(07 February 3049)

For almost two decades now, the peoples of the Federated Commonwealth have listened to the impassioned pleas of Duchess Candace Liao; a monthly address within her St. Ives Compact for her sister, Chancellor Romano Liao, to step down from the helm of the Capellan Confederation. Yet in the last few years I’ve seen an ambivalence descend across this great realm. An indifference to the dangers—and madness—this great woman has witnessed face-to-face, and that we, so quickly, have forgotten.

Children graduating from secondary school can recite easily the exploits of the Fourth Succession War begun on August 20th, 3028. How the Armed Forces of the Federated Suns brought freedom to dozens of worlds and forever removed the threat of the Machiavellian House Liao and their Capellan Confederation as they smashed the sword of freedom against the despots. Yet the beast was never fully slain. Bruised and sullen, it crouches at the edges of our realm…succoring its strength; rebuilding.

At one time Duchess Candace was a heroine on every tongue within the empire. How she stood against the diabolical madness on far-off Sian, repudiating her family and the evils they espouse, and taking the enlightened people of the St. Ives Commonality with her to form the St. Ives Compact: a small but heroic nation the Federated Suns gracefully accepted under its wing for protection. Holovid epics and a legion of books, from boringly accurate to luridly impossible, portrayed her titanic struggles, her illicit affair with Justin Xiang-Allard, and ultimately a love and nobility that triumphed over the bedeviling influence of her Liao blood.

Yet the young, vibrant heroine of yore has since become a lone voice of reason along her nation’s imperiled border. The proverbial boy with his finger in the dike, holding back the pressures of power and resolve growing within the shattered realm of that madness-tainted Great House. Despite the dismissive attitude most hold toward House Liao, we must never forget that it is a Great House. That it has survived for almost seven centuries intact. That in fact, despite the best efforts of most citizens to forget such things, House Liao can trace its history and legacy all the way through the Terran Alliance and into pre-flight Terra and the ancient history of the country of China that stretches back some four and a half thousand years. The upheavals, wars and strife that have wracked that people dwarf almost any other such events in human history…and yet they have retained their sense of identity, their strength of resolve, through it all.

While I applaud First Prince Hanse Davion for his vision and fortitude in waging the Fourth Succession War to protect our homeland, he shied away from the ultimate duty. A beast is never as dangerous as when it is wounded, and House Liao was left to fester in its defeat and re-grow.

Most will likely ignore my comments as those of an over-worried armchair general who does not understand the true strength of the Federated Commonwealth. I hope such people are right. Yet I fear there may come a time in the not-too-distant-future when the Capellan Confederation will rise from its ashes and Duchess Candace can, with the full weight of her passion and diligence, intone “I told you so.”

—Olivia Daver, Commonwealth Press