House of Steel: The Honorverse Companion (29 page)

That reprieve proved extremely fortunate barely two years later when a force of mercenaries hired by Axelrod of Terra attacked the Manticore home system. The attack came without warning and the Navy was hard pressed to mount an effective defense. The RMN’s officer corps, hobbled by inexperience and a pre-attack sense of apathy, managed to drive off the attackers in a short, bloody engagement, but losses were high. Indeed, the defense probably would have failed had Axelrod’s mercenaries not expected to meet a far weaker force.

Examination of one of the ships captured after the battle demonstrated that Axelrod had been unaware of the delayed disposal of the battlecruisers, and the surprise of finding six battlecruisers still in commission proved fatal to their plans. The same examination also revealed the true reason for the attack: Axelrod had realized the Manticore Binary System was almost certainly home to a major wormhole junction. Nobody in Manticore had ever anticipated that possibility, but the Navy grasped both the potential benefits (and drawbacks) almost immediately. It took somewhat longer for Parliament and the general public to realize the same things, but the attack proved the need for a strong Navy and reawakened public support for the fleet. Enlistment rates exploded almost overnight and the first major naval buildup in over a century began only a few years later.

The Manticore Wormhole Junction

1585–1723 PD

While the possible presence of a wormhole had been public knowledge ever since the Battle of Manticore, actually locating it and charting it took many years. Although the existence of wormholes had been theorized as early as 1391 PD, the possibility that they might be used as a means of effectively instantaneous faster-than-light (FTL) travel had not been realized until 1429 and the first successful manned transit had not occurred until 1447. Despite the century of research between their discovery and Axelrod’s attack on the Star Kingdom in 1543 PD, no other multi-terminus wormhole had ever been discovered. Wormhole theory and astrogation were still in the early stages of formulation, and most theoreticians had dismissed the possibility of such phenomena as possessing a very low order of probability. Even after the Manticore Wormhole Junction’s discovery had forced a reconsideration of that belief, its sheer size and strength made the task of properly surveying it a formidable one.

As a result, the first transit did not occur until 1585 PD, when the survey ship Pathfinder successfully passed through the Junction and emerged from its terminus in the Beowulf System. This direct link into the very heart of the Solarian League provided an almost overnight boost to the Manticoran economy. Discovery of the Trevor’s Star and Hennesy termini followed shortly thereafter, expanding the reach of the Star Kingdom’s merchant marine far in excess of its own import requirements. Within a few years Manticore went from relying on Solarian hulls to bring it the most basic of necessities to building its own ships and establishing a dominant position in the galaxy’s carrying trade, transporting finished goods and passengers from the Core Worlds to the Verge—especially to the rapidly growing Haven Sector—and raw materials back to the core worlds. The Junction fees, while small per ship, quickly accumulated. Because they were virtually pure profit, the Star Kingdom’s economy rapidly improved.

In 1647, the survey ship Artemis made a first transit through the Gregor Terminus, opening up yet another shipping route, this one providing access to both the Andermani Empire and the Silesian Confederacy. Four T-years later, in 1651 PD, King Roger II signed the Cherwell Anti-Slavery Convention, pledging the Star Kingdom, along with the Republic of Haven and other signatories, to cooperate in suppressing the genetic slave trade and the RMN added that obligation to its missions. The Navy had been in the process of steady expansion over the last century in response to the need to protect the growing merchant fleet as well as the home system. The opportunities and the threats posed by the existence of the Junction were being analyzed, understood and incorporated into naval thinking and planning, and it was just as well that was true.

In 1660 PD, Manticore became embroiled with the Ranier System near the Hennesy Terminus of the Manticore Junction. Ranier was little more than a pirate enclave which had been raiding commerce around the relatively unsettled Phoenix Cluster. No local star system had the power to deal with the Ranierians—indeed, Phoenix itself had been forced to pay tribute to them—and the pirates saw no reason they should not extort the same payments from Manticoran merchantmen. Faced with this situation, the RMN deployed heavy escort forces and fought numerous cruiser actions against Ranierian pirates between 1660 and 1662 PD. This effort culminated in Commodore Edward Saganami’s punitive expedition against Ranier itself with the first five modern Manticoran battlecruisers under his command, which ended the Ranier War by terminating the government of the Ranier System later that same year.

In 1669 PD, Manticore began amassing evidence of governmental connivance in the growing piracy problem in Silesia. At this time, the RMN still thought of itself as primarily a system defense fleet and Saganami’s Ranier expedition as something of a flash in the pan that was unlikely to be repeated. Queen Adrienne felt differently, however, and attacks by those pirates on trade with that region via the Gregor Terminus were costing not simply ships but the lives of her subjects, as well. In 1670 PD, she directed her Admiralty to take steps to protect the Star Kingdom’s commerce in Silesia.

At the time, the involvement of Solarian interests with the region’s pirates and their targeted attacks on Manticoran shipping was not suspected. The Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) would learn only later that Manpower Incorporated, apparently out of an awareness of how the RMN’s enforcement of the Cherwell Convention would hamper its slave-trading (and other illegal) activities in Silesia, had begun providing covert support through its Solarian transtellar associates in an effort to drive Manticoran trade out of the Confederacy. Should the pirates fail to fully accomplish that task, they might at least keep the still small RMN too preoccupied convoying merchant ships to go slaver-hunting.

Unaware of Solarian involvement, Saganami, the hero of the Ranier War, was ordered to assemble a force for the purpose of proactive, search-and-destroy operations against pirates in the Silesian Sector. His operations were an unqualified success, destroying dozens of pirate ships and many bases before the Silesian government—with heavy technical support from Manpower—made a covert attempt to either destroy or discredit him. These efforts resulted in the Battle of Trautman’s Star and then in the Battle of Carson, in which Saganami and the entire crew of his flagship were lost in the successful defense of a convoy against overwhelming odds.

The SKM’s response to the Battle of Carson, unfortunately for the Silesians (and Manpower), was the exact opposite of the one they had anticipated. Instead of being horrified and convinced Silesia was simply too dangerous an area for Manticoran trade, the public—and the Royal Manticoran Navy—had been given an iconic hero. HMS Nike’s last action became a rallying point which galvanized the entire Star Kingdom into wholehearted support for the Silesia mission. In the end, the RMN dispatched a complete squadron of battleships to systematically locate and destroy pirate bases throughout the entire eastern portion of the Confederacy. Following the successful eradication of piracy in the region, the battleships—supported by two divisions of dreadnoughts—made a “courtesy call” on the Confederacy’s capital system to escort the new Manticoran ambassador to Silesia. In the face of that visit, the Confederacy signed a most-favored star nation trade agreement with the SKM—and the Cherwell Convention—in 1674.

Even as Manticore’s economy expanded following the discovery of the Junction, the Star Kingdom’s constitutional system of government prospered, blessed by a series of strong monarchs and a steadily growing population base. The constitution contained a strong “Declaration of Fundamental Rights,” but the franchise remained limited to citizens who had paid taxes for at least five consecutive Manticoran years. The policies encouraging immigration with land rights credits were ended after a period of fifty years, having served their purpose most effectively, and it was no longer possible for an immigrant to become an instant shareholder or gain the franchise immediately upon arrival. The steadily expanding economy and one of the best educational systems in the explored galaxy continued to offer vast opportunity for the talented and the hardworking, however, and the SKM had become a bustling meritocracy which welcomed those eager to take advantage of the opportunities it offered. The result was a remarkably stable society, despite the rapid growth of its economy and the upswing in immigration following the discovery of the Junction.

The only real challenge to the Manticoran monarchy came in 1721 PD with the so-called “Gryphon Uprising,” which remains the most serious internal dissent the Star Kingdom has been forced to confront. Gryphon, the least congenial of the three habitable planets of the Manticore System, had, by far, the smallest share of First Shareholder families. The bulk of its aristocracy came from the Second Shareholders, who, for the most part, had substantially less credit than First Shareholders and so received smaller “Clear Grants” (that is, land to which clear title was granted prior to improvements by the owner/tenant). The Crown, however, had established the principle of “Crown Range” (land in the public domain and free for the use of any individual) to encourage emigration to Gryphon. By 1715 PD, the population of Gryphon had grown to the level set under the Crown Range Charter of 1490, so the Crown began phasing out the Crown Range, granting title on the basis of improvements made. That’s when the trouble began. Yeomen who hoped to become independent ranchers, farmers, or miners claimed that the planetary nobility was using strong-arm tactics to force them off the land. Something very like a shooting war erupted between these “squatters” and “the children of shareholders.” After two years of increasingly bloody unrest, the Gryphon Range Commission was established in 1717 with extraordinary police powers and a mandate to suppress open violence and reach a settlement. Its final finding was that there was a sound foundation to the yeomen’s original complaints and the Manticoran Army, having pacified and stabilized the situation, then oversaw a closely regulated privatization of the Crown Range. There remains some hostility between small landholders and certain of the noble families, although it has become something of a tradition rather than a source of active hostility for the majority of the population.

The Calm Before the Storm

1723–1857 PD

The period from 1723 to 1857 was a time of relative peace for the Star Kingdom although events beyond its borders were later to have profound consequences for the House of Winton and all its subjects. In particular, the Republic of Haven’s official transformation into the People’s Republic of Haven, although of little apparent concern to Manticore, would eventually present the SKM with a fundamental threat to its very existence.

For two centuries, the RMN’s attention was directed primarily to commerce protection and anti-slavery operations. As the power that claimed sovereignty over the Manticore Junction, the Star Kingdom felt a degree of responsibility to protect the trade of other systems as well as its own, and the RMN found itself involved in several punitive expeditions (none on the scale of the Silesia Mission). Although some of the weaker star nations in Manticore’s growing sphere of interest resented the SKM’s “interference” in their affairs, most also recognized how much their own peace and prosperity during this period owed to Manticore’s protection against outside threats.

In 1752 PD Manticore fought a brief, almost bloodless, war with Trevor’s Star over the punitive tariffs the near-bankrupt San Martin government had decided to impose on all traffic through its terminus of the Junction in violation of The Treaty of 1590 PD. The RMN followed a deep-space approach with half its battle fleet rather than using the wormhole route the Trevor’s Star government on San Martin had assumed it would use. The war ended with a single, sharp engagement around the planet. As part of the peace terms, Manticore, recognizing the fiscal extremity which had driven San Martin to levy its tariffs, negotiated a “most favored star system” trade agreement with them. Shaken by its experience, the war government of San Martin brought the Trevor’s Star budget under control and greatly reduced welfare payments, and the system became one of the few systems of the Haven Sector that had a sound, thriving economy.

Following the “war” with Trevor’s Star, Manticore returned to the normal affairs of expanding and protecting its commerce and the Junction’s ever-growing traffic. Over the course of the next century, the Manticoran shipbuilding industry became the most efficient and productive in the known galaxy, and the advantages of the Junction also transformed the Star Kingdom into one of the galaxy’s largest and most important financial hubs. The resulting prosperity raised Manticoran per-capita income to a level unsurpassed even by the Sol System itself, and in 1829, first-generation prolong reached the Star Kingdom, with all its promises and implications for the future.

In many ways, this period was the “Golden Age” of Manticore, yet clouds were gathering on the horizon. In 1793 the People’s Republic of Haven issued a new constitution which made the Legislaturalists its hereditary rulers, and in 1794 the PRH, despite a huge and growing national debt, began a systematic, sustained military expansion. Initially described as a “public works project,” the enlarged People’s Navy’s actual purpose became clear in 1846, with the PRH’s first forcible conquests of neighboring star systems.

King Roger’s Buildup

1857–1883 PD

In early 1856 PD, survey ships successfully charted the Junction terminus in what became known as the Basilisk System, 210 light-years to galactic north of Manticore, and about the same distance from Havenite space. The following year the aging Queen Samantha II passed away in her sleep leaving her son Crown Prince Roger to ascend to the throne as King Roger III, the first prolong recipient to take the crown, on September 24, 1857 PD.