St. Ives

''Note: X and Y are coordinates (light years on XY plane) relative to Terra at (0, 0) =St. Ives III=

Overview
Corporations on St. Ives have expanded some of the huge natural caverns found on the planet and house their factories underground. This forces attackers to launch costly 'Mech-to-'Mech actions, but also has one small drawback; the extensive tunnel complexes have never been fully explored, and so a slim chance exists that an invader could enter a neighboring cave system and find a way to break into a plant at a lightly defended point.

Political Affiliation

 * 2197 - Terran Alliance
 * 2235 - Inhabited world
 * 2245 - St. Ives Mercantile League
 * 2366 - St. Ives Mercantile League
 * 2367 - Capellan Confederation
 * 2571 - Capellan Confederation
 * 2596 - Capellan Confederation
 * 2750 - Capellan Confederation
 * 2764 - Capellan Confederation
 * 2765 - Capellan Confederation
 * 2786 - Capellan Confederation
 * 2822 - Capellan Confederation
 * 2864 - Capellan Confederation
 * 3025 - Capellan Confederation
 * 3030 - St. Ives Compact
 * 3040 - St. Ives Compact
 * 3050 - St. Ives Compact
 * 3052 - St. Ives Compact
 * 3057 - St. Ives Compact
 * 3058 - St. Ives Compact
 * 3063 - Capellan Confederation
 * 3067 - Capellan Confederation
 * 3075 - Capellan Confederation
 * 3079 - Capellan Confederation
 * 3081 - Capellan Confederation
 * 3085 - Capellan Confederation
 * 3130 - Capellan Confederation
 * 3135 - Capellan Confederation
 * 3145 - Capellan Confederation

Early History
The first colony on St. Ives was founded by refugees of the Hong Kong Free State in 2197 after the occupation of Hong Kong by Republican China. When the Terran Alliance commissioned the Grand Alliance Survey of Populated Worlds in 2235 it was noted that St. Ives didn't consider itself to be even nominally under the authority of the Terran Alliance, and in 2244, just a few years after the survey, St. Ives became the capital of a new nation: the St. Ives Mercantile League, sometimes referred to as the St. Ives Mercantile Association. In the early twenty-fourth century the Edicts of St. Ives were established by the St. Ives Mercantile Association, confirming the need for a central ruling family to rule the state - the intended family being the Ling family of St. Ives - and the nationalization of all industry for the success of the state. The Edicts of St. Ives would go on to play a significant role in the formation of the system of government used by the Capellan Confederation, and before that were adopted in part by the government of the Sarna Supremacy.

Second Succession War
In 2861, three years before the end of the Second Succession War, St. Ives was the subject of a surprise assault by the Davion Assault Guards. The Assault Guards were led by Colonel Melissa Davion and surprised the planetary defenders with their lightning assault, quickly overpowering many of the defenders and pushing the remainder back into defending the Chancellor's palace on St. Ives - the palace in which Chancellor Dainmar Liao was present at the time of the attack. The Assault Guards besieged the palace while Dainmar Liao cowered under a bed in a secure bunker deep beneath the palace, leading to Dainmar finally suing for peace, accepting Federated Suns control of all of the worlds captured in the Second Succession War as a part of the peace agreement.

Third Succession War
The Armed Forces of the Federated Suns grew increasingly bold between 3014 and 3020, launching increasingly audacious raids (primarily through mercenaries ) against the Capellan Confederation, raiding worlds including St. Ives and even launching a direct raid against Sian at one point.

This raiding period apparently began with a daring raid against the Commonality capital world of St. Ives in 3014. The attackers included the mercenary units Kingston's Commandos, Tristram's Terrorists and Morcock's Crushers, and saw the defending St. Ives Armored Cavalry hard-pressed, until Warrior Houses Kamata and LuSann arrived to reinforce the defenders and utterly destroy the attackers. The audacity to raid a Commonality capital and later Sian prompted Chancellor Maximilian Liao to authorize McCarron's Long March in retaliation.

Fourth Succession War
Duchess Candace Liao led the St. Ives Commonality out of the Confederation in the closing stages of the Fourth Succession War, creating an independent nation known as the St. Ives Compact of which St. Ives was the capital. Although Candace was popular, her decision wasn't universally accepted, particularly after she negotiated a peace treaty between the Federated Suns and the St. Ives Compact in the aftermath of the war. Capellan loyalists spoke out at every opportunity, and in 3029 and 3030 some of those loyalists turned to armed resistance in an effort to bring the Compact back into the Confederation. The loyalists scored some early victories, but the culmination of the attempted uprising was a three-week campaign waged by Candace and the St. Ives Compact military forces that drew on support from intelligence services within the Federated Suns and which successfully overcame the loyalist forces and secured Tian-tan and the rest of St. Ives.

Candace understood that to retain the St. Ives Compact as an independent state rather than a client state of the Federated Commonwealth her fledgling nation would need to be able to defend itself. St. Ives was already a combination of contradictions, combining some of the best defenses to be found anywhere in the Inner Sphere with some of the most beautiful landscapes to be found anywhere in the Confederation, but Candace mandated the creation of one of the most concentrated and powerful defense industries within the St. Ives Compact, drawing on contacts available through her husband and consort Justin Allard to help achieve this. The various defense manufacturers within the Compact revamped their factories to become high-production powerhouses, including such sites as the HildCo Interplanetary factories located on St. Ives. While the most dramatic increases in production were seen in the defense sector, the various civilian industries on St. Ives and the other worlds of the Compact also underwent a period of prosperity.

In 3030 the St. Ives Science Institute (SISI) and the attached St. Ives Academy of Martial Sciences (SIAMS) began an upgrade program that would take six years to complete, reopening in 3036. In 3034 St. Ives was the site of the first St. Ives Book Expo, which was organized with the intention of recognizing the works of literature produced by Capellan expatriates, and was well-patronized by Capellan authors who fled from the Confederation to publish without the specter of "editorial correction" at the hands of the Maskirovka. The rules for the expo dictated that entrants were restricted to topics that reflected on the Capellan state in some way, although judges were suitably assiduous in ensuring that hate literature and screeds were weeded out or castigated.

Clan Invasion Era
Following the assassination attempt on New Avalon in 3051 that injured Candace Liao and killed Justin Allard, Candace underwent her convalescence in secret before returning to St. Ives to rule the Compact directly.

Capellan-St. Ives War
The eruption of the Capellan-St. Ives War in 3061 led to brutal battles on a number of Compact worlds, despite the presence of peacekeepers from the Second Star League. In the aftermath of the savage Black May attacks precipitated by Kali Liao the conflict became more ferocious than ever, leading to Chancellor Sun-Tzu Liao deploying forces in a direct attempt to secure St. Ives, bypassing other worlds in an effort to bring the war to a swift conclusion. The St. Ives Compact forces on St. Ives fought well and with tenacity, but ultimately Candace Liao was forced to retreat from St. Ives to avoid capture. The St. Ives Compact military continued to fight even after the loss of St. Ives even though defeat was largely inevitable, but negotiations to end the war included the provisions that while the worlds of the St. Ives Compact would be reincorporated into the Confederation as the St. Ives Commonality, they would also remain the Allard-Liao family as their legitimate rulers.

With the end of the war the various defense industries on St. Ives and elsewhere continued to manufacture prodigious quantities of equipment including advanced technologies, with the products of the various factories being distributed across the entire Confederation. The various domestically-produced civilian items also found new markets across the Confederation, resulting in an increase in the cost of living on St. Ives and the other worlds of the St. Ives Commonality as goods had to be imported from the other Commonalities to help keep costs down.

After the Compact rejoined the Confederation both Candace and the other members of her family spent much of their time on St. Ives, engaged in the administration of the St. Ives Commonality, with meetings of the Prefectorate being some of the few occasions when they would travel off-world. The one exception was Cassandra Allard-Liao, Candace's daughter, who left the Compact in the company of a mercenary unit at the end of the war. Defending St. Ives continued to remain the province of the First St. Ives Lancers. For the first time since the end of the war a committee was formed in 3067 to investigate the feasibility of reinstating the St. Ives Book Expo, something Candace was known to support, in part as a reflection of the renewed interest in literature throughout the Confederation at the time.

The Jihad
Kai Allard-Liao was performing a military inspection tour on St. Ives on the 25th of June 3068 when he was abducted by the infamous mercenary known as the Bounty Hunter; the reason for his abduction is not certain, but was most likely linked to Duke George Hasek and Operation SOVEREIGN JUSTICE which began a few days after the abduction. St. Ives became a contested world during SOVEREIGN JUSTICE, but Capellan WarShips secured the system on the 18th of February 3069 as a part of Operation THUNDERSTRIKE, the CCAF counter-offensive.

The Word of Blake struck at St. Ives between the 13th and 15th of September 3070, landing Blakist ground troops augmented by mercenaries on the planet while WarShips engaged the Capellan WarShips present in the St. Ives system.

2765

 * Gryff's Hussars
 * Third St. Ives Lancers
 * Fourth St. Ives Lancers

2786

 * Gryff's Hussars
 * Third St. Ives Lancers
 * Fourth St. Ives Lancers
 * McCormack's Fusiliers

2821

 * Gryff's Hussars
 * Third St. Ives Lancers
 * Fourth St. Ives Lancers
 * McCormack's Fusiliers

2830

 * Gryff's Hussars

2864

 * Gryff's Hussars

3025

 * First St. Ives Lancers (3 Battalions)
 * Second St. Ives Lancers (1st Battalion)

3050

 * 104th Division (ComStar)
 * 1st St. Ives Lancers
 * 2nd St. Ives Lancers
 * St. Ives Academy Training Group

3055

 * 87th Division (ComStar)

3054 to 3079

 * First St. Ives Lancers (1st Battalion)
 * St. Ives Academy Training Group (Battalion (Red Company)
 * - In 3079 the St. Ives Academy Training Group operating at 25% of full strength, with 15% of their equipment featuring upgraded technology.

3062 to 3067

 * 87th Division (ComStar)

3070

 * Simonson's Cutthroats''

3079

 * Second St. Ives Lancers
 * - At this point in time the 2nd operating at 50% of full strength, with 85% of their equipment featuring upgraded technology.

3085

 * First St. Ives Lancers (1 Battalion)
 * Second St. Ives Lancers

3145

 * First St. Ives Lancers
 * - At this point in time, the unit was at 80% of full strength with a "A" equipment rating.


 * First St. Ives Sentinels
 * - At this point in time, the unit was at 75% of full strength with a "B" equipment rating.


 * SIAMS Training Group (1 Battalion)
 * - At this point in time, the unit was at 100% of full strength with a "C" equipment rating.

Geography
St. Ives has two continents, Liaoning and 'Zona; the capital city, Tian-tan, is located on Liaoning.

Industrial Centers

 * Ceres Metals Industries
 * HildCo Interplanetary
 * Mujika Aerospace Technologies
 * StarCorps Industries
 * Tengo Aerospace