Project PHAETON 16 (Patreon)

Commissioned by RoyalTwinFangs

Project PHAETON

Chapter 16

-VB-

When the news broke over the solar system, the public initially met it with disbelieving silence. The silence then turned into an even stronger horror as trustworthy sources from the federation and the league began to relay the facts as best as they could get it. 

In the span of an hour after the first landing of Island Iffish’s broken colony, the solar system realized that the game had changed. 

Even for those as far away from Earth as one could be. 

Paptimus Scirocco stared at the image of Earth’s burning atmosphere from the comfort of his private villa aboard his Jupitris-class ship and a pair of good Jupiter women under his arms. Everyone in the room felt horrified by what they were seeing, but Paptimus was thinking beyond the immediate horror. 

“It is a good thing that Jupiter Energy Fleet and our colonies are so far from the homeworld,” one of his friends said from his left. 

He looked to his left and saw Crux Dogatie, the man currently in charge of building many of the colonies around Jupiter, mostly because no one else was as capable as him. 

“You think so?” he asked. “You were the one who kept complaining about the federation not providing assistance.”

“I didn’t know at the time that they were going to get involved in this shitfest.”

“Hmm. Do you think they knew about it?”

“If they knew about it,” Crux narrowed his eyes. “Then they should have done something about it. They allowed a goddamn colony to go missing and then let it be used as a weapon. Almost the entire thing was flung at the planet, and that tells me that they were unprepared. Or worse, they knew about it, spent years infighting about who should do what and how, and wasted tax on super projects.”

“... Sounds like you understand them better than they understand themselves.”

Crux snorted. “Who do you think has to constantly talk with them? It’s not the Fleetmaster. It’s not the station owners. It’s not the individual colony managers and overseers.”

“You.”

“Me.”

“... so what will you do?” Paptimus asked. 

After a moment, Crux grinned. “It seems to me that everyone will still need their fuel, perhaps even more than before. Perhaps my friend, it is in our best interest that we continue to provide that exact service… including a surcharge for the ‘unstable regional hazard fee’ tacked on.”

Paptimus, the head of his own clique of ships that was a part of the Jupiter Energy Fleet, grinned. “Sounds like a plan.”

And so, the two men clinked their glasses of Earth-imported wine over the image of a burning planet. 

-VB-

The mood in the Phaeton League was low. 

But it was even lower for Astraea. 

She had been the one to say to her brother and father that the Principality of Zeon would never do anything like what they had done. That they wouldn’t so fragrantly commit a crime against humanity on that scale. That they wouldn’t do that to the only life-supporting planet in reach. 

But they did. 

They massacred the people in a whole colony, and then proceeded to use the grave of an entire people as a battering ram against the Earth Federation. 

The numbers filtering in through to the League from the Federation put the death toll in the first day alone at around a billion people. Far more people were sure to die. And because the biggest pieces of the fallen colony landed near some of the biggest population centers or on dry land, it was causing natural disasters that would only make the situation worse for everyone involved. 

Dust clouds covered entire continents. Tsunamis washed away cities. 

Ireland and Vietnam were gone. Japan was slated to lose a quarter of its population from three hundred meter tall tsunami rushing toward their coasts. The entirety of Borneo island was on fire. The small piece that landed on Panama might have actually severed the Americas. 

And for what? 

Freedom?

Independence? 

Freedom and independence from what?! The Earth Federation already had no authority over Zeon and the colonies around it! 

She took a deep shuddering breath in and let it out slowly. 

The League-wide meeting was about to begin again, but this time, Father had called for an open general assembly, not the standard meeting between houses and clans. 

She knew what he was aiming for, but she wasn’t sure if it would work. 

She glanced to her right where her father sat patiently. 

His face was … there was no change.

His face was like granite. 

She knew, though, that he was angry. 

He was the one who leaked intel to the Earth Federation. 

He was the one who sent her brother to help them. 

He warned the League that Zeonites will do something foolish. 

And despite it all…

Her father had a reason to be angry. 

And she was scared about what he might do if the League dawdled even a bit longer. 

She looked forward to her own screen. Unlike last time, Father had created something for her: a full head surround screen. Tough to break, close to her face so that it didn’t affect her head movement, so lightweight that she kept forgetting it was there, so natural to her body that it may as well stay on constantly, and built-in with its own silent AC. With it, she would be able to see the entire assembly’s worth of calls, screens, and even 3D captures of representatives as if she was on a physical assembly.

Then the general assembly video call came online. Screens showing every house lord and clan heads showed up first before even more screens showed up showing town halls, city halls, and even just a simple gathering in a ship’s cafeteria lit up. Those without a video simply had their listed. 

It was … the full gathering of the League, something that hadn’t been done since the formation of the League in its current inception. 

She gulped and tried not to show it. 

Father did not stand up but he did speak.

“House Caelum has called the open general assembly as is its right as the founding house of the Phaeton League,” Father spoke, his voice deep, serious, and tinged with unnerving energy. 

She immediately noticed more than a few representatives get nervous upon hearing his voice sound like that. 

“I think everyone knows what happened on Earth. What the Zeonites did to the homeworld.”

Father did not like calling Earth the homeworld because most of the early founders were born on Jupiter Fuel Fleets or the very few colonies it had managed to set up by the time they were born. 

“But allow me to relay the news for those who have been too busy or too insular to know the happenings of the solar system. On January 15th, the Principality of Zeon drove the mangled corpse of Island Iffish colony station and drove it into collision course with Earth. The Federation 1st Fleet and my son’s own 1st Squadron of the Caelum’s 7th Ceres Guards tried in vain to stop the colony, but it was simply too big and too fast. The colony entered Earth’s atmosphere on January 16th, and began to break apart. Whatever it had been aimed at, the breaking colony veered off-course as it broke into three main parts and too many small ones. 

“As of right now, the Republic of Island and the Socialist State of Viet Nam are gone. The Japanese Archipelago and the Philippine Archipelago are days if not hours away from being struck by world record tsunamis. Borneo is on fire. Dust clouds so thick that no light gets through covers North America. The rest of the British Isles has survived the earthquake and shockwave of the impact that destroyed Ireland but the tsunamis and fire will make sure no one else survives.

“More than a billion people are dead.

“And I warned you all that Zeon would do something like this.”

No one protested. Or even spoke. The general assembly was dead silent.

“I warned you all for more than a decade, and none of you are prepared.

“Even now as House Caelum prepares our marines and ships to put a stop to this threat against humanity, I am getting reports that most of your states have not done anything except bicker about tax allocations and whether or not you even need to fight. I find myself … tired of this indecision in the face of existential threat.”

Silence fell upon the assembly. 

A few looked ashamed. Many looked uncertain and even confused. 

A certain few looked defiant as if accusing with their glares that Father was the one in the wrong. 

It struck her then that the reality of human nature rang true even here in the League where people were supposed to be more enlightened than the Jovians, Earthlings, or Zeonites. 

‘The only consistency in humanity is its inconsistency.’

… Then was that it? Father’s great project, his League, would go the same way as the Federation and the Jovians? Eternally divided, forever vulnerable to corruption and factionalism?

“Some of you will protest that you did not have enough time. Others will complain that there is not enough money. A few of you will ask why we are even bothering to help the federation.”

He leaned forward. 

“This is not about helping the federation but ensuring our future’s safety. If you think that Zeon will ignore us after they take out the federation, then you will leave the assembly. This is not a rhetorical statement but an order from the Head of the General Assembly. Because if you are truly that dumb, then you will not get a vote or a say or even a view of what is to come.”

And this was also why he was given the chance to speak first. House Caelum, by law, held the position as the head of the General Assembly. This was why the other house lords and clan heads preferred the house and clan gathering to the general assembly; after all, both the Clan Council and the League Council had begun as an informal gathering before Father muscled his way in and formalized it into what it was today. 

As for the assembly… no one left, even though she was sure there were a few idiots who truly thought Zeon would ignore them.

“If you are not that dumb, then why the fuck are you all doing nothing?!” he suddenly roared.

His voice shook the rest of the assembly. 

And why wouldn’t they be? 

Father was the quiet one. The one who looked over the rest of the League like a giant shadow. Never overt, never forceful, and never antagonistic. 

He was none of those things now. 

“Because it is not our busi-!” someone shouted but his feed cut off. 

“I had already ordered the idiots to leave the room,” Father sneered. “Does anyone else have a better excuse?”

“W-We of Colony Ship 19 do not possess any military means,” someone spoke up. “And almost five percent of our entire population serve with the League Navy.”

Father paused. He looked at some things that only he could see before nodding. “Understandable. You only have three hundred people aboard a single ship.”

After that, representatives, heads of member states, and even a whole village spoke up one at a time, presenting their case before Father. Smaller members with less than a thousand people were often excused. 

Larger states were not. 

“It is not my duty to prepare your people against external threats,” Father sneered at Harry Franklin, Clan head of Franklin-Matsuda, a corporate clan. “You earn more than enough to have something more than the bare basic protection for your colony. That was the entire point of the League Navy and House Caelum’s increased military spending; so that you and others like you can spend your funds to better protect yourself!” 

Unfortunately, those who could prepare but had chosen not to were the vast majority. 

And more than two idiots got ousted the moment they spoke about not wanting to partake in the Earth-Zeon War. 

Over the course of the next three hours, Father listened and judged. 

And at the end of it, he made a decision.

Father took a deep breath in.

“It is clear to me and all of you that many leaders of the League have been in dereliction of their duties to their people and the League,” he ground out. “It is clear that I cannot leave the League in their hands, and so, I am invoking Article 1, Section 1.”

Astraea grimaced. 

Article 1, Section 1. 

 In the event of leadership failure, House Caelum will be given the judicial, legislative, and executive powers necessary to stabilize and strengthen the Phaeton League.

It was martial law in all but name. 

“Goddamnit,” she muttered as she buried her face into her hands. 

Father had coaxed and even bribed to try to get the rest of the League to understand its position. 

Those efforts proved to have been in vain.

Now, Father was done playing games. 

“And my first order is for the League to mobilize.”