Vinh Kruczek-LengyelI smell civil war breaking over security measures. Terror attack is surely one thing, but wholly other thing is to get all citizen monitored what is against Federation's laws and principles, and tradition-wise Federation was (aside of the Alliance) the beacon of liberty and personal freedoms. Even despite that corporate stench.

Claudius Aetius"The Proactive Detection Bureau has been set up by the Federal Intelligence Agency to scan civilian communications for signs of terrorist activity."

Fedneck Zac find the perfect excuse to create the Galactic Big Brother.. This will not end well. I smell Dictatorship odor in the Federation future...

Vinh Kruczek-LengyelI smell civil war breaking over security measures. Terror attack is surely one thing, but wholly other thing is to get all citizen monitored what is against Federation's laws and principles, and tradition-wise Federation was (aside of the Alliance) the beacon of liberty and personal freedoms. Even despite that corporate stench.

Claudius Aetius

Vinh Kruczek-LengyelI smell civil war breaking over security measures. Terror attack is surely one thing, but wholly other thing is to get all citizen monitored what is against Federation's laws and principles, and tradition-wise Federation was (aside of the Alliance) the beacon of liberty and personal freedoms. Even despite that corporate stench.

All this situation is becoming more muddy as time goes by... My suspicion that NMLA was not the only piece acting in the Nine Martyrs is more and more strong. Could Zac act against his own people just to tighten his power grip around Federation? Or justify a war against the Empire?

Eris

Claudius Aetius

Vinh Kruczek-LengyelI smell civil war breaking over security measures. Terror attack is surely one thing, but wholly other thing is to get all citizen monitored what is against Federation's laws and principles, and tradition-wise Federation was (aside of the Alliance) the beacon of liberty and personal freedoms. Even despite that corporate stench.

All this situation is becoming more muddy as time goes by... My suspicion that NMLA was not the only piece acting in the Nine Martyrs is more and more strong. Could Zac act against his own people just to tighten his power grip around Federation? Or justify a war against the Empire?

It definitely seems within the President Hudson's character. As I sort slightly of touched on here and here a while ago, the NMLA from very early on seemed to be pretty convenient for Hudson, and its very sudden rise to relevance seems incredibly suspicious.

Obviously a lot has changed since I wrote those posts, but I'd still argue we cannot rule out Federal involvement in the NMLA. It's simply too convenient. Hudson now has rather authoritarian powers under his belt, and everyone is too distracted by terrorists to worry about anything else he's potentially been meddling in. Further, multiple important members of his cabinet were killed in one of the attacks and like the original Nine Martyrs this could have served as a distraction and a means to tie up loose ends. It is highly likely that people with important information related to whatever Hudson has been involved in were present and killed by the bombing, including the Vice President Bradley Mitchell. Further, all those deaths gave Hudson a lot of empty positions he could fill with his own people, and no one would question it.

It also seems incredibly suspicious to me that the new Vice President wasn't at this meeting on Li Qing Jao station; he was the Secretary of Security, the former head of the Federal Intelligence Agency, a cabinet member, and the cabinet member most likely to be exposed to information regarding terrorist threats. While most other cabinet members have been implied to have been killed at Li Qing Jao, the secretary of security wasn't there - and we haven't been told where he was.

It's not unheard of for a convenient tragedy attack to kill off someone's political rivals, loose ends, and/or open up avenues to exploit for political and personal gain - the recent NMLA attacks did all three.

I don't know who's behind the incredibly suspicious NMLA, but I will happily point out how convenient it is for some people - and it could well just be that the NMLA is convenient for Hudson and he's just a ruthlessly effective politician, hell someone might even be trying to frame him by making it all this convenient. Whatever it is, the NMLA is very suspicious and has certainly been receiving outside support.

Besides, an interesting conspiracy seems like a good fun storyline for ED, and it would certainly make good writing.

Knightwolf 1785So does anyone else think the Imperial Explorer is an ugly bird? (...)