Scavenged Restoration 98 (Patreon)

Scavenged Restoration

Chapter 98

-VB-

“Father,” Anastasia greeted the Chancellor of the Capellan Confederation with more warmth and less exhaustion than she normally did. 

Why wouldn’t she? She beat the paperwork demons and managed to get herself a week of reprieve. 

So much free time.

“Anastasia,” he hummed. 

And had this been in a more familiar setting, she might be hugging him as was customary for her and her father. 

But instead, they were in the middle of a Prefectorate meeting with the other dukes and ministers of the state, and so a degree of formality had to be observed. Her calling her own father “father” was the minimum floor for that formality. 

“Take a seat,” he said as he gestured to the seat next to him, and she did. 

She looked around. There were two dozen people here, including the Strategic Military Director and her aunt in her capacity as a minister. No minister was absent today because this was the decade review of the entire confederation. There had only been three such reviews since her father took over, and it was the most important review that dictated the direction of the entire state. 

And she was here partially because of her work as a pseudo-minister and partially because she was the heir. 

“Now that everyone is here, we can start,” Father declared. “We will begin with the Minister of Resources.”

A bald woman stood up; this was Minister Alissa Kommani. She dressed less like a noble and more like a monk for the occasion. 

“Greetings, my peers of state and the Chancellor. I am Minister Alissa Kommani of the Ministry of Resources. In the past decade, most variables we measure have gone up. The flow of raw resources from within the core commonalities and now the periphery has reached the peak of what our industries can handle, and further inflow will be directed to key industrial planets for future droughts. I can report no shortage regarding critical minerals like germanium. If you have any specific questions beyond the packets provided to you, please ask. In the meantime, I will go over the more salient points of my report instead of the tedious details.”

The packets in question were one of many that each member of the Prefectorate had been provided weeks in advance. 

But Anastasia knew something that most people here did not. All Prefectorate members submitted their own information packets, and the Maskirovka tweaked words and information here and there before separate copies, each containing different non-important details, were given to the Prefectorate members. Should any of the Prefectorate members betray the confederation, the confederation’s enemies will receive a very specific information packet that would correspond to that individual in question via those specific changes in words and numbers and not anyone else. 

Assuming, of course, the packet itself was sold and transferred wholesale and not summarized. 

Can’t win everything everywhere.

But since no minister had “mysteriously” disappeared in the weeks since and to now, none of them had betrayed the state and were trustworthy.

After Minister Kommani sat down, Auntie Candace stood up in her capacity as Minister of Citizens. Her report was shorter than most but as important as the more material work of the Ministry of Resources. Citizenship remained a goal for the new people of the state, and no slave or servitor existed. Any who violated previous edicts regarding slavery were caught and tried. While there were always those who couldn’t help themselves in wanting to dominate others in such brutish and uncivilized fashion, they remained very few, according to her aunt. 

The Minister of Trade and Exchange had nothing to note other than that the Capellan Confederation’s share of economy in the Draconis Combine had risen once more while their share of trade in the Free Worlds League and vice versa remained stable.

The Minister of Development noted that food production has gone up once more, and that even with the influx of the new periphery commonalities and their starving people, the confederation was able to meet the standards of their mandate. That all who serve were provided for. 

The Minister of Social Education hesitated before he spoke up. He reported that deviancy had become a problem in some of the more industrialized and safer planets. A not insignificant rise in youth residents seeking an “alternative” to the current trends has had some of them walking out of colleges for what they considered an “ineffective system of governance” had created tensions, including here on Sian. He blamed this rising trend on, well, the prosperity of the state. As it was known since the earliest days of humanity that a prosperous time created weak people, and the current prosperity had created ample opportunities for weak people to slip through the cracks. 

It was almost a challenge against Father and Aunt Candace’s more lenient stance of citizenship, but Father didn’t comment on it and had the next minister continue with their report. 

The Minister of Allied Relations, a department barely older than her, reported that the confederation’s relationship with the Free Worlds League and Draconis Combine in the Kaptyn Accords remained nominally status quo, including the Combine’s constant pestering for more war materials.

They had a laugh about that. 

The Minister of Information Standard reported that the each commonality’s different timekeeping standards had been abolished and remained that way.

The Minister of Space Industries, separate from the Ministry of Development and the Ministry of Trade and Exchange, reported that they have recorded close to two hundred jumpships produced in the last decade. Anastasia knew, however, that MSI’s report did not include the production of classified shipyards on worlds like Necromo.

And finally, the Minister of the Military reported that in the decade since his last report, the CCAF had raised eighteen more mech regiments. Of those eighteen, only six were reactive mobile mech regiments while the rest were either garrison regiments (not militia regiments, which were locally raised) or commonality specific regiments. 

Once the ministers were done with their report, other Prefectorate members made their reports as the leaders of their commonalities. It began from coreward towards the Periphery: Tikonov, Sarna, Capella, Sian, Andurien, New Abilene, Aurigan, and finally, Detroit Commonality. 

The review progressed from there into improvements and deficiencies to be shored up. 

By the time the meeting came to an end, Anastasia felt invigorated. While it was not possible to see the exact details, her work with the space industries and development in particular could be felt in the rising trends of both. 

Everyone but she and her father left… and that’s when the Director Marion Calvoda of Maskirovka entered the room. 

Unlike the more formulaic and casual environment of the Prefectorate, there was a more familiar yet much more serious mood the moment the director entered. 

This was despite the fact that the man looked more like a wizard taking a stroll than an intelligence officer. What was that pre-colonization Earth movie that Father see once in a while? The … Dumbles guy. Just a black haired version of him. 

“Report,” Father said without preamble. 

“Corruption remains below the acceptable threshold,” Director Calvoda began. “The highest concentration remains centered within the nobility that hoard wealth and do not give back to the confederation. Nobles who regularly give back in earnest rank the lowest in corruption. Merchants are the second most corrupt. The artisans are less corrupt so much as naive in most cases.” 

“And the activities of other states in ours?” she asked. 

He glanced at her and continued. “Despite our best efforts, the FedSuns are gaining more access to our civilian technologies. They are aware that our civilian shipyards are using better methods and technologies to streamline jumpship production and are beginning to get curious about the on-ground resource extraction modifications you have pioneered, princess.”

She frowned. 

She did not like the thought of Davions getting the result of her hard work so easily. 

“What can we do to stop it?” Father asked. 

“We cannot,” the director replied. “Even if we were to stop all flow of manpower and classify each site, all it takes is one site to be breached by a spy for the details to leave our hands. We can delay it, yes, but prevention was impossible the moment it was implemented.”

“Then can we make it painful for them at least?” 

He grinned. 

“That we can do.”

The meeting continued like that, and he too left the room, leaving her alone with her father. 

“It’s time we discuss your next role,” he said as he gestured for her to sit at her right instead of the left. She got up around the table and did so. “You have proven yourself an able administrator. With your newfound familiarity and understanding of the bureaucracy of the state, no one should be able to obscure anything about the inner workings of it and the state when you take over.”

‘You mean if,’ she thought to herself not with hostility but with apprehension. She was not looking forward to doing what she’d done for the past two years for the rest of her life. “You speak as if my next role will not involve that.”

“It will not. You will taking up the mantle of an admiral once more.”

‘YESSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!’ she roared within her mind. “What is the objective?” she asked calmly.

He smiled knowingly. “Who,” he corrected her. “It seems that one of the Clans, Clan Snow Raven, has decided to take up residence in the Outworlds Alliance. This, I feel, is a good news.”

“... How so?”

“Once the clans start settling down, they will inevitably run into the cultures of the periphery and the Inner Sphere. Being so few compared to us, they will inevitably become … diluted.”

“Ah. I see.”

“Our problem is what they are doing. While they did decide to settle down, a significant number of them are on their way to the confederation aboard their warships, using the unclaimed and open FedSuns periphery to do so. And since they will not be encountering any obstacles on their way here until they reach the Taurian Concordat…”

“Outside of fuel and supplies.”

“Yes, outside of those, I fear that there is a significant chance that our allies will need help.”

“I am ready.”

He chuckled and then reached up and ruffled her hair. She glared at him. She was not a child to be headpatted. 

“I know you are.”