CIRCINUS MECHWORKS In 3011, on the world of Blantleff, two prospectors, Gaspar Watkins and Louie Richmond, made the discovery of their lives. While searching for precious metals in the Yzaga Mountains they came upon a large at the back of a box canyon. Fallen rocks and other debris mostly obstructed this door and it took the two of them nearly two weeks to clear it away. The door was loose and there was an opening that two men could crawl through to get in. Once inside they discovered what was once a SLDF military base. The proof was in the remnants of two Battlemechs in an alcove of the huge cavern complex.
Finding that the powerplant was still online, the two searched what offices they could easily break into and found that most of the files had been destroyed. However, the one thing that they did discover was that this cavern was once used by the forces of the Rim Worlds Republic. They tried bringing some of the computers back online, but could not get past the password encryption. Dismayed by this turn of events, the two left the facility and covered it up as best as they could and headed back towards town to report their find to the local authorities.
Upon reaching the town of Logan's Bluff they made contact with the office of the planet's Governor and were told that a team would be there within three days to fully ascertain what they had found. Watkins and Richmond were smart enough to keep this secret quiet, until the team arrived. They stayed away from women and drink, so that neither would reveal their treasure. When the team arrived, they left Logan's Bluff and went back to the cavern and lead the team inside. Once inside, the two computer experts on the team spent nearly two hours attempting to hack past the encryption before achieving success. What they discovered were files on nearly three dozen Battlemech and vehicle designs, some of which had not been seen for over two hundred years. Unfortunately, all of the files were corrupted to some degree, many were totally useless. Along with these technical files were schematics for weapons, communication and targeting systems, as well as designs for manufacturing facilities.
The team downloaded what they could and returned with the prospectors to town. Once there they made their report to the governor via secure communications. The Governor was ecstatic and issued orders to the team to secure the facility and ensure that it remained a secret. The next the team left town with the prospectors and headed back to the capital city, telling the prospectors that they were going to be rewarded by the Governor personally. Unfortunately for Watkins and Richmond their reward was not what they expected it to be. A day after leaving Logan's bluff, they got their rewards, two copper-jacketed bullets to the head as they slept.
Governor Emil Xhosa was a greedy and ambitious man and thought that this discovery would bring him into greater favor with President C.J. McIntyre on Circinus. It was the reason that he had the prospectors killed, he wanted the glory of the discovery for himself. His computer experts could do little to recover the corrupted files and actually did them additional damage. Xhosa, wanting the files to remain as intact as possible, ordered them to cease their efforts. He then sent a vague message to Circinus about an amazing discovery and that he was on his way to Circinus to reveal it personally to the President. This proved to be very wise decision on Xhosa's part, as it would lead to him being one of the President's trusted advisors.
C. J. McIntyre was an ambitious man as well and he wanted to make the Circinus Federation into an interstellar power. He was well on his way, within the past twenty years the Federation had grown from a small state of two worlds to a small kingdom of eight. When Xhosa told him of 'his' discovery, his vision of power became even stronger, as he saw legions of Battlemechs storming through the Periphery carving out an empire in his name. His dream was to be short-lived as his analyst soon discovered that all the files that had information on the fusion powerplants were completely destroyed, along with the bulk of the 'Mech designs themselves. Of the thirty-one design files, twenty-one of which were for Battlemechs, that were recovered from the cavern, only eleven, survived relatively intact, less the aforementioned powerplant files. Of these eleven files, six were for Battlemechs, three were for vehicles and two were for Aerospace fighters.
This made McIntyre exceedingly angry, as the Federation lacked the proper facilities and knowledge to build fusion powerplants. Sure they had technicians that could repair them, but they lacked the actual knowledge for how they were manufactured. McIntyre then tasked Xhosa with the mission to discover the means by which they could manufacture the engines necessary to get these 'Mechs to move, The President implied that Xhosa's life depended upon his success. Xhosa went about his mission, as President McIntyre, armed with the computer files, set in motion the plan to construct facilities that would build the new 'Mechs. Construction began in 3013 on a large industrial complex that would begin fabrication as soon as Xhosa completed his mission.
Xhosa spent the next four years searching the Federation for anyone who had knowledge on how to fabricate and/or design fusion powerplants. In the summer of 3016, he came to the world of Andiron, the only planet in the realm he had not searched. It was there, with hope all but lost that he found his salvation in a group of recently acquired 'workers'. A company of Black Warriors had recently returned from a raid on the Lyran world of Aberystwyth, with twenty-three new slaves in tow. Among these new slaves was Slobodan "Slow Boat" Radocevic, a very down on his luck engineer.
Slobodan Radocevic, was born on the world of Batajnica in 2988 to a family of educators. He soon cultivated a love for the world of physics and the practical things that it could do for people. His parents, knowing that the meager university on Batajnica would not be able to meet his needs arranged to have their son sent to university on Buena. 18 years old and way from his strict and demanding parents for the first time, Slobodan decided to exercise his newfound freedom. Not long after arriving on Buena, he discovered the vice that would lead him to Circinus, he found alcohol. Over the course of the next five years he spent more time in the local pubs than he did in the classroom. What few friends he had among his classmates, soon came to call him “Slow Boat”, a take off on his given name and what they thought of how drinking was effecting his class work. Yet as each major test or project came along, he managed to exceed the scores of his ‘sober’ classmates.
He completed university in 3011, roughly at the same time as the Blantleff Cache discovery, and went from there went home to visit with his family before returning to Buena to begin work on his Master’s project. It was at this time that his drinking finally caught up with him. Nobody is sure why he left, perhaps he slept with the wrong woman, got into a fight with the wrong man or lost too much money at the poker table, but flee he did. Sometime in late 3014, he arrived on the planet of Aberystwyth with a hardly a kroner to his name. He managed to find work working at a small municipal power facility, where he worked on the flow regulators. After seventeen months of the blue collar life, it was about to get worse, the Black Warriors had come to call. His blue collar was now one of steel, as he several others were rounded in a slave raid. As usual he was drunk and did not realize what has happening until the DropShip he was in had already reached deep, black space.
Some many weeks later he found himself being looked over by a short, fat black man with a very bad French accent. Little did he know that this man would be the one who would set him free and lead him out of his valley of despair. This man, Emil Xhosa, was looking for someone who knew how to design and fabricate fusion engines. As best he could through the swollen lips and bruised, he let it be known that he was a trained physicist and engineer.
Meanwhile, during the past three years, several factories had sprung up on Circinus and had begun manufacturing many of the parts that would go towards the manufacture of Battlemechs, They produced myomer bundles, armor plating, weapons, communication system and all the other components needed to build a ‘Mech. Xhosa brought Radocevic to Circinus on the promise that there would be great rewards should he prove successful and implied there would be great pain should he fail and the two began immediately designing engines for the new machines. In the early stages, all of the major parts for the engines had to be handmade which slowed the development process. It would take Xhosa and Radocevic nearly three years to have the engines ready for manufacturing.
It was now 3019, and the first engines were being tested in several of the new machines, but there seemed to be a problem with all six of the engines that he had designed, for they were all not performing up to design specifications. Slobo could not discover why the power levels were as much as twenty percent below what the design called for, he spent the next year trying to ascertain the cause of the problem, but had no luck. Finally, faced with the prospect of losing his life, he simply blamed on some phase of the manufacturing and convinced the President that the effect on the performance would not be disastrous, though normal walking speeds could be down from ten to twenty kilometers per hour on each type of ‘Mech.
Somewhere during the course of the development of the ‘Mechs, Adam Cirion, commander of the Black Warriors, came up with a plan that called for building two variants each of the six ‘Mech designs that were slated for production. One variant would stay true to the schematics they had found and form the basis of the more respectable Home Guard units. The other variant would be radically different from the base version, with new weapons loadouts and deadly melee’ weapons such as hatchets and swords. These variants would go to the Black Warriors, who were involved in the more nefarious (pirate) operations that brought the government much of its largesse.
Full-scale production began in 3021 and over the course of the next ten years, a total of 141 ‘Mechs of all types would be produced with 103 going to the Home Guard and the remainder to the Black Warriors. President McIntyre now had the force, now numbering nearly 400 Battlemechs, needed to conquer the Illyrian Palatinate, the next step in his dream of interstellar conquest. Unfortunately, he would die before his dream could come to fruition and it would be left to his son, H.R. “Little Bob” McIntyre, to fulfill the destiny of the Federation.
History would later write that the invasion failed due to very poor intelligence on the forces that the Illyrians fielded. The Circinians were defeated by the Illyrians and their mercenary army and forced to retreat back to Circinian space. Of the two regiments worth of Battlemechs that left Circinus less than a hundred would return. After success on Dersidatz, some the morale that was lost was regained, but all operations would soon cease with growing activity along the League and Lyran borders. By 3036, the dreams of conquest had all but died.
In 3038, the final blow was struck. The Black Warriors returning from a raid into the Free Worlds League were pursued by aerospace forces belonging to the 2nd Fusiliers of Oriente and the 5th Oriente Hussars. These fighters, upon discovering the factories on the outer reaches of the capital city, immediately began to strafe the industrial complex area, laying waste to several completed ‘Mechs and destroying several buildings, including the engine fabrication building.
With the destruction of this facility came the end of the Circinian Battlemech industry. For among the more than 300 dead and missing factory workers was Slobodan Radocevic, the father of the Circinian engine program. Though his body was never found, he was never seen or heard from again. Rumors still persist about Radocevic, some say that he died while shooting at Marik fighters from the roof of the factory, others have him being seen in many a bar on many a world within the Federation. All that is known, is that with his death, so died the imperial dreams of the McIntyre family.
Notes:
1. The 'Mech designs that will be linked from here to the design boards will appear in pairs, the first is the Home Guard version, while the second will be the Black Warriors version.
2. All 'Mechs are based upon the 3025 versions of Star League-era 'Mechs. Each will move at least 1 walking point slower than the design upon which it was based.
3. For practical and reasonable purposes, I have treated swords as LVL 1 equipment (like they should have been in the first place)
4. All the 'Mechs use the same armor, communication and targeting systems. All the lasers are of one make, as well as the missile launchers (unless I missed one somewhere). This was done to cut down on the burden of the Circinian infrastructure.
5. You will notice during your perusal that the Home Guards are more ammo-dependent and have heavier armor than their Black Warrior counterparts, this too was done intentionally. The Home Guard are to be defensive in nature, while the Black Warriors are raiders and have little or no supply chain, thus making energy weapons a must. Additionally, three of the Black Warrior designs are jump-capable, while only one of the Home Guard designs is.
BattlemechsThorn/MongrelMongoose/VandalHussar/SwashbucklerSentinel/HarrierKintaro/CutlassExterminator/RieverBombardier (Unique)Highlander (Unique)Aerospace FightersSwiftZeroVehiclesWar Wagon (Packrat)LightningChapparal
