War Powers Act

Instigated by the Free Worlds League Parliament, the War Powers Act was the first of many attempts to rein in the powers of the Captain-General.

Overview[edit]

The worlds around Andurien had been for traded back and forth between the Free Worlds League and the Capellan Confederation for nearly fifty years, but in 2398 during the opening shots of what become known as the Age of War, a determined Chancellor Kurnath Liao launched a renewed campaign to take them, one far more brutal and violent than those preceding it. As before, the League Parliament turned to House Marik to fill the post of Captain-General to repulse the invasion, with the aggressive and headstrong 48-year-old Peter Marik vowing never to rejoin the body until the Andurien question was resolved once and for all. As war spread across the Inner Sphere and Peter responding with a campaign equally as brutal and bloody as the Capellans', popular sentiment in both the League and Parliament moved towards seeking a peaceful resolution of the conflict. Jealous of House Marik's prominence, House Selaj led efforts in Parliament to remove Peter and claim the role of Captain-General for itself, painting the Marik as a warmonger who sought to rule the entire League. Despite the Selaj's best efforts and Peter's disastrous loss on Kwamashu in 2401, the Marik Captain-General won popular acclaim after his forces pushed deep in the Capellan space and won a decisive victory on the interior world of Sian which prompted new Chancellor Aleisha Liao to sue for peace in 2404.[1][2]

Though his victory earned Peter a heroic reputation and wide support among the League's population as a whole, tensions between the ambitious Captain-General and Parliament increased dramatically as the body attempted to restrict the flow of funds and troops to bring him into line with its wishes. As Peter publicly resisted these efforts, the League Parliament responded by setting up a special advisory committee in 2413 specifically to oversee the conduct of the Captain-General and his campaigns. The committee would have little impact until the Lyran attempt to take the League world of Dieudonné in 2416. Peter was again called into service as Captain-General and successfully repulsed the invasion and captured several nearby Lyran worlds in the bargain, but scared at the escalating costs of the campaign, Parliament ordered the Captain-General to negotiate an armistice. The ambitious Peter however continued on to take the mineral-rich world of Rochelle before finally securing an armistice with the Lyrans in 2418. At the direction of the Selaj family, an incensed Parliament passed the War Powers Act which imposed severe restrictions upon the authority of the Captain-General to make policy, and further retroactively censured Peter for his past activities that exceeded the limitations imposed by the Act. [3][4]

This would backfire disastrously during the Crisis of 2420 when the Lyrans tried to retake Rochelle that year. Parliament looked to Peter to assume the mantle of Captain-General, only to be stunned when the bitter Marik refused to serve as Captain-General while either the War Powers Act or Parliamentary Committee overseeing his actions were in effect. Refusing to be cowed, Parliament selected one of Peter's generals, Joseph Stewart, instead. Unfortunately while an able field commander, he lacked Peter's grasp of interstellar strategy and misjudged the Lyran attack, losing Rochelle, Amity and Dansis, before being routed in the Concord system. With a dozen League worlds under threat, the lackluster Stewart was saved when the apparently satisfied Lyrans shifted their attentions to repelling a more pressing Draconis Combine attack. Stewart's disastrous turn as Captain-General convinced many that only a Marik was capable of conducting interstellar warfare, with support for the War Powers Act weakening as many MPs defected from House Selaj's anti-Marik power bloc.[3][4]

His position clear and the alternative disastrous, Peter seemed to have won in his battle against Parliament. He entered Parliament on 9 May 2422, confident of his success against the Selaj family, architects of the War Powers Act. When he left the building, an assassin shot and killed Peter Marik. The Selajs were suspected, but their involvement could not be proven and the Act remained in effect until five years later when the Lyran Commonwealth decided to renew its assault against the League, landing troops on the planet of Bolan. Still convinced only a Marik could successfully serve as Captain-General, Parliament offered the post to Peter's second son Terrence. But Terrence, like his father before him, refused to serve as long as both the War Powers Act and the Parliamentary Committee were in effect. After the Lyran military took yet more worlds, the League Parliament finally caved to his demands and repealed the act. While Terrence won the political victory, he proved unable to reclaim the worlds lost to the Lyrans, achieving at best a bloody stalemate. The task ultimately fell to Terrence's brother Peter the second, who succeeded where his brother had failed.[3][4]

References[edit]

  1. House Marik (The Free Worlds League), pp. 14–15: "History - The Age of War - Andurien Crisis"
  2. Handbook: House Marik, p. 15: "History of the Free Worlds League - Out of the Frying Pan...
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 House Marik (The Free Worlds League), pp. 15–16: "History - The Age of War - Struggle between Marik and Parliament"
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 Handbook: House Marik, p. 18: "History of the Free Worlds League - The Age of War"

Bibliography[edit]