ic Here Comes The General (Open)

[Ari]

~That is a profound relief, DItra-Fifty-Five. Dotrae is glad we had this chance~

 

Aloud Dol-Druth said, gesturing to the station as a whole "CoVic Station is a true marvel, Sri Fifty-Five. Over 500 different schools of architecture, design philosophy and engineering systems coalescing into one unified structure whose very eccentricity is its mortar. Dotrae furnished a majority of the raw labour, it was a rare wonder for us all to behold ideas so at odds with each other working to reinvent and fortify. We believe on primitive worlds that would be considered a propitious sign from one or other deity."

 

~First, we need to arrange a meeting with your Hive's other representatives, but even before then Dotrae thinks a quick surveil of what your Nameless comrades have observed could be very useful. We do not know yet that a play, foul or otherwise, might be made. One of the guests, the pretty Zultasian reporter nearby, seemed to be in the grip of a light fanaticism. Dotrae regrets we did not foresee any danger and only dispatched one pair of eyes.~

 

"By the way," the grotesquely-swollen Speaker frowned their pitch-black eyes in the direction of a local tavern "Did anyone else hear a disturbance just now?"

[Avenger Assembled]

From "The Th'emme Years" by Terbor Orac, Imperial Year 278

 

"It was a deal that would have fundamental repercussions across the Galaxy - and beyond. Imperator Th'emme's electoral victory was among the narrowest in the history of the Lor Republic - as well it might be, given the chaos that had marked the demise of her predecessor and the subsequent near-collapse of the Republic. With her famous grasp of realpolitik, she recognized that claiming the throne without finding a place for her former rival would only shatter the fragile bonds that she had worked so hard to build during her election. Would an investigation into the Coreward worlds show an electorate truly united behind galactic peace - or would it show corrupt local governors currying favor with the civilian they feared less than the soldier? If it came to a real struggle, would the military and law enforcement side with the Senator they had fought with (legitimate winner or nor) or the leader whose friends and allies ran through the ranks of the uniformed hierarchy of the Republic? 

 

These questions are impossible to answer with the remove of nearly three centuries and the degradation of even quantum records of those days - they could have been no easier in the moment, in the midst of her enemies and in the wake of a recent assassination attempt by the Light of Truth. So in private conversation in the aftermath of the attack, in the moments when the holocams were off and the rescuers were cleaning up the debris, the Grand Bargain was struck, peace between the worlds and peace between the two factions, as the Grand Nauarchus bowed her head and submitted her resignation to the Imperator of the Republic. It was a grand moment for the mundane setting of a tavern-cum-business establishment in the Coalition Victory Station - and one that would immediately be recognized as a key moment in Galactic history. 

 

"No, Grand Nauarchus, your service to the Republic has been too valuable. I won't waste sixty years of service because you happened to lose an election. Because you dared to be - a patriot." 

 

And so Bucklin Frankan assumed the place that she had truthfully coveted in the old days of the Republic - Minister of Defense in the first Imperial Cabinet. Layers of civilian bureaucracies would shield her from thet troops so loyal to her, and time spent serving the Imperator would unite the legacies of the two women on behalf of their people. 

Or so it was hoped. Did Th'emme know then the peace she brought would come at a cost - the Uplift Crisis and the Praetorian War, the Great Secession and the Grue Unification? As ever, with this most opaque of politicians, her thoughts are hard for us to find - but we do know that it was she who coined that once-famous phrase from early in her reign. "'Only Frankan could go to Terra.'"