|Viraliv|[20-14]Sliue-Ececs|Ora’s Eye|Tepi|Tepi-3|

11,163,955,738cy

Terraformer Station ‘Favala’, Low Tepi-3 Orbit

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#Fifteen Years Later

The change in the Coalition's grand strategy for the war has had considerable effects on how the people view the war. The Tarmon people are relatively unconcerned, their worlds being far from the front lines; they live the same lives they did before the war. Their only concerns now are the abundance of pirates. With most of the Tarmon warships away from home and with the war creating many deserters, pirates seem to be propping up everywhere. The Tarmon people don’t view the Coalition as a real threat and some see the war as a way to prove their glory on an easy foe. The Tarmon military takes things a bit more seriously but only because if they don’t then they could lose a few of the battles, which would be more of a disgrace than anything else and would hinder their advancements in rank. Even the battles which the Coalition won were usually just Hit and Runs and resulted in minor casualties on the Tarmon’s roster.

The Coalition isn’t ready to throw in the towel yet though. The leadership from the various nations in the Coalition understand something that their citizens don’t, some reason to conduct the war through guerilla war like they are now; some reason to buy time. Regardless, the people don’t have to know what their leader’s plans are to fight as hard as possible. Too many worlds having been taken from them by the sharp claws of the Tarmon swine. With righteous anger and justified vengeance, along with a dash of nationalistic zeal and personality cults, the Coalition's forces are ready to fight to the death. Some crews even going so far as to conduct suicidal charges into the Tarmon forces only to reveal that their ships are loaded to the brim with high-yeild explosive payloads at the last minute.

That is the Coalition's advantage, due to their size and ethics, they have the people’s full support behind them. A zeal that under the charge of their imperial masters and autocracies have been aimed sharply into the Tarmon fleets. However, even after all of the sacrifices, demands, and blood spilt, the Tarmon forces stand strong. Like a barbarian horde or an immortal legion. The people can only hope that whatever their leader's trump card is, that they can hold the line long enough to employ it; it is their only hope now.

#

The colony on Tepi-3 is doing well. Now that the infighting had died off almost completely, and now that Simiffin has cemented his competency, Grashkillok is now in its own little golden age. Though not much progress has been made regarding terraforming, the first stage of creating an atmosphere is always the most time consuming yet easiest. The people are not stifled in the least, the newest generations reaching adulthood are more concerned with living their lives and navigating society over the development of the planet. Though a few seem more concerned with it, many of the youth have signed into universities and some of those have majored in terraforming-adjacent fields, writing papers and experimenting all in the attempt of making this world their own. Some of their ideas were valuable enough to warrant the eyes of the government and the Captaincy, along with their various aides. Most of them were deemed potentially useful, but not in the current stage of terraforming and it’s likely that the creators of those ideas might be dead before seeing their proposals in action. Though knowing that doesn't seem to dampen their curious and explorative nature.

It would also be known, and controversial at the time, that the insurrectionists who spilled blood on the TFS Favala were given a chance at redemption. Either going to prison, for life in most cases, or join an exploration crew and live most of the life in near exile. Though they’d still have vacation times and shore-leave to live life normally. Most people took the offer, others asked for other duties and those ended up in various construction crews that took on the most dangerous of jobs, and those that refused either option landed themselves back in prison. There was a reasonable fear at the time that those insurrectionists would simply abandon their job and jimmy their way back into society, sowing mischief wherever they went. No such things happened, a few certainly tried but the government was well prepared for such a case. Though there was one that the government felt they needed to be extra prepared for, an extra large specimen of Thelsk who had joined a construction crew; they seemed to be unlikely to revolt going by body language and to this day have created no problems in managing them.

Another thing that occurred during this time was the resource convoy going missing, it never arrived at the Favala or even to the system at all. There’s nothing anyone can do about it and it didn’t carry sensitive resources but in the wrong hands they might be able to figure out the general direction of the convoy's destination. Although there are strict protocols to follow that should cover the colony from anyone that gets their hands on the convoy's logs. Hopefully the next convoy gets here safely, the colonies government has been thinking about using that blank check and it’d be worse than terrible if it was lost to the cosmos. The government planned to spend it on an extra large radial shield to make a small part of the planet's surface habitable. Along with the shield would come a power source sufficient to power it which can be reused once the shield is no longer required. This was a plan originally produced by Captain Simiffin and his advisory council. The colony wasn’t able to support the infrastructure necessary back then but by the time the next convoy gets here, goes back to TFS space to pick up the order, and bring it back to the colony, it’s projected that they should have all of the necessary systems in place to handle it.

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The government couldn’t give up such a chance to increase their ratings and publicly announced it. While it’s not something that would happen very soon, it’s something for the people to look forward to while they toil away at their day jobs. The chance to live on the surface, something that many have only seen in video or pictures, is an exciting prospect. Those cynicals of society believe that living on the surface is unlikely to happen, it would likely be used for terraforming or something that only the rich and influential will have access to.

The government meanwhile, ran elections years ago. The first election to have parties involved in it which excited the population like a much needed breath of fresh air after everyone saw the corruption of the previous members. Perhaps due to that corruption many in the colony view the government with some distrust, something healthy to a democracy. On the other hand, something unhealthy is that some would prefer the provenly-capable hand of Captain Simiffin in power; something that he and the government are apt to silently stamp out. That government, by popular demand, is headed by the SCL, otherwise known as the Secreterial Cletotic League. Championing a hard approach against corruption, serving the people, and being welcome to many beliefs. Essentially everything that the colonial people wanted right after the infighting that they went through, the SCL was in the right place at the right time. It’s been fifteen years now and in that time they’ve proven themselves to be living up its values quite well. Everyone makes mistakes however and it could all be a mask smartly thought up to make use of the situation and gain power.

The other parties with weaker, but comparable influence over the government’s affairs, are the Medentis New Front(MNF) and the Foundation For Peace(FFP). The MNF has a generous doctrine towards the people, heralding equality, justice, and meritocracy to ensure that the colony is run correctly yet, fairly towards the people as well. Many people are confused by the word “new” being in the party name but people assume that it’s their way of putting everything that happened behind them. The FFP however is a more idealistic kind of party. Focused on serving the people ultimately beyond all else; many critics complain about the party's tendency towards mob rule. However, people generally ignore that as the FFP often throws charity events targeted at poorer sections of the colony which is something that the other parties rarely do since it doesn’t gain them that much influence. It worked out in the FFP favor however and the other parties that attempted to use the same route to popularity were simply dismissed as being artificially kind, giving the FFP a very strong and stable monopoly over the very numerous lower classes.

There are other parties in the government of course, a little over a hundred actually, but the disparity in popularity between the three most popular and them is disheartening. Perhaps with time they will have their chances or perhaps they will form pacts and leverage the strength from that to topple the big three. Many people still vote for these parties however, some because of what they believe in but others do so just so the big three don’t become the only political parties. Simiffin is one of the latter, not that his status did anything to influence the voting patterns of others since voting is done in private and Simiffin didn’t want to announce his support for any party in particular which would've been seen as an attempt to influence the elections by many. And if that party did anything negative, it would reflect on Simiffin as well.

Simiffin himself is doing quite well, having completely become accustomed to his position. Accompanying him are a few new-found grays in his hair-tendrils and a weaker bioluminescence; obvious signs of age. Despite that, he continues on strongly and in his own mind has lived up to many of the expectations that Idris laid out for him. His only issue now, personally in nature, is his unrequited passion towards Shanak’Ti. Something that he gave up chasing a few years ago as have many others who also attempted to court her. Simiffin still dreams of finding a partner but he’s mostly stuck on the station and finding a partner amongst its military crew would be extremely inappropriate and against his character. Of course, paperwork and the callings of the government are always making him grow greyer by the minute but love is an issue he finds himself out of his depth with. He often stops thinking about it, putting it in the back of his mind while promising to focus on it later, which he never does except for when he’s falling asleep at night.

There aren’t many like him however. Perhaps it was due to the bloody conflict or a kind of spring has come after all of the favorable events that happened in the colony these past fifteen years but, more children and families can be seen around the colony than ever before. This new boon surrounded by happy and hopeful faces would have sold well back in the TFS coreworlds as a postcard. Or perhaps as part of propaganda aiming at creating a new wave of colonists. Either case, the colony has left behind a stormy and deathly night for a brighter one, entering its own golden age however small that might be. More and more people are thinking about the future and how to make it better now that the present is content and the past is the past.