Post by Aiman on Feb 21, 2022 13:39:29 GMT
Judam
Plaza District
Astro-Federation of Judam Space
3 Days Before Election Day
The sea of colourful banners, flags and streamers betrayed the tense atmosphere in the enormous space habitat.
Massive crowds flooded the plaza as political speakers held their rallies there, aiming to show off their amount of supporters which in turn boosted their image and raised electoral confidence among the people as a party with popular mandate. Of course, who the “people” exactly were up for grabs.
This election cycle was particularly on the volatile side. The Jagyan Nationalist Front (JNF) had been increasingly aggressive in the recent territorial disputes it had with its sister member-states, threatening to deploy their militia and declare secession.
Elsewhere, a ‘red shadow’ hung over the depths of the industrial sectors. The Korpska Socialisme had jumped on this opportunity of Election Week to call for a strike and mobilise massive amounts of workers, who immediately poured out of the factories even in the middle of their shifts, to protest all kinds of injustices to the working class - ranging from lackluster salaries to dangerous working conditions. Factories didn’t just grind to a halt in Judam, elsewhere mines in all the Four Founding Republics were shut down and so too did many shipyards and refineries. The only place where the worker mobilisations were not too successful was Jagaya, whose right-wing nationalist nutjobs were more than happy to shoot at any disgusting hippie leftists trying to protest on their front lawns.
The Federalist Security Services (FSS) were understandably on edge as tensions continued to rise and isolated incidences of violence were slowly piling up into something larger. Yet they pin their hopes on the electoral system - all they have to do is to hold the fort for 2 days. That one final day before Election Day was the cooling off period where political rallies and campaigning were prohibited. For the rest, it was the day when emotions can subside and citizens can judge their choices more rationally, for the FSS it was a day of respite without some political agitpropper whipping up a sectoral riot.
Loyalist Headquarters
Utvrda system
Below the surface of Utvrda I
2 weeks earlier - The Planning Session
Leo arrived early as always, using the time to read over the documents one final time to refresh his memory of all the political parties, opportunities and vulnerabilities. As the other high ranking members started making their appearance, Leo grew more and more anxious. Would those he was waiting on accept his invitation and accept his mission? Did he agree to something he was not ready for? The influx of weapons, SIGEC and other supplies from Orillia helped tremendously to secure his hold over the local space and organize the excavation and building of his new home on Utvrda I, but he lacked the manpower he could divert from here to elsewhere in the galaxy to do his bidding without running behind the schedule considerably. He left a significant portion of his staff back on the space station in a nearby system to maintain appearances and receive the shipments from Orillia without making them aware of his true whereabouts - he couldn’t afford anyone knowing of this place.
One by one, everyone else had arrived, making the improvised conference room feel even more tight than it was because of all the unpacked boxes and construction equipment laying around until such time as the storage for them was built. He was nervous, but he wouldn’t let it show.
“This is the fifth time you have called for an emergency meeting Leo. Maybe you could let us do our jobs uninterrupted for once?” A middle aged lady in muddy lab coat spoke up
Amanda, of course she has nothing better to do than get on his nerves.
“Amanda let me remind you that there is a lot of stuff to be done in the early days when we still haven’t settled in. Besides, I hope that you can remind yourself of today’s topic.”
Leo said and turned on the holographic display on one of the walls, which displayed the location of the Astro-Federation and its asteroids, along with its flag and those of its respective members.
“You have been briefed on the developing situation in Judam space beforehand. The tensions are rising and elections will occur in several days. Additional information has been provided by both Orillian Free State and our hired agents on the ground and is in front of you.”
He gestured towards the small pile of papers in front of each person present.
“Our goal is simple: ensuring that whoever comes out on top is hostile to RANGSI and more in line with Orillian way of thinking. The course of action has been mostly agreed upon and I hope that if anyone has anything more to add they speak up before this meeting is adjourned.”
An elderly man besides him, Markhezio, cleared his throat and spoke up next:
“I must remind you that me and a few of our other colleagues have been worried about sending our own men on the ground. We don’t have anyone to spare currently, and our own capabilities are limited by our experience and expertise I am afraid. How do you propose we solve this problem?”
Leo nodded to acknowledge his question and pulled out a tablet to check. In a few seconds, the folder with received messages has updated, much to his delight.
“I am glad you have asked Markh. I have taken the liberty as the current Leader to call up some favours from people back on Malaak to help us with the problem. I propose we employ one of our more experienced units in The Agency-”
“The Agency? What makes you think we can trust them? For all we know their are conspiring to take us down as we speak!” Amanda interrupted, followed by murmurs of others present. Leo took back control of the situation, pouring all the authority and cold anger he could muster into his next reply:
“Silence! Have you forgotten your place? Respect authority and the speaker or I will find someone else who is capable of doing so.”
Amanda was startled for a second, and wanted to lash out at him for a moment - before she realised her situation and sat down instead.
With that out of the way, Leo continued.
“As I was saying, we should work with one of the units from The Agency. We can’t trust them completely, but the group I had in mind owes some favours to me and I have leverage over them.”
The unit patch came on display, and next to it an image of a tall man in his forties who appeared to be wearing a trenchcoat
“They are called ‘zavjernici’ and this is their leader.” He pointed to the picture of the man
“His name is Jan and he gets the job done. Plenty of experience too, assassinations, staged coups back on Malaak, combat experience… The man and his unit are ghosts, not much else is known about them. But what I do know is that they aren’t loyal to anyone but themselves, which should mean that The Agency is struggling to control them - perfect for our plans.”
There were a couple of raised eyebrows, but no objections. Good.
“When this meeting is concluded they will be provided with the details of our plan. Of course we will give them some leeway to act on their own accord if it helps further our goals.”
Leo nodded to Markhezio, who turned on his own tablet and changed the imagery displayed on the wall to that of all the political parties, official or not, with information on their strongholds and leaders.
“I intend to keep the plan flexible and open to additional changes. We will redouble our efforts to escalate the situation on the ground while we negotiate with representatives of all of the parties to nudge them in the right direction. Firstly we will discuss the Federalist Coalition - they are the current ruling party and have been deemed too hard to convert directly to our cause, as such our efforts will be with the aim to reduce their popularity, engineer scandals, offer alternatives and make them more likeable, and likely destroy the party as a political entity later on.
They are working together with the Janus Association, a group made up of the wealthiest elite. Their stance on national boundaries and hostility towards Korpska Socialisme will make them extremely unpopular with a good portion of the population if they were to be discovered, which would also tarnish the reputation of Federalist Coalition. As such our goal will be exposing the existence of this group and provoking the leftist elements into more serious actions against them. We could even make the Association strike first out of fear from the socialists and spin the narrative to be more sympathetic towards the leftists, hopefully furthering public outrage which would be significant by that point. Next up we have the Korpska Socialisme, one of our main candidates to take over the Astro Judam Federation when all is said and done. Radicalization, provocation and assasination will be used to push them over the brink, hopefully triggering a civil war across the federation, starting with Nasarusa. There they would have received weapons, training and support from us by then, which will help them take over the local government. From there onwards they will have a secured base of operations with the hold of hearts and minds over the majority in Astro Federation.”
“Forgive me for interrupting sir,” Another lady next to Amanda said. “But what about the Federal Security Services? Won’t they be a problem?”
Markhezio paused for a moment, then went on to say: “That is a good question, but I think I have found an answer. Enter Jagayan Nationalist Front. Far right party from Jagaya which became increasingly hostile towards other members of the Federation lately, threatening to use their relatively superior military power to take over territory. Also a second candidate for a takeover after KS. As the elections approach, politicians become increasingly desperate to get more funding for their campaigns in hopes a last infusion of cash will be just enough to turn the tides… Or just for personal wealth. Either way, with cash, threat and promises will will push for a strong anti-Jagayan rhetoric from certain members of the Federalist Coalition, potentially serving as a provocation of JNF. Afterwards one of our agents will pose as a representative from a shell corporation offering to negotiate a trade deal that would, in theory, result in considerable amounts of very cheap food flooding the market that Jagayans are so dependent on, and already struggling to compete. A few contributions to the JNF armory from us coupled with the very much destabilized situation in the Federation as a whole, it will be a great opening for JNF to make their move, preferably on Judam itself. Just as the first uprisings on Nasarusa begin, FSS will be too preoccupied with JNF forces to deal with the uprisings elsewhere. If there are any problems, we intend to hire the local pirates, BKKK, to deal with them, whether that will be softening up the FSS for Jagayans, or the local security forces of the member states for Korpska Socialisme will be left up to Jan to decide.”
Markhezio took a sip of water and looked around the room, seeing mostly nods in agreement and some worried looks.
“Any objections?” Leo asked.
There were none.
Of the many sectors the Federalist Coalition government had expressed interest in, right now surveillance and cyberwarfare had overnight become the hottest thing on their agenda, coinciding very well with the recent strikes in the industrial sectors all across the Astro-Federation.
A list of corporations, vetted by the Janus Association, had been discreetly invited to an ‘exhibition’ conference in one of Judam’s biggest expo halls. On the surface and to the public eye, it seemed like a normal corporate fair where the newest goods are displayed and demonstrated. However, unbeknownst to the public, behind closed doors and the men in black suits guarding them, there was a private reception, meant for the top dogs - the CEOs. Thanks to some maneuvering, both human and digital in nature, one of the SCUM’s shell companies managed to enter this list and their agents on the ground have obtained passes to access this private reception.
The few hours at this reception had been most productive. Whatever deal the SCUM agents presented to the Federalist Coalition party liaison and Janus Association’s controller had been well received, they were desperate to win the political war against the ever increasingly popular Korspka Socialisme party and they were determined to wipe them out by getting dirt on their key members. However, imagine if recordings of this surveillance tech deal, if there were any, were made public. The idea of the FC party spending the taxpayer money to spy on the people would make good political ammunition…
Through interaction, more general intelligence about the Janus Association and the corporations linked to it have also been made known to the SCUM agents, through various means.
It did indeed not take long for the images and other evidence such as recordings, to make their way to the biggest news networks and play right into the hands of dissident socialists who have found themselves with even more political ammunition to use in their PR campaigns, as well as mud to sling into FC’s face. Conspiracy theories about the possible existence of Janus Association started running all over ancnet unchecked, pushed further into the spotlight by fake bot accounts.
Several incidents have been staged by SCUM agents on the ground, staging false fights between the “protesters and private security guards” that have also been “leaked” and pushed as truths via ancnet.
Offering a solution, another SCUM shell company turned to FC party, claiming they can help keep the peace and ensure that the that no further violent incident such as the ones staged earlier happen again by guarding the companies in question, pointing out the apparent “unprofessionalism and hostility” with which security forces have treated those on strike so far.
In the meantime, the same security agency offered to Janus Association to take care of all the nonsense spewed on ancnet for a relatively low price.
While that was going on, KS started receiving large sums of monetary support from anonymous donors, with simple messages that they hope their financial contributions will help ensure that the rights of workers are protected and expanded by any means, in which case more support is sure to come.
Being pleased by how the operation was going so far, Jan decided to use the rising tensions as a cover for the negotiations with Jagayans to begin. A small free shipment of weapons was sent with a note requesting a meeting with a Jagayan representative, offering promises of further weapon shipments and opportunity to strike at the rest of the federation while its weak, to reclaim what was rightfully Jagayan in the first place.
The worker strikes became full-blown riots all over the Astro-Federation, fuelled by all kinds of conspiracy theories. Already betrayed by the FC’s technocratic government and the promises of modernization, the discovery of the Janus Association only made it all worse. Now not only were the People tricked by the government’s false promises, so too had they been puppeteered by capitalists in the shadows for so long.
Things were getting close to a full-blown revolution. The large sums of money the KS were receiving were invested into purchasing arms and bombs. They were distributed then discreetly among their supporters. Clashes turnt violent almost anywhere where there was a large concentration of the working class. The anti-riot police forces failed and with fires and smoke in their wake, they retreated and regrouped to the middle-class hab districts and the more importantly the gated communities of the wealthy, which were certainty going to be the targets of the furious mobs that would soon pour out from the shantytowns.
The Federal Coalition was absolutely furious with the SCUM, and the Janus Association was absolutely furious with the Federal Coalition. But they had little time to bicker and point fingers when their streets and their factories all around were burning. It all seemed too convenient when another foreign company suddenly showed up from nowhere and offered their services. But with their police forces absolutely swamped with the riots, they decided to bite the bullet in order to protect what they have left. But as they hastily accepted the contracts from this foreign security service company, they decided to be the ones arranging a little intrigue of their own.
The FC party chief met with the police commissioner in person and ordered him to direct surveillance on this security company. They dug for anything that could tell them something interesting about this supposed security company; public information in the Ancnet, checking for any discrepancies and analysing the money trail, anything. Parallel to the FC’s counterattack was the FC’s ‘internet specialist divisions’ - a nicer way to say ‘hackers’. They were the Federal Coalition’s means of getting info and dirt on their political opponents and had been the party’s silent hand in the information game. The internet specialists got to work. Once this security service’s guards arrived on site, they would pose as a Korpska liaison and attempt to bribe the security company to withdraw their guards. A test of loyalty if they passed, and a trap if they failed.
The Jagayans on the other hand received the free weapons shipments but not without suspicion. They agreed to meet and offered one of their farms as a place to meet, reasoning that it would be out of sight of the authorities. They wanted to ascertain this mysterious benefactor’s intentions, and wanted to know why some foreigner wanted to help the Jagayan cause.
With most of the riot police retreating as a result of rising pressure from the angry mobs of workers, rising economic uncertainty as outside investment slows down due to internal instability and with most of KS armed and the
election day drawing ever closer, SCUM needed to keep piling on pressure and do their best to create a perfect storm. Local ancnet constantly received new bots that would spread conspiracy theories about Janus Association and FC party, leaving little room for anything else.
To drive the divide between different elements of Astro-Federation of Judam, massive campaign donations were given out to those politicians who would speak out against Jagayans, encouraging them to accuse Jagayans for anything and everything, basically turning them into a convenient scapegoat for anyone who wouldn’t dare speak out against increasingly powerful Korpska Socialisme.
The shell company set up by SCUM to expose Janus Association used the increased volatility in local markets and threats of violence against capitalists both domestic and foreign to start pulling out of the country, claiming that the current environment was hurting their business and that continued operations would only result in monetary loss, something that could not be allowed to happen.
Although the operation had a nearly limitless funds at its disposal in order to make sure it was successful due to its importance, all the covering up and weapon shipments proved to be a significant burden on a very much weak and dependant Loyalist economy, prompting Leo to warn Jan that the funding would have to be cut if the expenses keep on piling up until next shipment of goods from Orillia arrives. Acknowledging this, Jan decided to scale back his plans for planned cyber attacks on all of the government’s institutions prior to the elections, and has instead decided to shift his focus on a few key ones, including their central bank of the Astro-Federation of Judam Space, several police stations and Federal Security Forces, allocating the rest of the funds for planned costs that would incur when working with Jagayans.
The online Investigation launched by the FC party chief into the security company was progressing relatively well, revealing some odd details; the company in question was created several months ago, with its HQ reported to be on the edge of Little Light. Despite being a small startup without any major successes or failures to their name, it’s leadership has recently changed, just a week ago in fact, after the previous boss drowned in a pool. The apparent new owner is his brother. After some more digging, it became apparent that he hadn’t left his house in some time, with his last message on social media stating that he will withdraw to his house for an uncertain amount of time to mourn the loss of his brother. Despite this and their sudden jump to Astro-Federation space to seek work, there were no apparent discrepancies regarding the money trail or public information regarding the company.
When the security guards belonging to the company arrived on site and were approached by the fake KS liaison, they refused to take the money and instead apprehended the suspect, throwing him into an unmarked vehicle, with part of them staying to guard the facility while others drove off without contacting the police or the Korpska Socialisme. They went into a contested part of the city, where the violent mobs and the police were still clashing with each other, and into an abandoned building.
Deep in space, outside Astro-Federation borders, a single sleek black ship with parts of its coloured gold was hiding in an asteroid field, most of the crew on it dedicated to making sure they were as hard to detect as possible. It was not a particularly hard thing to achieve given the tools at their disposal and the remote nature of the location they were in. On board it was Jan, enjoying a cup of coffee while intently watching over the shoulder of his subordinate and into the monitor in front of him. On it was a list of all the mission objectives and information on all of the active agents on the ground. He was looking at one man in particular, who had left the ship about 3 hours ago and was headed towards Jagaya. After a few moments, stood up and nodded, returning to his quarters where several men were patiently awaiting his next orders.
“Listen up crew. I choose each one of you to come here because I know you won’t let me down. I have an important task for all of you, the success of which could greatly help us when the time comes.”
He sat down and turned on a holographic projector on his desk that displayed several buildings, information, details about security and possible entry points.
“You are tasked with eliminating key officers and sabotaging defenses on the capital of Judam, with the ultimate goal of weakening FSS’s position and increasing confusion and panic for the locals on the election day, giving us more room to act when the time comes if any assistance needs to be provided to our allies. Since most of the local KS forces are inadequately trained for the mission, you will be going in first as Korpska Socialisme focuses on taking out power infrastructure and blocking the roads - I will see to ensure that happens. You will operate out of a safehouse we have established on the periphery of the capital, far from any current clashes between socialists and riot police. Reconnaissance will be provided by our small drone operators who will be going to the safehouse with you. The drones will take off as the situation heats up, when they will be the least of anyone’s concern. Upon completing all of your primary objectives, you are to immediately pull back and await evac. The remaining operators back in the safehouse will destroy all evidence of their presence and destroy the safehouse before being extracted by a separate vehicle. If your mission is compromised, it will be aborted and you will proceed towards another safehouse operated by team Bravo. I will leave you to prepare.”
SCUM representative arrived on the farm on time, carrying a briefcase full of documents laying out some details on the plan he will propose and discussing conditions under which they will receive continued support in form of weapons shipments and money. When he met with the Jagayan representative, he told them that he was sent by a foreign crime family that wanted to deal with BKKK as part of a personal vendetta against its leader, Johannen Vicruzo. Seeing the rising instability in the Federation, they decided that now was the prudent time to strike and bait out BKKK, which they expect to come in force should FSS be preoccupied dealing with Korpska Socialisme. Given the current rising tensions, the man argues both the family he serves and Jagayans can profit. Jagayans can claim what was always their and receive support while doing so, and in turn their success will bait out ‘B triple K’.
“The BKKK? A dangerous game you are playing, but we Jagayans, unlike those spineless Judam bureaucrats, are a people of honour. We will honour this deal. You supply us the arms, and the ensuing war of secession will draw out your enemies and you will have your opportunity to exact your vengeance,” the Jagayan representative nodded.
The assistant next to him piped up. “These weapons and funds will no doubt make the Commandant a very, very happy man.”
“Indeed, we will show those cowards and traitors in the Jagstaya House that only true patriots can claim to lead the Jagayan people,” the representative nodded. He extended his hand to what he thought earnestly as the representative of a foreign crime family.
2 Days Later
Judam
Federal Congress Building
Within days, the political situation in the Astro-Federation has rapidly declined. Widespread political violence erupted not just in Judam but has also since quickly spread to the other Federalist-controlled zones of Nezer, Nasarusa and Hulios. Much of this was the machinations of the Korpska Socialisme, who had plenty of ammunition to work off with: the prevailing socio-economic inequalities, labour exploitation by the baron miners and perhaps the straw that broke the camel’s back: the existence of the Janus Association.
In the last few days, sudden cyber attacks on government institutions and a string of mysterious attacks that crippled the public infrastructure has made the situation even more perilous. The cyber attacks left the police crippled at the most inopportune of times in the midst of dealing with the Korpska rioters. Power and essential services were cut to several city blocks, much to the frustration of many citizens. Worst of all was the cyber attack on the Central Bank. The attack shut down monetary and financial services. For an economy that was practically 100% dependent on cashless services, this was a death blow to many. Like fuel to the fire, these events hit the working poor and the lower classes hard, driving more to the breaking point and into the arms of the Korpska. The government was working hard to restore and repair these services, but due to the sensitive political situation and the scandalous optics surrounding the Federalist government, it was all too late.
The FC party chief and Chancellor of the Astro-Federation, Krenznic Bossard, sat at his desk with a thousand-yard stare in his eyes. He had not a wink of sleep as crisis after crisis piled up, and he was stuck in various situation meetings in an attempt to coordinate government action. They tried the police. They failed. They tried the riot police. They failed. They tried to get dirt on their rivals - the Korpska, they were the ones who got dirted on instead. Elections was coming soon, and the polls could not have looked any gloomier for the Federalist Coalition after the Janus Association leaks. In a fit of panic, the Janus Association has gone dark and are scrambling to cover their trails, which means that the money tap has been turned shut, and party finances are quickly drying up.
And just yesterday, they have received news that the Jagayan government has been overthrown in a military coup by their own security forces. In their place was the secessionist radicals, the Jagayan Nationalist Front, and already the FSS has reported massive military build-ups along the state borders. Worse, the BKKK pirate attacks have intensified, taking advantage of the chaos and the FSS being stretched too thin.
“Chancellor, what should we do?”
In a sigh of helplessness, Bossard said the following words of last resort.
“Cancel tomorrow’s elections on grounds of extreme instability. Declare the Korpska as an illegal party for their part in the riots. Declare martial law and deploy the FSS-GS to clear the streets by any means necessary.”
“And call the RANGSI Foreign Service.”
Election Day
[NOTICE: Elections Has Been Cancelled Due to Unstable Conditions. Thank You For Your Understanding. Please Stay Indoors as the Federal Security Services Restore Law and Order. Have a Nice Day.]
The cancellation of elections and declaration of the Korpska as an illegal party has only intensified the violence even further. Judam was practically ablaze in fire right now, with gunfire, explosions and mobs of angry rioters engulfing every corner of the city blocks.
In the face of overwhelming violence, what remained of Judam’s battered and tired riot police retreated and regrouped around the Federal Congress, establishing a tight perimeter extending about 2-3 km away from the Congress building. Beyond that now was the FSS Ground Service’s jurisdiction. With this ‘Federal Security Zone’ as their staging area, slowly but surely, APCs and soldiers began rolling down the street, battling the mobs, who have now long since turned violent and are armed by the Korpska. In bloody urban warfare, gradually, the Korpska began to lost ground as they were no match for proper army equipment, but progress in this urban megacomplex of a hellhole known as Judam was slow for the FSS-GS.
Much striking however, was the presence of a Fleet of 20 RANGSI ships in Judam’s orbit. RANGSI was unwilling to see the Astro-Federation, a key trade hub of their prized ATTEI geo-economic project, collapse and get subsumed into the chaos. Chancellor Bossard has asked for help in his time of need and Rear Admiral Soran Bin Vladimir Hassan has answered the call.
In RANGSI society, all citizens have served the state as conscripts for 2 years, and afterwards return to their normal civilian lives as reservists, called up for periods of 2 weeks annually for training and operational tasks. Soran was no exception, for in his civilian life he was a university professor teaching astro-physics. But the Judam Crisis happened right when his 2-weeks reservist period for the year was about to end. The Mobile Expeditionary Reserve Foxtrot, the command Soran was under, had been mobilised by the order of the Administrator-General. Rear Admiral Soran’s fleet was dispatched as an advance party to ascertain the situation and secure a ‘beachhead’.
Eager to get this over and done with quickly and return to his family and his comfy villa on Shangton Hills, Soran immediately begun linking up with FSS elements, communicating with the Federalist government and once he had the legitimacy of the Federal government, he began deploying Naval Military Police forces to secure Judam’s docks under the pretext of a peacekeeping mission. With the docks cleared, they will have the facilities and infrastructure necessary to house more RANGSI ships and naval ground complements, both of which will be sorely needed to protect the Astro-Federation from threats within and without.
Upon the arrival of RANGSI forces, Jan notified Leo of the situation, asking for additional funding which was, after some back and forth, provided. Reserves built up during the relatively short but extremely profitable peak of Malcorp’s existence were now released, with a condition that Loyalists receive more direct control over the situation.
Already several assassinations have been ordered on high ranking FC politicians who would not accept a new round of bribes, now with promise of a safe evacuation offworld.
With KS forces finding themselves on the back foot for the first time, more resources were granted, bigger shipments of weapons started to arrive. Back from the safety of his ship, Jan was overseeing his men orchestrate a PR campaign to frame the arrival of RANGSI as yet another colonial intervention, clearly helping the corrupt and oppressive authoritarian regime against the will of the native people, all for their own selfish interests in keeping the good people of Astro-Federation of Judam subjugated. This would, Leo hoped, put political pressure on RANGSI itself amidst rising tensions in the galaxy as a whole.
Meanwhile, as a way to further support KS in their endeavours, Jan has sent what few men he could spare to serve as military advisors, all posing as revolutionaries from abroad who had come to help liberate KS. Several remnants from the age of Peony Revolution have been contacted with this same idea in mind, but they were either unwilling to cooperate or were so far devolved into banditry and revenge killings that they weren’t worth the time or the effort needed to bring them here.
To defeat this new and powerful enemy that decided to intervene when they were so close to victory, they would need to be aggressive and act decisively. With the all important docks in RANGSI’s hands, it was crucial to strike now before any more reinforcements could show up. Doubling down on their promises to Jagayans and notifying them to get ready to strike, it was finally time to secure the last piece of this ever evolving puzzle in order to secure victory. While the assault on the docks was in preparation, several nearby pirate groups were contracted and informed of the plan to attack the docks. Presenting themselves as allies of KS, they offered to in exchange for their support in attacking the docks and the fleet belonging to the rear admiral Soran to give out a large sum of money and sensitive information regarding local trade routes, shipments and info on their security detail. For a cherry on top, Jan tried to contact BKKK offering them the same.
With all parties involved, with wildly different motives and backgrounds now working together unaware of it, he was quite pleased with himself. A very small contingent of his men was already preparing for the assault, discussing
vital components of the plan amongst themselves and readying to strike first, hoping to inflict as much damage as possible before the real fighting began.
With Judam still in chaos and its police forces still in disarray, the SCUM’s assassination teams successfully sneaked in and did their deed, leaving an increasing and disturbing number of the Federalist Coalition Party leadership either dead or missing in mysterious circumstances. Some were found overdosed on sleeping pills, some were poisoned and some others had a bullet in their brains.
As for Party Director Krenznic Bossard, his limousine exploded into a grand fireball while on Highway 15 en route to a secure safehouse. Paramedics and coroners on site have seen his charred, mutilated corpse, and certainly declared him dead.
The Federalist Coalition party is crumbling apart. Those who were not dead chose to accept the SCUM’s offer. Bribes of money and milicents now mattered as much as dirt and dust; getting out of this hellhole alive was now the golden ticket.
“We have him in our sights.”
The Federalist Coalition’s Vice-President, Mozales Ghirhamm, stepped out of the black armored SUV in the quiet of the ‘night’, in some undisclosed location, near some sort of warehouse. He was all that remained of the Federalist Coalition’s leadership, but he had chosen to live another day and was one of those that accepted the SCUM’s offer.
“Foxtrot-4, commence the attack now.”
As he approached his mysterious benefactors however, they began taking sniper fire and were ambushed by several operatives in black wetsuits and green-tinted NV goggles with silenced submachine guns. After dealing with the SCUM agents and the Vice-President’s bodyguards, they then dragged Mozales into a small helicopter and took off, heading to the direction of the Federal Security Zone.
These were RANGSI’s shadows - the black ops agents of the Internal Security Command, or INSECOM. Specifically this was Unit 1377, the Unit that had been secretly stationed in the Astro-Federation, manipulating events and defending the FC government to RANGSI’s interests for several years ever since their formation. No records, no money trails, not even rumours - that was how good the secret had been kept, at least until now.
The Federalist government will not fall - not on their watch. Elsewhere, other Unit 1377 squads were also tracking the movements of other FC defectors and striking SCUM evac points, extracting the FC defectors if possible or killing them to deny the enemy important intelligence where it was not. SCUM is now no longer alone in the dark, and it seems the battle for the shadows has only begun. Unit 1377 was still not aware of SCUM’s exact presence, but they had been suspecting some sort of mysterious foreign intervention over the last few days via signal intelligence and cyber-surveillance. Someone was pulling the strings - they just didn’t know who and where.
Elsewhere in Judam, fierce and pitched battles continue to ramp up ever in intensity as the FSS’s ground forces were clashing with an increasingly powerful Korpska Socialisme, who were strengthened with the continued influx of aid and reinforced from the old revolutionaries of the Peony Revolution, who had arrived as military advisors. Like it was almost overnight, thugs and mobs had been turned into a more organised army. Their attacks were becoming more precise and methodical. The first instances of this combat effectiveness was experienced by FSS troops in the streets, where they were hit by KS ambushes and IED attacks - guerilla tactics and bombmaking skills straight from Peony textbooks.
The situation in the docks on the other hand was starting to slip away from RANGSI and FSS control. The initial attacks by the SCUM contingent, as well as the numerous hordes of KS mobs, made resistance in the docks much stiffer than usual and the RANGSI naval MPs were repulsed and forced to retreat back to the fleet.
“Sir! Sensors are picking up hundreds of incoming signatures! FSS databases got them identified as either Jagayan or pirates!”
“Dear god,” Soran gasped as he double checked his terminal screens, as if he could not believe what he had just heard. “Contact the FSS! We need to organise a defence pronto! You! Send a distress call to the rest of the MEF! Now!”
Soran’s fleet numbered at 20 ships, with the FSS’s corvettes the numbers were bumped up to 50 ships. They were still heavily outnumbered. The enemy forces totalled 200 ships. The Jagayan strike force consisted of 100 ships, with the rest split among the smaller, but much more maneuverable and agile pirate fleets. Reinforcements would take some time to arrive, until then, Soran was alone against all odds.
“Gunner, Sabot, Frigate! Fire!” an order rang out in one of the RANGSI cruisers gunnery sections. A plasma-sheathed railgun fired the first round of the battle, and soon, in the next moment, hundreds of shells, missiles and lasers lit up the dark void of space in the course of this desperate battle.
“What do you mean everyone died? I need details. Who found out about us? How well armed were they? Where are they from?” Jan asked his agents with increasing impatience.
“Sir, we have little to nothing to go on from. They left no witnesses and evacuated VP Mozales among several others. Teams Tango, Trivago and Charlie were all KIA.” Said the man next to him, still at attention, his face giving no emotions.
“Hmm… Looks like someone joined us in the shadows. Tell reserves to gear up. I want them all ready to go in 30 minutes.”
“Yes sir!” The soldier saluted and left in a hurry, weaving through the tight corridors of the ship.
They were so close. Jan was so close to victory, he could almost taste it.
But that was before someone else joined his team in the shadows. His men
started dying left and right before he even realized that something was wrong. Searching for who could be responsible, even questioning FC defectors had turned out to be a waste of time. Nobody that he could get a hand on knew their enemy… Which could only mean they are an outside actor, probably from RANGSI or one of their allies.
With everything set in motion and going his way, he had almost started celebrating his victory too early.
To deal with this new unknown threat, they would need to find out more about it. To achieve this goal, Jan decided to set up a trap, mobilising his reserve forces to start planning for several terrorist attacks, primary goals of which were to create more fear and opportunity to blame it on ‘the desperate capitalists’, with the secondary goal being drawing out whoever was determined to stop them.
--
Information was sent through marginally less reliable channels, hinting at urgency. Several meetings were scheduled at seemingly random, yet secure locations in hopes of setting up an ambush for INSECOM and capturing the team sent to crash the party, or just to listen in on the meeting.
They may have surprised him, but now it was his turn to strike back.
For now, this was all that could be done, as other things were requiring more attention.
Down on the ground, once neatly decorated parks and markets with flags of Astro Federation of Judam were now active warzones, with revolutionaries lurking behind every other abandoned shop, with craters left by IEDs and husks of exploded vehicles blocking the streets. A small group of non combatants set up a refugee camp where the homeless and the wounded were taken care of for free, under the proudly waving banner of Korpska Socialisme. Among them however, several disguised soldiers from the initial SCUM regiment were discussing their plans.
“Its bad. Reminds me of home.” One of them says, spitting on the ground. “What’s the plan now? Commies seem to be handling it well.”
His comrade waited for a pair of amputees to stop hanging around before answering.
“Orders are to lay low for a day or two, only strike when our allies go on the offensive or catch a bigger fish that they need our help for killing. I’ve heard that we aren’t alone.”
“That’s all we needed, someone to come outta nowhere and send us all to hell.”
His friend merely laughed and slapped him on the back.
“Cheer up, I'm sure the boss wouldn’t let anyone strike at us without consequences. He is… intense. Now cheer up, the nurse is coming-”
And so the mostly unseen tip of the spear that helped the revolutionaries acted more cautiously for the time being, waiting on the green light from HQ.
—-------------
The space battle proceeded with little of SCUMs involvement, as Zavjernici couldn't spare any ships to participate themselves. However, with such an overwhelming advantage, they were assured of their victory.
Shells were hitting their mark, railguns of the determined defenders scored true, missiles were blowing corvettes to pieces; the situation was seemingly hopeless, but even in the face of numerically superior force, tactics and organization employed by Soran’s fleet inflicted heavy casualties on fierce, but less experienced opponents.
In spite of their ability, the advantage the enemy had arrived with was overwhelming, and SCUMs agents were rather looking forward to hearing the reports of victory that seemed to come ever closer.
The INSECOM squads took the bait.
With Soran’s failure to secure the docks, the FSS-GS frontlines and the Federal Security Zone was collapsing without any hope of supplies and reinforcements. Pincer movements of Korpska revolutionaries weaving in and out of the urban mazes of the city chipped away at their rear echelon, striking at vital supply lines and command outposts. Every successful strike essentially forced the FSS-GS line to retreat and keep retreating until they could reconsolidate, to which the cycle then repeats.
As it stands, the INSECOM seemed to be the only instrument available to counter them. In their logic, intercepting the terrorist attacks could be their opportunity to gain intelligence from the enemy - intelligence on their mysterious benefactors.
—
One of these attacks was staged at a residential oxygen plant supplying crucial air to the wealthier districts around it. Other than lives of course, this was also a likely target of the Korpska’s hardline communists. With the oxygen plant heavily guarded by private security, it would take either the Korpska’s most elite forces, which would mean a commander from their inner circle, or more highly trained black ops forces - perhaps from their mysterious foreign backers. Either result meant vital intelligence. After dropping off VP Gozales, Foxtrot-4 was called up to investigate this attack.
Landing at a nearby helipad, Foxtrot-4 slowly snuck its way towards the oxygen plant, unnerved by how quiet it was. There were no fires, burning cars, dead bodies and angry mobs, so it was not a Korpska attack. But its private security was missing. Hopping over the fence, Foxtrot-4 quietly entered the building, heads on a swivel.
But of course taking the bait meant that it was a trap. Deep within the labyrinth of the oxygen plant, they were soon stalked and surrounded by SCUM stealthed troops, and once they realized their fate, they were soon quickly gunned down by silenced weapons, much like the very same SCUM soldiers they killed during their earlier mission to extract VP Gonzales.
Other Unit 1377 squads suffered the same fate at several other locations, and once the Unit’s command realised they could no longer contact their squads they quickly canceled the orders of their surviving squads and directed them to a new mission: getting ready to get the hell out of Judam.
—--
In the orbit around Judam, explosions and beams of luminescent lasers dotted the empty canvas of space itself. It was quickly becoming a graveyard of fallen ships - the wrecks of pirate refitted freighters peppered with sabot holes and sliced apart by lasers as well as the smashed up corpses of FSS corvettes and RANGSI frigates, done in by crude mass drivers, nukes and kamikaze attacks.
The FSS element was virtually wiped out, their inexperience and their weaker warships having little to no chance against grizzled pirate crews who have had several raids on their belt, and were manning either up-armored freighters or corvettes with modified engines to go significantly faster.
The pirate ships were of course only bested by proper RANGSI warships, but there were too few of them to turn the tide. With the highly manuverable pirates and the military warships of the Jagayans, Soran’s fleet was down by half of its total strength. His own battleship even had significant damages, with the loss of a number of Graser turrets, bombed out hangar bays and spinal guns out of commission.
----
“Rear Admiral Soran, come in,” the call was from Soran’s superior officer, Force Admiral Herwin who commanded the whole of MER Foxtrot, the unit Soran belonged to.
“Yes sir, this is Rear Admiral Soran,” an explosion from a pirate missile hitting the hull armor shook the bridge, making Soran wince.
“We’ve got your sit-rep. New orders. We’ve received intel that Judam is lost and is completely under hostile control. Regroup at Nezer. You’ll need their shipyards for repairs.”
Soran did not like the sound of abandoning Judam, but with only 10 ships facing down hundreds, he relented. His fleet dumped all their remaining torpedoes and missiles to give the pirates and the Jagayans something busy to deal with and then immediately broke contact to gain distance away from Judam. Soran’s battleship opened a portal into the Meridian, waiting for the rest of the surviving ships to go through first. With Soran’s battleship swallowed up, just like that the RANGSI fleet was gone and Judam is now under the control of the SCUM and its allies.
With the enemy in full retreat from the Judam, celebrations were organised, allowing everyone on the ground a brief rest from the horrors of war. Military parades were held, food was given out, political speeches vowing to remain vigilant and stay true to their cause took place. Critical infrastructure was undergoing repairs as combatants sent by SCUM directly pulled out to plan for their future endeavours, handing full control of the world to Korpska Socialisme.
To ensure continued stability and support for the new regime, soldiers that were sent back home now gave way to administrators, political advisors and one-off shipments of free essential supplies, accompanied by more payments to the pirates for a job well done. Afterwards, Jan came to an agreement with pirates, who promised to keep up the raids on exposed routes in space still controlled by RANGSI and what little remained of FC.
Back on their ships, the atmosphere was relaxed and the mood was good, but no partying took place under Jan’s orders. Discipline and focus were to be maintained, for they could be called up for another job at any moment.
On Utvrda, Loyalist leadership was overjoyed by the great news about their operation going according to plan. Finally, they seemed to have secured good relations with Orillia Free State and could now focus on internal problems more.
Plaza District
Astro-Federation of Judam Space
3 Days Before Election Day
The sea of colourful banners, flags and streamers betrayed the tense atmosphere in the enormous space habitat.
Massive crowds flooded the plaza as political speakers held their rallies there, aiming to show off their amount of supporters which in turn boosted their image and raised electoral confidence among the people as a party with popular mandate. Of course, who the “people” exactly were up for grabs.
This election cycle was particularly on the volatile side. The Jagyan Nationalist Front (JNF) had been increasingly aggressive in the recent territorial disputes it had with its sister member-states, threatening to deploy their militia and declare secession.
Elsewhere, a ‘red shadow’ hung over the depths of the industrial sectors. The Korpska Socialisme had jumped on this opportunity of Election Week to call for a strike and mobilise massive amounts of workers, who immediately poured out of the factories even in the middle of their shifts, to protest all kinds of injustices to the working class - ranging from lackluster salaries to dangerous working conditions. Factories didn’t just grind to a halt in Judam, elsewhere mines in all the Four Founding Republics were shut down and so too did many shipyards and refineries. The only place where the worker mobilisations were not too successful was Jagaya, whose right-wing nationalist nutjobs were more than happy to shoot at any disgusting hippie leftists trying to protest on their front lawns.
The Federalist Security Services (FSS) were understandably on edge as tensions continued to rise and isolated incidences of violence were slowly piling up into something larger. Yet they pin their hopes on the electoral system - all they have to do is to hold the fort for 2 days. That one final day before Election Day was the cooling off period where political rallies and campaigning were prohibited. For the rest, it was the day when emotions can subside and citizens can judge their choices more rationally, for the FSS it was a day of respite without some political agitpropper whipping up a sectoral riot.
Loyalist Headquarters
Utvrda system
Below the surface of Utvrda I
2 weeks earlier - The Planning Session
Leo arrived early as always, using the time to read over the documents one final time to refresh his memory of all the political parties, opportunities and vulnerabilities. As the other high ranking members started making their appearance, Leo grew more and more anxious. Would those he was waiting on accept his invitation and accept his mission? Did he agree to something he was not ready for? The influx of weapons, SIGEC and other supplies from Orillia helped tremendously to secure his hold over the local space and organize the excavation and building of his new home on Utvrda I, but he lacked the manpower he could divert from here to elsewhere in the galaxy to do his bidding without running behind the schedule considerably. He left a significant portion of his staff back on the space station in a nearby system to maintain appearances and receive the shipments from Orillia without making them aware of his true whereabouts - he couldn’t afford anyone knowing of this place.
One by one, everyone else had arrived, making the improvised conference room feel even more tight than it was because of all the unpacked boxes and construction equipment laying around until such time as the storage for them was built. He was nervous, but he wouldn’t let it show.
“This is the fifth time you have called for an emergency meeting Leo. Maybe you could let us do our jobs uninterrupted for once?” A middle aged lady in muddy lab coat spoke up
Amanda, of course she has nothing better to do than get on his nerves.
“Amanda let me remind you that there is a lot of stuff to be done in the early days when we still haven’t settled in. Besides, I hope that you can remind yourself of today’s topic.”
Leo said and turned on the holographic display on one of the walls, which displayed the location of the Astro-Federation and its asteroids, along with its flag and those of its respective members.
“You have been briefed on the developing situation in Judam space beforehand. The tensions are rising and elections will occur in several days. Additional information has been provided by both Orillian Free State and our hired agents on the ground and is in front of you.”
He gestured towards the small pile of papers in front of each person present.
“Our goal is simple: ensuring that whoever comes out on top is hostile to RANGSI and more in line with Orillian way of thinking. The course of action has been mostly agreed upon and I hope that if anyone has anything more to add they speak up before this meeting is adjourned.”
An elderly man besides him, Markhezio, cleared his throat and spoke up next:
“I must remind you that me and a few of our other colleagues have been worried about sending our own men on the ground. We don’t have anyone to spare currently, and our own capabilities are limited by our experience and expertise I am afraid. How do you propose we solve this problem?”
Leo nodded to acknowledge his question and pulled out a tablet to check. In a few seconds, the folder with received messages has updated, much to his delight.
“I am glad you have asked Markh. I have taken the liberty as the current Leader to call up some favours from people back on Malaak to help us with the problem. I propose we employ one of our more experienced units in The Agency-”
“The Agency? What makes you think we can trust them? For all we know their are conspiring to take us down as we speak!” Amanda interrupted, followed by murmurs of others present. Leo took back control of the situation, pouring all the authority and cold anger he could muster into his next reply:
“Silence! Have you forgotten your place? Respect authority and the speaker or I will find someone else who is capable of doing so.”
Amanda was startled for a second, and wanted to lash out at him for a moment - before she realised her situation and sat down instead.
With that out of the way, Leo continued.
“As I was saying, we should work with one of the units from The Agency. We can’t trust them completely, but the group I had in mind owes some favours to me and I have leverage over them.”
The unit patch came on display, and next to it an image of a tall man in his forties who appeared to be wearing a trenchcoat
“They are called ‘zavjernici’ and this is their leader.” He pointed to the picture of the man
“His name is Jan and he gets the job done. Plenty of experience too, assassinations, staged coups back on Malaak, combat experience… The man and his unit are ghosts, not much else is known about them. But what I do know is that they aren’t loyal to anyone but themselves, which should mean that The Agency is struggling to control them - perfect for our plans.”
There were a couple of raised eyebrows, but no objections. Good.
“When this meeting is concluded they will be provided with the details of our plan. Of course we will give them some leeway to act on their own accord if it helps further our goals.”
Leo nodded to Markhezio, who turned on his own tablet and changed the imagery displayed on the wall to that of all the political parties, official or not, with information on their strongholds and leaders.
“I intend to keep the plan flexible and open to additional changes. We will redouble our efforts to escalate the situation on the ground while we negotiate with representatives of all of the parties to nudge them in the right direction. Firstly we will discuss the Federalist Coalition - they are the current ruling party and have been deemed too hard to convert directly to our cause, as such our efforts will be with the aim to reduce their popularity, engineer scandals, offer alternatives and make them more likeable, and likely destroy the party as a political entity later on.
They are working together with the Janus Association, a group made up of the wealthiest elite. Their stance on national boundaries and hostility towards Korpska Socialisme will make them extremely unpopular with a good portion of the population if they were to be discovered, which would also tarnish the reputation of Federalist Coalition. As such our goal will be exposing the existence of this group and provoking the leftist elements into more serious actions against them. We could even make the Association strike first out of fear from the socialists and spin the narrative to be more sympathetic towards the leftists, hopefully furthering public outrage which would be significant by that point. Next up we have the Korpska Socialisme, one of our main candidates to take over the Astro Judam Federation when all is said and done. Radicalization, provocation and assasination will be used to push them over the brink, hopefully triggering a civil war across the federation, starting with Nasarusa. There they would have received weapons, training and support from us by then, which will help them take over the local government. From there onwards they will have a secured base of operations with the hold of hearts and minds over the majority in Astro Federation.”
“Forgive me for interrupting sir,” Another lady next to Amanda said. “But what about the Federal Security Services? Won’t they be a problem?”
Markhezio paused for a moment, then went on to say: “That is a good question, but I think I have found an answer. Enter Jagayan Nationalist Front. Far right party from Jagaya which became increasingly hostile towards other members of the Federation lately, threatening to use their relatively superior military power to take over territory. Also a second candidate for a takeover after KS. As the elections approach, politicians become increasingly desperate to get more funding for their campaigns in hopes a last infusion of cash will be just enough to turn the tides… Or just for personal wealth. Either way, with cash, threat and promises will will push for a strong anti-Jagayan rhetoric from certain members of the Federalist Coalition, potentially serving as a provocation of JNF. Afterwards one of our agents will pose as a representative from a shell corporation offering to negotiate a trade deal that would, in theory, result in considerable amounts of very cheap food flooding the market that Jagayans are so dependent on, and already struggling to compete. A few contributions to the JNF armory from us coupled with the very much destabilized situation in the Federation as a whole, it will be a great opening for JNF to make their move, preferably on Judam itself. Just as the first uprisings on Nasarusa begin, FSS will be too preoccupied with JNF forces to deal with the uprisings elsewhere. If there are any problems, we intend to hire the local pirates, BKKK, to deal with them, whether that will be softening up the FSS for Jagayans, or the local security forces of the member states for Korpska Socialisme will be left up to Jan to decide.”
Markhezio took a sip of water and looked around the room, seeing mostly nods in agreement and some worried looks.
“Any objections?” Leo asked.
There were none.
Of the many sectors the Federalist Coalition government had expressed interest in, right now surveillance and cyberwarfare had overnight become the hottest thing on their agenda, coinciding very well with the recent strikes in the industrial sectors all across the Astro-Federation.
A list of corporations, vetted by the Janus Association, had been discreetly invited to an ‘exhibition’ conference in one of Judam’s biggest expo halls. On the surface and to the public eye, it seemed like a normal corporate fair where the newest goods are displayed and demonstrated. However, unbeknownst to the public, behind closed doors and the men in black suits guarding them, there was a private reception, meant for the top dogs - the CEOs. Thanks to some maneuvering, both human and digital in nature, one of the SCUM’s shell companies managed to enter this list and their agents on the ground have obtained passes to access this private reception.
The few hours at this reception had been most productive. Whatever deal the SCUM agents presented to the Federalist Coalition party liaison and Janus Association’s controller had been well received, they were desperate to win the political war against the ever increasingly popular Korspka Socialisme party and they were determined to wipe them out by getting dirt on their key members. However, imagine if recordings of this surveillance tech deal, if there were any, were made public. The idea of the FC party spending the taxpayer money to spy on the people would make good political ammunition…
Through interaction, more general intelligence about the Janus Association and the corporations linked to it have also been made known to the SCUM agents, through various means.
It did indeed not take long for the images and other evidence such as recordings, to make their way to the biggest news networks and play right into the hands of dissident socialists who have found themselves with even more political ammunition to use in their PR campaigns, as well as mud to sling into FC’s face. Conspiracy theories about the possible existence of Janus Association started running all over ancnet unchecked, pushed further into the spotlight by fake bot accounts.
Several incidents have been staged by SCUM agents on the ground, staging false fights between the “protesters and private security guards” that have also been “leaked” and pushed as truths via ancnet.
Offering a solution, another SCUM shell company turned to FC party, claiming they can help keep the peace and ensure that the that no further violent incident such as the ones staged earlier happen again by guarding the companies in question, pointing out the apparent “unprofessionalism and hostility” with which security forces have treated those on strike so far.
In the meantime, the same security agency offered to Janus Association to take care of all the nonsense spewed on ancnet for a relatively low price.
While that was going on, KS started receiving large sums of monetary support from anonymous donors, with simple messages that they hope their financial contributions will help ensure that the rights of workers are protected and expanded by any means, in which case more support is sure to come.
Being pleased by how the operation was going so far, Jan decided to use the rising tensions as a cover for the negotiations with Jagayans to begin. A small free shipment of weapons was sent with a note requesting a meeting with a Jagayan representative, offering promises of further weapon shipments and opportunity to strike at the rest of the federation while its weak, to reclaim what was rightfully Jagayan in the first place.
The worker strikes became full-blown riots all over the Astro-Federation, fuelled by all kinds of conspiracy theories. Already betrayed by the FC’s technocratic government and the promises of modernization, the discovery of the Janus Association only made it all worse. Now not only were the People tricked by the government’s false promises, so too had they been puppeteered by capitalists in the shadows for so long.
Things were getting close to a full-blown revolution. The large sums of money the KS were receiving were invested into purchasing arms and bombs. They were distributed then discreetly among their supporters. Clashes turnt violent almost anywhere where there was a large concentration of the working class. The anti-riot police forces failed and with fires and smoke in their wake, they retreated and regrouped to the middle-class hab districts and the more importantly the gated communities of the wealthy, which were certainty going to be the targets of the furious mobs that would soon pour out from the shantytowns.
The Federal Coalition was absolutely furious with the SCUM, and the Janus Association was absolutely furious with the Federal Coalition. But they had little time to bicker and point fingers when their streets and their factories all around were burning. It all seemed too convenient when another foreign company suddenly showed up from nowhere and offered their services. But with their police forces absolutely swamped with the riots, they decided to bite the bullet in order to protect what they have left. But as they hastily accepted the contracts from this foreign security service company, they decided to be the ones arranging a little intrigue of their own.
The FC party chief met with the police commissioner in person and ordered him to direct surveillance on this security company. They dug for anything that could tell them something interesting about this supposed security company; public information in the Ancnet, checking for any discrepancies and analysing the money trail, anything. Parallel to the FC’s counterattack was the FC’s ‘internet specialist divisions’ - a nicer way to say ‘hackers’. They were the Federal Coalition’s means of getting info and dirt on their political opponents and had been the party’s silent hand in the information game. The internet specialists got to work. Once this security service’s guards arrived on site, they would pose as a Korpska liaison and attempt to bribe the security company to withdraw their guards. A test of loyalty if they passed, and a trap if they failed.
The Jagayans on the other hand received the free weapons shipments but not without suspicion. They agreed to meet and offered one of their farms as a place to meet, reasoning that it would be out of sight of the authorities. They wanted to ascertain this mysterious benefactor’s intentions, and wanted to know why some foreigner wanted to help the Jagayan cause.
With most of the riot police retreating as a result of rising pressure from the angry mobs of workers, rising economic uncertainty as outside investment slows down due to internal instability and with most of KS armed and the
election day drawing ever closer, SCUM needed to keep piling on pressure and do their best to create a perfect storm. Local ancnet constantly received new bots that would spread conspiracy theories about Janus Association and FC party, leaving little room for anything else.
To drive the divide between different elements of Astro-Federation of Judam, massive campaign donations were given out to those politicians who would speak out against Jagayans, encouraging them to accuse Jagayans for anything and everything, basically turning them into a convenient scapegoat for anyone who wouldn’t dare speak out against increasingly powerful Korpska Socialisme.
The shell company set up by SCUM to expose Janus Association used the increased volatility in local markets and threats of violence against capitalists both domestic and foreign to start pulling out of the country, claiming that the current environment was hurting their business and that continued operations would only result in monetary loss, something that could not be allowed to happen.
Although the operation had a nearly limitless funds at its disposal in order to make sure it was successful due to its importance, all the covering up and weapon shipments proved to be a significant burden on a very much weak and dependant Loyalist economy, prompting Leo to warn Jan that the funding would have to be cut if the expenses keep on piling up until next shipment of goods from Orillia arrives. Acknowledging this, Jan decided to scale back his plans for planned cyber attacks on all of the government’s institutions prior to the elections, and has instead decided to shift his focus on a few key ones, including their central bank of the Astro-Federation of Judam Space, several police stations and Federal Security Forces, allocating the rest of the funds for planned costs that would incur when working with Jagayans.
The online Investigation launched by the FC party chief into the security company was progressing relatively well, revealing some odd details; the company in question was created several months ago, with its HQ reported to be on the edge of Little Light. Despite being a small startup without any major successes or failures to their name, it’s leadership has recently changed, just a week ago in fact, after the previous boss drowned in a pool. The apparent new owner is his brother. After some more digging, it became apparent that he hadn’t left his house in some time, with his last message on social media stating that he will withdraw to his house for an uncertain amount of time to mourn the loss of his brother. Despite this and their sudden jump to Astro-Federation space to seek work, there were no apparent discrepancies regarding the money trail or public information regarding the company.
When the security guards belonging to the company arrived on site and were approached by the fake KS liaison, they refused to take the money and instead apprehended the suspect, throwing him into an unmarked vehicle, with part of them staying to guard the facility while others drove off without contacting the police or the Korpska Socialisme. They went into a contested part of the city, where the violent mobs and the police were still clashing with each other, and into an abandoned building.
Deep in space, outside Astro-Federation borders, a single sleek black ship with parts of its coloured gold was hiding in an asteroid field, most of the crew on it dedicated to making sure they were as hard to detect as possible. It was not a particularly hard thing to achieve given the tools at their disposal and the remote nature of the location they were in. On board it was Jan, enjoying a cup of coffee while intently watching over the shoulder of his subordinate and into the monitor in front of him. On it was a list of all the mission objectives and information on all of the active agents on the ground. He was looking at one man in particular, who had left the ship about 3 hours ago and was headed towards Jagaya. After a few moments, stood up and nodded, returning to his quarters where several men were patiently awaiting his next orders.
“Listen up crew. I choose each one of you to come here because I know you won’t let me down. I have an important task for all of you, the success of which could greatly help us when the time comes.”
He sat down and turned on a holographic projector on his desk that displayed several buildings, information, details about security and possible entry points.
“You are tasked with eliminating key officers and sabotaging defenses on the capital of Judam, with the ultimate goal of weakening FSS’s position and increasing confusion and panic for the locals on the election day, giving us more room to act when the time comes if any assistance needs to be provided to our allies. Since most of the local KS forces are inadequately trained for the mission, you will be going in first as Korpska Socialisme focuses on taking out power infrastructure and blocking the roads - I will see to ensure that happens. You will operate out of a safehouse we have established on the periphery of the capital, far from any current clashes between socialists and riot police. Reconnaissance will be provided by our small drone operators who will be going to the safehouse with you. The drones will take off as the situation heats up, when they will be the least of anyone’s concern. Upon completing all of your primary objectives, you are to immediately pull back and await evac. The remaining operators back in the safehouse will destroy all evidence of their presence and destroy the safehouse before being extracted by a separate vehicle. If your mission is compromised, it will be aborted and you will proceed towards another safehouse operated by team Bravo. I will leave you to prepare.”
SCUM representative arrived on the farm on time, carrying a briefcase full of documents laying out some details on the plan he will propose and discussing conditions under which they will receive continued support in form of weapons shipments and money. When he met with the Jagayan representative, he told them that he was sent by a foreign crime family that wanted to deal with BKKK as part of a personal vendetta against its leader, Johannen Vicruzo. Seeing the rising instability in the Federation, they decided that now was the prudent time to strike and bait out BKKK, which they expect to come in force should FSS be preoccupied dealing with Korpska Socialisme. Given the current rising tensions, the man argues both the family he serves and Jagayans can profit. Jagayans can claim what was always their and receive support while doing so, and in turn their success will bait out ‘B triple K’.
“The BKKK? A dangerous game you are playing, but we Jagayans, unlike those spineless Judam bureaucrats, are a people of honour. We will honour this deal. You supply us the arms, and the ensuing war of secession will draw out your enemies and you will have your opportunity to exact your vengeance,” the Jagayan representative nodded.
The assistant next to him piped up. “These weapons and funds will no doubt make the Commandant a very, very happy man.”
“Indeed, we will show those cowards and traitors in the Jagstaya House that only true patriots can claim to lead the Jagayan people,” the representative nodded. He extended his hand to what he thought earnestly as the representative of a foreign crime family.
2 Days Later
Judam
Federal Congress Building
Within days, the political situation in the Astro-Federation has rapidly declined. Widespread political violence erupted not just in Judam but has also since quickly spread to the other Federalist-controlled zones of Nezer, Nasarusa and Hulios. Much of this was the machinations of the Korpska Socialisme, who had plenty of ammunition to work off with: the prevailing socio-economic inequalities, labour exploitation by the baron miners and perhaps the straw that broke the camel’s back: the existence of the Janus Association.
In the last few days, sudden cyber attacks on government institutions and a string of mysterious attacks that crippled the public infrastructure has made the situation even more perilous. The cyber attacks left the police crippled at the most inopportune of times in the midst of dealing with the Korpska rioters. Power and essential services were cut to several city blocks, much to the frustration of many citizens. Worst of all was the cyber attack on the Central Bank. The attack shut down monetary and financial services. For an economy that was practically 100% dependent on cashless services, this was a death blow to many. Like fuel to the fire, these events hit the working poor and the lower classes hard, driving more to the breaking point and into the arms of the Korpska. The government was working hard to restore and repair these services, but due to the sensitive political situation and the scandalous optics surrounding the Federalist government, it was all too late.
The FC party chief and Chancellor of the Astro-Federation, Krenznic Bossard, sat at his desk with a thousand-yard stare in his eyes. He had not a wink of sleep as crisis after crisis piled up, and he was stuck in various situation meetings in an attempt to coordinate government action. They tried the police. They failed. They tried the riot police. They failed. They tried to get dirt on their rivals - the Korpska, they were the ones who got dirted on instead. Elections was coming soon, and the polls could not have looked any gloomier for the Federalist Coalition after the Janus Association leaks. In a fit of panic, the Janus Association has gone dark and are scrambling to cover their trails, which means that the money tap has been turned shut, and party finances are quickly drying up.
And just yesterday, they have received news that the Jagayan government has been overthrown in a military coup by their own security forces. In their place was the secessionist radicals, the Jagayan Nationalist Front, and already the FSS has reported massive military build-ups along the state borders. Worse, the BKKK pirate attacks have intensified, taking advantage of the chaos and the FSS being stretched too thin.
“Chancellor, what should we do?”
In a sigh of helplessness, Bossard said the following words of last resort.
“Cancel tomorrow’s elections on grounds of extreme instability. Declare the Korpska as an illegal party for their part in the riots. Declare martial law and deploy the FSS-GS to clear the streets by any means necessary.”
“And call the RANGSI Foreign Service.”
Election Day
[NOTICE: Elections Has Been Cancelled Due to Unstable Conditions. Thank You For Your Understanding. Please Stay Indoors as the Federal Security Services Restore Law and Order. Have a Nice Day.]
The cancellation of elections and declaration of the Korpska as an illegal party has only intensified the violence even further. Judam was practically ablaze in fire right now, with gunfire, explosions and mobs of angry rioters engulfing every corner of the city blocks.
In the face of overwhelming violence, what remained of Judam’s battered and tired riot police retreated and regrouped around the Federal Congress, establishing a tight perimeter extending about 2-3 km away from the Congress building. Beyond that now was the FSS Ground Service’s jurisdiction. With this ‘Federal Security Zone’ as their staging area, slowly but surely, APCs and soldiers began rolling down the street, battling the mobs, who have now long since turned violent and are armed by the Korpska. In bloody urban warfare, gradually, the Korpska began to lost ground as they were no match for proper army equipment, but progress in this urban megacomplex of a hellhole known as Judam was slow for the FSS-GS.
Much striking however, was the presence of a Fleet of 20 RANGSI ships in Judam’s orbit. RANGSI was unwilling to see the Astro-Federation, a key trade hub of their prized ATTEI geo-economic project, collapse and get subsumed into the chaos. Chancellor Bossard has asked for help in his time of need and Rear Admiral Soran Bin Vladimir Hassan has answered the call.
In RANGSI society, all citizens have served the state as conscripts for 2 years, and afterwards return to their normal civilian lives as reservists, called up for periods of 2 weeks annually for training and operational tasks. Soran was no exception, for in his civilian life he was a university professor teaching astro-physics. But the Judam Crisis happened right when his 2-weeks reservist period for the year was about to end. The Mobile Expeditionary Reserve Foxtrot, the command Soran was under, had been mobilised by the order of the Administrator-General. Rear Admiral Soran’s fleet was dispatched as an advance party to ascertain the situation and secure a ‘beachhead’.
Eager to get this over and done with quickly and return to his family and his comfy villa on Shangton Hills, Soran immediately begun linking up with FSS elements, communicating with the Federalist government and once he had the legitimacy of the Federal government, he began deploying Naval Military Police forces to secure Judam’s docks under the pretext of a peacekeeping mission. With the docks cleared, they will have the facilities and infrastructure necessary to house more RANGSI ships and naval ground complements, both of which will be sorely needed to protect the Astro-Federation from threats within and without.
Upon the arrival of RANGSI forces, Jan notified Leo of the situation, asking for additional funding which was, after some back and forth, provided. Reserves built up during the relatively short but extremely profitable peak of Malcorp’s existence were now released, with a condition that Loyalists receive more direct control over the situation.
Already several assassinations have been ordered on high ranking FC politicians who would not accept a new round of bribes, now with promise of a safe evacuation offworld.
With KS forces finding themselves on the back foot for the first time, more resources were granted, bigger shipments of weapons started to arrive. Back from the safety of his ship, Jan was overseeing his men orchestrate a PR campaign to frame the arrival of RANGSI as yet another colonial intervention, clearly helping the corrupt and oppressive authoritarian regime against the will of the native people, all for their own selfish interests in keeping the good people of Astro-Federation of Judam subjugated. This would, Leo hoped, put political pressure on RANGSI itself amidst rising tensions in the galaxy as a whole.
Meanwhile, as a way to further support KS in their endeavours, Jan has sent what few men he could spare to serve as military advisors, all posing as revolutionaries from abroad who had come to help liberate KS. Several remnants from the age of Peony Revolution have been contacted with this same idea in mind, but they were either unwilling to cooperate or were so far devolved into banditry and revenge killings that they weren’t worth the time or the effort needed to bring them here.
To defeat this new and powerful enemy that decided to intervene when they were so close to victory, they would need to be aggressive and act decisively. With the all important docks in RANGSI’s hands, it was crucial to strike now before any more reinforcements could show up. Doubling down on their promises to Jagayans and notifying them to get ready to strike, it was finally time to secure the last piece of this ever evolving puzzle in order to secure victory. While the assault on the docks was in preparation, several nearby pirate groups were contracted and informed of the plan to attack the docks. Presenting themselves as allies of KS, they offered to in exchange for their support in attacking the docks and the fleet belonging to the rear admiral Soran to give out a large sum of money and sensitive information regarding local trade routes, shipments and info on their security detail. For a cherry on top, Jan tried to contact BKKK offering them the same.
With all parties involved, with wildly different motives and backgrounds now working together unaware of it, he was quite pleased with himself. A very small contingent of his men was already preparing for the assault, discussing
vital components of the plan amongst themselves and readying to strike first, hoping to inflict as much damage as possible before the real fighting began.
With Judam still in chaos and its police forces still in disarray, the SCUM’s assassination teams successfully sneaked in and did their deed, leaving an increasing and disturbing number of the Federalist Coalition Party leadership either dead or missing in mysterious circumstances. Some were found overdosed on sleeping pills, some were poisoned and some others had a bullet in their brains.
As for Party Director Krenznic Bossard, his limousine exploded into a grand fireball while on Highway 15 en route to a secure safehouse. Paramedics and coroners on site have seen his charred, mutilated corpse, and certainly declared him dead.
The Federalist Coalition party is crumbling apart. Those who were not dead chose to accept the SCUM’s offer. Bribes of money and milicents now mattered as much as dirt and dust; getting out of this hellhole alive was now the golden ticket.
“We have him in our sights.”
The Federalist Coalition’s Vice-President, Mozales Ghirhamm, stepped out of the black armored SUV in the quiet of the ‘night’, in some undisclosed location, near some sort of warehouse. He was all that remained of the Federalist Coalition’s leadership, but he had chosen to live another day and was one of those that accepted the SCUM’s offer.
“Foxtrot-4, commence the attack now.”
As he approached his mysterious benefactors however, they began taking sniper fire and were ambushed by several operatives in black wetsuits and green-tinted NV goggles with silenced submachine guns. After dealing with the SCUM agents and the Vice-President’s bodyguards, they then dragged Mozales into a small helicopter and took off, heading to the direction of the Federal Security Zone.
These were RANGSI’s shadows - the black ops agents of the Internal Security Command, or INSECOM. Specifically this was Unit 1377, the Unit that had been secretly stationed in the Astro-Federation, manipulating events and defending the FC government to RANGSI’s interests for several years ever since their formation. No records, no money trails, not even rumours - that was how good the secret had been kept, at least until now.
The Federalist government will not fall - not on their watch. Elsewhere, other Unit 1377 squads were also tracking the movements of other FC defectors and striking SCUM evac points, extracting the FC defectors if possible or killing them to deny the enemy important intelligence where it was not. SCUM is now no longer alone in the dark, and it seems the battle for the shadows has only begun. Unit 1377 was still not aware of SCUM’s exact presence, but they had been suspecting some sort of mysterious foreign intervention over the last few days via signal intelligence and cyber-surveillance. Someone was pulling the strings - they just didn’t know who and where.
Elsewhere in Judam, fierce and pitched battles continue to ramp up ever in intensity as the FSS’s ground forces were clashing with an increasingly powerful Korpska Socialisme, who were strengthened with the continued influx of aid and reinforced from the old revolutionaries of the Peony Revolution, who had arrived as military advisors. Like it was almost overnight, thugs and mobs had been turned into a more organised army. Their attacks were becoming more precise and methodical. The first instances of this combat effectiveness was experienced by FSS troops in the streets, where they were hit by KS ambushes and IED attacks - guerilla tactics and bombmaking skills straight from Peony textbooks.
The situation in the docks on the other hand was starting to slip away from RANGSI and FSS control. The initial attacks by the SCUM contingent, as well as the numerous hordes of KS mobs, made resistance in the docks much stiffer than usual and the RANGSI naval MPs were repulsed and forced to retreat back to the fleet.
“Sir! Sensors are picking up hundreds of incoming signatures! FSS databases got them identified as either Jagayan or pirates!”
“Dear god,” Soran gasped as he double checked his terminal screens, as if he could not believe what he had just heard. “Contact the FSS! We need to organise a defence pronto! You! Send a distress call to the rest of the MEF! Now!”
Soran’s fleet numbered at 20 ships, with the FSS’s corvettes the numbers were bumped up to 50 ships. They were still heavily outnumbered. The enemy forces totalled 200 ships. The Jagayan strike force consisted of 100 ships, with the rest split among the smaller, but much more maneuverable and agile pirate fleets. Reinforcements would take some time to arrive, until then, Soran was alone against all odds.
“Gunner, Sabot, Frigate! Fire!” an order rang out in one of the RANGSI cruisers gunnery sections. A plasma-sheathed railgun fired the first round of the battle, and soon, in the next moment, hundreds of shells, missiles and lasers lit up the dark void of space in the course of this desperate battle.
“What do you mean everyone died? I need details. Who found out about us? How well armed were they? Where are they from?” Jan asked his agents with increasing impatience.
“Sir, we have little to nothing to go on from. They left no witnesses and evacuated VP Mozales among several others. Teams Tango, Trivago and Charlie were all KIA.” Said the man next to him, still at attention, his face giving no emotions.
“Hmm… Looks like someone joined us in the shadows. Tell reserves to gear up. I want them all ready to go in 30 minutes.”
“Yes sir!” The soldier saluted and left in a hurry, weaving through the tight corridors of the ship.
They were so close. Jan was so close to victory, he could almost taste it.
But that was before someone else joined his team in the shadows. His men
started dying left and right before he even realized that something was wrong. Searching for who could be responsible, even questioning FC defectors had turned out to be a waste of time. Nobody that he could get a hand on knew their enemy… Which could only mean they are an outside actor, probably from RANGSI or one of their allies.
With everything set in motion and going his way, he had almost started celebrating his victory too early.
To deal with this new unknown threat, they would need to find out more about it. To achieve this goal, Jan decided to set up a trap, mobilising his reserve forces to start planning for several terrorist attacks, primary goals of which were to create more fear and opportunity to blame it on ‘the desperate capitalists’, with the secondary goal being drawing out whoever was determined to stop them.
--
Information was sent through marginally less reliable channels, hinting at urgency. Several meetings were scheduled at seemingly random, yet secure locations in hopes of setting up an ambush for INSECOM and capturing the team sent to crash the party, or just to listen in on the meeting.
They may have surprised him, but now it was his turn to strike back.
For now, this was all that could be done, as other things were requiring more attention.
Down on the ground, once neatly decorated parks and markets with flags of Astro Federation of Judam were now active warzones, with revolutionaries lurking behind every other abandoned shop, with craters left by IEDs and husks of exploded vehicles blocking the streets. A small group of non combatants set up a refugee camp where the homeless and the wounded were taken care of for free, under the proudly waving banner of Korpska Socialisme. Among them however, several disguised soldiers from the initial SCUM regiment were discussing their plans.
“Its bad. Reminds me of home.” One of them says, spitting on the ground. “What’s the plan now? Commies seem to be handling it well.”
His comrade waited for a pair of amputees to stop hanging around before answering.
“Orders are to lay low for a day or two, only strike when our allies go on the offensive or catch a bigger fish that they need our help for killing. I’ve heard that we aren’t alone.”
“That’s all we needed, someone to come outta nowhere and send us all to hell.”
His friend merely laughed and slapped him on the back.
“Cheer up, I'm sure the boss wouldn’t let anyone strike at us without consequences. He is… intense. Now cheer up, the nurse is coming-”
And so the mostly unseen tip of the spear that helped the revolutionaries acted more cautiously for the time being, waiting on the green light from HQ.
—-------------
The space battle proceeded with little of SCUMs involvement, as Zavjernici couldn't spare any ships to participate themselves. However, with such an overwhelming advantage, they were assured of their victory.
Shells were hitting their mark, railguns of the determined defenders scored true, missiles were blowing corvettes to pieces; the situation was seemingly hopeless, but even in the face of numerically superior force, tactics and organization employed by Soran’s fleet inflicted heavy casualties on fierce, but less experienced opponents.
In spite of their ability, the advantage the enemy had arrived with was overwhelming, and SCUMs agents were rather looking forward to hearing the reports of victory that seemed to come ever closer.
The INSECOM squads took the bait.
With Soran’s failure to secure the docks, the FSS-GS frontlines and the Federal Security Zone was collapsing without any hope of supplies and reinforcements. Pincer movements of Korpska revolutionaries weaving in and out of the urban mazes of the city chipped away at their rear echelon, striking at vital supply lines and command outposts. Every successful strike essentially forced the FSS-GS line to retreat and keep retreating until they could reconsolidate, to which the cycle then repeats.
As it stands, the INSECOM seemed to be the only instrument available to counter them. In their logic, intercepting the terrorist attacks could be their opportunity to gain intelligence from the enemy - intelligence on their mysterious benefactors.
—
One of these attacks was staged at a residential oxygen plant supplying crucial air to the wealthier districts around it. Other than lives of course, this was also a likely target of the Korpska’s hardline communists. With the oxygen plant heavily guarded by private security, it would take either the Korpska’s most elite forces, which would mean a commander from their inner circle, or more highly trained black ops forces - perhaps from their mysterious foreign backers. Either result meant vital intelligence. After dropping off VP Gozales, Foxtrot-4 was called up to investigate this attack.
Landing at a nearby helipad, Foxtrot-4 slowly snuck its way towards the oxygen plant, unnerved by how quiet it was. There were no fires, burning cars, dead bodies and angry mobs, so it was not a Korpska attack. But its private security was missing. Hopping over the fence, Foxtrot-4 quietly entered the building, heads on a swivel.
But of course taking the bait meant that it was a trap. Deep within the labyrinth of the oxygen plant, they were soon stalked and surrounded by SCUM stealthed troops, and once they realized their fate, they were soon quickly gunned down by silenced weapons, much like the very same SCUM soldiers they killed during their earlier mission to extract VP Gonzales.
Other Unit 1377 squads suffered the same fate at several other locations, and once the Unit’s command realised they could no longer contact their squads they quickly canceled the orders of their surviving squads and directed them to a new mission: getting ready to get the hell out of Judam.
—--
In the orbit around Judam, explosions and beams of luminescent lasers dotted the empty canvas of space itself. It was quickly becoming a graveyard of fallen ships - the wrecks of pirate refitted freighters peppered with sabot holes and sliced apart by lasers as well as the smashed up corpses of FSS corvettes and RANGSI frigates, done in by crude mass drivers, nukes and kamikaze attacks.
The FSS element was virtually wiped out, their inexperience and their weaker warships having little to no chance against grizzled pirate crews who have had several raids on their belt, and were manning either up-armored freighters or corvettes with modified engines to go significantly faster.
The pirate ships were of course only bested by proper RANGSI warships, but there were too few of them to turn the tide. With the highly manuverable pirates and the military warships of the Jagayans, Soran’s fleet was down by half of its total strength. His own battleship even had significant damages, with the loss of a number of Graser turrets, bombed out hangar bays and spinal guns out of commission.
----
“Rear Admiral Soran, come in,” the call was from Soran’s superior officer, Force Admiral Herwin who commanded the whole of MER Foxtrot, the unit Soran belonged to.
“Yes sir, this is Rear Admiral Soran,” an explosion from a pirate missile hitting the hull armor shook the bridge, making Soran wince.
“We’ve got your sit-rep. New orders. We’ve received intel that Judam is lost and is completely under hostile control. Regroup at Nezer. You’ll need their shipyards for repairs.”
Soran did not like the sound of abandoning Judam, but with only 10 ships facing down hundreds, he relented. His fleet dumped all their remaining torpedoes and missiles to give the pirates and the Jagayans something busy to deal with and then immediately broke contact to gain distance away from Judam. Soran’s battleship opened a portal into the Meridian, waiting for the rest of the surviving ships to go through first. With Soran’s battleship swallowed up, just like that the RANGSI fleet was gone and Judam is now under the control of the SCUM and its allies.
With the enemy in full retreat from the Judam, celebrations were organised, allowing everyone on the ground a brief rest from the horrors of war. Military parades were held, food was given out, political speeches vowing to remain vigilant and stay true to their cause took place. Critical infrastructure was undergoing repairs as combatants sent by SCUM directly pulled out to plan for their future endeavours, handing full control of the world to Korpska Socialisme.
To ensure continued stability and support for the new regime, soldiers that were sent back home now gave way to administrators, political advisors and one-off shipments of free essential supplies, accompanied by more payments to the pirates for a job well done. Afterwards, Jan came to an agreement with pirates, who promised to keep up the raids on exposed routes in space still controlled by RANGSI and what little remained of FC.
Back on their ships, the atmosphere was relaxed and the mood was good, but no partying took place under Jan’s orders. Discipline and focus were to be maintained, for they could be called up for another job at any moment.
On Utvrda, Loyalist leadership was overjoyed by the great news about their operation going according to plan. Finally, they seemed to have secured good relations with Orillia Free State and could now focus on internal problems more.