According to a recent Galnet article, the Empire are claiming that accepting political refugees is "mass kidnapping".

It is not the Federation that forced these people to flee, that was all the work of Empirical "security" forces.

The Empire clearly show that they see their citizens as subjects, as property of the state, which in turn is the personal property of the Duval family.

The people that fled are their own agents, they should have the right to move to wherever they are welcome with the Emperor not having a say in it.

At the same time, President Hudson is desperate for an external enemy to unite against and secure his position (which right now looks utterly precarious).

Inner turmoil in the upper echelons of the Empire leading to genocide, and an itchy Federal President may well spell disaster and a global war. Meanwhile Thargoid attacks have tied up Federal reasources on that front, leaving what could be perceived as on opening by expansionists in the Empire. While outright occupation may lead to unrest at home, these terrorist attacks are the perfect pretense for an "intervention" to "secure suspected terrorists".

We are living in interesting times.

Another terrorist attack, this time a suicide squad from NMLA attacked Hadrian Duval, an illegitimate grandson of the current emperor and claimant to the throne.

While this makes sense politically, as the Nova Imperium is among the most hard core traditionalist imperial factions, it is at the same time helping the current leaders to weed out "unpure blood lines".

As far as I can see, Arissa is still my main suspect as the brains behind the whole operation, hidden through a suitable number of increasingly dirtier hands.

After many years in power, President Zachary Hudon is losing his grip on Federation politics and policies.

Being indirectly implied in the current trials regarding the sabotage of Starship One, Hudson is no longer the obvious Leader of the flawed democracy that is the Federation.

Have Hudson finally outstayed his welcome on the post? And did he get it through nefarious means to begin with?

You might argue that his stance of expelling the political refugees comes from not wanting to increase tensions between the Empire and the Federation in a time when the Thargoid threat seem to reemerge.

But the majority have spoken, it is more important to defend the values of democracy and freedom, because if we lose those, we have lost everything.

Will there be a major galactic war, and will the Thargoids take advantage of this?

Stay tuned, news at 11.

So there is now a large effort in LFT 625 to collect resources for the refugees.

I am not sure about other commanders, but what I see personally is that a lot of food in the form of synthetic meat is exported from Fox Enterprise in exchange for clothing.

I see two problems here:

First:

There is already a good source of nutrition produced at this station in large quantities, but that is not reserved for the refugees but instead traded for whichever of basic medicines, clothing, food cartridges, fruit and vegetables or shelters that CMDRs can source for the best profit.

Time to fire up the kitchens, not the frame shift drives, in my opinion.

Second:

Without set goals for each commodity, we are seeing the same inbalance as for the famous wake haze for Harold Duval. I have heard rumours that some participants at the rather smelly event managed to hoard large quantities of the cigars (that were handed out for free to the crowds) and that they are now used as a black market currency at Capitol among the less affluent population.

While I am not a smoker myself, it saddens me that most of these precious cigars are ruined by now due to improper handling, and that their only value is as memorabilia from the funeral.

I have been busy this week, but not involved in the war against the Thargoids, where the last battle was won. A big o7 to all the CMDRs that contributed.

The Federation is in political turmoil following the allegations in association with the renewed Star Ship 1 trials.

The Empire is still in a state of civil war and a refugee chrisis is brewing. The open hostilities ended in a draw, where at least some of the refugee megaships managed to escape.

Both the Alliance and the Federation states that they will welcome those seeking political asylum, while some independent states have not been as forthcoming. I understand that, some of theses independent systems are really small, and could not really accomodate a large influx of people. None of the independent systems can defend themselves against an onslaught of the Imperial Navy, at lest not without much support, and independent pilots tend to pick both sides if possible, at least as a group.

Speaking of the Imperial Navy, they seem to be busy harrassing subjects of the Empire, while the rest of humanity have taken care of the new Thargoid threat.

On a different note, I tried my Imperial Clipper today, equipped it for a leisure tour this weekend and, well, it sucks. The glare from the white panels make the holo screens hard to see, the view angle is horrific. It is clearly designed for show rooms, not for space flight.

Fly safe!

The Empire is more than one thing, the Empire is all its worlds and citizens, with different views and lives and livelihoods. Just like the Alliance or the Federation the vast majority are planet dwellers, who will never leave the safety of their atmospherically protected gravity well.

The Empire is also a loose collection of squabbling factions, just like the Alliance and Federation. Factions that enforce very different rules to the dweller that never leave their system, but still has to live through wars and questionable elections.

This is just daily life in a galaxy of humans, where power have always been enforced by the gun.

But the Empire can also be the ruling Elite, the people who (at least occationsally) dine in the vast sumptuous halls of the Palace, built on the backs of institutionalized slavery.

It is this last Empire that has now decided that the biggest threat is planet dwellers, who might at one time or another voiced that the Empire is not the Republic that the founder of the Republic (Marlin Duval) dreamed of.

And these are now seen as a larger threat by the powers of the Empire, than the recent Thargoid incursions, because the Thargoids are (currently) not in Empire space.

So now millions of Empire subjects, knowing very well that due process has never been part of the "justice" system of the Empire, are fleeing their home systems, many going to space for the first time in their life, because they fear that someone might name them as Marlinist. Even if they never harboured a Marlinist thought, they might at one time have offended a person that holds a grudge and choses to inform on them.

And if someone informs on you, you will "disappear", and either be killed outright or forced into slavery, "paying off" a fine so large you will never be free again.

So the question here is, if it is just the refugees seeking Political Asylum, or if the palace on Achenar has become an Asylum for a degenerate ruling family.

The two conflicting community goals in Ackwada are now finished, and they seem to have got a luke warm reception. While both sides of the conflict accrued more war bonds than the previous conflict regarding Liz Ryder, the scale was much larger and the death toll in total higher.

While the Duduseklis Empire League needed support to escort megaships with political refugees (their words, not mine) to escape the system, the Regulatory State of Ackwada (a dictatorship) needed to stop these at any cost, and a million civilian would be a price they would be happy to let the civilians pay, just in case there was a single terrorist among them.

The stage was set, and the fighting was hard, but neither faction reached their goal. As the goal for the Regulary State was set lower, they could claim a "win" on this one.

So while some refugees escaped, we can also expect the dictatorship to take control and start the pogroms against those native Ackwadians that might have loyalties to the funding mother of the Republic, Marlin Duval, rather than the Empires that her brother Henson Duval turned it into.

In the end, the only winners here are the mercenaries and the hawks at Achenar.

It is an interesting duality being a weapons manufacturer. On the one side, you probably is proud of your work, on the other, what people chose to use them for may very well go against your personal views.

Especially in the case of Liz Ryder, where superficially she is working for the Eurybia Blue Maffia, but rather is selling her services to just about anyone.

In general, she supplies independent pilots regardless of affiliation, as well as the navies of all the super powers, with her weapons modifications.

Seem she also supplies the EBM with general explosives, and she is probably not in a situation where she can be picky, so she supplies them with these "secondary payload explosives" without thinking about what that secondary payload might be.

Who is to say that it was not someone within the EBM that placed the order using fake contacts, on contract from another party, also using fake identities, to supply yet another party with the explosives (but not the thargoid payload)? But that is a rabbit hole so deep that Alice probably would stay away from it.

So why are the Imperial Internal Security Service dropping their charges when Liz is clearly admitting her part in this? It is definitely not for what little information she is said to have provided.

My guess is that she has incriminating evidence and actually found a link into the Imperial Palace itself, and is using this to force the Empire to back down even further than just their bloodied noses would require. But she has done this in such a way as to ensure the continued existence of EBM, her business and indeed her own life and freedom.

Instead the hawks (or more aptly vultures) in the Palace have turned their eyes on the systems where Princess Aisling Duval has the most support, in their continued effort to thwart further demands for human rights and abolition of slavery.

The power struggle within the empire is now costing even more lives, as it is now time to target an empire faction directly.

Under the guise of suspected ties to NMLA the dictatorial "Regulatory State of Ackwada" has attacked the "merely" patronal "Duduseklis Empire League", with both sides looking for support from independent CMDRs.

Those commanders affiliated with the Empire now has a real choice to make, will they support a faction that want the Empire to keep some gloss of civilization, or will they support the faction that sees subjects, not citizens.

The commanders affiliated with the Federation will just happily slaughter imperials either way, and the independents will probably switch sides as the battle results come in just for the profits.

Or perhaps even those commanders will try to work out what kind of Empire they want.

Supporting a dictatorship will ensure more lucurative slave trade and probably more employment as assassins and mercenaries.

Supporting a slightly more lenient culture as a stepping stone toward a republic, or at least a senatorial empire with a senate that is not just commanded around by whichever person had the right parents to wield unchecked power. That should create more peaceful trade and a faster economical expansion.

This time around there are no obvious bribes on either side.

Meanwhile, once more, the citizen (or as some would see it subjects) of empire rulers are suffering and dying in the thousands, if not millions.

And all this as a result of an internal power struggle in the halls and rooms of the Empirical Palace.

Personally, I will leave the fighting for others, but if there are refugees to transport, I might just do that. I have no need anymore for empire ranks, and mining is where the easy money is, but I would do it for the refugees (and engineering materials).

So the Empire decided that the first enemy will be Liz Ryder.

They did paint her an enemy, and as expected Princess Aisling Duval is now supporting the oppression of the very people whose princess she is supposed to be.

Someone played princess Aisling like a fiddle, and the Empire is now also aiming to get control over some very lucrative business opportunities.

First reports however show that the Eurybia Blue Mafia does have an overwhelming support from Pilot Federation pilots, most likely due to the promised one-off missile system, when right or wrong is shady, bribes are an effective way to gain support.

Am I convinced that Liz Ryder is innocent in all this? No, not really, but neither am I convinced that the Empire has proven her guilt in the matter, nor that a full scale war is necessary.

There will be many more deaths because of this, much more than in the station bombings, probably even more than the increased oppression inside the Empire would create on its own.

This is just the first step of an escalation of the conflicts in the galaxy, where we move from minor factions duking it out over control in individual systems to the major factions going into full scale war again.

Where will the Powers stand in all this? I believe they will keep balancing their interests and not blindly go where the major factions go. Perhaps with the exception of Princess Aisling, who I suspect will become much more violent and dictatorial.