As driving as his military objectives were, Colonel John Diocletian’s radical methods of taking action were what brought him death in the end. Each order given loosened his grip on his subordinates further and further. Nobody wants to feel like a worthless puppet, regardless if you’re a decorated general or just graduated from the Academy. He made you feel just like that. His mere presence in the same room as you would make you face the bitter truth about the Colonial Republic. Democracy in the Colonial Republic was nothing but a facade. He mocked it in every possible way he could, openly admitting his goals while shoving papers with democratic reasons in your face, as you signed them at gunpoint.
He wasn’t mad. He was evil. There were no limits to what his malevolent mind would produce. He wasn’t a genius. We were simply too blinded by our patriotism to see that what we were doing was wrong. Any mind open enough to see it was ruthlessly shut down. He won us with his speeches, drove us forward to war, for ‘Time is on our side. That’s all we need’, as he said. We accepted his tyranny. Turned it around to fuel our rage on Sirius. On ourselves. For leaving them behind. For being rejected. Scattered. Hated. Each of us became more like him, with each shot we fired.
But all things come to an end. Our allies’ patience with our nation’s constant on-and-off diplomacy choices, and our increasingly escalating aggressions, going as far as publicly punishing IMG civilians in front of Java, had ran out. Diocletian had to be removed, before we had gone past the point of no return on the path we were walking.
What you now know
‘The one who will betray you will always be the one close enough to you to work his betrayal without risking to be uncovered.’ He said it himself. Yet he was so focused on his plans, so arrogant that he could of never seen it coming. Not from the Admirals. Definitely not from all of them at the same time.
Alexander Wingates. Gabriel Vaughn. Terrence Westridge. Naia Myers. Chester Lee Halsey. Five of the oldest Admirals in the Republic, and some of the more powerful voices in the nation. While Diocletian couldn’t eliminate such popular characters, spreading them over the north-eastern Sirius was the next best thing. Kept occupied, the Admirals had a hard time sharing their opinions with each other for most of the post-Coronado campaign, aside for private chatter.
But, a plan started forming slowly while private negotiations between Alice DeFrance and Terrance Westridge for a possible peace treaty between Gallia and the Republic were under discussion. While the youngest DeFrance was honest and her offer was genuine, negotiations began to crumble when Admiral Westridge was introduced to Aurelia DeFrance, the eldest daughter of the Gallic Emperor. While the negotiations were slowly reaching a standstill, distress began circulating between the Admirals’ private transmissions about the president’s last and final order regarding the Coronado Campaign, and his refusal to meet with the Libertonian and Bretonian ambassadeurs, the Republic’s permissions to fly through the houses’ territories having just being blocked.
From that point on, Colonel Diocletian stopped sending orders to the military. Or the orders stopped getting to them.
What actually happened is that the Republic was suddenly broke. After the relocation, the nation’s economy, up to that point having being supported to a large degree by the IMG, slowly began thinning out due to the longer trade routes between the factions, and political agitation because of the Republic’s sudden aggressions towards the Guild. Mainly having one of the combat aces open fire on some loudmouth civilian just above the Java Station. It wasn’t very much on its own, but with the Republic’s diplomatic relations with other groups turning publicly bad, it was the final blow to the relations with the Guild.
The Republic had Deuterium. But since economy was hardly Diocletian’s focus, we didn’t use that advantage to the fullest. Even if we would of, the state the nation was into because of the exodus would of probably allowed us to use the resource to keep us floating at best. Pecos is a small planet, and there was only so much room to mine Deuterium with the equipment we had. Which was far from what you’d find on Freeport 11.
So our funds got smaller and smaller, and Diocletian was spreading the admirals further and further in the Tau’s. Until the cash stopped flowing alltogether. Then he began personally shooting the staff and replacing them with, hopefully, more ‘capable’ staff, to make him rich again. Some of them actually ran to Barrier Gate before their ‘turn’ had come to try and fix our cash problem. Until eventually he ran out of ‘capable’ people. Riots broke out, the people had enough of his ruling, the police could barely cope with the increasing number of crimes. But that was the last thing he should of been worried at the time. Not that he was. He was just angry, trying to get people to make him rich so he could continue his military plans.
Unbeknownst to him, the five Admirals were on their way back. Word got to them that things had gotten bad back home, and the President was losing grip of his people, which made it the perfect time to strike. As they reached Coronado, word finally reached the President that the Admirals were coming. No greeting was sent to them. No order. Nothing.
Four hours later, the Admirals, along with a couple of loyal guards were heading towards the President’s chambres. As the doors opened, Diocletian sat at the balcony, drinking a glass of wine while watching the riot broadcasts all over the system. As they came face to face, Diocletian greeted them. ‘Time’s Up’, responded Admiral Westridge, and shot him in the head. That was it.
At that point, we made a choice. To leave the ruling of the nation to a civilian, and thus political body, rather than a military leadership. So, we chose to leave the nation we once fought for, and let her people decide their fate.
I send this message to you now, so that you now know the truth. By the time it reaches all of you, many other events should have taken place. By the time you find Diocletian’s body, we will no longer be in the system, having spread throughout Sirius, waiting.
