GGG - Issue 28 - 211.49.1

Interview: Admiral H.P. Simms, Grand Duke of the Capellan Reaches
by Tess Olsen, exclusive for the GGG

This week Emperor Lysander granted the title of Grand Duke of the Capellan Reaches to Admiral H.P. Simms, popularly known as Lord Simms, for his tenure as former Viceroy and "in recognition of more than a decade in the role and his continuing support of the Empire in the Capellan Periphery". This is obviously an exceptional honor and only the second Grand Duke of the Empire in more than 50 years (the first one being the Grand Duke of the Imperial Frontier). The last person to hold the title of Grand Duke of the Capellan Reaches was Lord Rachmaninov, who for a time after the Rebellion governed Tau Ceti, Pollux and Trinity. Grand Duke Simms, who is now signing his messages just as Capellan Reaches, holds the claim to no less than five systems within the Capellan Peripheries.

GGG: For how long have you been a member of the Imperial Services (IMP) and for how long did you serve as Viceroy?

Simms: I joined the Imperial Services in 194, having been sent out from the Inner Empire to fill the role of Patrol Commissioner. I took over as Viceroy about eighteen months later and served until circa 208/9.

GGG: Why did you decide to step down as Viceroy?

Simms: I had achieved my objective of negotiating an equitable end to a war that I considered neither side could win and felt that is was time for new blood with new ideas to head the Imperial Services.

GGG: Viceroy Krieger seemed to be following your good steps and working towards more peace and more unification, but after his resignation and the assassination of Viceroy Blackthorne, the IMP had a strange shift in policy, with Viceroy Githyanki reneging the Commonwealth and adopting a much more belligerent stance. What are your views on current IMP policy?

Simms: As a member of the Comand Council it would be inappropriate for me to comment on Imperial Policy.

GGG: More than a year has passed since Viceroy Blackthorne was murdered. Yet, no suspect has been arrested or charged with the crime and it seems that the IMP are not able or willing to find and prosecute whoever was responsible for this heinous assassination. How can that be?

Simms: Anti-matter explosions leave very little evidence and the actual perpetrator is believed to have died in the blast, so asking who his employer was is not a viable proposition.

GGG: What changes for you now that you are a Grand Duke?

Simms: I shall continue doing my duty as a member of the Imperial Services, the only real change will be to my signature: Capellan Reaches.

-o-

The Battle of the Wastelands: Who Won and Who Lost?
by Cornelius Merryheart, exclusive for the GGG

As we observed the last Dewiek ships leaving the orbit of Kalahari, the question was already in our minds: who are the winners here? The situation contains enough complications to allow any side to claim victory, depending on which aspect they want to prioritize. As an exercise in galactic politics, we made a list of where each participant scored positive and negative points. Obviously, lists of this kind are subjective and incomplete, and you may have different views on the subject. Here is how we see it.

Dewiek Elder Nation (DEN)
(+) Showed that if they want a battle there will be a battle.
(+) Destroyed 36 ships while losing only 8 ships.
(+) Showed that they can count on the support (or at least the non-involvement) of the IMP even when they attack another Imperial affiliation.
(-) Showed that they don't respect Imperial Space and don't care for legally registered claims.
(-) Were surprised by the level of support the RVN had to defend the Wastelands System.
(-) Didn't achieve their stated goal of changing the claim to the Wastelands System.
(-) Didn't achieve their stated goal of obtaining transit rights for the DEN in RVN systems.

House Ravenstone (RVN)
(+) Showed no hesitation in defending Imperial Space against forces in superior number and technology.
(+) Maintained the status quo of their system claims.
(+) Showed that they have friends that will help in times of need.
(-) Were forced into a fight they would prefer not to fight.
(-) Lost 13 ships and a big chunk of an orbital platform.

House LiQuan (HLQ)
(+) Showed they are there to defend Imperial Space and to support a Noble House.
(-) Lost 19 ships.

Confederate Forces (CNF)
(+) Showed they are there to defend Imperial Space and to support a Noble House.
(-) Lost 4 ships.

Galactic Trade & Transport (GTT)
(+) Showed they are there to defend Imperial Space and to support a Noble House.
(+) Showed they are ready to put honor before profit.
(-) Lost assets in the Dewiek Pocket Periphery as a consequence of siding against the DEN.
(-) Showed that their starcaptains need either better training or more restraint, as their warships shot at friend and foe indiscriminately.

Imperial Services (IMP)
(-) Showed that, under their current Viceroy, their oath to defend space claimed in the name of the Empire is worthless.
(-) Showed that, under their current Viceroy, they will stand idle while an alien affiliation, their allies no less, attack Imperial Citizens in Imperial Space.

-o-

GGG - Issue 27 - 211.48.1

War: Dewiek Against Humans
by Cornelius Merryheart, exclusive for the GGG

This week the Dewiek Elder Nation (DEN) launched an attack against the House Ravenstone (RVN), sending a warfleet of at least one hundred warships into the Wastelands System and opening fire against the platform RVN Kalahari Watcher (10309), in orbit of the planet Kalahari, home to the starbase RVN Port Scheherazade (3173). The invaders were received by a combined fleet of warships flagged RVN, HLQ and CNF.

On the second day of battle, with permission from the RVN, we sent our GGG ship to observe the action. In a somewhat surprising development, we saw the arrival of a sizable fleet of GTT warships that immediately joined the combat, although at certain moments it was hard to tell on which side they were fighting. Space was filled with the debris of at least thirty ships but possibly as many as fifty. Based on our limited sensors, we would estimate that three to four hundred ships are now involved in the battle, most of them over 100 hulls, and the platform seems to be still standing and functional.

Meanwhile, the Imperial Services (IMP) have been totally silent on this matter and apparently ignoring that one of their stated objectives is "to defend the Emperor and space claimed in his name and for the Imperium". Grand Duke Blake Ravenstone urged the IMP to renounce their alliance with the DEN and said that "there is no honest justification" for them "to continue to support an alien affiliation that wages war against Imperial citizens inside Imperial space".

(Note from the Editor: We contacted the DEN with a few questions about the attack but received no reply.)

-o-

War: Felini Against Flagritz
by Tess Olsen, exclusive for the GGG

We talked with Tyrant Mrrshan, leader of the Felini Tyranny (FEL), to learn more about their ongoing war against the Flagritz Empire (FLZ).

GGG: Why are the FEL at war with the FLZ and how long has the conflict been going on?

Mrrshan: The why is simple - when the Flagritz encountered us they believed that we would be their next "client race". They were wrong. For how long, it is sometimes difficult to be certain. By the time in our home system the first incursions into our space were a little under two centuries ago. But the timelines are hard to reconcile with some temporal anomalies when compared with captured data from the Flagritz.

GGG: Could you please clarify what you mean by "client race"?

Mrrshan: "Client race" is their term (or at least how it translates into Galactic Standard). We would probably say "slave race", for the reality is about right for that term.

GGG: From your point of view, who is winning the war?

Mrrshan: I will say it is us, they will say it is them. I suppose it depends on your definition of "winning". We remain a free people and have dealt strong blows to their technology and home systems. They remain shut off hiding behind closed stargates or helpless to breach our defensive lines. Territorially things ebb and flow but our objectives continue to be met.

GGG: For the FEL, what would be acceptable conditions for this war to end?

Mrrshan: For some hotheads, nothing short of xenocide would fully satisfy them. Each species has their share of these. For me, two conditions are paramount: the freeing of those taken into slavery (and their descendants) and ensuring that our territories can remain inviolate from any future risk from the FLZ.

(Note from the Editor: We sent these same questions to the FLZ, as our initial intention was to publish the two points of view side by side, but we received no reply.)

-o-

War: DEN Against RIP
by Kaspar Khan, exclusive for the GGG

There are rumours that the Dewiek Elder Nation (DEN) have launched a large scale attack against the Raiders of the Imperial Periphery (RIP) inside their home system of Sargasso. Adoqhina, leader of the DEN, published a somewhat enigmatic statement saying that a hunt was about to begin and that "the hunters become the hunted", but not mentioning the RIP by name. Samedi, leader of the RIP, published a somewhat enigmatic ultimatum with the threat of "withdraw or bear witness to bloody vengeance you canid Mephistopheles", where "canid" seems to be a reference to the DEN. It's not unlikely that a DEN attack was indeed inflicted on the RIP, as the Dewiek now seem in the habit of bullying small affiliations that they believe not able to fight back.

(Note from the Editor: We contacted the RIP to try to understand this matter a little better but the only reply we got was "I cannot comment at the moment other than to say a situation has occurred with the DEN and we are in discussions with them".)

-o-

GGG - Issue 26 - 211.47.1

The Threat of Piracy
by Cornelius Merryheart, exclusive for the GGG

This week a distress call from a Mohache ship being attacked by pirates in the Sol System generated a quick response from the CNF, the GTT and the IMP. The GTT arrived first and destroyed the PIR Parietal Erg (30110), a Broadsword Class Heavy Cruise that had been reported stolen from the IMP a while ago. A rare victory in the fight against piracy.

While some are celebrating the demise of this pirate and others are making unsubstantiated allegations about who is actually behind the attack, piracy remains a big threat to all. Pirates are everywhere and attacking everyone. And the reason they thrive and prosper in this manner is that the people with the power to fight piracy do little more than staging the eventual hunt, something that may earn them a trophy and some patting on the back but doesn't really help to end piracy.

Too many people seem happy to deal with pirates and to forgive them when they are attacking someone else. One of the first things IMP Viceroy Githyanki did after being elected was to call off the war against the KRL leader Bone, who had recently been caught sponsoring pirates. And when the IND peddler Johnny Alpha was unmasked as a piracy fomenter, FET leader Zuvoro Norozov was quick to offer protection to his whole enterprise.

We urge all affiliations to exercise a tolerance zero policy towards piracy. The pirate you don't kill today is the pirate that will attack you tomorrow.

-o-

Duelling Dewiek
reprinted with permission from the SSS

Following their continued war of words, the Dewiek Elder Nation (DEN) has demanded reparations of two million stellars to be paid by the House Ravenstone (RVN) for what they call the murder of five Dewiek crew members who were killed when a DEN vessel was destroyed in what the RVN call restricted space, an area of space claimed by House Ravenstone for the Empire of Humanity, in which the DEN had no right to be.

Should this fine not be paid, the Dewiek have offered trial by combat:

"The Elder Council offers the House Ravenstone the right to a traditional Dewiek trial if the Charitable Judgement is refused or not accepted within the time given. The purity of this judiciary process should be understandable without further explanation but there are only two possible outcomes: Either the House Ravenstone loses all its claws and fangs so it may never harm another sentient again or falls on its honour and pleads for mercy whereby less charitable terms will be offered."

Long time readers may remember the last trial by combat undertaken by the Dewiek against a human, during which a Dewiek Elder was killed by the Baron LiQuan and his super mega turbo Meklan implants.

The House Ravenstone seems unwilling to accept either offer, while the DEN have, we believe, refused to pay the initial fine the RVN issued for trespassing, and as things stand currently, the two affiliations are at an impasse. Or as Bone Smash of the Krell put it: "Little guy blood is in the water, the sharks circle..."

-o-

Note from the Editor
by Cornelius Merryheart, exclusive for the GGG

Here at the Great Galactic Gazette we try to give voice to sentients who are part of the news. We constantly contact involved parties to hear their side of the story and we print their versions even when we don't agree with them. We are not, however, a channel for press releases. We will respect your statements and we won't change your words, but we will contextualize and editorialize our interviews to provide good and honest journalism. If all you want is to broadcast a press release and refuse to be questioned about it, you should probably look elsewhere for support.

When trying to get an interview, we often find sentients not interested in sharing anything. Some requests remain unanswered and others are returned with answers like "no comments" or "we're not at liberty to discuss this". The worst kind of uncooperative reply is the one that shows contempt for our work and tries to mock us. A couple of examples. When asked "why have the IMP declared themselves hostile to the CWS, an organization they help to create?", IMP Viceroy Githyanki answered: "I do not recognise any such affiliation". When asked specifically about the DEN ships that were fined by the RVN, Osho of the DEN answered: "What sshipss might that be?". Not surprisingly, the authors of this kind of poor attempts of misdirection are often the same ones who accuse us of not being independent or not giving them a fair treatment.

The GGG will continue to publish the stories we consider important and interesting. We will be able to do a better job with your cooperation. You can help us to make good journalism or you can sit in a corner and complain about it. The choice is yours.

-o-