| Coruscant_Journal | Date: Thursday, 31 May 2012, 5:57 PM | Message # 1 |
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Coruscant Marks Empire's 10th Anniversary
Imperial City — Planets from the Core Worlds to the Outer Rim Territories today commemorated the 10th anniversary of the Empire's founding, but none of them as resplendently as Coruscant, the seat of Imperial power and the site of kilometers-long military parades, fireworks displays, air shows, and a rare appearance and speech from Emperor Palpatine himself. "Out of the chaos of the Clone Wars, the Empire rose alongside the voices of the people demanding order and peace at long last, and at long last, the Empire secured the peace and has kept it for the first ten years of its ten thousand year rule," Palpatine declared to a crowd of tens of millions on the Imperial Palace's parade grounds.
Businesses were closed across the planet for the "Empire Day" observations, and traffic throughout the Core Worlds and the Colonies Region was diverted to prioritize Imperial ships and passenger ships to and from Coruscant. Not counting military personnel, the Coruscant Ministry of Ingress estimated that the planet and its moons would be host to 7 billion visitors from across the galaxy.
But it was a solemn occasion for many on Coruscant, as the death toll continues to rise from a droid "uprising" earlier in the week in which 5,000 to 10,000 are believed to have died. A parade route on Uscru Boulevard was diverted around the rubble of a building destroyed in the "uprising" that has yet to be cleared. The death of Archa Sabis, a former tech executive whose computer virus was responsible for the "uprising," at the hand of Imperial forces is of little comfort to those who lost loved ones in the incident, though the Empire has promised on the 10th anniversary of its founding, and of the calamitous Battle of Coruscant in the Clone Wars, that the incident is "unrepeatable."
"Coruscant remains the safest world in the galaxy," read a statement from Rainier Brandt, the Moff of the Imperial Sector, which includes Coruscant.
Moff Brandt ordered airspeeder traffic diverted around much of Imperial City to clear the skies for parade formations of TIE fighters, Star Destroyers, and other Imperial ships, as well as fireworks and an enormous holographic display depicting the history of the 10-year-old Empire. Meanwhile, lights on the Jedi Temple building were darkened to symbolize a galaxy without Jedi. The festivities were viewed by tens of millions of revelers who crowded the streets below.
Imperial forces on Coruscant, already out in force from the droid "uprising" earlier in the week, remained in force for crowd control duty. The Coruscant Security Force (CSF) told The Coruscant Journal that no major incidents had been reported.
The "Empire Day" celebrations coincide with the start of the new year, and the Imperial Military Appreciation Week, sponsored by Senator Avadrie volFyr (Empress Teta). Traffic on Coruscant and throughout the Core Worlds will continue to be diverted throughout the week before returning to normal. Imperial warships will be a more common sight on the spacelanes in the meantime. More than a thousand Imperial senators and their delegations will also be converging on the galactic capital for the start of the new year's Senate session this week.
There was also criticism of the Empire, however, on the occasion of its 10th anniversary. A Dressellian protester at an event on Brentaal last week chanted "Ten years of the Empire is ten years too many!" (Nationalists on the planet Dressell are currently engaged in a civil war with Imperial forces). In addition to controversial "pacification" mission on planets like Dressell, Carratos, Alurion, and Embaril, the Empire has been criticized for being opaque in its detention of "terrorists" and suspected Jedi sympathizers—"Justice for Jedi," a pro-Jedi advocacy group on Coruscant, was raided this year and its staff arrested. They haven't been heard from since.
Imperial authorities insist that its detention of suspects is "in accordance with all relevant procedures," and that secrecy was necessary to not jeopardize ongoing investigations. The Empire has not commented on rumors that it was involved in the assassinations of Queen Apailana of Naboo, Prime Minister Meem of Carratos, or a handful of other slain planetary rulers perceived as opponents of the Empire.
As the Empire enters its second decade, time will tell if it is defined by these rumors or, as it would prefer to be known, as a keeper of the peace.
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