Tetrarchy Capitulates to the Golden Empire

DATELINE MEZLAGOB


 * Editor's note: Since the onset of the war, News First Mezlagob has released a number of stories which have not only proven false, but which its editorial board knew were false at the time of release. These publications occurred under orders of the Tetrarchy government.  The editorial board begs the public's understanding and commits to publishing a revised, accurate narrative of the war's progress in the coming weeks.  As the transition of governments continues, News First Mezlagob will remain the primary source of information for a curious public.

The 702-year history of the Tetrarchy of Mezlagob came to an end this week as Mezlagob's home fleet surrendered to Rin Sakaros, Queen of the Golden Empire, and Vice Admiral Dithiar Minum stood down defenses to deliver the planet to the Empire's control. Allowed to issue a statement from confinement by the Empire, Minum accused the Tetrarchs of executing his predecessor, Admiral Yman Ailad, for advising surrender at terms.

"Our Tetrarchs insisted that nothing short of victory was acceptable," Minum told News First Mezlagob's reporters. "But victory had become an impossibility. With nothing to gain and the lives of good servicebeings to lose, I have conceded the obvious and offered my surrender to Queen Rin and Lord Sakaros."

Minum was allowed to meet personally with reporters under guard, and appeared weary but unharmed. He described himself as "tired", but added, "I've been treated with respect by the Empire's officers, and to the best of my knowledge my men have as well."

News First Mezlagob can now report that, contrary to reassurances from the Tetrarchy as recently as last week that the Empire's advances into its territory were "the temporary gains of a wounded, dying animal lashing out", several senior government officials have predicted the downfall of the Tetrarchy since the loss of Vall`to and the death of Admiral Garyth Quorr earlier this year. Additionally, NFM confirms widespread speculation and reports from the Empire's mostly-suppressed shadowfeed that Hudrelan former Tetrarch Pexereca Tainer did not die of a previously undisclosed heart condition, but was killed by agents of the Empire on Hudrel itself.

After Vice Admiral Minum offered surrender, Umdal Tetrarch Lahek Gril committed suicide aboard the Cleansing Wave, but the Wave's crew captured Mezlagob's own Catel Embri and Idiian Gundo and delivered them to the Empire's troops per the terms of surrender. Yesterday morning, Queen Rin herself appeared at the Hall of Four and, in a live broadcast on the Royal HoloNet and the remaining functional Tetrarchy HoloNet servers, pronounced both Embri and Gundo guilty of crimes against sentients and decapitated them personally.

It was a sobering moment for many onlookers.

"We reached out the hand of leadership to alien races, and they bit it," lamented one Mezzel.

"I haven't always agreed with the Tetrarchs' policies," a Hudrelan agreed, "but the government was good overall, and beings knew where they stood. With the witch queen in command, who knows?"

The quip is a reference to the allegedly magical powers possessed by Queen Rin and a number of her followers. Reports of warriors leaping ten meters at a time, employing telekinesis, and reading minds, initially dismissed as the ravings of traumatized veterans, have been repeated so often that they have gained a level of credibility even among skeptics. It is undisputed that Lord Sakaros and a number of others have been recorded deflecting blasterfire with swords seemingly made of pure plasma—the same weapons Queen Rin used to behead Embri and Gundo.

While many in the crowd observing the Tetrarchs' executions expressed hostility and despair, reaction to the Empire's takeover of Mezlagob has been varied. Impromptu demonstrations erupted across the planet. In at least one instance, crowds waving banners reading "W ELCOME E MPIRE " and "W E SURRENDER, JUST FEED US " were fired upon by Tetrarchy riot police, who were themselves fired upon by Royal starfighters escorting landing craft to the surface. Riots and looting have been reported in numerous locations, with several riots originating in the second city and spilling up to the surface. Royal troops and Mezlagob police alike are still working to restore order as relief supplies—primarily food and medicine—continue to arrive on an hourly basis.

Some pockets of resistance have been reported onworld, but the Empire's takeover appears largely peaceable as a starved planet turns to its only hope for salvation. A number of former Tetrarchy officials have been arrested, but Tariun Sakaros insisted the Empire does not intend a purge of all former Tetrarchy officers.

"Those who conspired to oppress the people of Mezlagob—the architects of the Tetrarchy's brutality, in other words—will answer for their crimes," he pledged, speaking to reporters in his first press conference to the unified governments, which took place after the last Tetrarchs were executed. "But the Empire isn't the Tetrarchy, and we aren't here to punish the innocent along with the guilty."

"We're not going to execute maintenance workers and office staff because they had 'Tetrarchy' on their pay stubs," Sakaros added.

No executions have been confirmed but those of the Tetrarchs, but some of Mezlagob's residents remain unconvinced.

"It's a meaningful choice of words," observed one Mezzel, who identified himself only as a mid-level manager. "They're trying to stir up class warfare to complete their decapitation of the government."

Meanwhile, the Royal government has reported that most of the Tetrarchy's other member and vassal worlds have surrendered unconditionally. In response to questions about Ommol, the military depot of the Mezlag sector, the Empire's Counter Admiral Tiro Maathkes confirmed that the planet has refused to surrender, but promised swift defeat and incorporation for the Umdal homeworld.

"One planet standing in the way of history does not a government make," Maathkes stated. "The Tetrarchy of Mezlagob is extinct."

And while debate will carry on for some time whether the Queen and her victorious army are conquerors or liberators, whether they seek justice or compensation in blood, and whether even the Empire can control the food and economic riots still plaguing Mezlagob, there is little debate that Maathkes is right in that—the sun has set on the Tetrarchy of Mezlagob, and risen again to find its homeworld the newest possession of the Golden Empire.