Post by EmperorMyric on Mar 22, 2021 14:42:01 GMT
The following article was posted to the ANC Gal-Net Front Page on October 3rd
The article covers an investigation into the so called 'Ural Incident'
*********
The first thing one notices upon arrival in the Restevian Socialist Confederation is the clear homage paid to their Soviet Union counter parts on their old Earth. From the language, to the Red Star emblazoned on everything, to the names, to even the frigid weather. It comes as little surprise then why many have been quick to blame the RSC for escalating the now widely reported Ural Incident to its violent conclusion. The rumor mill of the net went crazy when the first reports began to surface, and bloggers and internet conspiracy mongers were quick to paint the RSC as some scheming successor to the KGB of their historical counter part.
The truth of the incident is far less glamorous. There's no grand espionage, no far reaching conspiracy, and no KGB style gulags in this story as so many have allowed themselves to suspect. The only things to be found in the aftermath of the Ural Incident is pigheadedness, favoritism and above all else: incompetence.
I was granted the opportunity to interview RSC Admiral Tchaikolvsky following the incident's conclusion, and also granted an audience with Winston, the Dectrose XO, albeit under the careful watch of RSC goon squads. The story the pair of them told lacked any of the nuance or subtlety of a grand conspiracy. Instead, the story was one incompetent and stubborn commanders making poor decisions and mismanaging a delicate situation.
For those of you who may be living under a rock, or who are just new to this whole 'Galactic Network' thing, the Ural Incident occurred a few months ago when a Dectrose reconnaissance ship arrived near the RSC system of Ural which had recently been destroyed by the crucible and was now a the subject of an ongoing no-fly zone.
The Dectrose vessel began actively scanning the supernova from the Ural system at which point it was intercepted by the RSC navy and after a brief exchange, and the arrival of Anointed and Union naval forces was destroyed with most of the crew and the ship's Captain.
The galaxy's collective imagination was quick to devise wild theories ranging from an Dectrose plot to undermine the Union's dominant position in the AGA to a Restevian conspiracy to join the APP.
Both are intriguing, and quick to capture the imagination but both are false.
The truth is a rather more boring story. According to Winston, the Dectrose presence inside the no-fly zone was not the result of some conspiracy to undermine the Union's authority by showcasing their inability to control their allies but rather the result of gross incompetence on the part of Admiral Ryn, the Dectrose commander.
Despite the massive media campaign undertaken to announce the No-Fly Zone's presence (indeed it was impossible to go anywhere on the net without seeing the banner advertisements or pop ups) Admiral Ryn managed to remain unaware of it. How? I hear many of you asking. Well dear reader the answer is simple: despite having been present in Ancerious for quite sometime the Dectrose had somehow managed to remain ignorant of Gal-Net's existence.
So oblivious to the No-Fly Zone's existence, and believing a simple AGA Friendly IFF to be sufficient security access Admiral Ryn led her forces straight into a No Fly Zone and were promptly intercepted by the RSC.
The RSC, at this point, demanded that Admiral Ryn cease her scanning and leave the system. She refused, the RSC asked a second time and again: she refused.
Why?
According to Winston it was simple stubbornness. Leaving without completing her scan would have constituted a mission failure so Ryn, rather than get a black mark on her record and save the lives of her crew and her ship, instead stalled for time to try and complete her scan and send the results back to Dectrose Command.
The RSC, upon realizing she was stalling jammed outgoing communications and declared their intent to impound the vessel, and imprison the crew. Only at this time did Admiral Ryn finally agree to comply with the RSC's earlier demands to leave the system, however the RSC was no longer willing to accept simple compliance.
You can draw what conclusions you will from that. Are they paranoid? Most assuredly. Stubborn? Undoubtedly, but above all else Admiral Ryn had clearly displayed her own incompetence and continued to do so as she, and then her XO, continued to mismanage the situation. She remained belligerent with the RSC, refusing to comply with arrest orders and continuing to negotiate with a party that was clearly no longer interested in an immediate diplomatic conclusion.
Admiral Ryn instead self-terminated her command putting her XO Winston in charge. Unfortunately for all parties involved Winston was as inept as his superior in handling the situation. He pushed a self destruct signal through to his ship, and issued a command to terminate all non-essential personnel rather than let the RSC take more prisoners before he and his remaining men (all officers, NCOs, and foreign liaisons) finally allowed themselves to be arrested.
The ball was now in the RSC's court, and it was on their commanders to decide how to play it. Would there be deft political maneuvering? A de-escalation? The Dectrose rapidly began distancing themselves from Admiral Ryn, blaming the situation on her and 'rogue personnel' aboard her vessel making clear they had no wish to start a war with the RSC. The RSC could have reacted in kind to quickly de-escalate the situation...
Instead, command now passed to Admiral Tchaikolvsky, the RSC's most senior naval commander. Instead of launching a formal investigation, or returning prisoners in exchange for a political summit, the Admiral decided instead to incarcerate the Dectrose and play favorites with the foreign liasons aboard the vessel.
The Accord had personnel serving aboard the Dectrose vessel as did the Anointed (though no Anointed personnel had survived the encounter). The Accord, I will remind you dear reader, were still full members of the APP at this point in time. Which, as many of you have already concluded, meant that they were still at war with not only the RSC but indeed the entire AGA. If anyone aboard the Dectrose ship had any reason to be imprisoned surely it was personnel from a nation currently at war with the RSC. So why then were the Accordite personnel released?
Simple: Favoritism.
While the RSC launched an investigation into the potential of Anointed involvement, and incarcerated Dectrose personnel for an 'undetermined' period of time, the Accordite personnel were briefly interviewed, processed, and promptly released back to the Accord. Admiral Tchaikolvsky attributed this to an existing secret Non-Aggression Pact the RSC had signed with the Accord some time earlier, which still doesn't explain why the RSC's investigation into their involvement remained so lack luster while blame for the incident quickly became targeted at the Dectrose and the Anointed liaisons.
So just to recap:
-The RSC Detained personnel from a neutral nation, which had publicly made clear it was prepared to cooperate with them and reach a peaceful conclusion
-The RSC launched a formal investigation into the involvement of one of their allies and a fellow member of the AGA
-The RSC released personnel from a hostile nation they were currently at war with, with only a cursory investigation into their involvement.
And why? All because the good Admiral didn't want to put himself in an uncomfortable situation with the Accord. Never mind it made his nation look like they were allying with an APP member nation. And never mind it made it seem like the RSC was goading a neutral nation with far fewer allies and inferior military capabilities into a war they couldn't win. Is it any wonder the subsequent negotiations with the Dectrose were handled by RSC Army commanders rather than their Naval counterparts who had already so catastrophically mismanaged their portion of the situation?
So where does that leave us? Fortunately nowhere. After a crisis summit, both sides backed down and agreed not to escalate the incident into a full on war. More competent leaders prevailed and the crisis was thankfully averted for the time being.
Even so, the situation clearly demonstrates that both the RSC and the Dectrose have put some questionable personalities in positions of power, and this reporter can only hope that in the coming months both nations will undertake a serious review of their military commanders and their fitness to remain in command.
Article Authored by Nora Woods, Ancerious News Corporation Investigative Journalist
The article covers an investigation into the so called 'Ural Incident'
*********
The first thing one notices upon arrival in the Restevian Socialist Confederation is the clear homage paid to their Soviet Union counter parts on their old Earth. From the language, to the Red Star emblazoned on everything, to the names, to even the frigid weather. It comes as little surprise then why many have been quick to blame the RSC for escalating the now widely reported Ural Incident to its violent conclusion. The rumor mill of the net went crazy when the first reports began to surface, and bloggers and internet conspiracy mongers were quick to paint the RSC as some scheming successor to the KGB of their historical counter part.
The truth of the incident is far less glamorous. There's no grand espionage, no far reaching conspiracy, and no KGB style gulags in this story as so many have allowed themselves to suspect. The only things to be found in the aftermath of the Ural Incident is pigheadedness, favoritism and above all else: incompetence.
I was granted the opportunity to interview RSC Admiral Tchaikolvsky following the incident's conclusion, and also granted an audience with Winston, the Dectrose XO, albeit under the careful watch of RSC goon squads. The story the pair of them told lacked any of the nuance or subtlety of a grand conspiracy. Instead, the story was one incompetent and stubborn commanders making poor decisions and mismanaging a delicate situation.
For those of you who may be living under a rock, or who are just new to this whole 'Galactic Network' thing, the Ural Incident occurred a few months ago when a Dectrose reconnaissance ship arrived near the RSC system of Ural which had recently been destroyed by the crucible and was now a the subject of an ongoing no-fly zone.
The Dectrose vessel began actively scanning the supernova from the Ural system at which point it was intercepted by the RSC navy and after a brief exchange, and the arrival of Anointed and Union naval forces was destroyed with most of the crew and the ship's Captain.
The galaxy's collective imagination was quick to devise wild theories ranging from an Dectrose plot to undermine the Union's dominant position in the AGA to a Restevian conspiracy to join the APP.
Both are intriguing, and quick to capture the imagination but both are false.
The truth is a rather more boring story. According to Winston, the Dectrose presence inside the no-fly zone was not the result of some conspiracy to undermine the Union's authority by showcasing their inability to control their allies but rather the result of gross incompetence on the part of Admiral Ryn, the Dectrose commander.
Despite the massive media campaign undertaken to announce the No-Fly Zone's presence (indeed it was impossible to go anywhere on the net without seeing the banner advertisements or pop ups) Admiral Ryn managed to remain unaware of it. How? I hear many of you asking. Well dear reader the answer is simple: despite having been present in Ancerious for quite sometime the Dectrose had somehow managed to remain ignorant of Gal-Net's existence.
So oblivious to the No-Fly Zone's existence, and believing a simple AGA Friendly IFF to be sufficient security access Admiral Ryn led her forces straight into a No Fly Zone and were promptly intercepted by the RSC.
The RSC, at this point, demanded that Admiral Ryn cease her scanning and leave the system. She refused, the RSC asked a second time and again: she refused.
Why?
According to Winston it was simple stubbornness. Leaving without completing her scan would have constituted a mission failure so Ryn, rather than get a black mark on her record and save the lives of her crew and her ship, instead stalled for time to try and complete her scan and send the results back to Dectrose Command.
The RSC, upon realizing she was stalling jammed outgoing communications and declared their intent to impound the vessel, and imprison the crew. Only at this time did Admiral Ryn finally agree to comply with the RSC's earlier demands to leave the system, however the RSC was no longer willing to accept simple compliance.
You can draw what conclusions you will from that. Are they paranoid? Most assuredly. Stubborn? Undoubtedly, but above all else Admiral Ryn had clearly displayed her own incompetence and continued to do so as she, and then her XO, continued to mismanage the situation. She remained belligerent with the RSC, refusing to comply with arrest orders and continuing to negotiate with a party that was clearly no longer interested in an immediate diplomatic conclusion.
Admiral Ryn instead self-terminated her command putting her XO Winston in charge. Unfortunately for all parties involved Winston was as inept as his superior in handling the situation. He pushed a self destruct signal through to his ship, and issued a command to terminate all non-essential personnel rather than let the RSC take more prisoners before he and his remaining men (all officers, NCOs, and foreign liaisons) finally allowed themselves to be arrested.
The ball was now in the RSC's court, and it was on their commanders to decide how to play it. Would there be deft political maneuvering? A de-escalation? The Dectrose rapidly began distancing themselves from Admiral Ryn, blaming the situation on her and 'rogue personnel' aboard her vessel making clear they had no wish to start a war with the RSC. The RSC could have reacted in kind to quickly de-escalate the situation...
Instead, command now passed to Admiral Tchaikolvsky, the RSC's most senior naval commander. Instead of launching a formal investigation, or returning prisoners in exchange for a political summit, the Admiral decided instead to incarcerate the Dectrose and play favorites with the foreign liasons aboard the vessel.
The Accord had personnel serving aboard the Dectrose vessel as did the Anointed (though no Anointed personnel had survived the encounter). The Accord, I will remind you dear reader, were still full members of the APP at this point in time. Which, as many of you have already concluded, meant that they were still at war with not only the RSC but indeed the entire AGA. If anyone aboard the Dectrose ship had any reason to be imprisoned surely it was personnel from a nation currently at war with the RSC. So why then were the Accordite personnel released?
Simple: Favoritism.
While the RSC launched an investigation into the potential of Anointed involvement, and incarcerated Dectrose personnel for an 'undetermined' period of time, the Accordite personnel were briefly interviewed, processed, and promptly released back to the Accord. Admiral Tchaikolvsky attributed this to an existing secret Non-Aggression Pact the RSC had signed with the Accord some time earlier, which still doesn't explain why the RSC's investigation into their involvement remained so lack luster while blame for the incident quickly became targeted at the Dectrose and the Anointed liaisons.
So just to recap:
-The RSC Detained personnel from a neutral nation, which had publicly made clear it was prepared to cooperate with them and reach a peaceful conclusion
-The RSC launched a formal investigation into the involvement of one of their allies and a fellow member of the AGA
-The RSC released personnel from a hostile nation they were currently at war with, with only a cursory investigation into their involvement.
And why? All because the good Admiral didn't want to put himself in an uncomfortable situation with the Accord. Never mind it made his nation look like they were allying with an APP member nation. And never mind it made it seem like the RSC was goading a neutral nation with far fewer allies and inferior military capabilities into a war they couldn't win. Is it any wonder the subsequent negotiations with the Dectrose were handled by RSC Army commanders rather than their Naval counterparts who had already so catastrophically mismanaged their portion of the situation?
So where does that leave us? Fortunately nowhere. After a crisis summit, both sides backed down and agreed not to escalate the incident into a full on war. More competent leaders prevailed and the crisis was thankfully averted for the time being.
Even so, the situation clearly demonstrates that both the RSC and the Dectrose have put some questionable personalities in positions of power, and this reporter can only hope that in the coming months both nations will undertake a serious review of their military commanders and their fitness to remain in command.
Article Authored by Nora Woods, Ancerious News Corporation Investigative Journalist