[Thessia] Protests Shut Down Serrican Streets

[Thessia] Protests Shut Down Serrican Streets
Ayashi T’Heras, Serrice Weekly

SERRICE-Protests have erupted in the Republic of Serrice in response to the appointment of Matriarch Galalina Niaso to an administrative position within the Republic’s Ministry of Justice. Matriarch Niaso previously served as an admiral with High Command and was commended for her actions during the Battle of London while serving as commander of the 114th Dreadnought Strike Group.

Consisting mainly of politically active Maidens belonging to the Alliance for Change, a reformist group formed after the Reaper War, the protesters blocked off access to several inner city plazas, disrupting businesses and facing off with the ceremonial guard of the Forum for a period of three hours. A spokesperson for the group stated that Matriarch Niaso, as a part of High Command, was at least in part responsible for ‘the systematic failure of the Matriarchy to protect the asari people and to fulfil our responsibilities to the rest of Citadel Space during the Reaper War. Her appointment is a slap to the face to those who died due to that failure.’

The protesters repeatedly refused to speak with Serrice Police Department negotiators but eventually dispersed peacefully after police arrived and an appeal from their leadership to keep the event peaceful.

Founder Sikara Mendaras, who served as a Huntress during the War, stated that protests will continue until ‘necessary reforms take place’ before she interrupted the interview to speak with the SPD negotiator. When visited for elaboration by Serrice Weekly journalists, the Alliance for Change’s website called for the immediate reform of the Republican military and government, a larger defence budget, a full investigation into the Beacon scandal and decried the social and legislative power of the Matriarchy.

Police Department Commissioner Ceria T’Julan condemned the protests as unlawful, “While protest permits were issued for this demonstration, they far exceeded lawful restraints. It was both illegal and irresponsible.”

Matriarch Niaso was unable to be reached for comment.

Alliance for Change? Fuck 'em.

The Republics did everything they could do during the War. Tides, half the reason there's still such a thing as galactic civilisation is 'cos badasses like the Matriarch sank a few squid.

Then again, if they're seriously talking about the matriarchy as a political institution they're thirty year olds who think they know better than the collected wisdom of the species. Idiots.

It's a frustrating issue - I know there's valuable discussion going on about the role the Matrarchs' guidance has in decision-making in the Republics, but so many of the 'newsworthy' examples seem to be drawn from this polarising segment of the opposition, always singing the same chorus, "blame the Matriarchs, blame the Matriarchs..." The Matriarchs (as if that's even some unified political bloc in the first place) didn't magically have more votes per capita than the rest of us. What help is that going to be next time we're faced with a crisis, if we decide our inaction during the war wasn't our fault, but that of our elders, because they failed to tell us how we should have decided? Was it right for them to counsel inaction, of course not. Was it right for the population as a whole to abandon their own responsibilities, and effectively place the entire burden of authority on the shoulders of our elders, who we knew had never faced a situation of such dire magnitude any more than the rest of us? We're supposed to work together, decide together, not shut our eyes and demand omniscient guidance, then complain when it fails to arrive.

They have a point yellow belly, those old hags did fuck all with the beacon until it was too late, to say nothing of the wait and see attitude during the opening days. Good on the Alliance for Change, hope they keep putting the burn to the matriarchs and their apologists.

Except for, y'know, the fact that our technology is and has always been the galactic cutting-edge. Almost exactly as if we'd had a cache of expert knowledge that was incredibly hard to decipher but allowed us to always keep one step ahead of our enemies.


What, you mean not getting our cadres killed on Palaven? Or sending our fleets to die over fucking Tuchanka?

The cadres are elite forces. Holding back let Thessia hold out as long as it did, let alone Lusia, Sanves, Nevos and the others. Tides, don't you know nothing about your own Republics?


Some matriarchs spoke in favour of joining the War. Some matriarchs spoke against it. Same as maidens and matrons.

If the Matriarchy was a thing, we wouldn't have had all that indecision sapping the war effort. Tides.

Indecision??? By the night winds you are dense. Earth, Khar'Shan, and Palaven were hit within days and we weren't indecisive, we defaulted on our responsibilities as a council race by not adding our fleets and cadres to the war effort proper until AFTER the cerberus raid. And even then, with all the other races pitching in with their prothean tech, we flat out withheld our beacon until the supersquids were razing Thessia. Simply put yellow belly, we had a responsibility and we didn't live up to it.

And I have to agree with one point Daia, we maidens failed also, we allowed ourselves to become complacent and lazy, content to let our responsibilities fall to the wayside in exchange for 'life experiences'. The Alliance for Change wants to change that failed mindset, I suppose that is a small victory.

Oh Major, language~. I'm afraid that showing actual spirit after the past week (which has mainly been "you're being an idiot" "NO YOU" vis-a-vis Republic's relations with the rest of the galaxy) might be too much for my poor heart to take.
Except letting everyone else know about the pretty little beacon they were sitting on!

Whoooops.

Although, to be fair, some of those fleets, and...well they didn't and don't have much in the way of armor but some of those huntress cadres would have been rather nice. You know, before things got quite literally down to the wire.
Recently ungenocided geth, hobbled turians, pirates, and a SA that lost it's homeworld did more and for much longer than the Matriarchs on that front darling.

But it's not really the collected wisdom of the species now is it? Merely the uninformed and uninterested clustering around the oldest and most powerful.

Or at least I sincerely hope that's the case, the alternative's rather unpleasant.

Beacon.

I mean really that's the bulk of the argument right there.
Somehow I don't think "effectively flipping the rest of the galaxy the bird in their time of need" and "demanding our self styled social and cultural leaders actually lead" are precisely equivalent. Also three times woman, it's happened three times. You'd think after the krogan took their crack at it the Republic's would, at the very least, discover a method of military intervention that did not amount to "find nearest proxy race and uplift" or "fail utterly".

Accountability.

Spell it with me.

A-c-c-o-u-n-t-a-b-i-l-i-t-y.

You'll notice, of course, that it's not spelled the same as "We Want Everything Done For Us Because Clearly That Is The Only Other Option Here" which, self evidently, has more w's and slippery slope fallacy.

But yes, welcome back Corona. You've missed some things.

See, here's the problem - you're in business, aren't you? Ever heard the phrase "throwing good credits after bad"?

Earth and Khar'Shan were lost (if even the SA fleets weren't trying to relieve it, why should we have?). Palaven had the galaxy's largest fleet and still couldn't evict the squid.

Either of those sound like good investments to you? Really? If the Fleets had deployed, all you'd be hearing about now is how evil the matriarchs were for sending the ships away and leaving Thessia defenceless.


Tides, do you people know anything about military matters?

Let's say you're a Reaper. And let's say that you hear that a planet you haven't attacked yet is home to information from the last time people stood up to fight you. Where would you glass from orbit next?

Hmm.

(Stick to accountancy, kid. Numbers are easier than, y'know, war


Hey, Sandy. It's good to be back.


See above (I know you know your shit, so I thought the phrase 'target of opportunity' would have meant something to you).


And where would you have deployed them? Throwing more ships into the graveyard at Palaven, or maybe burning them all trying to free Earth?

Tides, it's like you mayflies prioritise suicidal gestures over long-term strategy.


Synths that sided with the squid, turians who didn't help out anyone but themselves and a couple of fleets vs steady supplies of eezo, fuel and weapons that kept the galactic economy ticking over plus the asari fleets and the pound-for-pound best warriors in the galaxy.

...something's not adding up.


See, this is what I don't get. Is this some mayfly jealousy thing? The way people howl down the expertise of people who've studied strategy/ship design/economics for longer than furheads have had internal combustion engines?

Matriarchs have been around for longer than some of your human nations, mate. When one of them speaks, I know I'm gonna listen.

Edit


...I'll ignore the bird-flipping (I think my translator's glitching), but what do you know about war? Those first two you mention? The Rachni and the Rebellions? They lasted longer than volus religions.

So I'm sure a businessman of your stature can understand why the Republics decided to go more long-term than 'bumrush Sol and hope we win'. Tides.

So I realize this thread's going to be the usual backtalk between Sandman and his target of the week, but just this once I want to ask a question.

Is a Matriarch who


really an appropriate target for the Alliance for (so-called) Change?

Oh please Major, they weren't exactly hiding it out of the goodness of their hearts or to keep the big bad Reapers at bay. It was self interest, pure and simple, it was a tool that was horribly wasted and all their secrecy did them oh so much good in the end when the Reapers came knocking anyway.
Liberation of Omega some months before it happened thereby allowing Terminus and Abyssal factions to regroup and consolidate as well as easing regional logistics substantially given that the station's an enormous trading hub. Internal sabotage of camps and processing ships a la The Miracle. Elimination of indoctrinated third parties and cultists. Similarly given the primarily light nature of Republics Fleets turning them loose to ambush the more vulnerable spaceborne bio-plants and hobbling the harvesting process would have played to your strengths and been useful.
Long term strategy is ultimately irrelevant when and if your enemy is going to be battering down your down in the next thirty seconds. I mean I suppose you can savor the feeling of smug superiority at your genius planning as your head gets mulched but, in terms of consolation prizes, it's a poor one.
And yet were decidedly crucial in shoring up operations in the Far Rim and across the galaxy as a whole given their near unilateral deployment. That may have been due to the fact that the target the Reapers hit almost concurrently with Earth was Palaven itself and the Apien Crest. Horribly disorganized warriors with some of the most overtaxed supply lines and minimal support in the entire goddamn galaxy and, if you're going to make the "contribution argument", you were hardly the only ones. The volus contributed. Private institutions contributed. Independent parties contributed. Terminus nations contributed.

The Republics were hardly the sole saintly beacon of charity you're portraying them to be.
And an asari that can add too! My my that makes about three total active I think.
Age doesn't equal intelligence. Age doesn't even equal wisdom. All age really equals is a sheer volume of experiences, the interpretations of which are entirely subjective and often twisted to suit preexisting views.

And, frankly, if you'd like to wheel out the tired old timeframe argument; again, the vast majority of the galaxy most emphatically does not move according to your standards for "span of reasonable time" as evidenced by the fact that there are batarians, humans, turians, etc that have accomplished more in months than many asari have accomplished or will accomplish in entire lifetimes.

So no, I'd go out on a limb and say it's not exactly jealousy.
And were won primarily by the krogan and salarians plus turians respectively.

And I'm sure a military expert of your stature would be inclined to acknowledge the fact that all the long term plans in the world, again, mean precisely jack shit when you can't even protect your own interests now.

Oh please Mr. Spiza you do me too much credit, I hardly have it all planned out or anything. I prefer to let the bile flow naturally.

Also If I had to guess (and for the joy if it I will) I'd say she was part of the military apparatus that administrated the Thessia Beacon given that she is no longer in her, as you said, much decorated and well regarded position and has instead been transferred to a cushy, quiet, out of the way job as a civil servant.

And then there's the whole
thing.

I suppose her involvement with High Command during the defensive-minded deployment stages of the war makes her a target, in the activists' eyes, regardless of later actions. Perhaps they feel she (and Command generally) ought to have better advised the Matriarchs in military terms, but my understanding has always been that the failure stemmed from indecisiveness in the face of the magnitude of the threat, not a lack of clear information from huntresses on what was going on. Everyone knew what was going on, they just couldn't face up to the risks inherent in deploying the fleets away from the coreworlds.

Not sure what else they think the Matriarch ought to have done - it's not High Command's role to define Republican policy by itself, and I certainly hope thta's not the kind of 'reform' they're looking for.

High Command is however responsible for overall military decisions. So while they didn't make the decision to keep us out of the way, they were influential in it and did make the decisions as to where our forces deployed and when.

The issue with the beacon is, yes, it kept us ahead, but keeping it for ourselves during the Reaper War was both stupid and selfish. There's having an edge and then there's keeping vital information from our allies who we were obligated to assist during an extinction war. Consider how much more quickly the Crucible could've been completed and deployed-before we lost the Citadel, perhaps?

What really makes my le'ku itch is that no one has been held accountable for this. Our society, our government has the ideal of true democracy, of transparency and every voice being heard. The beacon affair showed that to be a lie. It's a bit hard to still see your own society in that light when a group has taken it upon themselves to commit a crime illegal under laws you created in the first place, isn't it?

As for the military thing, I'm just a cop, but while we succeeded at first, as soon as they forced us to an upfront fight, they obliterated us. Why not act earlier? Why not let the fleets and commandos do what they are so very good at while we still had space to buffer us from the Reapers, while they will still in the midst of battering the turians and humans?

But we waited. We refused to even take part in talks. Now we look like goddess-damned, selfish cowards and the humans, turians and krogan have both galactic goodwill and the Pact.

Yes, we're collectively responsible. That means we need to accept that and change. Not just give an apology and go on as we have before.

Now you're just being a conflating retard yellow belly, I never said 'suicide assault the damn supersquids', I said fulfill our tides damned responsibilities to the council. But since you're Eclipse, I'd imagine that's too much for you to understand.

I am with Spiza, saying the admiral is not the correct target. It's this generalization about Matriarchs that's getting us nowhere. There was the clique that knew about the beacon and managed it as a semi-religious circle. While I understand taht a great many of those involved are not alive anymore I think there could have been done more than just removing the rest from public office. I know that life long exile is a harsh thing but maybe the time is right for a couple of public hearing with those who are still alive. Just removing them from the face of the public is not enough in the long term.

But their further conclusions make me laugh and cry at the same time.

Did they pay attention when the people cast their vote last time on such an affair? The answer to devastated planets and some people still living in makeshift camps, food production at the minimum level, infrastructure in dire need of investment is not bigger or more guns. At least not more than we already do to reestablish the forces, the fleet especially. A restructuring program that prioritizes defense abilities (planetary defense was lacking compared to what others had) in favor of offensive armies is the right way to go and I see that happening already. We have never been a military aggressive or imperialistic people and no matter how much some may have wet dreams about it, we will never be that.
The main problem is, there is no answer to the main question of ‘what could we have done to prevent it all’. The quest for that single decision that would have altered history is futile and that is frustrating realization.

Every possible response to what you just said I have written already ("It was your highest leadership not some fringe group." "You have virtually no defensive capabilities you mean" "Stop being hilariously dismissive of everything that potentially contradicts your worldview, it's dumb and we can see you doing it") so regarding the arguments against military reformation I'm just going to settle for reminding you that this is still a thing.

Oh, come the fuck off it. We were almost every warm body on almost every front, and when they write the history books, Palaven is one of three major battles that could be defined as anything but a 'Fall'. Every moment that we refused to take our medicine were more and more Reapers going nowhere else. It took Palaven months to break (a very long way indeed from all that 'eezo, fuel and 'weapons' you're trumping up), it took Thessia less than a week. If you really want to try throwing the rest of the galaxy under your shitty bus (in some desperate attempt to look good) you better watch who you're pushing.

seriously the fucking gall for you to accuse us of 'helping no one but ourselves' holy shit

I'd like to add that Palaven never broke, not really. The Hierarchy withdrew its forces from Palaven in order to help the Alliance at Earth voluntarily (at least on the behalf of the Primarch). That's a fair fucking cry from only helping yourselves.

Some asari really need to get off their high horse and their whining about how nobody helped them, because it's a blatant lie attempting to make yourselves look good and in that case you can go fuck yourselves.

I'd be happy with at least a public hearing. We need to restore our government to the values it's supposed to uphold.




You do realize a bigger defence budget is required to build said orbital defences? And pay the widows/widowers/children/mothers of the killed and provide for those who were wounded? And train the huntresses to replace those who were killed, the disabled and those who left service after the war?

A bigger defence budget doesn't mean we suddenly become Big Bad Imperialist Conquerors. Guns and tanks don't suddenly appear because you gave a general some credits. The Serrice Guard for one took horrible, horrible casualties and we do need to rebuild our military capacity. That costs money.

And this:


No one is looking for that question. As the Hierarchy and Alliance demonstrated, even prepared we had no chance to prevent the Reaper War. They were always going to come.

The question is: 'how do we learn from this?'

And that's not a futile question at all.

I sympathize with the idea of this group, but yeah they kind of poorly chosed their target. They go after a matriarch that actually did something. If they consider all matriarchs as some sort of hive-mind they're not going anywhere.

Still I have this pet theory that the matriarchs in charge of quick reaction failed so bad during the war BECAUSE of how old they are. Time is subjective, for someone young a year is an eternity, but for someone who's centuries older a war is the blink of an eye. And matriarchs, ladies who were born at least 700 freaking years ago, were supposed to throw everything they thought they knew about war in the basket in the space of the few months the reapers took to start invading homeworlds and mobilize all the republics to fight a seemingly invincible enemy, and, ho, shed light on the dirtiest secret of the entire asari race.
When an entirely out-of-context problem appear, experience can become a liability, since you try to match what's happening with what you know, instead of accepting to start fresh.
So of course they froze with indecision, and did nothing until their planet burned. It just went too fast for them.
That's why I think this group has a right idea, the sectors of asari government that deal in crisis need dynamic, younger people.

I do, I am bonded to a Commando.
Usually the social welfare is handled outside the military budget or at least the kind of budget I think was meant here. If they meant that, well, that's money well spent of course. But asked to divide the money in the current situation more towards military investments on the cost of civilian aid and rebuild, I'd cast my vote for not changing how it is currently being done. Well, for my Republic at least, I am not into the exact details of each and every one. It's just that I have read the cry for more guns every so often. People act like the Republics would invest nothing into rebuilding the fleets and the cadres. That's totally not true, maybe they just don't wave it around as openly.

Just so you don't understand me wrong, I don't call for any cuts or think that the military budget and rebuild is not important. I have served on Cyone, I know first hand what could have been prepared better.
So yes, there is a lot to be learned.

I have missed that earlier in some post obviously, but calling out the turians of all poeple is really weird and unjustified, same goes for the Alliance. Just for the record, there's nothing really worth saying to that.

Are we not held accountable? I'm not talking about the Beacon group - aside from Tevos my understanding was that those who knew of its existence in the current era are all dead now, and honestly I wouldn't wish any punishment on Tevos; just look at her face in the vidcast from Serrice during the Council delegation visit, where she's standing behind Councilor Irissa during her speech. I mean all of us. Our ideal of ourselves has been tarnished from within, our complacency laid bare, and our coreworlds devastated. I don't feel any more accounting need be done to drive home the message of what we cost ourselves. And if there still needs to be penance, it can be the uphill struggle to convince the galaxy that we can be the ideal we thought we were, that we truly have learned from our mistakes. The Republics will have to work twice as hard for every scrap of goodwill, and endure twice the scrutiny on every promise, we'll have to bear our shame, and work on in spite of it. I'd say that's account enough.

That's partially what bothers me about all this railing against the Matriarchs, it smacks of choosing somebody to blame. If we put all our energy into anger at being 'betrayed' by our elders, and 'reforming' our system of government and administration to punish them, where's our accounting? I don't know this Alliance for Change well, but I've heard too many similar groups laying the blame as they seem to squarely at the feet of the "Matriarchy", or however they choose to dub them as a whole, and it really worries me. When they blame the Matriarchs for failing to protect us, failing to fulfil our responsibilities, do they cast themselves the innocent victims in all this? What good would reforms be if they're based on that assumption?

(And on another matter entirely, good to see you again Nassa! You snuck in there while I was pondering the wording of my first post.)