Tikonov Grand Union

History

Formation

The Tikonov Grand Union was the second evolution of the earlier Tikonov Union, which began as a mutual protection pact signed in 2243 in response to the Demarcation Declaration of 2240. The Tikonov Grand Union was a mature state on a par with the Capellan Co-Prosperity League and the Sarna Supremacy by the mid-23rd century, although the Grand Union was a somewhat sprawling and uncoordinated state in comparison. The Grand Union's sphere of influence abutted the sphere of influence of another state - the Marlette Association - and the two were increasingly competing over the same border worlds. Influxes of colonists added to the problems; with the best and most choice areas already claimed, entire colonies found themselves being uprooted by their successors, with those evicted from their holdings either evicting other settlers in turn or resorting to a life of banditry and brigandage.

The Marlette Association War

By the dawn of the 24th century, these problems were coming to a head. The Marlette Association was the first to begin a campaign of active warfare, seizing the most significant of the independent worlds, Almach, Mesartim, Mira and Mirach between 2302 and 2306. This left the Grand Union in something of a crisis; in addition to the conflict with the Marlette Association, war was looming between the Capellan Hegemony and the Sarna Supremacy, and internally the rulers of the Grand Union, the Tetrarchs, were facing a succession crisis.

One of the Tetrarch's, Anton Carinus, had never remarried after the death of his first wife and child, and as a result he was unable to name an immediate family member to succeed him. Eventually, Carinus decided to adopt General Diana Chinn of the 3rd Tikonov Border Guards, a mediocre field commander but an outspoken beauty with strong anti-Davion sentiments and more than a decade of experience at fighting bandits along the Marlette border. Carinus then attempted to solve two problems at once; he adopted Chinn and ordered her to assemble her veteran border troops for a campaign against the Marlette Association.

Assisting Carinus in the construction and funding of the war against the Association were secret contributions from the Sarna Supremacy, which was keen to keep the Grand Union from interfering from their own impending war; several of the Tetrarchs, possibly including Carinus, were minded to side with the Capellan Hegemony to prevent the looming war between the Hegemony and the Supremacy, and keeping Carinus' heir and a large portion of the Grand Union's troops busy in a different campaign would keep the Grand Union busy.

The Grand Union counter-invasion of Marlette space began in October 2308; Chinn's efforts began with the world of Almach, as the Almach region of space had long been in contention between the two states. The Tikonov force had superior numbers and surprise on their side and quickly occupied Almach, followed by Mesartim late in 2308 and Halloran V in 2309. The Marlette forces were disorganised due to internal conflicts amongst the senior staff, and the swift advance made by Chinn and her Voltigeur regiments exacerbated the disconnect with the Marlette units. Chinn's expeditionary force was reinforced to a total strength of six regiments and launched quickly for Mira to capitalise on the disfunctional Marlette command chain. Chinn's troops spent several months capturing Marlette strongholds across Mira until Chinn's untimely death in mid-May under suspicious circumstances. The death of Carinus' general and heir-apparent stalled the campaign amidst an atmosphere of suspicion and superstition, and lead to the Tikonov forces retreating soon after from Mira and simply consolidating on the worlds they'd captured earlier.

Internal Conflict

Despite Chinn's death, the Grand Union was still a strong enough force to mediate an end to the Capellan-Supremacy War in 2309, and remained perhaps the wealthiest and most prosperous of the nations within the Capellan Zone. However, Chinn's death also started a spiral of increasing difficulties and problems within the Grand Union itself. Carinus died in early 2310, and the three surviving Tetrarchs of the Council of Four refused to replace him, instead creating numerous new government departments to handle internal affairs. This created a bureacratic maelstrom of red tape and rule by committee that caused mass confusion across the Grand Union's government. Compounding the problems caused by the changes in governance was a critical lack of understanding amongst the Tetrarch's of the principles of interstellar economics. Each believed that with the Grand Union's borders effectively secure, the good times were here to stay; beginning in 2312, each Tetrarch began to compete with the other two in the construction of public works projects, government buildings and palaces. These programmes all sparked off a vicious cycle of inflating wages and rising prices that led to widespread inflation across the Grand Union - inflation the Tetrarch's tried to stall by creating even more new projects. By 2330, the Grand Union was internally cripped as people lost their life savings over night from uncontrolled inflation; by 2336 riots were erupting on Grand Union worlds that the Tetrarch's tried to put down with a combination of line regiments drawn back from postings on the Grand Union's borders and half-hearted efforts at economic reform.

By 2344, other nations were feeling the effects of the spiralling Grand Union ecomony; in 2345 the nearby Duchy of Liao refused to deal in Tikonov currency, and state-controlled businesses in the Sarna Supremacy were noticing the effect of the internal chaos within the Grand Union. By 2351 there had been more than 300 riots across the Grand Union significant enough to require the deployment of military troops, and the Tikonov armed forces were stretched too thinly to cope - or to retain the effectiveness they'd once had in combat. With troops continually deployed to the Grand Union interior, other nations began seizing border worlds that the Grand Union was powerless to protect. The Terran Hegemony seized a number of worlds from the Chisholm Province of the Grand Union between 2336 and 2338; the Marlette Association had merged earlier with the Federated Suns, and the Federated Suns recaptured Almach, Mesartim and Mira in 2344, before signing the Acala Pact the following year with the Tetrarch's all but admitting they were powerless to regain the worlds. The Sarna Supremacy decided to capitalise on the apparent weakness of the Grand Union in 2351 by invading Algol and Slocum, beginning two years of unrelentingly savage warfare.

The Capellans managed to negotiate a cease fire in 2352, although talks continued for years afterwards as the animosity between the Supremacy and the Grand Union intensified, culminating in both nations attempting to win the general election within the Capellan Commonality and thereby gain Capellan support for their side of any conflict. As the Capellan elections were subject to increasingly antagonistic re-runs and the other states within the Capellan Zone attempted to reach an accord, the Almach Accord and the Acala Pact were renounced and the Federated Suns, the Sarna Supremacy and the Grand Union went to war again, with the Federated Suns demanding Chesterton from the Grand Union as well as Bell and Highspire from the Supremacy, threatening the use of nuclear weapons to seize them if necessary.

Bibliography

• House Liao (The Capellan Confederation)