Code:
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ATTENTION:EDICT(sgALNITAH):VERIFICATION-6399U73395198U225062784
Main:Start
>By the beneficent authority of the Demos of the Apeilic Iris and the will of
Consul Para Ngenthur
>In light of the unannounced and unprovoked raid on Torpor station, with the
intent to cause economic terrorism throughout the Segmentum, a judgement
of ANATHEMA is placed on the Council of Commodores
[u][name list attached, known biometrics to follow via data freight][/u]
>Use of lethal force against ships aligned to the Commodores will no longer
receive sanction
>Use of destructive planetary bombardment against cities and stations aligned
to the Commodores will no longer receive sanction
>Confiscation of assets and goods aligned to the Commodores will no longer
receive sanction
>Information related to the movement of listed individuals should be publicly
shared, especially information pertaining to any attempt to leave the
Segmentum
>Any listed individuals rendered to the Consulate will receive a bounty
[u][bounty for listed individuals attached][/u]
>If such actions conflict with local legal systems or endanger populations
held hostage by the Commodores, that conflict is between the actor and
those claiming responsibility or jurisdiction
>The state of anathema will be extant until the Commodores command
structure and all listed individuals has been verifiably accounted for or
ten standard years pass
>Failure to propagate this edict to all network nodes and levels
subordinate to the readers current authority is a class 2 offence.
Main:End
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The gilded doors slide apart as Bo approached and chimed to announce him beyond. That fact filled him with pride as it always did; not even all of the Citymasters wives were afforded the privilege of free entry to the Inner Sanctum at any time. The room itself was a little slice of paradise, with groves containing low pools and fountains of warm water artfully separated and hidden by tropical foliage and fragrant flowering bushes. All set beneath a domed ceiling that glowed with the gentle light of some late evening on a garden planet.
Bo found his master in a state of repose on one of the stone benches that lined the paths of the garden, napping with nothing but a white towel wrapped around his waist. A feminine giggle and a splashing sound behind a curtain of red flowers offered a clue as to what had engendered the need for rest, not that Bo would have needed information to make an informed guess. As he reached the five metre threshold another set of chimes rang out and the Citymaster yawned and bestirred himself.
As the great man stretched and sat up, Bo couldnt help but be impressed as always with the majesty of that heroic frame. The Hammer of Valheim was a name often given to Bos lord; in his youth hed be said to have fought three of the great white freaks at once in a bar room brawl and come away the victor. Though the Hammers hair was speckled with grey these days, Bo could well believe the story as he stared at arms that were as thick as his waist and a torso still encased in lean muscle. The Hammer spoke with a soft bass rumble.
Ah Bo. What crisis has my favourite hoffsjef seen fit to rouse me to address?
Bo supressed a smile at the compliment, My lord, I have the statement from the Yanii ambassador on that financial transfer we froze yesterday. It appears the Standardite story is verified the funds were intended to be passed on and aid what is to be, and I quote our joint operation
There was a rumble from the Hammer, though tell if it was mirth or anger was hard to tell. Even Bo, an experienced watcher of his master habits would be forced to guess at both as an answer.
The fools have listened to the Standardites in truth then
I had not suspected they would be so unwise. We might have acquired rabid curs when we thought we were gaining coursing hounds, but what moron thinks any dog speaks with his masters voice?
Doubtless the Yanii will be putting other things in motion if they believe the Standardites and our own fleets will be attacking Torpor, especially if they are willing to funnel such a princely sum to the primitives Bo replied, sidestepping the rhetorical question.
Yes. May Indras bolts rain misfortune on the Commodores, trying to force us to move to their schedule! Their ambassador even had the nerve to tell the Great Lords that they were merely hurrying things up, as if their infantile plan of smashing was ever our intent. I assumed even children would be taught the concept of nerai, but it seems education is yet another Standardite failing. The Standardites will pay for this disrespect.
As will Stationmaster Khan?
Yes, I doubt their great advocate will show his face in meetings for at least a year after this debacle. Be silent a moment Bo, I must mediate on these circumstances
The Hammer closed his eyes and furrowed his brow. Despite this theatrical display and the brute strength of the mans body, Bo knew there was indeed deep thought occurring. Though Hero was as exalted a caste as Bram and Wisdom, it was a rare Hero that rose to such a high office as Citymaster. Despite his appearance the Hammer was a clever politician indeed to reach and maintain his position
As his lord thought, Bo indulged in his own speculations. Though outsiders might see them as primitive and cruel, the Valk understood that a persons desires were merely an aspect of their undivided being. Provided one married and did their duty towards gods and ancestors, and respected the reproductive sanctity of marriage, and number of dalliances could be entertained outside of the marriage. Bo had married young for just this reason; to a kind woman his parents had found, to whom he had built a strong fondness and affection for despite his passions lying elsewhere. But despite their cultural understanding of such things, there was still the question of station and caste; the dalliance must be initiated by the higher, or they would lose face. As he gazed upon the Hammer, Bo mused at the gulf he longed but was forbidden to cross.
Eventually his lord stirred, I have mediated on the courses available. I will present this to the other great lords: no good will come to us of revealing their plan before and if it occurs, nor will any good come from aiding them, we must simply shape the resultant flow. The Standardites will be punished for their disrespect in years to come, but the Yanii can be cut at as soon as news from Torpor arrives. Which of the Coran newsgroups are least well-disposed to the Yan Republic in your opinion?
Um
CINN, WhiteTower, and that one with the unpronounceable glyph as their name. The latter is probably most influential on the Seat of Light whilst the former two have spread elsewhere.
I bow my head to your expertise - prepare an intermediary to leak the details of the Yanii funding of the Standardites to each of CINN and WhiteTower as soon as the news breaks from SAF2. Supply them with full details of the accounts involved to give this the polish of a full truth
My Lord?
Do not worry Bo, I severely doubt any details of our data practices are hidden from the Corans in the first place
Yes my lord. And the Yanii funds themselves?
The Hammers face broke into a wolfish grin.
A Spark of Hope, Burning (UC 4976)
For some temporal and spatial scopes of human affairs, it is possible to point at historical singularities of change, pivot points on which society might unpredictably turn and paradigms utterly shift. One such singularity occurred in orbit of the gas giant Torpor in 76, and the past and future of the Segmentum turns on this one relatively trivial fleet engagement.
The lead up to this event lies in the deteriorating relationship between the Csserian government and the Standardite Commodores, and the growing chaos within the ranks of the Commodores themselves. The dozen or so Commodores have between them a score of differing viewpoints, and the conflict and confusion this produces creates the erratic actions and terrible policy that has defined the Fleets actions up to now. The two loosest groupings might be drawn between those who focused on development and engagement planetside and the hard core war captains who shriek words of rage at the rest of the Forest. However hard some might decry it, the latters authoritarian and decisive actions and their manichean view of the world does strike a chord with many of the Standardite population, who are fine with their government forcing its view on people different from themselves.
The Csserians had increasing trouble navigating this shifting morass of claims and decided to start negotiating directly with warlords and regional leaders; as they had with Typical in the past, and straight up disregard the Standardite Commodores claims to be a united polity. They opened lines of communication to Rico Regular on SAF1I, began supporting the Typical outposts in earnest, and started talking and offering massive (relatively) development deals to Kia Common and the development orientated Buxe Boxer faction on Mern. The Csserians also used their influence to placate and hold back the various Mernt factions in the hope of a more reasonable solution in the future. The Standard migration was coming apart at the seams under the torrent of Csserian money, and a vision of weak and scattered polities paying lip service to Larsilla seemed to be in the offing. This was a nightmare to the hardliners of the fleet who, as they had done so often in the past, decided to take drastic and reckless action. The Csserians need to be broken no matter the cost.
The Commodores identified Torpor station as the carotid artery of the Csserian trade network, with over a third of the total Larsilla economy in some way tied up in interests that pass through the station each year, and the volatiles exports it manages being crucial to keeping any Csserian fleet in orbit. Jumping into action they enacted a purge of the fleet captains and forced the Boxer faction out of power. Looting what little resources Mern still had to offer they throw every military asset they had at SAF2, trying to create a dramatic confrontation. They also begged the Valk to intercede and send a war party as well, which the Valk brushed off as more Standardite pontificating idiocy if taking out Torpor station was ever their intent, trying to do it when you had no follow through as yet set up was pure foolishness, and the Standardites were obviously just trying to wheedle more volatiles supplies. The one exception to the military movement was Commons army on Oia, which had pretty much stopped listening to the Commodores once they had driven out the Boxers.
In any case the Commodores forces invested SAF2 with a terrible ferocity, and streamed straight at Torpor station on emergence. It was at this point, once they realised war was actually going to be initiated, that the few remaining non-hardliner Captains in the fleet tried to rebel and pull out, decrying the Commodores as madmen and warning the Csserian defenders. It was perhaps ironically this confusion that allowed the Commodores to prevail in the ensuing battle. The Csserians had planned to bulk up their defences of Torpor station, but not all of the reinforcements had yet arrived. The perhaps inexperienced and uncertain Csserian commanders reacted to the confusion of signals from the Commodores and the Rebel fleets with hesitancy, a hesitancy that cost them everything. Holding fire gave the Commodores time to deploy their big beam platforms and utterly vaporise most of the Csserian long range armament in the first few minutes. The Csserian fleets apologists point to the poor protection of most Csserian vessels makes them especially vulnerable to such assault rather than poor decision making, but most are unconvinced. With such damage inflicted the Commodores were able to engage in an assault boat dogfight with the Rebels with little further concern regarding the remaining Csserian ships struggling up out of Torpors gravity well. The lack of central coordinating authority on the rebel part now showed as the ships engaged in vainglorious dogfighting trying to bring down the Commodores carrier ships rather than concentrating on taking out the beam platforms. Those beam platforms again proved pivotal bringing down large numbers of the rebel assault boats and almost casually picking off the remaining Csserian fighting ships. In the end the Commodores prove near totally victorious as a single rebel light carrier manages to limp away and the entirety of the Csserian traders were picked off or captured.
Having carried the day, the Commodores claimed the various damaged and wrecked hulks that the battle had produced, and prepared to demolish Torpor station. Perhaps luckily for its workforce the Hankish trading contingent (who probably didnt feel very lucky themselves) were able to use their contacts among the Commodores to argue for the value of hostages and warn of the dangers of killing civilians of states other than the Csserians. The Commodores ordered the workforce (generally skilled personnel working government assignments) to bail out and be picked up. The Hankish, Csserians, and Praxzens all had a rather strong sense of personal survival and jumped at the chance to live and were soon in chains in the Commodores holds (the Hankish receiving rather better treatment as befits guests). With the people taken care of the Commodores turned their beam platform on the station itself, reducing it to drifting molten droplets. They didnt have the time or the firepower to also deal with the Praxzen pumping stations deep within Torpors grey bulk, and were preparing to leave when the next wave of Csserian warships arrived. The human shields they had obtained convinced the Csserians to let the Commodores depart in victory, though their ability to bring the Commodores down was pretty questionable given the poor showing earlier in the battle.
Almost as an afterthought, and barely mentioned in the media, was the second grand operation of the Commodores in their attempt to seize control of the SAF2 volume when they sought to break the last Mernt holdouts on SAF2-I. The only
Neer-do-well Carriers not assigned to the Torpor battle where tasked to carry the main Commodorial army to the small planet, where the massive overkill of assigned forces secured the defenceless towns of the Mernt in mere days. As with the previous Standardite conquests their first order of business was to start evicting the Mernt, but the extreme poverty and the massive disruption to trade and supply routes meant the new refugees often couldnt leave the planet, instead being herded into camps and wretched ghettos.
The ripples from the battle of Torpor swept out from the event itself, changing and twisting the politics and economics of everything it touches. One the most dramatic change was back on the Standardites of Buxe when the news of the Commodores recklessness came back there was widespread anger and condemnation. Packing the fleet and army with loyalists cuts both ways, and comparatively fewer of the Commodores followers remained on Mern. When Kia Commons army arrived from Abell they found a planet ripe for revolution. Common and some of the other dissident leaders had been plotting with the Csserians for some time, but it was only the hardliners push for open warfare that convinced her to fully take up the Csserians on their offer of support. It didnt help her image to show up on a Csserian transport, but her army had enough strength and supporters to win the ensuing civil war and consolidate the planet under her transitional government. What the intended state she wanted them to transition
to was as yet unstated, but it was enough for the small settlement on SAF4-I to declare their support, and of course she had here old stronghold on Oia already in the bag. This left the Commodores with the vast majority of the Standardite military might but only the single meagre world of SAF2-I to support it.
The economic rape by the preparing Commodores and the subsequent civil war has rent Merns economic fabric down to the ground, and the Standardite social fabric has collapsed back into atomistic survival mode once again, with near no energy left over for production. This subsistence lifestyle does have the minor benefit of reducing the reformed politys resource demands to a manageable level. Common had also managed to milk the Csserians for development aid, which was put to good use by the Boxers, free at last to spend on volatiles extractors and housing. An idea was floated to build a factory complex, but was rejected on grounds of lack of resources and being bloody stupid. Almost as an afterthought of the old regime the astronautical labs in the Elric Mountains built and improved their Bullshark prototype, which was instantly pressed into service as the sole defensive force available at Mern space.
Also in the epicentre of the battles effects are the Csserians. At the beginning of the year the Confederacy was riding high on a tide of optimism; after three years of unprecedented and meteoric economic growth the Leoni government promised a final resolution of the Standardite Question within the near future and even higher growth in the future. The government had been making great strides in treating directly with elements of the Standardite power structure and looked to be on the verge of dividing and pacifying. The inner circle of the government might not have been as confident as they presented however as the also ordered a massive warship building program, even taking a set of massive loans to finance this defence effort. In interviews with former officials who resigned after the Battle of Torpor, it was indicated that this defence effort was more a show of capability directed towards a bogeyman of Valk expansion rather than a coherent military strategy to secure things in case negotiation with the Standardites went bad. In any case most of the new fleet of Shepard warships didnt make it in time to fight at Torpor, perhaps for the best as their weakness against beam platforms is now painful evident. The Csserian state also busied itself with trade and supply and some basic infrastructural development at home, continuing the hands off at home, promote trade abroad strategy that had worked so well in the past.
A great deal of Csserian effort was placed into managing the various minor polities of the Forest. What had been unofficial in the past became a policy line when Larsilla started directly subsidising the Standardites of the Great Basin with the understanding they would relocate when a new home becomes available. This seemingly successful plan was extended to the other rogue Standardite warlord Rico Regular, with the Csserians committing to support their relocation in exchange for leaving the Mernt alone and playing nice. Regulars battered army was barely in a position to disagree, but he did stubbornly hold the Csserians to enacting a measure to protect the Standardite villages on SAF1-I from the Vales wrath (who would probably be even more brutal and bloody than the Standards in revenge). The Csserians decided to cut this Gordian knot by enacting an elaborate shell game; the Oiat Royal Army would travel to the Vale to act as peacekeepers, the Regulars would get on the ships and negotiate a peace, and a much expanded Csserian Defence Force would travel down to Oia to secure the hole in the Oiat defensive line in case the Standards do something crazy (how unlikely!). Unlike the debacle at Torpor this juggling act actually went off with nary a hitch; nothing threatened the Csserians (who had the easy job), the royal army might be battered and unhappy but they managed to keep the Standardite villagers alive, and the Regulars were safely detained at the Csserian convenience. The Oiat werent really brought in on the planning discussions for all this; becoming increasingly a mere shell pushed by Larsillas policies, but those in the army at least were happy to help. Begin deployed as peacekeepers in the war torn Vale certainly helped to season the army and give them a sense of pride. Considering numerous skirmishes with the Vale forces still produced causalities, using the Oiat in this way was seen as a masterstroke as the Vale might not have stopped at all if more foreign peacekeepers were used. With Csserian forces present, their traders were not far behind as Larsilla connected SAF1 up to the Forests arteries. Later in the year when SAF4-I declared for the reformist Standardites, the Csserians also set up trade routes to that undeveloped system, as well as sending the first exploratory traders towards Abnabs small mining communities and a first contact diplomatic team to the Seffassians.
Of cause the most crucial grouping the Csserians tried to influence was Commons revolutionaries and as detailed earlier it was also the one they were least successful with. Leonis government spent an enormous amount of money trying to bribe them, and expended an enormous amount of bluster trying to use their military build-up as a stick. The former backfired in driving the Commodores to desperation and the latter was revealed to be nothing but hot air after the humiliation of Torpor. There was a near hurricane of political fallout from the battle when news got back to the capital and the population and the government were shaken to their core. Buffeted down by blame and up by the natural tendency to rally round the leadership when attacked PM Leoni tried to raise the morale of the city, and promised a massive expansion of the defence forces, retrieval of the hostages, and a severe and terrible punishment to be inflicted on the Commodores. In truth he and his economists were occupied full time in battening down the hatches before the economic collapse hit. And hit it did, as most of the Csserian trading interests in trans-Torpor space crumbled from being cut off (and in many cases were actively removed, see below). The fact that the Hankish had set up an alternative route connecting Abell to the Cathedral (via SAF3) cushioned the blow somewhat in the product supply chains, but shock killed off hundreds of Larsillan trading companies whod overleveraged in the boom years, and the cascading collapse rolled through the rest of the economy like a black wave. All the futures built on the assumption of the Torpor-pumped volatiles supply also massively devalued. In real terms perhaps 25% of the total Csserian economy was wiped out over the course of the year, and the depression is poised to spread beyond their borders. Though the sharpest losses (the Spinward finance markets) are already gone, most economists predict that a downward economic trajectory will continue for at least half a decade and that strong stimulus might be needed to merely keep things from getting even worse. Though these darkest projections are downplayed by the government, many commentators speculate if social problems will follow the economic down turn. It is easy to get along with new immigrants when everyone is making money hand over fist, but a depression in a city where nearly 40% of the population is foreign born and a potential other could be nasty indeed.
At least the collapse has put a temporary end to the talk of the Csserian trade empire that worried the powerful of foreign states. The Primate of the Black Iron Republic even made calls for huge multi-party development loan to be issued to the Csserians to rebuild and get them out of their recession before it spreads, receiving interest from the banks and Firzonat. A near completely irrelevant trade agreement was signed with the Corans, spending a heap of words to essentially say each would give one years notice before moving on anothers markets. Hilarious as it might be in light of the massive pounding both the Csserians and the Corans took in the markets, many powerful business leaders decry this anti-trade measure enacted at the very time Larsillas service industry needed new markets. When Leonis government responds with talks about making a friend of the Corans, the critics reply with like friends were made with the Commodores?. The mood in Larsilla is one of pessimism, but at least the tasks of the government are clear; gain a source of volatiles before the three year stockpile runs out, doing anything necessary to stabilise the economy, and break the Commodores. As much as there is criticism at home, the fact that the Csserians are finally committed in the conflict with the Commodores has won them praise from the various Mernt factions, even though most expect them to also take the battle to Mern itself and drive off Commons revolutionaries.
One step back from the ripples of Torpor is the Praxzen republic, which if anything was taken even more flatfooted and more enraged by the debacle. Perhaps it was the feeling of powerlessness for a culture so enamoured with its own competence, or perhaps the anger over the taking of precious Praxzen lives hostage, but whatever the cause the Praxzen public were seriously pissed off. Unlike the Csserians this anger was rather more directed at their own leaders in a new political system that was less than three years old, who in defiance of centuries of Praxzen experience had chosen to put growth ahead of security. Hawkish isolationists are expected to gain in power at the next elections, but for now President Marius is trying to pre-empt the possible defeat of his Outwarder coalition by talking big on defence spending and swift action to recover the hostages.
Prior to Torpor things had been looking well for the Republic; after extensive encouragement spending workers had returned to the ice cracking stations of Adiaphoras south polar cap, the first forays into large scale added value trading were beginning, and the revamping of the old bureaus into capitalist corporations was nearly complete. The central government was still having trouble convincing enough people to go into agricultural work and food security might become an issue in the future but otherwise the input resources seemed at an acceptable level. The once hider republic even set up a massive joint venture with a Hank-Sobor subsidiary to promote and enable their planned selling of finance nexus start up packages. Technological development continued at a dizzying pace as the Praxzen poured money into drive and weapon systems a need that seemed all the more acute after Torpor. Some Praxzen astronautical engineers complain about the central governments decision to invest in the Csserian
Sheep class hauler design rather than a home grown version, but there was more than enough interesting work in other areas to distract them. The Outwarder plans could be seen everywhere; as the Republic reached out the Hankish, the Csserians, and even sent a diplomatic probe to the rumour shrouded world of the Leeni (which some say is also called Leeni but no race could be that unimaginative!).
Torpor turned all this on its head however, as one of the major underpinnings of the new economy was knocked out and things threated to slide back into the stagnation of before. Things werent nearly as bad as Larsilla due to the much smaller portion that trade comprised in the Praxzen economy, but they werent good either. Some analysts even point to the as yet unfinished transition to a more capitalist model as good thing, for a corporate economy would have been more entwined with Larsilla and more fully share its pain. Unlike the Confederacy the damage has pretty much been done on Kathekon, and the Praxzen can look forward to a period of stagnation rather than more decline, though things might pick up if they can be reconnected with the Spinwards markets once again. Perhaps of a more pressing concern the now isolated pumping stations in the Torpor Atmosphere; the Praxzen in typical fashion didnt really believe in keeping an emergency maintenance buffer, and unless the supply of goods resumes soon the stations will begin to degrade. On a solid world a graceful decline or even temporary abandonment could take place, but a broken floating station is going to sink out of sight and add its work crews to the tally of causalities of the battle of Torpor. President Marius is going to have to organise a very large number of things in a very short amount of time, as the clock is ticking both literally and politically.
