St. Ives Compact
Sarna News
| File:Stives.gif | |
| St. Ives Compact | |
|---|---|
| Faction Profile | |
| Time period: | 3029 – 3063 |
| Classification: | Minor power |
| Controlled systems: | 17 |
| Capital world: | St. Ives |
| Ruler title: | Prime Minister |
| Military: | St. Ives Military Command |
| Secret Service: | ??? |
The St. Ives Compact was a minor Inner Sphere nation that existed from 3029 to 3063.
Contents
History
Genesis
The Compact began life as the St. Ives Mercantile League. That nation merged with four others to form the Capellan Confederation. Owing to its status as one of the five original founding nations, St. Ives became the St. Ives Commonality, one of five such districts within the Confederation.
The Compact was formed in 3029, as a direct result of the Fourth Succession War. Duchess Candace Liao, firstborn of Chancellor Maximilian Liao and his heir, fell in love with Justin Xiang Allard, a Federated Suns spy who had infiltrated the Capellan Confederation's spy agency. Rather than stay in the Capellan Confederation with a double-agent who helped conquer a third of it, she fled her home nation and took the St. Ives Commonality with her.
Given the destruction the Capellan military suffered at the hand of the Federated Suns, they were unable to do anything about the St. Ives secession. To further protect her fledgling nation, Prime Minister Candace allied with the Federated Suns, who provided military protection.
Clan Invasion
The 3030s and '40s were an era of peace for St. Ives. Candace and Justin married and had four children, Kai, Cassandra, Kuan-Yin, and Quintus Allard-Liao.
When news of the Clan Invasion reached St. Ives, it was unknown exactly who was attacking. At the time, Kai was a member of the Armed Forces of the Federated Commonwealth and the unit he was in was rotated to the Clan front. Kai earned distinction in the Battle of Twycross when he destroyed a entire Clan Jade Falcon unit almost singlehandedly.
The leaders of the Inner Sphere were called to a conference on Outreach to coordinate strategy with the others in 3051. There, Jaime Wolf revealed that the Clans were in fact the descendants of the Star League Defense Force that was led into exile by Commanding General Aleksandr Kerensky in 2784. In order to aid their Federated Commonwealth allies, Duchess Candace authorized the 1st St. Ives Lancers to help against the invasion.
After they had returned from Outreach, a Capellan assassin that had been sent by Romano Liao attempted to kill Candace and Justin. The assassin only succeeded in wounding Candace, but Justin killed the assassin before he succumbed to his wounds. Candace traveled home to Sian and killed her sister Romano and the father of Romano's children, Tsen Shang. Rather than assume the throne herself, she allowed Romano's eldest, Sun-Tzu, to become Chancellor.
The Clan Invasion was halted in 3052 by the Truce of Tukayyid, well before Clan troops neared the St. Ives Compact.
In 3059 Jeffrey Calderon ordered the Taurian Concordat's embassy to St. Ives to investigate the possibility of an alliance. This was done in response to the treaty that the Magistracy of Canopus had signed with the Capellan Confederation.[1] However, before anything could come of this, Jeffery Calderon was killed in the New Colony Region uprising on Detroit. The Taurian Concordat would join the Trinity Alliance shortly after.[2]
Capellan-St. Ives War
Units Involved in Capellan-St. Ives War
In 3060, Chancellor Sun-Tzu determined that the time was right to reclaim St. Ives. Due to poisonous family politicking in the Federated Commonwealth, a new regime under Katherine Steiner-Davion had come to power that was much less sympathetic to St. Ives. Also, Sun-Tzu had been elected First Lord of the Star League and he used that power to its greatest effect.
A Capellan spy had worked her way up in the ranks of the St. Ives military, and, under her authority as a battalion commander, she launched an "unprovoked" assault against the Capellan Confederation. This was actually a plot by Sun-Tzu to make St. Ives appear the aggressor. Sun-Tzu called in SLDF peacekeepers, but some members of the St. Ives military attacked them, believing it to be the next step in a Sun-Tzu plot. This played perfectly into his hands, as it continued to portray St. Ives as the aggressor.
In 3061, at the Second Whitting Conference, the Star League member nations voted to withdraw peacekeepers from St. Ives because they saw that Sun-Tzu was simply using them as a supplement to his own forces, who were attempting to retake St. Ives. By that point most of the damage had been done, and Sun-Tzu simply replaced the SLDF troops with Capellan forces. Candace decided that defending the entire Compact was impossible, so she decided to defend the "lower," larger half of the crescent-shaped nation and abandoned the capital of St. Ives.
Soon enough, Candace and Sun-Tzu agreed upon a peace that was largely negotiated by Kuan-Yin Allard-Liao and former ComStar Precentor Martial Anastasius Focht. This agreement called for the Allard-Liao family to hold the St. Ives Commonality as their landhold and for St. Ives to have a greater say in military matters than any of the other Commonalities. With those compromises in place, the St. Ives Compact was officially reintegrated into the Capellan Confederation in 3063 as the St. Ives Commonality.
Jihad
Rogue St. Ives Compact Forces attempted an overthrow in 3068 with the help of Duke George Hasek, Ruler of the Capellan March. Hasek had focused much of his attention on the Capellan Confederation since he assumed the ducal title in 3060 and he reclaimed some worlds for the Federated Suns from the Chaos March in 3067. In early 3068, Duke Kai was abducted (willingly or unwillingly) by The Bounty Hunter and brought to the capital of the Capellan March, New Syrtis. There, Duke Hasek announced Operation Sovereign Justice, a plan to annex the St. Ives Compact.
Hasek launched a three-pronged attack, with the goal of securing a buffer for the Compact to reassert its independence. The invasion was initially successful, and March troops were but one jump away from the Capellan capital, Sian. In late '68, a WarShip jumped into the Sian system and launched a blistering bombardment at the Forbidden City that killed Candace Liao and drove Sun-Tzu Liao into hiding. The attack was initially blamed on the Armed Forces of the Federated Suns, but it was actually perpetrated by the Word of Blake. Nevertheless, the attack galvanized the Capellan people and even drove Free Capella to reconcile with the Confederation and join them against the FedSuns.
The Capellan Confederation Armed Forces had driven the March troops back to the border when Sun-Tzu made his seemingly miraculous reappearance, along with a plan to strike back at Hasek. Capellan troops surged across the border and invaded such important worlds as Taygeta and New Syrtis. By this point, the dream of independence for St. Ives was dead and Kai had been returned to the Confederation. Only a Word of Blake sneak attack in 3070 brought the Capellan troops back as they were recalled to defend another border.
St. Ives Military Command
The SIMC was never large, and so was commanded by a Senior Colonel. It consisted of the prestigious St. Ives Lancers, the workhorse St. Ives Armored Cavalry, and the new St. Ives Janissaries (a unit that was modeled on the Ceti Hussars). SIMC doctrine was an amalgamation of strategy and tactics from the Capellan Confederation Armed Forces and the Armed Forces of the Federated Commonwealth. The SIMC also maintained the St. Ives Academy of Martial Sciences on St. Ives. The only major military academy in the Compact, SIAMS was desgined to train officers for the SIMC.
Politics
For its entire history, the St. Ives Compact was ruled by Prime Minister Duchess Candace Liao. The small size of the nation necessitated little delegation of authority.
References
Bibliography
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