Albreicht Base
"Oh my God, I can't believe it. What the Hell is that place, Commander?"During the 'White Reach Incident', one of the driving factors was the desire to locate a cache of supposed Star League technology. Most of the mercenaries coming to raid the planet believed there was a base of Lostech waiting to be plundered, something which would make them all rich. As the conflict built in intensity, the mercenary outfit known as Priam Company succeeded in locating a decommissioned and partially-dismantled installation which had been forgotten about on the northern reaches of the Orenn continent. While it was not what was expected, it still proved to be a major point of interest for the forces on the planet. An entire month was spent defending it from repeated attempts to seize the facility by others.
"Doesn't matter. We're supposed to keep it out of the hands of other people, and they'll be coming soon. Someone get the power back on, and tell Minos and Epirus to reroute all of our forces here. They'll be coming soon."
The name of the location was "Albreicht Base", consisting of a decommissioned garrison built by Lyran Commonwealth Armed Forces and a construction facility of (initially) uncertain origin. Records show Priam Company chose to destroy the location through detonating demolition charges within the facility, leaving nothing behind to draw any potential invaders to the planet.
History
Warning: "White Reach Incident" spoilers ahead. Treat with caution.
In 2745, the Star League was at the height of its power and influence through the Inner Sphere. A number of military industrial projects were begun, and a division of Rysel Industries called "Rysel Heavy Industries" was developed to take advantage of the projects becoming available. Lacking a substantial presence in the market for military equipment, they licensed several designs for BattleMechs and combat vehicles popular at the time. A factory was established on White Reach, and this was later expanded to four facilities building materiel for sale to the Lyran Commonwealth. When the Star League was officially dissolved in 2781, military production was increased by many of the Successor States with the intent to attack their neighbors.
The Lyran Commonwealth at the time considered the production line on White Reach to be a potential strategic asset, and commissioned the Lyran Commonwealth Armed Forces to build a garrison over the main facility to protect it. This garrison was named 'Albreicht Base' after Colonel Hansel Albreicht, who had been given orders to fortify the location against potential incursions by the Draconis Combine. Despite a great deal of expense being placed into defenses, Rysel Heavy Industries began making plans to divest itself of any assets which could be targeted by military commanders. This fear was not groundless, as the First Succession War had a common trend of orbital bombardment and nuclear weapons being used simply to deny others the chance to continue using strategic assets.
As of 2815, Rysel Heavy Industries had removed most of its personnel and assets which could be consided useful from the facilities on White Reach. Only Albreicht Base remained semi-operational, as the LCAF forces refused to permit the underground factory to be completely shut down. Colonel Tobias Wulf spent several weeks negotiating the matter with Cerinna Rysel, the company executive responsible for the decommissioning efforts. Eventually, he was forced to purchase the facility and keep a skeleton crew of Rysel employees providing maintenance. At the end of the First Succession War six years later, Colonel Wulf was reassigned as the Armed Forces began rebuilding from rather substantial losses. Rysel employees were laid off, and soon found themselves integrating into local businesses which were just starting to develop.
For a hundred and sixty years, Albreicht Base was forgotten and left abandoned. Time took its toll on the external garrison, assisted by White Reach groups raiding the structure for material which could be repurposed. Few of them were aware of the underground facility's existence, and none of them were fully aware of the extent of it. In 2881, employees acting under orders from Jacob Reiseille began trying to restart the internal systems of Albreicht Base and discovered it was not a simple matter. Rather than proceed, they sought out other solutions to their need and left Albreicht unnoticed. Some decades after that, a survey team hired to provide a report on exploitable mineral assets discovered the location and found themselves eliminated by an unusual string of "misfortune". Their final report was received, but most of the data which could be used to track down the location of the underground facility was corrupt.
Thus begun a quarter-century-long search for the facility which led to the 'White Reach Incident'. A number of fortune-seekers began spreading rumors of a Star League facility present on the planet, and this news eventually mercenaries who were out of work with the Third Succession War winding down. Starting in 3025, numerous mercenary outfits arrived on the planet to search for the cache and became entangled in combat skirmishes against each other. As the skirmishes rose in intensity, official attention began to be paid to what was originally a backwater planet of little note. This attention led the newly-unified Federated Commonwealth to dispatch two separate forces to take control of the chaotic situation, while other mercenary outfits were hired to find the rumored cache before others could exploit it.
In 3032, Priam Company was able to narrow down the location of Albreicht Base and successfully discover its exact location. However, this location was on the northern half of the Orenn continent - already a hotspot for activity as the Twenty-Second Skye Rangers were competing with the Harbingers for dominance in the area. Priam Company's major base of operation was on another continent, but the seriousness of the situation led to Commander Mikell Sethan ordering all of their resources to be brought to defend Albreicht. Several of the forces still active on the planet made repeated attempts to claim the facility, causing Priam Company to rapidly succumb to attrition due to the constant combat. Commander Sethan chose to employ a desperate last gamble, destroying the facility's internal supports and geothermal power source in order to remove the prize from any others' grasp.
The Lyran Commonwealth at the time considered the production line on White Reach to be a potential strategic asset, and commissioned the Lyran Commonwealth Armed Forces to build a garrison over the main facility to protect it. This garrison was named 'Albreicht Base' after Colonel Hansel Albreicht, who had been given orders to fortify the location against potential incursions by the Draconis Combine. Despite a great deal of expense being placed into defenses, Rysel Heavy Industries began making plans to divest itself of any assets which could be targeted by military commanders. This fear was not groundless, as the First Succession War had a common trend of orbital bombardment and nuclear weapons being used simply to deny others the chance to continue using strategic assets.
As of 2815, Rysel Heavy Industries had removed most of its personnel and assets which could be consided useful from the facilities on White Reach. Only Albreicht Base remained semi-operational, as the LCAF forces refused to permit the underground factory to be completely shut down. Colonel Tobias Wulf spent several weeks negotiating the matter with Cerinna Rysel, the company executive responsible for the decommissioning efforts. Eventually, he was forced to purchase the facility and keep a skeleton crew of Rysel employees providing maintenance. At the end of the First Succession War six years later, Colonel Wulf was reassigned as the Armed Forces began rebuilding from rather substantial losses. Rysel employees were laid off, and soon found themselves integrating into local businesses which were just starting to develop.
For a hundred and sixty years, Albreicht Base was forgotten and left abandoned. Time took its toll on the external garrison, assisted by White Reach groups raiding the structure for material which could be repurposed. Few of them were aware of the underground facility's existence, and none of them were fully aware of the extent of it. In 2881, employees acting under orders from Jacob Reiseille began trying to restart the internal systems of Albreicht Base and discovered it was not a simple matter. Rather than proceed, they sought out other solutions to their need and left Albreicht unnoticed. Some decades after that, a survey team hired to provide a report on exploitable mineral assets discovered the location and found themselves eliminated by an unusual string of "misfortune". Their final report was received, but most of the data which could be used to track down the location of the underground facility was corrupt.
Thus begun a quarter-century-long search for the facility which led to the 'White Reach Incident'. A number of fortune-seekers began spreading rumors of a Star League facility present on the planet, and this news eventually mercenaries who were out of work with the Third Succession War winding down. Starting in 3025, numerous mercenary outfits arrived on the planet to search for the cache and became entangled in combat skirmishes against each other. As the skirmishes rose in intensity, official attention began to be paid to what was originally a backwater planet of little note. This attention led the newly-unified Federated Commonwealth to dispatch two separate forces to take control of the chaotic situation, while other mercenary outfits were hired to find the rumored cache before others could exploit it.
In 3032, Priam Company was able to narrow down the location of Albreicht Base and successfully discover its exact location. However, this location was on the northern half of the Orenn continent - already a hotspot for activity as the Twenty-Second Skye Rangers were competing with the Harbingers for dominance in the area. Priam Company's major base of operation was on another continent, but the seriousness of the situation led to Commander Mikell Sethan ordering all of their resources to be brought to defend Albreicht. Several of the forces still active on the planet made repeated attempts to claim the facility, causing Priam Company to rapidly succumb to attrition due to the constant combat. Commander Sethan chose to employ a desperate last gamble, destroying the facility's internal supports and geothermal power source in order to remove the prize from any others' grasp.
RUINED SETTLEMENT
Founding Date
Type
Underground / Vault
Location under
Owning Organization
Mechs ahoy!!!!!!
Check out the rest of the world, it's host to a lot more stuff. From the background work to have this silly tabletop campaign make sense, fiction I write to try to capture the essence of what goes on, and reports about the battles which take place. It's been a little quiet as far as gaming goes, but that's more a matter of lacking the space right now to really play.
Ahh, so a modded Battletech system being used then? explains it a bit.
Heavily modified in some aspects, lightly modified in others, with the battle system only given a couple tweaks. We started off with BattleTech and their "Chaos Campaign" ruleset - free for downloads off the site. But because my brother and I were always tending to think like D&D players as a "campaign", we wanted to do something broader. So we very much put together a couple ideas and saw what we could do with it. Frankly speaking, it showed me a lot about tinkering with underlying assumptions in the game design. I should write an article here about it, maybe later this year once I wrap everything up - right now it's stuck in a "we know how it ends roughly, we just don't know who survives" status.
May be worth it. There's a lotta D&D players who might enjoy the change of system.