Trestle Base

[Proselyte]

MARCH 7th, 836 A.S.
PENNSYLVANIA SYSTEM
PLANET ERIE
VOSBURG HINTERLANDS
SURVEY STATION 79-013 "Wickett" [Decommissioned]
GROUP CLARION HEADQUARTERS, "TRESTLE BASE"

---

---

Things were beginning to take shape.

With the buildings on the surface having been made reasonably livable, anyone with the technical experience was hard at work digging out new impromptu tunnels and rat-holes for storing critical supplies out of the open air or from within the exposed structures, away from the reach of Liberty air power.

To their enduring relief, they didn't have to start from scratch.

This old survey station where Group Clarion had put down roots had already possessed modest subterranean facilities, though of a larger scale than one might expect from a settler outpost. Clarion's personnel assume that the industrial pipelines and storage tanks on the premises must've originally been built in anticipation of accommodating an ever-increasing scale of neon extraction from the atmosphere for loading onto prospector freighters. In the modern day, however, all neon operations of industrial scope are located far from here, well under House Liberty guard.

Perhaps these tunnels were meant to assist those potential operations by providing rapid underground transport of the harvested gases by train? Or perhaps, whoever built this compound had other intentions, now lost to time. The heavy-duty passageways that would've snaked underneath the mountains outside stop short, unfinished, with nothing of interest left behind but exposed rock.

For the Militants, however, any well-hidden and secure construction like this is a godsend, even if it is just a slightly more orderly-looking hole in the ground. Some fighters went about making themselves at home, establishing barracks and cordoning off jagged and dangerous passageways.

The extra breathing room was readily appreciated as, on the surface, new faces had arrived. Group Clarion had visitors.

After over a week of proffered explanations and convincing, via messages conveyed through one of Clarion's most important benefactors, more guerillas had begun to arrive at the newly-christened Trestle Base.

The former comrades of the Group before they were all forced into hiding had been brought back into contact. The Militant forces of Group Alleghany and Group Elk had, following this reestablishment of communications, finally agreed to suspend their detached cell-based operations and unify in one spot, at Clarion's request. Over the last four days, one squad after another made their way through the perimeter, until eventually all of the remnants had made their introductions and arrived on-base.

The cell coordinators of Alleghany and Elk arrived with serious expectations. By pooling their forces, they had now compromised the guerilla information structure that kept each of them safe if the man to the left of them was captured, or turned traitor. They were promised that this base would serve as a foundation to make real progress, and demanded to know how. To the credit of their newfound ability to network, Clarion did finally receive ample funding from sympathetic Zoners abroad after terse negotiation, as well as supportive elements within Liberty's own Xenos.

But where is it all going?

So, the deliberation began. Since they had arrived and met with Clarion's own coordinator, the three leaders had spent hours in long, tiresome discussions within the command center, arguing over organizational structure, transfers of personnel, and of course, the overall strategy for the rest of the year.

None of the troops knew the details except those closest to the officers, but rumors were passed around. They were all together again after all, some even reconnecting with former friends not seen for over a year now. A merge of their cells was definitely on the table, they said. That'd triple this force's size to around a hundred and fifty people.

But to what purpose? Whether a hundred and fifty, or a thousand, how are they going to put the hurt on Liberty's Erie administration in a way that sticks this late into the game? Were they being lined up for a major operation? Raiding the government complex to gun down that smug prick Davis? One of the zanier fighters put forward an idea about a marine assault on the Battleship Alma, met with incredulous laughs and mockery from their fellow mud-crushers.

They couldn't be sure, not until their officers clued them in, but they were still protected by their isolation for the moment. What struck many fighters most of all, though, was the simple confidence of now being shoulder-to-shoulder with so many likeminded souls. After fighting in small teams for so long, the thought had sunk in that the tide of history was against them.

Now? This felt like the start of something bigger.