Debauchery Worlds 33 (Patreon)

Commissioned by Southmonk

Debauchery Worlds

Chapter 33

-VB-

ComStar News Bureau

June 10th, 2981

Mysterious Warship Suicides on Benjamin! A False Flag Operation?!

On June 6th, 2981, Benjamin III looked up to see a harrowing scene: a mysterious warship hanging over their world. This warship wasted no time tilting its nose downward and thrust forward toward Benjamin III’s surface with the full intent of crashing onto the planetary capital. The local garrison’s aerospace fighters were unable to stop the derelict warship and the planetary capital was erased from existence as the crashing of over five hundred thousand tons of the warship’s mass created an explosion measured in two-digit kilotons. 

We here on Terra and ComStar News Bureau send our condolences to the people of Benjamin III for the tragedy that has struck them. 

However, we here at ComStar News Bureau deny the claim that the mysterious warship belonged to ComStar and ComGuard. It is obviously a false flag operation conducted by one of many enemies of the Draconis Combine if not one of their own internal factions. Not only does ComStar not possess warship or the facility to maintain them, ComStar is dedicated to …

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Luthien Passengers

2981.06.09

ComStar Warship Attacks Benjamin!

Benjamin III has suffered a catastrophic damage that it may not recover from for decades. 

On the 6th of June, a warship bearing the ComStar logo appeared over Benjamin III. While the communication between this warship and the defenders of ComStar is now forever gone with what happened to the world, the honorable defenders of Benjamin III managed wound the warship enough that the cowards of ComStar chose to go down with their ship instead of surrendering, but doing so, they rammed their warship right down onto the planetary capital of Benjamin III. 

Yes, you read that correctly. They chose to ram their ship to Benjamin III.

As of right now, the site of their attack and the location of the planetary capital is a wasteland with barely anything having survived the fall of the warship…

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Tharkad Messengers

2981.06.14

Benjamin III Attacked by a Warship

Warships are a thing of the past … or so we thought. 

On June 6th, only a week ago, an unknown warship bearing the logo of ComStar appeared over Draconis Combine prefecture capital of Benjamin III. This warship immediately burned its thrust and sped toward the world. Records purchased from insiders within the Draconis Combine show how ineffectual the defending aerospace fighters were against the behemoth of war, and couldn’t stop it from crashlanding - for a definition of the word - onto the planetary capital of Benjamin III.

Warships have been the mainstay of space combat prior to the current Third Succession War …

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Atreus Times

2981.06.15

A ComStar Warship Appears over the Draconis Combine! Have they been hiding warships from the rest of the Successor States?

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Federated Avalonian

June 15, 2981

Mysterious ComStar Warship over Benjamin. Has ComStar been hiding…?

-VB-

Andrew Davion

New Avalon

2981.06.16

It took little over a week for the news of what happened to Benjamin III to reach New Avalon, and he knew exactly who was responsible for the attack. He also received the news just two days before the public learned about it.

But he did not say anything. 

Because he knew who was behind the attack.

Between Major Anderson’s report, the pictures of the broken wreckage of a warship being dragged to orbit of David II for repair, and the Marris Mercenary’s advanced and blackboxed technologies, he could fully believe and did believe that it was the mercenaries who were behind the attack on Benjamin III. And there was also a feeling of begrudging respect for the game they played. 

Since he had a more complete picture of the events thanks to the major, he saw what Commander Marris was trying to do; he wanted to pit ComStar and Draconis Combine against each other. 

Even if ComStar knew who did the actual bombing, they couldn’t reveal that without acknowledging that they had a warship and attacked a Federated Suns planet. That they lost was relevant but not important; the fact that they had a warship squadron with enough power to level any of the Successor State capital world would be enough to get the rest of the Successor States to attack them. 

Captain-General Charles Marik had done the right thing during the Second Succession War. ComStar was manipulating from behind the scenes. If he had only acted with evidence and support of at least one other house, namely his, then they might have been able to convince the rest that ComStar was working against them.

But Marik hadn’t and the Exclusion of Free Worlds League nearly shattered his realm.

It was for the same reason that he couldn’t act against ComStar. He needed at least one other Successor State to work with him to take down ComStar, but only after he managed to get warships of his own. However, he might not even be able to take down ComStar in his lifetime if an opportunity doesn’t come up, and unfortunately for him, the tension now raised between ComStar and the Draconis Combine was not one such opportunity. It could be the start of something that led to an opportunity, but it wasn’t -.

Someone knocked on the door to his office.

“Come in,” he said as he straightened his posture, placing his elbows on the table and clasping his hands together.

The guards outside opened the ornate double doors, and Major Michael Anderson walked in. He saluted once, which he nodded to and gestured for him to relax. 

“I didn’t think I would see you here so soon, major. What do you have for me?”

“Prince Davion, we have a message from the Marris Mercenaries,” he began. “And they wish to not extend the garrison contract.”

“Pity, but David II is … not in a good position in the first place. Are they willing to take another contract?”

The major paused in hesitation before he shook his head. “No, My Prince,” he responded. “They have assured us that they will not be moving from David II and recognize the planet is still being in Federated Suns control.”

Andrew narrowed his eyes. “Those are very specific worlds, major.”

“It is, sire, because according to them, they will be taking the fight to the Draconis Combine … independently.”

The First Prince blinked. “Independently? What exactly do they mean by that?”

“We do not know, sire. However, they assure us that they will continue to sell equipment they manufacture to us and us only.”

“That is good,” he said as he let out a sigh of relief. The thought of those equipment going to the Capellans … ugh. “How have they responded to my request to purchase one of their Stomata assault dropships?”

The major pulled out a noteputer and looked at the holographic message. “... They are actually willing to sell one to you, First Prince.”

Nice.

But really, what did the mercenaries mean when they said they would be fighting independently…? They couldn’t have that much resource at hand, right? 

-VB-

Yin Takami, Primus of ComStar

Terra, ComStar

2981.06.16

His reign as the Primus of ComStar was tumultuous at best and horrifying at worst. To Yin, it seemed like Prophet Blake constantly tested him and ComStar.

First, it was the Tripitz Affair. He became the first Primus in recent memory to order ComGuard to deploy its warships, and then became the first Primus to lose multiple warships to an enemy threatening to undo the Holy Veil.

And now, they used ComStar’s own secrecy against them instead of going to public with the footage. Since none of his people survived the attack on David II, he didn’t even footage to doctor and use ComStar’s legitimacy as a mace against these “Marris Mercenaries,” who couldn’t be anything but some sort of a front for Kerensky’s Exiles. Why else would a technologically advanced group hire themselves out specifically against the Draconis Combine? 

No, the current problem was that the Draconis Combine was a hair’s breadth away from risking an interdiction to take over every single HPG. If he ordered everyone to be cautious or even prepare for a Combine aggression, then even a hint of a leak of his order would result in the Combine taking the destruction of Benjamin III’s capital as having truly been a ComStar attack.

The presence of a warship, however, brief, also made everyone wary of ComStar. 

But to say that ComStar was going down the shitter would be an overexaggeration, even if that was how some of the lesser news agencies tried to display the current crisis. 

“What a mess,” he muttered. In the next meeting of the First Circuit, he’ll have to order everyone to lay low until it all blows over. 

At the very least, no one would truly suspect that was ComStar’s warship with how utterly wasteful and obvious the attack had been.

-VB-

A/N: and that is the end of the ComStar Aggression Arc.