Imperial Frontier (FT)

The Imperial Frontier (Teikoku Sakai), officially known as the Greater Empire, is a human state in the Coreward Frontier, controlling the Daitetsu star system and is enclaved by the New Greater Empire. The Imperial Frontier claims to be the legitimate successor government of the Old Empire, and does not officially recognise the political autonomy of the New Greater Empire, while the Empire also lays claim to the Daitetsu System. The capital and largest city is Tatekawa City, a megalopolis located on the continent Toji on Daitetsu.

In 141, the Old Empire was defeated by the Federation in the Empire-Federation War. Various parts of the Imperial military and government apparatus refused to recognise the surrender, becoming Imperial Holdouts that were fragmented into several competing factions. Eventually, the Imperial Frontier became one of the leading factions in the Imperial Holdout movement and established itself as a successor government to the Old Empire. This brought it into direct conflict with the New Greater Empire, which also declared itself the legitimate successor to the Old Empire.

Severe disagreements over ideology and governance resulted in the Imperial Frontier and the New Greater Empire fighting multiple Imperial Civil Wars before the final Third Imperial Civil War ended in 174 with an armistice between the two Empires that lasts to the modern day. After the Third Imperial Civil War, the severely weakened Imperial Frontier eventually saw numerous uprisings within its territory, culminating in the Frontier War of Independence in the 180s and the restriction of the Imperial Frontier's major sphere of influence to the Daitetsu System.

The Imperial Frontier is officially a constitutional monarchy with the Imperial Monarch as the ceremonial head of state, though there has not been a sitting Emperor since Emperor Kunio died in 189. The Imperial Frontier is a totalitarian military dictatorship led by the Supreme Commander, who heads the Supreme Command, the highest organ of the Imperial Frontier government. Rejecting the Neo-Culturalism of the Yashiman Cultural Lobby, the Imperial Frontier claims to be egalitarian and meritocratic. Critical of the large influence and political power wielded by corporate oligarchs in the New Greater Empire, the Imperial Frontier state exercises strong control of the economy through regimented control of their own private enterprises, though a large portion of these are loophole-abusing subsidiaries or fronts of omnicorps from the New Greater Empire.

A highly secretive state, the Imperial Frontier maintains an isolationist stance while officially claiming control over the rest of its former territory. The Imperial Frontier continues to send patrols into the Coreward Frontier and maintains control over small settlements and outposts across the entire region, occasionally bringing it into conflict with the other countries operating in the Coreward Frontier. Various human rights abuses are carried out in the Imperial Frontier on a scale not seen since the period of Old Ordis, including the use of child soldiers, sentient human clones, and the development of bioweapons. The Imperial Frontier also maintains ties with some criminal elements such as pirates that are occasionally contracted to further its interests in the Coreward Frontier.

Since the armistice agreement over a century ago, the New Axis and Empire officially remain at a state of war and there have been occasional skirmishes between both Imperial Navies. Nonetheless, de facto diplomatic relations have been created between both states since 230 through the Office of Imperial Outreach. The New Axis was also in a state of war against the Federation, but in 245 a landmark peace agreement was reached between the New Axis and the Federation, officially ending the Empire-Federation War 133 years after it began. Some analysts take these changes as a sign that the New Axis may be seeking to properly rejoin the Sphere community.

History
The Imperial Frontier is an Imperial breakaway state that has its origins in the Imperial Holdout Conflict. The defeat of the Old Empire in the Empire-Federation War resulted in the creation of various Imperial Holdout factions that continued to oppose the Federation's dominance of what was once Imperial territory. Two of these factions were the original Imperial Frontier faction as well as the military force designated by the Central Faction (which would become the New Greater Empire) as Task Force Mukaichi. The Imperial Frontier faction was comprised of the original regional government apparatus of the Imperial Frontier Region, which refused to recognise the surrender of the central government and the subsequent independence plebiscites held in its claimed territory. Task Force Mukaichi was a large military force led by several top leaders of the Imperial Navy headed by Grand Admiral Mukaichi Yasushi, which claimed to be the legitimate Imperial Navy chain of command and controlled the largest space armada among the Imperial Holdouts. As they claimed to be the legitimate successor state to the Old Empire, the Central Faction and later the New Greater Empire never recognised the alleged command authority and autonomy of Mukaichi's faction, and designated the entire faction as a special Naval Task Force as a compromise.

In 150, Imperial Crown Prince Kasai Tatsuro and Grand General Kitagawa Aki founded the New Greater Empire at Onogoro as a successor state to the Old Empire. Unlike the Old Empire, which was a constitutional monarchy, the New Greater Empire was founded as a stratocratic absolute monarchy, with Emperor Tatsuro holding absolute power and Grand General Kitagawa becoming the first Imperial Grand Marshal at the head of a military government. This move caused a schism among the Imperial Holdouts as many Imperial Holdout leaders viewed the absolute monarchy as a betrayal of the Empire's core principles and the formation of a successor state as treasonous and an admission of defeat in the Empire-Federation War. Among those opposed to the New Greater Empire were Grand Admiral Mukaichi and Governor Miyata Kiyomi, who official governed the Imperial Frontier, as well as many of their followers, and they refused to recognise the authority of the New Greater Empire.

Mukaichi's faction carried out the Coreward Frontier Campaign in 156, a major offensive against the Federation and "Puppet Empire" holdings in the Coreward Frontier that proved highly successful and restored total Imperial control over entire systems in the region. During this campaign, Mukaichi began integrating his forces with that of the Imperial Frontier. As one of the highest-ranking government officials of the Old Empire still in service, Governor Miyata was convinced by Mukaichi to form an emergency government-in-exile of the Greater Empire in order to oppose the New Greater Empire, with Mukaichi's forces representing the official continuation of the Imperial Military. At some point, Imperial Prince Kasai Kunio (the brother of late Emperor Kasai Toshiro and uncle of New Greater Empire's Emperor Tatsuro) was located, coronated as Emperor Kunio, and declared the officially recognised Imperial Monarch, claiming Emperor Tatsuro was a pretender to the throne.

As a result of this succession crisis, the First Imperial Civil War broke out in 157 between the New Greater Empire and the Imperial Frontier as well as the various Holdout warlords and local forces aligned with either side. The largely inclusive conflict was concurrent with the Federation's Second Police Action, which was launched in retaliation for the Coreward Frontier Campaign and resulted in severe losses on both Empires, including the deaths of Mukaichi and Miyata. The aftermath of the Second Police Action resulted in the quiet end of the First Imperial Civil War and the takeover of the Imperial Frontier by industrialist Kughiara Hiroshi, who was elected Supreme Leader.

However, mismanagement and several misadventures by Kugihara's regime caused major losses for the Imperial Frontier. In 164, the Second Imperial Civil War occurred when the New Greater Empire demanded that the Imperial Frontier come under their control. As the Imperial Frontier began losing ground, Kugihara's longtime right-hand man Kaida Ren carried out a coup and took control of the Imperial Frontier, signing a truce with the New Greater Empire. Among other factors, this truce gave the New Greater Empire the military power and resources needed to rapidly build up its forces and ultimately launch the War of Imperial Restoration, reclaiming all Imperial territory prior to the Empire-Federation War and destroying the "Puppet Empire" in 172.

Following the end of the War of Imperial Restoration, fearing the eventual dismantling of the Imperial Frontier by the victorious New Greater Empire and a potential reduction in status, hardliners led by General Mukaichi Noboru carried out a coup against Supreme Leader Kaida and seized control of the Imperial Frontier. Launching the Third Imperial Civil War in 173, the Imperial Frontier fought to attain independence from the New Greater Empire. The brief and low-intensity war ended with a ceasefire in 174 when the Venturan Revolution occurred, forcing the Empire into a confrontation with the Union and later leading to the First Venturan Conflict.

In 178, the severely weakened Imperial Frontier faced a series of uprisings across their territories, quickly evolving into the Frontier War of Independence when the rebel movements formed the Confederation of Coreward States and declared independence. Lasting about six years and eventually involving Imperial intervention, the war resulted in the Imperial Frontier being driven into the Daitetsu System, though they continued to maintain some outposts across the Coreward Frontier.

And then

The Imperial Frontier is also opposed to the power that the corporate oligarchs have developed, as well as the extreme Yashiman Culture shit that the Empire follows. The Imperial Frontier is more fascist than the Empire.

Formation and development
The New Axis's roots stemmed from the Empire-Federation War, when the Federation of Southern States invaded the Greater Empire. Following the disastrous Battle of Eienkyo, and the loss of the Empress and much of the top Imperial leadership in the Destruction of Awara City, the Imperial military began a general and chaotic retreat out of the Imperial Core region. The destruction of the military's rigid command structure led to major confusion throughout the ranks, allowing the Federation to make major gains in the months following the Battle of Eienkyo.

Grand Admiral Mukaichi Yasushi, who had been defending against the Federation's thrust towards the Frontier Region, was the last remaining Grand Admiral in the Imperial Navy at the time. Using his authority as the ranking officer in the Imperial Navy, Mukaichi began amassing forces over Daitetsu, intending to launch a massive counterattack against the Federation. However, this resulted in valuable forces being withdrawn from other fronts to prepare for Mukaichi's counterattack, allowing the Federation to gain more ground in the Frontier and the Outer Core regions. Subsequently, the disastrous Battle of Kandani resulted in a decisive Imperial defeat, and the Imperial Remnant forces withdrew to the Southern and Expansion Regions.

A clear rift formed between Mukaichi's remnant and the next-largest faction based on Onogoro, which came to be known as the Central Faction. The Army-dominated Central Faction had the benefit of a proper successor government that included the last remaining heir to the throne, Crown Prince Yoshihide, while Mukaichi's faction had control of the majority of the remaining Imperial Navy. With fighting across the Southern Sphere dying down to mere skirmishes between Remnant and Federation forces, Mukaichi established a military junta to bypass the Central Faction's meddling and directly govern Daitetsu. A mass re-armament and rebuilding program was begun, cementing the Daitetsu Axis as the dominant Imperial Remnant. Mukaichi began the Project 200 Fleet Plan, a massive construction undertaking in Daitetsu's orbital shipyards to produce a fleet of 200 warships.

However, following Mukaichi's untimely death in 182, a power struggle broke out in the upper ranks of the Daitetsu Axis. Ultimately, the populist technologist Kughiara Hiroshi, a majority shareholder of the Jinteki Corporation, took over as Supreme Commander of the Daitetsu Axis. Under Kugihara's leadership, the Daitetsu Axis began drifting further away from the Central Faction, becoming akin to a second Empire. A new cadre of Imperial Royal Guards was established under Yoriki Kaida Ren, a Royal Guard who had survived the Battle of Awara. These Royal Guards became more of a secret police and state security force, eventually growing to a massive size rivaling the Daitetsu Axis' own Imperial Army forces.

Inexperienced at national leadership and unfocused, Kugihara embarked the Daitetsu Axis on various questionable schemes, controlling his rivals using the threat of his close ally Kaida Ren and the Royal Guards. One of these schemes was a major search for supposed vaults of wealth hidden across the Human Sphere by the Yashiman Cultural Lobby, and a manhunt across the entire Human Sphere for Shimada Tomio, a former Imperial Ministry of Finance official who apparently knew the location of the aforementioned vaults. By far the most ambitious plan developed by Kugihara, however, was the idea to develop a "Star Killer", some kind of superweapon which would be able to obliterate entire planets. In 194, facing mounting opposition from his own military leaders, Kugihara handpicked the young Mukaichi Hiroshi, Mukaichi Yasushi's son, to lead the Daitetsu Axis' military.

Axis Affairs
Large amounts of resources were put into the Star Killer project, disrupting the ongoing Project 200 Fleet Plan and earning Kugihara the ire of many of the veteran senior officers who increasingly chafed under his and Mukaichi Hiroshi's poor leadership. At Mukaichi Hiroshi's suggestion, Kugihara approved a plan to invade the Frontier Region, sparking a period known as the Axis Affairs. The Frontier areas had been liberated by the Federation and were officially a part of the Federation, but were poorly protected and underdeveloped. Despite orders from the Central Faction to avoid a confrontation with the Federation, the Daitetsu Axis carried out a general invasion of the Frontier Region. Easily attaining victories due to the light Federation Starfleet presence in the area, the Daitetsu Axis quickly reclaimed large regions for the Empire. The Frontier colonies fought for independence, which shortly declared independence from the Federation to take matters of their defence into their own hands.

At this time, most of the other Imperial Remnant factions had been united under the leadership of the new Imperial Grand Marshal, Kitagawa Aki, who had begun a quiet rearmament program across Imperial Remnant space. Concerned that this aggression would lead to a general Federation counterattack against all of the Imperial remnants, the Central Faction ordered the Daitetsu Axis to cease operations, but was ignored again. In early 198, a desperate attack by the Frontier Treaty Organisation's Combined Militia managed to assassinate Kugihara. Kaida Ren proclaimed himself the new Supreme Commander, backed by the muscle of his Royal Guard, though was an even poorer leader than Kugihara.

Various leaders within the Axis began attempting to defect from the Axis to the Central Faction, and began planning an uprising against Kaida's leadership. Admiral Nagumo Masahiro soon took over command of the military, sidelining Mukaichi Hiroshi, who promptly betrayed the Daitetsu Axis and became a spy for the Frontier Treaty Organisation. Attempting to regain control of the Axis, Kaida's Royal Guard suddenly 'discovered' a second heir to the Imperial Throne, and Emperor Kunio was enthroned in mid 199. Crown Prince Yoshihide had not yet been enthroned because he refused to take the throne until the Empire was reunified, and the enthronement of Kunio offended most loyal Imperials, as it was considered an affront to the Imperial throne at best, and an outright declaration of secession at worst. ""Somehow my uncle's returned.""

- Crown Prince Yoshihide, Heir to the Imperial Throne, 199

The enthronement of Kunio divided the Axis completely, with a huge segment of the regime immediately declaring their support for the Central Faction and deserting the Axis. A civil war began within the Axis, as Kaida's supporters and the Royal Guard fought to persecute these deserters, drawing in the wider Imperial Remnant. Grand Marshal Kitagawa threatened Kaida's regime with an official recognition of their independence from the Empire, implying that she would launch an attack to reclaim Daitetsu if Kaida did not cease his actions. With the Axis in chaos and various Axis units defecting to the Central Faction and moving out of Axis space, the Frontier Treaty Organisation's Combined Militia was able to rapidly retake their territories, culminating in a massive strike against Daitetsu that resulted in the deaths of both Kaida and Kunio. The Daitetsu shipyards and many of the vessels still under construction for the Project 200 Fleet Plan were also destroyed, forming the modern-day Steel Ring of Daitetsu. However, the Combined Militia was forced to retreat due to sheer attrition against the Axis' Imperial Navy forces.

With the fall of Kaida and the Axis's forces now in complete disarray, Admiral Nagumo began making plans to consolidate his remaining forces and declare loyalty to the Central Faction, with Grand Marshal Kitagawa promising that Crown Prince Yoshihide would pardon Nagumo and his allies for the actions of the Axis. However, the conflict within the Axis had not abated with Kaida's death, and the remaining Royal Guard and Kaida's many followers launched an uprising against Nagumo's leadership, seizing part of Daitetsu and setting up a new state under the command of the Supreme Commander Oyama Kameyo, granddaughter of the Emperor Kunio. Intending to preserve Nagumo's remaining forces for the coming War of Imperial Reunification, Grand Marshal Kitagawa ordered Nagumo to fortify the Imperial part of Daitetsu and leave the Axis be, implicitly granting the Axis independence with the threat of a full Imperial intervention should they get out of line.

Post-Reunification War
Following the end of the War of Imperial Restoration, fearing the eventual dismantling of the Imperial Frontier by the victorious New Greater Empire and a potential reduction in status, hardliners in the military led by General Mukaichi Noboru carried out a coup against Supreme Leader Kaida and seized control of the Imperial Frontier. Launching the Third Imperial Civil War in 173, the Imperial Frontier fought to attain independence from the New Greater Empire. The brief and low-intensity war ended with a ceasefire in 174 when the Venturan Revolution occurred, forcing the Empire into a confrontation with the Union and later leading to the First Venturan Conflict.

In 178, the severely weakened Imperial Frontier faced a series of uprisings across their territories, quickly evolving into the Frontier War of Independence when the rebel movements formed the Confederation of Coreward States and declared independence. Lasting about six years and eventually involving Imperial intervention, the war resulted in the Imperial Frontier being driven into the Daitetsu System, though they continued to maintain some outposts across the Coreward Frontier.

Tategawa City
The capital of the New Axis is Tategawa City, a sprawling mega-city that covers much of the western coast of the continent of Donosako. Voted the worst place to live in the Human Sphere in 301, barely beating out Zverograd in a heavily biased Exonet poll, Tategawa City is a city of contradictions. The upper city where the government and corporate districts are located is almost akin to a too-clean police state, with heavily-armed Axis Imperial Army and military police forces patrolling the streets, cameras everywhere, and rampant propaganda. The lower city and the eastern inland areas feature large slums and industrial zones ridden with crime, gangs, and corruption. It is in the middle city, between it all, where everything crashes together in a bizarre phenomenon that can only be seen in Tategawa City. This middle city is often referred to colloquially as Night City.

The business district is home to regional headquarters of over a dozen of the top megacorporations in the Human Sphere, many openly taking advantage of the ease of doing business in the New Axis, the loose labour laws, and the high corruption. Tategawa Spaceport is the New Axis' main gateway to space, and is located to the north-east of the city at the head of the salt flats. To the east of the city are vast salt flats that are used for racing.

Government and politics
The New Axis is an autocracy led by the Supreme Commander of the New Axis, who is a dictator at the head of the executive New Axis High Command. The New Axis High Command is comprised of a group of oligarchs and military leaders that represent the main driving forces behind the New Axis, and they elect the Supreme Commander from amongst their numbers. There are no term limits for the position of Supreme Commander, and Tsukamoto Shuichi has held the position for the last 18 years. Directly beneath the Supreme Commander is the Imperial Hand, who acts as the leader of the military forces, and the Grand Governor, who heads the government apparatus. The structure of the New Axis is similar to that of the Old Empire.

Often described by observers as being under permanent martial law, the New Axis is highly repressive. Regional governors maintain direct control over their allocated areas and are appointed by the High Command, with no democratic process in place.

Military
The military branch of the New Axis is still known as the Imperial Military, but is often identified as the Axis Imperial Military to differentiate it from that of the New Greater Empire. Though on a much smaller scale, the Axis Imperial Military is organised almost identically to the Imperial Military, and still retains much of the same traditions and strategic outlook. The commander in chief of the Axis Imperial Military is the Supreme Commander of the New Axis, and the main branches are the Axis Imperial Army and the Axis Imperial Navy.

With around 40 warships and support craft, the Axis Imperial Navy is amongst the smallest national space forces in the Human Sphere, and is mainly adequate only for defending Axis space and their spaceborne holdings. In recent years, the increasingly friendly relations between the Empire and the Axis have led both Imperial Navies to occasionally carry out exercises and patrols together, particularly against pirates within the Daitetsu System and operating from the Frontier Regions.

The Axis Imperial Army stands at roughly 3.5 million strong, and is known to be poorly equipped by modern standards. However, the Army is still a potent force capable of defending the New Axis's territories on Daitetsu.

OOC NOTE FOLLOWS

2 Modified Akagis - 1 built like Liaoning. Xyston-class vessels equipped with the massive mass driver cannon that can probably destroy anything it hits in a single shot.

2-3 ancient Akagis

About 5 old ass cruisers (that ugly proto-ISD)

5-10 or so "Hatakaze Class"

25-30 "Kariudo Class"