via Tayseri Times
[MONOTAKLAI THRESHOLD] A major staging ground and departure point for Republic’s fleets and flotillas as they advance further into the contested Nimbus Cluster the city-station of Monotaklai is no stranger to ill news. Food shortages, displaced persons, and strained logistics lines have all tested the platform, a crucial part of the joint Republics-Citadel offensive, in the recent months since the Cluster’s reconnection. The threat of insurgent and pirate action has become a fact of life, with huntress cadres and security drones patrolling the streets and spires, their presence keenly felt since the Bloody Eleven bombings last month that crippled a military dock and claimed the lives of thirteen commandos. Yet even so the latest revelations, originating within the Forum halls themselves, has shaken the city to its core:
Matriarch Belicaliae, the Iron Dauntress, vice-governor of the station and Chief Executive Officer of Lyoia Circlet Guild is missing, presumed dead. Potentially since her withdrawal from public discourse two months ago.
But the picture that has emerged in the aftermath, painted by sources within the increasingly troubled administration of Matriarch Gincetta, is one of a broad ranging conspiracy that was active, unnoticed, since approximately the arrival of the Republics Task Force Alchii and associated private contractors. Lyoia Circlet, a Nimbus based conglomerate with interests in shipping, fiscal organization and brokerage, and armaments, is in disarray. Multiple accounts with contents totalling in the hundreds of millions are now being flagged for fraudulence, tampering, and potential embezzlement. Thousands upon thousands of interactions ranging from weapons sales to cargo shipments to investments have come under investigation under suspicion by government inspectors as a mask for illicit activity.
The mass investigation, one of the largest in the Cluster’s history, was prompted by the flight of Belicaliae’s inner circle and support staff. Many taking with bearer bonds, mineral wealth, and executive keyed chits which are confirmed to have been activated. In their wake: physically gutted servers, virus corrupted records, and the ruins of what is believed to have been an extensive information network that stretched from the Republic’s blockade at the relay to deep within contested, high danger zones in the Cluster’s interior and fringe.
“While it is too early to comment as to the extent of these criminal activities or the damage, potential and already realized, that has been inflicted upon the Motherland and her children, we are confident in stating that circumstantial evidence indicates there is a high likelihood that Belicaliae’s demise came at the hands of her disciples and staff. Possibly facilitated by exterior contractors. Her subordinates then proceeded to run the Circlet in her absence, likely funneling information, capital, and materiel to subversive elements within the Cluster in return for financial compensation.” stated the Lady Gincetta in a Forum address this morning.
Widely viewed as a staunch supporter of the Republics' “Old Guard” and member of the de facto nobility, reactions to Belicaliae’s disappearance and probable death have been polarizing. Thousands of asari traditionalists have already paid their respects at the memorial shrine in Notolis Plaza and the Forums are thronged with demands for military intervention and reprisals. However countless others have taken to the net and streets, protesting the lionization of what they call an elitist and ageist whose is responsible for no small share of the Republic’s current dire straits.
A massive e-banner has been illegally erected on the north face of the Lyoia Spire, depicting a likeness of Belicaliae being fed a spoonful of guns and heatsinks with the caption reading: “Just Desserts”. Thus far it has resisted Civil Guard attempts to remove it.
