A short first-person narrative regarding a small conflict over fish between two Federal states on Averon VIII, a Caldari corporatized democracy and a Jin-Mei dominion, over half a century ago (originally Averon VII, but changed due to in-game reasons). Originally posted on Chatsubo in March for Silver's contest
Who was it? About fifty years ago now, in Everyshore. The Independent Republic of Morsk and the Xy Jang Commune. Bad idea to have them on the same planet, whoever's idea it was. One a capitalist democracy with no care for tradition and the other stock full of...well, exactly that. Right, well, the former was mainly ethnic Caldari, with a small Ni-Kunni minority. Fitting to stereotype, the various corporations there had a strong grip on the rather weak direct democracy that governed Morsk. The executive council that facilitated legislation for referenda were, surprise surprise, mostly former CEOs and entrepreneurs. Not to mention the outcomes of each vote were pretty much decided to the benefit of what corporation pumped the most cash into campaigning. Then again, that's typical Federation for you. The only difference was that Morsk was a tax haven, as pretty much all public services were contracted out to individual companies. District and Federal taxes still applied, naturally.
Now, the Xy Jang Commune. Settled half a century before, by some Sang Do overlord I forget the name of. Mostly Jin-Mei as one would suspect, in fact, I very rarely encountered anyone other than ethnic Jin-Mei in Xy Jang. Naturally, the caste system was in full effect, but the universal suffrage law was in place which was...interesting. It was a parliamentary system, don't count on me to pronounce what the exact name of it was. Everyone voted individual representatives, who were all members of the Sang Do caste. The occasional Saan Go, but it was no surprise that their “cultural thinking” or some such found it aberrant to elect anyone other than someone from the highest caste. In turn the representatives elected a prime minister who was, again, a Sang Do. Their parliament attempted to pass a bill through that meant only Sang Do could be elected representatives, but the Averon district court intervened when word of it reached the top.
Me? I was a jarhead stationed on one of the Federation Army's airborne carriers, in turn based from a port in the sunny Dkalov Islands. Some small Intaki protectorate with its main industry in tourism...and women. Lots of women. Anyway, the problem with Averon VIII was its resources. There was nothing remarkable about it, standard habitable world where all the planetary minerals and food weren't exportable into the interstellar market, instead just being consumed and traded within the world itself. There was one exception, however, which were the rare Klaxon fish that could be found in the ocean that separated Morsk and Xy Jang. Did I mention that both were coastal states? Yeah, so these fish were exotic and their lungs were pleasing to the taste and naturally both fishers from either country wanted to farm 'em up and ship them off-world for profit. Their lungs? Yeah, these fish were ****ing loud. You take them out of the water, and they just start screaming. Averon VIII's central government made fishing Klaxon illegal without the proper ear protection. I was on the beach once, in Dkalov. One of those critters jumped out onto the sand, started screaming, before I shot it with my pistol. Dispersed the beachgoers and got me fined by the local police. Right bugger, that.
The conflict started when an oceanic region that was particularly rich in Klaxon had fisheries belonging to companies from both Morsk and Xy Jang. They figured it would make more sense if they combined their efforts and resources into one single endeavour, which quickly spread outwards until there was a monopoly. It was heralded as the first economic cooperation between the two states. Needless to say, a Morskian corporation bought majority share in the endeavour, and passed regulation that forbid the caste system to operate within the fisheries, effectively making all the Jin-Mei employees redundant. There was outrage from the Commune, and glee from the Morskians, as several thousand job opportunities opened up for them. From a nation who originated from a culture that was already quite aggressive and militaristic, you can guess what happened. The Xy Jang mobilized their military and sent ships to blockade all the fisheries. Per chance, a bunch of ethnic Gallentean environmentalists and religious nuts from Essence had already seen fit to squat in almost every one beforehand (citing the sanctity and/or uniqueness of the Klaxon fish), which meant Morsk's navy couldn't blast the Xy Jang ships without causing collateral damage and resulting in an international outcry.
The standoff lasted a week. There were rallies in the streets, petitions to the Senator, requests to the system's governor. Nothing happened. So we took matters into our own hands. Our airborne fleet descended onto the fisheries to evacuate all the activists. A few of them dived in and drowned themselves in protest. Anyway, after that happened, we left, and the two navies blasted each other to hell, destroying the fisheries and each other. Unfortunately, there was a small aquatic genocide as a result. When news reached our holding cells onboard the carrier, several of our activist detainees escaped and decided to jump several thousand metres to their deaths, apparently trying to make us feel bad for letting the conflict happen or something. I didn't feel any remorse, I just used the scope of my rifle to see if I could see a small dot making a splash in the ocean below. Didn't work.
So, the remaining Klaxon decided to pack their habitats and migrate elsewhere, far away from both the Independent Republic of Morsk and the Xy Jang Commune. As a result, neither nation got the economic boom they wanted from exporting the fish off-world, and instead, that luxury went to the Dkalov Islands; the local Intaki there now rolling in cash with their lavish tourist arcologies. In fact, I do believe the Commune was occupied and annexed earlier in this civil war currently raging between the Sang Do chaps, when a passing fleet belonging to a Lirsautton overlord stopped by. Not sure what its fate was in the end. What do you mean what happened to Morsk?
You ever heard of Averon VIII being on the Scope recently?
That's what I thought.
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Topic: [Story] The Fisherman War of Averon VIII (Read 1341 times)