United in Betrayal
The fourth succession war ended and the Federated Commonwealth began to emerge from the destruction as the preeminent power within the Inner Sphere. The Coreward Operational Region Expeditionary Division, now only a battalion in strength was re-outfitted, reinforced and repurposed to official peacetime operations and renamed the Coreward Regional Defense Battalion. With new mechs and a new mission it was deployed to the Skye province to reinforce Lyran Commonwealth forces garrisoning the worlds against potential incursions by the Draconis Combine. The region also acted as a base of operations from which the CRD conducted covert operations in support of the Free Rasalhague movement in hopes that the Rasalhague people would join the Federated Commonwealth.
The Draconis Combine granted the Free Rasalhague Republic its independence in March 3034 and it became clear that while Archon Melissa Steiner’s meddling in the affairs of the Rasahague people had not resulted in enlarging the Federated Commonwealth it had created a buffer zone between the Draconis Combine and the Lyran portion of the Federated Commonwealth. Far from home, and seeing no clear mission with the threat of Draconis Combine removed from the region, the former AFFS soldiers of CRD Battalion petitioned leadership to return to familiar territory within the Federated Suns. Repeated petitions were denied citing potential civil unrest on the planet of Skye, where Duke Ryan Steiner had taken control of the Free Skye movement, a movement that had grown in power and influence as more and more Lyran nobles opposed the alliance with the Federated Suns. Civil unrest turned to protests and protests turned to riots.