tukayyid and chose not to contest the takeover.
The New Order
"The old Comstar is back and its name is Word of Blake"
[Anonymous]
The attack, sudden and brutal, resulted in a quick victory for the Blakists, with victory officially declared less than a month later. The new regime was far more oppressive. Restrictions were placed on the ownership and use of any advanced communications technology or equipment with possible military applications. Those suspected of aiding Comstar were arrested and imprisoned or sent to one of the Blakists' notorious "re-education" camps. Off-worlders based on Terra for business or diplomatic reasons were imprisoned or assassinated if their behaviour was in any way suspicious. Corporations and embassies were bombed. Terra became increasingly isolated from the rest of the Inner Sphere and although for the most part, life went on as normal, many citizens came to live in fear and hatred of their paranoid new masters.
Tyranny Breeds Resentment
"Die Blakist scum!"
[Grafitti on London Whitehall HPG facility]
Word of Blake's fanatical hardline approach won them many enemies among the more free-spirited citizens. Although the majority of the populace were cowed into submission by the ruthless and often public punishment of those who denounced the new regime, pockets of resistance sprang up all over the planet and refused to go away. One such movement took root very rapidly in the small island nation of the United Kingdom. It didn't take long for unrest to turn into civil disobedience, which gradually became an overwhelming urge to take action.
Revolution or Resettlement
"We have the two classic choices faced by all oppressed peoples throughout history...fight or flight"
[Lucius Aristotle Broughton - founder of the Churchill Movement]
However, the members of the resistance, known as the Churchill Movement, were by no means united in the beginning. Started almost by accident, by Broughton and a handful of close friends who met regularly in a local pub to discuss the latest outrages inflicted on them by their new masters, they soon found many like-minded citizens listening in on their meetings. Eventually, with numbers growing, they had to divide themselves into small groups and meet in discrete locations as they began to discuss in earnest a way to break free from the yoke of their oppressors.
Through careful recruitment and the publishing of the group's motives and intentions on the internet, the Churchill Movement soon became a UK-wide underground conspiracy, with hundreds of thousands of members. The problem with this was that, as the numbers swelled, so the organisation became more uncontrolled. Different factions began to form as groups with different ideas began to band together.
In England, the two main factions were the hawkish Liberators and the more pacifist Colonials. The Liberators were in favour of taking the fight to Word of Blake through guerilla warfare to reclaim control of the country for the people. The Colonials meanwhile, were in favour of seeking a new home, away from Terra where they could make a fresh start.
End of the Revolution
"Unbelievers and heretics who refuse to acknowledge Blake's divine wisdom will be dealt with accordingly"
[WoB Precentor Martial Trent Arian]
However, the Liberators were crushed by the Blake Guard before they could carry out their first major operation. Unknown to them, ROM agents had infiltrated the organisation and were quick to alert the military once details of the planned insurgency became known. Raids were carried out across the country to round up other members of the Movement, after the information had been tortured out of the captured raiders. Those that weren't killed were either imprisoned indefinitely, charged with crimes against the State or were sent to one of the Blakists' notorious re-education facilities. At a stroke, nearly half the Movement's English contingent was wiped out.
Bowed but Unbroken
"Fanatics and zealots are just another kind of terrorist...and we shall never succumb to terrorism."
[Sir James Harvey Goldsmith]
The surviving members of the Movement discovered a sudden unity of purpose after the complete and utter destruction of the Rebels. Becoming considerably more cautious and selective in their recruitment, they made it clear to any newcomers that the Movement's sole purpose was to co-ordinate a large scale exodus, with the intention of founding a new colony in the Periphery.
Around this time they found a new patron, the immensely wealthy and well-connected industrialist, Sir James Harvey Goldsmith, CEO of the Imperial Chemical Corporation. Although the Word of Blake's takeover had not had any serious repercussions for his business, he was known as something of a maverick and he simply didn't like the Blakists on the principle that fanatics of any kind should be avoided. He wasn't the only one. A surprising number of influential people were drawn to the Movement, including other captains of industry and members of the nobility. Between them they began using their money and connections to gather the resources needed to send thousands of people at a time on a voyage across the stars.
Renewed Hope
"It is truly frightening to witness at first hand the manipulation of ordinary people until they become unquestioning zombies"
[Former WoB Acolyte]
Perhaps the single greatest stroke of fortune for the Churchill Movement was the defection of a small but significant number of Blake Guard personnel. When it had become clear that Word of Blake's attack on Terra would succeed, a large number of Comstar personnel elected to throw in their lot with the world's new rulers, rather than flee with the surviving Com Guard units. It seems that a few months later, many of them began having second thoughts.
It is largely thanks to these renegade Blakists that the Movement was able to ramp up its operations in the final few months before the exodus, without being exposed. They trained members of the Movement in security, counter-surveillance and identification of ROM agents. They arranged dropship slots at spaceports, dropship berths on jumpships and the transport of large amounts of equipment without interference from WoB security forces. Those who held posts in the Blake Guard would later prove even more valuable in the last few days of the exodus, bringing military equipment including vehicles, mechs and even warships, which would prove vital in the defence of the new colony.
Operation New Eden
"It is time for change. It is time to let the people decide their own destiny"
[Lord William Sandringham]
In the last months of 3058, the first convoy of dropships left London Heathrow spaceport, carrying over five thousand souls on the start of a six month journey through the Spinward border of the Lyran Alliance, towards as yet uncharted reaches of the Periphery.
Initially, in an attempt to maintain secrecy, only dropships and jumpships owned by Imperial Chemicals and other major corporations were used, but as more and more people flocked to the Churchill Movement's banner, the Movement's leaders came under increasing pressure to expand the number of vessels - and people - involved in the operation.
However, ROM once again proved it wasn't a force to be taken lightly and through basic detective work and the sheer number of agents Word of Blake committed to the investigation, they soon noticed an unusual number of commercial vessels being chartered, with similar departure points and vague flight plans.
More raids were organised and over the next few months, several dropships were seized on their launch pads prior to take-off, full of would-be escapees.
The Long Haul
"Rome wasn't built in a day"
[Anonymous]
While the Roman empire of antiquity may have taken decades to reach the zenith of its power, facilitating the escape of over a quarter of a million people and their passage halfway across the Inner Sphere to freedom was going to have to be done rather more quickly, before Word of Blake closed off all means of leaving Terra.
Still, there was the tricky equation of balancing haste with discretion as ROM were still on the lookout for any signs of unusual activity. In the end, around 5,000 people per month were able to make good their escape, on board converted dropships owned by the Imperial Chemical Corporation and various other businesses. It was nearly five years before ROM managed to shut down all unauthorised interplanetary travel and by that time, the vast majority of Movement members had fled Terra. In fact, Word of Blake's final 'victory' in their struggle to crush the Movement came in the final days of the exodus, when ROM agents alerted local Blake Guard units of the attempted hijack of a number of warships. Of the eight crews who had planned to defect, three were captured.
As to the voyage itself, a decision was taken early on to traverse the Lyran Alliance and found the new colony between two existing Periphery states - the Rim Collection and Circinus Federation. It was an exceedingly long journey by any standards, often fraught with danger - especially as the first system they jumped to was New Earth, known to have close ties to Word of Blake. Plotting a safe course through nearly 30 star systems - some of them uncharted - was never going to be easy. It was decided to stay close to the Alliance's border with the Free Worlds League, logic dictating that border worlds would be more used to strange ships travelling in their systems and that fewer questions would be asked.
On the whole, the 5-year operation went smoothly, the people they met on most worlds being sympathetic to their plight. Towards the end, the presence of a number of large, heavily armed warships understandably caused tensions to rise, but their crews were careful to make no aggressive moves. Though few of the worlds whose systems they entered had anything like the capability to pose a serious threat, the colonists were anxious not to give their hosts any reason to inform WoB of their presence.
Pastures New
"You ask me if it was worth leaving everything behind, not knowing what we might find out here. I ask - can you put a price on freedom?"
[Colonist interviewed for inaugural CBC broadcast]
Six months and almost thirty star systems later, the first element of the exodus convoy left Lyran space. Although many felt a great sense of liberation and elation at finally leaving the Inner Shere behind, an equal, if not greater, number had strong feelings of trepidation. What would they find out here in uncharted space? Were there pirates operating in this area? How would the nearby Periphery nations, the Circinus Federation and Rim Collection react to a sudden influx of people into the previously empty gulf of space between them?
In the end, their fears proved groundless...at least to begin with. Anxiety ran high among the settlers as they passed through several star systems with no habitable worlds, but after three weeks of wandering through uncharted space, they entered a system that contained a blue giant star, orbited by twelve planets of varying size. Like the Sol system, the outer worlds were covered in ice or or frozen gas. The innermost worlds were little more than spheres of molten rock and metal. The fifth planet in the system, however was a blue-green globe, covered with streaks of white cloud, looking like an almost exact replica of Terra.
On closer inspection, they found that the surface of the planet was indeed very similar to their homeworld, though slightly warmer, with a denser forest coverage and higher rainfall. The only thing that took some getting used to was the brilliant azure sunsets. It needed relatively little debate before the decision was made to christen the world Britannia in memory of their homeland.
Initially, being islanders, the first colonies were founded on an equatorial archipelago. As more refugees arrived over the following months, larger settlements began to spring up elsewhere. A city began to grow on the northern hemisphere's main continent. It was named Westminster after their homeland's seat of government.
Eventually, the colonies on Britannia reached a pre-determined critical size. Wanting to avoid the mistakes of their ancestors, with overpopulation nearly leading to Terra's ruin, they decided to keep initial colony sizes small and allow them to expand. Following refugee convoys were ordered to search neighbouring systems for suitable worlds. Over the next five years another fourteen star systems would be colonised, with another seven exploited for their resources to sustain the new colonies.
Worlds United
"With these words let our worlds be forged into a single entity. Many minds, many hearts, united by history, striving for a better future."
[Britannia Governor Charles Cameron, at the signing of the Coalition Treaty]
During the earliest days of the exodus, the colonists were able to explore and travel in peace. While many thought this was quite normal, some of the wiser heads realised that they had been lucky so far. Inevitably, the steady stream of ships into the area attracted the attention of various bands of pirates and small mercenary units in the employ of other Periphery states.
To begin with, the raids were sporadic and small-scale. Losses were small and casualties light. However, as the settlements grew, so the attacks became more frequent and destructive. At first the colonists were able to fight off the pirates, armed with little more than personal weapons and raw courage but as the raids became larger and more organised, there was little to stop the bandits striking with impunity. On worlds lucky enough to possess military equipment, including a handful of privately-owned battlemechs, the colonists continued to bravely resist, but there was still no organised means of defending the colonies...
Until 3063, when a meeting of the planetary governors resulted in a decision to pool their military resources and begin recruiting and training civilians, creating local defence units to counter the pirate threat. This agreement was expanded to include trade agreements and other elements, until Britannia Governor, Charles Cameron suggested that all twenty-one worlds unite to become a single nation state, the idea being that it would make it much easier to organise and co-ordinate any kind of activity, including defensive operations. The motion met with unanimous approval and with the signing of the Coalition Treaty, the Britannic Coalition was born.
