Kerbal Powers Forums

    “My fellow citizens,
    The one hundred and eighteenth anniversary of the System War is a most appropriate occasion for us to discuss things as they are today and things as we know they shall be in the future.
    For years, General Vikus and the UIF’s forces were faced continually with formidable odds and recurring decisive actions. Often, supplies and equipment were lacking. In a sense, every winter was an asteroid winter. The conduct of Vikus and his Kerbals in these hard times had provided a model for our allies and all the worlds ever since - a model of moral stamina. He held to his course, as it had been charted in the Declarations of the Rights of Kerbalkind. He and the brave soldiers who followed him knew that no one's life or fortune was secure without virtue and dignified institutions.
    Their decades of struggle had taught us increasingly that security for a civilization anywhere in the worlds depended on the security of the rights and obligations of Kerbalkind and justice everywhere, in all the worlds. They all knew that some things were worth sacrificing for. One’s country, our combined federation, because it is the most deeply honorable form of civilization ever devised by Kerbalkind.

    In the lives of our nations, we’re called upon to define who we are and what we believe. Sometimes these choices are not easy. The Soul of our Imperium has learned bitter lessons from the two previous centuries: it is better to be here ready to protect these dignities than to take blind shelter, rushing to respond only after hope is lost.
    So too have we arrived at the present, where these scars we bear and obligations we uphold have now arrived at a precipice in the Jool System. The struggles we observe there today provide a stark mirror into the struggles we have persevered through before. And as our greatest generations rose to the occasion when fate called them to do so, so too can we, in the twenty-third century, vindicate their sacrifices with our own commitment to prevail.
    Like the Aeserians who began this country and brought forth the last, best hope for Kerbalkind, history will continue to ask more of us in our own time. Much has already been given, far more we shall be prepared to give. As these echo the words of Star Marshal Jordock before the Reclamation, “that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.” If we do, if we stand together and move forward with courage, then history will vindicate it in its entirety for all time.

    The task our combined peoples now face will test us to the utmost. As our best and brightest are building a bridge across the void of the stars, perhaps never before have we been called upon for such a prodigious effort. And never before have we had so little time in which to do so much.
    General Vikus ordered these words be read to men of every regiment in the Space Marines, and this was the assurance given to the first truly interplanetary armed forces: “Tyranny, like chaos, is not easily conquered, yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the sacrifice, the more glorious the triumph.”
    So spoke the United Imperial Federation in the year 2094. So speak us today.”

    -First Consul Sevastian Kasparov’s “Soul of an Imperium” speech in front of the Consular Estate, proclaiming the commencement of hostilities in the Jool System, following the destruction of the Issac envoy ship and rapid arrival of Starfleet and allied forces in the system.

    

    
    The Jool System had a unique history, up to the present day. Initially, it was colonized by multiple member states that would form the Jool Federation, which governed the system until the turn of the twenty-second century. The JF held strict regulations on the entry of foreign expeditions not part of the original clique, and from the 2060s onward, these restrictions were backed by the threat of force. As Kerbin and the Inner Systems were engulfed by war after the Shattering, this policy was taken to an extreme, and Jool’s moons entered a strict isolation from the rest of Kerbalkind. Under this inward obsession, the system would slowly deteriorate for decades, unable to sustain itself under the self-imposed autarky.
    
    The succeeding nations, though de jure distinct, often acted in a manner consistent with their predecessors. The entire system had been claimed as sovereign territory, from a consistently deteriorating Joolian authority structure, though the threat of force had been enough to jeopardize the safety of most spacefaring expeditions into the system for over a hundred years. The independent colonies, those that inherited their positions from JoolFed’s collapse, could not be coerced by these succeeding governments, who reluctantly had to let them be - but any more newcomers would face an immediate interception.
    
    Jool has lingered as the black spot of Kerbol, and Laythe - the jewel of the system second only to Kerbin herself - has had its potential ruthlessly squandered, by occupying authorities incapable of preventing its decay, but capable of erratically shooting at anyone that approached who looked funny. For the twenty-third century audience, this dichotomy could not have been made any more apparent than with the attack and destruction of the Issac - a diplomatic mission to one of the independent colonies, reluctantly allowed to exist by the overarching Administration, immediately shot down by the illegitimate authority all space in the system’s sphere of influence. The directed threats against anyone entering the system has finally, after nearly two hundred years, been delivered upon, as a flotilla of 40 frigates sortied to annihilate the envoy ship with overwhelming firepower.
    
    The Joolian policies had been that the gas giant and her moons would be blacklisted to Kerbin, with no expeditions or colonists authorized. Any nation from Kerbin who wished to dispute that would have to face the force of arms. Until the crosshairs landed on the UIF, that bluff was never called. That ended today.
    

    JOINT RESOLUTION Declaring that a state of war exists between the United Imperial Federation and the Solari Extraplanetary Administration, and any rogue elements of the former Joolian Federation, making provisions to prosecute the same:
    WHEREAS the Administration government and her predecessors have levied force of arms against any and all independent civil assets to travel through the Outer Systems, including complacency in attacks against subjects and allies of the United Imperial Federation, expressing the gravest danger to the citizens of all Free Worlds:
    THEREFORE be it resolved by the States-General assembled, That the state of war between the UIF and SEA, which has thus been thrust upon the Common citizenry is hereby formally declared; and The Empress Magdalene I is hereby urged to employ the entire stellar and military forces of the United Imperial Federation and the resources of her Government to carry on war against the named Governments and, to bring the conflict to a successful termination, all the resources of the countries within the realm are hereby pledged by the States-General.

This is baseless slander against all the successor states to the Joolian Federation and should be seen clearly as an excuse for previously unprecedented aggression and expansionism of the UIF, that is certain!