Agreed w/ most of what you have said several times.
In regards to the above.
The majority of Lyran people actually supported the FC-Alliance.
IIRC the quote from the Sourcebooks was something like 75% or Higher of the Citizens of Both Nations were Always in favor of the FC Alliance.
The only legitimately sized opposition came from 6 sources.
1-3 Alessandro Steiner, Fredrick Steiner, & Aldo Lestrade
4. To a lesser extent Skye Citizens since they are the most "influenced" by their leadership. (For the record, they are also the biggest Gainers from the FC Alliance IIRC)
5. Michael Hasek-Davion
6. Social Generals that feared they would be replaced by the Tactics/Strategies of the AFFS.
So you had 4 Nobles that all stood to lose personal power through the nation being stronger & they lose effective control over their little fiefdoms.
Some incompetent officers that needed to be replaced for the most part.
Finally you had the Skye Citizens which more than any other are screaming to be independent.
Noted above, Skye gained more economically & militarily from the Alliance than any other section of either nation AFAIK.
The vast majority of Citizens & Military & Lesser Nobles all favored the alliance.
The enemies of the FC Allience numbers 1,2,3,5 are removed (dead, new identity) after the 4th Succession War. They are replaced on the Steiner side by Ryan Steiner.
And the people of Skye, sorry, but would anybody just shut them up with: "Either you behave or we withdraw our forces and let the Draconis Combine have you. Maybe then you see, how good you have it as citizens of the LC and later FC."
And to enemy Nr 6: Retire them - forcefully, if you have to. Or, Katrina should have shamed them into silence by awarding "medals" for loosing. (I once wrote a fanfic where I made Katrina introduce the Steiner Loss medal.
A quote:
Social General 1: I have the Steiner Loss medal 3rd class for loosing 2 planets.
Social General 2: Looser, I am a better Social General because I have the Steiner Loss medal 2nd class with nettle leaves and broken germanium wings for loosing 10 planets and a friendly fire incident where I destroyed one of our own jump ship yards.
Force those Social Generals to parade around the Triad showing their incompetence by displaying such medals. And they should be BIG, diameter at least 6 inches. You know, the Steiner way of the Kuritan Honor of Wakizashi.)
I can believe that people would be in favor of the F-C Alliance. That plan actually works pretty well. They'd been tacit allies since the start of the 3rd Succession War and still have trade relations and academy exchanges to the current day. The problems started coming up when they decided to try and combine into a single state and, oh, it turns out we don't have very much in common except one enemy and a vague commitment to the concepts of Classical Liberalism. You ever had a friend or partner who you got along with and then you got the bright idea to move in together, and it became a disaster?
Yes, I agree. Two different realms cannot be united into one way of thinking. But what if they had tried to unite them in spirit? Whenever I read the fanfic "This was easier on the tabletop" I would like to have the protagonist influence Katrina, Melissa and Hanse to commission some adverts - and for the Steiner side it means also praisiing an enemy of Katrina.
Think of:
Tent of a General. And three shadowy figures are seen before him.
General (not to be said which realm (Steiner or Davion) he is from): "The enemy is coming down this way."
The first shadowy figure steps forward and is revealed as a Steiner colonel: "And the Lyran wall of steel stops them here."
General: "But what about the second thrust?"
Davion colonel: "And the Davion cavalry will stop them here."
General: "But here we can employ none of your tactics."
FedCom colonel steps forward: "We will do it. We combine both worlds and do it."
Or:
In Davion space:
You mastered the art of cavalry warfare, but are you up to a challenge? Can you master the Lyran wall of steel like Colonel Frederick Steiner? Nearly no light mechs, always in danger of outmaneuvered by the lighter opponents, but still he prevailed.
In Steiner space:
You mastered the art of the Lyran wall of steel, but are you up to a challenge? Can you master the cavalry warfare of House Davion like Colonel Ardan Sortek? No assault mechs and always in danger of being overpowerd.