The Empire’s Corps: Book 01 - The Empire's Corps (67 page)

Sadly for them, Cromwell’s increasingly hysterical pleas to the Imperial Navy had finally brought a response. The destroyer
Marigold Crook
entered orbit and deployed KEW strikes against the rebel army, shattering it from far out of their reach. (Peter Cracker was believed killed, although his body was never found and some people think that he merely went underground.) The ADC landed a small army of mercenaries and destroyed what remained of the rebel force, although an underground insurgency movement continues to this day. The victory was, however, too late for the ADC, which formally declared bankruptcy in 2839. Its mandate over Avalon was terminated by the Empire and an Imperial Governor was appointed.

Governor Montgomery found himself faced with an impossible task. The rebellion might have been broken, but the discontent that had sparked the rebellion hadn’t faded and wouldn’t fade until the causes of the discontent were addressed. The ADC had left the planet’s interstellar credit at an all-time low and somehow the planet’s debt had to be paid off before real development could begin. He attempted to tackle the issue through a number of political channels, including capping the debt of indentured settlers (preventing their debt from increasing at their supervisor’s whim) and abolishing the hated family indentures that had ensured that children would grow up, weighed down by the burden of their parents’ debt. He also created the planetary council, allowing a limited degree of democratic representation, and the Avalon Civil Guard. The remaining mercenaries were shipped off-world as quickly as possible.

However, most of his reforms were blocked by the newly-created council. The elected councilmen saw their own interests as threatened and banded together to prevent the reforms from going into operation. Unsurprisingly, discontent continued to bubble as new colonists were settled on the planet. The Cracker Rebellion might have been broken – for the moment - but other threats were rising up in the distance.

It was not going to be a peaceful future.