The Shattered Theocracy The dawn of 0012 was unlike any other in the short but turbulent history of the Hollow Suns. A new hand had gripped the wheel of state, and it was a hand both young and daring. Hektor Alpheus, not even two weeks into his Presidency, laid bare a vision that would shake the foundations of the Federation itself.
The old order, scarred by years of factional bickering, had been weakened by Wilder’s presidency, where faith and theocracy had lost their binding force upon a restless society. Alpheus sensed the hunger for change that pulsed beneath the surface. He would offer that change, not piecemeal, but with sweeping constitutional reform.
He was not content with continuity nor cautious reform; his eyes were set on legacy, on reshaping the Federation into something new, something that could endure for centuries: A new Federal Republic. And he knew well that the moment to strike was fleeting.
The Militarists were the first to be courted. They had grown restless under Wilder, their proposals often stifled by Pacifists and Trade alike. Alpheus promised them not only research into propulsion and power, but a guarantee that the Republic’s constitution would enshrine defence as a sacred duty of the state. Their officers would no longer beg for scraps of budget; their laboratories and shipyards would be central to the Republic’s vision of survival among the stars. In return, the Militarists pledged to hold their vote and keep their firebrands silent during the reform debates.
On the very first day of the year, Alpheus moved. HSCR000071 was a test of the Militarist will to cooperate with the call to reform the justice system from the current martial court to one controlled by the state. It was more than legal machinery; it was a statement that justice would no longer be filtered through theocratic militaristic guardianship but grounded in the secular, federal will. The House approved it, 333 to 269, setting the stage for what followed.
The Federalists required a different kind of assurance. Their dream had always been of a Union of equals, where local assemblies carried weight and the state respected the autonomy of its peoples. Alpheus promised decentralization within the Republic, strong representation in the House, and limits on executive overreach. They would receive guarantees that the Chancellor would not govern as an autocrat but as a first among equals, balanced by a strengthened legislature. Though wary, they saw in Alpheus a leader willing to codify their ideals into law.
The Nationalists were the hardest to sway, for their vision of a proud, sovereign Union often clashed with the very compromises Alpheus had to make. He offered them recognition: the Republic would not bow to foreign creeds nor fragment its identity in pursuit of alien ideals. Its core would remain human, Terran, and sovereign. They were granted symbolic victories, the promise that the Republic’s constitution would protect cultural unity, and that no discovery in the ruins would be allowed to alter the essence of humanity without public consent. With this, their suspicion softened into conditional support.
Barely a fortnight later, Alpheus struck at the police powers themselves. HSCR000072 proposed a shift from the all-powerful Internal Affairs to a regulated civil force. Regardless of the support from the Nationalists and the Federalists, the motion fell short, 284 to 318, but Alpheus refused to let the tide slip. A day later, he forced the matter again. HSCR000073 passed by a crushing margin, 437 to 165. The opposition had been broken in the open, and the machinery of law and order bent to his design.
Even the Pacifists, though they opposed much of Alpheus’ militarist leanings, were not ignored. To them, he extended a branch of peace: research into cryogenic transport, opening pathways to colonization and exploration without war. They would receive laboratories dedicated to civilian technologies, their voice in research allocation acknowledged rather than dismissed. Though they voted against the core reforms, this gesture blunted their hostility and allowed wavering centrists to lean Alpheus’ way.
It was in this web of promises that HSCR000074 was brought to the floor for the decisive blow on the final day of January. A government reform to dissolve the old Theocratic Federation and replace it with a Federal Republic. Months of quiet coalition-building, promises to the Nationalists, gestures to the Federalists, bargains struck with the Militarists, and assurances made to the Pacifist faction all converged in that moment. The motion passed, 335 to 267. The chamber erupted in uproar, the weight of centuries discarded in a single vote. Theocracy, once the binding core of governance, was cast aside. The Republic had been born.
Yet Alpheus was not blind to the fragility of his triumph. A critical piece of his design, the election of the Chancellor, met resistance in the Senate. HSCR000075, which would enshrine the Chancellor as an elected rather than appointed leader, drew 376 in favour and 226 against. But Republican law required two-thirds. The motion fell. For the first time in his whirlwind reform, Alpheus faltered.
Alpheus reacted swiftly. He could not press further without splintering the fragile coalitions that had carried him this far. The Trade faction, ever mercantile and calculating, demanded tangible gains in exchange for their continued support in the new Republican Senate. To them, Alpheus offered the crown jewel of commerce: the abolition of internal tariffs, the promise of free trade across every colony and world the Union would claim. He painted for them a vision of fleets of cargo shuttles and freighters moving unimpeded, their profits swelling as the Republic grew. When HSCR000076 later enshrined this promise into law, the Trade had already secured its prize, but they agreed early to lend their weight to the reforms, knowing Alpheus’ Republic meant markets unbound by the old theocracy.
But politics did not pause for reflection. That very same month, research advancements demanded direction. The Trade faction seized the initiative, calling for shipyard technologies to cut costs and speed construction. HSCR000077 passed with firm support. Alpheus, eager to fulfil his promises to the Pacifists, proposed the pursuit of Cryogenic Transport research. This motion passed as well in a moment of rare harmony, where each faction saw a sliver of their ambitions recognized.
The year pressed on, and with the recovery of laboratories from the ruins, new battlegrounds emerged. On the 7th of April, a motion to use one of the laboratories to expand Spinal Mount research under Orphne Argyron, reinforcing the militarist vision of future fleets, passed. However, the other recovered laboratory triggered a clash over priorities. The motion to also direct this one toward Spinal Mounts was defeated 185 to 417. The Pacifists immediately countered with a motion pushing instead for the expansion of Cryogenic Transport research. This time, they triumphed, 408 to 194. It was the clearest signal yet that the Pacifists could not always be ignored.
By June, the question of industry split the chamber wide. The majority coalition pressed to restart industrial efforts, fully converting capacity to Trans-Newtonian standards. The motion failed twice, humiliating the government that had itself sponsored the proposal. At the edge of collapse, Alpheus pulled his coalition back together and forced a third vote. HSCR000080-C passed 405 to 197, salvaging both policy and prestige.
As autumn deepened, Pebble Bed Reactors were mastered, promising engines that could mimic the ruin-born Nuclear Pulse designs. HSCR000083 was put forward to start the research and passed with ease. The final months of the year saw the chamber return to its most divisive question: weapons. A proposal to extend the range of Particle Beams to 60,000 km failed resoundingly, 200 to 402. The opposition framed it as militaristic overreach, disconnected from civilian need. Yet persistence once again carried the day. Reformulated with emphasis on commercial applications, the potential of particles for peaceful industry, HSCR000084 reformulated into HSCR000084-B and returned to the chamber. This time, it passed overwhelmingly, 481 to 121.
By the close of 0012, Alpheus stood at the head of a Republic transformed. He had seized the moment and rewritten the very structure of governance, delivering victories across law, trade, industry, and technology. Yet his setbacks were equally telling. The Senate’s refusal to have an elected Chancellor, the Pacifists’ rising influence when less expected, and the constant need to manoeuvrer between coalition factions showed that the Republic’s path was anything but settled, and still too similar to the old Federal Theocracy.
Alpheus had secured his legacy, but would it endure or unravel?
Click Here for the Comments and Discussion thread
Recent Posts
