A Peace Proposal - Part Two

Posted on Fri Mar 13th, 2020 @ 1:21am by Admiral Kurso Teska & Grand Admiral April Yamaguchi & Grand Admiral Julia Antilles-Yeager & Master Admiral Pasha Andreyev & Grand Admiral M'Tala & Grand General Tom Walther & Grand General Paul "Caveman" Antilles

Mission: Mission 88: We Must have Bloody Noses and Crack'd Crowns
Location: Starfleet Headquarters - Earth, SOL
Timeline: June 13th 2392

Kurso started the briefing. "well, chancellor Jm'pok has just done the unexpected. He is trying to open communications with us for a peace settlement."

The various officers looked around the table as they almost didn't believe it. "Why?" Andreyev inquired. "Why has he bothered to do this? and why now?" he added.

"The Klingons don't make peace overtures, something isn't right here." Paul Antilles commented in a quiet tone of voice. "Wait. Something else is happening here, in behind the scenes."

Julia regarded her younger brother from across the table, she could almost see in his eyes that he was not comfortable with the notion of Klingons seeking peace, but she was no fool, she also knew why. much as Antilles did.

"J'mpoks position in the Klingon Empire has always been extremely weak," Kurso explained. "Plus I have been collecting a personality profile on him ever since he claimed the position. Honestly, most Ferengi has more backbone than him. He knows that he is fighting a losing war, and he knows he has a crap ton of dissent among the high council. Honestly, I give him a week or two before he is assassinated."

M'Tala then figured it out, "But if we accept his peace offering, it will give us time to better position our forces, as we are pretty scattered and disorganized ourselves."

Antilles chuckled softly. "Only for now, until his successor simply declares war against us," he responded. "That's been known to happen, our relationship with the Empire has always been unstable, depending on the Chancellor in question. Martok was the most favorable to us in the last fifty years," he explained. "If Jm'pok is assassinated then we risk this peace overture as well."

Zeyss then countered. "Honestly it matters little at this point, as the Federation Council has already decided to accept this peace offering. We are to negotiate a peace treaty with the Klingons." He saw the looks on the faces of the Admirals and generals, then continued, "Let's face it, the Federation has already achieved its political aims in this war, we have liberated Gorn space. and the council has decided that is enough. They believe that it has given the Klingons the message that they shouldn't try to invade their neighbors so casually."

Antilles nodded but he said nothing.

April Yamaguchi was the one who spoke next. "We have successfully driven the Klingons out of Gorn space and we've proven that we're not going to just sit at the border, we're willing to attack them in their space to drive the point home," she explained.

Zeyss nodded then added," Well, the council has ordered no further offensive operations into Klingon space for now."

M'Tala then added her two cents, "It is worth noting, that the Federation populace is not fully behind us in conducting this war, they are not motivated to invade the Klingon Empire."

"However, "Kurso finished, "If we do negotiate a peace and the Klingons later break that peace and attack, both the populace and the people will have the political will to see the war through."

He then turned to Zeyss, suggesting, "Going for the peace option is the better option for us. Given the situation in the Klingon empire, chances are their government will fall back into infighting after this peace accord, and that will give us the time we need to finish modernizing the fleet and prepare for a full-scale war."

Yamaguchi raised an eyebrow. "You really think it's going to be that stupid?" she inquired. "A full-scale war?"

Kurso nodded. "April, I don't think, I know. The Klingon Empire is going to die. It is inevitable now. Their system is breaking apart at the seams. There is a huge culture war now occurring within the Klingon Empire, which pits the warrior culture against the nonwarrior culture. Their warrior culture is finally on the collapse, quite possible, for good. This war that they declared on the Gorn, that was Jm'pok's feeble attempt to unify the Klingon people against a common threat. Except that it didn't work. Their war plan was a disaster, Klingon generals would often send rivals on suicide missions to get rid of them, and there are even cases of two invading Klingon units fighting each other. On top of that, the high council hates Jm'pok. The only reason he is still alive is that he is on the move so much, making it hard for anyone to challenge him directly. More importantly, he started the war so as to make it illegal for anyone to challenge him, which shows just how weak his position is. The empire is dying, the only thing we have to figure out, is how do we contain the damage."

Antilles shook his head. "We can't," he responded bluntly. "We have three options. One, go for a full-scale invasion and conquer the empire once and for all, two is to ask the empire to assimilate into the Federation without bloodshed or three. Do nothing and let them fall... Because when they do, they will go down hard."

"No," Kurso warned, "Invading the empire would be a bad idea. We do that, and we risk unifying the Klingon's against us, and that will strengthen the warrior castes hold on the empire. We cannot change their culture for them, they have to do it themselves. This conflict, this civil war was coming for a long time, and unfortunately, its the only real way that we are going to see a real, lasting change in Klingon culture. The Klingons need to break themselves from this warrior mentality. We cannot do that for them."

"You realize how stupid an event that this is going to cause?" Antilles commented quietly. "This is going to be the worst war the galaxy has yet seen."

"And there is nothing we can do to stop it," Kurso explained. "Their culture is changing, but it's going to be in a violent manner. Our best option is to keep the fighting out of our borders. But I also suggest offering asylum to people and planets that ask for it."

Yamaguchi nodded her head. "That's more or less been our foreign policy already, we have billions of migrants flooding into Federation space as a result," she explained. "This will stretch my forces. I've already got a portion of Beta Quadrant watching the Romulans, watching the Klingons will cost me a lot more."

"Well, I am going to expand our military as much as the Federation Council will let me, so you will get more ships and people as fast as I can authorize them," Zeyss explained. "Anyway, our meeting with J'mpok is on June 15th, Sherman system. Gorn, Cardassian and Akurian representatives will also be present, but keep our forces on high alert."

Yamaguchi nodded. "Yes Mister President," she answered.

Zeyss then explained. "Alright, the diplomatic team will consist of myself, Ambassador Picard, Ambassador Rozhenko, and Fleet Admiral Andreyev. We will be going on the USS Reaper."

Yamaguchi nodded. "I'll send along what units I can spare but it won't be much. The USS Barnham will command the units in question as they are already on station in the Sherman system."

Zeyss nodded then looked at the other admirals. "Alright, any other concerns you all want to address?"

There were a few looks around the table as the silence reigned, clearly, nothing else needed to be addressed.