When the St Ives Compact came into being, many people, even in the Federated Commonwealth, thought it would be little more than a buffer state, an economic basket case. Sooner or later, it would join with the Federated Commonwealth, just as the Tikinov Free Republic did in 3031. These people were totally in error.
In 3030, when Candace Liao declared the independence of the St Ives Commonality, the planetary ruler of St Ives itself, House Overton tried to rally his people against the idea. When to his surprise they did not rise, he ordered his private forces to take savage measures to make the people obey. On Duchess Candace's order, the St Ives military worked with the militia to safeguard the people, driving the Overtons to their other holdings within the remains of the Capellan Confederation. (Where much of their wealth was nationalized by Chancellor Romano in 3042.) This action was the cement that bound the peoples of the St Ives worlds to Candace Allard-Liao.
With the St Ives worlds, the Confederation lost much of itswealth. St Ives had factories for BattleMechs, Aerospace, and military materiel. Many consumer goods were already produced there. But what made St Ives viable as a state was the planet Vestallas. Vestallas was the banking leader, not only of the Capellan Confederation, but of the coreward sections of the Free Worlds League and the Federated Suns which lay near to her. In the Prosperity and Harmony Central Bank on Vestallas, Candace and Justin Allard-Liao found two accounts: the main working account of the Capellan Confederation, and what has been called the Liao Hoard. Much of the working account was blocked from their use by Chancellor Maximilian Liao and his successor, Candace's younger sister, the present Chancellor Romano Liao. (The ways in which they did their blocking led Justin's intelligence operatives to connections that House Liao would prefer not to have let slip.)
But the Liao Hoard wasn't in credit; it was in cash. There were massive stocks of gold, silver, and platinum. Rare works of art were stacked in crates and shipping portfolios. Entire storerooms were filled with currency, one for each House's bills, and several for Comstar C-bills. A ledger found in the vault revealed that past chancellors for several centuries had kept their private wealth, their skimming of the cream of Capellan profits, stored away here. Not all of this is tax money, either. Example: when the Chesterton worlds were seized by House Davion, the planetary treasures were not looted by mercenaries, as House Liao spokesmen had charged, but brought here as a private acquisition.
It took weeks merely to count the wealth assembled here. Altogether, the loot came to many tens of trillions of C- bills, easily the greatest uncommitted amount of cash known to exist. There is a theory that Liao rulers are the best and the worst. The good ones are better (think of Alicia Liao, who spent her life writing and forcing acceptance of the Ares Conventions); the bad are horrific (they support what amounts to Thought Police; differences of opinion are not tolerated, far less learned from. There have been facilities for the study of bacteriological warfare, nerve gases, mindaltering chemicals placed in reservoirs to tranquilize their own citizens ... ).
The St Ives worlds thought well of Duchess Candace; still they watched with suspicion to see how much of this wealth would ever be seen. Duchess Candace and her consort took a tithe of the wealth, one tenth (remember, Candace left the Capetian Confederation as a third person stuffed into the back of Andrew Redburn's Marauder, with only the clothes on her back - it's nice to have a little something of your own!).
Then over the next several years, a major rebuilding program took place on the St Ives worlds. Schools, hospitals, homes, factories sprung up everywhere, intelligently planned by the best ecologists and architects so that no planet became an industrial waste. Government investment expanded companies and factories. A low-interest loan to Hildco allowed it to expand many of its operations. Not only did the government invest in military supply companies, but in a wide-scale program for the production of consumer goods.
Justin Allard-Liao's ties with House Davion produced considerable transfers of technology. In the early '30s, the government of the Federated Commonwealth found itself in a considerable cash crunch, first from the war, then from its committment to repairing war damage in the formerly-Liao Sarna Marches. At this time, the Lyran portion could support itself, but had nothing left over. ComStar offered a major loan at a very good rate of interest ... provided that Prince Hanse Davion agreed to placing their nominees in key civil and military positions within the Sarna Marches. Princess Melissa was even more adamant against this proposal than the First Prince. St Ives ruined ComStar's rock-and-a-hard-place scheme by offering the Federated Commonwealth a loan of ten trillion C-bills. (10,000,000,000,000 C-bills, folks!) at standard rates, but over a long repayment period. Not at all by coincidence, a year later at Duke Justin's request (and with the personal aid of Riva Allard of the NAIS research team, Duke Justin's sister), House Davion shared a complete copy of the Grey Death Legion's Star League Computer Memory Core.
St Ives researchers have concentrated on the peacetime applications of the technology to be found there; and much of that knowledge was used to improve the quality of life for all of St Ives. There are mass transportation systems built or under construction on all of the St Ives worlds that desire them. Farm production is up almost 30% across St Ives, between free education, new methods of animal husbandry and land management, more efficient storage (in the Capelan Confederation, almost 30% of the crop grown is lost to vermin or disease; in St Ives, less than 5%). Because those new factories were going up at the same time, Star League methods of industrial design to promote efficiency and worker satisfaction were incorporated; St Ives's new factories are more than competitive with the best that the Lyrans and the Mariks can offer. St Ives (in an undisclosed location) has the only working factory which produces mobile Long Tom artillery systems on an exclusive basis. The Federated Commonwealth buys all of these that the Compact is willing to sell.
In 3045 House Allard-Liao (as many are beginning to call it) stunned the other states by announcing that their Pathfinder Project, ongoing since 3035, was a plan to construct a major JumpShip construction facility, combined with a large system of on-planet sites for DropShip building and repair. For ten years, the design and construction personnel for this project had been studying Star League methods. Now construction has begun in orbit around Texlos, to be completed between 3055 and 3060. When fully operational, the factory will produce a new JumpShip every Z year. The first five years of production have been reserved for St Ives government and civilian concerns. The Federated Commonwealth is expected to be the major customer after that. Ambitious plans have been made for additional shipyards after that.
The military of the Compact which must protect such important projects has not changed in size in the past twenty years. Outside of mercenary and foreign forces, St Ives boasts a force of six regiments. This does not sound like enough, even given the high level of supply and technology enjoyed by the St Ives Compact. Remember, St Ives is a small state with only one real enemy, the Capellan Confederation. When one thinks that the Free Republic of Rasalhague, which is many times bigger, has only 16 regiments, perhaps St Ives is well off.
Let's expand on that issue of military supply and technology. Ammo and spare parts are under regimental control, issued on a predictable basis and reissued by each regimental depot as it sees fit. This includes mercenary regiments with long- term contracts! House Allard-Liao produces tank and infantry weapons from Federated Commonwealth designs in return for easy-term contracts to produce these items for the Commonwealth. To protect planets with no Mech garrisons, St Ives has increased its supplies of conventional aircraft such as the Advanced Guardian fighter, the Mechbuster, and Warrior VTOL. In addition, PPC carriers, LRM/SRM carriers (many with the new listen/kill missiles), and Partisan AA weaponry are in use.
As far as aerospace forces, here the delicate nature of St Ives' politics comes in. Many of the units which were defeated by House Davion during the closing months of the Fourth Succession War feared to return to House Liao to the reprisals visited on losers. Instead, as the war ended, they swore allegiance to Candace, Chancellor Maximilian's chosen successor.
Despite having participated in very few major actions, the St Ives military maintains a high state of readiness. Several dozen raids by crack troops from the Warrior Houses, during the past two decades have required instant mobilization and defense.
The most famous of these raids has been named the 'New Year Attack'. It happened on the planet Warlock in 3043 at the Chinese New Year. A major gathering of Allards, Liaos, and Allard-Liaos was underway at the family estate when House Fujita's First Battalion landed near the estate. (They had entered the system undetected through a pirate jump point.) Available were the Ducal Guard, which is a company sized Mech unit, and the personal Mechs of Justin, Candace, and Daniel Allard and Tormana Liao. Combined numbers were less than half of the enemy force.
To make matters worse, young Kai Allard-Liao had a visitor -- his friend Victor Steiner Davion, heir to the Federated Commonwealth, who had to be protected at all costs to avoid a major war. The Guard with its royal auxiliary gave a good account of itself, losing five Mechs to House Fujita's nine.
Just when things looked hopeless, out from the forest came several men and women, carrying crude explosive packs and homemade mortars. The slaughter among these infantry fighters was great, but they destroyed several Mechs. They attached packs to the invaders, sometimes holding the packs in place until they blew, achieving success at the sacrifice of their own lives. Between the two groups, they held House Fujita's forces, and the tide was beginning to turn when radar reported a force of 60+ Kell Hound Mechs approaching. House Fujita only just managed to escape in time.
These warriors from the forest were of course members of several Tong organizations. Much has been made of Justin Xiang Allard's relationship with the Tongs. His decision to bring them into the open, to allow them to form companies, own land, and even to become part of the government. As a show of good faith (on both sides), the Tongs have contributed several tank and infantry companies to the military. In comparison, Chancellor Romano Liao has begun a pogrom against the Tongs remaining in the Capellan Confederation. She fears that they will link with Tormana Liao and become an organized source of resistance. If she doesn't manage to kill them all, this action of hers will force them to do exactly that.
The St Ives Tongs have sworn their holiest blood oaths to preserve House Allard-Liao. Our sources indicate that after the New Year's Raid, Justin Allard-Liao started Operation Triad. This plan will create several units of Tong mechwarriors, trained by the Kell Hounds. BattleTechnology sources reveal that the training is taking place on the planet Dunbar. Large scale settlement has taken place on Dunbar - except on the northern continent, which is officially listed as 'volcanically and seismically unstable 'overflight forbidden'.
In past years Romano Liao has sent several units to discover what is going on there. None have succeeded, and none have returned. We've mentioned the Tongs as overt fighters -- their best use has been in the realm of covert operations. As members of the SIS (Secret Intelligence Service), Tong members have been useful in locating Maskirova agents, linking with Tongs still in the Capellan Confederation to gain military intelligence, and linking with other 'families' throughout the Inner Sphere to the same purpose.
St Ives is small. This is a strong point more than it is a drawback. Its military can reach any point in it quickly; modern methods allow constant monitoring of any part of it. Resources can be quickly shifted to provide for any sudden need, military or civilian. St Ives has a high quality of life; there are no 'backworlds' in St Ives.
St Ives has improved its economy since independence in several ways. The first is its major trading bond with the Federated Commonwealth. House Davion buys almost all of the Victor Mechs produced by Hildco, in addition to a large proportion of their jump jet production. The production of consumergoods has sparked trade, but it has also made the Compact self-sufficient. They do a brisk consumer-goods trade with House Marik, including sensors and scientific equipment, but no military goods as yet.
Both sides are wary. St Ives exports 35% more than it imports. Capital comes into St Ives from investments in the Sarna Marches, both from the original post-war loans, and from private firms who still hold the Liao name in the highest respect. There is a booming trade with several Periphery worlds, particularly the Magistracy of Canopus.
St Ives has the loyalty of another class. House Liao has a tradition of 'servitors', who are nothing more than bond slaves. When Duchess Candace became the ruler of St Ives, she did so on the condition that these servitors were to be freed. The Liao Hoard freed her of a knotty problem in economics here. If she freed all the slaves, M., people who had capitol invested in them would have been ruined. Never mind the ethics of using people as portable wealth, the people whose wealth they were would fight against losing them, and would have formed a focus of discontent and rebellion afterward.
The St Ives policy was one of firmness and compassion allied. The former owners were compensated, and even aided in finding free staff to do the jobs that had formerly been done by servitors. Justin's one public speech on the subject (he makes it clear that he is Duke-Consort only; Candace is sole authority in the Duchy) stated simply that "slavery is against the rules of man and god". The former servitors had been provided with aid to resettle anywhere they chose. Justin offered a job to anyone who had a skill. To everyone's amazement, thousands of people took him up on it! Thousands of doctors, lawyers, teachers, and Techs of all kinds became an instant resource for St Ives.
Looking at the St Ives Compact, with its ever-increasing industrial base, its economic growth which averages 9% per year, it is not surprising that sources in the Federated Commonwealth are worried that 'House Allard-Liao' may gain too much influence, especially now that Duke Justin has become Minister of Intelligence for Hanse Davion, and head of the MIIO. The amount of St Ives's foreign trade with (and possible controlling interests within) the Federated Suns portion of the Common wealth has caused some factions to suggest trade sanctions against this small thriving economy. Victor Steiner Davion has been quoted in a well-publicized student debate at The Nagelring, "You are talking about the smallest state in the Inner Sphere, a state with only a handful of Mech regiments, a state headed by Candace Liao, a paragon among Liaos.
Her husband is a man that has given the Federated Commonwealth much more than we can ever repay. His ultimate loyalty is to us, and it has been proved beyond the possibility of doubt. Their son and heir, Kai Allard-Liao, is like a brother to me. It is from personal knowledge that I say he has the potential to become one of the great Liaos. I have spent vacations among them. I find St Ivers to be a wonderful people who remind me in their independence and pride of our own citizens. You say that we should be afraid of them? They are skillful in trade? So are Lyrans. They are good enough to challenge us? Perhaps we need to learn to be better! St Ives is filled with good people. Its rulers are the most noble of allies. The Federated Commonwealth has enough enemies without the need of creating new ones. I say to you, sir, that this small state cannot be a danger to us in any way. We are the greatest state in existence; let us remember that and behave as befits such a state!"
The proof of the Duke of the Sarna March's speech lies with time. We at BattleTechnology feel that he is correct. St Ives has achieved a balance. They are well-armed enough to be difficult to take. They are prosperous enough to be independent of economic warfare. They have a sturdy network of alliances, with the economic sweetness to keep their allies interested in their continued welfare. They are like a friendly porcupine, not dangerous until attacked. Or like the tiger of their emblem at whatever size, a force to be reckoned with.
Back to BattleTechnology 13 Table of Contents
Back to BattleTechnology List of Issues
Back to MagWeb Magazine List
© Copyright 1990 by Pacific Rim Publishing.
This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com