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| This information was last updated on the: 4th of January, 2013 |
| Core Information: Capital: Liberty Faction Leader: Premier Isis Marik Military Leader: Commanding General Andrew Redburn Intelligence Leader: Prime Minister Thaddeus Davion Approximate BattleMech Regiment Strength: 7 |
| Major Sub Regions Core Information: Region Name: Liberty Capital: Portland Commander: Major General Carl Sleipness Sub-Commander: Lieutenant General Vita J Davies Percentage of total Faction Military Strength: 34% Region Name: New Home Capital: Findler Commander: Major General Annalise Proctor Sub-Commander: Lieutenant General LaFayette Hughes Percentage of total Faction Military Strength: 33% Region Name: Procyon Capital: Guilded Halls Commander: Major General Leonid Ruiz Sub-Commander: Lieutenant General Eric Miller Percentage of total Faction Military Strength: 33% |
| System Information Pages: Liberty, New Home, Procyon |
| BTM Timeline Events: 15th of June, 3085 Isis Marik and Andrew Redburn agreed to lead a relocation of the Star League Senate and some bureaucratic structures. Isis, who up to this point had been credited with very little in her life, executed a brilliantly choreographed relocation of the Star League Senate to the seats of Liberty’s now infamous Baku Opera Complex on Quantico Island. Isis broadcasted a message that was disseminated to nearly every former Star League citizen, soldier and bureaucrat. She invited them to come to the worlds of Liberty, New Home and Procyon. The message was powerful in its brevity but seemed to speak to the core needs of many who read it. Those who were touched by her message and the many more that followed, flocked to Liberty like Pilgrims, with two hopeful words on their lips: Liberty Holds. |
| Origin and History: In June 3085, Isis Marik and Andrew Redburn agreed to lead a relocation of the Star League Senate and some bureaucratic structures. Isis, who up to this point had been credited with very little in her life, executed a brilliantly choreographed relocation of the Star League Senate to the seats of Liberty�s now infamous Baku Opera Complex on Quantico Island. With a heavy amount of dissent within the Senate, the odds of achieving anything seemed remote at best. That didn�t stop Isis Marik from delivering a powerful and driven speech to the Senators before their first session began. By all accounts her speech was stirring and inspiring in a time that growing defeatism was being demonstrated on the Senate floor. Despite her best efforts, the Senators descended into bickering, particularly over what the priorities of the Star League Defense Force should be. The speech failed to stir the Senate to achieve much, but it left a fresh imprint of Isis Marik in many minds that would change the entire leadership dynamic on Liberty in the weeks that followed. With everyone reaching to grab whatever they could to defend their own realms or homeworlds, few noticed the full ramifications of a bill submitted by the Free Worlds League to split off ComStar from the Star League and once again recognize that organization as a separate entity from the Star League. The Free Worlds League representatives and testimonials from the Department of Communication claimed that the Star League bureaucracy had failed to keep up with budgetary needs of the Star League�s Department of Communication and those testifying said that if extreme action wasn�t taken immediately, the risk of an entire HPG network shutdown within three months was very high. The bill passed a simple vote with minimal senate floor discussion, and with it went the Star League�s primary source of revenue. Largely without realizing it, the Senate had killed the Star League, not with assassins or �Mechs, but with a simple vote. Within days Star League control of all their worlds broke down. A mass exodus of more than 40 percent of all SLDF personnel and equipment began as the Com Guards were reformed. In addition to revenue from communication services, the Star League had also lost its most useful propaganda machine, the HPG network. The Star League was now being charged for every message they sent, a fresh expenditure on a budget that was already strained to the breaking point. Star League Department offices were being cleaned out and abandoned as workers saw their paychecks stop coming. As more and more communication filters were removed from the HPG network the Star League�s citizens began to see the true scope and severity of the Star League�s situation. Star League filtered images and news stories that portrayed hopeful peacekeeping missions were replaced with grim images and footage taken by the Great Houses, which appeared on their news networks daily. These often-times graphic video clips frequently showed Star League troops fighting and dying and ultimately failing to restore the peace. Uproar swelled across the Star League worlds in mass protests and a swift cycle of takeovers as local leaders step in to maintain the government services that the Star League had once provided but now abandoned. In a gesture some have described as empty or largely ceremonial, the Star League revoked the Terran Defense Act and granted independence to every Star League Administered System. In truth, de facto independence had already occurred. For all intents and purposes, the Star League was dead and the Senate and SLDF disbanding with a prevailing �every man for himself� abandon ship mentality. The suicide rates on Terra in May and June were twenty times above the monthly average. It was a time of fearful uncertainty for everyone who had lived and breathed the dream that the Star League represented. They found hope in one unlikely candidate; Isis Marik. Isis broadcasted a message that was disseminated to nearly every former Star League citizen, soldier and bureaucrat. She invited them to come to the worlds of Liberty, New Home and Procyon. The message was powerful in its brevity but seemed to speak to the core needs of many who read it. Isis�s famous broadcast gave her a new media nickname, Lady Liberty, a reference to a statue of eons past that signified a fresh start for immigrants from distant lands. Although that nickname was sometimes spoken mockingly in the media across the Inner Sphere from 3085 on, among some it was spoken with a deep reverence. Isis had long been a minor scion in the affairs of the Inner Sphere, passed by as a small player in a game of titans. Engaged to the leader of the Capellan Confederation, the widow of Victor Steiner-Davion and the pawn in House Marik�s game for years. What no one had counted on was the reserves of inner strength those years of manipulation and heartbreak had given her, and the first class real world education she had received in the affairs of state in close proximity to so many brilliant minds among the leadership class of the Inner Sphere. In the wake of her husband�s death, she poured that strength and acquired wisdom into sheer determination to succeed and the acts that followed. Those who knew her said she became a different woman entirely during this time. The woman who had been at the back of the room for so many years now refused to stand anywhere but the front and she refused to stop speaking until she was heard. It didn�t take long until she was the star of the show whenever she walked into any room on Liberty. |
| The Exodus: From entire SLDF Divisions to small contingents of former Star League citizens, people began to arrive on the Liberty Holds worlds in record numbers. Many were exhausted; some were even starving, having spent what little resources they had to reach their destination. Lady Liberty greeted them, often in person and with an entourage ready to provide assistance. Isis�s hand on a sagging and tired shoulder, a smile and a few soulful words seemed to instantly revive the spirits of many. Some attempted to pledge their loyalty to her personally, but were always met with the same response that has been well documented in history: There are verified stories of men and women, many of them war veterans that had lost limbs and hope; falling to their knees and weeping with sorrow over the events of the past few years once they had a chance to speak to Isis Marik. Logical or emotional, pragmatic or dreamer, ambitious for justice through war or seeking peace, Isis Marik became the symbol to satisfy everyone else�s greatest need at that particular turning point in history. Everyone knew of her recent grief for Victor Steiner-Davion, and it somehow became automatically acceptable to show your own grief and anger and frustration in her presence if you couldn�t do it anywhere else. Once they had, some of them became her most fanatical supporters. No one can claim that all were swayed by Isis Marik in such a fashion. Perhaps the most publicized hold-out against her efforts was Colonel Neil Campbell, who, despite his age, retained command of the Royal Black Watch Regiment. Campbell had pledged to take his command and go to Northwind to serve that now independent world. |
| Government: Isis Marik�s most steadfast supporter and partner in nation-building was Andrew Redburn, who burdened himself with trying to organize three worlds into something resembling a government, military and the necessary organizational structures to keep the lights on. Redburn had once been an AFFC Leftenant General once, but had willingly become a Star League Defense Force Colonel to command the 1st Royal BattleMech Regiment and had refused every promotion since to retain command of the still prestigious �Morgan�s Lions�. But now, Andrew Redburn was invigorated in a way he hadn�t been in years as he seemed to glimpse a paradise akin to what the Star League had always represented. With an expanded staff at his back and the 1st Royal still on his heels, he set about building a government from scratch, following Isis�s lead but also using her charismatic presence to achieve what he could not. |
| Liberty Holds Rising: In truth it wasn�t the first time Isis had taken charge, but history has seldom given her credit for anything prior to 3085. She once stabbed an assassin who tried to kill Omi Kurita, at the risk to her own life. During the FedCom Civil War, when Victor turned away from the war to solitude to grieve over Omi Kurita�s death, Isis sat him down over dinner and gave him a stern talk on what was important that helped him reengage and see past his grief to become the leader his people needed. Even then the evidence was there that Isis Marik was capable but she was always in the supporting role. The creation of the Liberty Holds was the first thing that Isis did herself that she was truly recognized for. With no giants of renowned leaders casting their shadow over her, she blossomed in the sunlight. Some give Andrew Redburn more credit than Isis for the Liberty Holds founding, pointing out that he did the grunt work of building that government and the military, using decades of leadership and administrative experience as well as his deep knowledge of the politics of the Inner Sphere and his many personal contacts. Yet it�s clear that Isis�s ideals, speeches and appearances were the magnet that drew so many like-minded individuals to her and helped form a national identity of tremendous fortitude that would endure when chaos gripped the other former Star League worlds. |
| The Liberty Conventions: Isis was firmly devoted to Star League ideals but also sought to put something down in writing. Throughout the months of June and July she and Andrew Redburn both contributed to writing an updated version of the Ares Conventions, a document that would become known as the Liberty Conventions and would be signed in August by representatives from all the Great Houses. In that act, the Great Houses had simultaneously affirmed respect and recognition of the Liberty Holds and what Isis Marik, Andrew Redburn and the other founders of the Liberty Holds had achieved. This action also further cemented the loyalty of the citizens of Liberty, New Home and Procyon to the new Liberty Holds government, as well as the loyalty of the surviving former SLDF Dvisions and warships that had arrived to join the Liberty Holds own growing military. |
| Forces: Liberty Holds Defense Force 31st Mechanized Infantry Division (Ariana’s Arrows) 5th Jump Infantry Division (The Minutemen) 1st Royal BattleMech Regiment (Morgan’s Lions) LHDF Navy First Lord (Thera-class Supercarrier), Whitting (Sovetskii Soyuz class Heavy Cruiser), Swift Justice (Aegis class Heavy Cruiser) and Manchester (Suffren class Destroyer) |