Located on the Federated Commonwealth's Steiner border with
the Periphery, the Rim Collection is the newest Periphery state.
Six independent worlds -- Caldarium, Slewis, Waypoint, All Dawn,
Otisberg, and Gillfillan's Gold -- joined to created the Rim
Collection in 3048. Before the collapse of the Star League, these
six worlds had been part of the Rim Worlds Republic. Three
centuries of unsought independence after the Star League's
collapse brought them nothing but poverty; by the end of the
Fourth Succession War, most people on the worlds of the Rim
Collection were barely eking out a subsistence living. Bandit
raids, against which none of the planets had any real defense,
added to the misery. During the Fourth Succession War, when the
Inner Sphere's attention was turned toward their own troubles,
the bandit raids became incessant. The people of these six
worlds, unable to see any way to change this dismal state of
affairs, were eager for a savior. Their salvation arrived when
James Moroney landed on Islington in 3041.
Professor James Moroney, a social sciences instructor at the
University of Regulus in the Free Worlds League, felt no ambition
to become a political leader. Several events during the 3030s,
however, changed his mind. That decade was a troubled one in the
Free Worlds League -- the perennially rebellious Duchy of
Andurien seceded in 3030, and the assassination of
Captain-General Janos Marik in 3035 was wrongly blamed on
Andurien agents. As a native of Andurien, Professor Moroney came
under suspicion from an increasingly paranoid and heavy-handed
central government. In addition to his ancestry, the professor
was known to espouse views on self-determination and political
freedom in ways the Marik government found uncomfortable. Both in
classes and outside of them, Professor Moroney spoke eloquently
of humankind's unquenchable desire for freedom and the futility
of any attempt to impose a destiny on any people who wished to
choose their own way. Though he never explicitly advocated his
native duchy's secession, he stated many times that no government
could hope to keep control over a people who wished to be free of
that administration. In 3036, Captain-General Duncan Marik
ordered Moroney arrested for treason.
Because the League was by then engulfed in a war to reclaim
its wayward duchy, Moroney's trial was not scheduled to take
place until early 3037. In December 3036, Thomas Marik --
initially believed to be dead in the same explosion that killed
his father Janos -- appeared and claimed the Captain-Generalship.
With Thomas's accession, Duncan Marik's death in the field, the
successful reconquest of Andurien, and increasing doubt that the
Anduriens had actually been responsible for Janos Marik's death,
the jury for the Moroney trial found the professor not guilty of
treason and sedition. They pronounced him a free man, subject
only to a heavy fine for what they termed "irresponsible
public statements in a time of martial emergency."
The professor soon discovered, however, that his newly won
freedom had its limits. When he attempted to return to work, the
University of Regulus informed him that it had revoked his
tenure. His subsequent attempt to earn money on the public
lecture circuit ended with the League government banishing the
professor and his family from Marik space as "political
undesirables." In 3038 Professor Moroney relocated to the
Federated Commonwealth world of Aberystwyth, where a local
community college had offered him a part-time teaching job. While
on Aberystwyth, Moroney began speaking out about his trial and
expulsion, and also began writing a personal account of his
experiences. His stirring speeches on the human right to
self-determination garnered him considerable attention, not all
of it positive. Members of the Skye separatist movement, the
principal focus of opposition to the merging of the Lyran
Commonwealth with the Federated Suns, obtained copies of
Professor Moroney's speeches and circulated them around the Isle
of Skye. Though he had not indended them to, Moroney's speeches
and writings also influenced quite a few citizens of both realms
who felt uneasy about the union. Eventually, the government of
the Federated Commonwealth politely but firmly demanded that
Moroney depart.
Lacking funds to go very far, Moroney took his family on a
short jaunt to the independent world of Gillfillan's Gold. On
this backwater planet, Moroney hoped to build a new and simpler
life as a farmer. he seemed to have succeeded until 3043, when a
local town councilman and friend of Moroney's ran across one of
the professor's taped public speeches on a visit to the
Commonwealth. Impressed by the speech's content and style,
Councilman Roberts returned to Gillfillan's Gold determined to
enlist his eloquent friend's aid in a cause dear to the
councilman's heart -- the union of Gillfillan's Gold and five
other nearby, independent worlds into a confederation that might
give them some hope for a more prosperous future.
Initially reluctant to step back into the public arena,
Professor Moroney was soon won over by the dedication of the
Unionists and the crying need for some means of making life
better in Gillfillan's Gold and its sister worlds. Within a year,
he was traveling from world to world, speaking for the creation
of a new state to be known as the Rim Collection. Between 3044
and 3046, the Unionists slowly grew stronger as more and more
people threw their support behind the idea. In late 3046,
however, a devastating pirate raid on Otisberg laid bare a
seemingly insurmountable obstacle to the formation of the Rim
Collection -- the lack of a military capable of fending off the
Periphery's numerous predators. The six worlds had not been able
to support a standing army since the time of the Star League, nor
did they have the economic resources to pay for reputable
mercenary units. With no means of seeing to their own defense,
opponents of the union asked what good would increased prosperity
do them? What could they possible become, except more tempting
targets for bandits? Supporters argued that bettering their
economies would enable the united worlds to buy mercenary troops
eventually, but many people wondered if "eventually"
was good enough.
In the midst of this debate, the mercenary unit Able's Aces
arrived on Gillfillan's Gold. Still smarting from a bitter
contract dispute with the Federated Commonwealth, unwilling to
work for Houses Marik or Liao, and unable to obtain a contract
from a Draconis Combine still inclined to be suspicious of
mercenaries, the Aces had decided that their future lie in the
Periphery. Major Jerry Able, the unit's leader, was a Periphery
native, and many of the unit's members had come from worlds on
the Periphery border. However, the unit had not yet chosen a
specific course of action. Some members were arguing for a
contract with one of the larger and richer Periphery states, such
as the Magistracy of Canopus or the Taurian Concordat. Others
were flirting with the idea of striking out toward the deep
Periphery in search of alleged caches of lostech. Still others
contemplated turning pirate and carving out their own bandit
kingdom. Undecided, the Aces made planetfall on Gillfillan's Gold
for a brief resupply stop. While there, Major Able attended a
Unionist lecture given by Professor Moroney. The professor so
impressed Able that the major brought his entire unit to hear
Moroney the following night. Major Able then dropped a bombshell.
He proposed that Able's Aces volunteer to serve as the first unit
in the Rim Collection's army, and to train citizens of the six
worlds as planetary militias.
Once the mercenaries got over the shock, many of them
supported the major's idea. If their leader was willing to wait
for a payroll until the new nation got on its feet, so were they
-- particularly when Major Able offered to pay those who stayed
with him out of his own pocket. A few members chose to leave the
unit, but most of the Aces voted to stay. Major Able then laid
his unorthodox proposition before them. They accepted with
enthusiasm, and the professor lost no time publicizing the Aces'
offer. By the end of 3047, opposition to the formation of the Rim
Collection had virtually disappeared.
In early 3048, all six planets signed the Rim Collection
Charter. It provided for a Council of Planets with one
representative from each member world, presided over by a
president. The councilmen were to be elected by the people of
their respective planets; the president by the citizens of the
entire Rim Collection. Each planet had sovereignty over its own
affairs, except as necessary to preserve the well-being of the
Collection as a whole. As part of the charter, Able's Aces agreed
to train planetary militias and a Collection-wide defense force
in exchange for a vote on the Council of Planets in military
matters. In addition, the mercenary unit was granted extensive
lands on Otisberg, Major Able's homeworld. By unanimous
acclamation, Professor Moroney was elected the first president of
the new nation.
In the first decade of its existence, conditions in the Rim
Collection are slowly changing for the better. The confederated
planets began trading grains and iron ore with the Federated
Commonwealth in 3053, and the Lyran Alliance has announced its
intention to continue trade relations. Planetary Councilman
Roberts has begin trade negotiations between Gillfillan's Gold
and the Free Worlds League, with the promise of extending all
trading rights to the rest of the Collection if he succeeds.
However, the immense degree of autonomy given to member worlds by
the charter often slows the pace of government to a craw.
Professor Moroney, seeing more possibilities for economic
expansion with more centralized government control, is currently
pushing for a temporary expansion of the president's powers.
Councilman Roberts has emerged as the leading voice of the
opposition; he and his supporters fear that any temporary change
in the balance of power would become permanent, much to the
council's disadvantage.
Militarily, Able's Aces has filled its part of the bargain
admirably. Lacking the funds to buy large numbers of serviceable
BattleMechs, the Rim Collection still has only two BattleMech
battalions; however, the Aces have trained several militia units
on each of the six worlds to serve as a first line of defense
against bandit raids. A few councilmen want the Collection to
hire more mercenaries, but the Aces have stonewalled these
efforts as unwanted encroachment on what they consider their
turf. The Rim Collection is not yet rich enough to attract the
attention of large numbers of pirates, but that could easily
change within another decade or so. The pirate band known as
Morrison's Extractors is the most dangerous of the Rim
Collection's current enemies; the Extractors have raided outlying
cities on Caldarium and Slewis with devastating effect.
[Back]
Battletech ® is a Registered Trademark of FASA
Corporation. Original Battletech material Copyright © 1994 by
FASA Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Used without permission.
Any use of FASA Corporation's copyrighted material or trademarks
in this archive should not be viewed as a challenge to those
copyrights or trademarks. BattleTech ® is a registered trademark
of FASA Corporation.