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We Stand Against the Stars (Gundam/Macross)

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An Unwelcome Offer
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    • "Priority one call for you on the vid screen Prime Minister."

    Ericson looked up from the papers he was leafing though. His secretary was leaning in his door with a worried expression. "Priority one?" he sighed, "Not a lot of people that could be. Who is it?"

    The secretary swallowed before speaking, "It's High Commander Ginhren Zabi."

    Ericson face was immediately became like stone, "Ms. Fairwind, redirect the call to my personal counsel," Ericson's face softened for a moment, "and take the rest of the day off."

    With a quiet 'yes sir' Ericson's secretary left shutting the door behind her, the screen on Ericson's desk then came to life. On it was a familiar face

    "Prime Minister Enrico."

    "High Commander Zabi."

    The smile on Ginhren's face was confidant, almost a smirk, but not quite. After all a smirk was impolite. "I assume, Prime Minister, your wondering why I'm contacting you."

    Ericson replied as curtly as he could get away with, "Your not one for social calls."

    "Of course," came Ginhren's reply, "I'm here to discuss rewarding the heroes of the new year."

    Ericson's body went rigid, "Who exactly are referring to?"

    Ginhren's smile curved further, "The hero's who prevented that hi-jacked cruiser of yours from disrupting our fleet review. I was thinking of rewarding them with the Zeonic Cross."

    Ericson's hands tightened into fist.

    "Unless of course you have any objections, Prime Minister."


    [] Deny that the event happened

    [] Refused Grinhren's offer
    -[] Give our soldiers our own rewards

    [] Accept

    [] (Write in)

    (Vote will open on 7/14/21 5pm U.S. CST)
     
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    • Hrm, Denying helps with the anti New Zeon propaganda. Refuse let's it be known to have occurred and shows that the Federation can clean up it's own messes. Accepting Gihren's proposal is admitting weakness but could also be seen as a way to promote more unity.

    Leaning towards accepting, it feeds Gihren's ego, which honestly needs to be fed sometimes or he'll do something far worse to grandstand, and does help push the Unity Narrative.
     
    [] (Write in) A joint reward ceremony paid by Federation for bravery against terrorism.

    :V Ah Mr. No Eyebrows, I hope your family got you shot sooner.
     
    Alright my thoughts before I call it a night are that I'm not shocked Gihren knows, and that he didn't do the polite thing of just not bring it up. Because Zeon can maybe get a bit of help with their political deadlock via a rally around the flag effect, and make the Federation look bad while doing so as we were in charge of security when it happened.

    Also we kinda pushed for more transparency and thus if Gihren wants to he can drag this out in rather painful detail by meticulously laying how heroic Federation soldiers are being denied the recognition they deserve by their own government.

    Not that Alex will enjoy a medal from Zeon as she signed up to fight them, but if we're lucky federation soldiers getting such an award paired with their desperation might result in TZ attacking the ceremony, and perhaps that is what Gihren is after.

    [] Accept

    So I'm leaning toward this or some variant of a joint ceremony.
     
    Considering how hard the crew fought back, there would be quite a lot of people to give awards to. It also opens up discrediting the ones who attacked due to the kinds of weapons they used. It's pretty hard to recruit people when they can't stand the thought of watching some poor shmuck burn to death for being on whatever ship was convenient for their plan, maybe play up the "these monsters care nothing for the suffering they cause or who they hurt" angle.
     
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    [X] (Write in) A joint reward ceremony paid by Federation for bravery against terrorism.

    Sidesteps politics, and let's everyone be seen as approving of antiterrorism efforts. Plus, now we can point this out to TZ's rhetoric regurgitators as a "we agree on this at the least". Side bonus, we nip any attempt for Federation splintering for this reason.
     
    I just dont see where Gihren really benefits from pushing a Federation success story like this was into the limelight.

    Zeke's hired us to cover their patrols for the celebration, and in the nightmare scenario of TZ stealing a battleship the problem got dealt with before Zeon even got a chance to see something was wrong. Their parade went off without even a blip as well.
     
    [X] Accept

    There is no reason not to. It is a award to everyone involved in the fight. That means the other ships, the crews, and all the pilots. It helps build relations between the two. There is no need to deny. And a joint award is also not that appropriate because it was saving a Zeon city not a Federation city.
     
    Yeah for me this is more evidence that Gihren is involved with TZ. But anyways the most probable thing is to note that keeping it quite was for a reason so as not to cause a panic among the population.
     
    "A joint reward ceremony paid by Federation for bravery against terrorism."

    Ah, a true compromise, where nobody gets exactly what they want and everyone goes home grumbling.
     
    Alright while rereading through the quest the reason Gihren is smug is he basically has tailor made to push at True Zeon's reason from splitting off from Zeon i.e giving Zeon's highest military award to Federation soldiers looks like Zeon is being a puppet of the Federation something they cannot ignore, and given we took the mission as a result of a explicit request that a group of Federation aces fill in for a patrol it is safe to say Gihren has spies in part of True Zeon imo.
    True Zeon is a radical terror group that believes that the current Zeon government is nothing more than a Federation puppet. Their demands are either the complete dissolution of the Earth Federation or that Zeon issues an immediate declaration of war on the Earth Federation. They are led by Khamsin Abkhazia and are currently operating in cells all around Earthsphere, they are currently raiding supply convoys for something.
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    So accept seems liable to lead to another battle turn except one that involves True Zeon assaulting what amounts to a prepared enemy within a hardened position instead of the usual patrol, and allows Zeon to show off their military might to the world on live television, which pro Zeon news sources are conveniently given access to feeds that give the best view.

    In theory a joint ceremony would offset this to a degree as it requires somebody of sufficient high rank that a Federation fleet escort is only polite, and even if Gihren isn't planning something giving out a bunch of Federation medals for actions taken to protect fellow citizens of the Earthsphere seems like it would only help further improve relations between geopolitical rivals. Well so long as both sides agree to a medal selection that pushes that mutually benefical narrative.

    [] (Write in) A joint reward ceremony as a show of unity, and how relations between citizens of the Earthsphere have never been better.

    Any thoughts, or better ideas would be appreciated as we have some time to work this out.
     
    Alright some musings as while I haven't quite finished rereading through everything the impression I get is that Ericson is popular enough that even with the Federation citizens sorta disliking Zeon due to them being quasi Space Nazis he would survive any pushback from fears of legitimization, and with the trend of True Zeon trying to pull false flags to kick off a war between the Federation/Zeon... a Federation soldier being awarded Zeon's highest military award while Gihren say alluded to other instances of TZ trying to create conflict would make future attempts neigh impossible, which would inevitably change the strategies used by True Zeon.

    Perhaps the more important consequence is that for Zeon giving such an award is an implicit acknowledgement that the Federation is no longer the bogeyman the Zabi family used as justification for forming alongside maintaining their dictatorship, and that seems like it would swing their current political deadlock in favor of the democratic reformist party, which Gihren probably feels he is better suited to survive politically compared to his competition within the Zabi family due to his major opponent being Garma someone noted as naive.

    In an ironic twist this would be an example of character flaw for Gihren as he is overconfident in his assessment of situations, and while Garma is naive he is good friends with a certain Char Aznable who is not naive, which is before factoring in that if Zeon undergoes legit democratic reforms Char Casaval would have a hilarious amount of soft power even without even running for office himself.
    manofjay said:
    I feel that the decision is important enough to warrant holding off the vote.
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    Actually would you care to expand upon what we'd know IC as to the consequences?
     
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