Experience: Regular. Loyalty: Reliable. Employer: Rim Collection
In
3046, in the midst of the debate over the formation of the Rim
Collection, the mercenary unit Able's Aces arrived on
Gillfillan's Gold. Still smarting from a bitter contract dispute
with the Federated Commonwealth, unwilling to work for Houses
Marik or Liao, and unable to obtain a contract from a Draconis
Combine still inclined to be suspicious of mercenaries, the Aces
had decided that their future lie in the Periphery. Major Jerry
Able, the unit's leader, was a Periphery native, and many of the
unit's members had come from worlds on the Periphery border.
However, the unit had not yet chosen a specific course of action.
Some members were arguing for a contract with one of the larger
and richer Periphery states, such as the Magistracy of Canopus or
the Taurian Concordat. Others were flirting with the idea of
striking out toward the deep Periphery in search of alleged
caches of lostech. Still others contemplated turning pirate and
carving out their own bandit kingdom. Undecided, the Aces made
planetfall on Gillfillan's Gold for a brief resupply stop. While
there, Major Able attended a Unionist lecture given by Professor
Moroney. The professor so impressed Able that the major brought
his entire unit to hear Moroney the following night. Major Able
then dropped a bombshell. He proposed that Able's Aces volunteer
to serve as the first unit in the Rim Collection's army, and to
train citizens of the six worlds as planetary militias.
Once
the mercenaries got over the shock, many of them supported the
major's idea. If their leader was willing to wait for a payroll
until the new nation got on its feet, so were they --
particularly when Major Able offered to pay those who stayed with
him out of his own pocket. A few members chose to leave the unit,
but most of the Aces voted to stay. Major Able then laid his
unorthodox proposition before them. They accepted with
enthusiasm, and the professor lost no time publicizing the Aces'
offer. By the end of 3047, opposition to the formation of the Rim
Collection had virtually disappeared.
In
early 3048, all six planets signed the Rim Collection Charter. It
provided for a Council of Planets with one representative from
each member world, presided over by a president. The councilmen
were to be elected by the people of their respective planets; the
president by the citizens of the entire Rim Collection. Each
planet had sovereignty over its own affairs, except as necessary
to preserve the well-being of the Collection as a whole. As part
of the charter, Able's Aces agreed to train planetary militias
and a Collection-wide defense force in exchange for a vote on the
Council of Planets in military matters. In addition, the
mercenary unit was granted extensive lands on Otisberg, Major
Able's homeworld. By unanimous acclamation, Professor Moroney was
elected the first president of the new nation.
Militarily,
Able's Aces has filled its part of the bargain admirably. Lacking
the funds to buy large numbers of serviceable BattleMechs, the
Rim Collection still has only two BattleMech battalions; however,
the Aces have trained several militia units on each of the six
worlds to serve as a first line of defense against bandit raids.
A few councilmen want the Collection to hire more mercenaries,
but the Aces have stonewalled these efforts as unwanted
encroachment on what they consider their turf.