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The Human Sphere is a BattleTech universe set in 3100. The Jihad has come and gone, leaving in its wake dozens of small realms in a perpetual cycle of raids and small wars. Will you seek money or defend your nation? Or both? You decide.
"Do you know that people are moving to New Zealand just to be thanked?" - Billy Chrystal - 2004 Academy Awards
Sarna Supremacy
History
When Planetary Governor Lorete Montog-Chandler proclaimed the formation of the Sarna Supremacy in 3057, many thought she was suffering from delusions of grandeur. When the Kaifeng SMM, Grim Determination, and Tooth of Ymir consequently added Kaifeng and Sakhalin to the Supremacy people began to take notice.
The arrival of the Always Faithful and the Stealthy Tigers, two mercenary units still thought to be under Liao contract on Caph, at Sarna brought everybody up short and caused the Capellan Confederation to seriously doubt the loyalty of many of its mercenary forces. By the end of 3058, four front-line mercenary regiments gave Montog-Chandler the power she needed to initiate her plans of a reborn Sarna Supremacy. The Always Faithful and the Stealthy Tigers smashed into Sarmaxa, taking it from the Liao garrison with ease, and then continued on to Randar where they met Lockhardt’s Ironsides and the 4th Tau Ceti Rangers. Sun Tzu, unwilling to lose another world to the upstart polity, sent the long loyal McCarron’s Armored Cavalry in to support the defenders and after a yearlong fight managed to drive the Supremacy forces out of the system.
Unable to make any more progress into the Confederation proper, and needing to repair its depleted units, Montog-Chandler talked to the Federated Commonwealth and secured an addendum to their understanding. Seeing how much chaos she could hit the Capellans with, they agreed to allow her to conquer any nearby worlds she wanted as long as she agreed to officially recognize the FedCom as her ruler when they returned to claim the Sarna March and increased the spare parts and other supplies sent her way. They also agreed to “unofficially” allow her to use any FedCom troops that just happened to be vacationing or training on Sarna if she needed them. Taking the practical view that the Federated Commonwealth may never return, she smiled, took the offered support, and ran with it.
Quickly smashing Liao defenders on Truth, Bora, and Quemoy with these “unofficial” reinforcements, Sarna soon secured for itself a respectable buffer zone that had Sun Tzu becoming extremely nervous. He authorized McCarron’s Armored Cavalry to perform a “Reconnaissance in Force” on Sarna itself, and when all five regiments of the Big Mac hit the system in 3059, everybody knew that everything was about to hit the fan.
In the month long battle that followed the Big Mac “acquired” several DropShips from Sarna’s Tengo Aerospace yards, smashed the Tooth of Ymir and Grim Determination into gibbering hysterics, and almost forced the First Federated Suns Armored Cavalry (officially on shore leave at Sarna) into abandoning the planet. The Big Mac left Sarna, suitably chastened, in chaos and returned to Capella to repair the damage received in the battle.
Montog-Chandler nearly found herself deposed after the Armored Cavalry left, the old Sarna royal families who’d used her as a figurehead claiming she’d nearly killed them all and ignoring the fact that they’d been as involved in the planning as she. But they underestimated her. She’d always hated being a figurehead and had prepared for the day when she would be able to take over for real. When they moved on her, she was already ready for them to strike and her blows hit first. Using the Stealthy Tigers and Always Faithful to back her claim, she “detained” the royal families in a lightning blow that stunned Sarna.
Naming herself Premier, in the tradition of Sarna Supremacy rulers in the past, she then spent the next several years trying to rebuild Sarna’s shattered mercenary commands. As the Capellans became busy with taking over the St. Ives Compact, she loaned supplies to the Compact while also mounting heavier raids into the Confederation. But she’d already seen what happened when you bought too much of their attention, so didn’t take over any more systems, opting instead to support insurgency movements and raid with unmarked units.
When the St. Ives invasion finally ended and the FedCom Civil War redirected many of her supplies away from Sarna, she found herself doubly glad for her restraint. Sun Tzu sent his forces to deal with the problem systems, trying to bring them under his rule, but ignored the “sufficiently cowed” Sarna Supremacy as it would be too difficult for his depleted forces to take without heavy casualties. Little did he know that Sarna was the real problem he faced in the Chaos March.
Premier Montog-Chandler worked hard to keep it that way, even though she knew she was fighting on borrowed time. The end of the FedCom Civil War brought few new resources to her fledgling realm, though support from the Duchy of Andurien was oddly making up for much of that. Without it, the realm probably would have gone bankrupt, but it proved just enough to keep the Supremacy solvent.
The Word of Blake assault on the other Houses in December of 3067 saved her realm from eventual destruction. The lack of an assault on Sian quickly had people wondering where Sun Tzu’s true loyalties lay, and resistance movements around the Sarna Supremacy began growing lives of their own. Suddenly finding the fires she’d stoked for years running out of control, the Premier finally knew she had a chance of keeping her realm alive.
She contacted the Lockhardt’s Ironsides and the 4th Tau Ceti Rangers on Randar and No Return, offering them employment under an a “less ethically challenged regime” and they jumped at the offer to get out from under the command of Sun Tzu. Other planets and units began to request entrance into the Sarna Supremacy, and she stood tall, showed the Supremacy off as the light of the former Confederation, and began to fight a vicious propaganda war against Sun Tzu.
That war culminated in an assault on Ares, protected by the 4th McCarron’s Armored Cavalry. Looking for payback, Grim Determination and the Tooth of Ymir smashed into the Armored Cavalry like madmen, forcing it back even as their casualties mounted. When the Stealthy Tigers hit the 4th in the back, the party was up. The Armored Cavalry retreated from Ares, leaving it under Sarna control. Montog-Chandler spent the rest of the Jihad slowly snapping up planets until she had thirty-one systems under her control and reestablishing friendly relations with Duchess Candace Allard-Liao, making the Sarna Supremacy a true power in the post-Jihad Inner Sphere.
When Prince George Hasek tried to take over St. Ives in 3079, Montog-Chandler quickly sent her forces to aid St. Ives again. Starting a general war on the border with the Syrtis Federation, she sent the Always Faithful across the border to hit Bell. At first the war was hard, but when Styk and Tikonov entered the war as well, the Federation began falling backwards, unable to hold everybody back.
Smelling blood, the Premier sent the Always Faithful, Stealthy Tigers, the 4th Tau Ceti Rangers, and Lockhardt’s Ironsides to take the factories of Axton while Grim Determination and Tooth of Ymir branched off to hit Goshen and Acala. On Goshen, the War College forced Grim Determination to fall back, but on Axton and Acala they met the first waves of the incoming Federated Suns Mercenary Command, sent to help the beleaguered Syrtis Federation. The rest of the war turned into a seesaw battle between the FSMC and the Sarna invaders as the war moved up and down the border. Neither side able to make significant headway in either way as they matched each other move for move, they finally stopped fighting when Duke Kai and Prince George agreed to end the war.
Premier Lorete spent the next ten years incorporating the former Capellan systems she’d captured into the Sarna Supremacy as she built up the six main regiments of the Sarna military. The long-assumed integration of mercenaries became official when all six of them pledged allegiance to Sarna and became a part of the Sarna Defense Forces. Then in 3095, Lorete stepped down in favor of her daughter, the thirty-six year old Chelsea Montog-Chandler-Riel.
Premier Chelsea (as most people call her because they don’t want to mess with her long name) waited a few months, letting people become complacent about the leadership change, before taking action. Sending the Always Faithful, now led by her younger sister Rhonda, and the Stealthy Tigers across the border to take Yunnah and Raballa as the first step to taking over the Styk Commonality’s entire Corey District, Chelsea appeared to be bringing a new era to the Sarna Supremacy. Then the Chesterton Border Guards struck, taking Menkar with no losses.
Unable to continue the campaign in the Corey District without losing more worlds, Premier Chelsea consolidated her defenses but has not given up the goal of claiming them for the Sarna Supremacy. As such, extensive raiding continues to cross the long border with the Styk Commonality, keeping the Sarna Defense Force on constant alert. With constant raiding going on along all borders in fact, only a handful of Sarna Supremacy systems can be considered secure at any one time, causing the six main regiments of the SDF to rotate often. On the plus side, that makes them very experienced, but there is some grumbling in the ranks about the constant fighting.
Surrounded by enemies, except for the generally friendly St. Ives Compact, the Sarna Supremacy is still lucky to be alive. Styk is busy keeping the Chesterton Worlds happy, the Capellans are busy with the Trinity Alliance and the Free Worlds League, and the Syrtis Federation doesn’t want to start off another war with the Capellan realms. But the Sarna Supremacy continues to show itself off well by holding off all comers and generally giving as good as it gets. Originally much more warlike under Premier Chelsea than her mother, neighboring realms are heaving sighs of relief as she begins to mellow. They only hope it isn’t another of her complicated shell games.
Military
The Shaolin project looks as though it may relieve the ground forces in the very near future. Only a half dozen Shaolins have come out of the Tengo Aerospace shipyards so far, but they are making waves throughout nearby space. Chelsea’s mother originally started the Shaolin project in 3085, attempting to modify the Behemoth DropShip into a fully functional WarShip. When all attempts to secure or build K-F drives of the correct size fell through, she decided to upgrade it into a “mere” combat DropShip. Massing larger than most WarShips built in the Human Sphere, the Shaolin is a deadly craft. The mere presence of these dangerous DropShips in a system has halted a raid more than once, especially after a single Shaolin shattered a Chesterton raiding force centered around a Krivak frigate over Wei in 3098. Premier Chelsea hopes that the Shaolins will give her BattleMech regiments a much-needed chance to rest and relax in the very near future.
The majority of the Sarna navy is built around the smaller Falcata Combat DropShips built on Ares. Still capable of dishing out heavy damage, these ships are the primary patrol craft of the Sarna Supremacy. The flagship of the Sarna navy is the Fox-3 destroyer Supremacy’s Pride. Purchased from St. Ives along with a squadron of Tai Chi escort frigates, it has seen action only once. On a raid into Capella in 3099, it met a Capellan Impavido-class cruiser and barely escaped with its life. Talks are currently underway between Premier Chelsea and Duke Kai as the Premier attempts to acquire an Impavido of her own.
Locusts and Stingers fill out most of the SDF light lances, while Duan Gung OmniMechs comprise the command lances of light companies. The Blackjack OmniMech is their standard medium fighter, while most assault and heavy lance rely heavily on the Marauder BattleMech. Other classes of BattleMechs built in St. Ives, Capella, Syrtis, and Styk factories are often seen as well, often the spoils of battle.
Factories
Ares – Bergan Industries – Locust, Stinger, and Marauder BattleMechs. Blackjack and Duan Gung OmniMechs.
– Earthwerks Limited – Union, Overlord, Kuan Ti, and Falcata DropShips.
– Quikscell Company – APCs, Scorpion, Bulldog, LRM/SRM Carriers, and Manticore
Sarna – Tengo Aerospace – Cheetah, Thrush, and Lightning AeroSpace Fighters. Seeker, Mule, Mammoth, Behemoth, and Shaolin DropShips.
Systems
Cammel – It is a resource rich planet.
Foochow – Colonized by Chinese, this world is a major exporter of fish and is home to the six-limbed Dobar, a carnivore the size of a black bear.
Foot Fall – A world where snows falls are measured in feet, it is the source of many precious metals.
Jonathan – Home to a massacre started by the Tikonov Grand Union’s General Teng. An odd man who road horseback often while leading his troops, he had the populace rounded up, surrounded, and told his men to shoot at them until blood reached his horse’s knees. As luck would have it, his horse stumbled and fell beneath his 300-pound weight mere moments later. The superstitious soldiers stopped firing instantly. A statue honoring Teng’s horse still stands proudly in the planetary capital.
Kaifeng – the agricultural heart of the Supremacy, rice grown here is seen throughout the Human Sphere.
Moravian – Home of the Alaski Goods trading company whose ships are seen throughout the Human Sphere, often carrying Kaifeng rice.
Palos – Renowned for producing the finest champagne in the Human Sphere, the Palosians are known for being notorious free spirits. Unlike the original Sarna Supremacy that they rebelled against, starting the Capellan-Supremacy War, they are happy to be in the current Supremacy.
Remshield – A desert world, Star League technology made it bloom. In the 31st century, that technology was failing and the desert began to return, but as one of her many public works projects in the late 3080s, Premier Lorete Montog-Chandler secured the parts necessary to revive the failing equipment.
Sakhalin – A polar world, it is full of mineral deposits that are very valuable.
Truth – Destroyed in 3013 by unknown raiders, Premier Lorete Montog-Chandler helped the Pan-Humanists, a sect that preaches peace to all, rebuild in the late 3080s.
Wei – Home to the infamous Wei gas, the late Premier spent much of her reign removing the gas from her realm and destroying all manufacturing plants she could find.