Plot Idea..Wrangels Fleet..Fleet stuck in Exile

[Chumbly]

I posted about this in comment in traveller facebook page.. but I decided that this a great enough plot idea to post it here

From Real History
In `1920 at the end of the The Russian Civil War.. Imperial Russian Admiral Wrangel led the defeated White Imperial Black Sea fleet from Crimea
carrying his crews, dependents and 4000 other fleeing civilians to safety in neutral Turkey and later on to French Tunisia... where it
and its crews sat and rotted in their port of exile still flying the Imperial Battle Flag. In 1924. France recognized the soviet government
and turned over the ships to the Soviets.. the crews stayed in France as white emigre exiles. Fleet was 2 battleships, 2 cruisers 10 or
so destroyers, 4 subs and a bunch of gunboats.

Plot Device. For example...
1. On the Spinward Marches Vargr border.. Due to one of the wars or civil wars in Vargr Space(the other side had Zhodani help)
a Vargr naval fleet find itself homeless as their star nation collapses and is absorbed by its Zho backed enemy. Suddenly
the Imperial Navy finds a fleet of Carriers, dreadnoughts, battleships and smaller ships and the Vargr crews of a now
rather large former Imperial Client State's navy, and its vargr Naval Crews and Marines, and a whole slew of rag tag drafted merchants freighters and
liners filled with dependents and desperate refugees begging asylum in the Imperium. To turn its back on them.. would destroy the Imperium's reputation and
credibility with Imperial
Client states for sectors.. but now the Imperial navy and government has to deal with this fleet before they have
a really large corsair fleet on their hands.

2. Similar setup.. but its the Solomani Confederation...and they got a defeated Aslan clan navy in port... with clan family members
and vassals.

have fun with these ideas.
Chumbly

 

[Chumbly]

Another factor on the Vargr fleet. The Imperial navy officers realize that if
this bunch turns corsair.. they are going to try to treat their Imperial refuge
as their corsair base and its going to be one of the largest in history..

And they are pissed big time and want their payback revenge.. The smash and grab victim worlds
of their corsair raids... they are right across the border in the Spinward and Coreword section of the
Spinward Marches Sector.... Vargr corsairs operating out of the Imperium and hitting the Zho's own worlds!!!!

Chumbly

 

[PsiTraveller]

Pirates of Drinax did something similar, 'Admiral' Darokyn fled the Imperium to Theev with a flotilla of ships and has turned pirate.

It's a cool plot device to move ships and technology into an area.

 

[paltrysum]

Great plot idea. Others have written similar treatments both in "Pirates of Drinax" as PsiTraveller indicated and also in Amderstun Sector (look three sectors rimward of the Solomani Rim for the unofficial sector data). But I like the Vargr angle of your take on it, even more so because it involves the Zhodani.

 

[Reynard]

Do it but in Gateway with k'kree socially engineered by hivers!! No one saw that coming.

 

[Condottiere]

It's one of the reasons that hiring mercenaries and creating that pool of violent talent becomes questionable long term, since they'll find an outlet or patron if not employed, one way or another.

The Imperium might establish them along the frontier, and have them chase other corsairs, and allow attrition to trim their numbers, possibly recruiting the more domesticated ones into their own military.

 

[steve98052]

There's a large minority population of Vargr on Extolay, which one could explain with a story like that. So when an Imperial Navy admiral assigned to resolve the problem, he offers the Vargr fleet refuge in a high-Vargr region of Extolay. Unfortunately he didn't know that the Vargr there are proud citizens of Extolay, peaceful neighbors to the human majority, and loyal subjects of the Grand Baron who represents them in the Imperium. And when the barbarian newcomer Vargr from Gvurrdon Sector arrive on Extolay, the local Vargr are furious, even more upset than the local humans. When the admiral moves on to his next assignment in Trin's Veil Subsector, his successors have to sort out the problem.