Malagrotta Cooperative

Nation Description
The Malagrotta Cooperative was a short-lived Periphery nation based around a former Combat Region of the Federated Suns.

Formation & Survival
The worlds which formed the Malagrotta Cooperative originally formed the bulk of the Federated Suns' Malagrotta Combat Region. Like other parts of the Periphery border of the FedSuns, the Malagrotta Combat Region had been neglected as a result of the FedCom Civil War. This neglect had worsened shortly after the Jihad broke out and New Avalon found itself under siege by the Word of Blake; many parts of the Outback region of the FedSuns had even fewer resources to fight pirate and Taurian raids as a result. In 3072 the Malagrotta Combat Region's military was being stretched to cover the needs of other Combat Regions. Local officials within the Combat Region and the Combat Region's commanding officer, Major General Kirk DeYoung, began to consider a motion to duplicate the solution adopted by the newly formed Filtvelt Coalition, a neighbor of the Malagrotta Combat Region. It was widely speculated that by separating from the Federated Suns it would be easier for the region to raise troops to defend itself from pirates.

On the 19th of March 3073, the Malagrotta Combat Region became the Malagrotta Cooperative with its Malagrotta Declaration of Independence. The document cited that FedSun's failure in defending the region and declared itself an independent nation. While the protests from the Princess Regent and her command staff were sharp, the Declaration of Independence didn't prompt a military response from the Federated Suns.

Despite the best efforts of its militia, for the next three years the Cooperative saw an increase in pirate activity within its borders. The Cooperative began to issue Letters of Marque to any pirate band willing to enter service under the Cooperative in an attempt to reduce the level of pirate activity within the Cooperative.

Pirate Controlled Nation
In late October 3075, Cooperative leader Marion Whillshire murdered the pirate leader Lady Death Trevaline during a dispute. Due to the Consort Law practiced by Trevaline's pirate band, Death's Consorts, Whillshire became the leader of the murderous Pirate band Trevaline had led. This prompted the second in command of the Death's Consorts, Gary Tiqualme, to challenge Whillshire to a duel in which Tiqualme subsequently killed him. Tiqualme took full command of the Consorts and they moved to consolidate their control of Malagrotta. During the Consorts' attacks as they took control Kirk DeYoung, the Malagrotta CrMM commander, was killed. Despite DeYoung's death, three quarters of the Militia escaped under command of General Garman Doucette and managed to flee to Filtvelt.

Voorzitter Gary Tiqualme then officially announced on the 25th of October that he was now leader of the Cooperative. The Consorts and other pirate bands hired out of the Pirate's Haven Star Cluster then began expanding their control over the destabilized region, including aggressively building occupation points on worlds bordering the Filtvelt Coalition, which had moved additional military forces to its own border in response to the coup within the Cooperative. Even as the pirates strengthened their hold on the Cooperative worlds both the Remagen CrMM and Islamabad CrMM established picket forces on various border worlds, augmenting their strength with conventional regiments and effectively surrounding the Cooperative.

Individuals began leaving the Cooperative in response, with signs appearing indicating that the Consorts were being backed by the Word of Blake. Federated Suns forces on the border of both the Cooperative and the Filtvelt Coalition begin fighting raids by the Consorts. General Raymond-Roger Marsin and the Remagen CrMM began assaulting pirate forces within the Cooperative, beginning with the Cooperative world of Gronholt on the 7th of March 3076. The Remagen CrMM (with help from some minor mercenary units like the Wyld Stallions) broke the two companies of assorted pirates from the Death's Consorts and other hired bands defending Gronholt; the few surviving pirates retreated to Great Gorge, leaving Gronholt in the hands of the Federated Suns. Then, in September 3076 Marsin and the Remagen CrMM repulsed a battalion-size pirate force attempting to pillage a Cooperative textile factory on Baranda.

Worlds

 * Malagrotta
 * Csomad
 * Armington
 * Hoonaar
 * Gronholt
 * Vackisujfalu
 * Great Gorge

Leadship

 * Prime Minister David Honorer (3073)
 * President/Voorzitter - Marion Whillshire (3075)
 * Voorzitter - Gary Tiqualme (3075+)

3073

 * Malagrotta Crucis March Militia

3075

 * Death's Consorts