Populate Cried Wolf - [TIC Populate of Empty Hex]

[FN-999 (restored)]

OBJECTIVE II
Tags: Ronhar Tane | Rohlan Basra | Open

“We’ve got new reports coming in from the front."

FN-999 turned towards the officer, who was crouched over a radio station attached to the walker’s cabin.
​

“First, our officers on the ground are finding your stun-if-possible orders difficult to enforce.” continued the officer. “They claim that any of the Risen traitors are striking from the shadows, without a clear position that can be precisely targeted."

“Furthermore, comms are being jammed in some parts of the city, transmissions are only going through to around 60% of units. We’ve only been able to maintain contact with regional commanders elsewhere due to them using physical messengers. The field commanders however are taking the initiative and have approximated the locations of some of the jammers."

“Good.” replied FN-999. “Let me borrow the radio to adjust our course of action."

The officer complied, the two men trading positions as the walker around them lurched forwards.

[All units, this is FN-999. Your top priority right now should be locating and eliminating the jammers. If you can hear this broadcast, assign messengers on a platoon level to relay orders to units that are jammed.]

[I am further revising our standing rules of engagement. Regular troopers are now fair game. It is becoming abundantly clear from feedback on the ground that the overwhelming majority have willingly entered this conspiracy. Only accept them alive if they unconditionally surrender in plain view. The same goes for armed civilian co-conspirators.]

It was a difficult order for the general to make, condemning more Imperials to death. The collapse of the New Imperial Order and the petty squabbles of the warlords in its aftermath still weighed heavily on him. Yet FN-999 understood that the opposite approach, letting opposition “Imperials” of all sorts flourish without any restriction, was equally destructive to the fabric of the Imperial state. It would be better, he reminded himself, to spill the blood of a group of treasonous Imperials concentrated on a single planet than to turn his army on countless sectors rising up in revolt.

Still, that didn't stop the old general from mourning the fact that he once more had Imperial blood on his hands.

It was hard for FN-999 to think that he had once been enamored with violence and conflict, relishing in inflicting bloodshed upon the enemies of the Empire. It was safe to say that he had since lived through enough to know better. Battling an existential threat to the Empire was one thing, but putting down an Imperial revolt was another altogether.

Maybe he should have just joined the COMECI delegation.
​

 

[Nora Laan]

Nora maintained her silent vigil. The expression on her face was tough for others to read, for she kept her emotions and innermost thoughts in check. Curiosity overall was what brought her here.

At least in this public setting, she would get to see first hand at what this Imperial government was about. And whether or not their prrsence could work for her future.

 

[Aurelian Veruna]

Location: OBJ I
Tags: Amalia Visconti | Mira Rhory

Aurelian watched Amalia's grin flash toward the podium and felt his own mouth twitch in response. Trouble recognized trouble. He didn't like that he enjoyed it.

Amalia's answer came smooth and cold. Aurelian took a slow sip, then let the whiskey sit on his tongue while he thought. He'd heard that justification before, spoken by men who called themselves saviors. It was always the same shape. "She overstepped," translated neatly into: she stopped being useful.

"So she forgot her place," he said, almost amused. His eyes stayed on Amalia, but he listened to the room too, the way it tightened at certain phrases from the podium. "Or someone decided her place moved."

He tipped his glass slightly, as if toasting the idea. "Ceremonial monarchs don't get deposed like this unless they scare someone. Or embarrass them."

He paused, watching Her continue to lay rails for the next era. A scapegoat. A betrayal. A clean story for a dirty transition. Aurelian's grin sharpened, dangerous in the way it never quite reached his eyes.

"And the radicals?" he asked. "Convenient. If you can tie her to blood, you can make any correction look righteous."

He leaned closer, just enough to keep it private. "You speak like you've read the file," he murmured. "Or like you helped write it."

Then he straightened again, casual as ever, and lifted his gaze toward the dais where Karl von Strauss sat like stone. Aurelian's interest flicked there, then back to Her.

"This ends with a new face," he said softly. "So tell me, Amalia. Is this von Strauss keeping the crown, or is the Warden about to take it for herself?"

​

 

[Ella Nova]

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New Alderaan, Outer Rim Territories;
The Establishment for the Commission of Civilian Interests, C.O.M.E.C.I.
Tags: Lur Kri'fula | Nolle Tron | Aurelian Veruna | Nora Laan | Karl Von Strauss | Amalia Visconti | Mira Rhory | Marlon Sularen

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CRIED WOLF, OBJECTIVE I
' The Commission for the Establishment of Civilian Interests '

A certain hush filled the room as the Warden Primus brought up the Empire of the Lost.

New Alderaan had been one of it's star systems-- a place where Velran Kilran had gone to carve out the Ash Worlds, and most of the other star sectors, that were now under the control of the Imperial Confederation. Before he had valiantly sacrificed himself to stop the Tingel Arm rebellion at Lothal. Many of the people who were standing in the assembly hall of the C.O.M.E.C.I had been apart of the old Kilran Administration, and so an air of uncertainty, or trepidation, soon filled the crowd as inexplicably the ICD tied their investigation to the past.

"The Empire of the Lost, namely the Kilran admin, were the victims of a espionage plot conducted by a seditionist terrorist cell. We have a name for this organisation. It was called the Fifth Wing," Her continued to explain into the microphone before them as she revealed the supposed findings made by the ICD to the crowd. "This plot, which was funded and subsequently orchestrated by a Sith sect known to us as the Tsis'Kaar, resulted in the downfall of the Kilran admin, and so to the end of the first Imperial occupation in the Outer Rim Territories."

"Today, the Imperial Confederation, and it's member states, remain threatened by the same Sith threat," Her added. Raising a hand to the podium before them, the Warden turned the page of her scripted speech and continued to read out aloud.

"During our investigation into the Imperial Exarch's decision to remove Empress Deschart we recovered a datapad that we know was used by the Fifth Wing to communicate to each other anonymously."

Her picked up a plastic bag on the podium, which had been laying next to her speech, and lifted it into the light for the commission to see. Inside was the datapad in a question: a Lenoi II, to be exact.

"After a thorough review of this technology, which was produced by Exarch von Strauss during an interview, we can confirm the following facts..."

Lowering the bag back down onto the podium, Her paused for a moment. There it was again. The familiar pang of regret and a desire to do the right thing. Here she was about to tie together events that were, truthfully, unrelated. The Fifth Wing had nothing to do the Risen Empire and their people. They hadn't even been recorded by the Direct Surveillance of Domestic Threats which had been used to obfuscate the wings activities in the Empire of the Lost.

Lies had a way of costing lives, as the commission was about to find out.

If Alicia Drey (the architect behind the Fifth Wing plot) had been aware of the Risen-Imperials then they would have been there on file by the DSDT Programme. But they hadn't been. Her knew better than what she was about to say. Lying. Yet, she felt the compulsion to deceive irrespective of the truth because, in the end, the only thing that really matter were the end results, and not how she got there. So long as this speech, this investigation, and this work led towards the erasure of the Thandon-Sith then the truth did not matter, and did Her really care about Lorcas' people in the first place?

"We have determined that the Risen Empire, who joined the Imperial Confederation under the articles and treaty co-signed by the Imperial Sector Authority and Empire Reborn, to commence the second Imperial occupation of the Outer Rim Territories, are corrupt," Her lied through her teeth. "Selrik Lorcas, the former Grand Moff, was caught utilizing the Lenoi Network to communicate with the Fifth Wing after the Sartinaynian Crisis. The communiques in question have been classified by the Imperial Ruling Council, so I am afraid, that I cannot reveal their contents."

"The Imperial Corrections Directorate have since eliminated the individuals in question who Lorcas contacted. As of today I can confirm that the Fifth Wing have all been eliminated..."

It was convenient to pin the blame on Selrik Lorcas, who had left the Imperial Confederation to enter exile after the first incursion on Brosi, as well as the revelation that all those he had allegedly contacted (from the Fifth Wing) were eliminated. There was nobody else to question. Just Her's word, and supposedly, the Imperial Exarch to their left, who had removed Deschart from power. The classification of all communiques that could be used to prove the connection to the terrorists responsible for the Sartinaynian Crisis smelled of a cover-up as well, and of course, it was one: to hide a conspiracy that had led up to the attack (by the Imperial Confederation on the Thandon Star Cluster) in the first place.

A lie that Her was making up to look like it hid the Imperial Exarch's corruption, and not her own, by deflecting the blame and attention onto Lorcas (who was not here to defend himself anymore) and his people who were now being arrested or shot in the streets as she speaks.

"The decision to remove Liraeth Deschart from the position of Imperial Empress, our reigning monarch, and defacto Head-of-State, was a natural and correct decision undertaken by the Exarch," Her continued to lie. "The discoveries that we have made in our investigation confirm that the Risen Empire, as a state of the Imperial Confederation, were in violation of the treaty signed at the beginning of the occupation founded on New Aldera."

"Under the terms of the treaty, Deschart became Empress of the Imperial Confederation, and all of it's member states, which included not just the Risen Empire, but also the Imperial Sector Authority, Empire Reborn, and Mahporeem Imperial Remnant. Therefore the subsequent decision to enact Special Measure 42-A was done in order to maintain the balance and sovereignty of the Imperial people who came together to form our nascent Confederation..."

Turning the final page of the script, coughing lightly into their fist, Her moved to conclude the ICD investigation and their supposed findings.

"In conclusion the Imperial Corrections Directorate have found no wrong-doing by the Imperial Exarch, Karl von Strauss, and his decision to remove Liraeth Deschart from power via the special measures awarded to him in times of emergency," Her revealed, lying, as she sliced the proverbial knife in and begun to twist so her lie settled into the minds of the C.O.M.E.C.I.

"Instead we have discovered, and subsequently eliminated, corruptive elements within the Imperial Confederation. The Risen Empire can undoubtedly now be linked, through Deschart and Lorcas, to a Sith plot that was responsible for the demise of the Empire of the Lost!"

Her smashed their fist into the podium, and the noise vibrated throughout the hall via the microphone.

"Liraeth Deschart, and her people, are tied to the Sith Empire who destroyed the Tion system!"

Lies and heresy led to a sound chorus of exclamation as the watching Prefects, Liaisons and other forms of the Imperial brass or guests descended into outrage, commendation, or disbelief regarding the Imperial Correction Directorate's investigation into Special Measure 42-A. Such was the sudden overwhelming noise and commotion that Her's speech was stopped in it's tracks. Picking up the plastic bag (which contained the Lenoi II datapad) and their speech, Her stepped off the podium to be replaced by the same Prefect who had called for the Warden Primus to speak in the first place.

"Order!" the Prefect shouted to no avail as the commotion continued below them. "We will have order!"

But it was no-use. They had heard enough, and as their outrage manifested itself in earnest, the same conspiracy Her had alluded too took another new paradigm as she continued to sought and push the Imperial Confederation towards erasing the Thandon Star Cluster of the Sith via the web of lies and deceit she had cast since the turn-of-the-tenth-century...

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