33rd of Xenimato, 523 BBT, Peace Treaty with Sycriûn
Garrard Alerzö, 24th Emperor of the Ikaranarean Empire, walked around the meeting room. The Sycriûn Question was to be answered soon. In a few minutes, people filed in- top military advisors, diplomats, experts on the economy. He nodded to the head diplomat, Akala Kamerö. “Ms. Kamerö, to begin this meeting, I ask a simple question- What are the Xantstal Empire’s terms?”
She had a pleased look on her face, “None, sir. They have issued a complete and unconditional surrender.”
Small cheers rang through the room along with sighs of relief. But the Sycriûn terms weren’t the hardest part- what to do with them was harder.
The Relations Minister, Peran Maknad, spoke. “That certainly makes our job easier but the fact remains that we need to decide what happens to the Xanstals after the peace is made official. The way I see it, we have a few options. We can go with a white peace- Like our first war with the Kruxkii- which won’t be popular with the Kanareö kingdoms or the Hemmerhaldians, we can annex their territory, which may agitate the Sycriûn already in our borders, or we can go with the Kanareö plan to annex a part of their territory and joint occupy the rest to prevent them from going warmongering again. I think we can all agree that option 1 is unacceptable to us or our allies.”
Nods and murmurs of agreement.
Garrad, however, was concerned. “Are you sure that we have the clout to annex the Xanstals at all? Our allies would be concerned about such a development, after we just fought a war of anti-imperialism.”
The head diplomat spoke. “The Sûtrans would be concerned maybe, but they are a close ally and not one to question Ikaranara after the annexation of Mannaö. For the Hemmerhaldians, they would do the same thing- it’s unlikely they’d care at all.”
Garrard looked to the War Minister- his brother, Garovûr Alerzö.
“Commander Garovûr, is it likely that in the event of a full annexation we could hold all of the territory?”
His brother nodded. “If we don’t lay off too many soldiers from the war, we can hold their territory quite easily. They have few starcraft capable of fighting us left- and thanks to your technological upgrades program, it would be easy to deploy Planetary forces on any sectors giving us trouble.”
Garrard nodded. “I see. Are there any benefits to a downright annexation?”
The Relations Minister spoke again. “If we can get past the initial pushback from the Sycriûn in Kruxkil and Sycruko, we will gain a significant population that will be necessary to rebuild our economy after the war as we re-industrialize and demilitarize. The resources from the Xanstals’ territory will also allow us to reach our eventual goal of outproducing Hemmerhaldia in the next 50 years rather than in 75. A strong Empire will encourage stability in the region and we always need to be prepared for attacks from theoretical outsiders.”
Garovûr cut in. “With all due respect, brother, total annexation is the only way to achieve lasting stability. A joint occupation with the Sûtrans and Hemmerhaldians is only going to give the Xanstals more wiggle room to form resistance and make greater competition between us and Hemmerhaldia. We need to show both of them that Ikaranara is the true power of the region and that we will not tolerate weak moves. This is retribution not only for our losses, but theirs too. 3 trillion lives, and only a third of that were combatants! Entire systems wiped out. We need to show what happens when losses that great are brought upon us- that we will not tolerate it.”
Garrard sighed. He still didn’t know if he agreed with the idea, but it seemed like his ministers were mostly in agreement.
“As you all advise. We will tell it to the Sycriûn and our allies- The Xanstal Empire is no more, The Empire has grown.”