Carolina Aquillas
Once known by many names; "The Aquillas Confederacy", "Carolina's Alliance" and "Carolina Aquillas" are but a few of them. Regardless as to what they were called, everyone can agree as to the influence that the organization had when it came to shaping the Auger Cluster.
Born out of a unionizing movement of government officials, the organization's humble roots lie in the hands of the people. A woman named "Carolina" and an entourage of her staff whom she referred to as her 'Aquillas' overthrew the governing body of her planet in protest to their treatment of the free people. This revolutionary movement gathered a lot of momentum very quickly and -from Carolina's point of view- spiralled way out of control far too quickly.
It was within the next few Terran Years that their movement had spread throughout the cluster and was deigned with its many nicknames.
Eventually, given the loyalty of the revolutionists that overthrew various governments in the cluster, Carolina Aquillas took to assembling an alliance of the defacto governments that took the place of the old. Out of this was born the founding confederacy that the cluster would build itself off of for the next three decades.
Thrust into a position of power she was not entirely ready for, Carolina became a twitchy ruler, reacting to the smallest changes in extraplanetary politics. In truth, inaction was the best action in many of the cases that crossed her desk but she felt a false obligation to act on every front. This gave her a reputation as a very dilligent ruler who worked hard for her people, but this opinion rapidly changed when the true impact of her decisions were realized.
What was once an alliance of free-thinking people rapidly devolved into totalitarianism. The same drive that pushed Carolina to overthrow her government and take control was also pushing her to maintain control of the entire cluster- an act that strained her mind and body to the limit. Every day, she'd make another ruling that prevented another free-thinking individual from voicing their opinion; the same working man that she used to identify with. Rapidly, her home planet and the edge governments of the cluster began to riot and small usurping governments started to form. Insead of repairing the damage done to the people's conscience, she decided the best course of action was to double-down.
After a month of paperwork, passing laws and arranging meetings, Carolina's next course of action sprang into play. One by one, the planets under her wing turned to martial law, all under the control of some official or another whom Carolina trusted. Her 'Aquillas' were brutal, ruthless and dictatorial, having been trained under Carolina's iron rule, rather than her revolutionist self. They became terrors of the streets, not hesitating to hurt, maim or kill anyone who spoke out against the rightful state. While on the surface, this fully suppressed the rebellions, the truth of the matter is that the revolts were just pushed underground.
One of the first revolutions to fall to the Aquillas were the The People's Talon who remained dead for a few years, but after their slumber they reignited with a boom. Agents from their underground organizations infiltrated a military building housing some of these Aquillas and disabled some of their ECM devices. Namely, their Nuke Snuffer. On one harrowing day, the 13th of February 2988, a makeshift nuclear bomb was detonated under the facility. Vapourizing it and everyone inside. When the People's Talon claimed responsibility for this action, Carolina Aquillas immediately declared war.
The Aquillas, however, were spread wide and far across the cluster and mustering them for one fighting force would mean releasing Carolina's control of them. This wouldn't do. So instead she turned to mercenaries. Mercenary work had boomed in recent years in the abscense of public spending as a result of her military control over the cluster. That and the pirates and revolutionists that roamed the sector made good bounties. Carolina turned to the largest mercenary power in the sector; The Onyx Verge.
The Onyx Verge were traditionally militaristic. Structured, regimented and fierce. Carolina felt comfortable utilizing them as they mirrored a proper military force and they were reputable for getting the job done. She offered to pay them a considerable sum to destroy the People's Talon.
The The War for Peace ensued, with most of the casualties of the war falling on the People's Talon; their guerilla warfare tactics no match for a technologically superior and more experienced mercenary force. Within a year, the remenants of the People's talon were being chased down and ran off of the planet.
That would have been the end of it, but Carolina made some miscalculations. She had expected the war to take much longer than it did but the Onyx Verge's reputation made people unwilling to fight it and half of their engagements were over before a shot was even fired. Thus, when the Verge turned to her for payment, she didn't have the money to pay.
Instead of becoming indebted to the Verge and allowing them to potentially get a play on taking her precious control from her, Carolina instead stood up to them, refusing to pay them as they "hadn't earned a credit".
Months of attempted necotiation from the Verge fell on Carolina's deaf ears. The Verge had recovered from the war remarkably quickly and their newfound fame was quickly replenishing their ranks. In September of 2988, the Verge had enough. They assembeled a fleet of heavy frigates, loaded them with troops and marched them through Carolina's capital. Some of the guards of the town protested, they were immediately pacified and taken as prisoners of war. Some of the Aquillas who were in the city decided to fight, but the Verge's far superior numbers removed them from play with ease. Within 4 hours of entering the atmosphere, the Verge were at the front gates of the capital building.
Carolina, growing stubborn in her neuroticism, still refused to budge an inch. Some believe she thought the Verge were bluffing, others think she was just trying to pretend nothing was happening. But right there on the steps to her offices, the Onyx Verge declared war.
The war lasted fourteen minutes and swenty three seconds. Stationed artillery around the city destroyed spaceports, government buildings and defencive emplacements with unerring accuracy and speed. tanks on the frontlines evicerated the meager defences of the capital building and Carolina herself was captured by the hundreds of footsoldiers who stormed the building.
Carolina was then tried in front of the leader of the Onyx Verge and on September 29th, was ejected out of one of the space station's airlock. To most, her death marks the end of Carolina Aquillas, and the beginning of the Onyx Verge Federation, although they wouldn't fully assemble their government for around eight months.
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