Early History
-------------

Tavonni is one size point away from being a T-Prime world - ripe
for colonisation. Why, therefore, has the Imperium ignored the
world for centuries? To understand this, one must first
understand the history of the centuries-old Imperium/Sword World
conflict, and Imperial defensive strategy in the region.

The Buffer Zone

In the years prior to the First Frontier War (589-604), the
Imperium gradually expanded along the mains in a kind of "line
of least resistance" fashion. It took the war to make the
Imperium recognise the danger posed by the Abyss. The Sword
Worlds, although not a united force, were now part of the
Outworld Coalition. Suddenly, the Imperium perceived the Sword
Worlders to be a serious threat to the "soft underbelly" of the
Marches. Imperial strategists began saying that "even Sir
couldn't miss that gap" (attributed to Fleet Admiral Frederick
Shaeshpaa, Olav hault-Plankwell's chief-of-staff, referring to
the Sword Worlder code of deference) [Marc Miller, "Epithets of
the Fifth Frontier War", _JTAS 9_, GDW, USA, 1981]. Plankwell
duly dispatched Imperial forces to take the Abyss worlds and
"plug the gap".

This changed the Imperial strategic direction in the region.
Originally, the only Imperial worlds on the immediate far side
of the Abyss were Arba/Lunion and Rabwar/Lunion. A six-parsec
gap existed between Arba and the next Imperial world,
Vilis/Vilis. The taking of Tavonni/Vilis and Saurus/Vilis
created a buffer zone between the Imperium and the Sword Worlds.
At TL 11, even the best Sword World starships were only jump-2
(even now, only a handful of ships are jump-3). To penetrate
into the Imperium means that any Sword Worlder fleet must jump
into the buffer zone (the Vilis-Saurus-Tavonni-Arba axis),
refuel, and then jump into the "Imperium proper".

With this buffer in place, the Imperium was free to develop a
"defence-in-depth" (similar in many ways to the current Regency
Frontier). The Navy and Scouts built bases on newly annexed
Lanth/Lanth (the Navy for defence, the Scouts for surveillance).
The Navy built supporting bases on D'Ganzio/Lanth and
Ghandi/Lanth, and strengthened the base at Adabicci/Lunion. The
IISS, again for surveillance, established a base on
Rabwhar/Lunion (at jump-3 from the Sword Worlds, it was just out
of reach). In order to allow for a "scorched-earth" retreat
strategy, the Imperium left the buffer-zone worlds undeveloped
(with the exception of Arba/Lunion).

Border Strategy and the Frontier Wars

Having taken these steps to secure their borders, the Imperium
ignored the border-zone worlds for centuries. They nearly lost
Tavonni in the Third Frontier War (979-986), when Sword World
forces took Saurus and Margesi/Vilis. The Imperial strategists
did not view this as critical, since the only viable
destinations from Saurus are Vilis and Tavonni. Even so, they
deemed Saurus and Margesi critical enough for the Imperium to
retake them in the Fourth Frontier War (1082-1084).

Standard Imperial strategy adopted for the region was to post
scouts in the buffer zone to fore-warn of invading fleets. This
meant that the only permanent presence on Tavonni was a Scout
surveillance team. The IISS stationed three to four Scouts on
Tavonni to operate an array of sensitive detection equipment,
and stationed a scout ship at Tavonni's jump-point. If the
ground base detected hostiles, it used a tight-beam link to
transmit the intelligence data to the scout ship, which then
jumped to Lanth. The Imperial forces used the early warning to
retreat and regroup. The deep-support bases continued supplying
the Lanth strong-point, while high-mobility forces jumped behind
the lines to harass the enemy's line of supply.

During the Fifth Frontier War, the Imperials used this tactic
quite successfully, if a tad over-zealously. When Lanth heard
that the Gram Fleet was at Tavonni, they dispatched a
counter-fleet to the system. This rapid response was actually
due to (faulty) intelligence data given out by Santanocheev's
Office of Naval Information. The ONI had calculated that any
Sword World fleet needed at least three weeks to fully
frontier-refuel. Therefore, if the 193rd Fleet jumped
immediately from Lanth, they would catch the Sword Worlders in
the buffer zone. In fact, the Gram Fleet refuelled in under
three days, and jumped directly for Lanth. The 193rd missed the
Sword Worlders at Tavonni, but returned to Lanth just in time to
surprise the Sword Worlder's planetary invasion ["Traveller News
Service", _JTAS 16_, GDW, USA, 1983]. On 096-1109, the newly
formed 100th Fleet forced the Gram Fleet off Lanth, and out of
the subsector by 211-1109. Tavonni was liberated shortly after
[Marc Miller, _The Spinward Marches Campaign_, GDW, USA, 1985].