Part 2 Jockeying for Position
In late August of 3063, Protector Shraplen sent a message to Chancellor Liao of the Capellan Confederation. Much to the consternation of Sun Tzu Liao, Protector Shraplen invoked the Trinity Alliance and called upon the Capellans to provide aid in crushing what Protector Shraplen referred to as the “rebelsâ€. While the Chancellor managed to avoid sending any Capellan troops to the Concordat, he did provide Protector Shraplen with extensive technical aid, including not only supplies, but personnel to help expand and upgrade the factories on Protector Shraplen's worlds. The Chancellor also released the Taurian Velites, allowing them to return to the Concordat. This action did not work as planned as the Velites quickly threw their support behind Brenda Calderon when they arrived in the Concordat.
While the Shraplen loyalists were getting aid from their Capellan Allies, the Calderon loyalist had no such support. Instead they found many of their efforts hindered by the efforts of the Word of Blake, who refused to run the HPGs located on the worlds claimed by Acting Protector Calderon. In an effort to remedy this situation envoys were sent to the Federated Suns. Once there they were to contact Comstar and offer them a contract to run the Concordat's HPGs. The other major hinderance to Acting Protector Calderon was the on going harassment by the Concordat Constabulary. What was at first a nuisance soon became a major problem. On worlds across the Concordat, the Constabulary was sabotaging factories, destroying supplies and conducting a variety of terrorist actions. At first reluctant to order the TDF to move against their fellow countrymen, Protector Calderon soon had no choice. Arrests of the Constabulary increased across the worlds held by Brenda Calderon. To replace the Constabulary, Acting Protector Calderon announced the creation of several new organizations. Rather then simply replace the Constabulary, Brenda Calderon felt spreading their power out would prevent them from abusing their power. The Taurian Marshal Service was tasked with assuming the Concordat Constabulary's police functions. The intelligence gathering and counter intelligence functions were given to the Taurian Intelligence Agency. Lastly the Constabulary's civil defense roles were assumed by the Taurian Defense Forces which established the Civil Defense Corps. While these new organizations were not as efficient as the Constabulary, the limited powers of each organization made it harder for any one person to gain to much power over the Taurian populace.
September of 3063 also saw the formation of the Independent Worlds of the Concordat. Led by Sterope and Pinard, a total of 8 worlds (Aea, Camadeierre, Dicallus, Euschelus, Grossbach, Norman's World, Pinard and Sterope) declared their intentions to remain neutral in the fighting between Protector Shraplen and Acting Protector Calderon. Not wanting to see their worlds destroyed in the fighting that was sure to come, these worlds ordered the forces of both sides to leave. At the same time, these worlds agreed to maintain trade relations with both sides. Acting Protector Calderon, seeing the advantages of maintaining relations with these worlds, especially with Sterope and Pinard which possessed war materials factories vital to her, kept cordial relatiosn with the Independent Worlds. On the other hand, Protector Shraplen saw these worlds as traitors and it was only on the advice of Senior Marshal Boris Tharn that he did not immediately move to recapture them and instead focused his efforts on crushing Brenda Calderon's rebellion. He did impose a nearly complete trade embargo with the neutral worlds, hoping it would encourage them to return to the fold. Unfortunately for Protector Shraplen, what he did not realize was that he need trade with the independent worlds far more than they needed trade with him. While the military factories on Perdition, MacLeod's Land, Illiushin and Organo had to reduce production due to component shortages, the factories on Pinard and Sterope continued to run at full capacity, providing weapons to the militas of the Independent Worlds as well as to the factories on New Vandenberg and Taurus. It would be many months before the factories under Protector Shraplen's control were able to resume full production, having finally, with the aid of the Word of Blake and the Capellan Confederation, expanded their production centers to produce the components that were needed for their product lines.
While the forces of Protector Shraplen found themselves facing material shortages, Brenda Calderon's forces faced no such problem. Controlling the massive industrial complexes on Taurus and New Vandenberg, and having access to the production from Sterope and Pinard through trade agreements, the forces of Brenda Calderon were well supplied. What they lacked at this point in time was the desire to fight against their fellow countrymen. While many in the TDF realized that if they wanted to remove Protector Shraplen from power they would have to do so through force of arms, Acting Protector Calderon's soldiers had a hard time with the idea of taking up arms against their friends and relatives. Rather then push her soldiers before they were ready, Senior Marshal Valerie Makepeace spent the next few months traveling across the Concordat, meeting with the soldiers of the TDF and making sure they understood why they would have to take up arms against their countrymen. Her “Why we fight†speech, delivered hundreds of times to thousands of soldiers, soon convinced the soldiers of the TDF that if they wanted to restore the Concordat to its former glory, they would have no choice but to go to war against the forces of Protector Shraplen. By the end of the year, the Acting Protector and Senior Marshal Makepeace finally felt the time was right to move against the worlds of Protector Shraplen.
