A War for the Stars

[Erax]

Admiral Wiers' private log, SGY 2400.0:

I have been on this planet for ten weeks now. All attempts to contact Imperial Fleet have failed. Until now, I had been waiting for the ion storms to cease, for communications to be restored, for the arrival of the task force that should be supporting our operations here. Now I must change my premises. I can no longer make plans for when they arrive, I must plan my actions if they arrive. And, what is more important, if they do not arrive. We are in the Unknown Regions here; there was only one known hyperspace route to this system and it seems to be closed. I do not know what event could have caused this, but it is likely to be the same event that is causing the massive storms.

I was sent to Virgillia V with a simple mission: expand the spaceyard and spaceport facilities here to allow an Imperial task force to operate in the region, conquering any independent races and adding them to the Empire. In time, Virgillia would become the capital of a new Imperial sector.

I am still operating under those orders; local shipbuilding technology is primitive, not much more than non-regenerating atomic engines and crude laser cannons. Using the designs I brought with me, we are upgrading local plants to an acceptable level, but it will be more than a year before we can turn out our first ion drives. The planet has a large, well-trained, contented workforce, but the local shipyard is too small. We need more resouces. We need orbital facilities. We need better tools. And we will have to provide them all ourselves.

And I will be in charge of it all. As pro tem military governor, I am the highest Imperial military and civilian authority in the region. Whatever the results here, I will have to answer for them. Failure will bring contempt, success might bring suspicion. I could easily be accused of overstepping my bounds. Having no one to report to could, in time, make me become a warlord.

And so this log. If I do become a warlord, I will do it with full knowledge of when, why and how it happened.

And I will erase this log the minute that task force appears on our scanners.

[ April 24, 2003, 16:40: Message edited by: Erax ]