OBT Forum

the other option would have been acknowledge Amaris' rule

There's a lot of indications in JHS: Terra that this is exactly what happened...at least by the nobility and people with influence. I found that to be one of the more fascinating additions of information to what was presumed to be a known historical event. It changed a great deal of my own thoughts on the whole time period, and certainly made me think even less of Kerensky (and that opinion was already pretty low).

I certainly buy into the fact that Amaris had Terran quislings who help him rise and keep power. It was easy to paint Richard as a bad guy as there were rebellions in the Hegemony prior to the Coup (see Kenyon Marik's heavy handed actions). I buy that he could have been confirmed as the Director-General as powerful folks backed him and kept facts (like the Cameron Massacre) out of the public.

Let the Council Lords decide. Kerensky answered to the First Lord, but ultimately he answered to the League itself—hence his decision NOT to support Richard's infamous attempt to disband the Member-States' militaries. 

When Amaris removed Richard he removed the only legal heir to the First Lord title (despite Amaris's claim to be an 'Emperor', in reality he ruled only over the Hegemony—he would still have to coerce or convince the other High Lords to support his claim and rewrite the Accords to afford the position any real legal power.)

That said, Cameron's removal did not disband the Star League, or the High Council. Kerensky still served both, but opted to disregarded either and just go for his liberation.

The irony of the SLDF's exodus—as a way to protect the League's soul—is extra hilarious when you consider they mutinied against the Star League the second they enacted CHIEFTAIN without the High Council.

Interesting. Would you give Kerensky the flexibility to attack the Rim Worlds Republic? Or is this act outside his scope as well?
If you had a Council Meeting (if you could somehow assemble one) are the Territorial States invited too? Amaris is a legitimate member of the body.

I guess you could try to wait Amaris out in some kind of interstellar siege. There are avenues of advances possible without military intervention.
1. Can the HPG Network be liberated? Accounts suggest Amaris techs could use them but had little understanding. Could Blake and his band take it over completely or broadcast into the Hegemony as a freedom radio.
2. Does Amaris true nature come to light? The Cameron Massacre? Complicity in the Periphery Rebellion? News of WMD use? Atrocities committed in the RWR or TH? Or does he just become unpopular?
3. Can the SDS ultimately be hacked? If the SLDF can find a way to disable this critical defense grid it may make the Hegemony ripe for liberation.

I guess you could try to wait Amaris out in some kind of interstellar siege. There are avenues of advances possible without military intervention.
1. Can the HPG Network be liberated? Accounts suggest Amaris techs could use them but had little understanding. Could Blake and his band take it over completely or broadcast into the Hegemony as a freedom radio.

2. Does Amaris true nature come to light? The Cameron Massacre? Complicity in the Periphery Rebellion? News of WMD use? Atrocities committed in the RWR or TH? Or does he just become unpopular?

3. Can the SDS ultimately be hacked? If the SLDF can find a way to disable this critical defense grid it may make the Hegemony ripe for liberation.

1) Why would Amaris want to STOP HPG traffic, it was by then the keystone to a true interstellar economy, and he needed to keep the money flowing so he could keep his creditors happy.  there was no need to liberate anything since information was flowing freely.  it is also important to keep in mind that Jerome Blake was only important i n the final stages of the Liberation campaign.  he was a no body doing a nobodies job at that point and ANYBODY could fill his shoes.

2) this is where internal workings of government and free press intersect.  WHY WOULD this come out unless Amaris wanted to,  his troops and intellgencia were all loyal and believed in the coup because they all bought (rightly or wrongly) that the Periphery in general and the Rim Worlds in particular have been shafted by the Terran Hegemony more then helped.  who would leak and why?

3) hacked is the popular culture analogy of this.  given we now know the extent of the SDS system and it's many layers, it would be more appropriate to try and take over the system from it's control stations then it would be to try and "Hack" the system.  the SLDF during the liberation did not have the resources for such a massive black op.  Such an op would require hitting multiple installations in multiple systems simultaneously with roughly an army groups worth of special operations infantry .

the signal Jamming method was literally the best option they had based on limited time or resources.  and it was even admitted to be a poor one.  otherwise they were left saturation style nuclear attacks on the SDS itself.  how many Quixote's did the SLDF have?

What if Kerensky wasn't the savior, but instead, knew about it.

The units that were left in the Hegemony were those that were against Amaris and/or Kerensky.

Kerensky took the rest of the troops out of the Periphery, to take out Amaris' competition.

Kerensky sends troops back not in attack patterns, but back to the hegemony to help with defense.

The rest of the SLDF completely conquerors the periphery nations (of course, the RWR was quite easy).

Then the SLDF picks a house, and goes after it since it was mostly intact.

200 years later, the SLDF is reborn, owning everything, with an extremely high level of technology, far less loss of life.

It isn't like the inner sphere thought the young Cameron was a great leader.  They had already started distancing themselves from the hegemony and all feared Kerensky and the SLDF would take them out anyway.

Isn't too much of a stretch for Kerensky/Amaris to have gotten together and planned the whole thing.  Execute 1 person, and his lineage, destroy a few loyal military units, all to save the inner sphere and the star league.

In history, bad guys are only bad guys because they lost and good guys are only good guys because they won.  Had Amaris won, he wouldn't be the Hitler of the 28th century, but the Churchill instead.

Alternately, Amaris admired and was prepared to follow Kerensky.

Step 1.  Amaris destroys Cameron family line.
Step 2.  Kerensky returns, Amaris surrenders.
Step 3.  Amaris is "executed for crimes against humanity"*
Step 4.  Kerensky is voted in unanimously as the new lord of the Star League


* by executed, I mean a staged execution as Amaris lives out his life in a remote periphery paradise, all expenses paid.  OR, he is executed before that tumor in his head and his diagnosed dead 3 months later takes him the painful way.  He "took one for the team" so to speak.

I'd just love the have seen the SLDF survive and flourish, even if it meant the hegemony doubled, or tripled in size, as it slowly took out the major houses though 300 years of war.  All done while their technology advanced.  In 3025, the SLDF just developed the grav tank, making mechs obsolete in all but the nastiest terrain (or space).

Except for the fact that in ever major source that gives those two interacting Kerensky HATED Amaris, and Amaris saw Kerensky as another potential tool.

Exactly!  The more outspoken they were, the better their plan worked.  Both of these men easily could have had the other assassinated if the hate was real, but they didn't.  For all we know they were actually related

And in at least Amaris' case, we know he was extremely talented at "pulling the wool over your eyes".

I am not saying its true, just that it could have been

Kerensky the spy. What if he died in the Periphery Uprising and a somber SLDF returns home only to discover Kerensky is dead but leading an op against the Usurper.