ECV Outbound Light
Founded in 2959, ComStar's Explorer Corps is dedicated to the exploration of the vast regions of space lying outside of the Inner Sphere. One of their primary goals from the very beginning was to find some trace of Aleksandr Kerensky's Exodus, which had vanished into the Periphery in 2784 and hadn't been heard from since. Many Explorer Corps missions were sent deep into the Periphery in search of even the tiniest evidence, but nothing conclusive was ever found. When Kerensky's descendents, the Clans, arrived in the Inner Sphere in 3049, ComStar was as in the dark about the location of their homeworlds as everyone else. Ironically, though, it was an Explorer Corps mission that was responsible for spurring the Clans to action after 250 years of separation from their cousins in the Inner Sphere.
ECV Outbound Light was a standard Merchant-class JumpShip in service to the Explorer Corps when it embarked on its final mission from Bone-Norman in June 3046. Stocked with enough provisions to last over three years, it was not due to return to the Inner Sphere until the summer of 3049, but events would preclude such an arrival. According to Explorer Corps doctrine at that time, the captain of the Outbound Light, Precentor Vincent Dupont, did not file a predetermined route along which it would travel, allowing the crew the freedom to change their route should any promising leads develop. The vessel carried two DropShips, the Knox (Union-class) and the Golden Hind (Buccaneer-class) and was manned by a crew of 46, with a standard seven-person Explorer Service team headed by Precentor Arabella Bradford of ROM.
The details of the Outbound Light mission are unknown before their appearance over a world over 700 light years from the Inner Sphere on 27 September 3048. How they missed detecting any technological activity on this world is unknown, but the crew soon discovered their mistake. The world they had appeared around was Huntress, the homeworld of Clan Smoke Jaguar, one of the most aggressive of the Clans. Immediately upon detecting the presence of the Outbound Light, Smoke Jaguar Khan Leo Showers dispatched the High Guard, a Comitatus-class JumpShip, to investigate and detain the intruder. The ComStar vessel was captured with all hands.
In the subsequent weeks, Leo Showers had the crew of the Outbound Light interrogated to assemble a picture of the current state of the Inner Sphere. Chemical methods were utilized, as was assistance from Clan Jade Falcon. Some early reports from Precentor Martial Focht indicated that the crew was allowed to explore Clan society and offer their impressions to their captors, but this now appears to be untrue. Finally, Khan Showers took the information he had gathered and presented it to the Clan Grand Council, reopening the Great Debate and pushing for an invasion of the Inner Sphere. By selectively presenting the most damning evidence, such as the growing power of the Federated Commonwealth and the rediscovery of much Star League technology that had been lost over two centuries of near-constant warfare, Showers was able to convince the rest of the Clans that they themselves faced imminent invasion from the "barbarians" of the Inner Sphere. As a result of the Grand Council's vote, the Clan invasion was launched.
The fate of the Outbound Light's crew is unknown. Initial reports from the early days of the Clan invasion indicated that the crew had been returned to ComStar, though with their memories wiped, but such reports turned out to be false. More than likely, they were taken as bondsmen by the Smoke Jaguars, though their disposition following the destruction of that Clan is not known. The seven-person survey team, however, was returned to ComStar, though they suffered severe psychological trauma from their experiences. As for the Outbound Light itself, its fate is likewise unknown.
As a result of this disastrous mission, the Explorer Corps has revamped many of their regulations, including that which allowed Corps vessel commanders to embark on missions without filing a planned route.
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