Revised
This alternate universe splits from the point of the SLDF Exodus, and is where events begin to change.
Towards the end of the First Succession War, the devastation and economic break down begins to degrade relations within the borders of a number of Successor States. The Free Worlds League finds itself fragmenting along the Andurien border when a relatively unscathed Capellan Confederation attempts to seize the historically important worlds and launches a full scale invasion of the Andurien Province. The Lyran Commonwealth uses the Capellan invasion and seizes the opportunity to assault the FWL border around Bolan, forcing the FWL to split its forces from the capture of former Hegemony worlds. Committing additional forces to the growing melee, the Capellan Confederation looses a number of former Hegemony Worlds when they prove incapable of consolidating their hold in the region. Aligning themselves with Tikonov, these worlds begin to rebuild a new Tikonov Free Republic under the auspice as heirs to the old Hegemony bureaucracy. Although this region lacks a major domestic military presence, the insurgent forces of these worlds make them competitive opponents.
While ComStar may have consolidated its hold over Terra, the rebellions in the Tikonov Region, around Skye and the stalled absorption of former Terran worlds have bolstered Blake’s confidence in the possibility of a renewed Terran state. Blake authorizes the Order to supply these nascent states with military gear secreted away on Terra.
By the end of the 1st Succession War there is a budding Skye Rebellion, as many of the former Terran worlds, unhappy beneath the Steiner yoke or fearful of being captured by the Draconis Combine revolt. They are aided by Free Tikonov forces bloated with secret ComStar help. The Federated Suns, badly mauled by the Draconis Combine sees an upswing in regional dissention, as March Rulers attempt to consolidate and prepare for another looming invasion. The Capellan and Draconis March Dukes begin looking more towards their own worlds for rulership than New Avalon. Cross-border raiding between the rebuilding Capellan March and the occupied Confederation has kept tension in the region at an all time high between the end of the First and the beginning of the Second Succession War.
There are also domestic issues brewing in the Draconis Combine. Failure to consolidate the momentum of the early part of the First Succession War and the Kentares Massacre has loosened the tight-knit solidarity of the Combine’s various Warlords. Many are working to take advantage of a weakened Federated Suns, while others are clamoring for a renewed invasion of the Lyran Commonwealth. The death of the Star League has also breathed new life into the Free Rasalhague movement, which the Lyran Commonwealth (among others) is helping to foster. While the Tamar Province rulers are unhappy about antagonizing the Dragon, having suffered enough already, they have little choice but to sit back and watch for the time being.
The smoldering conflicts in Andurien, Tikonov, Terran and Capellan space flare into the Second Succession War only a few years after the end of the first. The war follows the same destructive pattern as the First Succession War, but quickly degenerates into a monstrous quagmire when many of the remaining Successor States begin to fracture from within. First, the continued attacks into the Confederation’s soft underbelly by the Federated Suns’ Capellan March prompt resource-rich worlds around St. Ives to declare its independence. Ignoring the demands being issued by New Avalon, and determined to capture these worlds for the Suns, the Capellan March continues its invasion of Confederation worlds. When forces loyal to Prince Davion arrive in the March to stay the Duke’s drive forward, open fighting erupts between the two sides and the Capellan March declares its independence from the Davion crown. AFFS units from loyal Marches pour into the area, and while the Prince believes a massive show of force will quickly squash resistance, the move fatally weakens significant portions of the Federated Suns border.
Meanwhile, the Free Worlds League is unable to tip the Andurien stalemate in their favor and continues to funnel troops into the Confederation meat-grinder, all the while stripping other provinces of their Federal defenses. Between periphery, Lyran, Capellan and even the odd Combine raiders, many of these provinces have begun to question the leadership of the Marik family and the Captain-General. When a devastating raid costs the lives of thousands of League citizens on the world Helm members of Parliament call for a vote of no confidence against the Captain-General. The vote quickly turns volatile and a fist fight breaks out between members of the Andurien delegation and those from the Duchy of Oriente that quickly spreads throughout the League’s Parliament.
As the civil war brewing in the Federated Suns begins to spiral out of control, things in the Draconis Combine also begin to fall apart. Ignoring the orders of the Coordinator to press the Combine’s advantage along the Lyran Commonwealth’s trouble Skye and Tamar borders, warlords along the Federated Suns’ Draconis March begin a full scale assault on the beleaguered Federated Suns. Desperate to crush the Capellan March rebellion so he can meet the Kurita threat head on, the Prince is unable to provide the Draconis March with little more than half-empty promises of assistance. Left with little support or recourse, the soldiers of the Draconis March fight with a ferocity the Kurita attackers were unprepared for or expecting. For the Kurita Warlords, their unauthorized invasion of the Federated Suns was a gambit. They expected easy success and the full support of the Coordinator, but as the assault slowed they were soon out of options. Failure would be their execution at the Coordinator’s hand, while a continued drive into the Federated Suns would inevitably result in the complete destruction of their forces.
While the situation along the Federated Suns’ Draconis border was descending into chaos Free Tikonov forces, bolstered by success in the Skye March continued to “liberate” worlds taken from the old Terran Hegemony in both the Federated Suns and Capellan Confederation. Other ex-Terran worlds have also used the spreading Sphere-wide chaos to create minor rebellions of their own or among other like-minded planets. Many of the core Terran worlds are wary of Tikonov or Skye assistance, but warm to ComStar’s offers of civilian assistance when they successfully liberate themselves.
The Lyran Commonwealth, forced to contend with the Coordinator’s early drive into the Tamar Province and the continuing troubles in the Skye March, has pushed its economy and industry to the limit to fight a three front war along all of its major borders. Troubles are also starting to crop up among ex-Rim Worlds Republic worlds along the Commonwealth’s border. Seemingly supplied with arms from any unknown source, the LCAF is incapable of meeting this new threat, its material strength already stretched to the breaking point.
The cracks in the Lyran Commonwealth finally split wide open when the Archon orders the withdrawal of troops from the Skye March to fight insurgents along the nation’s periphery border. Against the protests of worlds belonging to the Tamar and Coventry Provinces, the Archon argued (incorrectly) that the Commonwealth should continue to press its claims along the fractured Free Worlds League border and simply re-conquer the (now) free Skye March after the LCAF had defeated its ancient enemy. For the desperate people of the Tamar March and those worlds who could be next in line to face the Dragon’s ire, enough was enough. Claiming the Archon unfit, the leaders of the Tamar Province, along with a host of other Lyran worlds, declare themselves independent of the Commonwealth. Reclaiming their old titles from the time of the Archonettes, these independent provinces dug in, waiting for the inevitable from their former Archon and the Combine.
In the Draconis Combine, the stalled assault in the Federated Suns was only the start. The continued troubles in the Rasalhague worlds, as well as the occupied Tamar worlds were beginning to irritate the Coordinator. When the invasion of the Federated Suns cost the Combine two of its irreplaceable WarShips, the Coordinator had enough. He declared the rogue Warlords Ronin for their unauthorized actions against the will of the Dragon. While the declaration was not entirely unexpected, the Warlords’ response was. They declared themselves free of the Coordinator and the Combine, citing a long list of grievances, which included the fact that the Coordinator did not invade the Federated Suns when the opportunity to smite their ancient foe presented itself. Almost immediately, the invasion of the Federated Suns stalled, as ex-DCMS regiments turned to face the Coordinator’s inevitable wrath. In the ensuing civil war a surprising number of worlds switch their allegiance from Luthien to the Warlords’ capital of Galedon. As more worlds declared for the Ronin leaders rumors of foreign help also surfaced. Fingers were pointed at everyone from Federated Suns nobility to Fee Tikonov guerilla cells, but were never proven. In the end, the fighting would see the birth of a Rasalhague free state and the dissolution of much of the Combine’s Galedon and Dieron Districts. The fighting would also completely guts the Combine’s offensive foray into the Tamar worlds of the Lyran Commonwealth. As a result, the people of Tamar easily repulsed the Archon’s half hearted attempt to reclaim the province.
At the height of the so-called Second Succession War, every state in the Inner Sphere was suffering from internal fragmentation to levels unseen since the formation of the Great Houses. Perhaps the advance of the Periphery states at this time was insult to injury, but considering the situation – understandable. The fighting represented a free-for-all and was approached as such. Beginning with the Taurian Concordat’s invasion of the Federated Suns’ Pleiades Cluster, all of the major Periphery powers, with the exception of the Outworlds Alliance, attempted to secure vulnerable or historically owned worlds from the Great Houses. In many cases these reclamation excursions were very successful; netting the fringe powers valuable worlds and resources, while sapping the local strength and resolve of the targeted House. Even the Outworlds Alliance, who made no overt attempts to conquer its neighbors benefitted from the bloody Sphere-wide conflict as piracy along the fringes of both the Federated Suns and the Draconis Combine pushed suffering and ignored worlds into the Alliance’s accepting bosom.
Things only began to worsen in places like the Federated Suns’ Draconis March, where Duke Sandoval was left to make increasingly important decisions without Prince Davion or the Crucis March’s support. When the Duke began to hire mercenary units to help dislodge the remaining pockets of Combine resistance and to help hunt down pirate raiders, the Prince objected – stating the resources could be better served subduing the rebel Duke Hasek, and ordered the release of the new hires to his control. For Duke Sandoval, this was the final straw. Faced with a belligerent Prince, an occupied homeland and the specter of a renewed invasion of Robinson was all that the Duke needed too declare the March’s independence from the Federated Suns; “for the duration of the conflict.”
History will never know whether or not the Duke’s declaration of independence from New Avalon would have jogged Prince Davion from his singular pursuit of Duke Hasek and turned him onto the other domestic problems he had been ignoring for so long. A day after Duke Sandoval’s withdrawal from the Federated Suns, Prince Davion was killed in a DropShip accident en-route to his private WarShip. The Prince’s death was the death knell of the Federated Suns’ invasion of the Capellan March, and with it the possibility of reconciliation, as powers throughout the remaining Marches of the Suns’ jockeyed for control.
When the Inner Sphere finally exploded for good it was not with a bang, but a whisper when ComStar imposed a Sphere-wide interdiction. For years, the unabashed destruction of HPGs during the conflict hurt the Order’s ability to provide adequate communications, as well as its ego. Even though the Order’s neutrality was well known, the attacks occurred nevertheless. And while the interdiction was a surprise, the Order’s threats were not. Since the war began, HPG stations were systematically disabled or destroyed throughout the Inner Sphere, even in parts untouched by the conflict. While most historians now believe it was ComStar or an element of the Order who ordered or created the breakdown in communications to suite the group’s needs, the end result was a ComStar irate with the Inner Sphere’s innumerable powers.
The interdiction was devastating to everyone; even ComStar would suffer when local elements attempted to forcibly restore communication on a number of beleaguered worlds. Many additional HPGs were damaged or rendered non-functional across the Inner Sphere and the Periphery. The interdiction also gutted the Order’s power base in a number of important regions, including Free Tikonov and the Isle of Skye, where ComStar had been a major supporter. Among the worlds of the former Terran Hegemony, the interdiction could not have come at a worse time, where famine and disease ran rampant thanks to the constant fighting.
In the Lyran Commonwealth, the interdiction would prove to be the final nail in the nation’s economy. Loss of interstellar communications collapsed the Lyran economy and the country descended into chaos as the Archon desperately tried to hold the nation together. In the Estates General, many of its members would look at the empty seats once occupied by the Tamar delegations and wonder if they had the right idea all along. Eventually, the Lyran Commonwealth would lose parts of whole provinces to the budding Isle of Skye and Tamar Freeholds, while a crop of worlds along the old Rim Worlds Republic and Free Worlds League border would claim independence, tired of their old masters.
For the Draconis Combine, the interdiction was a mixed blessing. While it did cause the nation’s economy to also collapse, it also slowed the military’s ability to coordinate multiple fronts. In turn, the small areas in revolt were allocated extra breathing room to strengthen their positions and defenses. While their military efforts were also affected by the Interdiction, their smaller size and defensive stance made these break-away nations far more effective than the larger DCMS. After a number of stinging defeats at the hands of Rasalhague or Ronin soldiers, and the continued threat of losing worlds to Skye or the Outworlds Alliance, the Coordinator withdrew most of his forces.
By the time ComStar was able to restore communications to most of the Inner Sphere; the Great Houses were no more. In there place, the Inner Sphere represented a motley collection of squabbling mini-states more akin to the original proto-nations of the 23rd and 24th centuries than the star-spanning empires they once were at the height of the Star League. Widespread use of WMDs and liberal destruction of the scientific-industrial bases of targeted worlds created a decline in technology on some of the most technologically advanced worlds known to man. Along with the destruction of thousands of Jumpships, life in the Inner Sphere is at a standstill – literally frozen in place.
Note: I know this needs a lot of work, but I think the basic premise will work. Some areas will have to be fleshed out, especially the Interdiction and Maps, but still a good start.
Thoughts?
