The Inner Sphere: Rim Collection

Professor James Moroney, a social sciences instructor at the University of Regulus in the Free Worlds League, felt no ambition to become a political leader. Several events during the 3030s, however, changed his mind. That decade was a troubled one in the Free Worlds League -- the perenially rebellious Duchy of Andurien seceded in 3030, and the assassination of Captain-General Janos Marik in 3035 was wrongly blamed on Andurien agents. As a native of Andurien, Professor Moroney came under suspicion from an increasingly paranoid and heavy-handed central government. In addition to his ancestry, the professor was known to espouse views on self-determination and political freedom in ways the Marik government found uncomfortable. Both in classes and outside of them, Professor Moroney spoke eloquently of humankind's unquenchable desire for freedom and the futility of any attempt to impose a destiny on any people who wished to choose their own way. Though he never explicitly advocated his native duchy's secession, he stated many times that no government could hope to keep control over a people who wished to be free of that administration. In 3036, Captain-General Duncan Marik ordered Moroney arrested for treason.

Because the League was by then engulfed in a war to reclaim its wayward duchy, Moroney's trial was not scheduled to take place until early 3037. In December 3036, Thomas Marik -- initially believed to be dead in the same explosion that killed his father Janos -- appeared and claimed the Captain-Generalship. With Thomas's accession, Duncan Marik's death in the field, the successful reconquest of Andurien, and increasing doubt that the Anduriens had actually been responsible for Janos Marik's death, the jury for the Moroney trial found the professor not guilty of treason and sedition. They pronounced him a free man, subject only to a heavy fine for what they termed "irresponsible public statements in a time of martial emergency."

The professor soon discovered, however, that his newly won freedom had its limits. When he attempted to return to work, the University of Regulus informed him that it had revoked his tenure. His subsequent attempt to earn monet on the public lecture circuit ended with the League government banishing the professor and his family from Marik space as "political undesirables." In 3038 Professor Moroney relocated to the Federated Commonwealth world of Aberystwyth, where a local community college had offered him a part-time teaching job. While on Aberystwyth, Moroney began speaking out about his trial and expulsion, and also began writing a personal account of his experiences. His stirring speeches on the human right to self-determination garnered him considerable attention, not all of it positive. Members of the Skye separatist movement, the principal focus of opposition to the merging of the Lyran Commonwealth with the Federated Suns, obtained copies of Professor Moroney's speeches and circulated them around the Isle of Skye. Though he had not indended them to, Moroney's speeches and writings also influenced quite a few citizens of both realms who felt uneasy about the union. Eventually, the government of the Federated Commonwealth politely but firmly demanded that Moroney depart.

Lacking funds to go very far, Moroney took his family on a short jaunt to the independent world of Gillfillan's Gold. On this backwater planet, Moroney hoped to build a new and simpler life as a farmer. he seemed to have succeeded until 3043, when a local town councilman and friend of Moroney's ran across one of the professor's taped public speeches on a visit to the Commonwealth. Impressed by the speech's content and style, Councilman Roberts returned to Gillfillan's Gold determined to enlist his eloquent friend's aid in a cause dear to the councilman's heart -- the union of Gillfillan's Gold and five other nearby, independent worlds into a confederation that might give them some hope for a more prosperous future.

Initially reluctant to step back into the public arena, Professor Moroney was soon won over by the dedication of the Unionists and the crying need for some means of making life better in Gillfillan's Gold and its sister worlds. Within a year, he was travelling from world to world, speaking for the creation of a new state to be known as the Rim Collection. Between 3044 and 3046, the Unionists slowly grew stronger as more and more people threw their support behind the idea. In late 3046, however, a devastating pirate raid on Otisberg laid bare a seemingly insurmountable obstacle to the formation of the Rim Collection -- the lack of a military capable of fending off the Periphery's numerous predators. The six worlds had not been able to support a standing army since the time of the Star League, nor did they have the economic resources to pay for reputable mercenary units. With no means of seeing to their own defense, opponents of the union asked what good would increased prosperity do them? What could they possible become, except more tempting targets for bandits? Supporters argued that bettering their economies would enable the united worlds to buy mercenary troops eventually, but many people wondered if "eventually" was good enough.

In the midst of this debate, 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 conemplated 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.

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