Breaking News From Rhea

In startling news, the Rhean Tetrarchy appears to have fallen out among themselves. Chancellor Giosue Carducci of the Leggaland Union and President Zhao Yi Fan of the West Asian Confederation (and celebrated field marshal of the First Galactic War) have resigned their positions and gone into exile off-planet. Protests have erupted in western Rhea over Zhao's exile but have not yet threatened to spill over into rioting. Basileus Dmitri has also announced that his son, Nikolai, has been betrothed to the daughter of the other remaining member of the former Tetrachy, Stephanie. The young girl, not yet a teenager, will likely assume a regnal name. While the governing body of Rhea remains the Confederated States of Rhea, there are already whispers that it, in reality, should simply be the Rhean Empire, despite all attempts to pretend nothing changed even though the head of state is now a monarch. As for the destination of the two exiled leaders, as an attempt to salve their wounds, they have been granted governorship over two of the five new Rhean colonies, with Carducci receiving New Cronus and Zhao receiving Hyperion. Other prominent Rheans are appointed to run Oceanus, Tethys, and Theia. Governorship of Dantooine remains unchanged.

*The Ordenreich has observed the situation at Rhea and has decided not interfere or attempt to manipulate the events in Rhea. The Ordenreich has publicly declared that it will not make any attempts at taking advantage of Rhea if it becomes unstable at any time during this transition and, save for the few military ships guarding the Ordenreich-Burnination trade route in the Ordenreich sphere of influence, they will not increase military presence on the Ordenreich-Rhea border*

The Basileus expresses his gratitude to the Ordenreich for their neutrality in Rhean internal affairs. Protests have died down a bit once it became clear that, other than a consolidation of power into two people rather than four, absolutely nothing has changed.

In response to the need for indirect fighting due to the Ordenreich's shift towards hit-and-run tactics against fleets with large capital ships, such as the Rheans possess, the Confederated Air and Space Force revealed the Mk II Galaxy Gun, a significantly smaller variant of the superweapon of the old Galactic Empire. Rather than the 7.25 km monster, the Mk II Galaxy Gun is a mere 1200 meters in length. The principle, however, remains the same: a hyperdrive-equipped battle station that fires a missile with a particle disintegrator warhead and a Class 0.75 hyperdrive, allowing it to strike at any target in the galaxy with rapidity. Unlike the Mk I, a planet destroyer, the Mk II is intended only for anti-ship purposes intended to counter the Ultra-Dreadnoughts of the Ordenreich. The usefulness of such a weapons is placed in doubt due to the retirement of the Ultra-Dreadnought but it is expected to be repurposed for use against the Trebuchets despite the overkill. The number of Mk II Galaxy Guns produced remains classified.

In more news, the CSRASF revealed the production of the TIE/D line of droid starfighters. Despite the Rhean distrust of autonomous artificial intelligence, the need to reduce pilot casualties has forced the ASF to overcome such prejudices in order to compete.

In final news, the CSRASF announced the construction of a half dozen Torpedo Spheres as a cheaper alternative to sending the Eclipse to destroy a section of a planetary shield. As the Torpedo Sphere lacks fighter escort and possesses few turbolaser batteries, it requires escorts of ships in order to allow it to accomplish its job.