Cycle 167, 25-04
Groom system, low orbit around Camillia.

 1286 on a total of 268 thousands votes, that was the final margin with which the leave camp won. Obviously every party involved tried to upset the results to suit them, yourself being far from the least influencing one, albeit more subtle about it. Even without direct recruiting, bringing relief supplies to the most impoverished regions, enforcing a cease-fire in the few hot-spots, and overall showing a helping hand changed the mind of many. But it is not the definitive count that matters, it is the trend: that trend was that around half of the population wanted to join the Alliance, and the Alliance could not ignore that many people.

 More interesting however, that fifty fifty split was consistent inside both the regular government's territories and the Lazian rebels', and it was a miracle that none of them fell yet. On the other hand the overwhelming majority of the newer generations voted to leave compared to their elders. Younglings looking at the sky with hope for a better life than the misery of their home-world ravaged by half a century of war, and quite receptive to the message of the Alliance. By the announcement of the results, lines of aspiring recruits were already forming at the docks, driven there by the need to do something to improve the Sector rather than accept the status quo. They could barely bring anything but their hands to the cause, but the Alliance can always use more able bodies in their reconstruction efforts.

 A blip on the console of your apartment notifies you that Captain Elias, soon Commodore, and the first convoy of refugees had just left the system. Given the recent pirate activity in the nearby systems and how predictable this convoys departure would be, you had decided to assign them more than twice the standard escort force. That left your own forces dangerously underpowered but reinforcements were already on their way and you could count on the local Navies for the day to day policing. After the initial snafu at the Portia Station, both military organizations kept their word and abided by the terms of the treaty.

 Speaking of the local fleet, you open a long-range video feed to check the Lazian mooring station on a close orbit. Despite being limited in funds both camps had managed to gather a reasonably sized force for the region. That probably meant they had deals with cartels, or their corsair fleets not only raided each other's commerce but also the not-so-far Ex-Vis/Core lines. Roughly one third of those ships would find their way in the Alliance's fleets, the rest being either sold or scrapped. 

 As if on cue, all the lights of their docking station suddenly went dark, and a few seconds later the garage lights of the ships turned off too. Bringing up false colors you were clearly seeing a large portion of the reserve fleet undocking and assembling into formation. You were putting on your uniform when your comm chimes:

 " Admiral Johnson, the Captain sends his compliments and asks if you would come to the bridge immediately. Several ships of the Lazian reserve fleet just undocked and are not responding to our hails. We also detected a few Loyalist ships returning from a patrol on course to join them."

 The timing left no doubt about their intentions. They were hoping to destroy your fleet and that the Alliance would then cut their losses and abandon the star system. Given the amount of resources already invested into salvaging this system, as well as the terrible signal such retreat would send, this was simply not going to happen. But you were acutely aware that nothing would set their mind off from trying.