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[History]By the 31st century, humanity has colonized thousands of worlds, while a handful of powerful empires wage ongoing war for the right to rule the galaxy. of all the weapons used in that struggle, the most lethal and efficient are BattleMechs. Loaded with enough fire power to level a city, these fusion-powered war machines of articulated armor stand ten meters high. Piloting them are MechWarriors, the best, most intensively trained men and women available. Mech Warriors are like the mid-evil knights, feared by their enemies, and what every child endeavers to become.
Breakthrough (2001-2100):
At the beginning of the 21st century, life on Terra(earth) had not changed much from what it had been at the close of the 20th century. Despite attempts at reconciliation in the 1990s, the planet's two giant superpowers still opposed one another, but now their conflict stretched outward into space. Over the next century, however, the situation changed dramatically. By the end of the 21st century, the people of Terra stood poised in apparent unity on the brink of their first expansion into the stars.
Politically, humanity's new age began in 2011 when the bloody Second Soviet Civil War tore that nation permanantly apart. As the Soviet strife threatened to bring the rest of the planet to the brink of nuclear war, a joint force of North American and Western European troops intervened to end hostilities in 2014. This outcome greatly strengthened political ties between nations of the Western Alliance, resulting in a formal unification of Western military forces. By 2024, the Western Alliance included Japan, the newly liberated Eastern European nations, and the now-separate seven Russian states. Replacing the defunct United Nations as a world forum was the Alliance Parliament. As a vigorous sponsor of scientific research and space- exploration activities, the Alliance handsomely rewarded similar efforts by its member states.
As the economic benefits of Alliance membership became obvious, nation after nation petitioned the Alliance for membership status. By 2086, the Western Alliance had become the Terran Alliance, embracing more than 120 member- states. A complex formula based on date of entry, wealth, population, and military power determined each member's voting strength in Parliament.
The 21st century was an age of unsurpassed scientific innovation, most notably the development of fusion power as a major source of power. Alliance scientists built the first full-scale fusion reactor in 2020, and sent the first fusion-powered spacecraft from Terra to Mars in 2027. The voyage took only 14 days, a fraction of the five months the trip had previously required. Because of the fusion-power plant's efficiency, space vessels could now maintain higher-acceleration burns for much longer periods.
The development of efficient fusion drives made possible the first widespread exploration of Terra's star system. By 2050, the Alliance had scientific outposts throughout the Sol system, had dispatched unmanned interstellar probes to Tau Ceti, Epsilon Eridani, and Epsilon Indi. By this time, private multinational corporations also began to participate in spacefaring activity, establishing mining colonies in the asteroid belt, and ven transporting entire asteroids from the belt to the Terra-Moon system. These corporations also engaged in technological research that resulted in breakthroughs such as the development of dense-but-lightweight materials for spacecraft and space-station construction and a variety of small, portable fusion reactors for equipment use.
Not all the breakthrough research of the 21st century took immediate effect, however. Working together at Stanford University, America's Thomas Kearny and Japan's Takayoshi Fuchida published a series of papers from 2018-2021 that attacked the theoretical undepinnings of modern physics. The scientific community ridiculed their work, and both men died in obscurity before the century was half over. As had been the case with so many innovators, only future generations would respect and honor the value of these two men's daring research. It would be another 80 years before their theories would come to fruition.
Meanwhile, medical prosthetics research had led to the development of polyacetene fibers called "myomers." Under the influence of electricity, bundles of these fibers would contract strongly, like muscles. Unfortunately, the minimum bundle length required for the process was far longer than any human limb. This line of research would lie fallow for the next three centuries.
In 2102, scientists announced the greatest scientific breakthrough of the last two centuries, the theoretical prototype for a faster-than-light starship. Ironically, their work was based on the once-scorned theories of Kearny and Fuchida. The Terran Parliament authorized the Deimos Project, a crash program to develop an FTL drive. Although the Deimos project culminated in the maiden voyage of the first FTL ship to Tau Ceti in 2108, the billions spent on it created resentment and even rioting in some of the poorer Alliance member-states. This rift in the apparent unity of Terra was never completely repaired and the struggle between the "haves" and "have- nots" would continue to plague the Alliance.
Shortly afterward, Alliance shipyards began producing FTL-drive ships. By 2116, the first permanant space colony was established on Tau Ceti IV (New Earth). As engineering improvements reduced the cost of building FTL ships, corporations and even dissident private groups began to acquire their own vessels to exploit the seemingly limitless potential of the stars. The Terran Parliament soon acted to place colonization under its sole authority, passing laws requiring that all ships have a Terran naval escort, and placing all colonies under Terran jurisdiction in the form of an Alliance-appointed governor. In 2172, the first Alliance Grand Survey reported the existence of more than 100 settled human colonies spread across a sphere 80 light years in diameter. The fourth survey, conducted in 2235, recorded the settlement of more than 600 worlds.
As more and more planets were settled, the colonists began to encounter the problem of impure water supplies suitable neither for human consumption nor for irrigation. As the costs of water purification equipment were prohibitive for most colony worlds, the lack of potable water tended to discourage new exploration. In 2177, however, entrepreneur Rudolph Ryan patented a process for transforming interplanetary tankers into FTL-driven "iceships" able to quickly transport huge icebergs across interstellar space. Within a few short years, the Ryan Cartel became the single most profitable enterprise within the Alliance, and its iceships stimulated the colonization of many worlds previously believed only marginally habitable.
With each expansion of human-occupied space, the time needed to transmit messages to and from Terra also increased, making it difficult for Parliament to administer colony worlds directly. This forced the Alliance to delegate more authority to its appointed governors, who, in turn, had to grant extensive home-rule authority to colonists. When a coalition of colonies along the outer reaches of known space declared its independence in 2355, there began a bitter, 18-month battle with Terra, which became known as the Outer Reaches Rebellion. Much to its surprise, the Terran government lacked both the military resources and the political support needed to crush the rebellion.
The loss of these rebel worlds set off a political crisis within the Alliance that ultimately resulted in a vote of no-confidence against the ruling Expansionist Party. Upon taking power, the new Liberal government withdrew Terran troops and administrators from all frontier worlds, granting the colonies independence, whether they wanted it or not. This isolationist policy soon proved just as unpopular as expansionism because of the resulting political turmoil and economic upheaval. By 2242, the boundary of Alliance holdings was no more than 30 light years from Sol, a single jump by an FTL- ship. For the next 70 years, neither major political party was able to establish parliamentary control on Terra, and their respective regimes alternated, falling as quickly as they rose.
To escape the constant political unrest and economic hard times, many of Terra's best and brightest becan to migrate to the now-independent colonies during the latter half of the 23rd century. Later historians dubbed this period "the Exodus." Terrans colonized more than 1500 new planets during the Exodus, extending the borders of human-occupied space to more than 150 light years from Sol. With more and more of Terra's resources devoted to colonization, scientific research lagged. On the struggling colony worlds, too, the colonists were too pressed with the problems of survival to think much about developing new technology. Meanwhile, some of the ex-colonies were attempting to consolidate their independence by banding together for mutual support. In 2271, the Treaty of Marik was signed by three minor heads of state. Thus was born the Free Worlds League, the first of the great federations that would one day vie for power and dominion over all the rest.
The Terran Alliance ultimately collapsed beneath the weight of its own discontent in September 2314. When a short, vicious war vroke out between rival Expansionist and Liberal factions, Fleet Admiral James McKenna intervened with Alliance military forces to halt the conflict.
McKenna was a proud, charismatic career officer with a spotless military record and a long family heritage of service to the Terran Alliance (and the Western Alliance before it). He was the archetypal hero, appearing at a critical juncture and turning the tide of history in a new direction. McKenna was determined to restore his native Terra to its former proud position as leader and progenitor of "Homo stellaris." After dissolving the Alliance, he declared himself ruler of a new state, the Terran Hegemony. Under his leadership, the Hegemony embarked on an active and campaign to restore Terra's political control over its former colonies. By the time of McKenna's death in 2339, the Hegemony had used military, political, and economic means to reassert its authority over more than 100 worlds.
In 2340, Michael Cameron, McKenna's nephew, was elected to succeed his uncle as Director-General. During Cameron's term of office, the Hegemony engaged in an ambitious government-sponsored research effort. The first significant product of these efforts was the development of a prototype WorkMech, a fusion-powered mining vehicle that reproduced body movements through artificial muscle structure based on the myomer technology developed back in the 21st century.
The reemergence of Terra as both a political and scientific force created a new era of detente and relatively peaceful development for the whole human sphere. Starting with the Crucis Pact of 2317, a number of mutual-defense leagues and trade agreements similar to the Treaty of Marik were signed among worlds. Although most of these agreements granted member-worlds total sovereignty over internal matters, they also allowed more developed colonies to control poorer, younger neighbors. By the time the Hegemony and other states of the Inner Sphere undertook the Grand Survey of 2389, ten separate states with strong central governments had emerged, each controlling worlds within communications range of their capitals. Six strong states had emerged in the "Inner Sphere," and other, smaller governments had sprung up at the fringes of colonized space, now known as "the Periphery." There were, however, frequent disputes over border worlds, especially those with ample water or mineral resources. This tended to make the boundaries of the various states a matter of tension or even war. As confrontations over these planets grew more frequent, an arms race followed, further exacerbating tensions throughout human space.
Though the other federations and states tried to follow the lead of the Hegemony in supporting new research facilities, most lagged behind. In one respect, however, the other governments mirrored the Hegemony absolutely: the creation of a hereditary leadership, embodied in a single ruling family. Commenting on this, social historians have argued that the dynastic form of rule probably offered a comforting reassurance after the chaos of the Exodus years.
In 2398, a territorial dispute between the Capellan Confederation and the Free Worlds League erupted into a shooting war, as both ground and naval forces clashed in the Andurien system. This conflict was only the first of a dozen bloody but limited wars fought between 2398 and 2412 over ownership of key frontier wars, the first such wars in more than a century. A new era of bloody conflict had begun.
In 2412, after a fierce battle in the Tintavel system resulted in thousands of civilian casualties, reppresentatives of the ten states of the Inner Sphere and the Periphery met in the city of New Olympia on the planet Ares to discuss a remarkable set of chivalric interstellar laws governing the conduct of war. Instead of attempting to prevent war, the Ares Conventions sought to legitimize its conduct, banning it in heavily populated areas and prohibiting military disruption of civlian economies. All six states of the Inner Sphere signed the agreement, but only two of the Periphery States did so.
As a result of the Ares Conventions, war became almost a continuous fact of life in the 25th century. It was transformed, however. From being an awesomely destructive event, war was now a curious, stylized feint and counterfeint in which outmaneuvered forces often surrendered rather than fight unfavorable odds. Compliance with the Conventions was almost universal, drastically reducing the human and economic costs of war. Unfortunately, it also promoted war as a means of resolving even the most minor dispute.
Throughout the next century and a half, the various interstellar states fought hundreds of little wars among themselves, all of them inconclusive. None of the governments was able to form either permanant, lasting alliances with one anotheror to establish long-term supremacy over its neighbors. Nevertheless, the hereditary governments of these states survived the years of violence surprisingly intact.
The one exception came in 2459, when the childless, unmarried Lady Durant, leader of the Rim Worlds Republic, named Terens Amaris as her heir-apparent. In 2463, Lady Amaris succeeded Durant, and members of her line would rule in unbroken succession for almost three hundred years.
The Terran Hegemony had its fair share of battles during the Age of War. In 2431, Director-General Richard Cameron ordered his army to seize the Kentares system from the Federated Suns, and in 2475, it crushed a Free Worlds League invasion force at Oriente. In gerneral, however, the leaders of the Hegemony hoped to avoid conflict, attempting to consolidate their power economically and technologically. Whatever the Hegemony's intentions, the state also became militarily superior with the invention of the BattleMech in 2439. Derived from the mining 'Mechs of the previous century and using the same myomer technoloy to power their movement, Terra's BattleMechs soon demonstrated greater mobility and adaptability to environments than conventional armored vehicles. They were also more heavily armed, with a full inventory of conventional and energy weaponry. The other states of the Inner Sphere also coveted 'Mech technology, but it only began to spread after a Lyran Commonwealth commando raid on the Hegemony 'Mech-production facility on Hesperus II in 2455. The Hegemony maintained superiority in the field, evolving new and better designs with more mobility and weaponry at lower cost and higher efficiency. Perhaps because of its military might, the Hegemony began to assume the role of mediator as the 25th century drew to a close.
A century and a half after the Age of War began, the Hegemony's role as mediator eventually brought an end to the wars through arbitration of a dispute between Houses Liao and Marik over the planet Andurien. In an irony of history, these same two combatants had fought over this world 150 years earlier, initiating the Age of War. Not only did Ian Cameron, 13th Director- General of the Hegemony. persuade the Capellan Confederation and Free Worlds League to sign peace agreements, but he earned the friendship of their leaders, Terrence Liao and Albert Marik. In 2556, the three states signed the Clasped Hands Agreement, a secret subtreaty to the Andurien peace accords. The secret pact established special trade relations and promises of non-agression. This led almost immediately to the Treaty of Geneva, which established these three as the founders of the Star League.
Between 2556 and 2569, Cameron used his mediator's skill to hammer out similar agreements with the Federated Suns, Lyran Commonwealth, and the Draconis Combine, the other three states within the borders of the Inner Sphere. In 2571, Cameron and the rulers of the other five states had established a new, unified hegemony called the Star League. In exchange for their recognition of Ian Cameron as First Lord of the Star League and arbiter of League foreign policy, the League Articles granted each of the other five leaders a seat on the High Council, autonomy over all domestic policy matters, and official sanction of the existing line of succession. Most important, all now had free access to the Terran military research apparatus.
The Periphery governments, on the other hand, wished to maintain their independence and resisted all diplomatic efforts to persuade them to join the League. These were the Outworlds Alliance, the Taurian Concordat, the Magistracy of Canopus, and the Rim Worlds Republic. Their traditions of autonomy were now centuries old, and they would fight to remain beyond the jurisdiction of the powerful Star League. The Periphery leaders began strengthening their militaries, knowing that confrontation was inevitable. In 2575, the Star League issued the Pollux Proclamation, ordering the Periphery states to join the League either voluntarily or or by dint of force. Two months later, the Periphery states rejected the demand outright. In the next several years, the two sides fought a number of skirmishes and battles, but all-out war against the Periphery was not declared until 2578.
The Reunification War was a series of desperate campaigns that lasted 20 long years and claimed more soldier and civilian lives than the entire Age of War. It finally ended in 2596, following the final bloody campaign that led to the surrender of the Taurian Concordat. In 2597, the four conquered Periphery states became Territorial States of the Star League. The League immediately launched a vast public-relations campaign aimed at building popular support for membership among the people of the conquered territories. The effort was ultimately successful, with the League able to withdraw most of its garrison troops within ten years.
During the 150 years following the Reunification War, the far-flung territories of the Star League experienced a new wave of scientific innovation and colonial expansion. To reduce the administrative problems caused by lengthy interstellar-communicatin lags, the Star League developed a vast and intricate network of communications relay stations employing FTL transmitters. Known as hyperpulse generators (HPGs), these transmitters were developed from technology based on Kearny-Fuchida hyperdrive principles. Research begun in 2615 came to fruition 15 years later when the first HPG message was successfully transmitted from Terra to the Lyran Commonwealth. The HPG was essentially a large "gun" that fired a high-frequency compressed pulse through K-F space at a target world. The pulse traveled the immense distance instantaneously, just like a faster-than-light spacecraft. Though the energy cost fo a single transmission was of the same magnitude as for a jump by an FTL ship, an HPG pulse could travel up to 50 light years, while a ship could jump a maximum of 30 light years. When completed, the system effectively cut the average communication time between Terra and the Periphery from more than a year to about six months. Communications time could be cut to days, but only at great cost.
At the same time, League engineers developed a new, low-cost water- purification system. It was significantly cheaper to operate this system than to import water, making it economically feasible to settle Inner Sphere worlds previously ignored during the Exodus. The system also provided many settled worlds with an unexpected economic boom. The Ryan Cartel, the great iceship manufacturer and operator, was nearly driven bankrupt as fewer and worlds relied on its service. By 2700, more than a thousand new worlds had been settled, and the Star League had expanded to control a sphere roughly 540 light years in diameter.
In a final important development, engineers working to improe BattleMech mobility were able to develop an improved, more efficient myomer. This improvement finally made it possible to construct artifical "bionic" limbs of human size, as well as full-scale, super-string human exoskeletons for use in industry.
Spurred by the adoption of a universal currency and the removal of the artifical trade barriers imposed by the Age of War, trade and commerce also boomed. As prosperity grew, Star League worlds became increasingly independent. With development and transportation costs low, many planets developed highly specialized economies that made them dependent on other worlds for basic commodities such as food, water-purification equipment, and replacement parts.
Only on major political crisis occured during this golden age, and it was resolved fairly easily. In 2650, reports reached Terra that Tadeo Amaris, leader of the Rim Worlds Territorial-State, was expanding his personal army at an alarming rate. Michael Cameron, having recently succeeded to the title of First Lord of the Star League, convened a special meeting of the Star League High Council, whom he persuaded to issue an edict restricting te size of personal military forces that any League member could raise. To back up this administrative action, Cameron gave Amaris a warning by sending several Star League Defense Force BattleMech regiments to conduct extended maneuvers just beyond the boundary of the Rim Worlds. Shortly after, League intelligence confirmed that Amaris had apparently disbanded his extra regiments. In truth, Amaris and other state leaders continued in secret to strengthen their militia and reserves. Though the Star League represented apparent unity among the stars, member-states continued to fight "Hidden Wars" during this "golden age" of peace and prosperity.
In February 2751, Simon Cameron, the fifth First Lord of the Star League, was accidentally killed during a mining-colony inspection on New Silesia, leaving his eight-year-old son Richard as sole heir. After deliberating for more than a month, the Star League High Council named young Richard as First Lord, but appointed Aleksandr Kerensky, commander of the Star League Defense Forces, as Regent and Protector. It soon became apparent, however, that the Council Lords perceived themselves as the Star League's true authority.
During the ten years of the Regency, the Council passed two edicts that would have far-reaching consequences for the League's future. The first was a reversal of Michael Cameron's Edict of 2650. This new edict allowed each League member-state to double the strength of its private forces, thus initiating a period of general military buildup. The second granted each of the six member-States ruled by the Council Lords a greater share of League revenues, while boosting the tax assessments on the four Territorial States. Not surprisingly, this second action provoked immediate unrest and rebellion in the Periphery, forcing Kerensky to strongly reinforce the Regular Army BattleMechs garrisoned there.
On February 9, 2762, First Lord Cameron reached his majority at age 18 and took his place on the Star League throne. A few days later, he issued Executive Order 156, ordering the complete disbandment of all private House armies. Enraged, the Council Lords wasted no time striking down the Order 156 as unconstitutional, eventually forcing young Cameron to rescind it. Only Stefan Amaris, ruler of the Rim Worlds State, supported Richard's initiative.
Relations between the High Council and the First Lord further deteriorated when Richard dissolved the High Council in 2762, vowing to rule by decree. The next year Richard's Taxation Edict of 2763 further burdened the Periphery's finances, escalating civil unrest. When the people of the Periphery rejected the Edict, Richard ordered General Kerensky to the frontier to cow the Territories into submission. In 2764, Stefan Amaris signed a secret agreement with Richard, pledging to defend Terra in the event of trouble. When even more troops, including Cameron household units, were sent to the frontier following the secession of New Vandenberg and 17 other Periphery worlds in April 2765, the secret agreement seemed almost prophetic.
By 2766, three-quarters of the Regular Army was engaged along the Periphery. On Terra, troops borrowed from Stefan's household guard replaced the Regular units sent to New Vandenberg, eventually outnumbering Regular forces remaining on Terra. In late December of that year, Amaris seized his chance, assassinating Lord Richard Cameron as well as every other man, woman, and child with a drop of Cameron blood, simultaneously moving his troops against Terra and the other worlds of the Terran Hegemony. On the first day, 95 of the 103 planets fell to the surprise attack. In January 2767, Amaris declared himself First Lord of the Star League. News of this coup did not reach Kerensky until May of 2767 when Stefan's forces completed their takeover of the Terran Member-State, and Amaris reopened communications contact. Kerensky immediately imposed a cease-fire with all Periphery realms except the Rim Worlds Republic, while declaring war against the usurper. Both Amaris and Kerensky called on the Council Lords to aid their cause, but none would commit to either side.
In August 2767, Kerensky took the Rim Worlds Republic, then advanced on the Terran Hegemony worlds Amaris had captured. The ensuing struggle lasted twelve grueling years, but Kerensky's forces inexorably advanced from world to world, finally liberating Terra itself on September 3, 2779. On the last day of that month, Kerensky captured Amaris, who ordered all his troops to surrender. In retaliation for Stefan Amaris' murder of the Camerons, Kerensky executed the usurper and his entire family in November 2779. The civil war was over, but the Star League Army had taken horrifying losses, dropping from 486 divisions to 113. 0ne hundred million had died, four times that number were wounded, and ten times more left homeless. Equally disastrous was the severe damage to the interstellar communications network, the life blood of the Star League.
Kerensky proclaimed himself Protector of the Realm once more, and invited the High Council to reconvene on Terra. Fearing Kerensky's popularity, the High Council immediately removed the general from his post as Protector, ordering him to disperse his Regular Army troops to create garrisons for the Terran Member-State worlds. The Council also appointed Jerome Blake as Minister of Communications, charging him with the restoration of the League's communications network, an effort that would succeed beyond the Lords' wildest intentions. Kerensky, meanwhile, returned to New Earth, temporary headquarters of the Star League army. Though his troops were ready to help him overthrow the High Council, Kerensky refused to betray the Star League, the only government that ever united humanity under one banner.
The High Council, however, could make no boasts about unity. Each Council Lord asserted his own claim to the Star League throne, until all were exhausted by the futility of the struggle. On August 12, 2781, they officially dissolved the High Council, each Lord returning home determined to build his own army in order to seize power for himself. As the former Council Lords of the Star League built up their militaries, many remnants of Stefan Amaris' former regiments found new employment as mercenaries. Soon the Lords were attempting to buy the services of Regular Army regiments as well.
When Kerensky attempted to prevent the leaders of the Great Houses from their recruitment efforts among the SLDF, they called for his resignation. Instead, he summoned more than 100 division commanders and an equal number of lesser officers to a secret meeting on New Earth, on February 14, 2784. After this meeting, quartermasters spent the next six months quietly acquiring more than 200 transports as well as supplies and parts. The precoccupied Council Lords took no heed until mid-summer when they began to notice troop movements in the Periphery. On July 8, Kerensky flashed a one- word order to the ships assembled at the New Earth jump point and to those assembled above 50 other stars throughout the Inner Sphere. The one word was, "Exodus." More than a thousand ships made jumps that day. On November 5, this massive fleet had made its way to the New Samarkand system in the Draconis Combine. Eighty percent of the Star League army had chosen to join their fates to that of Kerensky. It took a whole day for the enormous armada to make its combined jumps out of the system. From that day on, Kerensky and his fleet disappeared into the dark embrace of the Periphery, apparently abandoning the Inner Sphere forever.
Kerensky's dramatic exodus removed the last real obstacle to civil war. In December 2786, Minoru Kurita declared himself First Lord of the Star League, and the other four Council Lords quickly followed suit. Within months, war had engulfed the entire Inner Sphere.
The First Succession War lasted from 2787 to 2821, a conflagration of unparalleled brutality. The warring Lords of the five Great Houses cast aside the Ares Conventions, smashing cities, destroying vital industrial facilities, and butchering hundreds of millions of civilians. Few worlds escaped unscathed, and all were affected by the complete disruption of trade, commerce, and communications. By 2815, the warring states had lost most of their FTL shipbuilding capacity. The intense concentration of economic resources into military production had also forced a major drop in consumer goods production, creating a severe decline in trade. This loss of trade proved particularly disastrous for those worlds relying on high-tech water purification equipment. Without proper maintenance or spare parts, many of these facilities began to fail, forcing abandonment of the worlds or a return to iceship technologies. By the war's end in 2821, water-rich planets had become as strategically valuable as they had been 400 years before.
The peace of 2821 was uneasy, resulting more from exhaustion than any true reconciliation. Though no House Lord could claim to have made much progress toward his goal of dominion, too many atrocities had occurred to allow any sort of lasting settlement. From 2821 through 2827, the five surviving ruling Houses rebuilt as much of their military might as possible, concentrating their surviving scientists and engineers on those few worlds whose industrial capacity remained intact. Between 2828 and 2830, tensions along the borders of each rival state erupted, leading once more to all-out war.
The Second Succession War lasted from approximately 2830 to 2864, and was just as deadly, destructive, and indecisive as its predecessor. Hundreds of millions more died in countless battles across the Inner Sphere, though only a few dozen worlds ultimately changed hands. As the war destroyed more industrial facilities and killed off more scientists and engineers, some types of specialized knowledge and technology began to disappear entirely. By the end of the Second Succession War, what had become known as the Successor States' overall level of technological knowledge sunk to a level barely above that of Terra in the early 21st century. It was no longer easy to build advanced computers, large fusion power plants, or starships. Instead, the leaders of the Succesor Houses began to cannibalize existing equipment for the spare parts necessary to keep their current war machines in working order.
After a second brief respite, the Third Succession War erupted in 2866. It began when advance forces of the Draconis Combine invaded the coreward portion of the Lyran Commonwealth; war soon spread across the Inner Sphere. In the years that followed, combat became such a fact of everyday life that the period become known simply as "the Succession Wars." Nonetheless, campaigns during this period never matched the violence of previous two wars.
At first, the decrease in destruction and bloodshed appeared to be more a function of each army's reduced resources than philosophical change in tactics. As time passed, however, and the exigencies of a scavenger economy took hold, each of the Houses realized it could ill afford further losses of vital resources. Gradually, an informal set of rules of war evolved, similar to the Ares Conventions. 'Mech units and armies still fought over possession of operational factories, but neither side attempted to harm the facility itself. (The losers simply consoled themselves with the idea that they would win the planet in the next war). Major 'Mech battles, especially between mercenary units, were often fought in stages, with both sides allowing enemy Techs to enter the battlefield during periods of truce to attend to damaged 'Mechs. Other 'Mech units, again especially mercenaries, revived the old tradition of surrendering to a superior force and paying a ransom to obtain their off-world release. Most important, everyone recognized the sanctity of any side's JumpShips, and strictly obeyed the prohibition against attacking such craft. After all, without JumpShips, the war for supremacy could not be waged at all.
A second outgrowth of the destructiveness of the Succession Wars was the rise of feudalism throughout the Inner Sphere. The central governments of the ruling Houses no longer possessed either the administrative machinery or absolute military resources to maintain centralized control over their territories. Instead, each House Lord ruled a hierarchy of planetary nobles. These nobles were often drawn from the leadership of his most elite 'Mech units, having won full authority over worlds in exchange for the pledged service of their BattleMechs.
Indeed, the years of conflict wreaked havoc beyond the borders of the Successor States, creating the phenomenon known as the Bandit Kings of the Periphery. As the wars raged back and forth along the frontier, dozens of 'Mech units - most often composed either the fragments of defeated units or mutinous mercenaries - fled into the vastness of the Periphery. Several of the units emerged again, often after a number of years, as "kings" of one or more small worlds seized by force of arms. By the end of the 30th century, more than 60 known small kingdoms and principalities ringed the Inner Sphere, creating the ever-present threat of raids and piracy to the frontier worlds of each Successor State.
This era of tentative stability lasted for roughly a century. Interestingly, it was a call for lasting peace that marked the end of a relative balance of power among the Great Houses and began the ferocity of the Fourth Succession War.
Recognizing humanity's slow but steady slide away from the glories of the Star League era and toward barbarism, Archon Katrina Steiner of the Lyran Commonwealth issued a Peace Proposal to the other House leaders in 3020. Only Hanse Davion, Prince of the Federated Suns, welcomed the initiative. Announcing that he would "take history by the throat," Davion began negotiations with the Archon. The result of these talks was the Federated- Commonwealth Alliance Document, which Prince Hanse Davion and Archon Katrina Steiner signed on Terra in 3022. In addition to trade and military agreements, the F-C Document contained a secret provision betrothing the Archon's daughter in marriage to Hanse Davion. Though the marriage would not occur until the twelve-year-old Melissa came of age, this was the first step on the road to eventual unification of the Lyran Commonwealth and the Federated Suns.
The other three Successor Lords were aghast at this sudden shift of power, which would lead to the eventual creation of a single state nearly as large as their three Houses combined. In October 3022, the Draconis Combine, the Free Worlds League, and the Capellan Confederation hastily signed the Concord of Kapteyn. The scope of the Concord was not as far-reaching as the F-C Document, however. It called mainly for an end to active hostilities between the three states, who now pledged mutual defense instead. This new relationship would also permit the three parties to coordinate their overt and covert efforts at derailing the Davion-Steiner alliance.
Perhaps most active in the covert attempts was the Capellan Confederation under the leadership of Chancellor Maximilian Liao. Liao agents had already subverted Hanse Davion's brother-in-law Michael Hasek-Davion, who was now providing them with valuable military intelligence. When the Chancellor next initiated a scheme to kidnap and kill Hanse Davion in order to replace him with a clone his scientists had created, he went too far. Davion eventually escaped capture and imprisonment and returned to his place on the throne. But he vowed revenge.
On 20 August 3028, Prince Hanse Davion and Archon-Designate Melissa Steiner were married at the ComStar headquarters on Terra. In attendance were all the important Steiner, Davion, Kurita, Marik, and Liao personages, as well as the great military commanders and other important persons of the Inner Sphere. Hanse and Melissa exchanged vows, and the Federated Commonwealth became a reality. At the wedding reception, the bride toasted the groom and bestowed him with gifts. When it was the groom's turn, he rose with a smile. In honor of their marriage, he said that he had for Melissa a vast prize. "Here, my love," the Prince of the Federated Suns said triumphantly, "I give you the Capellan Confederation."
And so began Operation Rat, a surprise attack on nine Capellan worlds that was occurring that very day. But this was only the beginning of a much larger offensive against the Capellans and against the Draconis Combine - the start of the Fourth Succession War.
The main weight of the attack fell on the Capellan Confederation. Having discovered Michael Hasek-Davion's treachery, Hanse Davion had been using him as a conduit to feed faulty intelligence to Maximillian Liao. Justin Allard, a Davion agent, in a position of power and authority in House Liao's military intelligence. The Capellan Confederation did not have a chance, and lost half its worlds.
The Draconis Combine fared a bit better, losing 53 star systems to the invading Lyran Commonwealth forces, but gaining 15 from attacks against the Federated Suns. Indeed, Theodore Kurita, heir to the Combine throne, was preparing to launch his own strong counteroffensive just as the war suddenly ground to a halt. Having achieved most of their objectives in the Capellan Theaterof Operations, Hanse Davion and Katrina Steiner declared victory and a cease-fire in 3030. Each had his or her reason for wanting an end to the hostilities. The economy of the Federated Suns was reeling under an interdiction on interstellar communications that ComStar had imposed. As for Katrina, her realm was threatened by the growing power of separatists who opposed the Federated Commonwealth alliance.
Though the two-year-long Fourth Succession War was relatively short, it was a bloody conflict. Despite the constant border fighting that characterized the Third Succession War, the great states of the Inner Sphere had by then recovered somewhat from the ravages of the first two Succession Wars, and the political and social landscape had not much changed. In contrast, it would be 20 years before all the social, political, and military effects of the Fourth Succession War could sort themselves out.
In 3029, ComStar came under the leadership of Primus Myndo Waterly. The communications inderdiction, which had been imposed on the Federated Suns after an alleged Davion attack on the ComStar station at Sarna, was lifted after Hanse Davion granted ComStar the right to garrison all its Federated Suns stations with ts own troops. Similar arrangements with the other governments of the Inner Sphere soon followed. By the year 3050, ComStar had more than 50 BattleMech regiments under its control.
The boundaries of the Inner Sphere began to shift as a result of the war. In the Free Worlds League, the Duchy of Andurien seceded and allied itself with the Magistracy of Canopus. Ten years would pass and both Captain- General Janos Marik and his son Duggan Marik would die before Thomas Marik, the new leader of the Free Worlds League, would recover the Duchy.
Maximilian Liao went mad during the closing days of the war, eventually committing suicide in 3036. With over half of Liao's planets under the control of the newly formed Federated Commonwealth, the mantle of the Capellan Chancellorship fell on the shoulders of Maximilian's youngest daughter, Romano Liao. Despite losing more worlds when the St. Ives Compact seceded from the Confederation, Romano used sheer ruthlessness and brutality to fight off an invasion by the Duchy of Andurien and to rebuild the Liao military. Though the Capellan military did not approach its pre-Fourth War numbers, it became feared for the utter fanaticism of its troops.
Secession fever also reached into the Federated Commonwealth and the Draconis Combine. As Deputy for Military Affairs, Theodore Kurita skillfully maneuvered to turn the Combine's rebellious Rasalhague District into a bargaining chip with ComStar. In exchange for Rasalhague's independence and the right to garrison its hyperpulse stations with its own troops, ComStar agreed to supply the Kuritans with enough BattleMechs to rebuild their army. The Lyran Commonwealth, which had used Rasalhague rebels extensively during the four Succession Wars, had by now occupied more than half the district. Faced with the Combine's support for Rasalhague independence, the Lyrans were forced to give up these worlds. With the stroke of a pen, Theodore Kurita created a neutral buffer state that reduced his borders with the armed might of the Federated Suns by more than 30 percent. Not all Kurita troops supported the move, however. A rebellion known as the Ronin Wars erupted inside the Free Rasalhague Republic, but it was quickly put down by loyal elements of the Draconis Combine Mustered Soldiery and the Republic's newly formed KungsArme.
Theodore Kurita's wisdom in granting Rasalhague its freedom became clear in 3039. In that year, the Federated Commonwealth launched another major war, this one aimed at eliminating the Combine once and for all. Having rebuilt his army with ComStar-supplied BattleMechs, Kurita was able to concentrate his troops against the invaders, stopping the F-C forces' attack dead in their tracks.
By 3040, the Inner Sphere had settled down to its normal state of continual, low-intensity skirmishing, with no side making any major gains or taking any major losses. Nevertheless, the sheer size of the Federated Commonwealth made it seem only a matter of time before it would dominate the Inner Sphere, uniting the many worlds once more under one rule.
If Davion and Steiner thought their day had come, they were not destined to have all the time they needed. In 3050, an entirely new force entered the scene, and from a most unexpected direction.
When General Aleksandr Kerensky fled the Inner Sphere with most of the Star League Regular Army in 2784, he led his followers to a group of five previously unsettled worlds far from the Inner Sphere. The inhospitality of those worlds did much to forge Kerensky's followers into the almost preternaturally determined people now known as the Clans. So did the privations they suffered because the ratio of their laborers, scientists, and administrators was disproportionately low compared to the number of soldiers among them. To trim the number of warriors, Kerensky established a series of tests so grueling that only the most fit could succeed. Those who failed were retired out to civilian life. This was only fitting, for the general taught that it was his people's duty to remain strong, so that one day, after the Inner Sphere had exhausted itself with war, his followers might return as the saviors of humanity to reestablish the Star League on Terra.
But not everyone was ready for the privations that Kerensky demanded of his people if they were to survive. Initially, only a few officers rebelled, and Kerensky quelled their rebellion forcefully, not hesitating to execute the instigators. Just before Kerensky's death, however, tensions finally erupted into a civil war as destructive as any war among the Successor States. In the face of this conflict, Kerensky's son Nicholas gathered together those still loyal to his father's dream, including as many scientists and technicians as possible. In yet another Exodus, yet another Kerensky retreated to another cluster of worlds to let the rebels fight things out.
While the Succession Wars of the Inner Sphere resulted in the loss of much precious technology, this civil war was even more disastrous for the exiles, for whom technology meant the difference between life and death in the hostile environments of their new home. Nicholas used the war as an object lesson for his followers. He and his followers had only to remain true to their duty, for one day the Successor States would also collapse from within. During the 20 years it took for the rebels to exhaust themselves, Nicholas built the caste system, transforming his followers into a full-fledged warrior culture. By the time they returned to reclaim the five planets of their now-exhausted rebel brethren, the followers of Nicholas had become fanatically devoted to both their leader and his vision of one day returning to save the Inner Sphere.
In 3005, the Clans took the first steps toward realizing the dream of restoring the golden age of the Star League. Realizing they needed intelligence about events during their long absence from the Inner Sphere, they sent Wolf's Dragoons to the Successor States, where the unit was to operate covertly as an information-gathering unit while working overtly as mercenaries. Based on Dragoon reports, the Clans took the Successor States to be little more than children squabbling among the ruins of their ancestors, using out-dated technology to do so. In 3050, the Clans decided it was time to launch a full-fledged invasion.
The invasion forces from Clan Wolf, Ghost Bear, Smoke Jaguar, Jade Falcon, Nova Cat, and Steel Viper tore a wedge through Rasalhague, the Lyran Commonwealth, and the Draconis Combine, a wedge aimed directly at Terra. While the forces of the Inner Sphere were able to claim a small victory on Twycross and also defeated the Clan invasion of Luthien, the Combine capital world, nothing seemed able to stop the Clans' advance toward humanity's birthworld and the home of ComStar, the planet Terra.
Though the Clans were in the midst of an invasion, their own ranks were divided over the question. The two sides were represented by what are called the Wardens and the Crusaders. The Crusaders pushed to take the Inner Sphere by force, while the Wardens interpreted Aleksandr Kerensky's vision as one of protecting Star League knowledge until the Successor States had matured enough to accept it once again. The Crusaders won the vote to launch the invasion, but the Wardens were not without resources. Through the medium of Wolf's Dragoons, they began preparing the states of the Inner Sphere to resist the coming invasion. Ironically, they also worked hard to lead the invasion, so that they might ameliorate the damage done to captured worlds.
Humanity had another self-proclaimed savior beside the Clans, this one within the Inner Sphere. Persuaded of its destiny to rule a united humanity, ComStar cooperated with the invading Clans, administering the conquered worlds and providing intelligence. The Primus of ComStar hoped in this way to play the Clans against the Successor States, letting them exhaust one another in war, leaving the way open for ComStar to step in and take power. It was only after learning of the Clans' intention to conquer Terra that ComStar reacted aggressively.
Anastasius Focht, Precentor Martial of ComStar's military, challenged ilKhan Ulric Kerensky to a Trial of Possession. The planet Tukayyid would be the site of the battle, but it would be a proxy for the battle's real prize: possession of Terra. On 1 May 3052, 50 ComStar BattleMech regiments and a host of lesser units met 25 Galaxies of the dreaded Clan invaders on Tukayyid. For some 20 days, these forces threw themselves at one another in a conflagration unsurpassed in the annals of war. In the end, ComStar emerged victorious over the Clans. Terra was safe for the time being, for Focht had won a promise from the ilKhan that the Clans would halt their invasion for the next 15 years.
Upon his return to Terra, the Precentor Martial found that Primus Waterly had betrayed him. Not trusting in the military capabilities of her Precentor Martial, she had violated the agreement with the Clans by trying to seize the worlds that her people administered for them. She had also attempted to interdict interstellar communications throughout the Inner Sphere, hoping to cause a complete collapse of all authority but her own. Unfortunately for the Primus, some of the leaders of the Inner Sphere had obtained intelligence on the planned interdiction and they had seized ComStar hyperpulse stations on their worlds before the plan could go into effect. The rebellions on most Clan-occupied worlds were stillborn, and the few that succeeded were quickly brought back under Clan control after the battle of Tukayyid.
When confronted with Waterly's treachery, Focht did what his honor demanded. He executed Primus Myndo Waterlv and seized control of ComStar. He then made Sharilar Mori, Precentor Dieron the new Primus while he worked to restore ComStar to its role of guardian, repository, and disseminator of human knowledge. Though control of the HPG stations will again return to ComStar, it will be under the supervision of the Successor Houses. Some members of ComStar oppose this secularization, but Focht currently holds the upper hand.
In the Federated Commonwealth, joy over the Clan defeat was tempered with grief. On 17 June 3052, Hanse Davion, Duke of New Avalon, Prince of the Federated Suns, died quietly of heart failure. His son Victor Steiner- Davion succeeds him.
The Capellan Confederation also lost its leader, Romano Liao, but her death came at the hands of anassassin. Unlike their Davion counterparts, the vassals of House Liao breathed a sigh of relief as Sun-Tzu Liao took over the Chancellorship and repealed some of his mother's more repressive laws.
This, then, is the situation at present. The Clans have captured a large wedge of worlds from the Draconis Combine, the Free Rasalhague Republic, and the Steiner side of the Federated Commonwealth. Under the terms of the Trial of Possession for Terra, the Clans have vowed not to advance any further into the Inner Sphere for 15 years. That vow does not, however, prevent them from raiding into the Combine or the old Lyran Commonwealth. With the death of Hanse Davion, Victor Davion became ruler of the Federated Suns, and will soon be invested as Archon Prince of the united Federated Commonwealth. The Combine has been bloodied but not bowed. Under the leadership of Coordinator Takashi Kurita and his Warlord Theodore Kurita, the Combine is girding itself for more wars with the Clans. Meanwhile, ComStar faces what can only be described as a schism, with many of its Adepts and Acolytes streaming into the Free Worlds League of Thomas Marik, himself once a member of ComStar. Thomas, fearing that the Federated Commonwealth will now turn its might against his state, has agreed to a marriage between his daughter and designated heir Isis to Sun-Tzu Liao. He hopes thus to meld the fanaticism of the Confederation with the growing industrial might of the League. Because Thomas does not entirely trust his future son-in-law, he welcomes the presence of the disenchanted members of ComStar, whose fanatic loyalty to him could counterbalance the greed and ambition of Sun-Tzu.
The Federated Commonwealth
When Prince Hanse Davion and Archon Katrina Steiner signed the May 3022 Federated Commonwealth Alliance Document that would one day make their two states into one powerful nation, they must have forseen the inevitability of war. The other Great House leaders could not help but tremble at the thought of the united military and economic might of the future Federated Commonwealth. A preemptive strike on their part would be out of the question; such an operation was beyond the scope of the capabilities of the signers of the Kapteyn Concord. Covert action, however, was well within their means.
It was one such action that the Davions have cited as justification for the war. In 3025, agents of the Capellan Confederation kidnapped Hanse Davion and placed a cloned imposter on the throne. To accpmplish this, the Capellans had wiped out the man's own personality and replaced it with their own version of "Davion." The Prince eventually escaped his captors, secretly made his way back to his court, and managed to prove his identity. The plot was never revealed to the public, but Davion vowed revenge. According to Romano Liao, her father, Maximilian Liao, received a message from Hanse Davion at the close of the Fourth Succession War. The message declared that the reason Davion had set his army against the Confederation, killing thousands of soldiers and visiting horror on untold millions, was revenge for what Liao had tried to do in order to create the Davion clone. Whatever Davion's desire for revenge, he and Katrina Steiner must also have envisioned their banner unifying the whole Inner Sphere, by one means or another. At the start of the Fourth Succession War, the Federated Commonwealth was only a pledge between Houses Steiner and Davion. By the time the war ended, it was a political fact.
Some opposition to the alliance still exists, however, much of it from factions within the two allied Houses. The death of Hanse Davion and the eventual accession of Victor to the Federated Commonwealth throne will not dampen that opposition. The Federated Suns and the Lyran Commonwealth have each been in existence for roughly seven centuries. If their alliance is to succeed, it will have to develop a similar string identity to which its people can feel allegiance.
3050 Update:
Unification:
War, of course, has its destructive side, but gains in territory usually offset that fact. When the leaders of the Federated Suns and the Lyran Commonwealth decided not to pursue the Fourth Succession War further, they must have been well-satisfied with their enormous gains in territory. The Federated Suns could now claim, formally or informally, half the worlds of the Capellan Confederation, including many of Liao's key military and industrial centers. Davion lost only 15 planets to the DCMS, mainly because Coordinator Takashi was too obsessed with trying to destroy Wolf's Dragoons to exploit weaknesses on the whole Davion front. As for the the Lyrans, they seized 53 planets from the Combine, mainly because Coordinator Takashi was not aggressive enough on the Commonwealth front.
These gains helped to strengthen the alliance between the Federated Suns and the Lyran Commonwealth, as had their mutual support during the Fourth War. Moreover, the war had opened up the "Terran Corridor," a region of space that connected the Steiner and Davion realms.
When the Fourth Succession War came officially to an end in 3030, the Federated Suns and the Lyran Commonwealth moved to assert political control over newly won worlds and to set in motion the unification of their states according to the terms of the F-C Alliance Document signed on Terra in 3022.
One of their first acts was to create the Sarna March in late February 3030, with Melissa Steiner Davion as its ruler. Though designated a "free and sovereign" member of both the Lyran Commonwealth and the Federated Suns, the Sarna March was, in reality, a conquered territory whose inhabitants were resentful of their new rulers.
The Federated Commonwealth might also have annexed the St. Ives Compact in 3030. In mid-March, Duchess Candace Liao asked Hanse Davion to send in AFFS troops, ostensibly to defend her against Confederation forces said to be massing on the Compact's borders. If the people of the St. Ives region had not been so outspoken in their desire for independence and their support of Candace, Prince Davion most certainly could have used this pretext to absorb the worlds of the Compact.
On April 12, 3030, another event occurred that would have a major impact on the Federated Commonwealth. This was the day that Melissa Steiner Davion gave birth to Victor, her first child and the rightful heir to the thrones of both the Federated Suns and the Lyran Commonwealth. By the terms of the F-C Alliance Document, the Federated Commonwealth would officially come into being when Melissa and Hanse had both stepped down as heads of their respective states, allowing Victor to assume power over both realms. No one knew when that day would come, but preparations were in full swing to create a governmental and military structure capable of effectively administering and protecting such an immense and complicated realm.
The Archon Prince, as Victor will be known, will have a single military to defend his huge realm. Immediately after the Fourth War, the first steps were taken to combine the AFFS and the LCAF. A common ranking system and the integration of all 'Mech units were primary among these. Since then, twelve Federated Commonwealth Regimental Combat Teams of the best soldiers and the best equipment both states can produce have come into being. The formation of the Armed Forces of the Federated Commonwealth has been so swift that the AFFC represents the greatest challenge the Arm of the Dragon has ever faced.
In September 3031, more than a year later, the Federated Commonwealth did succeed in bringing the Tikonov Free Republic worlds into the Sarna March. With the assassination of Pavel Ridzik, former ruler of the TFR, Hanse Davion had appointed Ardan Sortek as temporary administrator of the Republic. It was not difficult for Davion to manipulate the people of Tikonov to vote themselves into the Federated Commonwealth, for there was no strong leader to mobilize possible resistance. Besides, Melissa Steiner Davion was more palatable to them than Ardan Sortek. Now Tikonov had the dubious privilege of being a minor administrative district in the Sarna March, but it was also part of a state with a strong economy and powerful military.
Opposition to Alliance:
The people of the Lyran Commonwealth and the Federated Suns are not unanimous in their support of unification, however. Factions within both states have attempted to agitate the citizenry enough to prevent the merger. In the Federated Suns, the dissidents are confined to small groups of extreme nationalists. In the Commonwealth, the resistance is larger and more organized, led by Duke Ryan Steiner, a second cousin to Melissa Steiner. After the death of Duke Aldo Lestrade, Ryan took over control of the late Duke's separatist movement. Though the separatists' only real base is among rich nobles and intellectuals, they have stirred at frouble for the Steiner government.
When the Free Rasalhague Republic claimed Combine and Commonwealth worlds for its new state in 3034, the Steiner government had little choice but to recognize the Rasalhague Republic. In 3029, Archon Katrina Steiner had signed the Intention of the Free Rasalhague Peoples, which recognized the Tyr movement as the legitimate government of Rasalhague. The Combine's willingness to give up worlds to the FRR forced the Lyrans to do the same, or else appear to be hypocrites. This concession did not occur without bitter protest from the Duke of Tamar, who believed all those worlds belonged to the Tamar Pact. The Duke and his son-in-law, Ryan Steiner, continue to agitate for the return of those planets to this day.
When the Free Rasalhague Republic came into being, the separatists in the Federation of Skye saw it as a rallying cry to launch their own bid for independence. Carried out against Ryan Steiner's orders, the Skye separatist demonstrations provoked harsh actions from the garrisoning troops in the region, many of which were former AFFS units. This gave Duke Ryan the opportunity to shame the Federated Suns. By successfully negotiating a peaceful end to a confrontation between Davion soldiers and separatists holding a steel factory on the planet Skye, he was able to show that Prince Hanse had overreacted to the situation.
The Skye Crisis was a setback for Prince Hanse militarily, too. If he had not been diverted by this internal crisis, the Fox would surely have launched his inevitable attack on the Draconis Combine several years sooner than he did.
War of 3039:
As it was, the invasion did not come until 3039, and then without cause or provocation. Four major thrusts into the Combine, three from the Federated Suns and one from the Commonwealth, were intended to bypass frontline defenses and strike at rear worlds. The massive assault was alleged to be for the purpose of winning back the worlds the Combine had taken from Davion in the Fourth War, yet that seems a feeble excuse for such a massive offensive.
The strength and honor of the new DCMS created by the honorable Kanrei soon put a halt to the Prince's grand schemes. The Combine's 'Mech regiments, many unknown to the Federated Suns before their appearance on the battlefield, easily contained the initial thrusts. Then, when the Kanrei's counterattack threatened Robinson, the capital of the Draconis March, Prince Hanse saw the folly of his plan and was forced to scale down his expectations and ultimately call off the invasion. The Kanrei's organizational and recruiting skills were responsible for most of the surprises the Combine gave the invaders, but House Davion also was hampered by its intelligence wars with Our Blessed Order's ROM.
It was in the earliest days of the war, on March 15,3039, that Katrina Steiner retired as Archon of the Lyran Commonwealth after 32 years of rule. Melissa Steiner Davion took her mother's place. Katrina Steiner died in her sleep January 4, 3040.
The Marriage:
Those who believed that Hanse Davion's greater age and experience would overshadow Archon Melissa have been proved wrong. Even before the Fourth War's end, the young Melissa showed that her mother had trained her well. Gradually assuming control over the Sarna March from the AFFS military, the Duchess made frequent journeys to the region, whose population remained hostile to the occupiers for years. Nor was she shy of taking a stand. When several key worlds in the Sarna March threatened to rebel because of alleged abuses by Davion occupation troops, the Duchess ordered those AFFS units pulled out of the Sarna March, to be replaced by Lyran troops. Melissa's husband may have been the person most surprised by her forcefulness.
The Steiner-Davion marriage has produced a family of five. Besides Victor Steiner-Davion, there are Katherine Morgan Steiner-Davion, born on November 16, 3032; Peter Ardan Steiner-Davion, born February 2, 3035; Arthur Andrew Steiner-Davion, born July 14, 3037; and Yvonne Steiner-Davion, born on the planet Liao in the Sarna March on March 15,3039. Unlike Victor, who was raised by the Steiners, these four were raised in both capitals. When Victor becomes Archon Prince, Katherine will become regent in the Federated Suns when the court is in Tharkad, while Peter will be regent of the Lyran Commonwealth when the court is in New Avalon.
Opposition to the Archon and Prince:
Most of the opposition to Archon Melissa's rule has gathered around Duke Ryan Steiner, protege of the late Alessandro Steiner, the man whom Katrina Steiner deposed as Archon and thus her long-time enemy. Under Alessandro's tutelage, Ryan became a skilled leader, able to bind together the separatists in the Federation of Skye and the influential Hanse-Off movement, which sprang at in 3029 and quickly started chapters throughout the Commonwealth. Ryan's marriage to Moresha Kelswa, the daughter of the Duke of Tamar, further increased his influence.
The first real test of Duke Ryan's powers was during the Skye Crisis of 3034, when separatists staged riots, strikes, and other rebellious acts without Ryan's knowledge. Realizing that he had lost control over many of his agents, Ryan was clever enough to use the fact to his advantage. When the agitators and students from a local university seized the Royal Edinburgh Steelworks and were surrounded by troops from a Davion regiment, the Duke seized his chance. After clashes resulted in death and injury on both sides, Ryan arrived on Skye and offered to mediate the situation. Before long, he persuaded the students to leave the factory.
The prestige Ryan Steiner gained by his ability to resolve the situation peacefully gave him the opportunity to make a case against the merger of the Lyran Commonwealth and the Federated Suns. His rhetoric struck a nerve among the many proud nobles of the region, particularly his warning that the Lyrans and Skye would be culturally overwhelmed if they allowed the Federated Commonwealth to swallow them up. In addition to boosting his popularity, the aborted atrising gave Ryan a chance to purge those "supporters" who had either acted against his orders or were suspected LIC agents. Duke Ryan emerged from the Skye Crisis as an important separatist leader with a much stronger, if smaller, army of staunch followers.
Among the people of the Federated Suns, there is very little organized opposition to the unification of the two great states. Only Aaron Sandoval, Duke of Robinson and former Minister of the Draconis March, has been consistently critical. He believes that the Davion government should pay more attention to retrieving worlds lost from the Draconis March during the Fourth Succession War. After stepping down from active government, the Duke went to New Avalon, where he lobbied, pleaded, demanded, and cajoled everyone he could buttonhole, trying to win support for an attack on the Combine. The War of 3039, in which Hanse Davion mounted a major offensive against the Draconis Combine, was at least partially instigated by the indefatigable Old Duke, as he came to be called after his son James took over as commander of the Draconis March.
Government:
The structure of the Federated Commonwealth government has evolved over the past two decades. When possible, it has been patterned on existing departments in both the Commonwealth and the Federated Suns. When the differences between the two are too great, representatives from both departments meet with the Political Formation Committee, which is overseeing the development of the Federated Commonwealth government.
The Archon Prince is the pinnacle of the Federated Commonwealth government. His immediate seconds will be the Archon and the Prince of the Lyran Commonwealth and the Federated Suns, respectively, in his absence.
Political Goals:
The immediate political goal of the Federated Commonwealth is to continue to develop its governmental system so that it will be fully in place by the time Duke Victor Steiner-Davion assumes his role as the Archon Prince. As for Hanse Davion's long-term goal of unifying the Inner Sphere with himself as the new First Lord of Human space, we have no reason to believe he has abandoned that goal.
The biggest stumbling block for the Davion-Steiner alliance is Our Blessed Order and its growing strength. Forced to bear the disruptiveness of a Communications Interdiction and then to accept ComStar 'Mechs and soldiers to guard his realm's HPG stations, Prince Hanse realizes that ComStar is no longer a neutral party in Inner Sphere politics. but a powerful adversary. To counter the threat, the Prince ordered Operation Flush, unleashing agents from the MIIO against ROM agents from Our Blessed Order. Archon Melissa has issued similar orders to her LIC. Many have died in this hidden war.
Armed Forces of the Federated Commonwealth:
The plan to unify the Lyran Commonwealth Armed Forces and the Armed Forces of the Federated Suns into a single Armed Forces of the Federated Commonwealth began the day after the two realms signed their alliance treaty. The exchange of officers and cadets was a first step. Joint exercises soon followed. The two realms coordinated their attacks during the Fourth Succession War. After the war, a new ranking system was instituted for both militaries, Federated Commonwealth BattleMech and armor regiments were created, a unified curriculum was established in the military academies, and units began to exchange soldiers and equipment.
In early 3041, the AFFC High Command accepted control over the two militaries. Having learned painful lessons during the War of 3039, the AFFC moved away from centralization of power and intelligence. Instead, they established two State Commands, directed by the Field Marshals.
In late 3042, the last vestiges of the LCAF and AFFS were discarded. Soldiers of the newly created F-C units were given special uniforms. The troops of previously existing units kept their traditional uniforms, but they do display the Federated Commonwealth emblem on their uniforms and vehicles.
Uniforms for the AFFC infantry and armor remain the same, though new field and dress uniform designs for both states are expected to appear within several years. Infantry units in the Federated Suns have also adopted the Steiner Clam, the standard infantry helmet of the LCAF.
All medals and decorations of both militaries have been retained. The Federated Commonwealth has added the Federated Commonwealth Medal of Honor, the Federated Commonwealth Star, the Pride of Sarna Medal, the Tikonov Sword, and the St. Ives Diamond. The Order of Davion has been renamed the Order of Steiner-Davion, with its banner altered to give the Davion fox the blue eyes of House Steiner as well as a blue border.
High Command:
The FCHC consists of the Prince, the Archon, the Federated Commonwealth Champion, the commanders of the two State Commands, and the chiefs of Military Intelligence and Strategies and Tactics. The High Command decides on strategy for the AFFC and coordinates actions between the two State Commands. Marshal of the Armies is Morgan Hasek-Davion, who commands the AFFC whenever the Prince and the Archon are unavailable. Following are the other members of the High Command:
Field Marshal Ivar Bergstrom, commander, Department of Military Intelligence Field Marshal Nondi Steiner, commander, Lyran Commonwealth State Command Field Marshal Jackson Davion, commander, Federated Suns State Command Field Marshal Michele Bjuti, commander, Department of Strategy and Tactics Field Marshal Toni Reynolds, commander, Department of Military Education Field Marshal Lisa Steiner, commander, Department of the Quartermaster Field Marshal Jessup Winston, commander, Department of the Army and Navy Field Marshal Thomas Steiner-Green, commander, Department of Military Administration Marshal Grissom Miller, commander, Department of Mercenary Relations Field Marshal Tony Banzai, commander, Department of Military Communication and Research
Department of Military Communication and Research:
The Department of Military Communication and Research is an important secret section of the AFFC. We know there are more than 30 secret research centers assigned to this department, but have not yet penetrated the nature of their research.
Organization:
The creation of the AFFC involved the merger of two divergent military philosophies and separate structures. The Davion concept of Regimental Combat Teams and an appreciation of the value of combined arms had already made an impression on the LCAF before the Fourth Succession War. This influence grew stronger after the war, with the creation of many RCTs attached to Lyran regiments.
Training units of military academies became a growing trend in Davion space and spawned units in the Lyran Commonwealth, Sarna March, and St. Ives Compact as well.
Between the Fourth Succession War and the War of 3039, the High Command instituted a single organization to reconcile the Davion system of Marches and Polymorphous Defense Zones with the Steiner system of Theaters and Military Districts. Many soldiers in the Federated Commonwealth and elsewhere still use the old terms, but a new system has been superimposed on the old. Replacing the PDZ and covering roughly one-third of a Lyran Theater is a military district called a Command. The term Operations Area replaces the Lyran term Theater and the Davion term Combat Theater. Two or three Operations Areas make up a March. The Marches of the Federated Suns remain intact, and the captured Capellan territories and former Lyran Commonwealth have been divided into the following Marches: Sarna March (former Liao worlds plus four Marik planets captured by the Tikonov Free Republic), Tamar March (roughly Bone, Trellshire, and Tamar Theaters), Skye March (roughly the Federation of Skye plus captured Marik worlds near Terra), Tamarind March (Ford and Cavanaugh Theaters), Periphery March (Timbuktu and Main Street Theaters), and Donegal March (the central area of the Lyran Commonwealth).
With this reorganization came some changes in the way of doing things. Many units received new homeworlds, with Davion and Steiner units often changing places, sometimes for military reasons and other times for political considerations. In addition, the Davion system of March Militias came into common use throughout the Federated Commonwealth.
Ranks:
The ranking system of the AFFC is a merger of the Davion and Steiner systems. The ranks, including the position for which each rank is a prerequisite, are as follows:
Marshal of the Armies Field Marshal (Head of State Command) Marshal (Head of Operations Area) Hauptmann General (Head of Regimental Combat Team) Leftenant General (Head of Regiment Without RCT) Kommandant (Battalion Commander) Hauptmann (Company Commander) Leftenant (Lance Commander)
Enlisted Ranks: Sergeant Major Sergeant Corporal Private
Defense Industry:
The Steiner-Davion merger has created a defense industry boom. Though both states suffered a postwar depression in 3031, they were soon pooling their resources to produce more weapons, more efficiently. The focus of the vigorous new industry was 'Mech designs unique to the Federated Commonwealth. It soon became common to see Zeus, Commando, Enforcer, Valkyrie, Hatchetman, and Wolfhound 'Mechs, particularly in the new F-C regiments. Other designs, such as the Victor, Atlas, JagerMech, and the Capellan Cataphract were also encouraged.
Economy:
Lyran worlds did not suffer much damage during the Fourth War, allowing the Commonwealth economy to emerge virtually unscathed. In the transition period from a war to a peacetime economy, the Lyran stock exchange did plunge as unemployment rose, but things calmed down once the huge Commonwealth industrial base turned to more consumer products.
The Federated Suns economy, on the other hand, suffered twice as much. Many Federated Suns worlds bordering the Combine did suffer heavy war damage and lost resources or markets on worlds captured by the Combine, but the economic hard times (which did not end until late 3032) were caused mainly by the Interdiction that ComStar imposed on the Federated Suns during the war. Indeed, the Interdiction created a virtual chaos among the realm's businesses.
The lowering of all trade restrictions between the Steiner and Davion realms helped both states to climb out of their slumps and has promoted continued economic growth. Investors from both realms saw the worlds of the Sarna March as both challenge and opportunity, pouring money and technical help into the region to rebuild war damage as well as to obtain cheap resources and labor for the new factories they were building in the March. The appetites of some industrialists became so voracious that Melissa Steiner Davion had to intervene in 3036 to prevent whole planets from being exploited. Since then, the focus of most economic activity has been to revive local firms, including efforts by a consortium of Federated Commonwealth industries to resurrect the once-mighty Asuncion Industries.
In contrast to the stimulation in Lyran-Davion trade relations, their trade with the other states of the Inner Sphere has dipped. Trade with the Free Rasalhague Republic has been constrained by Rasalhagians' fear of offending the Dragon by appearing too eager to buy Lyran. The St. Ives Compact is an active trader with the Federated Commonwealth, of course, but trade with the Free Worlds League and the Capellan Confederation has dropped dramatically.
Goals and Problems:
Why the Steiner and Davion families should go to such lengths and take such risks to unite their realms is clear: they want a state that is politically, militarily, and economically strong enough to intimidate rival Houses with the mere flexing of their realm's military muscle.
Because of its immense size, however, the Federated Commonwealth requires a huge central government that is also dependent on the services of ComStar, an avowed adversary, to provide the communications needed to run it. Though a few anti-merger bastions still exist, most notably Duke Ryan Steiner's separatist movement, there is no denying the military strength and economic vigor of the Federated Commonwealth.
A special thanks to THE 30th Lyran Guards for the use of this informaion.
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