On The Auspicious Incident
[Highly Classified - Triumvirs eyes only]
Since the end of the Great War, anti-Baekdu sentiment has run high in the Adrallan Oligarchy. Their atrocities committed under the Blue Fires of Elerium left an indelible scar on the Adrallan people, and the robbery of Asadal inflames the passion of all who shoulder its unjust burden. Yet, the flames of passion cloud the judgement of many, some amount of suffering must be taken in the present to prevent a worse outcome, for imprudent action would only deteriorate our position. Those who forget practicality and wish to restart a war with Baekdu are commonly referred to as revanchists, for they let revenge blind them to all else, and if given power they would drive the Oligarchy into a state of ruin and ash.
Yet, even barred from the highest levels of power these fools are not incapable of causing great mischief. Assassinations and threats of intimidation are regularly conducted by these near treasonous groups, who escape justice by their wiles and deceptions. Not a year goes by without another reminder of the inescapable hostility and stupidity of the revanchists carved into the flesh of another Adrallan, though the victims are just as likely to be rival revanchists as innocents these days. Yet even these great crimes pale in comparison to the worst and most destruction act they committed.
In 32 IO, a most sinister conspiracy was conducted, from disturbingly high ranks in the Oligarchy. Overseer Guifed Fellok, corporate executive Dess Reikal, and Rear Admiral Cena Weeju concocted a scheme most terrible and diabolical in design. Whereas most revanchists seek to seize power in the Oligarchy and then conduct a war against the Baekdu, these three decided to forgo any attempts at taking power, and instead sought to create a war with Baekdu by their own designs. This would by no means be an easy task, but these were not any three random Adrallans.
Overseer Fellok was the director for the Aarca system shipyards, responsible for the construction of dozens of frigates and smaller numbers of larger ships, as part of the ongoing effort to increase the Oligarchy's naval power within the limits of Asadal. Most notably in this regard was the isolated Hueji 6 station, a shipyard over one of the resource rich moons in the outer reaches of the system. A large size shipyard, and away from major population centers, Hueji 6 offered a secluded refuge for Fellok to construct vessels away from prying eyes, a feature intentionally designed in the station, but for the purpose of keeping it away from Republican spies, not hidden from our own leadership, as Fellok came to use it.
Reikal was CEO of Jossuth Heavy Industries, a major designer and producer of space ships, responsible for many shipyards, and possessing a great deal of wealth. With these resources, financial and intellectual, Reikal was uniquely disposed to support the creation of a special weapon for the revanchist conspiracy. A great many funds were redirected and orders fabricated, to allow for Hueji 6 to produce a new design without incurring suspicion and attention from the upper echelon. This new weapon was a makeshift Landing Spire, created from the hulks of several frigates and with substantial modifications to link them together. Jossuth had been developing Landing Spire schematics prior to the end of the Great War, and when Asadal forbid the owning or creation of Landing Spires, these plans were hidden away for the day we might escape Asadal. Reikal did not forget these plans however, and used them as the basis for a cobbled together Landing Spire, that would not have the structure or integrity to survive atmospheric entry, but it would possess enough to break through planetary shields and inflict devastating damage to wherever it impacted.
It was here that Rear Admiral Weeju had her part to play, to protect the completed Landing Spire and see it through its impact on Asadal. As commander of the Aarca defense fleet, she had little oversight in an area primarily considered as a strategic reserve location, kept away from the prying eyes of Republicans. She quietly removed non-loyal captains, and by 34 IO, she had the complete loyalty of the two dozen vessels assigned to Aarca. In an unfortunate bit of irony, measures taken to hide our military buildup and strength from the Republicans would be turned against us by revanchists that had infiltrated some of our most important positions.
The makeshift Landing Spire came perilously close to completion before a sharp eyed accountant for Jossuth noticed a discrepancy in funding for the Hueji 6 station, and brought it to the attention of superiors who were not within the revanchist conspiracy. Even from this stroke of fortune, it took several weeks before an inspection of Hueji 6 was organized, and even longer for action be taken against the revanchist conspiracy that was slowly being unraveled. Had the conspirators cut their losses here, they might have escaped justice, or received only light punishments, for the true depth of their duplicity was slow in being uncovered. But they instead doubled down on their scheme, and rushed work on their Landing Spire as much as they could, frantically hoping to launch it before action could be taken.
It must be said that even had their plan gone unhindered and unnoticed through its completion, an unlikely event, this revanchist plot never had a chance of success. The Baekdu fleet at Asadal is never in a lax state, and Weeju's task force, while a potent military asset, would not have been enough to protect their makeshift Landing Spire. Had the revanchist plot been allowed to occur as they sought, it would have died under the fire of Baekdu guns, and achieved nothing resembling the revenge they sought. On the contrary it would have reignited the Great War, and seen the Oligarchy fall under attack by the whole of the Republican League, a fight we were, and still remain, unprepared for. A burden even worse than Asadal would have been inflicted upon us if that had occurred.
Blind to the true consequences of their actions, the revanchist conspirators revealed their plans by killing the inspection team sent to Hueji 6, and then attempting to launch their Landing Spire with its escorts, hoping to avoid the Oligarchical Fleet and carry out their plan. Even allowing this makeshift Landing Spire to reach the Rrycuh system was unacceptable, as too many foreign eyes are in the home system, and if this monstrosity were to be discovered, it would be a major diplomatic incident, for either the Oligarchy was trying to circumvent Asadal, or it could no longer control its population. The former threatened to restart the Great War, while the latter would irrevocably tarnish the reputation of the Oligarchy, and Exarch Relacy in particular. A nation that cannot control its armed forces or a major portion of its economic capacity is an irresponsible danger to galactic stability after all. So the only rational option left to the Oligarchy was to crush this conspiracy in the relative secrecy of Aarca.
This was no easy task. All fleet assets normally assigned to the system were loyal to Rear Admiral Weeju, and the escort for the inspection team, while larger than strictly required due to upper echelon suspicions, was outnumbered in the face of a total rebellion. Admiral Geev Qoimep commanded the inspection escort, and quickly realizing the danger after he lost contact with the inspection team, ordered his fleet to move against Hueji 6, while contacting Rear Admiral Weeju for support, unaware that she was with the conspiracy at this time. At this time, the conspirators began the deployment of their Landing Spire, which completely shocked Admiral Qoimep and his force, leaving them open to attack by Rear Admiral Weeju's betrayal. Qoimep's force did not last long under this attack, but it made two crucial actions before being annihilated. First, one of the cruisers, before being destroyer, rammed Hueji 6, which is believed to have killed both Overseer Fellok and Reikal, as well as dozens of technicians and support staff for the conspiracy, preventing further maintenance from being done on the partially completed makeshift Landing Spire while it was in transit.
The second action crucially made by Qoimep was to issue a call for assistance from High Command on Rrycuh. Explaining the situation as quickly as he could in a short amount of time, Exarch Relacy was given ample warning that a disaster of unprecedented scale was forming. Unable to simply send the entire navy to Aarca, as that would alert the foreign powers that something was afoot, Relacy instead prudently authorized a small, handpicked group of captains to move swiftly to the Aarca system and destroy the conspiracy's fleet before they could cause an international incident by reaching Rrycuh. Only 18 ships were gathered for this purpose, leaving them outnumbered against Weeju's force, but Relacy feared sending more would give away the situation to foreign agents. The advantage of the loyalist fleet was that they possessed two battleships, while only Weeju's flagship cruiser was above a frigate in official classification, as heavily armed as Oligarchy frigates are though, this was less of an edge than it might have seemed on paper.
The two fleets came into conflict at the entrance to the Aarca jumpgate, a secret fight that constituted the largest fleet action seen by the Oligarchy since the end of the Great War. Admiral Ciilp Deras commanded the loyalist fleet that was drawn up in front of the gate to prevent the revanchists from entering Rrycuh, while Weeju's 23 ships and makeshift Landing Spire barreled at full speed seeking to do just that. Though the Landing Spire had only received light damage during the earlier annihilation of Admiral Qoimep's force, its incomplete nature and lack of maintenance crews meant it was in poor shape by the time it engaged the defense fleet, but Weeju had lost none of her conviction for betrayal. Rushing Admrial Deras with all her ships, Weeju hoped to crush our loyal fleet before any further damage could be inflicted on the Landing Spire. Terrible losses on both sides were suffered as a result of this, with frigates on both sides far more capable of inflicting damage than taking it. With her force suffering losses much faster than ours, Weeju enacted a daring plan, seeking to draw away Deras' battleships by acting like she wished to use the jumpgate herself, which could still have been enough to cause a diplomatic incident.
Without the firepower of the battleships, the Landing Spire proved more resistant to damage than had been expected, and it seemed all but certain to make the jump to Rrycuh, until Captain Yyere Weffiv threw caution to the wind, and rammed her frigate into the Landing Spire at a damaged point, which proved enough to break apart the abomination. With her sacrifice, the remaining ships of Deras' fleet were able to destroy the remnants of the Landing Spire. Rear Admiral Weeju's last gamble also proved her own undoing, as her cruiser was destroyed shortly after the Landing Spire, though not before killing Admiral Deras with a lucky shot against his ship's bridge. The rest of her ships were already destroyed beforehand, and no other members of the conspiracy were believed to have survived the destruction of Hueji 6. Despite an extensive covert investigation, little evidence was found linking the dead conspiracy members with any living monatadonians, suggesting this fringe group acted without any ties to other revanchists.
Despite the ultimately successful containment of the revanchist conspiracy in the Auspicious Incident, the losses suffered were painful, and several years of secret rearmament (even more so than usual) were required to make up the material damage. This is to say nothing of how close the incident came to becoming public and a diplomatic catastrophe. The secrecy sought for our weapons programs and military strength, a potent weapon against the republicans, proved to be nearly disastrous when turned against us. The revanchist menace was not defeated here, and even if few other are as radical as the Reikal conspiracy, they present a major threat to the Oligarchy if left unchecked. Internal security measures have been left too lax, and it is the suggestion of this body that new measures need to be taken to ensure that the Oligarchy need not fear domestic threats in addition to external ones.
-Internal Security Advisory Board to the Triumvirate
