Unity City (city)

Though more formally known as the Court of the Star League, the so-called Unity City was once the capital of Terra and of the Star League.

History

Located near the newly pristine Puget Sound of the Terran continent of North America, construction of Court of the Star League and its surrounding city was initiated in the years prior the formal signing of the Star League Accords.

Construction

The city's location was decided by Charles Chaffins, the Count of Seattle and CEO of Boeing, who lobbied, blackmailed and threatened his way to Terran Hegemony High Council to ensure than the Star League's new capital would lie within his fiefdom. He spent three months under house arrest for his crimes, but he succeeded in his goal.

As befitting the center of Humanity, the city was huge, elaborate and awe-inspiring, incorporating materials from all the Member States in its construction. Funded by taxpayers and designed by visionary architect Hanna Crawford, employing hyper-advanced technology. Every Inner Sphere state has a magnificient embassy, being the most impressive the one of the Draconis Combine. Once built the Court of the Star League was hailed as an architectural marvel, with one visiting architect calling it "a fairy-tale place, where parking garages are as beautiful as the Taj Mahal.

It was also the location of the Royal Court, which met for two months during the spring and winter Council meetings. Somewhere near the city was located a military base named Fort Cameron, the base of the bodyguard unit of the First Lord, the Royal Black Watch Regiment. As the Star League grew and prospered, so did Unity City. In 2762, the city entered its fifth of ten planned expansions, includinga new waterfront parks along the eastern shoreline, and an expansion of the museum district.

The Amaris Coup

The 27th of December 2766, the Amaris Coup put an end to that. Stefan Amaris murdered Richard Cameron, the last First Lord of the League, in the Audience Chamber, and the city and its environs became a battlefield between the Amaris forces and the Star League defenders.

The hardest battle, part of Operation APOTHEOSIS, was fought beside the city: after an atomic strike launched from Amaris' fighters destroyed Fort Cameron, effectively wiping out those elements of the Watch that were still mobilizing. Only two lances of Black Watch 'Mechs survived and were able to escape the traps. They were then confronted by the 4th Amaris Dragoons at Gorst Flats, protected on one side by high forested hills and Puget Sound on the other, which forced the Dragoons to confront them individually.

Both efforts, however, were ultimately doomed. After losing ten 'Mechs to the entrenched Black Watch soldiers, all of whom had been graduates of the infamous Gunslinger Program, the Dragoons' commander withdrew his forces and wiped them out with a nuclear explosive.

More than a third of the nearby Unity City went up in flames as consequence of the blasts, happened only a few kilometers of the city. Tthe Star League Court was charred black in some areas. But the worst consequence was the burning of all the forest in the nearby hills. Few days later, a torrential rain turned these hills into a massive series of mud slides over the city. More than half city was covered by the mud, burying buildings up to two stories. A swamp formed in the rest of the city, until it was completely drained by ComStar in the mild 2800s.

Amaris ordered the Stellar Court repaired for the day she will be hailed as First Lord by the High Council, but that never happened. After Stefan Amaris murdered the rest of Cameron family in the Audience Chamber, he ordered the room sealed. The radioactive fallout and orbital strikes of the destruction of the Citadel and Tacoma's Castele Brian turned Unity City into a ghost town. The SLDF Liberation of Terra saw more combats in and around Unity City. Amaris had ordered the construction of concentric SDS batteries around it. Aleksandr Kerensky forces attacked the city, believing it was Stefan Amaris headquarters. They were wrong, but saw more devastation bring into the city. Remaining buildings, like the BSLA's headquarters, suffered tremendous damage.

No one opened the Throne Room gates until Earth was liberated, 11 years later. When the Chamber was opened, the mortal remains of all the Cameron family were found there. After this discovery, Kerensky ordered the execution of Amaris and all his family.

Succession Wars

After the High Council of the Star League disbanded, and the League was de facto dissolved, Jerome Blake, last ministry of the League, and head of all Hegemony reconstruction process, decided the efforts to restore the Court were a waste of resources, and ordered the work stopped and the Court sealed in spring of 2783.

Unity City, still two centuries later, was the most visible wounds in Terra. ComStar keep Earth safe from the battles, but kept Unity City as it was, as the populace abandoned the area.

In 2901, however, the known as "mad Primus" of ComStar, Dwight Kurstin transferred the headquarters of ComStar to the Court of the Star League. He also reopened the sealed throne room and established himself there... and in that place was killed, on January 3 2902, by a mysterious ROM agent codenamed "Saber".

Only some years before the Clan invasion the group worked to unearth some of the ruined city.

After the Battle of Tukayyid the new Primus Sharilar Mori planned to revitalize and rebuild Unity City and restore the Court of the Star League, systematically stripped by the previous Primus along the centuries, and opening it up to academics, but Operation ODYSSEUS probably put an end to that project.

Dark Age

Unity City survived the Jihad intact, becoming a tourist attraction during the Republic of the Sphere's existence. Devlin Stone opened the city fully to academics, researchers and civilian education tours. During the Clans' race to Terra in 3151, it became a priority target for Clan Wolf, who took it without any fight. The Wolf Khan, Alaric Ward ordered the removal of any tourism, as, for the Clans, it was a holy place.

IlClan Era

After defeating Clan Jade Falcon and the Republic of the Sphere in the Battle of Terra (3151), Alaric established a new Star League, under the command of the ilClan, with Unity City as capital. The Wolves made a massive construction effort to restore the Stellar Court and erect a striking white-marble tomb to honor House Cameron, near the sealed and unmarked location in which the murdered Cameron were buried. There, on the 28th of April, the body of the Great Father of the Clans, Aleksandr Kerensky was buried.

Locations

• The Citadel: fortified complex that housed SLDF High Command.
• Bureau of Star League Affairs headquarters.
• Fort Cameron (destroyed) Headquarters of the Royal Black Watch.
• Court of Star League.
• Aleksandr' Kerensky's tomb.
• People's Botanical Garden.
• Royal Palace: Residence of House Cameron.

Notes

During Operation Revival, after the capital of the Periphery world of Von Strang's World, named Amaris City, in honor of Stefan Amaris by one of their general's descendants, was taken by Clan Jade Falcon forces and renamed Unity City, in honor of the original one.

Bibliography

• ComStar
• Historical: Liberation of Terra Volume 1
• Hour of the Wolf
• Jade Falcon Sourcebook
• The Star League
• Unity City Within a View in Shrapnel#9