Official Statement: Terran Interstellar Authority: 08/14/2175
In response to allegations of misconduct in the conflict in the Yveran system that resulted in an attack on civilian shipping and infrastructure on the planet's surface, the TIA would like to specify that it had no prior knowledge of a Zaha-Katchem operation to do so. However, it is the policy of the Terran Hegemony to regard any individuals in cooperation with enemies of the Hegemony, whether combatants or otherwise, as enemies of the Hegemony. While the TIA does not condone the actions of the Zaha-Katchem, we will continue with the war effort as if unaltered. Those who would resist this change are advised to examine their stance objectively within this framework and reframe their objections accordingly.
Open Letter to the TIA: Published 08/15/2175: Nobuyuki Ito: Translated by Nara Ito
To those in command of the Terran Hegemony;
I have served in the Terran Star Fleet since I came of age to do so fifty years ago. I have given my time, my talent, my life itself to the fleet; it has been a devotion beyond ambition, beyond duty, beyond fate for longer than I can remember fully. I joined the star fleet because I felt I had a calling, an ancestral destiny, to defend Earth from a foreign malice that had yet to be found, if indeed it had not yet been found in the Grushan themselves. In my lifetime, I have seen it rise from a ragtag of ships with hastily fitted missile turrets to a multilateral strike force to be reckoned with. I gave it all my time; I have never married, except to the fleet; fathered no children, except for those who I have mentored and molded into the best captains in the fleet. I have no legacy other than what I leave behind in the fleet.
But I never thought I would see the day when the fleet itself was turned to so brutal a purpose. The Hegemony have made my legacy, my family, a house of death and torment. We did not pull the trigger that destroyed innocent men and women upon Yvar. The black ship has done that, and for that, the Zaha-Katchem are most rightly to be judged. But we welcomed them into our homes knowing full well what they were and what they could do. Christopher Bouchet, a child of my own teaching in this fleet, was lost, with the crew of the Swordfish. The Shaolin, the Hangzhou, the Orangutan, the Washington, the Invincible, all lost at Alpha Ceti to the black ship. In Sol itself, the Afghanistan, Samurai, Navajo, Sarajevo, Ha Long, Chandragupta, and Sun Tzu, the George Patton, Arthur Pendragon, Shokaku, and Hiroshima all lost. The friends that we welcomed into our home with open arms have killed more humans than the Grushan ever have, and if they are allowed to continue to rampage across the Federation, more humans than the Grushan ever will.
I have seen the animosity of the Zaha-Katchem in battle. They do not show mercy except to send a message; we have been shown that they do not spare women and children. They kill all that they come across. What sort of friends are these? Would we welcome a friend who strangled other people for a laugh if we are virtuous ourselves? Rather, a murderer can only be befriended by another murderer, a thief by a thief, a tyrant by a tyrant. If we befriend those who murder, who care nothing for life itself, how can we be different from them?
I have for many years been loyal to the Terran Interstellar Authority. I thought that the TIA was meant to protect and serve humanity and keep her safe from alien malice and destruction. The destruction of Yvar shows us that we are the alien menace. I swore a long time ago to stand against that menace, the malice from beyond the world's edge, and I will stand by that oath. As of today, my flagship, the TSS Alexander Nevsky, will no longer follow the TIA. If we must stand alone then so be it. I implore you, people of earth, to stand with me. We are the menace, and the Zaha-Katchem are a weapon in our hands. I will not use this weapon. All I ask is that you do the same.
Signed Nobuyuki Ito, Admiral of the Terran Star Fleet 6th Task Force
08/15/2175 0955 EST: Transmission Sent Terran Interstellar Authority: PO Sol: 08/15/2175 0956 EST: Transmission Received TSS Alexander Nevsky BCM-1102
Begin Transmission
Admiral Nobuyuki Ito. You have committed an act of insubordination and tarnished the good name of the Terran Interstellar Authority with vicious slander. As such, you have been stripped of your command, your rank, your privilege, and your standing with the Terran Interstellar Authority. If you do not hand over your keys and command codes to your former flagship the TSS Alexander Nevsky, you will be considered hostile and treated accordingly. If necessary, the order will be given to destroy your ship and its crew in order to maintain order within the Terran Star Fleet. These orders will not be repeated. You must comply within twelve standard hours or you will be treated as hostile.
End Transmission
Letter: From Chinwe Opeyemi, 440 E Ormarith Rd, Jimeso, Ghana: To Eglantine Kayode, 1001 Sherman St, Imladris, Nova: Translated by Ibrahim Wassume
My dearest,
Life has lately taken a most strange turn. I wrote before of the Chinese stranger who followed us from the Ambience laboratory that we attacked. We have since tried to speak to him, but he seems to understand no languages. We tried even to feed him, and he seemed at first unfamiliar with the concept of food, and chewing his meal. We have had to spoon feed him from our rather limited supply of food in storage. His eyes watch us with fervent consideration, as if each one of us were the most fascinating thing upon the planet. He laughs and smiles often so that we are afraid that he will be heard beyond our hidden home. Do you remember Andrei, who resided down the street from us, who was afflicted from birth by neural disease? This man reminds me of him, and of young children who know nothing. But he has been taught to know fear; often, when one of us makes a sudden move, or raises our voice to him, he staggers back in fear, as if afraid of some sudden blow.
And even other strange things have begun to occur. We sent a report of this man to the Ghana freedom patrol; less than a day later, we have been accompanied by a member of the dissident movement centered in Congo. It is a woman who calls herself Alexandra Troy, whose calling card is the queen of clubs. She has put us on a forced march away from our hideaway, and none too soon, for shortly after her arrival, we began to see Hegemony fighters overhead, sweeping the area. They are hunting for us. We have also begun to catch sight of ground troops in Ambience armor. Ms. Troy tells us that they are searching for us, and that they will kill us if they find us. She won't tell us why, for she claims that we may become at risk if we know too much about what we have uncovered.
We have begun to travel by night and sleep in sheds. Many have been abandoned in recent days. I have not heard the news of the war in recent days, but Ms. Troy tells us that the Hegemony has declared martial law in Africa since the arrest of Gennady Semyonov, who was discovered to be in league with the Zaha-Katchem. Many have fled since then and gone to other places, some to South America, some to India, and the rest have stayed despite the risk of invasion or bombing campaigns.
It is times like this when I think most about you, Eglantine, my only love. I stare up at the stars above and I think about you, for I know that you are in orbit of one of those stars. I know not which one; I once pinpointed Proxima and looked to it, and prayed for it. But you aren't in Proxima Centauri anymore. I don't know which star is your home anymore. I look up to the heavens and I wonder which star is yours; but I can't know. So I pray for them all, hoping that you are alive and well, and circling one of those stars.
I love you, Eglantine, my dearest. I hope you think of me too.
Love,
Chinwe.
[Letter not sent, dated 08/15/2175]
Official Transcript: HNN News Update: 08/15/2175
LERMAN: In other news tonight, the President has authorized the launch of a full scale invasion of the African Union. The military has launched an aerial supremacy campaign targeting African air forces and military infrastructure. At the same time, Terran troops operating out of China and Northern Europe have launched invasions along the coasts of Somalia, Ghana, Senegal, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, and Angola. They are being met with heavy resistance from homegrown terrorist organizations under dissident leadership. We will be covering the fighting in regular news segments, as well as continued fighting in major sub-aquatic settlements on the reclaimed Nova colony. For HNN News, I'm Carrie Lerman.
Personal Journal: William Aucaman
08/16/2175
Since the riot Hegemony started dropping bombs a couple of days ago, there have only been a couple hours of peace that I can remember. I can't make out what sort of artillery it is; a lot of it sounds like cannon or naval artillery shells, but the rest seems like missiles. There aren't any nuclear warheads, thank heaven, but there are a lot of cruise missiles from launch pads somewhere up north. I think the Chinese must have been hoarding non-nuclear ICBM's for the past hundred years or so; a lot of the really big ones are just falling straight from the sky and landing wherever they choose. For a couple of days there were consistent drone strikes, but eventually the air force took care of those. The air battle has been going on pretty constantly too. The past couple of days have been a bit close; a lot of pilots are being killed, I think. The Hegemony doesn't use pilots, of course; I see a lot of UA-82 drones up in the sky. Our pilots clearly have the upper hand when it comes to dogfighting; their planes are more maneuverable by a lot, but ours are very clever and better trained than the AI. Unfortunately, the air attacks coming in are so constant that I'm afraid a lot of the pilots are just going to be exhausted to death until the Hegemony has air supremacy. I suspect that that's the plan for the Hegemony. I can't say I think much of it. It seems cold and robotic like everything else they do.
The bombs have me a bit on edge. I have to admit that I've been a bit shaken ever since they learned that Semyonov had been controlled by one of those black creatures. A few days ago, when we were still in Montana, I thought we should go to Russia to meet up with his dissident faction. Of all of them, Semyonov was the only one to really fight for change; the rest had always been willing to talk about making change in the Hegemony, but never to take action and force the government to take notice. If we'd gone to Russia, would we still be alive now? If we were, it would almost certainly be as slaves to the black creature.
I wish the artillery would stop. It's playing with my nerves.