Filtvelt Coalition

Overview
The Filtvelt Coalition is a Periphery realm that formed on February 20, 3072 from worlds that seceded from the Federated Suns.

The Jihad
After being ignored by the rulers of the Federated Suns for the first five years of the Jihad, and facing ongoing attacks from the Tortuga Dominions and Taurian Concordat, twenty worlds from the Broken Wheel Combat Region seceded from the Federated Suns to form their own nation.

AFFS military units stationed in the systems claimed by the Filtvelt Coalition were given the choice of either transferring into the Filtvelt Defensive Army or relocating to a Federated Suns system. A few weeks after the nation announced its independence, the Coalition introduced a universal draft to increase its defensive preparedness. This draft increased the size of the Citizen's Militia. The Thumpers mercenary unit signed on with the Filtvelt Coalition for several contracts.

Increasingly concerned with pirate activity originating in the nearby Malagrotta Cooperative, the sudden change in leadership within the Cooperative in October 3075 provoked alarm within the Coalition. The Voorzitter of Malagrotta, Marion Willshire, was killed and replaced by the former second in command of the pirate band the Death's Consorts, Gary Tiqualme, who claimed both the title of Voorzitter and rule over the Cooperative. While the circumstances surrounding the change in leadership are unclear - Tiqualme announced that Willshire had killed the leader of the Consorts, Lady Paula Trevaline, effectively subsuming her, and then been killed in turn by Tiqualme after attempting to see the Consorts executed.

Willshire's death and Tiqualme's ascension in October 3075 prompted a flurry of military activity within the Coalition; the Coalition borders were closed in December 3075 to all traffic from the Cooperative, the Third Filtvelt Defenders were activated early and deployed to either Redondo or Jaboatao - or possibly both - while the Thumpers Assault Battalion was redeployed to Sodertalje to support the Second Filtvelt Defenders.

In 3076 a series of coordinated pirate raids hit several Filtvelt Coalition systems. In response, the Coalition ordered the Thumpers and Filtvelt Citizen's Militia to attack Tortuga Prime and eliminate the pirates. The Filtvelt force landed on Tortuga, but sustained serious losses from chemical weapons and a much larger number of defensive units than they anticipated. The First Citizen's Militia lost nearly all their infantry, and the Thumpers led the Filtvelt force from the world.

Early Dark Age
After the Jihad, the Filtvelt Coalition found itself facing continuing problems from a lack of infrastructure and constant pirate raids. By mid-3081 the Citizen's Militia had been able to recruit up to full established strength, but continued to lack equipment. This hampered the Militia's ability to respond to external threats, and was likely to continue to be a burning issue even with the prospect of trade deals and shifts in local industry manufacturing potentially easing the problem. Military production was already expanding in the early 3080s, with the Quickscell Company repair facility on Broken Wheel being upgraded to produce hovercraft in 3080 or early 3081. While the major Inner Sphere powers were retiring their RetroTech production facilities after the Jihad, the Coalition Armory Inc. plant on Filtvelt continued to produce RetroTech 'Mechs until at least the early 3080s as Filtvelt had no other options for domestic BattleMech production. The Coalition government also contacted other governments during this period, hoping to obtain the means needed to expand Filtvelt's production to produce BattleMechs that did not depend on primitive technology, possibly by upgrading domestic facilities within the coalition, although the attempts had not been successful by mid-3081. The Coalition was able to purchase surplus RetroTech production from the Calderon Protectorate, augmenting what it could produce locally.

There were serious concerns within the Coalition that with the general end to operations against the Word of Blake the Federated Suns would look to reclaim the various worlds of the Coalition by force. Princess-Regent Yvonne Steiner-Davion created a new March after the Jihad, the Periphery March, and elevated General Raymond-Roger Marsin to the position of Duke; Marsin was well-known for his dedication to the Outback region of the Federated Suns and had gained in power and influence during the Jihad, in part because of his successful reclamation of the majority of the worlds of the Malgrotta Cooperative. The Princess-Regent evidently also took steps to ensure that her promise that the Federated Suns would not perpetrate violence against its citizens was honored by specifically and explicitly forbidding Marsin to engage in military action against the Coalition. Marsin was supportive of the Princess-Regent, and adhered to the strict guidelines she imposed, but that didn't stop him acquiring four of the Coalition worlds for the Periphery March by 3085. One world, Hephzibah, willingly rejoined the Federated Suns in exchange for various economic incentives; on three other worlds, Marsin sent in Periphery March forces to remove Coalition forces from the planets after the legitimate authorities on those planets "invited" Marsin to remove Coalition forces illegally occupying their worlds.

Duke Marsin put pressure on the Coalition in a number of ways; Marsin's decisions were driven in part by sabre-rattling from the Coalition and the rising tide of pirate activity, although Marsin concentrated his efforts against the remains of the Malagrotta Cooperative first. In addition to speculation in 3079 that Marsin would soon move against the Coalition, it was widely predicted that the First Royal Cavaliers would be deployed to the Filtvelt border.

One of his early decisions was to reconstitute the Malagrotta March Militia, despite the Malagrotta Combat Region of the Federated Suns having been dissolved, as well as the Broken Wheel Crucis March Militia, renamed as the Hortense Periphery March Militia. Marsin's decisions not only solidified the Federated Suns hold on the various worlds of what had been the Malagrotta Cooperative, but also put political pressure on the Coalition; with three militia commands, a Periphery March Guard and the capital world of the Periphery March all deliberately located in close proximity to the Coalition, Marsin actively undermined the original purpose of the Coalition - to provide stability and security in the face of apparent neglect of the region.

Despite these pressures and the loss of four worlds, the Filtvelt Coalition stabilized as a nation in the early Dark Age, with Marquess Trempeleau enjoying the full support of her people; the Coalition's military forces began to prove themselves effective at providing security for the coalition worlds, and the Marquess successfully pushed forward her agenda to build international co-operation in areas such as bandit hunting, with the Coalition working alongside the Federated Suns, the Fronc Reaches and the Raven Alliance and with plans progressing to form combined strike teams to target bandits, drawing on forces from all four realms, while also cooperating in areas such as intelligence gathering and sharing.

The Coalition also cooperated with nations such as the Calderon Protectorate and the Fiefdom of Randis, establishing trade ties and exchanging students and staff for the various military academies and institutes within the three nations. With the Filtvelt Academy open to students from other Periphery Nations the Coalition gained valuable funding, and the Marquess worked to ensure that the economy of the Coalition continued to improve. By 3085 in addition to upgrading the Outback FarmMechs plant to produce Primitive BattleMechs the Coalition had also pushed for the upgrade of the Quikscell plant on Broken Wheel to a fully-fledged factory and for the expansion of the Cal-Boeing of Dorwinion plant to full-time production. With industries expanding the number of jobs available increased, improving the local economy, while selling surplus production to other nations boosted the economy further and helped to foster improved interstellar relations. Fears of a repeat of events in the Malagrotta Cooperative influenced the Coalitions negotiations with mercenary units, however; the Coalition operated a policy of communicating and contracting with mercenary units outside the borders of the Coalition, with a permanent team being established to negotiate with mercenaries as well as being responsible for issuing them the access needed to actually make landfall on Coalition worlds.

Despite the Coalition's stabilization and subsequent growth, the number of worlds affiliated with the Coaltion rejoined the Federated Suns, with the Coalition shrinking to just seven worlds by 3130. The population of the Coalition remained convinced that sooner or later the Federated Suns would look to reclaim the worlds by force, and as a result the Thumpers Assault Battalion was rotated through a number of worlds on the border, repeatedly having to move on to new assignments as worlds elected to rejoin the Federated Suns. Always popular on the border worlds, the Thumpers eventually decided to give up their trade as mercenaries and integrated fully into the Filtvelt Citizen's Militia; by 3145 the commanding officer of the Thumpers, now a full regiment in size, was Colonel Ranjit Matta, grandson of the Jihad-era commander Buck Tripp by his daughter, who married a zamindar from the city-state of Thanjavur on Skepptana.

Late Dark Age
During the early part of the thirty-second century Prime Minister Berko Okeke found himself struggling to deal with a "brain drain" resulting from a combination of the paucity of secondary education within the Coalition and the continuing demand from the Filtvelt Citizen's Militia for well-educated recruits to undergo officer training at Filtvelt Academy. With the Vagabond Schools of the Federated Suns era regarded as a failure, Okeke responded to the drain by pushing through a number of tax and spending increases that increased the number of primary and university education facilities throughout the Coalition. These measures were very successful - so much so that a number of worlds bordering the Coalition began to adopt them - but it wouldn't be until 3138 that the Militia was finally able to recruit enough trained personnel from Filtvelt Academy to meet its needs.

Supporting the Federated Suns during the Draconis Combine Invasion
In 3138 John Joseph Gardiner was elected President of the Coalition, replacing the outgoing Okeke. The son of a Marielund farmer, Gardiner had entered public service at a young age and was a staunch Coalition patriot who worked tirelessly to improve the standard of living of the citizens of the Coalition. Gardiner was a firm believer in the idea that the Coalition and the Federated Suns shared a deep connection and that the key to the coalition remaining independent was to cultivate and strengthen that collection. Gardiner was outspoken about his beliefs and had been massively popular on Marielund, rising to the post of planetary governor in 3111 before being re-elected to the post repeatedly. Being elected to rule the Coalition put Gardiner in a position to confirm his beliefs on a larger scale, and one of his first acts in office was to begin an education exchange program with several of the worlds in the nearby Periphery March of the Federated Suns. He followed this by negotiating a number of trade deals that proved successful, boosting the economy of almost every world in the Coalition.

Gardiner and the Coalition were further tested when the Draconis Combine launched a devastatingly successful three-pronged invasion of the Federated Suns in 3144. In May 3144 when Draconis Combine Mustered Soldiery forces invaded Chanute the sister of the Duke of the Draconis March, Duchess Victoria Sandoval, decided to flee Woodbine, making her way to Filtvelt as she was unable to reach her brother on the March capital of Robinson. Once she arrived on Filtvelt, she began a series of talks with Gardiner that were reportedly highly productive.

Citizen-soldiers of the Coalition began volunteering to assist the Federated Suns, and Gardiner dispatched troops across the border to strike at rear targets in the occupied regions of the Federated Suns. Gardiner put the case for supporting the Federated Suns directly to the people of the Coalition, citing the shared cultural heritage the two nations shared, and was rewarded with almost complete agreement and an eruption of confidence and patriotism within the population.

Dispatched on the 9th of September 3145, the mainstay of the forces deployed to assist the Federated Suns was the Thumper Assault Regiment, along with enough volunteer militia companies to form several ad-hoc battalions of troops. The Filtvelt troops fell under the overall command of Duke Bernard Marsin of the Periphery March by default, but many in the AFFS High Command doubted that he would be able to effectively deploy them and by the end of 3145 the Thumpers had yet to be deployed in combat.

Worlds of the Filtvelt Coalition
The following systems were part of the Filtvelt Coalition when it formed in 3072: Cogdell, Ebro, Eustatius, Filtvelt, Gillingham, Hephzibah, Jaboatao, Lackland, Mararn, Marielund, Mejicanos, Memphis, Morven, Moultrie, Redondo, Sherwood, Skepptana, Sodertalje, Vaucluse, Wetumpka, and Broken Wheel.

In 3130, the following systems were part of the Coalition: Filtvelt, Marielund, Wetumpka, Broken Wheel, Lackland, Skepptana, and Mararn.

The capital world of the Filtvelt Coalition is Filtvelt, once the capital world of the former Outer March of the Federated Suns during the Age of War.

Filtvelt Citizen's Militia
The Filtvelt Citizen's Militia consists of those former AFFS units that chose to join the Filtvelt Coalition. Initially the FCM was equipped with machines used by the Filtvelt Military Academy Training Battalion. This low level of equipment didn't lend itself to offensive operations or effective defense, so the Coalition government contracted The Thumpers to provide some heavy hitting power.

Between 3072 and 3075, the FCM consisted mostly of two battalions of 3025 era BattleMechs. Equipment for the armor and infantry units that supported these 'Mechs came from a Quikscell Company facility on Broken Wheel and a retired Ripper VTOL production line on Filtvelt. In 3073 the Militia revealed that it had equipped two battalions of infantry with Inner Sphere Standard Battle Armor.

Late in 3075, nearly a third of the Malagrotta Crucis March Militia left their proto-state and joined the Filtvelt Coalition. This provided them with additional resources and several highly trained officers. As a result, the FCM could defend the Coalition very effectively from pirates but wasn't equipped to invade anyone else.

The dispatch of the Thumper Assault Regiment to assist the Federated Suns in 3145 left the FCM in a difficult position; pirate activity on the Periphery border of the Coalition had been increasing, and the reduced strength of the Militia left them struggling to deal with the increased pirate threat.

List of Named Military Units

 * First Filtvelt Citizen's Militia
 * Second Filtvelt Citizen's Militia
 * Third Filtvelt Citizen's Militia
 * The Thumpers Assault Battalion