CYTM91

Chapter 90

Can you tell me where can we start over?

Whitting Conference
Tharkad, Lyran Commonwealth
November 20, 3067

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[Overview...]

The Star League Council went into Recess with questions still unanswered in late November of 3067.

The meeting did not end on a civil note, it did not end with a vote to seat the next first lord, and it did not end with a full Star League Council.

Peter had honored his word to Marthe Pryde, he'd put forth the Falcon candidacy for membership, only to see the effective. If not legal, dissolution of the governing council.

For their part, the Jade Falcons were easily convinced that the Lyrans had not stabbed them in the back. So much as simply not been influential enough to win it politically, a gambit Marthe Pryde and Samantha Clees had already anticipated-the gesture. So the treaty that came with it, were enough to suit the purpose.

Lyran forces would not resist a Jade Falcon drive on Terra to force the issue, but would fight their rivals in Clan Wolf, or the other Clans, if it came to it once the invasion vote was renewed.

The move also isolated the Lyrans from their traditional rivals and allies,  The Lyran Commonwealth was effectively only really able to ally with Clan Jade Falcon.

This would have all been to plan for if not for the Word of Blake. Incensed over the very idea of a Clan being joined to the Star League as a member state, (even provisionally) hadn't decided to unilaterally effect a regime change while the Capellan, Free Worlds, and Rasalhague groups were still boarding ships for the zenith.

In late November of 3067, The Word of Blake, thwarted in their quest to become the guiding hand of the Star League and enraged by "Lyran Capitulations" turned the guns of a war fleet on to the capital city of the Lyran Commonwealth.

This was not without casualties.

The destroyer KCGS Dinh Diep with Cutter Division One in defense of Tharkad.

KCGS Dinh Diep, Landmark class destroyer, and her cutter squadron moved to stop them.  The battle in the Tharkad system lasted 19 hours from the moment the former LCS Invincible opened fire on the surface.  In the end, Cutter Division One was destroyed, but as observed by Ghost Bear military officers accompanying the Rasalhague Elected Prince, and Federated Suns Naval officers rushing to get Yvonne out of the area in safety. It was one hell of a fight, and it bought time for the other heads of state to make it to their vessels and evacuate.

The exLCS Invincible, Tharkad Class Battlecruiser in service of the Word of Blake.

Once again, the Lyran Commonwealth was becoming the battlefield for someone else's war.

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