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Alvin Katz
| Alvin Katz | |
 | |
| Profile | |
| Origin |  Liberty |
| Occupation | Premier, Secretary General |
| Affiliation | Sirius Coalition |
| Joined the Coalition | 815-Present |
| Born | 780 (Precise Date Unknown) A.S., Planet Denver (Age Approximately 38) |
Beginnings
Alvin Katz grew up in the shadow of Denver’s Corporate middle management. His father was a successful manager in one of the many electronics factories that dot the surface of Denver. While his family was far from wealthy, they were just as far from the poverty that was rife in the Colorado system.
Alvin graduated from a good school, and was accepted to Cambridge University on a corporate scholarship, where he worked towards a degree in Xenology under Professor Pryce.
In his final year, disaster struck when his father was suffered a heart attack and was committed to hospital. Instead of rewarding the dedicated worker and honouring its medical insurance commitments, the corporation used a loop hole concerning experimental surgery to avoid paying for a potentially life saving operation. The Katz family liquidated its assets in an effort to afford the operation only to have it fail utterly. To compound matters, Katz senior died just one month shy of earning his company pension, leaving the Katz family destitute.
Forced to leave university and return home to support his heart broken mother and sister, Alvin went to work in the same factory that his father had managed. Labouring on the assembly line, building holobands for the ever expanding holo-tainment industry.
His uncle Jim-Bob, his mother's brother, left his job and joined the growing Xenos movement in an effort to help support the floundering family.
The Coalition
Alvin would often enjoy sitting and talking to Jim-Bob on his rare visits to Denver, sitting on the back of a starblazer drinking beers and talking about Katz joining the Xenos movement.
It was that encouragement that causes the young Alvin to look for other answers outside of a life of menial labour. He attended clandestine meetings in bars and coffee shops, listening to the rumblings of the disposed. It was at one of these meetings that he first heard of the Coalition and the Glorious Revolution.
His meeting with then Commissar-Captain Alexi Karchov would change his life, and inevitably reshape the whole of Sirius.
The Early Days
Alvin Katz advanced quickly, gaining command of the CPW-Social Credit, the oldest serving Storm Class gunboat, training under Captain Norman Bethune, and conducting work on behalf of Coalition Intelligence, where he was able to cement two important friendships that would later blossom into Alliances. The first was with the Order, the second was with Doc. Holliday of the Temporary Autonomous Zoners.
It was with the Social Credit, on one of his in-numerous patrols, that events would unfurl that would catapult a simple Lt. Commander into center stage of Sirian Politics, and shine a spot light on the revolution.
Citizen Katz
The Social Credit had exited a jumphole into the remote Ontario system, in time to encounter a trio of pirate vessels engaging and attempting to plunder a group of trading vessels using the lucrative Ontario Trade Corridor. The sudden arrival of a Coalition Gunboat shocked the three pirates and caused them to panic, bolting from the system to the adulation of the traders.
The Trade Alliance of Ontario began to call the heroic efforts of the Social Credit’s Captain. Proposing that Katz should run for Governor of Ontario.
Ever eager to seize and opportunity, the Coalition High Command appointed Commissar Leon Mendel to act as Katz’s campaign manager and start the ball rolling for the 818 Elections.
Katz resigned his commission in the SCRA in order to take part in the elections, running by the moniker “Citizen Katz” and using the infamous catchphrase “I am STILL the only real choice on offer here!”
He quickly gained a reputation as an outspoken orator, delivering passionate speeches that appealed to all levels of the Ontario citizenry.
The election campaign, and growing grassroots support of the young, charismatic Katz grew turning the dark horse candidate into a strong challenger for the incumbent governor. That was, until the Liberty Marine Corps, under General Isabelle Kaitlyne and Captain Patterson stepped in to remove the Coalition threat from the elections.
Events took a turn for the worse when, at a Hockey game, hosted aboard Toronto Station, the Liberty Marine Corps shot and wounded both Citizen Katz and the local LPI police chief, plunging Toronto Station into one of the bloodiest riots of its history. Liberty Marine boarding parties were initially repelled, until the arrival of the LPI on scene and the dramatic declaration of Martial Law.
Rather than risk further bloodshed, Citizen Katz surrendered to the LPI detachment, and ordered the station to stand down. Agreeing to a plea bargain with the LPI legal team that saw him withdraw from the Ontarian Election campaign in exchange for the promise of free and fair elections in 818 AS.
The election was held, and Citizen Katz was elected through a surprise write in vote, which saw Thomas McLaughlin becoming the first Socialist Governor of Ontario.
His actions in the Ontario Incident earned Alvin Katz the Hero of the Revolution decoration, and at the behest of Commissar Rasshid, he rejoined the Coalition as Commissar-Captain.
The XKR Project
Commissar-Captain Katz was placed to oversee the transition from the KSD series starfighters, to their replacement the XKR-151 Modular Strike Fighter. Working in conjunction with Doctor Xiaobie they formed Xiaobie-Katz Research and worked to develop the XKR prototype and the experimental Coalition Cruiser Trotsky.
The JiangXi Uprising
At the start of 818 AS forces loyal to Yue Fei, the former head of Coalition Engineering, staged an attempted coup on JiangXi, seizing weapons and equipment, and attempting to secure the Planet Jiangxi orbital batteries. Effectively overthrowing the Coalition Loyalist Government.
In a daring dawn raid, Commissar-Captain Katz led elements of the Fighter Corps in a lighting fast strike on the rebel headquarters. Encountering strong resistance, as the full extent of the Counter-Revolution was revealed.
It was only through the direct leadership of Commissar-Captain Katz on the ground, and Admiral Alexi Karchov leading the Aerial Dogfight that eventually crushed the resistance movement and drove Yue Fei’s command ship the CPW-Great Wall into exile.
The battle did unimaginable damage to New HangZhou, the capital city of Jiangxi, and weakened its defenses for the Phantom’s Strato-bombing of the colony only a month later. But Katz has made it his mission to rebuild the colony through his New Economic Policy (NEP).
Political Career
Commissar-Captain Katz took his position in the State Duma and High Command, working within the party as a liberal moderate, counter-balancing the party hardliners and Military strong-men that dominated High Command.
His chief acts were to forge strong and lasting alliances with the TAZ and the Order, opening up Omega-52 to highly regulated trade, that has brought wealth rolling into the Coalition through providing an alternative to the GMG monopoly on H-Fuel, and pharmaceuticals that were not restricted by patents or strict capitalist royalties. This has made the Coalition worlds one of the chief producers in the lower Omegas.
Katz’s liberal leanings, and strong mind towards fairness and Party Democracy has won him significant support. Combined with his time in the Commissariat and the Military, Katz’s political support continued to grow through the middle of 818 AS.
Rising to the role of Premier by appointment, leading the Coalition’s Civilian Government.
Transition to Power
With the general decline in the health of Grand Admiral McIntosh, Party General Secretary, and Supreme Commander of the Coalition’s combined militaries, a power vacuum began to arise in the leadership of the Coalition.
On August 18th, 818AS, McIntosh suffered a massive stroke, apparently on rising after sleep. McIntosh has left strict orders not to be disturbed, and it was many hours before he was discovered. As the terrified doctors laboured, elements of the Coalition High Command began to engage in an intense discussion of the post McIntosh Government.
Premier Katz, fearing what would happen should one of the hard-liners gain power acted quickly. Consolidating his control over the Commissariat of Truth, he personally led a detachment of Coalition Marines into the Kremlin on Planet Volograd, marching into the High Command Chamber and arresting those who offered anything resembling a direct threat to the peaceful transition of power. General’s Berikov and Malenkova were shot immediately while six others were unceremoniously swept off by the Commissariat to the Gulag ship TOR-ONE where they were tried in secret and executed to a man.
Simultaneous strikes on Sevastopol Depot, Mykolaiv Research Station, and Zhukovsky Station quickly ensured that any supporters of the now dead Iron men of the Coalition were removed from positions of power. Lessons learned from the thwarted JiangXi uprising giving veteran Commissars the experience they needed to head off any potential trouble well in advance.
The speed of Premier Katz's move surprised many in the Coalition Government who didn't expect him to possess the ruthlessness needed to stage such a coup. Katz's power base was in the Party, and he sought to strengthen his position within it. While, under the Coalition System, the Party was preeminent, it had been greatly drained of power by McIntosh, who had given much of that power to himself and his High Command. Katz recognized the danger of a protracted conflict, and positioned himself to lead the Party once again to the leadership of the High Command.
Katz installed himself as both Premier and Party Secretary, appointing his long time ally and friend Ben Warner as Commandante of the Fighter Corps. Securing his position and ensuring that the Coalition had a strong, single voice of leadership for the next era.
