That sure reads like a guy who's spend the last 35 years living each day like it's his last. Good take on a mercenary.
Thanks for that, he's quite the character.
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Draconis Diplomacy?The Draconis Combine has been known for many things throughout its long history, among them are the Kentares Massacre, the Necess Kurita ‘incident,’ the Ronin War of 3034, War of 3039, Betrayal of Chancellor Romano Liao and occupation of her worlds, etc…
However, it has never been known for its…diplomacy.
In fact, the Draconis Combine has never sent an Ambassador to the other Great Houses in its entire history…because to do so would mean that it would consider them worthy of such an honor. An anonymous paraphrased quote from one of the Coordinators went, ‘one does not need diplomatic contact with ones claimed lands.’ Instead, all ‘diplomacy’ was conducted through the powerful Precentor Luthien who directly reported to Precentor Dieron.
The Draconis Combine’s manifold ministries only included two ‘outreach’ ones until 3048.
The Bureau of ‘Hospitality toward New Lands,’ responsible for appointing DCMS Military Governors for ‘liberated’ territories.
The Bureau of ‘Development of Untapped Lands,’ which accept emissaries from ‘lesser tributaries’ in this instance that term refers to the Periphery states which grew to include the ‘Free’ Rasalhague Republic when it ‘was graciously released.’
In the 3048 this was increased to three with the formation of the 'Bureau for Cultivating External Harmony,' covering the foreign missions to the Capellan Confederation and later the rest of the Inner Sphere.
Any non-COMSTAR related diplomacy was conducted indirectly through periphery cutouts operating from ‘temporary’ consulates, typically a dropship of some kind, and are subject to the whims of the Coordinator who is free to dismiss them for whatever transgression he believes.
‘Economic and Cultural Offices’ from other Successor States are ‘allowed’ in Azami sovereign territory where they often must pay tribute and be staffed with Muslim faithful for the ‘privilege.’ These ECOs interface with the Bureau of Interior Comfort and Concerns but are not officially diplomatic consulates. The largest of these is the Dar Es Salaam ECO representing Lyran interests on Rukbat with a matching Azami ECO on Dar Es Salaam reporting to the Commonwealth’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Through these ECOs the Azami have amassed a respectable amount of internal diplomatic clout that has along with their fanatic Arkab Legions ensured their autonomy from Luthien’s Coordinator for centuries.
After the ‘Free’ Rasalhague Republic came into and defended its independence it served as the principal conduit for the Draconis Combine’s concerns with Archon Melissa Steiner’s Lyran Commonwealth. For the most part the Outworld’s Alliance served a similar role with the Free World’s League, the Magistracy of Canopus with the Federated Suns although they often had little to discuss with their blood rival, and there was little interaction with the long suffering and pitifully weak Capellan Confederation except through COMSTAR. That is until Gunji-no-Kanrei Theodore Kurita’s and his Ghost Regiments were ‘invited’ by then Chancellor Romano Liao to solidify her tenuous position at the darkest points of the Capellan Civil War of the 3040s.
This deployment of DCMS forces in force to the League-Confederation border immediately set off alarm bells in Atreus and Tharkad who had long offered their tacit support to the exiled son of the prior Chancellor Maximilian Liao, Mandrinn Tormano Liao. With their full support Tormano Liao removed his sister from power but was unable to reclaim the Capellan worlds including his own title world and later capital, Capella, from the mighty DCMS.
However the late 3040s were a difficult time for the Draconis Combine, their Capellan colonies proved ruinously expensive to occupy, Ghost Regiments went rogue with their weapons, their former prefecture, the ‘Free’ Rasalhague Republic, edged closer to the Lyran Commonwealth growing wealthier with each passing year, Outworld’s Alliance Privateers working for New Avalon had severely damaged their jump fleet during the 3039 Campaign, and the sudden withdrawal of the immense COMSTAR aid to the country dried up.
Then Coordinator Takashi Kurita had made reforms to the always weak Combine economy but it had proved insufficient and he had no solutions. State assets including mothballed jumpships, now underutilized and overleveraged factories, and inefficiently run mines were auctioned off to Outworlds, Rasalhague, and Azami interests. Unfortunately, there were few takers and the economy continued its death spiral until Takashi Kurita’s death in 3046.
Theodore Kurita embarked on a daring new campaign the like of which had never been tried by the Draconis Combine.
Diplomacy
Of course, he needed to shape the battlefield in his favor before trying this, an unusual number of high profile individuals connected to Draconis Combine State Owned enterprises…retired to the mountains…forever. Their vast fortunes graciously donated to the Kurita Family Trust, administered by Keeper of Family Honor Constance Kurita.
After this he signed a peace treaty with Chancellor Tormano Liao on conditions that were highly favorable to the Capellan Confederation. Tormano Liao would issue work visas to highly skilled workers from the Draconis Combine while compensating them fairly. Although ‘fairly’ was determined by the nearly bankrupt Confederation’s pay scales, still any work was better than none, and skilled human capital was utilized efficiently, rather than left to atrophy.
The Draconis Combine returned their occupied worlds to the Confederation and DCMS Occupiers became Peacekeepers with an open bounty on the rogue Ghosts still rampaging through the Confederation. Free and unhindered trade in goods, services, and currency exchange would be allowed between their Realms. Billions of c-bills were paid out from the Capellan Restoration Trust, the recovery fund contributed to by the other Successor States, to the Draconis Combine in exchange for discounted goods that kept enough factories open to avoid a total collapse of the economy.
Through skillful negotiation and use of her Family’s Trust KFH Constance and the Order of Five Pillars eked the Combine out of a near famine and breakout of disease on vulnerable worlds by paying Outworlds Free-Traders and Canopian relief workers, previously deployed in Confederation space, to pick up the slack from COMSTAR’s departure.
Following this unprecedented series of events, the Draconis Combine appointed its first Ambassador ever, to Capella and Tormano Liao’s Capellan Confederation. Ambassador Daguchi Yakobu previously military governor of Gei Fu during its occupation and widely regarded as a fair and just administrator. His deputy Chargé d'affaires Ogawa Hideji set up the furthest albeit ‘temporary’ consulate on the, formerly Federated Suns occupied, world of Victoria to support Princes Hohiro and Minoru on the Rim as well as Combine expats further afield than the centrally located Capella.
Given the unfamiliar mandate of Peacekeepers the DCMS and DCA were limited in their ability to conduct their normal offensive heavy operations instead relegated to ‘reserve’ behind the CCAF. This situation strengthened the hands of and enlarged the budgets of the Ministry of the Treasury’s expanded (with the removal of the CSE and DCPA from the Ministry of War) mostly civilian paramilitary forces including the Combine Support and Engineering Corps, Draconis Combine Port Authority, and newly formed Symbolic Assets Security Agency (S2A2) which would provide protection for foreign diplomatic missions and VIPs while not being 'military.'
