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Originally posted by Captain Skyblade:
**(OOC: Okay, I'm confused here:
Levo intentionally extended the time of the "peace" talks with the Rebellion in order to gain more time in forming an alliance with the Confederation. The Rebellion dispatched RIB agents to the planet (it's not like both the Confederation and Rebellion don't do this already) to investigate, and then Levo tries to kill the captured agents so that they can't spread the word of Levo's plans. Levo has already decided to side with the Confederation, and thus they are the first to perform an act of war. A militia member decides to defect and rescue the RIB agents, but is captured by a mercenary while trying to escape the system. The Rebellion decides to dispatch a fleet to Levo in order to rescue these agents, but are unsuccessful. What exactly makes the Rebellion the "horrible evil bad guys" in this whole Levo deal? Once the RIB uncovered evidence that Levo had indeed joined the Confederation, then the Rebellion and Levo were automatically at war. Yeah, tons of Levo troopers were "murdered"... why? Because it's war, and it's about time for a few RIB agents to get off the planet before Levo decides to kill them and thus cover up everything. I would think after hearing all this, most independent systems would want to side against the Confederation... you certainly can't say that Levo did absolutely nothing wrong. They, in fact, are the wrong.)**
(OOC:
Levo at no point declared war upon the Rebellion. You only had a rumour that they were involved with the Confederation.
The Rebellion destroyed Levo's entire fleet out of nowhere. The general Levo populace, may I add, would know nothing of what was going on, except that the Rebels had suddenly decided to attack them.
The Rebellion attempted to assassinate the Levo prime minister.
The Rebellion implanted spies onto Levo. More to the point, they were caught doing it. This is an act of war.
Levo takes hostile action against hostile invaders (the Rebel agents.) There is nothing there that is morally wrong. They do not kill at all; they put them in prison, which is more than fair consider an act of war was made by the Rebellion at this point.
The Rebels broke out of prison and killed numerous Levo guards. This is also a despicable act, for evading the course of justice.
Even to this point, the Rebellion cannot prove that Levo was siding to the Confederation before your acts of war.
Considering that Levo was attacked for no reason, and many people were killed by the Rebellion, and the Rebellion was caught with agents capable of genoicide on Levo, the Rebellion are in the wrong, massively. You just threw the Rebel's "good guy" card away, and handed the Confederation all the Independant worlds; not to mention almost crippling your own government. The Rebel citizens believe in things, and you just went against all of that. I wouldn't be surprised if the Rebellion simply collapsed.
A major problem with this becoming a proper "webstory": the rules allow for unprecented control over the enemies, and no moderation system exists (as you saw with Staron, he could get away with a post full of nothing but bull****) to stop me or you from saying that the war ended; in our next post. In your case, that would be hilarious, in the case of the Confederation, it would probably be quite realistic, considering what you just had the Rebels do (kill innocent civilians, attempt assassination, etc.)
And my next post really does it for you.)
Javaed was over the moon. He had thought things had been going well before; but now the Rebellion had made the stupidest of slips. They had helped Lethe attack and dominate Cydonia. Ha! It was the worst minefield to throw yourself into. The Confederation, and the Great Court at New Istanbul, had both chosen to stay out of the Lethean-Cydonian war. The reason was quite simple; both the Letheans and the Cydonians had conclusive proof that their war was right.
Lethe claimed that the Cydonians demanded their water simply because they didn't have any. Their own argument had the major hole in it that they refused to trade; they claim, however, the Cydonians went to war instead of asking to trade. The argument was poor, but believed by many of the masses.
Cydonians claimed that Lethe Prime had once been their world homeworld, beautiful Cydonia, and that during the Great Expansion, they had allowed the Letheans to share the world with them. However, the Letheans were not satisfied - they were constantly wanting more, and more. Eventually, the militaristic Letheans drove the Cydonian people from their world, and left them to search out a new world, which was a desolate planet they named New Cydonia. No-one in their right mind would colonise New Cydonia. Anyone with half a brain - everyone who can think - realises that the Cydonians were forced there. The Cydonians do not pretend that the Letheans started the war; they are proud to say that they begun the war to take back what was theirs. Cydonia.
The independant worlds were, obviously, further annoyed by the Rebellion's actions. Speeches had been made, and the populations of many worlds began to understand what people higher up believed.
The Rebellion have lost it.
That was not all, of course. Zigra and Guiron, having been refused independance, had forced it. Dozens of Rebel ships had been driven out of their worlds, no muder done to the Rebels, although scores of civilians had been murdered. Both planets flatly refused to aid the Confederation, but said that they would remain apart. The riots had continued, also, and enough Rebel shipyards had been lost to lose all the advantage in taking Lethe - which was, Javaed thought, what they had done.
The only card that could ruin everything now was Javaed himself. The information in his brain, extracted by mind-probe, could neutralise the situation. Not turn it around: the Rebellion had still done murder, but make the independant worlds break off again and declare neutrality.
Javaed, however, was married - it wasn't something he found really important, of course. He hadn't married for love, but to solidify his place. He had to stay on Levo, though. If anything went wrong, he had to be on Levo. Javaed, a plain old engineer. Javaed, the puppet master of Levo, and soon the entire galaxy.
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The probe entered Zebetrious, and scanned numerous pirate vessels - more than usual. The Black Halo was not to be seen, but their were ion trails from what could only be a Kestrel leaving the system. It appeared that there was nothing in Zebetrious other than what was to be expected.
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-Esponer