Ravens of Eternity

376 Pulled to the Front, Pt Foundation, The People’s System, Hegemony of Free Peoples

The Hegemony’s Foundation planet was absolutely stunning, beautiful, and lush. It was home to verdant forests, barren deserts, towering mountains, and bottomless oceans. There was also a wild variety of bountiful fauna and colorful flora in nearly every biome on it.

Far more than Earth ever did.

Foundation was in perfect equilibrium with itself, with every ecosystem checking and balancing each other in seemingly perfect harmony. The naturalistic, chaotic beauty of it all.

Except, of course, for the fact that it was a bit of a lie. Or, perhaps, a trick.

In fact, it was redesigned and resculpted to be the perfect representation of humanity’s origin planet, hundreds of thousands of years in the past.

The seas and the dirt and the skies – all of it was soaked in the most advanced nanite technology in existence. And they worked to maintain that balance, constantly.

And funny enough, it wasn’t just the nanites that maintained the planet’s balance. It was also the fact that no humans actually went on the ground itself. None lived there, worked there, or even visited there. No-one was allowed to.

Instead, everyone lived on floating cities high above in the upper stratosphere, far beyond the sight of anything on the ground. It was from those cities that legions of planetary engineers kept watch over the planet itself.

.....

They analyzed ecological reports, determined any potential problems, deployed countermeasures, and otherwise maintained rigorous control over a seemingly delicate balance.

After all, they didn’t just have control over any artificial suns or climate systems. They had purview over absolutely everything. And so, they went through great lengths to ensure the planet was “perfect”. Problems such as tsunamis and earthquakes or any kind of mass extinction event were things they could easily curtail.

Among the largest of the sky cities was the Foundation Hall, where the Grand Parliament and its many Administrators, Liaisons, Voices, and Counselors lived and worked for the entirety of their tenure.

Although the Voices and Counselors very often got to travel outside of the system, everyone else was pretty much locked to the system itself. Not that any complained in the slightest. They lived in sky cities above a wild paradise planet in the center of Hegemony power.

In fact, some enjoyed it a little too much.

But this wasn’t just where they presided over the Hegemony – this was also where the Hegemony’s Eternal Hall was. It was a massive stadium-like domed structure at the very top of the city itself. The dome was a transparent metal that was dozens of meters thick, and gave a near 180 degree view of space above Foundation.

The vast room was filled with rows of auditorium-style benches, all of which were filled with the representatives and leaders of every House and nation-state in the Hegemony.

At the very center was a large discussion circle where some of the leadership belonging to the Great Houses stood. Matriarch de Jardin and the Star Dragon were among them.

Of course, they weren’t actually physically present, and all were holographic projections.

Well, almost everyone. The 11 members of the Grand Parliament and their Voices were certainly of flesh and blood, and they mingled directly with the Great Houses.

All told, there were nearly 50 people standing in that central circle. In the seats immediately surrounding the open middle were the few dozen leaders and representatives of the Major Houses. Predictably, in the rings of benches behind them were the hundreds of leaders and representatives of the Minor Houses.

Encompassing more than half of the remaining benches were the leaders and representatives of the thousands of nation-states that held membership in the Hegemony.

There, at the very edges, Claire and Xylo sat and watched everything that was going on, particularly through the massive holoprojector above the center stage.

On it was the decrepit Lady Felrahn in all her glory.

“First of all, I wish to thank the Hegemony of Free Peoples for coming to this Emergency Summit,” began Lady Felrahn. “Your attention is very much appreciated.”

As she spoke she maintained her gaze only on the Grand Parliament and the Great Houses in front of her. She hardly even took a passing glance to any of the other Major Houses behind them, much less to anyone else further out.

“And now that we’re all present, I shall now begin the Summit,” the old woman continued. “And yes, of course, this has to do with the fall of Rhylen Terra, the seat of power for House Felrahn.

“My advisors and I are all in agreement – my House fell due to inaction and negligence by the Hegemony’s Grand Parliament. And I demand justification for this gross negligence, as well as means of righteous restoration.”

“What do you mean by the words ‘inaction and negligence’, Lady Felrahn?” said one of the Voices of the Grand Parliament. She was a young woman, of average height and build. Her hair was nondescript, and her eyes were a deep brown.

But her voice was... commanding.

“The Grand Parliament awarded House Felrahn with over one hundred trillion Ducat, specifically for military aid against the Imperial invasion. Included among that hundred trillion were a half dozen carriers, along with thousands of skirmish vessels and autonomous drone systems.”

“This is exactly my point!” cried the Lady Felrahn. “That was obviously far from enough! According to your own public deployment records, Major House Dharma was awarded more than twice that. And they weren’t even attacked!”

“This old woman makes zero sense,” Claire said.

“Yeah, I agree,” Xylo replied. “Sounds a whole lot like she’s trying to blame someone else for losing her house. I mean, that’s awful and all. But how could it be the Hegemony’s fault? She’s obviously the incompetent leader in the equation.”

“That’s not incompetence,” said Eris.

Both Claire and Xylo looked over next to them, and saw the Pirate Queen Eris in the seat next to theirs. Surprised filled their faces instantly. Claire balked, but only for a split second.

“What?” she muttered. “Why are you here? Shouldn’t you be, what, way closer to the center or something?”

“The real question is why are you two here?” countered Eris. “Shouldn’t Freya or Lucifer be here instead?”

“They’re off on some double date with Azrael and Kali,” Claire replied. “Plus I’m better at this kind of thing. Even if all this is... intimidating.”

“Also, people forced shore leave on me,” added Xylo. “So I was available when the call came in.”

“Neither of you oughta take any of this seriously,” said Eris. “Like i said, it isn’t incompetence. It’s a performance. Considering how ancient that corpse appears to be, I’d say she’s a very accomplished actor.”

“What, you’re saying she doesn’t actually care about her House? Her people are suffering!” said Claire. “The Empire literally has all of them hostage, and she wants to free ’em.”

“I don’t doubt they’re suffering,” Eris replied. “But it isn’t her people that she cares about. You can trust me on that.”

“You never answered,” interjected Xylo. “You’re supposed to be down there, closer to where the action is. Why’re you here?”

Eris simply shrugged.

“I do what I like,” she said. “Besides, the view is so much nicer from over here. You can see everything so much more clearly.”

Her eyes scanned the leaders and representatives all around her, and gleamed.

“Okay, great,” Xylo said. “But how’d you physically get here? We’re assigned to specific seats. It’s not like we can push people out of the way and take their seats.”

Eris shrugged again.

“Ask my coders,” she replied. “I’m just here for the show.”

“Regardless of who may be to blame for the fall of Felrahn’s core system,” argued A’loak, First Triumvirate of Great House Shaizen. “That’s no reason to bring the entire Hegemony into an emergency session. If you haven’t already noticed, we’re all at war. And you’ve pulled us from that war to play House with you.”

A’loak’s annoyance was clear for all to see. And she was far from the only one. More than half of those around her were equally as frustrated to be locked in a summit.

The Star Dragon among them.

“Calm yourself, Shaizen,” said Curran, Grandmaster of Great House Talos. Unlike his frustrated comrades, his voice was calm and collected. “Felrahn is a Major House, and deserves to be heard. They’ve great value to the Hegemony, after all.”

“Value to the Hegemony, or to Talos?” snapped A’loak. It elicited numerous murmurs around the Hall.

Before anything could escalate further, one of the more elderly members of the Grand Parliament stepped up, raised his hands, and called for calm.

Then he turned towards Lady Felrahn, and addressed her directly. It was such a rare act for a Grand Parliamentarian to speak directly to anyone that wasn’t in a Great House, to the point that a few gasped in surprise.

“We can’t deny that the loss of control over House Felrahn is devastating for the Hegemony,” he said. “However, we all must bear in mind that we are in the midst of a great battle, caught between two greedy galactic nations.

“All our forces are stretched thin, and all of our fronts are weak. We face defeat after defeat. As alarming as it is to say, we are slowly but surely losing. House Felrahn is only one among the dozens of Houses that have already fallen. And there may be more that follow in the coming months.

“In the coming years.

“But we aren’t without hope – we have placed extra fortifications at Houses who are deploying next generation’s combat weapons and armor. Armaments powerful enough to stand up against Imperial weapons.

“As long as we can hold out long enough, we can push through and turn it all in our favor instead.”

Though his soft speech was powerful, the Lady Felrahn merely scoffed. Loudly.

“Are you insinuating that House Felrahn’s armor production facilities have no value to the Hegemony?” she blared out. “What if we had secret weapons in development as well, hm? What if those weapons are the key to victory? Answer that!”

“Perhaps that’s information you should have disclosed at the beginning of the war,” interjected the Star Dragon. “Then maybe the value of House Felrahn would be more apparent.”

“How dare you!” Lady Felrahn screamed. “How dare any of you! The Felrahn are members of the Hegemony of Free Peoples! And we deserve equal protection! We shouldn’t have to disclose our secrets to you!”

“What exactly do you want, Lady Felrahn?” said a Voice. “We can’t turn back time and award you protection that we don’t have to give. Everything we have is on the field. We have almost nothing in our reserves. The only way we can win is to hold out. Rest assured, however, that Felrahn is not fully lost. And we will retake-”

“We will retake Felrahn now!” interrupted the old woman. “That’s what I want! I want the protection that’s owed to my House! And if I have to call an Emergency Summit or a Priority Referendum to make it happen, then so be it!”