Revenge of the Skith

[Aelitia]

[hr]Most would expect rebellion to arise on the fringes of existence, like civilizations of old. This time it begins on a planet near the heart of an Empire spanning the stars themselves, at first a minor operation of shady entrepreneurs, but with time it grows far beyond that.

Fueled by a vast black market, the Imperial trading hub of Skith is rumored to contain the object of anyone’s fantasies; but only if you know where to look, and who to talk to.
Curious onlookers beware, for those seeking these treasures just might find themselves at the mercy of the Empire. [hr]

Being the only permanent settlement on the Skithian Planet, the Principality of Skith is a constant buzz of activity. The planet lacks much of an average habitable atmosphere, but that deficiency is why it is such a popular space-port; easy take-off. A massive Imperial security apparatus is present on the planet due to it being a mandatory security checkpoint before entering the Imperial Capital Area through this sector. Because of this, never ending shipments pour in from the outer reaches of the Empire, some carrying vast quantities of illicit goods, immigrants, or persons of interest.

Imperial Control Officers patrol the massive landing zones in their matte green armored uniform, weapons or detection equipment perpetually at the ready. An older vessel approaches the landing pad, and Supervisor Quinne eyed the documentation and decided the shipment would be clear of any unwanted items. As he was waving the captain off, his visor uplink notified him that the vessel was “randomly selected” for screening, and he was thankful for his life he did not simply wave them off immediately. A contingent of inspectors circled the vessel and shepherded the Captain off to be temporarily detained.

“It is inbound from the Xoretian system, but hails from Skith. Captain has Skith Native claims, and was not suspect of criminal dealings in the past 14 years.” Quinne recounted over the comm system as his team began the inspection. He worried about the queue of vessels waiting for this very same landing zone in orbit. One after another detectors go off, indicating the presence of undeclared biomass, metals, and traces of explosives. Quinne broke out in a cold sweat of rage towards himself; he nearly allowed potential illegals, drugs, or explosives into the port! He, the near famed supervisor which caught multiple high-profile immigrants!

The explosive trace detector began issuing increasingly worrisome alerts to the Supervisor, including the order to evacuate the area to wait for bomb squads, then an urgent alert indicating the presence of a nuclear device. Quinne’s shock was not yet completely registered when the device triggered.

[hr]

Within hours, the Skithian system was under Imperial blockade. The Skith space-port was only partially destroyed by the blast itself, though the EMP generated was strong enough to fry most electronics in the Skith city and some orbiting vessels.

Very shortly after the Skithian blockade and the sealing of the Imperial Capital Area, an Imperial Order was issued to all allied forces.

— Begin quote from ____

TARGET://ARMEDFORCES.ALL://ALLIEDFORCES.ALL
ORDER://INCREASEto.DEFCON.MAGNITUDE-1.
REASON://CONFIDENTIAL.ACCESSLEVEL-min9.

…DETECTED:ACCESSLEVEL9.
…Request://ELABORATE.REASON
OPEN-ELAB…

Nuclear attack on Skithian port…
Illicit market suspected…
Possible anti-establishment activity…
://END.ELAB…

This has been a message from the Imperial Concillium for Security…-blank-

— End quote

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[Aelitia]

Imperial Security Convoy, Aelitian Interstellar Area

A spectacled man stood before a large crowd of seated Imperial Officers, mainly Aelitian volunteer reservists, and addressed them regarding the recent events in the Skithian system. With the visual aids projected behind him, the man concisely explained the high-security measures of a Defcon-1 situation. Mandatory manned inspection of all vessels incoming and outgoing, excluding only the Imperial Military; seizure of all non-white listed goods; and complete unrest suppression with force.

After the presentation, the Aelitian Reserve Officers lined up to receive their assignments and their required gear. Some received detectors for inspection postings, others riot shields for populace suppression.

[hr]
Interstellar Space, Routed to Skithian System

Zooming through the vacuum of space, the crew of the “Pacifican II” milled about at a casual pace. Their ship was on autopilot until they arrived in the Skithian system. Their manifest claimed they were diplomats from a small moon colony on the outer edge of the Empire, but their true purpose was only moderately more illegal. A routine drop-off of their goods, which this time was a number of Mirandan-forged Galactic Residence papers, small amounts of the exotic herbal medicine ‘prithikaas’, as well as volumes of East Malaysian grey-market goods.

“SHIT!” Exclaimed Jonah, the ship’s communications expert. “Reb strike at Skith. Nuclear. SHIT!” He muttered while the rest of the crew got caught up. “Empire Blockade. Defcon 1. Sorry guys and gals, looks like we’re not going to Skith.”

“The Empire has our arrival time, we are ‘diplomats’ remember?!” Replied Robin, one of the engineers on board.

“Then we claim we made another diplomatic visit. A non-Empire colony, make it quiet, and unload there. They will be unlikely to have mandatory searches.” The Captain walked on to the deck, always the cooler head in these situations. Unfortunately they have become more frequent in the past few years. “Robin, search the log for new colonies too small for Empire accession. Overlay on the directions, and then we will have Jonah forward the route change report to the Galactic Station at Yrogra.”

“No matches, Captain.” Robin reported, and the map overlay blinked as normal without any potential targets.

‘Damn it’, thought the Captain, his mind racing. “Change target to East Malaysian dominant ports, ones that would have volunteer reservists. The diplomat report will have to be that we seek a trade deal with the East Malaysian network. That will flag our cover-story colony for a while because of the Malay connections to the grey market; but it is better than being caught and executed.” The Captain indicated their port-of-best-chance and took a leave to his quarters. Jonah could have sworn he seen the Captain’s hands trembling before he excused himself, and wondered if it was the stress getting to him, or something else… something more ‘exotic’.

The crew hurried through making preparations for docking at a Malaysian port, and each of them silently hoped it was reservists and not Empire Officers.

[Emjay]

East Malaysia Prime
Imperial Palace Complex, Metro Eastrovia

“Did you see these reports?!” Prince Justin Jung almost yelled at the Director of Diplomacy, Kelly Magnus as she was waiting for her meeting with Empress Glendale Jung and Lord Brendon Briggs. He held the message on his PADD to her and she sighed.

“Prince, you need to stop reading those reports. That is why I am here to speak with your mother and step-father. You know we are more advanced than most and don’t like the use of nuclear weapons since they damage a planets atmosphere. We will do our best-”

He promptly cut her off. “No you know what I am talking about. They’re going after the market and we can’t allow that! Those Galactic pi-”

“Justin!” she said in a sharp tone and covered his mouth and made sure no one heard him. “You can’t speak like that in public!” she said in a quite tone, “the common person would not understand what East Malaysia does to secure our dominance by playing both sides of the bigger picture. We are loyal to the Galactic Empire but we don’t agree with the restrictions they place on select goods. This has been going on thousands of years and it will continue long after that. We are good at this and you are still young to understand that we are an ancient race and the Galactic Empire wouldn’t do anything directly against us, we are our own military force and your father died to get us that autonomy so many years ago. Don’t forget that.” She smiled at the younger man and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

“I guess I see your point,” he said with a loud sigh. “Sometimes I don’t want to remember. We live too long.”

She laughed but before she could remind him of the advantages, she heard the door behind them open. “Come on kid, you can join is in the meeting, so we can clear up this idea you have about the whole situation. I only hope our influence is enough because I would rather us not pick a side.”

[Aelitia]

Skithian Underground

The usually bustling underground markets stood eerily silent, only the shadiest merchants remained lurking in the many shadows; their business unchanged by the surface attack. Word of the attack leaked from the innermost circles of the underground elite in the final hours leading up to the blast, and that helped save many of the valuable electronic devices stored in the network of tunnels. The richer merchants could afford to be store their wares in the deepest of recesses, deep enough to shield them from the EMP created by the nuclear blast.

A figure dressed in the matted greens and gold of an Imperial Tax Officer strode confidently down the tunnels, the various alien merchants shrinking away from his presence. This delighted him, and he noted he should make a show of their obviously faked residence papers. He of course, was the whole reason the tunnels could even exist. The market, the merchants, even the rebels owed their fortune to him. A couple thousand Imperial Credits thrown his way, and he could overlook their faked papers or their illegal goods. His corruption was well known in the community, but he had some powerful people protecting him.

The heels of his boots muffled in the irregular echos of the tunnels as he marched onwards to the deeper chambers, where the rebels met. The Empire was not happy with this move, and he was uncertain how Skith could continue as a main Imperial Port. The market would crumble and he would certainly lose the favor of his powerful friends- thereby his life. He knocked on a hidden door and he knew the bodyguard on the other side was verifying his biometrics. The hatch slid open and allowed him entry.

“How long until shipments resume?!” The Officer’s accent betrayed his ethnic background as 100% Aelitian, but he was proud of the long journey from that system. The group of men, women and unidentifiable races stood about the room unable to do much of anything because of the EMP taking our their communications infrastructure. No distinct answer came to his ears. “That is exactly what I thought. You heavy-handed ‘freedom fighters’ have halted the whole damned market!” He slammed the nearest table with his fist. He took a moment to regain his composure. “Thankfully, I know just how to help you out. For the measly sum of 20 million credits, I will bring a communication relay to one of the orbiting Empire ships. One they cannot patch into their own; old tech, but good. Priority to the highest bidder.” With that he turned on his heel and walked out of the room.

Soon he will be 20 million richer, and that much closer to rebuilding a spaceport, and that much closer to outright owning the whole Skithian enterprise.

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