OBT Forum

It most assuredly is and I like it.

Reminds me of Shattered Dawn without the Last Cameron. I'm not sure 30 light years or the old Terran Alliance borders are gonna work either. Space for time works only if you have enough to give. You'd have to turn a House Lord or two just in order to survive.

A reborn Hegemony under Hayes might work and also get you more supporting units. It maybe possible that Provincial authorities could add their militias in a unified national effort which could be much more effective.

Quote from: drakensis on March 29, 2017, 04:19:40 PM

Well now. That's a interesting take.

True, but you say that whenever I open my mouth.  I'm starting to think you might just be mocking me.

A denial would just make you feel the same way.

Sometimes a spade is just a spade.

The Hegemony Devolution
The Concord of Terra, as the agreement hammered out became known as (or more correctly hammered into the other states by Hayes), was not a single document.  There were for sub-treaties, each of which relied on aspects of the other treaties to ensure the overall application of the Concord.  This interwoven complexity was to ensure that Hayes could build a future in which the Hegemony core could survive.  The negotiations over The Concord of Terra would last for more than three months, being signed on July 17th 2785, but Hayes’s gained the room she needed to protect the core of the Hegemony, however, enemies were made, enemies who would cause great harm in the future.

The Hegemony
The Hegemony Holdings Treaty (HHT) was the bait which had lured the House Lords to Terra, and specified what Hayes’s and the Hegemony Government, such as it was at the time, were willing to concede and the manner in which territory was to be ceded. 

The first element of the HHT recognised existing conquests of former jointly held systems and worlds within the Hegemony proper occupied by the House Lords.  Along the Hegemony borders, this ratified the loss of all or part of sixty-five systems (LC 12, DC 9, FS 12, CC 16 and FW 16). 

Hayes then offered each House Lord any system that lay beyond thirty light years from Terra, and which was within lines drawn from Terra to the 2765 tri-state borders around the Hegemony.  This ceded a further fifty-eight systems (LC 10, DC 12, FS 8, CC 22 and FW 6) and opened the bickering.  The Steiners, Mariks and Kurita’s complained about worlds which they saw fell “rightfully” in their corridor as held already by other states, whilst everyone complained about the number of worlds the Capellans would hold, nearly twice that of the other states.  Hayes’s answer was simple “Take what you are given or get nothing. You can take what you can after that at your own discretion.”  Both the Federated Suns and Capellan Confederation were quick to follow through on the latter, seizing Rio and Mandal respectively by the end of the year from their neighbours.  Hayes intention was to focus each realm on the others, and not what was left of the Hegemony. Hayes also wished to bolster the weakest of the five, the Capellan Confederation, to ensure some kind of balance within the Inner Sphere.

A key requirement of the HHT was that each state was required to peacefully occupy each world and undertake to reconstruct all damage from the war with the Usurper within 20 years.  Several of the Lords balked, notably the Kuritas and Liaos, but the tying of the HHT to the Interstellar Communications Treaty, through activation of Communication Blackouts for failure to comply with the HHT, left the House Lords with little option but to agree.
 
With the stroke of a pen, nearly every territorial gain the Terran Hegemony had made from 2316, including the worlds along all the Inner Sphere borders, was reversed, leaving little more than the old Terran Alliance’s holdings free from the House Lords.

Interstellar Communications
The stick that General Hayes and her Hegemony politicians used to repeatedly beat the House Lords with at every turn, was the control the Hegemony had over the interstellar network of HPGs.  Hayes had absolutely no intention of giving up this monopoly and candidly stated this to the gathered lords, much to their chagrin.  Hayes declared that the Hegemony would remain neutral, providing cheap interstellar communications to all parties and that any attempt to steal from or damage any aspect of the network, including personnel, would be viewed as an act of war.  Any act of war committed against the Terran Hegemony would see a Communications Blackout initiated against the offending state, crippling its economy and military.

The stick was not necessary for the Periphery realms, as the carrot of fully restored communications had the each of the three major and four minor realms lining up to agree with Hayes’s agenda.  The Periphery was, at that time, little more than a shambolic mess, rapidly approaching a point of general disintegration along its outer regions.  The offer of cheap and reliable communication would allow these states a fighting chance at holding themselves together, something Hayes’s wanted, in order to keep the House Lords looking over their shoulder.

The five Inner Sphere powers were less than impressed with the Interstellar Communications Treaty (ICT).  They were effectively letting a potentially hostile, if small state, control access to and transmission of most of their communications.  However, as so much of The Concord of Terra hinged upon the ratification of the ICT, the House Lords had two options: either accept the treaty; or try and survive the coming wars blinded and with one arm tied behind their backs.

Ares Conventions
Commanding General Lauren Hayes was something of a utopian thinker, despite appearances to the contrary, and although trained by the SLDF in total war theory, Hayes was a student and great admirer of the Ares Conventions.  The historical discarding of the Ares Conventions prior to the Reunification War and the brutality of the war against Amaris, had made clear to Hayes just how destructive unfettered Inner Sphere wide warfare would be.

With that in mind, Hayes demanded the reinstatement and adoption of the Ares Convention by all parties as a sub-clause of the ICT.  Whilst some saw the wisdom in Hayes actions, notably John Davion, Allyce Avellar and Barbara Liao, others, notably Nicoletta Calderon and Jinjiro Kurita, the latter whom had taken an instant dislike to Hayes and her requirements of the Combine, saw the Ares Convention as a hindrance to the proper conduct of war.  However, in this matter Jinjiro’s father Minoru was more circumspect.

Despite opposition from some corners, the threat of a war like that waged against Amaris, which would span the entire human sphere, along with the enticements Hayes was offering to each state, meant that the discussions went in the manner that Hayes wished.  The Ares Conventions were re-signed by all thirteen states.  However, the style of warfare practiced under the newly reinstated conventions would be vastly different from that of the Age of War, more akin to the Canopian Campaign of the Reunification War, which was partly the inspiration for Hayes resuscitation of the Ares Conventions.  High tempo warfare, waged with modern technology and communications, and large WarShip fleets would be the new standard.

Trade with the Periphery
The loss of holdings on 164 words across the Inner Sphere, representing 85% of the Terran Hegemony’s territorial holdings, was potentially crippling to the reformed state.  Knowing this, Hayes and the Hegemony leadership drafted the Outerworlds Trade and Support Treaty (OTST), which aimed to import raw materials from the Periphery to the Terran Hegemony.  With Terran neutrality guaranteed as part of the larger Concord of Terra, the trade would be protected and wih the Periphery realms were desperate for hard currency, Terran technology, and the promises of a functioning communications system that came with it, the ground work was laid for a ground breaking deal.

However, the negotiations over the OTST were still fraught, as the history of Terra and her far-flung children was coloured by hostility and atrocity on both sides.  The clinching of the deal for the Periphery, was the provision that Terran companies would not be allowed to establish operations within the Periphery, though they could be minority shareholders in joint ventures.  Though opposed by some in the Hegemony, there was still much to be done at home, and the thought of investing on the fringes of known space was not an enticing prospect for many.

The flow of materials one-way and technology and later capital as the Hegemony completed its rebuilding going the other way, would be of benefit to both sides of the OTST.  However, it would take many generations for the bad blood to ease to merely cool relations, with no one convincing themselves that relations between Terra and the Periphery would ever be friendly.  The OTST was an agreement of necessity for the survival of both parties, not something either truly embraced.

The Hidden Provisions
The four pillars of The Concord of Terra: the HHT; ICT, the Ares Convention; and OTST were the framework in which Hayes built the future of the rump Hegemony, and laid the long term framework for one day reuniting the full Terran Hegemony.  As the Hegemony withdrew into its smaller borders, it assured the protection and rebuilding of its lost worlds, forcing the House Lords to finally make good on previous promises.  This buffer, still Terran and inundated over the HPG network with Terran propaganda, would not be comfortable territory to hold.  Though the Hegemony ensured it undertook no actions within the ceded territories that could be misconstrued as breaching its neutrality, it did not have to.  Those on the occupied systems were Terran and rightfully proud of it, and created their own brands of dissidence and havoc as they awaited what they came to call The Reunion, which would occur at some unknown date in the future.

The Hegemony Intelligence Bureau (HIB), with access to the HPG network and with massive penetration of each major realm through the ceded territories, had a massive advantage over its foes.  With the ceded buffer and its sympathetic populace, the HPG network and penetration into the Periphery, the HIB was able, in most cases, to remain a step ahead of its rivals.  This would come to be a critical factor in protecting the tiny state, which lacked any kind of strategic depth and for which any major losses would likely be unrecoverable.

Hayes had built a structure in which the Hegemony had its most required need realised, that of time.  The HAF could be rebuilt, the Hegemony Navy expanded and reinforced and the worlds of the core reconstructed, something that only six months earlier had not seemed possible.

However, General Hayes successful negotiations, brought about by arm twisting, threats, bribes and back room politicking, earned the Hegemony several key foes.  Jinjiro Kurita came away from Terra seething at what he saw as the indignities imposed on the Draconis Combine.  John Davion, who viewed himself as the rightful heir to the Star League, was made feel like a naughty school boy and this led him to distance the Federated Suns from Terra.  Kenyon Marik viewed Hayes as another Kerensky, and though galled by The Concord of Terra he was, through sheer practicality, forced to abide by it, though he would do what he could to destabilise the Terran position.  The Periphery, looking toward the Taurian lead, accepted what they had to and put up walls elsewhere, not trusting Terra or Hayes any more than they had to.

Reinstating the Ares Conventions may reduce the damage done by the Succession Wars but I have to assume it's going to allow the high tempo operations to be maintained far beyond what was possible in canon. The limit would seem to become the financial sinews of the Great Houses, which could lead them to vast government debts both internally and potentially externally, if the neutral Terra has recovered and is willing...

Reactions and Replanning
The Concord of Terra changed many plans, however, one accomplishment which remained beyond the Concord was preventing the coming war.  The war for the rights to the empty throne of the First Lord of the Star League was inevitable, however, the nature and course of that war had been inexorably changed by the actions of General Hayes.

Terran Hegemony
July 18th, now known as Devolution Day, a day of introspection and mourning across the worlds of the former Terran Hegemony, was marked on its first occasion by General Hayes Devolution Address.  This was the day when the General announced the withdrawal into the core worlds, and the measures taken to protect the Hegemony worlds which could not be held.  Legends would later arise stating that Hayes visibly aged during the speech, despite all evidence to the contrary.  However, what was clear is that from that day, is that General Hayes’s manner of dealing with those opposed to her took on a darker and harder tone.

The Devolution Address cost Hayes more than just the ceded worlds of the Hegemony, it cost her much support, most notably the defection of an entire brigade of troops to the Free Worlds League, where they became the Pollux Lancers, part of the Pollux Province, formed from eight of the ceded worlds.  This loss of support was partially offset by the announcement that new elections for all offices of the Hegemony would be held by the end of the year, with Hayes accepting the will of the people and reporting to a new Director-General.  Hayes also announced that if a new Director-General did not require her services, she would stand aside.

In the meantime, planning was put in place to make sure that the future could be secured.  Plans for the expansion of the HAF were accelerated, with the aim of retraining and integrating the reserve and temporary formations into the new HAF as rapidly as possible.  The regimental numbering of the SLDF was put aside and regiments were redesignated, for two reasons.  Firstly, to create a fresh base to work from, with traditions tied to the Hegemony and not the Star League.  The new brigades: The Terran Guards; the Line Regiments of the Heavy Assault, Assault, Battle and Striker Regiments; and the Mobile Regiments of the Cuirassiers, Dragoons, Hussars and Light Horse were provided with new standards and parade colours.  Secondly, Hayes wanted to spread the SLDF veterans across her new formations, to stiffen them and provide both battle experience and loyalty to the Hegemony.

On the 21 worlds surrounding Terra, Operation TRIPWIRE was put into place.  Short mixed divisions were stationed on each world, with multiple redundant communication nodes, all tied to the world’s HPG network.  With no WarShips stationed outside of the Terran system, the aim was for each Division to buy time and get the word to Terra, whilst collecting all possible information on the invaders.  In the Terran system were massed the HAF response force, with the fleet and three full mixed Divisions, which would respond in force to any incursion.  By 2788, Hayes planned to have a full division on each world and a many more in reserve.

The fleet inherited by the Terran Hegemony had finally been made good by early 2785, with plans in train to begin construction of new vessels.  With nearly eighty ex-SLDF and THN vessels, the new THN was a motley assortment, with a plethora of destroyers and a smattering of other ship classes and types.  A key aspect of the Hegemony’s future plans was the restoration of the THN, as the shield of the realm.

Capellan Confederation
The Concord of Terra was a boon for the Capellan Confederation, as the acquisition of Terran holdings, netted the Capellan State an increase of 10% to its overall population and a similar increase in military production.  Despite these gains, the Confederation remained the weakest state militarily.  The reinstating of the Ares Convention was a hidden godsend for the Confederation, as it would protect its relatively weak industrial base from attrition and if husbanded, give the Confederation a fighting chance in the war to come.

This reality and the riches the Hegemony represented, would see the Jasmine Liao focus on a singular goal in the coming war; the further securing of the Capellan position close to Terra, by cutting off the Federated Suns Terran Corridor, via strike aimed at Galatia III from Tikonov, whilst also endeavouring to take Chesterton.  Additionally, the Chancellor saw opportunities in the region between it, the Taurian Concordat and the Magistracy of Canopus.  The Chancellor was willing to annex systems in this area, as long as if did not elicit a strong response from either Periphery realm.

Draconis Combine
The Draconis Combine was forced to swallow several bitter pills in the negotiations over The Concord of Terra, with Jinjiro Kurita taking many of General Hayes’s demands as personal affronts to his own, his father’s and the Combine’s honour.  This goading of Jinjiro’s inherently unstable personality, drove him to pressure his father, Coordinator Minoru Kurita, to allow Jinjiro to attempt to break the Hegemony once and for all.

Jinjiro made a compelling case to his father for such a rash action, one that would assuage the Combine’s honour, protect the Coordinator, and potentially net the Combine the prize of Terra.  Whilst his father utilised troops positioned in the Benjamin and Galedon Military Districts for protecting against Kerensky’s exodus to strike towards Robinson, Jinjiro would “go rogue” and strike with other forces massed in the new Dieron District towards Terra.  This action would allow his father to declare him Ronin and absolve the Combine of any wrongdoing, at least to Jinjiro’s way of thinking.  If the gambit failed, the Coordinator lost a Ronin traitor, if it succeeded, Jinjiro would be welcomed back as the Coordinator’s heir.  Though the spector of a Communications Blackout remained, the Combine prepared to requisition huge numbers merchant JumpShips, almost 40% of the Combine’s entire merchant marine, in order to act as courier vessels.

Federated Suns
John Davion, despite being highly annoyed at his treatment by General Hayes during the negotiations, now saw the coming war with something close to avid anticipation.  With the Ares Conventions signed and no real desire to get involved in what he expected to be protracted campaigns around Terra, John Davion prepared to refight the Age of War.

Davion’s assumption was that with the threat of all-out war removed, he could launch simultaneous assaults at both his major foes, aimed at taking out key command and control centres.  For the Capellan Confederation, Davions thinking was to drive through St. Ives towards Capella, whilst in the Draconis Combine, troops would surge from the Galtor Salient towards Benjamin.

Free Worlds League
Kenyon Marik was a confused man on leaving Terra.  He had arrived expecting to contend with a new Kerensky, but was outmanoeuvred politically at every turn.  He had suffered numerous defeats in the negotiations, but the Free Worlds League emerged from his defeat enriched and its industry and people protected from all-out war.

The results of The Concord of Terra and the resulting changes in the Inner Sphere would affect The Marik’s thinking over the coming years, leading him to question himself at every turn.  In his confusion, he fell back on two constant realities of his existence: his opposition to Terra; and the need to bring Andurien back into the Free Worlds League.  Marik would shift huge numbers of troops towards Andurien, with the intention to drive through Capellan forces there and then turn Corewards towards Sian.  Meanwhile, he would make every effort to undermine the new Terran Hegemony short of starting a war.  As a tertiary aim, Kenyon sought also to complete what the FWLM had tried to do at the end of the Age of War, finish the encirclement of Lyran worlds near Circinus, by extending the Bolan Thumb to the Periphery.

Lyran Commonwealth
Jennifer Steiner saw the withdrawal of the Hegemony as a boon in ways few did.  The long association of the Lyran Commonwealth and the Terran Hegemony led Jennifer to create a new Province, led from Galatea, which incorporated the former jointly held worlds and all those ceded by the Hegemony.  The Archon opted for soft power in the Province and billed it to her Social Generals as the place to be posted to.  This, along with the Command Reform Act of 2786, would free Archon Steiner to use the LCAF as a full offensive weapon for the first time in its history.

The Command Reform Act of 2786 tied a General’s social standing not only directly to the success of his or her regiment, but also to the success of the of the regiment within the broader campaign.  A complex series of calculations were tied to a social ranking and access system, which meant that failures that once meant a sideways move before beginning one’s ascent through the ranks again, now meant social and political oblivion.  However, in order to ensure that every social butterfly who could not fight their way out of the ballet, or think more deeply on strategic matters than “hold and deliver”, would flock to the front lines and ruin the Commonwealth for good, the Command Reform Act allowed one to sponsor officers to act on one’s behalf at the front line.  Every ranking officer worth his tailor’s expenses began hunting for lower ranking officers with skills they could use and within weeks, these same sponsors were demanding the very thing they had long opposed – reforms to the LCAF to produce better combat officers and commanders for them to sponsor.  The Archon obliged, smiling quietly to herself the entire time.

With the LCAF rapidly morphing into a war machine that could think for itself, the Archon began to let hope and over confidence get the better of her.  Two goals were set for the LCAF, one was the cutting off and reduction of the Bolan Thumb, something the LCAF could realistically achieve.  The other, was to organise a drive along the Benjamin/Pesht border towards Luthien, in order to shock the Combine and gain the Commonwealth the time it needed to bring its industrial and economic might to bear.  The latter held promises of great success, but also the utter ruin for the Commonwealth of the Dragon turned and struck in protection of its nest.


The Periphery
The Periphery Powers held their own private sessions, or as private as one could expect, when the HIB is snooping about on its home world.  These sessions reaffirmed what little support they could offer each other, but little else.  The Periphery was exhausted, and as little as they might want to admit it, General Hayes’s actions had more than likely prevented a collapse in several of the states, with communications and regular trade now assured.  However, there were still abundant threats for each to deal with.

The wars that had swept across the Periphery and Inner Sphere from 2765 until 2779 had driven many into exile either through choice, or against their wills.  This had led to a spate of new settlements, especially close to the Taurian and Canopian spheres of influence.  This surge of Periphery settlement represented an opportunity for new worlds to join existing states, but also had the potential to create innumerable pirate havens.

The Taurian Concordat remained the premiere Periphery power and planned to rapidly rebuild the TDF, which mustered only nine line and three mercenary regiments at the beginning of 2785.   The TDF planned to rebuild several regiments a year, until its strength had been regained, a prospect much easier with Terran trade assured.  These new troops were to secure the frontiers, work with the Magistracy in integrating the colonial region between them into both realms, and bring the numerous new colonies on its borders into the Concordat.

Oddly, the Outworlds Alliance emerged as the second most powerful of the Periphery states, as its inwards looking economy, large holdings and relatively low level of damage from the recent wars, allowed the Alliance economy to rapidly rebound.  However, the perennial problem of the Alliance: Far-flung worlds, paying lip service to the central government, made making any sort of general progress as difficult as ever.

The Magistracy of Canopus had suffered through both war and the crippling effects of the collapse of trade, which was magnified by the outward focus of the Canopian economy.  Despite the setbacks of recent years, the Magistracy was rapidly rebuilding and eying several successful nearby colonies as potential short-term solutions to immediate internal issues.  This made the Magistracy potentially the most aggressive of the Periphery powers, at least in the short term.  The quite word in Canopus was that the Magestrix was also willing to take pieces out of any Inner Sphere nation that showed any sign of weakness.

The Oberon Confederation had been pulled together out of the ruin of the core of the Rim Worlds Republic, through a desire to re-establish stability, pride in themselves, and a none to small fear of the Lyran Commonwealth’s voracious appetite.  Though small, the Confederation held several industrial centres that were both a boon to the small nation, but also a dangling bait to the ever tempted Commonwealth.  The Confederation prayed for war, so that larger nations would look elsewhere as it built its own strength.

The Rim Compact viewed itself as the true successor to the Rim Worlds Republic, in spite what it saw as the pretentions of the Oberon Confederation.  Paranoid since its inception, the Compact rapidly reintegrated whatever worlds it could coerce or conqueror racing, as the Compact saw it, to prevent a total Lyran takeover of the former Republic.  This schizophrenic outlook made the Compact difficult to deal with, especially for the Oberon Confederation and Circinian Fiefs.

The Circinian Fiefs had formed around the former SLDF enclave on Circinus and expanded as nearby worlds were offered, or asked, for protection.  The fiefs evolved to be the most pro-Terran of the Periphery powers, as many of its inhabitants and upper classes hailed from the Hegemony, or were of a pro-Star League outlook.  The Compact had no plans for rapid or militarised expansion, but also had no plans to turn away those seeking its protection.

The Illyrian Palatinate absorbed the short-lived and unsuccessful Lothian League in a peaceful takeover in the 2760’s, as the war in the Inner Sphere and Periphery broke the Lothian economy and seriously threatened the Illyrian economy.  The union was fortuitous, as it provided the impetus for recovery.  With several new colonies nearby, some of them settled as industrial settlements, designed to rapidly utilise easy to access ores, the Palatinate had a ready source of new trading partners and potential new members in close proximity.

Hehe. Jinjiro is taking a kabuki troupe to invade Terra.  I'll make the changes.