Month 111, Part 2
Continued from Part 1.
Month 111, Kingdom of Epsilon Indi
Map: Epsilon Indi* ---- Sligo** ---- Lassa ---- Goliath** ---- Proxima Algenis**
Proxima Algenis** ---- SN 4181 ---- SN 4168 ---- Stevenage ---- Glasgow**
Glasgow** ---- *** Alien Controlled System ***
* Capital of the Kingdom
** Inhabited Systems (Sligo is heavily populated)
The combined fleets of the Kingdom and the Denebian Republic waited in the
Lassa System. The Lassa System was critical to both the Kingdom and the
Republic, however, the system itself was far more important to the Republic
than it was to their allies, and this was causing problems. To the Denebians,
the Lassa System was their only link to their colonial empire. All of their
colonies could be accessed through a single warp point in the Lassa System,
thus, their control of and continued access to the Lassa System was of prime
importance. To the Kingdom, however, the Lassa System was only a waypoint to
some of their colonies. They had several other warp lines under development,
and so, while Lassa was important, it wasn’t as important to the Kingdom as it
was to the Republic. This was a problem.
Palace Complex, New South Seas, Kingdom of Epsilon Indi
The door to the inner sanctum would have slammed open, if it hadn’t been
specifically designed to prevent such an unseemly display. Hard on the heels of
the door came Admiral Compton, making it appear as if she had pushed the doors
open by slamming into them without stopping. The courtiers who happened to see
the look on the Admiral’s face had no doubt that that was exactly what had
happened.
The Admiral’s steady stride and the fixed expression on his face spoke volumes
about what had happened during his meeting with the King. So did what happened
next.
"Admiral!" The King’s voice drifted out of the room behind the Admiral. "You
get those ships moving. I don’t care what you do, or who you have to fire, just
do it!"
Admiral Compton, the Kingdom’s CNO, had stopped when the King called out, but
she didn’t turn around. The courtiers watching saw no reaction on her face,
which might as well have been set in stone. Normally they would have laughed at
someone else’s discomfiture or embarrassment, but not now, with the King in
such an evil mood. They themselves were close to the chopping block as well,
and they knew it.
The Admiral waited for a few seconds, then continued on out of the outer
sanctum and into the palace complex proper. The courtiers waited to see if the
King would call the Admiral back for her impertinence for leaving without
acknowledging his last words, but nothing further came from the inner sanctum,
unless a slamming door counted as a comment from the King.
Admiral Compton’s composure lasted all the way out of the complex and to her
aircar. Once safely ensconced in her car, with every anti-jamming device known
to human technology, she let loose with a particularly interesting set of
invectives that mostly had to do with the King’s ancestry. The stream of abuse
came to a sudden end when the car reached the admiralty, and she resumed her
stoic expression, mostly for the benefit of her staff, all of whom knew about
her meeting with the King, and its likely subject. Silence reigned until she
reached her office, at which time she asked her assistant to send for her chief
of staff.
Five minutes later she had regained some of her composure, just in time to lose
it again when Captain Toland showed up. The Captain, like the Admiral herself
and all of the other senior staff of the Navy, was a former Republican Naval
officer, which led to a certain amount of informality, at least when no one
else was around. That came out now. As soon as Toland showed up, the Admiral
began venting.
"Do you know what that idiot wants? He actually ordered me to have the Armada
advance on the enemy! Now, as in immediately! What the hell does he think he is
doing? Has he forgotten everything he learned? I mean, for heaven’s sake, he
was an officer once, too."
Captain Toland, shocked to the core, was unsure how to react. The Admiral had
never once complained about orders or requirements from above, and was a great
believer in the concept that it was prejudicial to morale for an officer to
publicly criticize her superiors. Additionally, Toland was uneasy at the
Admiral’s choice of words, and unsure about whom might be listening. Although
the Navy had largely been exempt from the witch-hunts that the rest of the
government had to endure from Internal Security, that was not always true,
especially these days. "I’m sure, ma’am, that the King has his reasons. He has
to consider things we don’t that’s all."
Admiral Compton opened her mouth to reply, but then thought better of it and
settled back into her chair for a second, visibly calming herself. Captain
Toland anxiously watched, mentally praying that she held her temper while
simultaneous fearing that Internal Security would burst through the door any
second. Finally, after what seemed like an hour passed with the two officers
staring at each other, the Admiral sighed. "Charlie, you’re right, but that isn’
t going to help us out of this mess. The King is up against a rock and a hard
place, and he is taking it out on us. The bureaucracy is putting intense
pressure on him to act, as are certain civilian industrial interests. The
situation has been growing increasingly tense, and the invasion has lit the
fuse. If the King doesn’t resolve this, and quick, he’ll be overthrown quicker
than you can blink." Admiral Compton stopped for a second, a pensive look
crossing her face. "Charlie, how much do you know about the situation that
brought Admiral Giron into power?"
"Just what everyone in the Navy knows." The Admiral looked encouraging, so he
continued. "The System States Alliance was collapsing, chaos was around the
corner, and Admiral Giron stepped up and threw the politicians that had messed
everything up out and took care of business."
"True enough, as far as it goes. Of course, this all started with the
assassination of President Holcombe. The still-unsolved assassination of
President Holcombe. With Holcombe dead, the Sligo system saw its opportunity to
expand, which ultimately blew apart the SSA. Everyone knows how Admiral Giron
stopped the expansionist plans of the Slugs, and parlayed that success into
control of the bureaucracy and ultimately the Kingdom. What most don’t know is
that the King made a deal with the leading corporations for support. They
backed him in his overthrow of the tottering SSA, and he got the bureaucracy
off of their backs. It was a quick, nearly bloodless operation, and with the
press and the unions behind him doing their best to convince the people that it
was in their best interests, it went off almost without a hitch. For the most
part the citizens didn’t care as long as there was peace and prosperity, and
everyone thought that the stability that the King brought with him would lead
to the other two. Almost immediately, though, things started to go wrong."
Admiral Compton got up and began pacing. "For one thing, no one ever figured
out who killed Holcombe, which lead to a lingering doubt that the King might
have had a hand in it. The King couldn’t just announce that they had uncovered
a plot and arrest and hang some convenient malcontents with so much Imperial
and Ayoun attention, so he had to live the with the suspicions. To make things
worse, the bureaucracy was unhappy with their disenfranchisement, which
ultimately led the King to the drastic decision of replacing so much of the
upper and even mid-levels of the government with naval officers personally
loyal to him, which in turn diluted his control over the Navy as those officers
were replaced by newer officers. Finally, various groups of malcontents quickly
arose, all of which focused on the demise of democratic government and the
institution of personal rule as the original sin from which all of their
problems arose. The King’s suspicion that some of these groups are funded
either by rogue agencies within the bureaucracy or by disaffected industrial
concerns has only made things worse. Before the current crisis arose, the King
was under increasing pressure from the military, primarily the Navy, to take
off the gloves and deal with the insurgents and the bureaucracy once and for
all. The King was resisting this pressure, largely because he believed that
that course of action would only spark more active resistance and likely touch
off a counter-coup by pro-democratic groups. He was trying to find another,
less drastic alternative by addressing some of the disaffected group’s
concerns, but the invasion changed the entire situation."
Continued in part 3.....
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