“Sunny Boys go home“, “At least we are reunited”
Those are just some of the slogans you might find on Merlin, a small border world between the Taurian Concordat and the Federated Suns, which is to insignificant to even warrant being considered an officially settled world.
What is so peculiar about this world?
Easy: Merlin just seceded from the Federated Suns to rejoin the Taurian Concordat, to whom they belonged to many years past. According to Allan Powel, one of the leaders of this rebellion, “We saw that the Sunny Boys were busy fighting against the Snakes and the Capellans and that they had no time or money for us. Thus we decided to end the reign of tyranny of the Federated Suns and to reunite with the Taurian Concordat, the legitimate owner of our world and one that cares for its people.” However, according to some high level sources in the AFFS and the TDF, an unidentified shadow unit of the TDF might have gone rogue and helped the insurrection.
Tom Vernoux, an analyst for the highly respected CISA, had this to say on the matter: “Without outside support, there is no way these people would have rebelled, this so-called shadow unit would have had to have crossed the border for any of this to happen. Merlin’s people probably don’t know it yet but they are being manipulated by forces beyond their control. Neither the Taurian Concordat nor the Federated Suns really care about some backwater world lost on a border, its the bigger geostrategic picture that is important here. The only unclear point at this time is who is behind this: the Federated Suns? Unlikely, as they have enough problems on their own hands on the Capellan and Combine front and need a third war like a hole in the head. The Taurian Concordat? A bit more probable, but not by much, as they have undertaken a big assault against pirate worlds and have just finished their Colonial Campaign, leaving the TDF strung out across the Concordat. For Taurus it is now the time to focus on internal politics and re-development and this is what their people have come to expect. The possibility exists that some unknown power within the Taurian Concordat or the Federated Suns could be behind this attack, but who exactly is open to debate. I would like to remind your readers of the strange ships that attacked some Federated Suns border worlds last year and the bombing of the ComStar investigation team, which looked into the matter, the day they were going to reveal their conclusions. My opinion is that the TDF and the Taurian nobles are under too much surveillance to be able to foster such a plot.”
In response to CISA;s analysis, an unnamed TDF source commented that “Those are just big words, the thing is simple: a TDF unit went rogue when it heard that people on the world of Merlin were rebelling and went there to help them. It is a sad news that this quality unit disobeyed orders so it could act for what they thought was the interest of the Taurian Concordat.” According to other internal TDF sources, the leader of this shadow unit has already been recalled to Taurus and his/her fate remains unknown. Meanwhile, the Taurian Concordat and the Federated Suns are negotiating to find a peaceful solution to this problem and rumors that ComStar affiliated units might be deployed as peace keepers for a short time, as the Taurian loyalists are given shelter, have begun to spread.