Rain threatened to cancel the ceremony, but everyone had already congregated in the parks outside the Spring Palace. Clouds covered Greater Comberth's historic center, rebuilt along the new coastline, entirely in the shade. Amidst the museums, federal headquarters, Consular Estate, and the Palace itself lay statues and memorials dedicated to the many wars and figures who shaped the previous centuries. Derelict skyscrapers, their remains still visible below the waterline of the bay, served a reminder still.
Banners of the UIF flag and Imperial seal stretched for kilometers, behind thousands of citizens and journalists in the crowd. Magdalene wore her mantle at the center of the stage before the Palace gate, Kasparov to her right, flanked as well by generals and admirals in ceremonial uniforms. Behind them, an entire legion of her Imperial Guard stood at port arms.
Magdalene watched in silence as her guests arrived across from them, marching through the center of the park to her stage. Illara Lalonde walked forward with a scroll in her hand, the dynastic head of the Solari diaspora was herself flanked by escorts from the Foreign Legion of similar ancestry, wearing antique, 21st-century marine uniforms. Behind her, a dozen colonial Senators followed. The crowds, save for the flickering of cameras, were dead quiet.
The ceremony was planned to be brief, but formal. The Exodus Arrival still reverberated across the world. The response needed to be equally appropriate. More still, it needed to provide legitimacy for the years to come.
The envoy halted. Her Legionnaires moved to present arms. Lalonde walked forward one step. She began to speak.
“By the grace of Archon Desmond of the Exodus, the Imperial Canton of Korfu, and the Solari peoples in its entirety for all time, I stand before you as Herald of the Consensus;
Where, witnessed by the Senators of the States-General, Magistrates of the Presidium, and the peoples of the last free Solari territory on Kerbin;
To Your Majesty, The Empress Magdalene I Vikus-Ward, and First Consul Sevastian Kasparov of the Systems Commonwealth, we hereby formally request -
The United Imperial Federation must immediately take control of Debdeb, and serve as its steward! Do you accept?”
Illara took one step back and stood at parade rest. On the stage ahead of her, Magdalene waited for a moment before her reply.
“For three centuries, where there has been an Imperial banner which has been raised, never has it been allowed to falter.
Nor have any people of Kerbalkind who seek aid been cast away. For the Systems Commonwealth and all those Shattered have prevailed in their darkest hour, so too shall Kerbalkind forevermore.
My Imperium is more than a union of our nations and peoples. It is more than an idea. It is a promise - I give my life for you, you give your life for me. So too will it be, that our bonds of this strength will never be broken.
The Consensus requests we bring peace to Debdeb. The United Imperial Federation accepts.”
The Imperial Guard behind her moved to present arms. Cameras from the crowd continued to flash.
The charter was laid out between them on a podium on the stage. The Senators, admirals, and generals signed in succession as Magdalene, Lalonde, and Kasparov had already done.
“It’s finished,” said Kasparov, as the final signatory lowered his pen.
“No Consul, it is only just beginning.” was Illara’s reply.
Magdalene liked her answer.
UIF Announces "Aeneas Program" Jool Colonization Plans & Manned Debdeb Missions
GREATER COMBERTH; 2212 - Following a ceremony between the Imperial Government and Solari diaspora in the federal district, the UIF States-General and ISEA have announced the “Aeneas Program” - a manned mission to Debdeb before the decade is out, as well as a plan for an expedition to the Jool system for orbital infrastructure and Laythe colonization for the mission.
The Exodus Arrival has continued to make a stark impact on the UIF as well as Kerbin at large, and the ecstatic fervor amongst the citizenry on the revelations of Debdeb has accompanied a massive demand for action on interstellar travel. Within days of the original broadcast, the Imperial Throne and Office of the First Consul alike had expressed their complete support for the news, with a popular mandate to follow. Representing the Solari diaspora before the States-General, Illara Lalonde (C-Korfu) presented the legislation for a massive allocation of funding for a manned mission to Debdeb, to formally bridge the gap between Kerbin, the fledgling colony, and the endless expanse of space. With immense public support for the UIF’s newfound interstellar mandate, the legislation passed almost unanimously.
Typeface logo for the Aeneas Program, unveiled by ISEA at a press conference at the Bravis Unified Space Center, Eureka. The start of the program is accompanied by a rapid expansion of the civil astronaut corps to assemble the crew for the first interstellar missions.
The Aeneas Program, as introduced by the administrator of ISEA, is a bold and comprehensive program for the UIF to send a manned mission to Debdeb before the decade is out, as well as to develop the immense space infrastructure to construct a fleet of relativistic freighters and research vessels to continue surveying the local star cluster. Beyond the assembly and launch of a research vessel at sublight speeds, the program also calls for a new colonization scheme on Laythe - the only other satellite in the system with liquid water and an oxygenated atmosphere - to sustain the mission’s logistics, and provide further development for the Kerbol system as a whole. Previous colonization proposals for Laythe in the 21st and 22nd centuries had failed to manifest, due to the wanton destruction from the Shattering and subsequent cycles of warfare scarring the system.
The main flagship of the initial Aeneas missions has been revealed as the Fort Grace Interstellar Research Vehicle, a science vessel of immense size with a planned capability to reach double-digit percentages of the speed of light for a crew of several dozen scientists, diplomats, and explorers. Stretching over 1.3 kilometers in length, the Fort Grace IRV is planned to be powered by two catalyzed afterburning micro-fusion engines, capable of hyper-efficient acceleration whose only limit to the ship’s velocity will consist of the amount and composition of the mission fuel. ISEA announced their ambitious goal of 200,000 km/s of delta-V - potential for a max acceleration to 33% the speed of light - and initial cost estimates have the ship chassis alone costing upwards of √5 million. With the tens of thousands of tons of fuel included, the Fort Grace IRV will likely cost as much as the average Gross Domestic Product of some nations.
Construction begins on the Fort Grace IRV’s powerplant section at the New Coronata Shipyards over Duna. Once complete, the ship will be towed to Jool to receive its payload of helium-3 from atmospheric scoopers in the Jool’s atmosphere, followed by a departure towards Eeloo for the firing of its main engines.
Work began immediately, with the minds and material of the Systems Commonwealth and Solari Consensus of Worlds in unison within the UIF to produce the bridge of the void at the earliest possibility. Already, a joint Zokesian mission, known as Project Crawfish, has nearly arrived at Jool. Launched a year prior by the Zokesian Space Agency and Arcovdonian Space Command Authority under the Scientific Exploratory Research Group, SERG, the survey mission will commence a dive into the Joolian atmosphere, to measure the concentration of helium-3 in parts-per-million for the creation of the Aeneas Program’s atmospheric scoopers. Envoys from the UIF State Chamber have similarly deployed to Pistis for negotiations for a further development program.
“Hello Alexi Lithgow, the crew of Starburst, and the crew of the Exodus - I am talking to you by transmission via the Munar Far Side Observatory at New Comberth on the Mun. And this certainly has to be the most historic call I have ever made from the UIF Consular Estate.
I just can’t tell you how proud we all are of what you have done. For every Solarian and Aenian, this has to be the proudest days of their lives, and for people all over the Kerbol System, I can tell you that they, too, join with the UIF in recognizing what an immense feat this is.
Because of what you have done, the heavens have become part of Kerbalkind’s world, and as you communicate to us from Debdeb, it inspires us to redouble our efforts to bring peace and tranquility to all.
For one priceless moment, in the whole history of Kerbal, the people of our planets are truly one - one in their pride that what you have done and one in our prayers for our combined safety and prosperity.”
-First Consul Kasparov’s formal address to the Exodus Program, broadcasted live from the Consular Estate and transmitted via burst signals by the MFSO, Mun, 2212; to be received in Debdeb 2216.
