In the year 2050, the fifth First Lord of the Star League Simon Cameron approved funding for a number of top-secret deep Periphery research colonies. One such colony, located about three jumps anti-spinward of the Free World's League, was codenamed "Trident" and was focusing on further study of spaceship systems. One primary objective was the advancement of the K-F drive, used by JumpShips and WarShips. Unfortunately, it would be hundreds of years before that objective would be furthered. After Simon's death in 2051, Trident began to lose it's funding under the Council of Regents. Only direct intervention by Aleksandr Kerensky himself, who was very interested in faster K-F drive recharges, prevented the shutdown of the Trident Project.
Then, in 2766, the Amaris Coup occurred, followed closely by the bitter war to reclaim Terra. Trident was all but ignored. The colonists had to greatly reduce research and begin to grow food and put in to place infrastructure to manufacture goods that were no longer being brought in from the League. While the Tridentians were scientists, and not farmers, they, by nature, learned fast from their mistakes and survived. Eventually, they began to flourish.
However, in 2775, lawless Corsairs discovered the planet Trident and began to conduct sporadic raids. With nothing but a token militia to protect them, the people's hard won material was pillaged relentlessly. Virgil Rooks, a soldier-turned-scientist, took control of the failing colony command. He immediately put out a call to other nearby Periphery worlds and in 2776, formed an Entente, or understanding, between the worlds for common defense. Using what little resources they had and operating from a series of secret base-worlds around Trident, they fought back against the pirates with everything from infantry to refitted UtilityMechs in the seven-year conflict known as the Corsair Wars. Eventually, the Entente brought thirteen separate pirate groups to thier knees. Rooks was declared Provost, an academic title well suited to the leader of nation whose primary purpose was research. Rooks shifted his seat of government away from the war-torn Trident to the base of Checkmate, in the hopes that any pirates that survived would attack the strongly defended military capitol and give the delicate university planet of Trident time to rebuild.
For the rest of the centuries in between the end of the Corsair Wars to the present day, the Entente has remained more or less a secret. Although it has almost always held a higher standard of technology, the Ententians have gone well out of their way to make everyone think that the Entente is no more than one of the small, backwards, "Dime-a-Dozen" bandit kingdoms. With much paperwork concerning the Trident Project lost throughout the Succession Wars, and Entente Ghosts (Intelligence operatives) spreading careful misinformation and propaganda, they are unusually successful. Only a very few, very high key intelligence people know the true extent of the Entente's power, or even that the Entente has intelligence operatives.
The Entente hid itself, trying to guard it's precious technology, as it alone, for centuries, had the ability to manufacture Star League technology such as Ferro Fibrous armor, Null signature systems, gauss rifles or even the dreaded WarShips, and then it could only manufacture it in very limited quantities. The nation could not afford the attention of any Successor State; no matter how much technology they had lost.
Throughout the centuries in between the fall and re-founding of the Star League, occasional sporadic wars with pirate groups and bandit kingdoms. However the most devastating conflicts arose from within. Civil wars were first fought in the Entente in 2812, and the most recent was the New Gettysburg uprising of 3050, but the most devastating of them occurred in 2861. When an Ententian talks about the Entente Civil War, this is what they are referring to. The war lasted about five years and cost nearly one million lives (both sides), in comparison to the ten thousand Ententians lost in the Corsair Wars. For such a delicate nation, this was a blow they still have not yet recovered from.
It was the War of 2861 that ultimately stagnated research in the Entente, and although it took centuries, the Successor States have finally started to catch up to the Entente in terms of technological prowess. With the primary reason for hiding the Entente becoming moot, the current provost, a dynamic young man by the name of Dante Rooks, has considered revealing the Entente to the successor states at large. He has currently issued the Edict of 2060, an order for a complete refurbishing of the Entente military before doing so, just in case.. .
Note: More to Come!