Fifteen years ago, Chancellor Romano Liao began to refer to Battle Technology as "The snake-pit of lies and deceit."
We had no idea what had caused her to be quite so annoyed with us; there had been one of the usual sort of incidents when she threw one of our reporters off of Sian, threatening his life, but that's why we pay our Sian staff extra!
In the same issue which held the interview with the new Chancellor Romano, we printed a unit description for Khorsakov's Cossacks, a unit then under contract to the Federated Commonwealth. We did not know that the Chancellor has a special reason to dislike the Cossacks. An officer of the Cossacks who asks us to respect his anonymity sent us the following two documents. The first is the speech the Chancellor gave upon ascending the throne. The second is Colonel Nikolai Khorsakov's reply.
Speech from Chancellor
Citizens!
I greet you in the name of the illustrious Liao and the glorious Capellan Confederation!
This is a momentous occasion. I regret to report to you, my people, the untimely passing of our beloved Chancellor, Maximilian. He passed quietly in his sleep and knew no pain, though I am certain that his final thoughts were of you, the citizens of the great and wondrous Confederation.
Despite this grievous blow, you are not without leadership in these trying times. By consent of the Prefectorate and acclamation of the military, I am named Chancellorof the Capellan Confederation. To use the phrase coined by my late father on the death of Tormax, "The Chancellor is dead. Long live the Chancellor."
I will command the Confederation by the best light given me by Mother ... the Korvin Doctrine, always mindful of my duty to you, my people, to give you the strong, decisive, government you know you want, and which you have always supported in times past. I will expect this same unstinting support now and in the future. In return, you will have my abiding love and motherly guidance when you walk in the ways I direct, my firm but caring correction when your steps falter, and my loving discipline when you stray.
Remember always that enemies circle us, impatiently wafting to take advantage of any transitory weakness or divisiveness among us. Never forget the rape of the Confederation by the evil Ghost-Fox, Hanse Davion, eight years ago, nor the eternal predations of the so-called Free Worlds League. To ensure the strength of our military, I am shortly to issue a series of directives concerning temporary measures to shore up our military economy, and revitalize the civil sector. To accomplish these noble goals, I call upon you, my subjects, for great sacrifices. You have given much for the state; now, I say, give more! We must all sacrifice, temporarily, the gratification of our personal goals to the greater good of the Capellan State.
Together, citizens, we will surmount the obstacles confronting us, and, like the mythical phoenix of old, arise more powerful, more unified than ever before.
I am Romano Liao, Chancellor of the Capellan Confederation, Mighty Sword of the Confederation, Sun of Union, Excellent Provider to Her People, Serene Highnessof Tikonov and St Ives, Laureate of Universal Reason, Phoenix of Faithful Duty, and Jade Empress of the Marches.
Letter from Khorsakov
Nikolai Khorsakov, Colonel, Khorsakov's Cossacks
Bora, Sarna March, Federated Commonwealth
June 25, 3036
To: Romano Liao, Limp Sword of the Confederation, Sun of Discord, Excellent Tormentor of Her People, Utter Tyrant of Sian, Laureate of Abysmal Ignorance, Worshipper of Satan, Daughter of Beelzebub:
My Dear Lady(?) Chancellor,
It is with great regret that I am informed of the passing of your gather, Mad Max. Regret that he didn't die, as I had hoped, under the heel of my Atlas. As you know, at least in your more lucid moments when you approach functional reality, Max had my father and entire immediate family murdered for no other reason than that my formation had been indentured by the AFFS, a common practice in more civilized regions of the Inner Sphere.
Perhaps I should have expected no better from a ruler who routinely murders his own subjects in wholesale lots. From you, I expect a continuation of this genocidal policy, perhaps even its acceleration.
I will tell you a story of Bora, my regiment's current station. When we arrived, just after the Fourth Succession War, the populace behaved as so many whipped curs, conditioned by generations of life in your family's evil empire. It took two and a half years, and great patience to convince them that we did not expect concubines to be provide us, nor slave labor. Medical facilities were nonexistent since your retreating forces destroyed them in a fit of spite. We had them rebuilt, and are now restoring the spirit of these formerly downtrodden people. So much for life in the Confederation.
It is my considered opinion that were it two hundred and fifty years ago, Kerensky might have turned and snuffed out your sickening nest of vipers before leaving the Sphere. He did not, and untold millions have suffered under the depravity of your ancestors' misrule.
You and you father are the inheritors of the spiritual tradition of Attila, the Borgia, Hitler, and Stalin, up through Amaris the Betrayer, with the worst aspects of the old Spanish Inquisition thrown in for good measure, You deny the people even the privacy of their beliefs. Be warned: every state in history that has tried this has fallen. Yours will too.
In years to come, some great ruler in the Inner Sphere will have had quite a belly full of you and your noxious fomentations. He or she will then move to destroy you. We will be there, and I swear on the grave of my father that my regiment will be there when Sian falls. To that ruler, I now pledge my service in his crusade, regardless of contract.
Some will fear your reprisals for this letter. I say; do your worst. No mortal force will compel my retreat from this stance. Pray to the devil whom you worship that you be spared the reckoning that surely approaches.
With Eternal Hatred, Nikolai Khorsakov
Colonel Nikolal Khorsakov
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