Speech Delivered by Yong An-Hong: NSN Enterprise AH01-001: 09/16/2175
People of Earth. For the first time in nearly a century, I am speaking to you not on Interlink devices but on simple broadcasting devices. Ambience Corporation servers have as of two hours ago been shut down across the Terran Hegemony. Interlink devices have also been deactivated remotely by former operators of the Interlink system. You have no doubt heard the news that I am about to tell you, however; that the Zaha-Katchem have been defeated in battle by a combined Novan-Grushan fleet; that the Terran Star Fleet has been crippled by Grushan Interstellar Ballistic Missiles; that Terran armies on Nova operating out of the capital Centauri Prime have been halted in their advance to the city of Imladris; and lastly, that the remains of President Yan An-Sing have been discovered in his administrative office shortly after the Interlink itself was deactivated. The death of the President makes me the official President of the Terran Hegemony and Commander in Chief of the Terran Armed Forces.
In this capacity I have seen that the war with Nova and the Grushan Federation has become impossible for the Terran Hegemony to win. Our forces are crippled and stranded in the Proxima system; the Grushan have no limit to their jump gate capacity. Our armies are tied down; the Grushan have vast numbers that they have not brought to bear. We are like a lion that tries to stand against the wind, for though we are mighty, we can no more defeat the wind itself than we can hold it in its place. Therefore, in my first act as head of the Terran Hegemony, I have offered terms of surrender to the Novan-Grushan fleet. I have called for an immediate cease fire in all fields of battle. This includes the fleet in orbit of Nova, the armies on Nova, and the armies attacking Africa. Terms of our surrender will be negotiated aboard the NSN Enterprise and accepted by the Novan and Grushan governments by way of their representatives, Admiral Rafael Hadrian, Admiral Doromarith, and Ambassador Aglamarith. It will be signed and finalized by Praetor Almarith of the Grushan Federation.
It may be that you think that this is a time for despair, for the Hegemony has met utter and complete defeat in battle. Our proud armies and fleets have had their guns silenced in less than a month. But we as a people still live. We live on, and we will always live on, whether Earth unites under the Hegemony or the nation states of the twenty first centuries or any flag or creed that waves above us. We surrender today to prevent a pointless loss of life tomorrow, life taken in revenge for the atrocities committed in Yveran, on Nova, and in the meaninglessness of an offensive war of pride and hatred.
For now, people of Earth, breathe deeply of the air on your home planet, or of the air wherever you call home. Breath of that air and count yourselves as the most blessed creatures in the world, for the sky above you is sky and not fire, as it was on Yvar for an instant before it ceased to be. Drink water from the land, for it has not been poisoned as the Nile has been and may never be clean again. And look out into the world with your own eyes for the first time in a hundred years. I saw something different when I looked at the world with my own eyes. It was a clear vision, uncluttered by the demands of a thousand distractions that poked at me needlessly for days on end. It was a beautiful vision, not in a way that distracted or demanded, but in a quiet, simple, subtle beauty that needed no explanation or justification. It simply was, and I marveled that I had seen it. And as you do all of these things, be glad that the Zaha-Katchem did not come to Grushar or to Nova, and that we are grieving the loss of Yvar and not Alpha Ceti as we so easily could be. Surrender, this is, yes, and defeat also. But it is a defeat that is given for the gain of life, life which is beautiful and joyful. So let us lay down our arms and live in peace. Thank you.
Treaty of Yvar (main body): Signed 09/30/2175: NSN Enterprise AH01-001: Low Earth Orbit, Geosynchronous Beijing
To all parties, let it be known that this document signifies a final cessation of hostilities between the Terran Hegemony and combined Grushan Federation and Novan Alliance that began with the Terran invasion on Nova and the declaration of war proclaimed by the Terran government.
The Terran Hegemony shall be made answerable to the following:
It has launched a war of aggression upon the Novan Alliance and the Grushan Federation without cause or provocation;
It has committed and condoned the slaughter of civilians and other non-combatants without regard to war policies agreed upon in the Novan Accords of 2097 in the bombardment of Nova and the invasion of Africa;
It has aided in the perpetration of the mass destruction of the Grushan Yvar colony and its inhabitants;
It has utilized biological and chemical weapons in its own efforts to subdue domestic unrest;
It has enforced neurological suppressants in the form of the technology marketed and sold as the Interlink;
It has used this technology to lower independent thought and disseminate propaganda and addictive substances and behaviors;
It has entered open alliance with a hostile power with a known history of genocidal and occult tendencies;
It has aided this same power in the destruction of Grushan fleets and economic facilities;
It has violated a Grushan quarantine without the express permission of the Federal Grushan Star Fleet;
It has enacted programs of forced installations of Interlink devices in occupied territories;
Therefore, as the Grushan Federation holds the most powerful legal system available, and as the claims of the Grushan Federation outweigh those of the Novan Alliance in magnitude, the Terran Hegemony will be made answerable to Federation law, with the supervision of the Novan Alliance. The Terran Hegemony will be required to pay certain war reparations to both parties to be outlined in this document.
The Terran Hegemony being answerable for the crimes above detailed, it will accede to the following demands:
The Terran Hegemony will henceforth swear fealty to the Novan Alliance. All major policy regarding the Terran Hegemony will be based in Nova and be made up of a legislative body selected by Terran citizens and approved by Novan officials. It will also include a committee of Novan and Grushan legislators to act as administrative equals to Terran officials. The constitution of this body will be drawn up jointly by the Terran Hegemony and the Novan Alliance. This arrangement will last for a duration of thirty years, at which time, the Terran Hegemony will be allowed to renegotiate so as to govern itself more completely as a full member of the Grushan Federation with full representation in the Grushan Senate.
The Novan Alliance will enter into the Grushan Federation as full members of the Federation, with full representation in the Grushan Senate. The Federation will give full support to the Novan Alliance in its governance of the Terran Hegemony.
As compensation for the loss of the Yvar colony, the Terran Hegemony will cede the Alpha Ceti colony to the Grushan Federation and will henceforth have no influence in its governance until such a time as the Terran Hegemony is made a full member of the Grushan Federation.
The Terran Hegemony will hand over the following persons to be tried as criminals under the Grushan Treaty of Mathin Rhamara; Shen Wai-Fun, CEO of Ambience Corporation; Admiral Hans Gottred; Admiral Miranda Winters; General Chen So-Yung; Fyodor Kasperov; Angela Jimenez; Cho Heng-Yang; Michael Kuo; Senator Ong Wan-Shuo; all technical personnel involved in the design of the Interlink device; officials who condoned the massacres in Latin America and North Africa in response to Interlink regulations; General Xiao; Michael DeVoris and Arthur Buher.
The Terran Hegemony will dismantle its robotic armed forces in accordance with Grushan laws of military conduct.
The organization known as Ambience Corporation will be demolished and its distributing centers abandoned.
Social credit systems will be abolished.
Legal and economic subsidies for the Interlink systems will be abolished.
Interlink removal operations will be made available to all Terran citizens.
The terms of this agreement shall be made mandatory to all parties upon the act of its signing by representatives of the Terran Hegemony, the Novan Alliance, and the Grushan Federation. A peace will be guaranteed for a period of fifty years after the signing of this agreement.
The signers of this document are as follows:
Yong An-Hong, President of the Terran Hegemony
Admiral Rafael Hadrian, representing the Novan Alliance
Ambassador Aglamarith, representing the Grushan Federation
Signed the Terran calendar on the 30th of September, 2175
Personal Journal: William Aucaman
10/01/2175
I finally managed to get that journal I was hoping for. I've been busy for the past two or three weeks with helping the army and the Congolese rebuild after that bombardment. Half of the city has been reduced to rubble since the war began. I've seen pictures of the immediate aftermath of the London blitz, the Patriot Day attacks, and the Seoul bombardment at the open of the Second Korean War. Nothing prepared me to see it in person. Most of the buildings in the downtown had steel and concrete frames; that's pretty standard as far as it goes. But the shelling and missiles have left nothing but the frames standing. The outskirts of town, where most of the people lived, are in a much worse position. Many of them were mud or earthen houses, which are perfect for Kinshasa's climate, but they were obliterated by the bombs. Even the old American style lot houses were ruined. Gardens used to grow on and around the city blocks, but they have been pretty much annihilated. A lot of the people I've talked to are hopeful, though; a lot of their food comes from outer provinces and trans African trade, so as long as those areas are a little less heavily hit, their food situation won't be altogether hopeless. They're just glad that the Hegemony didn't drop chemical agents or something else that might have made the soil unusable.
Over the weekend I got word from Mom and Dad back in Montana. I even spoke to them over the phone for a little while. They're both fine; they were detained after we left for Africa in the black ship, but the EPD didn't really know what to do with them, so they sort of waited around in custody for a few months until the Novans came and shut down the Interlink and Earth surrendered. Adrian got in touch with me shortly after that, so he's alive too. Apparently, the Grushan who ran the place got word that the black ship had been warned a little after we found out that Semyonov had been compromised. They loaded the black ship onto a shuttle and jumped out about an hour before the Zaha-Katchem showed up. Then they worked at a secret Grushan facility somewhere trying to find a way to beat the thing in combat; Adrian can't really tell me what they came up with eventually, but he says that it's going to pave the way for a lot of really big technical innovations. Who knows, in the next twenty years or so, we might be able to make our own black ships.
I'm not sure how I feel about that, personally. I remember learning about the Nuclear Age in history; I'm not entirely sure I like the idea of everyone having atmosphere burning weapons as well as indestructible spaceships. By "we" of course, I refer to the Grushan Federation, which as of yesterday owns Earth and Earth's government. I know that's not the precise arrangement, but I haven't read the actual treaty. I've heard it's short once you get past the terms and definitions, but I haven't got too much time of my own.
I asked Cynthia yesterday how she felt about the matter. She admits that she doesn't know that much about the nuclear age or the technology that Adrian was talking about, but she says she can see where my concern comes from. But she has a different concern. She says that she worries that people will look back on the past few months and think that it was all a good thing because something more advanced came out of it. She says the same thing about the Federation treaty that they signed; if life under the Grushan is better than life under the Hegemony, everyone will look back and say it was good for all the suffering and death to happen. People have short memories, she says. She doesn't want them to forget the hardship and death that happened over the past couple of months.
Cynthia's different from how she used to be in Montana. I never thought she was unintelligent, or anything, but she was never this passionate about things. It was kind of a slow change, I think, but it wasn't until today that I really noticed it. I'll admit to myself it's rather attractive, which is a strange thing to think; the last thing I expected was for the first to be someone who was really pretty snobby at first. I don't know; it's probably nothing, just silly wishful thinking. But who knows, I guess.
Olivia started improving after the black ship was destroyed. She's mostly back to her old self, by now, from what Cynthia tells me. I wouldn't be surprised if the Zaha-Katchem still had a psychic connection to her of some sort, if they really had telepathic abilities like the Grushan ambassador was suggesting.
Ambassador Dumarith has been talking to both of us a lot the past couple of days. After the day we told our story to the dissident leaders, he asked to see my journal, though he was involved in the military action when the invasion began, and he wasn't able to read it. I lent him my account after I filled up the journal, and he had it translated into the Grushan language and read it with some interest. He was particularly interested in the way that the Zaha-Katchem we killed changed shape when it was dead and asked us for details regarding the change. He also seemed to have a lot of interest in our own plans when the war was over. I don't really know what he thinks will happen; I'm a conservationist, that's how I've been trained. I don't really want to be a politician, if that's what he thinks.
I have to help out with more rebuilding efforts. Hopefully I'll write again before tomorrow, but the next few days are going to be busy. I'm hoping Cynthia and Olivia and I might even be able to go back to Montana, though Cynthia's not sure how she feels about seeing her parents and friends again after that day in the interrogation room. I want to see my parents, though.