#669 The Aquila Rift
Aquila Rift. A region of space beyond the Free Worlds League.
Aquilla-Class Jumpship. A primitive jumpship design which predates the Star League.
Can the two names, so similar, be a coincidence? I think not!
AU Idea: The Rift.
The Aquilla-Class jumpship is the oldest jumpship we have a record sheet for. It was first built in 2148, and the last mention of one was in the reunification war, in 2577-ish, 429 years later.
Aquillas were very primitive. They predated the Dropship and the KF boom, meaning they had to carry everything inside their hull. At only 100,000 tons (because technology wasn't up to making larger ships at the time), they cheated. By having a small KF core, they were able to carry more cargo- and have a jump range of only 15 light years per jump. The Aquilla would arive in-system and move to orbit the planet, where it would deploy either shuttles or dropshuttles to carry cargo and passengers from orbit to the planet and back again.
As centuries passed, Jumpships got bigger, and were able to dedicate more of their mass to the KF drive. (We only have one example of this, the Conestoga-class). Around the time of the Star League, the KF-boom was invented. This allowed a jumpship to carry a dropship on the outside of the ship, instead of needing to carry everything inside. Dropships could also be much bigger, up to 100,000 tons (as opposed to the 5000 ton maximum of dropshuttles).
The KF-boom essentially caused a redesign of Jumpships. Instead of having the jumpship carry any cargo, everything could be on the Dropships. Since the Dropships could move, jumpships stopped moving to planets, staying at Jump points. Since Dropships didn't need cargo holds or big engines, they could dedicate more of their mass to their Jump Core, allowing for longer jumps (up to 30 light years).
Essentially, the invention of the KF-boom and the Dropship rendered all older jumpships obselete. Especially the Aquilla. They were all scrapped in the end.
In canon.
AU time.
Obselete doesn't always mean useless. There are pleanty of older technologies which still have their niches. (I once saw an episode of John Oliver which showed that the USA's ICBM Nukes still use the really old floppy disks as part of their launch process.)
And the Aquillas did still have a niche, as one buisnessman noted. Sure, they were old, slow, and carried little cargo. But with everyone selling them off (what with the new-fangled KF-booms being all the rage), they were dirt cheap. And when a jumpship jumps, it takes a week to recharge no matter how long the jump was. Whether it was 1 light year or 30, it still takes the same amount of time to recharge.
And not every cargo is big. Some places only have small amounts of cargo to sell, so the extra space on the ship is wasted.
And so, the buisnessman recconed, there was a place for Aquillas, if they had short distances to travel and small amounts of cargo to carry. Useless for a major world, or for traversing the Inner Sphere. But what about shipping to-and-from a small outpost? A small planet, not significant enough to get on the maps? A few thousand people, mining in an otherwise uninhabited system. An Aquilla would be perfect for that.
The buisnessman began buying Aquillas which were being sold for scrap, and began repurposing them as supply ships for minor outposts, successfully carving a niche in the Free Worlds League. For decades, he turned a steady profit.
Unfortunatly, small outposts have a bad habbit of either disapearing (when the ore runs out), or expanding to the point where they become a real colony, and an Aquilla was no-longer enough to serve them. As the years ran by, the buisnessman slowly lost customers.
And then he had an idea. Why not go beyond the Inner Sphere, into the Periphery? Find somewhere outside civilised space, where there were pleanty of unexplored (and untapped) worlds?
Sending ships out, he explored the Aquila Rift. It was lacking in habitable planets- but he wasn't looking for colony sites, he was looking for places for mining outposts. And he found several. And he began an advertising campaign, to lure people out to the Rift, looking for adventure and fortune! (and to work in small mining towns far away from government oversight and regulation.)
By the time the Reunification War was over, the Aquila Rift was home to a hundered outposts, with around 10,000 people on each- for a million people total. Far too insignificant to even be put on maps, the region got little more than a token patrol once a year by the SLDF.
By 2700, it was still inconcequential. With outposts on a thousand worlds- almost all airless rocks- an an average of 100,000 people a planet, there were around 100 million people in the Rift- less than a single decently populated world. The Rift was still too insignificant to be put on most maps, and got a single SLDF Aerospace regiment which partrolled for pirates.
The various worlds of the Rift were by no means unified. Each was dotted with independent outposts, each of a few thousand people, usually miners. Each was its own corperate holding, usually sponsered (or outright owned) by a larger corporation. 24 corporations had outposts on the Rift worlds, with a 25th- the buisnessmans own shipping company- handling the shipping of refined metals to the Inner Sphere, and importing various goods.
The various outposts on the various worlds had developed into villages and small towns, and had begun interacting with each other. People visited neighboring outposts, to shop or to meet new people, or occasionally to spy or trade. With the Inner Sphere so far away, they tried to become as self sufficient as possible- it was cheaper to grow their own food in hydroponic farms than to import it from the FLW, for example, and many outposts would also grow a single luxury crop to trade with their neighbors.
While calling the Rift a nation would be a gross exageration, it would be fair to say that there was a small community forming.
And then the Amaris Civil War happened.
The occupation of the Terran Hegonomy meant little to the Rift. Their customers were closer, in the Free Worlds League, the Lyran Commonwealth, the Magistacry of Canopus, and the Rim Worlds Republic.
Unfortunatly, the SLDF war against the Rim Worlds was terrifying. Not only had the Rift companies being selling refined metals to the Rim Worlds (which were presumably now in the Battlemechs occuping Terra), but the Rim Worlds was right against the Rift. The Rift was a prime target.
The coporations of the Rift saw this. And they planned. And they purchased.
Salvage from the war in the Periphery was quietly bought and shipped to the Rift. Designs for cheap Battlemechs- the Wasp, the Stinger, the Locust- were purchased. Aerospace fighter designs were purchased.
Domestically, shipments to the Inner Sphere were scaled back- and when the few shipments still going were intercepted by RWR raiders, stopped altogether.
The Rift had always had a curious industry. Far enough from the Inner Sphere to make shipping expensive, they had always built as much themselves as they could. The 24 corporations who ran the Rift all had their own small industrial mech construction facilities, and quietly modified them to proudcing light mechs. Facilities for making conventional vehicles like trucks and mining equipment were retasked to create tank. The 25th corporation had long had aeropsace construction facilities, to repair the Aquillas, the Dropshuttles, and the Shuttles. It quietly converted some of these to Aeropsace Fighter proudction, and began stationing a few on their Aquillas.
By the time the Rim Worlds was conquered, and the SLDF was on its way to Terra, the Rift quietly bought up as much battlefield salvage from the RWR as they could get their hands on, and had it shipped back to the Rift, to be repaired and put to use as guards.
The corporations of the Rift expected chaos from the newly conquered Rim Worlds Republic. They expected renagade units and pirates. They didn't expect the fall of the Star League, or the Succession Wars.
The Rift was off the maps enough that none of the Successor States bothered with it. A steady trickle of refugies traveled there (especially from the former Rim Worlds Republic), mostly to get as far away from the Succession Wars as they could. A handful of pirates did attack, and were destroyed- often at great cost- by the Rift. The Rift was mostly forgotten.
Until 2865, when the Second Succession War was over, and the Rift judged it safe to trade again. Jumpships began trading with the Inner Sphere.
Social Structure:
Though both parties would be deeply offended by the comparison, the Rift and the Clans have a very similar structure. Both have their 'nation' split between a several competing groups, each with their own philosophy, goals, and military. Both eschew the normal notion of 'who owns which world' in favor of 'enclaves' on each world. Both have a somewhat ritualised method of raiding or conquering enclaves.
Each Corporation is its own entity. It has its own buisnesses, its own Outposts. Its own profit margins. Each has its own military, which is almost entirely light Battlemechs. These mechs are usually assigned to a single outpost, and around 2/3rds of them are mercenaries.
An average planet, by 3000, has around 50 million people. An average world might have:
20 city-outposts of around 500,000 people each
400 town-outposts of around 50,000 people each
4000 village-outposts of around 5,000 people each
Each 'town' might be guarded by a single 'mech (or conventional vehecial), and a 'city' by a lance (of 'mechs, vheicals, or a mixture of the two). (maybe two lances, if it was an important city). This does mean that a single world might have 480 battlemechs, a far higher number than a non-rift world with a population that size. This is because the Rift has a relativly high proudction rate- there are dozens of factores making 'mechs- though they are all Wasps, Stingers, and Locusts.
This is also (out of universe) because each world is deeply divided. A pirate Leapord-class dropship ariving with a lance of 'mechs to attack a city is only gonna be facing that cities guardians- the other outposts arn't gonna interfere.
(Note: this does change if the pirates bring a large force. A Union might prompt the other outposts owned by that faction to lend mechs to help, and if an Overlord arived, the cities might all put aside their differences and work together against such a dangerous enemy. Of course, help often comes with a price-tag.)
(Note: This means that a planet of 480 mech doesn't have 4 regiments- it has 20 lances and 400 individual mechs or light veicheals. These are all independent, even the ones which are owned or hired by the same corporation.)
The various outposts are aways rivals. Sabatauge and raids are common, as it outright conquest. Each outpost belongs to a corporation, and will often change hands as one coropration conquers the outpost.
The 24 corporations scheme, fight, and bicker with each other- and buy and sell to each other. (Buisness is buisness after all). Each makes some of everything the people of the Rift need, or want, and each corporations has it specialties.
(Note: while I won't be going into this in detail, here are a few.
House Gaia is the corporation which sells terraforming. (Terran alliance era terraforming, true, but still terraforming). All the worlds of the rift were lifeless when humans arived, but thanks to House Gaia terraforming (when paid) half the Rift Worlds now have an atmosphere a human can breathe and a temperature a human can be comfortable in. Many worlds even have small forrests. In unbreathable worlds, people live in dome cities, or in underground settlements.
House Aqua is the corporation which specialises in water. Purifing water, shipping water, refining water into fuel, they do it all. They sell water purifiers throughout the Rift, and even to the Inner Sphere.
House Aquila is the closest thing there is to a leader of the Aquila Rift. Unlike the other corporations, House Aquilla has no outposts other than a few space stations. It does not mine, it does not sell goods. All it sells is three servives, and on two of these it has an outright monopoly.
The first serivice is inter-Rift shipping. House Aquilla owns every single Aquilla-class Jumpship in the Inner Sphere, and has over 8000 of them. Litterally all shipping between various Rift worlds is done by Aquilla's Aquillas, on Aquilla's Dropshuttles. They offer the same rates to all customers, and they cover every single world, no matter how small. Even a planet with a population of 10,000 is gaurnteed a ship ariving every week.
The second service is comunications. The Rift is too small for Comstar to bother with, so all comunications are done via jumpship. Each jumpship carries a massive upload each trip, filled with letters, news, and entertainment. This is free and unrestricted.
The final service- and the only one they do not have an outright monopoly on- is shipping goods out of the Rift. House Aquilla has many non-Aquilla jumpships (most siezed from pirates) and these are used to export goods to forigen states, where distances are too long for short jumps.
Each of the 24 other corporations does own a few jumpships of their own, but not many- it has been noticed that if any corporation tries to build a large fleet of jumpships, they start suffering 'pirate' attacks.
House Aquila has a near monopoly on aerospace forces in the Rift. While it has no tanks or Battlemechs, almost every Aquilla-class jumpship has two or four aerospace fighters on board to defend against pirates. (Note: these are to defend the Jumpship and its Dropshuttles against pirates. Planets are left to defend themselves.)
They also operate a handful of dedicated 'warships'- Aquilla's which have been structurally reinforced, covered in armor, and had their cargo bays ripped out to make room for 20 aerospace fighters and lots of LRMs, Lasers, and Autocannons. These patrol the Rift, to guard against pirates or invasion.
House Aquilla does have a jumpship construction yard for making Aquillas. This began as a repair station in 2450, and slowly grew over the centuries, creating spare parts, and eventually building entirely new Aquillas to accomidate the growing Rift, or simply to replace ships which had failed due to age. The Star League was aware of this, and didn't much care- Aquillas being so primitive that every planet in the Inner Sphere could create them at the height of the Star League (if they wanted to). In modern times, this makes them the only known periphery faction with its own Jumpship proudction, and they guard their yards fiercly. Thankfully, the awareness of this yard has passed out of common knowledge, and they keep quiet about its full abilities.
Forigen Relations:
The Aquila Rift has relations with all its neighbors. It trades with the Free Worlds League, the Lyran Commonwealth, the Magistacary of Canopus, the Lothian League and the Illyrian Palatinate, as well as the Coreward Confedecary, the Axumite Providence, and the Union of Samoyedic Colonies. These are essentially little more than 'we sell stuff, we buy stuff' relationships.
Relations with the Marian Hegenomy and the Circinus Federation are more tense. The Rift does like to make money, but they don't like having pirate kingdoms as neighbors.
Story Hooks:
The Aquila Rift is much like the 3rd Succession War, only more-so. Small battles, small stakes are the name of the game. You never see 'regiments conquering worlds', you see 'Lance's conquering cities' or 'Battlemech raiding a convoy'. Raiding is constant, but seldom for conquest. Corporations are forever trying to make money by whatever means they can. Frequently a 'mech or a Lance is hired to, say, burn down some farms to raise the price of wheat, or to intercept shipments of Iron so that another faction can sell their own Iron. A raid on a city to raise insurance premiums, a show of force to lower the stock price of a company, these are the norm in the Rift.
Occasional pirate raids do happen, but are met with the minium force the people think they can get away with.
Pirate hunting does happen occasionally. When this happens, House Aquila will hire out Battlemechs from various planets, train them in teamwork, and transport them to the pirate planet in question. Always with minium force, to save money.
The nobility doesn't ride battlemechs. While (just like in the Inner Sphere) everyone thinks mechs are cool, the social structure of the Rift is quite clear- Money = Power. Battlemechs are just a thing you buy with money. As a result, coporation stockholders (IE: Nobility) never train in Mechs or fight in battles themselves- unless an heir would rather be a mechwarrior than a Stockholder, in which case they use their own money to buy a Battlemech are leave the Boardroom for the Battlefield.
Mercenaries often wind up in the Rift. Down on their luck mercenaries drifting out to the Periphery and disapearing is a sad trope of mercenary life, and in the Rift it happens often- a failed Mercenary company will often pick a planet and hire out its mechs individually to various outposts.
The Aquila Rift is a setting where a single Mech can make a diference. Its one where one guy wandering into town on his Crusader can save a town or conquer it. Its one where an Atlas can take a city.
By 3000 the Aquila Rift has something like 1500 worlds, with a total population of around 50 billion people. Its more-or-less equivlent to a periphery nation like the Taurian Cordant, with more military, but less ability to project force.
