Chancellor Romano Liao keeps a prophet at court, much as other rulers have kept a jester. Bowhani Ali is fond of giving statements to the press. "When the Periphery falls silent, prepare for doom!" he trumpeted at our reporter last winter. History has certainly shown that if we ignore the Periphery realms and their goals for too long, they enforce our attention with raids and bloody war. When the warlike states are noisy, we know what they're doing , and can make plans to do before we are done to. When the Periphery is quiet, that's when you need to worry. That's when something is being planned. At great expense, Battle Technology has prepared this survey of the major Periphery power groups. In some locations, such as the Liao-Davion border, things are about as you'd expect -- good and noisy. In other places, far removed from that lively scene, there is that ominous silence. We'll start at one o'clock on the ComStar clock with the Outworlds Alliance, bordering Davion & Kurita. This republic has been using the years since the Fourth Succession War to strengthen its trade relations with the Inner Sphere. In its dangerous location the OWA must be discreet. President Neil Avellar played a masterly hand by seeking aid from ComStar. Now, Com Guard units help him to keep off the pirates, while ten educational teams spread the word of the Blessed Blake through the Alliance worlds. Once this relationship was firmly in place, Avellar could afford to improve his relations with House Davion. His wife, the former Rebecca DeSanders, is a diplomat from the Federated Suns. The Alliance coordinates defense with House Davion now, fighting off the pirates who raid for water and technology. Relations with the Federated Suns are cordial. From the Tortuga Domains, at two o'clock, comes trouble. As Tortuga approaches complete ecological exhaustion, Lady Death and her pirates have stepped up their raids. The Davion border worlds were good pickings after the '39 war, when defense capabilities were lowered. It is even possible that some of the 'Davion Raiders' which have been bedeviling the Taurians come from Tortuga. Tortugan shipyards are supposed to be able to match any unit's paint scheme; the pirates have long preferred sneak attacks to open warfare. If the Federated Commonwealth and the Taurian Concordat war, the Tortugan vultures will feast. The Federated Commonwealth, with enemies on four frontiers, could afford only a limited war; it could be long and messy. The Taurian Concordat, from two to three o'clock, borders the Federated Suns, the Capellan Confederation, and the Magistracy of Canopus. A painful situation exists there; mercenaries seeking employmentare advised to walk warily. The Protector of the Concordat, Thomas Calderon, has become certifiably paranoid. He has always been a wary man, a man who suspected the motives of those around him. Unlike the Chancellors of House Liao, his paranoia is focused... His enemies, as he sees it, are two. Within the Concordat it is the Commander of the Taurian Guard, Hadji Doru, who challenges the Protector. Doru was friendly with now-dead eldest son Edward Calderon, who died in 3034 in a DropShip accident. At first the Protector valued Marshal Doru, promoting him quickly, and depending on his advice. Now that advice seems to favor the Federated Suns, who are the Protector's pet hate. Doru favors trade alliances with their most powerful neighbor. Calderon counts two recent incidents as attacks. 1) In 3042, a commercial freighter from the Federated Suns misjudged its jump and emerged in the Landmark star system. Red Chasseurs Aeropilots from the Taurian Defense Force blasted the Prince Andrew, destroying her utterly. 2) In May of 3045, Dedrickson's Devils went renegade after being refused a pay increase. They raided the Concordat world of Pinard and did several million C-bills worth of damage before Concordat forces under then-General Doru defeated them. It was at first believed to be an attack from the Federated Suns; the Protector still holds that belief. It was with difficulty that he was persuaded not to keep the TDF under permanent alert. Any similar emergency could cause a war; if not with Davion, then with anybody he can reach. Next to the Concordat is the prosperous Magistracy of Canopus, at the four o'clock position. The last fifteen years have seen the Magistracy go through great changes. Kyala Centrella decided on a policy of conquest and empire. Canopus sat out the Fourth Succession War, waiting for peace and good pickings. In 3030 the Duchy of Andurien tried to secede from the Free Worlds League. Andurien and Canopus formed an alliance. They were to come to each other's defense, to marry the heiress of Canopus to the 5th son of Andurien, and to invade and take over what were thought to be the pitiful remains of House Liao. Capellan troops were tougher than optimistic plans had made them out to be. Emma Centrella was tougher too. She refused to marry Richard Humphreys, and spoke against the war. When the fight was actually joined, Duchess Emma fought as a member of the Royal Guards in her Victor, winning popularity for her bravery as well as her ability. In 3031, the Free Worlds League invaded Andurien. The Magestrix of Canopus refused to honor the self- defense pact. Emma spoke out against her openly. Opposition to the Magestrix began to center around Emma. Still, it was a'loyal opposition', verbal rather than revolutionary, until April of 3039. Assassins invaded Emma's bedroom, killing all there except the Duchess. The mother-Magestrix proclaimed her own innocence, but ordered Emma arrested for treason. The treason of remaining alive? In May of 3040, in a scene worthy of a costume vid, the Royal Guard brought Emma to her mother in chains. When Kyala Centrella ordered the execution of her own daughter, Emma calmly removed the unlocked manacles. It was the Magestrix who was seized and locked away Emma's doctors quickly pronounced Kyala Centrella insane, and Emma assumed the Magistracy without a dissenting vote. Magestrix Emma has returned the Canopians to their old profitable ways. Forgotten are dreams of empire; Canopus is doing what it does best, dealing with the human body. Since their 3038 takeover of the rival 'pleasure planet' of Herotitus, Canopus has no rival at their arts. Canopian doctors and Canopian pleasure circuses once again tour the Free Worlds League, while a few venture even further. From as far away as the Lyran Commonwealth, investors build factories on lightly- taxed Canopian planets. Of all Kyala's colonies, only four remain, all on the outward side. Devora, a military base, and Hypatia, colonized by Utopians modeling themselves after Plato's Republic, thrive seventeen years after their founding. Military bases tend to do well; the Hypatians had raised enough money to hire the best in agricultural and ecological experts to advise on their founding. Priest's Planet was founded to exploit mineral deposits for Magesty Metals. It's a mining world rather than a colony. So far, it has not attracted raids from the remains of the Fifty Star Cluster, so it is doing well. New Hope, the last of the new colonies, is at a bare subsistance level. Two years of bad harvests would mean starvation. If Canopus and the Taurian Concordat should go to war, it would be over the Herotitus system. The moon of the uninhabited fifth planet in the system is newly discovered to be rich in ice - ice that in more temperate orbits would be gaseous. The frozen atmosphere is rich in some of the rarer gases, preseparated into neat pure layers by the the fact that each freezes at a slightly different temperature, forcing the still- unfrozen layers to lie above it, each to freeze in turn. The Concordat is building a new Mech factory. Canopus builds Aerospace fighters. Both need gases for myomer construction. Hot war or trade war? Only the future will tell. Magestrix Emma, by tacitly agreeing to fill the Free Worlds' needs, seems to have won immunity from Free Worlds reprisals following the retaking of Andurien. No such immunity exists in the teeming mind of Chancellor Romano Liao. If attacks are coming from any direction, Canopus must remain strong on her Capellan frontier. At five o'clock, the situation between the Lothian League and the Marian Hegemony remains strained following the 3041 takeover of the League planet of Logan by the Hegemony. A good deal of rhetoric has been expended by both sides. Marian sources claim provocation on the part of the Lothians. The League points to its record of isolationism, and refers to the Marians as outright pirates. The Lothian League has appealed to ComStar for mediation. Appreciators of the art of political double-talk admire the finesse with which the Marian Hegemony has evaded any such action. All of the small realms at the six o'clock position bordering Marik and Steiner have been forced to cooperate with ComStar since the Fourth Succession War. With increased ComStar activity in the Free Worlds League, each of her tiny neighbors had to accept 'guidance' or be swallowed by the influence of the Blessed Blake. The Circinus Federation is silent, all right. It's the silence of a snake digesting a meal. The Federation has enforced trade treaties upon each of her neighbors in turn during the last two decades. Circinian mercenaries filled her coffers during the Fourth Succession War, and again during the '39 War, when the Federated Commonwealth needed all the mercenaries it could buy or bribe. In 3029, Adam Cirion married Barbara Santini of the Abbey District of House Marik. Lord Cirion is the head of the 'non-official navy' (pirate force) of the Federation. Their sons Zachariah and Nathan seem to be dividing the next generation's leadership between them. Zack has won the sponsorship of aging president Bob MacIntyre. With his marriage to MacIntyre's daughter Lisa, Zack becomes the most likely candidate to succeed the President-for-Life. Nathan prefers a less formal lifestyle as second-in-command to his father. The unofficial fleet policy seems to be "raid Marik (always excepting the Abbey District) until they start to notice, then it's the turn of the Lyran worlds until they muster a strong defense. Next comes a short round of raiding or extorting tribute from our Periphery neighbors. Then it's back to the Marik worlds again." (The Santinis have not prospered under Thomas Marik's unification policies. His opponents have not suffered legal sanctions, but economic ones. Fail to support the Captain- General, and you lose contracts from the government, government supporters, and everyone who does business with the government. Eventually his opponents are reduced to selling animal feed to backwater planets.) Com Guard troops have not been made welcome here, but their educational teams have. This is the MacIntyre way of keeping ComStar happy while maintaining military freedom. ComStar has not acted to curtail the Circinus Federation's raids, so it must be working. The Illyrian Palatinate has done well out of ComStar mediation. After the disastrous Ellingsen-Ullerton expedition of 3033, they have made a fortune. Pedro Ellingsen, a popular Lostech prospector from the Free Worlds League, led an expedition which uncovered a wrecked Castle Brian (fortress from the Star League Era) which turned out not to be so wrecked. This would have been great news, except that the naive Ellingsen had neglected to secure the permission of the insular, touchy Illyrians for his dig. A joint IllyrianComStar excavation followed (and a public show trial for Ellingsen ending in a forty-year sentence). As a result, some of the Star League technology thought to be only present in the Inner Sphere may soon appear in the tiny Palatinate. Circinian pirates are giving the Illyrians a wary peace until they are certain how much Lostech is available to them. Meanwhile, Ellingsen's fiance Sheena MacGillicudy has led a fight to free him. Citizens from all over the Free Worlds League have contributed to a 'defense fund', in reality a bribe of epic proportions. As Illyria is the planet of ultimate Free Enterprise, the attempt has a good chance of succeeding. Close to the 8 o'clock position, in 3034, Maria Morgraine and Redjack Ryan joined their realms to create the Greater Valkyrate, uniting Morgraine's Valkyrate with the pirates of Butte Hold. Ryan's Rebels remains a strong, disciplined unit now led by Jack Ryan. The Rebels expend most of their efforts on the Oberon Confederation, but enough of their energy remains to pose a serious nuisance to the Lyran borders of the Federated Commonwealth. 27-year old Susie Morgraine-Ryan lost her left eye last year in a one-on-one Mech duel which proved that her elevation to company commander was not due to her birth, but to her abilities as a down and dirty fighter. She will have a formidable career, BattleTechnology predicts. The Blackjack Operations Area (Tamar March, Federated Commonwealth) has a sizable number of its fleet tied up in second-guessing the Rebels. Rasalhague has been so hard hit by them - fourteen raids in two months in the wedge bounded by New Caledonia, Harvest, and Outpost -that Prince Haakon Magnusson has opened negotiations with the Kell Hounds for an additional strike force. We imagine that Valdherre Tor Miraborg will not be a party to these negotiations! In 3035, the Oberon Confederation (nine o'clock) began a military buildup. Avoiding direct confrontation with the Greater Valkyrate, they have concentrated on a successful series of raids on the truculent Free Republic of Rasalhague. The aging Duke Hendrik showed much of his old shrewdness in choosing subordinates. Jack "Ripper" Fong, Oberon's aerospace commander, and Minus Torkillson, originally from Oberon's Protectorate The Elysian Fields, who rose from the ranks to Mech Force leader under Hendrik, seemed ready to square off for a civil war once the Old Dragon had died. ComStar reported loss of contact with Oberon, and hence loss of its relays to the Confederation and Elysian Fields, over a year ago. (This is particularly distressing to the proponents of the One Star Faith, who had almost achieved the amount Duke Oberon demands of them in return for following their visions of Kerensky to the planet Elissia.) We can only conjecture as to who died, who's fighting, and who's likely to win. BattleTechnology will bring you updates as and when we receive them. As always, we'll pay a news bounty to warriors bringing reports to our various offices. It may not be surprising that the Star's End pirates are ranging fartherf rom home. The hyena, however valiant, does not challenge the lion nor the tiger for prey, nor stand close when the two seem likely to fight. If Duke Hendrik's successor goes to war with the Valkyrate, Morgan Fletcher may lead Star's End forces to snap up the pickings. Until then, border worlds beware! The Draconis Combine is lucky. Much of the Draconian Drift is unstable asteroid belt, isolated uninhabited systems, or non-threatening small groups who prefer not to be noticed by their giant neighbor. The Alshain District must fight off raids from Santander's World, but these forces prefer to strike at the smaller forces at Rasalhague's command rather than risk the wrath of the Dragon. From there to Port Krin, near the Davion border, nothing menaces the Combine. The slavers of Port Krin trade the right to explore possible Lostech sites on their worlds for the Combine's outmoded Mechs. House Kurita dictates the terms of these swaps. Port Krin is a blot on the face of the universe, but no threat to the Kuritans. In fact, victims of pirate assaults from all over the Periphery are sought in the slave markets here by their grieving families. The various 'merchant' houses here hire frequently. There's probably a job for you here. But you have to be hungry to take it. Life expectancy is poor - and most mercs draw the line at slavery. Not much can be said about the government of Port Krin, because it changes from year to year as yet another gang ousts the thieves in power. Port Krin's other neighbor is the Outworlds Alliance. The OWA maintains neutral formal contact with the Draconis Combine. Aside from a misstep on the world of Enif (see scenario, this issue), no recent actions are noted. Avellar is a good employer to the units he already hires, but is not in the market for new ones. The last thing he needs is to look like a valuable ally to anyone! For More Information about Periphery Affairs, see The 20-Year Update, Published by the FASA Corporation. Back to BattleTechnology 12 Table of Contents Back to BattleTechnology List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1990 by Pacific Rim Publishing. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. 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