Antallos

World Name: Antallos
Star Type: K4IV
Position in System: 3
Time to Jump Point: 4.34 days
Recharging Station: None
Political Ruler: Various city-state rulers
ComStar Facility Class: B
ComStar Representative: Precentor Hadrian Long
Population: 1,800,000
Percentage and Level of Native Life: 20%, Avian
Description:
Settled in 2674, Antallos suffered repeated sacking by Kurita and various bandit forces. In the late 2800s, after several particularly savage Kurita raids destroyed over half of the population, the social structure of the planet fragmented into a collection of city-states, each advocating its own sociopolitical systems. During the last century, one of these city-states, Port Krin, rose to prominence through the use of slaves in its military forces. Over the years, they have transformed this economic system into a political system based on male dominance. Its viability depends on the fortunes of the Port Krin slavers, military tacticians, and their offworld dealings with House Kurita.

Origins and History

In the late twenty-seventh century a conglomeration of trading companies from the Federated Suns, Draconis Combine, Outworlds Alliance, and Terran Hegemony settled the Hegemony's outpost world of Antallos. Though nominally governed by the Hegemony, Antallos functioned as neutral ground and so quickly became a prosperous independent center of interstellar trade in the region. Acknowledging Antallos's growing importance, the Star League government established several bases on the planet to safeguard it against pirate raids - and also to keep an eye on the often troublesome governments of the Combine and Outworlds Alliance. Antallos became a treasure throve of high technology, and this treasure proved its undoing after the Star League's collapse. Repeated raids by Draconis Combine forces during the First Succession War shattered the planetary government, and Antallos devolved into a collection of squabbling city-states vying for dominance as the Succession Wars raged around them.

Over centuries of war and technological backsliding, Antallos became a hiding place for fugitives and wandering pirate bands. Along with the criminals came occasional traders, adventurers, and lostech prospectors in search of whatever Star League technology might have escaped destruction. By the beginning of the thirty-first century, Antallos possessed a reputation for being a place where anything and anyone could be bought for the right price. The world reclaimed its past prominence as neutral ground for trading, but this time geared towards the underworld and criminal elements. The major center of criminal activity is Port Krin, the largest city-state on Antallos.

Port Krin, or "The Port" as locals call it, was founded soon after the initial settlement of Antallos. It became a boom town on the proceeds of a brief but intense gold rush, then declined slowly over several decades after the gold ran out. The Succession Wars brought trade to a standstill and virtually destroyed Port Krin's economy. The city-state did not begin to recover until the early thirty-first century, when Port Krin began to make considerable profit through slave trading. In addition, The Port became a Mecca for pirate bands needing to hide out or sell their ill-gotten gains. Port Krin's leaders built a large army from slaves and pirate captives, and this combined with its growing wealth kept Port Krin the major power among the city-states.

In 3026, the ruler of Port Krin, Controller Aden Vorax, negotiated with Draconis Combine officials for the acquisition of several large BattleMechs in exchange for the right to excavate possible sites of Star League depots. If such an arrangement develops, Port Krin could become the dominant political state on the planet, and the Combine could gain immeasurable scientific advantages.

When rumors of a large Star League cache near Port Krin spread soon after the end of the Fourth Succession War, The Port reaped huge profits from the thousands of treasure-hunters who came to Antallos in search of the priceless lostech. As the largest city-state near the vast desert where the cache was rumored to be located, Port Krin became a natural staging ground for those hoping to strike it rich. Though few found much of anything, treasure fever and its accompanying surge of illegal activity permanently established Antallos's - and The Port's - reputations as criminal paradises. Fueled by the boom in legal, semi-legal, and illegal trade, The Port continued to grow. A few enterprising residents of Port Krin started up Solaris-style BattleMech games in the late 3030s, and the slave trade continued to attract buyers and sellers from all levels of Inner Sphere and Periphery society.

Antallos Force Listing

(Deployment as of 3054)

Unit Name                        Experience   Regiments  Homeworld
Vinson's Vigilantes              Regular         1       Antallos
(CO: Colonel Pada Vinson)

3058 Update

Antallos remains a bandit's haven in 3058. Pirate bands from throughout the Periphery come to The Port to gamble, trade, and establish contracts for illegal mercenary work in the Inner Sphere. Representatives from almost every organized crime syndicate in the Inner Sphere and Periphery have set up shop on Antallos, most in Port Krin but some also in other city-states. According to recent rumors, Antallos has also become a favorite port of call for dezgra Clan warriors who fled into the Periphery after their shattering defeats on Luthien and Tukayyid. In addition, speculation is rife that outcast Clansmen - sometimes referred to as members of the "bandit" or "dark" caste - live on Antallos in the city-states and lawless Free Zones. While it is virtually impossible to verify these rumors, the presence of Clan outcasts on Antallos is certainly plausible. The planet's status as a free port and a major center of legal and illegal trade makes it possible for various types of people with no prospects anywhere else to survive on Antallos. Antallos's population includes more than its share of outcasts from all over human-occupied space, many of whom make a point of keeping their pasts dark. If outcasts from the Clans are among them, they would have every incentive to keep their Clan origins a secret. Were they known to be Clan, they might easily become targets for Inner Sphere and Periphery citizens embittered by the Clans' devastation of their homeworlds, or for disgraced Clan warriors looking to regain a little of their lost honor by killing the outcasts who are more deeply dishonored than they.

The constant warfare among Antallos's city-states has subsided to a simmer under the influence of the current economic boom, though tensions may erupt again without warning or apparent reason. Every form of weapon known to humankind, with the exception of atomics, has been used at some point in the planet's history. A particularly grim legacy of Antallos's violent past is the residue of chemical and biological agents in the air, and often the soil, of the so-called Free Zones - large swaths of no man's land between the various dome-covered city-states, utterly lacking in what little passes for law and order on this world.

The Free Zones are home to nomad tribes and bandit gangs who prey on unsuspecting or underprotected trading caravans that travel from city to city. The gangs attack at the slightest provocation, often using dangerous native predators as well as whatever military hardware they have acquired. A few gangs are even rumored to possess BattleMechs. The best-equipped force known to roam the Free Zones is Vinson's Vigilantes, a rogue mercenary unit that appears to be sliding inexorably toward banditry.

Antallos Force Listing

(Deployment as of 3058)

Unit Name                        Experience   Regiments  Homeworld
Vinson's Vigilantes              Regular         1       Antallos
(CO: Colonel Pada Vinson)


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