Hey, it’s Adam from TheDiceAbide.com, back to tell you a little more about the four main factions of Heavy Gear. This time we’re going to talk a bit about the CEF, who are charged with reuniting Earths colonies, and Caprice, some less than willing new members of the CEF. With their new volunteers from Caprice, the CEF now has it’s sights set on Terra Nova.
The CEF
The Colonial Expeditionary Force (CEF) is the military might of the New Earth Commonwealth and has been charged with the repatriation of Earth’s former colonies. Their first target was the Loki System and planet of Caprice, which was easily taken. With most of the population contained within the Cat’s Eye Trench, threatening attack with directed massdrivers, prompted the ruling corporations to capitulate quickly. Once Caprice was in hand, work turned toward retrofitting the massive shipyards above the planet into a staging base for the first wave of colonial repatriation. Attacks were launched soon afterwards with mixed results.
Currently, the CEF is in flux. While it met with success early on, the lack of success on Terra Nova, New Jerusalem and Jotenheim have left the morale of the force shaken. Guerillas on Atlantis and Botany Bay are proving to be a nuisance, but those on Caprice are showing signs of organization and are receiving aid from Terra Nova, using technology and vehicle designs previously unknown. Troops on Caprice have become nervous and complacent at the same time.
CEF high command has placed a great deal of emphasis on pacifying the resisting colonies and subjugating those that have not been taken. The GREL upgrades to FLAILs have been given high priority and Battleframes have been integrated into most Fleets to ensure that walkers like those on Terra Nova do not overwhelm the Hovertank Legions.
A new invasion to subjugate Terra Nova has been launched, and the CEF expects better results this time around.
Caprice
Caprice lacks most requirements for a settlement world. The planet is mostly barren, with what little atmosphere there is being very thin, except within the large Cat’s Eye Trench. Indeed, it took months for humans to adapt to the harsher surface of the planet, and they still require rebreathers and oxygen tanks to support themselves outside of the Trench. Caprice was thus a corporate world first and foremost, with settlement limited to corporate workers and scientists sent to exploit the planet and explore the myriad of gates within the Loki system. From these beginnings as Earth’s first colony, Caprice grew into an economic powerhouse and center for interstellar trade with Earth’s other colonies, as all ships bound to Earth from these colonies or to the colonies from Earth had to go through the Loki System.
When the CEF appeared in orbit the planetary leaders capitulated rather than see their city destroyed by mass drivers in the blink of an eye. Currently, Caprician society is in a state of uneasy coexistence with the invaders. The Coalition resistance is laying low, letting the CEF operate as it wishes, while the Corporate council manages the surface much as before. While a portion of the manufacturing on the planet has been turned over to supplying the CEF, progress is slow, ostensibly due to Capricians’ unfamiliarity with CEF equipment. The real reason is the resistance wishes to hinder the CEF as much as possible. CEF officials are beginning to suspect as much, but there is very little they can do.
Now with the CEF’s latest plans for conquest of the Terra Novan system, Caprice has been obliged to contribute forces to this costly venture, with no real way to say no.
