Fault Line
While the Alsinan Defense League had been a standing power within G-S16 for some time now, its descent into the vile pit of unending corruption and backstabbing deals preventing the progress of the ADL had been long and tragic from an outside observer. The stranglehold that the megacorporations held over the country was almost as tight as hardened steel, harmed only recently from a bipartisan push to rid their military of the influence of the locusts which the corporations were. Another blow to the vile altar of the country had come with the Great Bastonian Empocracy’s rapid rise of the economic ladder within, threatening the megacorporation’s unchallenged title to this point, along with the rise of a fourth to the ranks of the top. The final blow to the now unstable foundations of the country were the VWP’s entering to a non-public alliance with the Alsinans, which courted many of those who previously had their paychecks filled by the megacorps over to a side of action. Many of those who helped the GBE companies survive in the ADL after their introduction were also gaining much more personal wealth by those enterprises than they were via bribes and lobbying. As such, these two major shifts in the Alsinan political climate destroyed the stasis which the country had previously experienced, and the time was now for change to occur. Finally, after decades of stagnation, the megacorporations did not have a majority within the Alsinan Parliament, and as such the country would be able to progress.
This all culminated in the most recent election of parliamentarians – the so-called War of Bribes.
A leader emerged for the VWP-aligned party, one Erkuza Iosia, one of the few politicians in the past who stood against his party’s past widespread beliefs. He was not much popular among the people so had managed to dodge the fate which befell many of his predecessors who managed to gain favor, but with this toppling of the now extinct political order, he seized the moment and rallied many of the dissatisfied Alsinan parliamentarians to establish the ADL as a nation for itself, dedicated to progress for itself. The Collective, once a secretive rebel group which remained silent and dormant, their ideals near impossible before, returned from hiding, and hijacked broadcasts to display the message to the Alsinan people:
“People of Cunicule and beyond. Your lives had been tampered with, toyed with, and led by a force beyond your desire to the state you live in today. And those at fault are the cretins who run your government. As a Collective people, we must rise above these wretches and retake our nation for ourselves. Join the Collective. Make your voice known.”
The hijacking of an Alsinan broadcast had been an unseen idea in the world of propaganda within the country before, and it served as a wakeup call to those who had been blissfully asleep both within the government and without. And it served as the perfect excuse for Iosia to rally the jaded politicians to his side.
“The threats on Alsina both from inside and the outer galaxy at large are impossible to ignore. It is foolish, traitorous even, to bury your head in the sand and ignore the necessity – we cannot remain stagnant. We cannot remain fixed. The time to push back against the remaining fixtures of the political establishment are now.”
He said, over a broadcasted interview to every personal set in the homes of Alsinan citizens. This was not an unpopular view, as many both publicly and privately supported him in this endeavor and publicly outed those who would not comply with giving up the bribes of the corporations, destroying their careers and forcing retirement in shame. All this combined created a self-sustaining and self-purging political force – The Alsinan Collective Defense Front.
However, there had not been a universal wave of the ACDP which swept the Alsinan parliament in the recent elections. A second movement which formed in the wake of the recent electoral shake ups were the newly independently wealthy Alsinan parliamentarians who supported the incoming Bastonian businesses, and who had been forced to either comply with the pre-existing megacorporations or be left out in the cold on their own. Many chose the latter, seeing as the former choice would eventually lead to scandal and a forced resignation regardless of their choices which followed.
The leader of this political movement was Ichka Yerza, who had been a completely forgettable politician prior to the GBE arriving within the ADL, however, when they began to expand their influence over the Alsinan economy, he was one of their loudest and most avid supporters, along with being one of the first and gaining the most wealth from the endeavor.
Following along from the presence of the Bastonian enterprises and their public support of these enterprises came the ultimatum from the 3 pre-existing megacorps, long having had their grip on the Alsinan political machine loosened. The first option was publicly renouncing the support of Bastonian enterprises, taking a massive hit to your credibility to the public and inevitably being outed for corruption while maintaining the funding you receive from these corporations. The second, and vastly discouraged option, was to renounce the funding and bribes, while keeping whatever you managed to accrue from the inevitably failing Bastonian businesses. An unstated though heavily implied part of this deal was that if you rejected the bribes, you would be exposed by an “investigative journalist” and be forced to resign regardless.
Dissatisfaction among the politicians had been building for decades upon decades, and even those which were re-elected were on their ways to be toppled eventually by fresh meat in the industry, forced to suffer the same never-ending stagnation and force the suffering onto the Alsinan people while remaining idle. Many of those who had supported the Bastonian enterprises, which numbered roughly half of the Parliament, outright rejected the corporation’s influence, and established The Pro-Alsinan Front’s Party.
With such a name came support from the anti-government organization known as The Front, who saw the PAFP as their only opportunity to free the workers of the ADL. While before they were an underground organization, similar to the Collective, the Front were a significantly less extremist force, pushing for protests and constant referendums to attempt change. They too hijacked the air waves to show their own message to the Alsinan people.
“Alsinan workers, those who lord over you by means of wealth and political power are destructive. They seek nothing more than to topple your freedoms and stunt your growth as a nation. Forcing a fight against them shall only result in defeat without the will from within – which is why we are calling upon YOU. You are the only hope of this nation, we need the workers of Alsina to unite. Form the Front against your oppressors.”
Thus set the stage for the upcoming times of turmoil within the ADL, and it would be dangerous territory for all.
