THE LEADERS
Alice Dennison, Leader of the Alliance Parliamentary Opposition
Alice Dennison was a rapidly rising political star at the time of Torfan, standing as the head of the centre-right People's Party. Born in the United States in 2131 to parents of the very highest means, she was one of the most wealthy heiresses in the history of humanity. Her family was instrumental in forcing the European Union to share mass effect technology with the rest of humanity in the aftermath of the Cold War, as well as in the foundation of the Systems Alliance, giving her name weight even before she had even come into her family's wealth. She acquired the family fortune before First Contact, and she sought to expand her influence, first via business. Her corporations were the first to introduce chocolate and human cultural media to the galactic stage, industries that were initially extremely lucrative and continued to bring in money afterwards. Her transition to politics began when she followed profit margins from chocolate to colonisation, just as the Batarian Hegemony began threatening the Alliance.
Her political awakening was swift and highly publicised. She joined Anka Gasperi's Conservative Party, eventually becoming the consistent voice of the war hawks in a party that largely valued fiscal restraint on military spending as well as diplomatic solutions to conflict offered by the Citadel. Her motivations were two-fold. She was outraged that humans had to kowtow to alien powers, despite having the potential to become a galactic power in their own right, and she saw glittering possibilities for the Traverse and even the Terminus if the batarians could only be brought to heel. These twin planks became the basis for her foundation of the People's Party in 2170, as the Conservative ideology of diplomacy and fiscal restraint failed humanity utterly at Mindoir.
In August 2177, she had led the People's Party to finally usurp the place of the Conservative Party as the leading movement of the political right, promising to keep up the pressure on the batarians and to root them out entirely if elected. While her party did not end up winning the election, largely due to the success of the Alliance invasion of Anhur, it did become the second largest party and this position gave her great influence. The Consuls had no wish to appear weak, yet also did not wish humanity to appear divided. As such, Dennison was heavily involved in the political oversight of the Second Verge War via the secret military committees, something that would greatly aid her cooperation with Alexander deBankole once they became coalition partners in 2182. However, deBankole was to be her great adversary in the months leading up to Torfan.
The Minister for Defence, although disagreeing with the Consuls on the subject, was forced to defend the decision to leave Torfan alone. Parliamentary records indicate that deBankole concentrated on the delicate political situation on the moon, and how any attack there might jeopardise the recolonisation of more friendly batarian populations to Shan'kharit. More secret records show orders from Consul Taro to Minister deBankole to keep any mention of military resources firmly out of the discussion, as the grand plan to strike the killing blow to the Hegemony was then only known by the admirals of the eight fleets and Field Marshal Anna Reynolds-Augusta of Troop Command Columbia.
Dennison did not accept the argument, and by February 2178, had utilised her extensive business contacts to discover certain key facts. The Government was buying up huge volumes of fuel, and moving large numbers of naval munitions. It was not long before Dennison confronted the Government with the knowledge, and the truth was revealed. Though the exact details were still secret, there could be no hiding the build up from someone as well connected as Dennison. The Alliance was preparing a huge offensive, involving the entirety of the Navy and full a third of the Army.
The question of what happened next is one that often troubles historians of the subject. Consul Taro's official reaction was muted, delegating the task of bringing Dennison to heal to her co-consul, Franco Nivash. Privately, the Consul was furious. Leaked cabinet reports of meetings held by the Alliance Defence Council, made up of the consuls and the ministers for Defence, Colonial Affairs and Justice, suggest that assassinating Dennison was seriously considered, along with attempting to destroy her business empire. Such was the seriousness of the threat of the Alliance plan leaking to the greater galaxy. The Alliance would be forced to attack the defences of the Kite's Nest directly, at a huge cost in ships and personnel, or worse, be forced to the negotiation table where the Citadel would make all possible assurances that the blood spilled would not end up benefitting the Alliance. Throughout these discussions, the one voice of reason and probity over panic and fury belonged to Alexander deBankole, who argued that all Dennison wanted was a serious effort to be made against Torfan. Why deBankole did so remains unknown.
The Consuls relented, and agreed to bring Dennison in to provide political oversight on the operation. Failure would have been her fault, not the Government's. Dennison happily agreed anyway, knowing that success would secure her a serious reputation on defence, where before she had relied strongly on her business acumen. The risks were not small, however. The population of Torfan was almost entirely batarian, yet there were deep divisions in the population. The previous Alliance strategy of resettlement would not work, particularly as it was suspected that large parts of the population and their leaders knew about the kidnappings and slavery. Any military occupation would likely create large resentments as well. Torfan was not occupied previously, as it was a non-entity militarily. It became one of three worlds the Alliance allowed batarian loyalists to migrate to. Indeed, the newly independent batarian government of Shan'kharit also deported fifteen thousand of the most zealous Hegemony loyalists to Torfan in 2177, an action that greatly increased the stability of that world, but destabilised Torfan.
Dennison accepted these risks as necessary. To her mind, the destruction of the External Forces responsible for the kidnappings and the rescue of the would-be slaves was a top priority. Aside from her own personal morality, which was no small motivation, she was concerned about the effect that leaving clear enemies of the species alone at such a crucial time in the war. Although the forces available for the operation would be limited, Dennison had no doubts about the victory to come. Yet she could not know the cost of that victory.
Kemen Sak'davran, Governor of Torfan
Governor Sakdevran was equally blue-blooded as the politician responsible for the ruling of his world. His family had been noble caste since official records began some six hundred years earlier at the very founding of the Hegemony. Prior to that, his family were instrumental in uniting the early batarian colonies. Having served in the Batarian Army as is expected of batarian men of his caste, he was governor of a province on Khar'shan itself, a position he held for decades until the rise of the then Vice-Hegemon Ar'dra. In 2168, he was transferred to 'make something of the Torfan colony'. Openly, he was moved because he was the only person capable of turning the moon into an economically viable colony. Torfan had erratic weather conditions that made development difficult, conditions that would have ruled it out for colonisation by the Alliance but still well within parameters for the Hegemony.
However, the real reason Sak'davran was moved to Torfan was that he was a dissident. He disagreed strongly and publicly with both the war and the restructuring of the Hegemony's political system. He had even advocated peaceful negotiation to resolve the differences between humanity and the batarian people, prior to the outbreak of the Second Verge War. For any other batarian noble, this would have been tantamount to suicide. Indeed, many uncooperative nobles had been killed in the aftermath of the dissolution of the Council of Greaters, after they raised their objections publicly. There were no shortage of such voices, as the Arch-Hegemon dissolved familial fiefs in favour of appointed governorships controlled by him. Sak'davran escaped the wrath of the new dictator through his impeccable breeding alone. He was regarded by many a Hegemony loyalist as an eccentric rather than a threat, and his execution or disappearance would have clashed too much with tradition for the Arch-Hegemon to survive the backlash.
Sak'davran ruled on Torfan for ten years before the invasion, greatly improving conditions there. He bought a small number of all-weather colonial habitation modules, and reverse engineered them to build more, allowing a great increase in the population. He encouraged niche but specialised industries to set up on the world, often with illegal subsidies, which provided employment beyond the small mining industry. Torfan was on the rise, despite all its problems, not even the Alliance incursion of 2170 slowing it down. It would take the outbreak of total war before its fortunes changed.
The Battle of Elysium cut the colony off from the rest of the Hegemony, and the targeted destruction of FTL comm buoys in the Yuki Cluster ended all communications, but it wasn't until the end of the Battle of Anhur that its fortunes began to slip. The Alliance offered a simple choice. Accept refugees and remain demilitarised, or be invaded and subjugated. Sak'davran was a patriot, and very much inclined to decline the terms, had it not been for the overriding incompetence of the Batarian military. He was forced to accept by necessity. However, he granted the use of his security bunkers and secret hangers to the External Forces whom had stayed behind during the Alliance advance in the Verge. The Governor had no wish to be remembered as a collaborator, and knew that the gesture would keep his reputation secure for the post-war settlement that he was sure would come. His reputation would be further boosted by another factor.
Throughout 2177, refugees and deportees flooded to Torfan, nearly doubling the population. Hegemony loyalists, batarians who simply did not wish to live under human rule, and minor criminal elements from the Terminus, all moved to the moon to escape the Alliance and its laws. To a large extent, leaving Torfan untouched saved many lives elsewhere, providing humanity with a safe release valve for disgruntled batarians in the occupied zones. However, it left Governor Sak'davran in a worsening position. Calls for militarisation and to join the war effort against the humans ranged from the fantastically to the decidedly practical. The latter course was encouraged by the External Forces operatives present on Torfan, and soon, Sak'davran was forced to agree to arming the populace. This would prove fatal for thousands of citizens there. The Governor knew it, yet did not have the courage or muscle to face the demands down.
When the Arch-Hegemon ordered the External Forces to begin kidnapping and enslaving as many humans and collaborators as they could, the Governor received high handed orders to facilitate the operation. We do not know if he would have baulked at these orders, as the External Forces sent their best company of soldiers to Torfan days later, to secure warehouses and bunkers for the use of the slaver groups. However, Sak'davran made no known attempt to contact Alliance command or warn Alliance colonies of the danger. He was to remain loyal to his state, a living embodiment of the mantra "For my country, right or wrong."