Star League

Star League
Capital	Terra, Asta, Altair, Fomalhaut, Procyon, Sirius, and Rigil Kentarus
Official Languages	Any human language
Size	The Entire Inner Sphere
Head of State	First Lord
Governmental Structure	Confederation
Military Force	Star League Defense Force

"The Fall of Rome seemed unthinkable to the people at the time, but inevitable to historians reflecting upon it with the benefit of context."

– Mary Pilon

"To all citizens of the Inner Sphere do I, Aleksandr Kerensky, send greetings. Know that I have taken the remnant of the Star League Defense Force which has remained true to its purpose beyond the boundaries of the Inner Sphere, beyond the Periphery. I have done this, neither out of disappointment with those whom we leave behind, nor out of spite or disdain, as some will say. No, we have left the Inner Sphere because we love it too much to see it destroyed. In the wake of the Usurper's coup, and the long, bitter fighting that came with it, I fear that my forces would do incalculable, possibly irreparable, harm to our society. We are sworn to ward the Star League and its subjects, not destroy it. Thus, we have left the only homes we have ever known to place the destructive capability of this armada beyond the reach of those who would use it, not for defense, but for conquest. Perhaps, with the might of our 'Mechs and ships out of reach, the leaders who now grapple with one another will relinquish their dreams of subjugating their neighbors and learn to live in peace with them. Perhaps, one day, should mankind step back from the brink of the abyss, we, our children, or our children's children will return, to once more serve and protect and guide the Star League in mankind's quest for the stars. Farewell."

– Aleksandr Kerensky

The Star League was a faction in BattleTech that existed from 2570 to 2780, a rough political confederation encompassing most worlds colonized by humanity at that point, with House Cameron at it's head. It is in many ways the high point to which humanity ascended before everything went to shit following it's dissolution.

No relation to The Last Starfighter.

History

Origins

The Star League was born of the Age of War, where pretty much all of the Inner Sphere was fighting each other over resources, territory, and technology. Centuries of battle had taken their toll on the weary populace, and the Terran Hegemony, itself merely a small player in the now larger Inner Sphere, had seen an opportunity to maybe cut down on the killings and warfare, especially now that the BattleMech had become the default way of war. The process began in earnest with two noblemen; Albert Marik, and Ian Cameron. Both were extremely disillusioned with the worlds they inherited; Marik and the Free Worlds League constantly trying to take the planet Andurien, and Cameron having to deal with the fact that while the Hegemony was still the most technologically advanced state, Terra and its nearby planets had been completely drained of resources, and the Hegemony being relatively small and surrounded by hostile factions at the time meant it could have very easily been subsumed by some other group or coalition if they didn’t set up some safety net. Further, it would have meant that for the first time, man's first home would not matter in the grand scheme of things. Cameron, an idealist, couldn't allow this to happen whatsoever, and began drafting his idea for what would become a massive interstellar confederation that would bring the Age of War to an end. And it started with Albert Marik.

Cameron showed up over the planet of Andurien to sue for peace against the FWL and the nascent Capellan Confederation, who had been fighting for what was now centuries over a single star-system. The Chancellor at the time, Terrence Liao, had no interest in signing a peace treaty for he saw it as a way to legitimize himself, and only dug himself deeper. Albert Marik on the other hand, was far more receptive of the idea, having inherited the Andurien Wars and was exhausted from the quagmire, and indeed was swayed by Cameron's cause. A few more years of war left the Capellans battered, and when Cameron tried again, Terrence, a much older, humbled man, was all too willing to take the suit for peace, especially since it meant Andurien became Capellan property.

From there, Cameron brought Marik and Liao together, and they brought an end to the Andurien Wars with a peace treaty. But far more importantly, in the Terran city of Geneva, they signed a secret second treaty: the establishment of a 50-year implementation treaty that would turn the Terran Hegemony into the Star League. Thus began years of negotiation with the Steiners, the Davions, and especially the Kuritas, all of whom were at first unconvinced of Cameron's desires, and the concept of the league itself, but were at long last swayed by his persuasiveness and his honest, simple goal of uniting humanity. Finally, all three houses agreed, and in 2569, the Combine joined in. Two years later, the Star League was signed into law and all parties joined.

Ian Cameron signed his name on the document, punctuating it with a single tear just above his name, the only time he had ever faltered in the quest to bring the myriad warring nations together, and he was declared First Lord of the Star League.

Height of Glory

The Federation if it had balls.

Now that he had consolidated power in the Inner Sphere, Cameron immediately set about pumping up the Star League's combined military might into dragging the Periphery back under a Terran ruler, which presented a bit of a problem: the Taurians and the Canopians did not care for the Inner Sphere as a matter of principle due to their founders being scornful of the Inner Sphere's corruption, and the Outworlds Alliance had largely been a proxy for House Kurita's expansionism at the time with realpolitik focused on balancing Draconis and Suns relations. Thus sparked the Reunification Wars, where they dragged all parties involved into an all-out, drag 'em down war where two of the three powers got seriously merked, and forced through a lengthy rebuilding process. By the end of it all however, Ian Cameron had died, and his son Nicholas had taken over.

Because there really weren't any real frontiers left to conquer (there was the Deep Periphery, but at that point it was like saying you wanted to conquer a bunch of farms out in the boondocks. It just wasn't worth the effort.), the Star League put it's money towards technology, and under Nicholas' reign, many of the great things that the BattleTech universe takes for granted were discovered, created, and then put into practice; the HPG network, neural-dimensional computing, advanced water purification, and major advances in medical technology such as the Stasis Tube. Star Leaguers were by and large some of the richest, most fulfilled, most well educated, and in general best lived people in the entire history of mankind. And while the Star League Defense Force and House Cameron did have to deal with secretly state-sanctioned piracy or skirmish disputes during the Hidden Wars with the Great Houses, the League's planets and citizens by and large were relatively peaceful with modestly advanced technology shared by the Terran Hegemony.

Unfortunately, it wouldn't last forever.

Downfall

While their might was considerable, one thing that had become increasingly clear is that after Michael Cameron's death in 2602, the Camerons began a slow but steady decline in impactful leadership. All others after Michael were a pretty quick descent into numerous failsons and paranoid dipshits that ultimately only enriched the SLDF at the expense of everybody else, and their hesitance in the face of inter-league conflict meant that the myriad powers of the League began to believe that they were becoming more important to the League than the League was to them. This, on top of tensions from the Periphery States treated as second-class members with no voting power inevitably led to brush-fire revolts among dissatisfied Periphery citizens. This ultimately led to a coup by the madman Stefan Amaris, who gained the young First Lord Richard's trust, nicely drove a wedge between him and the rest of the House Lords by supporting his worst decisions, and then, having attained the peak of the young First Lord's trust and favor, slew him in a grand show of destruction, and declared himself the new leader of the Star League. The SDLF's commander-general, Alexandr Kerensky, was having absolutely none of that shit, and began the Amaris Civil War, which spanned all the way from the Periphery back down to Terra, and in an extremely bloody confrontation, Kerensky finally, personally, put Amaris down, and ended the so called "Amaris Empire".

But the war had also left the Star League in tatters: worlds were devastated, the entire Terran Hegemony's bureaucracy was gutted by pro-Amaris and pro-SLDF purges, and House Cameron had gone completely extinct. To make matters worse, many powers making up the Star League were now all squabbling and declaring themselves as true heir to the Star League. Worse, Kerensky expected that he'd be called upon to support any one of the Houses that were trying to take over the now-very-dead League. Furthermore, he'd just spent 14 bloody years feeding his men into a meat grinder to save it at the cost of over 75% of the SDLF's strength being destroyed. While the overwhelming majority of the Star League's citizens supported Kerensky if he were to take the throne, all of the Great Houses distrusted him and stripped him of his leadership titles. So on the half-joke of a colleague, he brought ComStar's Primus Jerome Blake in to tell him he was going to leave the inner sphere altogether, with as many members of the SLDF as he could, and he would like his help in masking his retreat. Blake naturally resisted, since that meant ComStar was just as susceptible to control, but he ultimately backed down out of respect for Kerensky and after Kerensky negotiated the integration of the SLDF remnants who stayed behind to serves as the Com Guard. With that, the last vestiges of the Star League, it's defense force, left the Inner Sphere entirely, never to be seen again until their grandchildren came back as the Clans.

From there on, the Succession Wars began.

Military

In general the policy of House Cameron would be to try to get the Inner Sphere to demilitarize as a matter of principle. Mostly through diplomacy and other soft means. A typical pitch would be something along the lines of "Things are peaceful nowadays and 'Mechs and WarShips are expensive, dude. We got the Lyrans to scale back their stuff last year and you'll look like a jerk if you didn't cut back a little, ya know. Take a chill pill, give your subjects a tax break and we'll go party on Canopus. Howbout that?" and for the most part, it worked.

But for those occasions when diplomacy failed, Star League had the Star League Defense Force (think of a mix of the French Foreign Legion with the UN Peacekeeping Force and you get the idea). Recruiting from all Star League member states, the SLDF grew into the biggest military in the galaxy, and not only did they have the best training, people, and equipment, they had 'Mechs so good it blew everyone else's out of the water. They had the first assault-class 'Mech with fucking jump jets. That's how good they were. They also, somehow, managed to largely be more loyal to the Star League than their parent nations. Sure, there were units that went running to daddy when the assholes started tearing apart humanity, but by and large the SLDF stayed united.

After the Fall of the Star League and unwilling to get involved, the majority of what SLDF forces under the command of Alexander Kerensky left the Inner Sphere for parts unknown. In the Deep Periphery, they would follow their own radically different course of cultural evolution.

Notable Mechs

• Annihilator: An UrbanMech on steroids and growth hormones developed in the Star League's final years, designed as a mobile city defense platform. Slow as an Urbie, but whatever gets within its range will be blasted to bits by its four LB-X AC/10s and lots of lasers, including a pair of Pulse lasers. Never saw proper use in the Inner Sphere as Kerensky took the prototypes with him to Clan space. Unaware of this fact, the Wolf's Dragoons introduced modified variants of them to the Spheroids, which brought quite a bit of suspicion upon them as most people had never seen an Annihilator. Despite the hilarious gaffe, the Annie's lethality has never been questioned, especially after they became widespread during the Jihad.
• Atlas: The best known Star League 'Mech and BattleTech's mascot. Designed on Kerensky's orders both to keep the Great Houses in line and as a terror weapon, the Atlas is highly versatile, deadly and a tough nut to crack. Unlike most of the Star League's best toys and against Kerensky's wishes, most Atlases stayed in the Inner Sphere and remained in full production during the Succession Wars. Its most striking feature is its skull-shaped cockpit, known as the Death's Head. It has countless variants due to its widespread use.
  • Atlas II: An enhanced Atlas made to be exclusively used by the SLDF Royal Regiments. Unlike the default Atlas, it has a lot of Lostech weaponry and tech like an LB-X AC/10, medium Pulse Lasers and CASE protection for the torso. Its arsenal allows it to fight at longer ranges than the normal Atlas. Nearly all of them left the Inner Sphere with Kerensky after the fall of the Star League.
• Black Knight: A frontline specialist Heavy 'Mech, famously a command staple thanks to it's advanced internals and ability to unload a hellacious Energy payload on unsuspecting companies while able to link up and coordinate battle strategy for their own. Another victim of the Succession Wars post-Star League, as the ability to make the electronics that helped it become a boon for commanders was lost. Later variants would almost entirely rip that stuff out in order to make it a more dangerous but one-dimensional combatant.
• Crab: One of the deadliest Medium 'Mechs made in the Star League's final years. If not for its production issues, the Crab would've become the standard Medium mech of the SLDF. Designed as a raider and guerrilla fighter, the Crab has advanced and tough armor that allows it to survive the deadliest frontlines, an arsenal of energy weapons that can punch above its weight and frees it from the chains of resupply, and more than enough heatsinks to not burst into flames after firing its beams. The SLDF variant, the CRB-27b replaces its main weapons with a pair of ER Large Lasers and has Double heatsinks that ensure the 'Mech will never overheat unless it's in outer space.
• Highlander: While Star League rule meant that dozens of different designs came to be around the time of Cameron Reign, absolutely no 'Mech embodied the sheer might and technological strength of the Star League like the TV-headed Highlander. While it's Gauss Rifle and Missile launchers were formidable, this 90-ton beast became extremely well-known for being one of the most successful jump-capable Assault 'Mechs, to the point that a previously-desperate maneuver was innovated and weaponized from the concept of performing a jump and landing straight down on an unsuspecting foe. While it became known as Death From Above, during it's heyday the term used was "Highlander Burial" due to being able to embed Light 'Mechs entirely into the ground on impact. Tragically, surviving examples of the original version are few and far between thanks to the Succession Wars.
• King Crab: Few 'Mechs exemplify Rape as much as a King Crab. These guys were made to kill whatever they met as quickly as possible with their two AC/20s. However, they have the disadvantage that their ammo reserves are tiny as fuck, so make those shots count. Kerensky took the majority of them with him, but quite a few remained for the Spheroids. They played a vital role in the Comguard's victory at Tukayyid.
• Mackie: The first BattleMech in history. While they were considered relics in the Star League's time, they managed to make a quite deadly updated variant known as the MSK-9H that was armed with 2 PPCs and an AC/20. Even Kerensky himself loved these and wanted to take them with him to what would become Clan Space, but only managed to get a hundred of them.
• Marauder: Only very technically a Star League design, as it was intended to be the first generation of new Mechs that would take the SLDF into the future, but became valuable parts of any group that could field them. It's a 75-ton powerful artillery platform with two PPCs, an AC/5, and two Medium Lasers; the Marauder can cause trouble at any range and take as much punishment as it dealt thanks to it's lamellar armor. Initially quite a difficult fight due to it's unique profile, it's more become known as one of the trademark 'Mechs of Named Inner Sphere characters alongside the Warhammer. It's also one of the most famous "Unseen" due to its original design being based on Macross' Zentradi Glaug mech.
• Mercury: Aging scout 'Mechs required a more elegant solution for the SLDF, and this 'Mech was born to combat the rigors of time being placed on their Stingers and Wasps. An otherwise typical 20-ton Light 'Mech used for scouting, what set the Mercury apart was it's revolutionary "Plug and Play" design for it's Small Lasers; allowing repairs to be done to those in a fraction of the time. It was this system that ultimately inspired the creation of the OmniMech for the Clans, who inevitably ended up the only people in the universe with the 'Mech after the Star League fell.
• Warhammer: In the grim darkness of the far future, only named characters ride a Warhammer. Seriously, this 70-ton artillery platform is the one-stop destination for almost every major character in the game that don't end up in their nation's stereotype 'Mech or in a Marauder. It does however acquit itself wonderfully in combat, as its two PPCs combined can do the same amount of damage as an AC/20 with twice the range, with an SRM to cover any other problems that might pop up in front of it.

Legacy

IRL There have been a lot of people over the last six centuries that had/have a romantic view of Ancient Rome. We see this in everything from Neoclassical Architecture to the Founding Fathers quoting Cicero to Mussolini declaring that he'd Restore the Glory that was Rome. Now imagine that instead of just being an advanced-for-it's-day iron age society with good infrastructure and administration the Romans had colonies on the Moon and Mars, self driving cars and fusion reactors. That's basically how people think of Star League in BattleTech. By extension, everyone wants to be the founders of a new Star League made in their own image.

The nuclear scrum that set off in 2786 after Kerensky sailed off into the sunset was started by Coordinator Minoru Kurita deciding that he was the new First Lord. The other four Inner Sphere powers had similar views with differences of an "insert-name-here" variety. ComStar's view of matters was that none of them were fit for the role and that their objective was to control technology so that they could orchestrate a proper reconstruction of Star League on their terms with the individual power blocks suitably restrained. One of Alexander Kerensky's goals in Operation Exodus was to try to preserve a bastion of Star League away from the Inner Sphere. After things fell apart and had to be forced back together at gunpoint, Nicholas did a massive societal overhaul. Despite that he maintained that The Clans were the True inheritors of Star League and that would in time eventually return to try to rebuild it in Alexander Kerensky's name and Nicholas Kerensky's Vision.

Further Attempts at Inner Sphere Unity

The Second Star League

The Second Star League was a creation largely out of necessity rather than a genuine desire for Inner Sphere peace; for the Clan Invasion had happened, and pretty much every Successor State felt wildly outmatched individually, and so under the watch of one Theodore Kurita, the Inner Sphere united once again to beat back the Clannerscum, and finally managed to force the Clan advance to a standstill, and ultimately broke their entire societal understanding of war underneath their boots.

Of course, the minute that happened, almost everybody immediately began trying to worm their way out of the idea, as each Successor State now had infinitely more power alone than they ever had as a member of the Star League, and centuries of societal change had meant that each nation was wildly different from the group that had signed the initial accords, and way better armed thanks to ComStar's intervention. Pretty much everybody decided that it was a good idea to just call it off and see what happened from there, and they got their answer.

In the form of the Jihad.

The Republic of the Sphere

The Jihad wrecked pretty much any place it touched, and after Devlin Stone and his massive coalition of military might had re-conquered Terra and dissolved ComStar, the appetite for pretty much any war at all had been well and fully drained from the devastation the Blakists had wrought. So Stone and the Great Houses basically decided that there would be an enormous buffer state placed between themselves and the center of the Inner Sphere, totaling up to 200 worlds. It lasted for about 70 years until the Dark Age hit with the majority of the HPG network being sabotaged on Grey Monday and a bunch of nationalists began clamoring for their former Successor State's control, and the Clans then divebombed into the fractured Republic. The Republic capital managed to hold out for a decade or so with use of the Fortress Wall blocking KF jumps into the heart of the Republic. Up until Devlin Stone secretly played kingmaker to let Clan Wolf pick up the pieces once the wall was reaching it’s use limit.

Third Star League

With the recent ilClan sourcebook and novels coming out in 2021, it's been confirmed that Clan Wolf was able to breech the Fortress Walls in 3151 (unknown to most, Devlin Stone snuck them the access codes as he believed they were the least terrible of bad outcomes). Clan Wolf then proceeded to invite Clan Jade Falcon to tackle the Republic's forces together before conducting a Trial to take the spoils. While the end result was with Clan Wolf (both Crusader and Exiled reunited) as ilClan and Clans Jade Falcon and the newly reformed Smoke Jaguar (from Fidelis survivors who somehow let go of their grudge against the Clans for leaving them to die at the Second Star League's hands) as their bodyguards/special forces in recognition of their bravery or cooperation. It's confirmed that a Star League roughly based on Clan culture with assimilated Spheroids is still around in 3250 (though rebellions here and there are still a thing) from Technical Readout Sourcebooks detailing BattleMech models in the form of historical research but any other details are deliberately left vague.