Moab Confederacy

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The Moab Confederacy was a neo-capitalist "libertarian" state comprised of several minor colony worlds from the Federation after a poorly-deployed Starfleet failed to deal with Klingon and Orion raids in the border region. (The War of the Masters)

Overview:

The Moab Confederacy covers four inhabited systems scattered between the Pi Canis and Hromi sectors in the Eta Eridani operations theater.

The total population is slightly over 2 Billion inhabitants, making it one of the smaller interstellar polities in the Beta Quadrant.

Politically, the Moab Confederacy is a decentralized representative republic in which member worlds are responsible for their own internal governance, with specific restrictions on specific actions each government may take against its citizens. These restrictions are detailed in the Charter of Rights and Responsibilites.

The Head of State position is the First Minister of the Moab Confederacy. It is selected by a majority vote by the two houses of this polity's legislative branch: The Council of Governors (the upper half) and the Assembly of the People (lower half).

Confederacy Worlds:

Moab III

New Saigon

Cold Butte

Arluna

Berun's World

Non planetary Installations with a seat on the Governor's Council:

Bradbury Belt Cooperative

Astrofield Mining Group

Romak Station

Bornsen Habitat

Allowell Habitat

Nghac Habitat

Non-Represented Outposts

Base Alpha

Cause of Rebellion

The Moab Confederacy formed as a reaction to the Colonist Act of 2371, also known as the "Maquis Act," which restricted the rights of small colonies under United Federation of Planets jurisdiction in the wake of a series of incidents in and around Cardassian space. This act set hard limits on the self-defense rights of colonial holdings as an effort to curb or prevent future campaigns of terror that could undermine UFP policies in the same manner that the Maquis did after the Cardassian Peace Treaty was put into place.

Due to their placement, size, level of industrialization, and economic value, colonies were listed according to categories ranging from Category 3 (homeworld dependent for subsistence) to Category 1 (ready for full inclusion as a voting member of the Federation Council).

Virtually every world that joined the Moab Confederacy was considered Category 3.

The specific grievances of the rebel colonies and outposts, centered around this enforced dependence, as they were all targeted by Orion and other raiding forces frequently. Still, Starfleet lacked resources to protect them consistently, as the Eta Eridani theater was a non-war-zone until 2399. KDF forces had done much of the policing in the area under the Khitomer Treaty.

(thus, undermining much of the perceived legitimacy of Federation rule in the area.)

The rebellion began with "The Movement," a domestically grown insurgency heavily influenced by former Maquis, Khon-ma, and locally grown political figures in the Hromi sector, these persons began obtaining black-market weapons and organizing 'self-protection groups' in violation of UFP laws as early as 2381. the movement used 'code words' from various human and other races' history, including:

Haganah

Sons of Liberty

Belt Fenian Brotherhood (aka "Wild Geese")

Association for Neighbourhood Protection

Whitehorse Militia

Lacking in armed spacecraft due to the need to maintain a low profile, these organizations of "The Movement" focused on establishing information networks, espionage tools, and low-intensity 'soft war' techniques to predict possible raids and incursions, locate raiders, and at times, to (when the risks were right) carry out assassinations against criminal syndicates, pirate groups, and rogue states. Over the course of their preparations for secession, contacts were made with Klingon Intelligence, and inroads made with sympathetic Klingon officials who were also distrustful of Federation policies, or openly disappointed with Starfleet's handling of talks before, and Federation actions during, the conflict with the Gorn Hegemony.

The "Final Straw" that brought things to a head, occurred with the actions of Vice Admiral Raphael Menninger, the Commander In Chief of the Hromi Sector, after the beginning of the Klingon Offensive in 2399. He ordered the withdrawal of industrial facilities from worlds close to the advancing Klingon front, and the withdrawal of Starfleet forces from the area, in an effort to establish a low-value demilitarized zone after the Klingon reconquest of three Class 2 colonies including Alhena. The response to this demilitarization and de-industrialization was a series of uprisings, these were timed and organized to happen nearly simultaneously, and shortly after, representatives of Moab III, Cold Butte, and Arluna traveled across the "red line" to Qo'noS to petition the Klingon High Council for aid in resisting reconquest by Starfleet forces, recognition of their status as independent worlds, and formal military aid and alliance.

This action was treated as a Propaganda stunt by Klingon officials and was approved by High Command to the Klingon High Council by a vote of 7 in favour to 4 against, with Chancellor J'mpok abstaining. The following month, the colony planet of Berun's World voted for secession and joined the Moab Confederacy.

The Defection of five colonies (Moab III/New Saigon, Cold Butte, Arluna, and Berun's World) to the Klingon Empire was the death-blow to Admiral Menninger's term as CiC of the Hromi Sector. His replacement, V. Admiral Stephen Alcott immediately reversed the policy of demilitarization and pursued an active agenda that, some observers suggest, would have prevented the secession and defection entirely.

Protectorate Period (2406 to 2410)

In order to cement their autonomy, the Moab Confederacy had to prove to the Klingon High Command that they were more than mere resources (and low value at that) to be used up. This meant mounting some sort of military operation of sufficient scale and prominence to dissuade individual Great Houses from attempting a subtle to overt takeover of these worlds. The decision made by First Minister Pro-Tem Elizabeth Tran, was a mission fitting with the "small but fierce" reputation that their inherent resources could support.

In early March of 2410, the Moab Confederacy Defense Force deployed its first expeditionary mission-a deep raid into fluidic space based on information extracted from several captured Undine infiltrators by both Haganah (now the official intelligence agency of the Moab Confederacy) and Klingon Intelligence.

The Operation, code-named Son Tay was formatted as a deep penetration prisoner extraction and rescue.

In October of that year, at the Risa Conference, the survivors of this mission delivered 150 Federation and Starfleet personnel rescued from a prisoner facility in Fluidic Space, at the cost of fifty percent of the vessels (mostly Norgh and B'rel class Bird of Preys supplied by the Klingons) employed in the mission. This result and the two dozen Klingon Empire personnel also recovered, was sufficiently prominent and visible to silence most critics in the Klingon High Council. The Confederacy had "Earned their bones" as a genuine asset and useful ally to the Empire. There was a secondary impact, however, to this new prominence.

The KDF began looking more closely at the composition of MCDF forces, recruitment methods, and personnel.

Scandalous Practices

MCDF forces were found, after a review by KDF Personnel command, to be heavily dependent on recruits that under the Seldonis IV Convention, were and are not legally acceptable. In simple terms, there were large numbers of humans under the age of 17 in MCDF uniform, including many of the "Heroes of Son-Tay." With an Armistice in place after the Risa Conference, and the Chancellor's desire to sell it as a 'short but victorious war,' pressure was applied by the Empire to get the Confederates to conform to "legal norms." this also reignited sentiments that "Race makes Politics" and that the human colonies, now that the war with the Federation was over, should "Return to their natural Government" and "Group with their species"-aka return to the Federation fold. This movement was most audibly driven by Councilor K'Lek and Councillor Sompek on the High Council but also had tacit and propaganda support from Queen Melani Di'an of the Orions (a non-voting member of the High Council), and paradoxically, had support from the House of Martok.

By December of 2410, the Assembly passed Legislation 24101221(b), the Discharge Act , to remove all personnel from active duty below the age of 18 Earth years for human, 44 earth years for Vulcan, 15 earth years for Ethnic Klingon, and 22 earth years for Andorian and Tellarite personnel. "Discharge Day" was set for early February of 2411. The KDF regional commander K'Ragh, son of D'ward did not agree with the forced separation, and managed to, through diplomatic pressure, force an "Exemption Clause" to the Discharge Act to protect those MCDF personnel deployed outside their home borders or awaiting admittance to the Klingon War Academy at Ty'gokor.

Nonetheless, the Discharge Act had a significant impact on MCDF operations, and organizational readiness, as thousands of enlisted personnel were forced out of uniform, and units had to re-organize.

Other actions the KDF and Empire were willing to overlook, such as the aggressive antipiracy and anti-slaver operations conducted by MCDF "column units" (wolfpacks consisting of Bird of Prey vessels actively pursuing raiders in the Hromi sector, particularly 'rogue' Orion trading houses and other pirates that had bedeviled colonists in the region for decades.) MCDF forces developed a reputation for brutality and cruelty that at times exceeded the Klingons, as well as a habit of ignoring interstellar borders and 'neutral' states when such diplomatic structures were inconvenient. Protests by Federation diplomats to the Empire were discounted, though Starfleet investigators found several incidents where gruesome trophies, including ears, were harvested, and the MCDF would advertise their actions by leaving playing cards marked with the Confederacy Military's symbology on the bodies of their targets.

The Fek'Ihri attack

In March of 2411, Starfleet Admiral Jesu LaRoca, the commander of the Starfleet Consular Operations group, visited Moab III to open talks on normalizing relations with the Federation as a means to bring the Confederacy worlds back into the Federation fold (or at least, to establish some rules of engagement in the wake of repeated semi-illegal cross border operations the MCDF was carrying out against rogue Orion and Nausicaan forces.) At the same time, members of the Klingon Academy of History were investigating ancient ruins near the Moabite capital region of "Landing County." An Orion Cultist identified the ruins, and a device there, which he activated, opening a series of portals and bringing through them, an invasion of Fek'Ihri.

This invasion bypassed the young nation's recently established defense networks and consisted of literally millions of invaders. Within 24 hours, the three largest cities on the planet (Grantsville, Nha Tranh, and Canh'Tho) were overrun, and the fourth largest city (Xiao Loc) was falling. Simultaneously, a Fek'Ihri fleet struck the secondary colony of New Saigon, first overrunning the small group of defensive ships, then employing orbital bombardment in preparation for a ground invasion. New Saigon was effectively destroyed within hours.

Total losses from the invasion reached 152,5 million citizens on Moab and New Saigon. The war effort to reclaim lost territory and drive the invaders out took six months and cost an additional 20 million personnel from the MCDF, and Klingon Empire. One in three residents of Moab III were killed, and only one in ten citizens of New Saigon survived (most of those being personnel on deployment), including the recently elected "First Minister of the Moab Confederacy"-Elizabeth Tran.

Ms. Tran was succeeded by her Defense Minister, Saul Moskowitz, as temporary First Minister, who lasted just slightly less than a year in the post before succumbing to a Brain Aneurysm. The Confederacy took the experience of being savaged to heart, but not perhaps the way that Starfleet and the Federation might have preferred-instead, the whole collection militarized and intensified their acquisition of arms, radically expanding their forces first to fight the invaders, and then, to pursue without mercy or regret the Cult that summoned them. In the process of this, and due to Admiral LaRoca's participation in the early battles against the Fek'Ihri, the MCDF sent units to assist Consular Operations and the KDF 19th Reconnaissance squadron in defending the world of Betazed against a projected open attack by the Undine. While the MCDF lost the ship they sent to Betazed, the crew of that ship were instrumental in the defense of that world, as they stopped a mutiny and rout on Starbase Beta Two-Two, enabling that base to provide the backstop that blocked an undine planet-killer from destroying the Federation's largest pool of Empaths.

Late in his final months, First Minister Moskowitz authorized the deployment of forces to a 'joint operations exercise' in the Goralis system. He did not live to see the result of that operation or the attempted secondary colonization of what Federation charts listed as an unclaimed world on the border of the Pentaxian Empire-a world that was far from unclaimed, being a site used by the Pentaxian military for environmental exercises.

Mulvaney's Term: Goralis, P'nj'n, conflict with the Pentaxian Dynasty and the Peace of Humiliations

First Minister Moskowitz died in early march of 2411 at the age of eighty-one, his successor, Assembly speaker Kathryn Mulvaney, was to have a tumultuous term in office, with the bulk of the MCDF's best ships and crew assigned to a joint exercise in Cardassian space (See: Battle of Goralis), and some of the rest assigned to support an attempted colonization of what she would learn was the Pentaxian held world of P'nj'n, a world chosen due to its position as a possible holdover station between Cold Butte and Berun's World without transiting Federation space.

The battle of Goralis happened in June of 2411 and resulted in the MCDF's military reputation gaining additional prominence internationally, as well as sealing an interdimensional rift through the sacrifice of Colonel Ngoc Trung, Trung's sacrifice may have influenced the Regent of Pentaxia to reverse the treaty that ended the OTHER major conflict the Moab Confederacy fought at the same time-the Pentaxian punitive expedition that eliminated the colonization attempt at P'nj'n. The Pentaxian empire imposed harsh punitive penalties, including a demand that MCDF forces 'repair what you have damaged' and aid the Pentaxians in habitat-formation work on several of their planned colonies at Confederacy expense. The treaty was sufficiently unpopular when it was signed that Mulvaney was subjected to a vote of no-confidence, and a general election was held, with several dozen assembly seats and governorships up for grabs.

Electoral Meddling? the General Election of 2411

The special general election held in August of 2411 was preceded by allegations of voter fraud, ballot box stacking, and external manipulations. The Reconciliation Party's operations were assisted by militants armed with Starfleet and Federation issued weapons, including current-issue weapons generally reserved for MACO and other elite Starfleet units. Violence and rioting, particularly on Moab III, were severe, and both the Federation and Klingon Empire dispatched forces to observe the polling and prepare to establish peacekeeping. On August 1, 2411, the polling concluded on Moab III, and Kathryn Mulvaney lost her seat to the Reconciliation Party's coalition, headed up by Donald Odelaw. On Cold Butte, Arluna, and the bulk of the 'non-planetary' member states, the Independence Party and Nationalists held the line, but Moab III, having the largest population. Thus, the largest number of represented districts went to the pro-Federation "Reconciliation" party.

Evidence of voter tampering, suppression, and manipulation were confirmed in Moab's election, and an attempt by pro-Federation militants on Cold Butte to assassinate Governor Debra MacAulliffe provided sufficient grounds for Governor MacAulliffe to state the Moab results were invalid, that Reconciliation had won by breaking the law, and that they were the de-facto puppets of a foreign power. (this was enhanced by First Minister Odelaw's attempt to order the MCDF into a riot-suppression role in violation of that organization's charter, which forbids explicitly military personnel from interfering in domestic politics via armed force), and his use of "Redshirt" militants in a deputized role to arrest members of the opposition. (technically claiming this to be 'protective custody.')

Governor MacAulliffe of Cold Butte declared a "Chapter Twelve" state of domestic emergency, stating a de-facto condition of civil war exists, and escaped or unseated Assembly members, as well as members who were not present on Moab, convened an Assembly session on Cold Butte, legally appointing her the "First Minister of the Moab Confederacy."

By November of 2411, open aid to the Odelaw government was flowing from the Federation, including serviceable ships, arms, medical supplies and equipment which was approved by the Federation Council on the justification of a supreme court ruling that the original secession was illegal, and therefore, it was a 'police action,' the members of the military that remained loyal to the Odelaw faction were re-branded as "Special constables" and the Moab Armed Constabulary proceeded to attempt the capture and occupation of MCDF Base Alpha, an ancient station in a dead system that had been discovered and claimed during the middle of 2409, where most of the MCDF's assets had retreated to under Chapter 12.

For the next two years, the Confederacy was embroiled in a civil war that included both covert and overt operations.

During this period, the Klingon Empire remained aggressively hands-off due to internal politics and the desire of the Chancellor to pursue a renewed alliance with the Federation, while the United Federation of Planets' aid, while overt, was restricted by opposition in the Federation Council, as well as investigations by Starfleet Internal Affairs and members of the Federation's oversight committee into possible illegal manipulations of the situation in the Moab Confederacy and in particular, the general election of 2411.

A brief, submitted by Bajor, with supporting votes by Vulcan, Cardassia, Tellar Prime, Andoria, and several member worlds and species to repeal the supreme court's ruling and recognize Confederacy independence, is still slowly working its way through the halls of the Federation Council's headquarters in Paris. Events during the Confederacy's ongoing civil war have hampered this recognition effort.