Red Star Over the Citadel

by dersomewhat

Humanity is the purveyor of socialism to the stars, but their idealism comes at a cost. The bourgeois Council races plot against them, while in their own ranks hardliners split to form the Chariot organization. All the while, the threat of the Reapers looms against the galaxy. Commander Marat Shepard will rise to the task and do what he must, but it may cost him dear.

4. Chapter 3

The Disunity War and formation of Chariot in 2158

Classified Central Committee-level After Action Report of the Commission of Public Security

Special Attn: Central Committee

CC: Chief of STAVKA, Chairman GALOCOM

BCC: Politburo Defence Commission

Comrades, though we have weathered two severe crises we still face a serious treat. We have managed to crush or repulse rebel attacks but their ideas continue to attract followers. There is the possibility that the Politburo and Supreme Soviet Cabinet have themselves been infiltrated by the petit-bourgeois organization styling itself "Chariot." We will elaborate further on the implications and recommendations of the Commission on that.

The first thing to mention is the disastrous nature of the disunity war itself. The peace with the turians never sat well with many hard-liners. Their argument- and it is not to refuted lightly- states that other species are materially different than humans and that given their levels of development, they are therefore incapable of socialist revolution. This was a huge problem for public security. It threatened the document of the last Party congress which was acclaimed at the Supreme Soviet that formed the GALOCOM. Moreover, it caused ruptures in the ranks as conservative and Stalinist factions and elements were more naturally likely to side with this nationalist rhetoric. In addition almost all colonists who had just been attacked or lost loved ones in the imperialist war flocked to these factions. These groups, though a minority, proved vocal as was seen at the last meeting of the Supreme Soviet when they dramatically walked out on voting on a budget which would have given Brotherhood funding to the GALOCOM. Efforts to negotiate failed and several colonial Party branches announced their solidarity with the nationalist group on Earth. They began calling themselves "Anti-Revisionists" and accused the Party and Brotherhood of betraying the interests of humanity and of shoring up xeno bourgeois rule from the Citadel. This group began accusing the majority faction, styling themselves "Galaticists" instead as "Capitulationites" and cut off all discussion.

The decision was made to suppress this organization in the interest of defence. Humanity is encircled by largely hostile and bourgeois alien empires. We cannot afford a war against one while our technology lags behind, let alone against all of them combined. This group engaged in anarchist terrorist attacks to try and incite such a conflict. At first political officers of the Commission were able to resolve problems peacefully, disarming and rehabilitating many hostile groups. They did this only with militia, and bloodshed was rare. However, from the turian-attacked world of Sinkiang came an elusive ex-Party member who bolstered the resolve of the rebel forces. He had been a major partisan leader on Sinkiang, but had refused to work with the Commission to coordinate strategy. Styling himself "The Ghost Writer" and levelling vitriol at the Brotherhood and Commission through mysterious proclamations, he also began leading his forces to minor victories. The most famous of these publications was the "Chariot Manifesto" which gives his organization its name. Filled with petit-bourgeois and nationalis sloganeering, it is still easy to understand how the aggrieved or gullible would willingly follow it. His campaign was brutal. At first, political officers were hunted and killed. Soon entire militia, and even Army, units were being infiltrated by agitators and inspired to mutiny after these leaders were killed. The battles grew more intense as our forces worked their way to the edge of human space. This disaster was a civil war of disunity, albeit far away from Earth and Mars. We do not know how the Ghost Writer kept all his troops supplied or fed; but our intelligence sources and GALOCOM sympathizers have let us know that there was definite asari and salarian support. The turians seem to have refused due to the Ghost Writer's anti-turian propaganda.

However, it took until just two months ago for us to force the terrorist forces to flee in their entirety, and even then it was only possible when the Commission was given resources to fund and train a cadre of soldiers chosen for competence and political reliability. Even then the Ghost Writer has lived up to his name and escaped us. Worse, he made off with a fleet of ships with asari drive cores and thousands of tons of platinum along with millions of Citadel credits robbed from turian colonies. We estimate he has some fifty thousand followers, of whom thirty percent are experienced soldiers. Amongst them are also the cream of the crop of the hardline colonial intelligentsia. He is somewhere out there, forming a movement now and we know through monitoring of the extranet that he continues sending his platform the sympathizers. We do not have a count on them and it would do little good to tap the entire extranet; the number however is in the millions. We do know for certain that Chariot is, and will remain, a threat.

We have learned several lessons about Chariot's standard operating procedures. It is run like a guerrilla company rather than a Party branch, Army unit, or Commission subsidiary. Discipline is iron and dissent suppressed. The forces of Chariot are equipped with the finest xeno weaponry and now have access to extensive financial resources, which we can expect to increase if the Ghost Writer plays his cards right. One cannot help but think of politics and odd bed fellows, but such it is. We will have to pick up the slack while maintaining and increasing our say in the Citadel. While bourgeois rule is unacceptable, it is also a bad idea to remain on the fringe of politics. Ambassador Udina is recommended for this post due to his loyalty and unique position as a Galacticist as well as moderate hardliner. That should please both the aliens and softer Chariot sympathizers. The Commission recommends we do whatever it takes to gain a permanent seat on the Council no matter the cost. The Commission will also provide intelligence services to increase the influence of the GALOCOM among other races. We are observing the rapid growth of clandestine Party cells on Palaven with increasing enthusiasm; it seems the Ghost Writer's favored enemies are the most susceptible to socialist ideas.

However that is grand strategy to be discussed by the Central Committee and voted on by the Supreme Soviet. The Commission must instead root out and expose Chariot infiltration at the highest levels. Therefore we ask that the President be appointed Chairman of the Commission of Public Security as he may be removed from power if he grows thirsty for it. That is a precaution; we want a loyal figurehead that will give our activities more legitimacy. And our activities will be forced to be unsavoury even by 20th Century standards. First, we need to monitor the Politburo and prevent Chariot infiltrators working their way up. Meanwhile the President will keep the Commission in check from above while a new secret operation below will keep members honest. This organization is our second proposal, and is to be made up of the best of the best of Commission Security Units. It has been labelled File N7, and members will be subject to rigorous testing. However once through we need the support of the Supreme Soviet to grant this organization carte blanche. They must be above the law and subject only to the orders of the Commission and, by extension, President. They will be our Chekist knights who defend from external and internal threats both. Along with these secret units, we will continue training the Biotic Corps of the Brotherhood until they are reliable and stable enough to be announced publicly and transferred to the Army or Navy. The final proposal is that humanity is now in a state of war against the ancient enemy: class society. We must be administered and run with this in mind. The democratic process must not be compromised, but there will be sacrifices.

Comrades, we can still persevere against these many enemies. It will require strength on the home front, and honesty mixed with cunning in foreign affairs. Let the Commission deal with the dirtier aspects of both and we should see Marx, Engels, and Lenin's dream achieved.

Signed,

[name redacted]
Chief of Staff, Commission of Public Security

The Anti-Revisionist ("Chariot") Manifesto

Humans! Comrades!

A spectre is haunting the galaxy- the spectre of communism! The xenos and aliens have prevented the ascension of Mankind to the stars. At every turn these nations, caught in imperialist and explotationist ways have frustrated the attempts of our glorious people to achieve a true and stateless society.

Even now the Asari bankers use their Turian thugs as muscle against us. They sick upon us the duplicitous Salarian to weaken us with disease and discontent. And myriad are the other weapons and minions of the bourgeois triumvirate called the Citadel Council, who would wipe our victorious proletariat out without a second thought. They seek to prevent the inevitable: the victory of humanist communism across the galaxy and the wiping out of hostile races and establishment of utopia.

Worse are the traitors among our own people. The Socialist Brotherhood of Man is being lead by the weak and incompetent. The so-called Communist Part have abandoned their namesake and taken up negotiations with the bonapartist-imperialist xeno aggressors. They have tolerated black marketeering and defection from socialist unity. They signed away our rights and territories to the Turian fascists on the cusp of have even agreed to limited membership in the Council's dominion over the galaxy. They work to keep the alien bourgeois in power to prevent the formation of communism! This Party has been moribund since it forgot the words of the great Stalin that socialism can exist in one country. And so do we say: Socialism in one species! Humanity is the only race to have shaken off its oppressors and raised the revolutionary banner, and so must we become apex species. We are the only species fit to reach goals of the historical imperative and a just society. We will only allow those xenos biologically similar to humans and willing to subsume themselves to this noble goal- the material makeup of hostile races makes it impossible for them to join. And so they, stuck in the bourgeois mode of production, seek to shackle us once more.

It is every humans duty to resist this oppression! We must clamour for the rise of our people and realization of the immortal ideas of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin! The Anti-Revisionist Communist Party does hereby announce its secession from the traitors. Our true Party will be our species' Chariot to the stars!

Long live the anti-revisionist Marxism-Leninism-Chariot Thought!

Long live the humanist socialism!

Workers of humanity, unite!

Signed,

The Ghost Writer
Legitimate General-Secretary of the Communist Party and rightful President of the Brotherhood