As the Federated Commonwealth's Civil war drew to a close pirates soon found the juicy targets of the Commonwealth better protected. Knowing that they could not keep up with raiding the Commonwealth targets, the pirates soon switched back to the easy pickings of the Periphery. After a few quick and easy raids and generally wreaking havok the Outworlds Alliance decided to do somehting.

The Outworld Alliance has always had a strong areospace force, as the citizens believed areospace fighters were cheaper to build and maintian than mech forces. However, after the third raid President Avellar could not allow the raids to continue and helped to push through the development of a new Mech to be built in the Outworlds Alliance. It was with astonishment that Comstar watched as the president's plan was accepted with minimal opposition by the Executive and Planetary Parliaments.The mech would was dubbed the Shepard as it would act like a shepard protecting the flock.

The Shepard was designated to be a strong defensive mech with the ability to take damage. Initially slated to only use older technology, but after negotiations with Comstar and the Taurian Concordat the engineers were soon able to get the manufacturing license for Double Strength heat sinks and endo-steel chassis.

The primary weapons are produced in the Outworlds Alliance. A Parti-Kill Heavy Cannon PPC was used to give the Shepard a strong long range punch that is augmented by a Lushann Redburn Large Laser produced also in the Outworlds Alliance. Originally dual Hovertec short range 6 packs were slated to be used as the primary short range weapon of the Shepard. However after intense negotiations with Guided Technologies, with Comstar support and backing, President Avellar was able to secure the production license for the guided Technologies 2nd generation streak 6 packs. The streak packs allow the Shepard to operate for limited periods of time away from support with three tons of ammo feeding them. In order to retain survivability a case system was installed protecting the mech from exploding ammo.

Part of the negotiations with Comstar was for technical support and help in the engineering end of the design. Deciding to make the more marketable to mercenaries the Comstar techs designed a software and hardware interface that allows for the use of captured clan tech or better house tech, to replace the existing weaponry. Normally a weapons upgrade (to either Clan or IS tech) would be time consuming and a technicians nightmare, but the Comstar engineers have been able to cut the time down and still have a mech that can be repaired with the barest of tools.

The only known variant to the Shepard is designated SH_1C the C designating Comstar. The Comstar variant upgrades the large laser to an extended range version and also upgrades the PPC to and extended range variant. To help offset the greater heat burdened a ton of ammo is taken out of the streak 6 packs and replaced with a double strength heat sink.

The first production run is scheduled to be deployed in the Outworlds Alliance military. Currently there are 8 known by Comstar to be deployed in the Outworlds Alliance. The other four of the first production run were slated to the game worlds of Solaris and Lushann were they are using the arenas for further field testing. Surprisingly the Shepard has done fairly well during matches, and the information gained during the matches is allowing the Outworlds Alliance engineers to refine the design.

The second run is slated to be going to Comstar as part of the negotiations for the support and double heat sinks. (((See Variant))) The Com Guards have announced that they will be stationing the mechs around the hyperpulse generators in the Outworlds Alliance beefing up security in both the compounds and the supporting towns that have developed around them in recent years.

After the first two production runs are complete President Avellar has decided to prop up the fledgling economy by offering the Shepard to other Periphery states and Mercenary companies making the Shepard the first known exported mech by the Outworlds Alliance.