FLM - Fleet of the Legitimate Monarchy

[Jimothy]

<span style="font-size:18pt;line-height:100%]674AS

Under the rule of King William III (William the Great), Bretonia was beginning to establish a large and successful kingdom, bridging into the Omegas and the Taus. All was going great for the nation. At least, it was on the surface. King William had two twin sons, and a daughter. The first of the twins, Charles, was set to inherit the throne when he died. Charles was a lieutenant within the armed forces, having chosen to fight with his countrymen as a fellow officer, not an un-trained leader. William’s second son, Harry was eager for the throne, and was hoping that Charles would succumb to some ‘unfortunate’ accident in his work. However, nearing the end of 674AS, William was dying, and Charles was preparing to resign his commission to take his place as the figurehead of the kingdom.
Harry couldn’t bear the idea of Charles succeeding to the throne, so he hatched a sinister plan. Using only a close friend within the Bretonian Armed Forces, Admiral Hayle, he laid a trap on the HMS Pendeen, an Armed Forces battleship. Charles had come aboard to meet with Admiral Hayle about his discharge. According to the records, Charles’s fighter wing was destroyed before reaching the Pendeen, and Charles was killed. In actuality, the Pendeen’s crew were ordered to fire on the fighter wing, destroying all but one ship, and rendering that one disabled. They were never told why, but speculation ran amok that the incoming ships were turncoats, responsible for the death of Prince Charles. The disabled ship was in fact Charles’s and it was towed into the docking bay. Charles was forced at gunpoint down cleared corridors to the brig, where he was locked up. He was to be executed as soon as Harry’s plan to be crowed came to fruition.
By the end of 674AS, William had died, and Harry had taken to the throne. Once King, Harry became over-confident, and decided to have Charles moved aboard the HMS Trevear, the Royal Family’s Luxury Liner, so Harry could come and gloat whenever his mood fancied. Charles was kept in a tiny un-lit room with only a toilet, an automatic ration dispenser, and a small bunk for over four years.

679AS

King Harry’s rule was less that successful, and already the Kingdom was sinking into troubles. Admiral Hayle, still commanding officer aboard the Pendeen, was fed up with the guilt he felt, and the perils Harry had plunged the kingdom into. He decided to act. Informing his most trusted fighter and bomber wing captains of what had happened, he began to rally support to free Charles. Using his powers as admiral, he personally re-assigned the crew of the Pendeen so the only crew aboard were those he trusted unquestionably.

Early-Mid 690AS

Admiral Hayle’s support had grown immeasurably, and he moved his plan into effect. He arranged so the Pendeen, it’s escort, the gunboat HMS Bodmin, and a dozen fighter and bomber wings, were assigned to the Trevear. The Trevear was scheduled for a refit a month later, and that’s when they’d act.
Half way to Southampton, The Pendeen’s engines ‘failed’ and the Trevear and the Bodmin dropped out of Cruise to remain close-by. The Pendeen emitted a comm-jamming signal, and the fighters and bombers were launched for their own defence while the engines came back online. With no warning, the fighters, bombers, the Bodmin, and the Pendeen opened fire on the Trevear with synchronised timing. The Trevear’s shields were downed within instants, and ground assault squadrons were sent from the Pendeen in Shuttles across to the Trevear. With their preparation, military training, and surprise attack, the Trevear was under Hayle’s control within only 15 minutes of fighting. With full control of the Trevear, the group disappeared into the Cumbria asteroid field under Hayle’s orders as he headed to the Trevear’s lockup and released the rightful King and set about making preparations for the next phase of the plan.

Late 690AS

The news of the disappearance of the Pendeen and the Trevear had spread across the Kingdom, and rumours were rife. All were inaccurate, and most were outright wrong, but King Harry knew what had happened. All he could do without implementing himself was order that Admiral Hayle and the Pendeen were considered traitors, guilty of the attempted kidnap of himself, as he claimed he was supposed to be aboard the Trevear.
From a secluded area in the Cumbria asteroid field, the group were fending off minor pirate attacks, and preparing to broadcast what had actually happened.
A small group of pirates were fleeing from a perusing Armed Forces wing, when they noticed the Pendeen, they veered off to avoid the Battleship, and were amazed when the ship opened fire, not at them, but at their would-be-executioners. Unfortunately, one of the fighters escaped and returned to the Armed Forces command to give away the Pendeen’s location. Hayle forged a haphazard alliance with the space-pirates, and they led the group to a jump-hole to an unknown system, later to be known as Dublin. It was full of asteroid fields, with a stunning orange backdrop given by the nebula. Temporarily abandoning their plans for spreading their story, the group moved off past the asteroid fields on the far side of the system from the jump-hole, where they’d be plenty safe, even if the Armed Forces did discover the system.

691AS

The HMS Bodmin was tasked with spreading the story behind what had happened. Charles was insistent on flying with them, and the gunboat, with half of the group’s entire fighter and bomber groups flying with them, left to head back to New London. Once in New London, the Bodmin began transmitting Charles’s face and voice across the nation, using a long-range beacon to access the trade-lane network, and from there, spreading across the entire neural net. He began to explain what had happened, but within minutes, the channel was blocked by the Armed Forces. The Bodmin, not knowing their transmission wasn’t reaching anyone, held tight and continued to transmit as an Armed Forces battle group honed in on the transmission’s location. The fleet consisted of a battleship, a cruiser, two gunboats, and numerous fighters and bombers. As soon as the Bodmin noticed the fleet on their scans it was to late, they wouldn’t be able to get the gunboat back to the Pendeen with Charles safely. Charles was rushed into an escape pod, and shot into space, picked up by one of the fighters.
As the fight erupted, the fighter with Charles aboard was able to sneak away to the jump-hole and escape safely back to the Pendeen without the fleet following. It’s unknown exactly how much damage was done during the fight, but the Bodmin and her escorts were never heard from again, and the Armed Forces intelligence denies the incident ever occurred.

691-750AS (Aprox.)

In the following years, the group began to settle aboard the Pendeen and the Trevear, in a remote sector of space away from the asteroid fields, near the edge of the system. Charles had started a family with a young female officer, and the Royals lived aboard the Trevear. Frequent fighters were sent back to New London to covertly spread the truth about what had happened, and to bring back supplies. The group named themselves the ‘Fleet of the Legitimate Monarchy’ (FLM) and began to shed their ties with the Armed Forces. The majority of the Armed Forces ships were sold or scrapped, and the men and women of the fleet ‘acquired’ more discrete civilian ships.
The FLM quietly gathered many sympathisers, and with the construction of the Dublin jump-gate, supplies such as food and ship parts were easily shipped in to the Pendeen by their growing number of supporters. The Armed Forces continued to deny the existence of the FLM, and any outright support on the planets was instantly wrapped up by a series of arrests for high treason.

750-800AS (Aprox.)

The FLM stayed out of the way of Bretonian affairs, choosing to maintain their privacy, and as such the safety of the royalty. The founder’s day revolt was the first time they actively interacted with Bretonian forces. A small squadron of fighters were dispatched to save a group of miners fleeing from an Armed Forces patrol, and were led to where the rebel miners were meeting. Without directly involving either the Pendeen or the Trevear, the FLM quietly assisted many miner revolts and attacks again Armed Forces ships, and slowly began explaining what had happened to the miners. With the formation of the Mollies, the FLM had a new group from which to procure supplies, and assisted them in acquiring them from civilian convoys. The FLM’s role with the Molly’s was always one of covert support, using them to gain ships, weapons, and supporters from across Bretonia.

Modern-Day

The FLM became a generational community, mostly aboard the Trevear. The original pilots started families with each other, and the few trusted supporters who were allowed to know their location and come aboard, and the Trevear became the main habitat for the fleet’s crews. The Pendeen always remained nearby the Trevear, both still positioned away from the hustle and commotion of the Dublin system, in a remote corner of the system. For 150 years, the FLM bid their time, growing both in numbers and support, yet still silenced by the Armed Forces. Now, Prince Edward IV is head of the exiled Royal family, and Admiral Richard Boon commands the fleet. The fleet consists of the HMS Pendeen, the HMS Trevear, the HMS Stratton, a rogue destroyer from the mollies, and three rogue gunboats, HMS’s Telford, Corby and Southport. With only a small handful of Armed Forces ships left, the fleet use mostly older civilian ships, or the easier to acquire molly ships. The fighters and bombers of the fleet are numerous, as supporters are frequently willing to help. As well as serving a the primary defence for the Trevear and it’s Royal occupants, the Pendeen also serves as the primary training and staging facility for the fleet, and the majority of the cargo bays have been converted to ship hangars. The Pendeen operates on a minimalistic standing crew, with the majority of the crew working from the Trevear, coming aboard only for their shift. The Stratton normally operates as a propaganda and information centre, setting up near a trade lane and broadcasting about the FLM for as long as possible before being traced, then retreating back to Dublin.

The FLM never seek out engagements with the Armed Forces, but realise the Armed Forces consider them hostile, tainted by the influence of an illegitimate monarchy. As such, they avoid the Armed Forces wherever possible. The FLM are Bretonian patriots, so will frequently engage hostiles in the Tau war, however still attempting to do so out of the notice of the Armed Forces. The Stratton has been known to act as a temporary staging platform for FLM raids on hostiles within the Taus and Northern Bretonia, and sometimes even slugging it against enemy ships.
Unfortunately, the FLM have no immediate income, aside from donations from sympathisers. As such, they’ve regrettably turned to piracy, not in a manner unlike that of their Molly allies. The FLM will never pirate a supporter, but times are hard, and just sympathising with the fleet is not enough to secure safety. The fleet targets foreign corporations, and tries to avoid Bretonian companies, however, at the end of the day, their survival depends on collections from traders, haulers, shippers and miners, so they tend not to discriminate to much.

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Area of Operations

GREEN - Primary area of operation, information to be spread, piracy to be preformed, military engagements in out favour to be fought, military engagements not favourable to the FLM to be retreated from.
BLUE - Secondary area of operation, information spreading favourable, piracy permitted if there's opportunity, seeking military engagements of a favourable nature, withdrawing from those not in FLM's favour
PURPLE - Border areas, only to be accessed if absolutely necessary for goods transport, pursuit of hostile or fleeing for safety
RED - No access unless extreme hazard to safety to go elsewhere, ie. fleeing from hostiles
LIGHT BLUE - Unknown until next mod version (This only applies on the 4.86 map)
(Dublin is excluded from the primary area to maintain the Pendeen and Trevear's secrecy, and hence benefit the security of the true Royalty)
NOTE: This is one of the most likely things to change, depending on faction diplomacy as it develops

Also, here's the same map, designed for version 4.86 (Click it to enlarge):

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Any comments/critisisms/whatever can be posted here, or if you've got something to discuss, add me on skype - Spirit236
I'm currently looking for someone to help me expand this, even to the stage of getting it in-game and getting some good RP going... Again, contact me here on on skype - Spirit236

NOTE: With the back-story done, I'm working on diplomacy and a few other misdemeanour's... expect an update soon-ish...

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I was formerly know as Spiritar.

It's been a while.