Star League Era (Amaris and the Rim Worlds Republic)

I did make a minor goof when i mentioned societal constructs that wouldn’t survive the Star League Era.  House Amaris and their Rim Worlds Republic would also be lost to the fires of Interstellar war, and by the end of the Star League Era, their systems would either be destroyed by the rigors of war, or absorbed by the Lyran Commonwealth.  Stefan Amaris, the last ruler of the Rim Worlds Republic, would be the architect of the fall of the Star League, but he had some some help along the way.  

Founded in 2250 after colonial uprisings caused the Terran government to cut all of its colonies loose, the Rim Worlds Republic was founded on the remote world of Apollo.  (In later eras, this is a part of the Lyran Commonwealth and the Jade Falcon Occupation Zone).  The Amaris family would come to power in 2463, over two hundred years later.  Founded by Terens Amaris (a Hegemony intelligence operative who maintained dual citizenship in the Hegemony and the Republic), her children would go on to govern the Republic.  The Reunification War that brought the Star League together as an organized government would be astonishingly unkind to the RWR and specifically the Amaris family.  This would have consequences that would culminate in Stefan Amaris usurping control of the Terran Hegemony from the Cameron family, and result in the destruction of the Star League.  

Like the Cameron family, the Amaris clan had its fair share of schemers, monsters and political operators.  Some of them genuinely had the best interest of the Rim Worlds Republic at heart, but some of them ended up being astonishingly bad people.  Stefan Amaris, the usurper himself, could be construed as a product of the environment that made him.  I still think he’s one of the worst monsters in the history of the Battletech Universe and through guile, cunning and manipulation, set the stage for the Fall of the Star League and the Succession Wars that followed.  

The Rim Worlds Republic, circa 2750

The Rim Worlds Army

As the preparations for the takeover of the Terran Hegemony came together, the RWA expanded to an official roster of 41 divisions.  This doesn’t count the secret army forces that participated in the periphery uprising in other states, nor does it account for the Hegemony forces that are later constructed by the Amaris dominated Hegemony.  The RWN also dramatically increased in size during this time period, ballooning to around 300 vessels.

At the start of the Usurpation, Amaris had amassed a large enough force inside the Terran Hegemony borders that in most cases his troops had the time to lay the groundwork for brutal pre-emptive strikes using a variety of methods.  Even with the usage of these pre-emptive strikes, Amaris forces barely had a quantitative advantage over the SLDF garrisons they were sharing space with.  Only by using nuclear, chemical and in some cases biological weapons were they able to take control of their assigned planets, all though in some cases, orbital bombardment was used to reduce local garrisons.  In battles where these options were unable to be used, the local SLDF forces more than held their own during the conflict.  (In the case of Carver V, the setting of MechCommander 2, it was never conquered by Amaris forces and the local SLDF troops held their home until they were relieved by the returning SLDF forces heading for Terra.).  

Rim Worlds Republic Crest

The Rim Worlds Republic would not survive the Fall of the Star League for two primary reasons.  The SLDF needed a base of operations to train, arm and recruit the soldiers they would nee to retake the Hegemony from the Usurper’s forces.  Commanding General Kerensky decided no better place in the universe than the RWR to set up his facilities and deny any additional aid to the Amaris regime.  After the SLDF began their campaign to retake Terra, the Lyran Commonwealth saw the lack of a cohesive government within the RWR as an opportunity, and Lyran “Peacekeepers” seized many of the worlds that shared their periphery border.  The remaining worlds would fall as pirate/bandit havens before the 1st Succession War.