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- [00:01]
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- [00:55]
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- [01:30]
Revolutions Podcast Host
Hello and welcome to Revolutions Episode 11.20, the Battle of Phobos. We left off last time on June 20, 2250 with the Redeclaration of Martian independence. During the dramatic run of events that became known as the Independence Days, Omnicorps attempt to reclaim control of Mars failed spectacularly. The carefully laid plans of Kamal Singh lay in shambles. The attempt to breach the Martian firewall had failed. That alone all but guaranteed the Loyalist uprising led by Bruno October was snuffed out. October and nearly all of his followers now sat in Martian stockades. Meanwhile, Convoy Group 11, which was supposed to have been in orbit around Mars before anything else happened, was still two weeks away from Mars, no longer flying under the radar, but instead exposed under a bright spotlight, commanding the fixated attention of millions of people on Earth, Mars and everywhere else in the solar system humans lived. It would appear that Kamal Singh had taken his shot and missed. But there was still a sliver of hope for the oh so recently installed CEO of Omnicorp. The one part of Sing's plan that had gone smoothly was his coup against Jinwang. So, at least for now, he still wielded the enormous powers vested in the CEO of Omnicorp. The first thing he did was thoroughly muddy the narrative waters. Within hours of the Martian declaration of independence, he released a vid blaming Martian radicals for everything. He flatly denied there were any nuclear devices in Convoy Group 11. He said that was preposterous. Omnicorps official position had never changed. The Gemini vids were a hoax. They were disinformation created by Martian radicals to justify an otherwise unjustifiable revolt against the agreement of 2248, which Singh said Omnicorp had scrupulously honored. Meanwhile, reports of a failed uprising by loyalists on Mars was a complete inversion of the facts. The reality, he said, was that radical Martians invented this supposed Loyalist conspiracy as an excuse to do their most favorite thing, which was round up and abuse Earthlings. And here he finally addressed the board of directors, abruptly removing Wong. He said Wong had been ousted because she had known about these Martian plans and had done nothing to stop them. But he, Kamal Singh, was committed to the shared interests of all humanity. Now, this was all a load of space crap, of course, but since he commanded Omnicor's vast communications array, Singh could just pump this vid address out there and force everyone to deal with it. Omnicor's corporate rivals, meanwhile, did everything they could to deal with it. They flooded their own communications networks with every scrap of evidence they had, proving Omnicorp was the aggressor and the Martians were innocent victims. What really happened was the Martians had been minding their own business and abiding by the agreement of 2248, when suddenly Omnicorp hauled off and tried to reconquer them out of the blue. Once again, Omnicorp was putting the vital supply of PhoS5 in jeopardy. Out of a mix of greed, hubris, and stupidity. The loyalist uprising was real. The attempt to breach the firewall and take over Martian servers was real. The Gemini vids were real. So they called, first and foremost for Omnicorp to turn convoy group 11 around immediately. The idea that they would even consider dropping nuclear weapons on the Martian colonies, destroying the phos 5 supply in the process, was in and of itself proof that Omnicorp was no longer worthy of the monopoly they claimed over Mars. But Kamal Singh was not going to turn around convoy group 11 like a gambler deep in the hole he. He believed this could all be salvaged with one dramatic payoff. All he had to do was stall for a few weeks, get Convoy Group 11 into orbit around Mars, and then, yes, threaten to bomb them from above if they did not open their computer systems to Earth Control, release Bruno October and all the loyalists and put them in charge of Mars under Omnicor's direct authority. Was this far fetched? Of course. But Sing was trying to do something even more important than retake control of Mars, save his own career. Meanwhile, back on Mars, the new batch of leaders who emerged from the independence days were not grappling with ambiguity or confusion about what had just happened or whether there were nukes in Convoy Group 11, because of course, they were now. In the fullness of time, the Martians would deal with major post independence questions like what does independence actually mean? What are we now that we are independent? We're not a department or a division of anything anymore? Are we even necessarily a corporation anymore? None of them had ever known anything but company life. But there had once been other ways humans had organized themselves politically. Maybe we could do one of those. But there was no time for any of that now, because a bunch of nuclear bombs were just two weeks away and the Martians needed someone making decisions like right now. So the choice of who would succeed Mabel Dorr boiled down to three candidates who had the authority, legitimacy and popular appeal to plausibly command a majority in the Martian Assembly. Those three were Jose Calderon, Marcus Leopold and Ivana Darby. Calderon took himself out of the running immediately because he had concluded that under no circumstances would he allow himself to be removed as Commander of the Martian Guard. That is where he believed his own power and authority lay. He planned to fully cement the principle that the Commander of the Guard served at the pleasure of the assembly, not the director. And then use his direct command of the Guard to ensure nothing happened without his approval, because he would control the only armed forces on Mars. Meanwhile, Leopold and Darby had no interest in running against each other. And in fact, Leopold was far more interested in continuing his work in the legal division, especially now that his recrafted corporate code would need to be further recrafted to fit newly independent Mars. Darby, meanwhile, had always been more popular and charismatic and was a voice and face well known and well liked by the Martian people. She would be much better at the public facing parts of the job. She was the one who gave the speech that carried the assembly to independence. So the Mons Cafe group and the Red Cap struck a deal that it would be Ivana Darby at the next session of the Martian Assembly. On June 21, Calderon and Leopold both called on the assembly to elect Darby, which they did. And that is how Ivana Darby became the Director of Mars Division. Though how much longer they would even call themselves Mars Division was an open question. But it probably wasn't going to be for long. Two major issues faced Darby upon becoming director. One above and one below. The one above was convoy group 11 barreling towards them. Those ships would have to be stopped some way, somehow. But the other problem was below, the stockades of Mars were now filling up. Most of them with Loyalist prisoners and detainees. Many of them guilty, but some just swept up. They would all have to be questioned, interrogated and processed somehow. And without knowing the full extent of the Loyalist operation, they could not afford to believe the threat was over. Calderon maintained maximum vigilance, and that meant the stockades were only going to fill up even more. And then there was a smaller subset of prisoners who'd been in Mabel Dorr's orbit. Dorr herself was obviously sitting in Martian Guard custody, but so too were her bodyguards. All of them now accused of murder at the Fields of Earth. Calderon and Leopold would only widen their investigation into the potentially treasonous activities of several high ranking officials who themselves would soon wind up in the stockade. Meanwhile, to deal with the threat above the imminent arrival of Convoy Group 11, the first and most obvious solution was to declare Mars would halt all phos 5 deliveries to earth unless convoy group 11 turned around. So Darby issued an immediate declaration to the people of Earth saying We are not your enemies. We have abided by the agreement of 2248 and held up our end of the bargain. All we want to do here is live lives of dignity while supplying you with what you need most. The leaders of Omnicorp, on the other hand, have aggressively attacked us out of nowhere. They now plan to drop nuclear weapons on us if they don't get their way. And even if you don't care about us, even if you don't care about Martian lives, think of what those nuclear bombs will do to the phos5 supply. Omnicorp has gone insane. They cannot be trusted with this critical operation anymore. We have declared independence not to threaten Earth, but to save you from Omnicorp. They are the real villains here. Darby's address was then further amplified on earth by by Cor&T Corp, who both endorse this framing of events, taking them right to the brink of recognizing Martian independence. Following on the heels of this ultimatum, the Martians finished the process of overhauling their own leadership. All of Mabel Dor's colleagues and allies running the other departments had to go. They had been the ones stymieing independence all along. They had been the ones preventing the dismantling of the class system. And not only that, but as I just said, there were serious questions about their level of involvement in possibly traitorous plots to hand Mars back to omnicorp. So on June 23, the Mons Group and the Redcaps agreed on a slate of department heads for the assembly to approve. There were many new faces who I won't trouble you with now. But there were two old faces who were reconfirmed in their positions. Marcus Leopold as head of the legal department, and Jose Calderon as commander of the Martian Guard. Both were thunderously confirmed in their positions by the Assembly. So at the end of June 2250, we have three large blocs. Coalescing. On one side were pro Omnicorps, true believers who thought Omnicorps monopoly over Mars should be restored. They followed Kamal Singh's lead and believe the Martians orchestrated all of this and that their overriding motivation was a hatred of Earthlings. And if you thought this wouldn't drive them to cut off the phosphide supply, then you didn't know the Martians on the other side were anti Omnicorp critics who believed they should be stripped of their monopoly over Mars and the rest of the solar system. They believed the Martian declaration of independence was a clarion call to start fresh and open up space to everyone. There was simply no reason to allow the nefarious bunglers running Omnicorp to have it all to themselves anymore. In between, these two sides were neutrals. They didn't care who did what to who, as long as the phos 5 supply was not threatened. This macrocosm was reflected in microcosm among the spaceshippers. They broke down into these three blocks in roughly equal numbers. Some were, like the officers leading convoy group 11, sick and tired of the Martians and eager to restore Omnicorp's monopoly once and for all. Others were totally neutral. They were basically fine with the agreement of 2248. It seemed to be working. They didn't care whether Mars was autonomous or independent or a vassal state. They just wanted to go about their business. But now somebody was wrecking all that. Somebody was to blame, and the neutrals did want to know who. Finally, there was a group who had been radicalized by all the events since 2247, who were now thoroughly Anti Omnicorp and saw here an opportunity to create a whole new political paradigm that would break Omnicorps hegemonic control over the solar system. Among the more radicalized shippers who were now thoroughly Anti Omnicorps was the captain of a cargo ship that specialized in rare and exotic merchandise. That ship was called the Dapple, and the captain was Booth Gonzales. Booth Gonzales has been lurking on the periphery of everything we've talked about over the course of this entire series. But obviously he's about to quite literally plunge into the middle of everything. So let us now bring this biggest of unplayed pieces onto the board. Booth Gonzales was born in Luna port in 2220. He was the oldest child of Ackbar and Val Gonzales, who ran three cargo ships between Earth and Mars. Booth was eventually joined by four other siblings. Victoria, Shan, Marco, Dorn, and Betsy. As I said, the Gonzalez family specialized in transporting exotic and rare merchandise, much of it legal. But the most lucrative parts of their business were in black market smuggling. They were highly adept at their business and had long standing connections with other corporations and people on Mars who facilitated the transfer of a great deal of illegal merchandise. Not that anyone was really paying attention. During the later bird years, Booth and all his siblings were raised on board these ships. And when Ackbar Gonzales died in 2242, Booth took over as captain of the Dapple while his mother, Val, continued to run the business from Luna Port. When Timothy Warner showed up in 2244 and instituted the new protocols, the Gonzalez family took an immediate and direct blow. The disruption to both their legal and illegal trade hit their bottom line hard. Suddenly there were payments to be made that could not be made. And over the course of the next two years, they would wind up giving up one of their ships entirely and putting the other in dock because it had engine issues they could not afford to fix. Timothy Werner's name was mud in the Gonzales family, though that wasn't really saying much. His name was mud pretty much everywhere. But despite this, in 2246, they took an opportunity to join the convoy supplying Timothy Werner when he visited Mars. That was the trip that ended with the day of batteries. It seemed like a pretty good gig. The pay rate was actually more generous than usual. They were tasked with carrying luxury incidentals for Werner and his family. Except when they all got to Mars. No one ever called for the stuff to be offloaded. So they were held in orbit for six weeks, neither being called on to offload their goods nor allowed to deposit what they had and leave. It was all just stand by Dapple. Finally, after six weeks, they were told their goods would not be needed and they should take them back to Earth. This deprived them of the cargo space they planned to fill with Martian wares of special interest to a small but wealthy group of collectors and enthusiasts. They had to simply forego that income and leave Mars behind. They were still en route back to Earth when news of the Day the Battery circulated. Oh, how they laughed and laughed. Gonzalez and his family then continued to monitor the situation as conditions on Mars deteriorated further. They could not believe how badly Timothy Warner and Omnicorp were screwing things up. Young Captain Gonzales joined an informal circle of other cargo captains, including Coyote O'Hara and Abilene Wren, to figure out what, if anything, they could do to break the stranglehold the new Protocols had on their lives. It was by happy coincidence that the DAPA was in orbit above Mars when the three days of red erupted. When Commander Cartwright called for a spaceship or mutiny and a cessation of transport between Earth and Mars, Booth Gonzales did not have to think very long before signaling that the Dapple stood with Cartwright. This decision kept the Dapple around Mars for the duration of the mutual blockade, and Gonzales and his siblings eventually rotated down to the surface, where Martian leaders ensured they were treated well and had a great time, even if the food left a bit to be desired. It was while on Mars, during one of these shore leaves, that Gonzales first laid eyes on Helena Wells. When the mutual blockade finally ended with the agreement of 2248, and Timothy Warner was finally pitched overboard, Gonzalez and his family returned to running shipments to and from Mars. But they soon discovered that the doubling of the table of rates was not all it was cracked up to be. So Gonzales stayed in contact with O'Hara Wren and other cargo shippers, as well as friends and contacts on Mars. The networks that had grown up during the fight against the new Protocols were still very strong, and they were now augmented by deeper connections to Omnicorps rivals Bicor and T Corp. Both of whom indicated a willingness to lavishly reward any shipper who was willing to defect away from Omnicorp. This brought Gonzales into the growing conspiratorial network to break Mars away from Omnicorp that Kamal Singh was not wrong to believe existed. By 2249, that conspiracy had advanced to secret transfers of drone bombs into the holds of a small network of civilian cargo ships, including the Dapol. What precisely would be done with those drone bombs was unclear, but There they were. In May 2250. The DAPOL had just left Mars and was heading back to Earth when the Gemini vids swept through all the NETWORKS. Convoy Group 11 was loaded with nuclear devices. That seems bad. Gonzales made contact with his network and the consensus seemed to be that the Dapol should turn around and head back to Mars. Something ominous was obviously in motion and the Martians would need all the help they could get. The independence days exploded while they were still en route.
- [19:14]
Narrator
But.
- [19:15]
Revolutions Podcast Host
And now there could be no question, Omnicorp had just tried to stage an insurrection to retake control of Mars. The Gemini vids were obviously real. The nuclear bombs were obviously real. Convoy group 11 was going to have to be stopped by someone. So when the Dapol arrived in the environs of Mars, it joined a collection of other ships, both cargo ships and container ships, led by officers who still harbored anti Omnicorp sentiments. They were matched by a group of ships still loyal to Omnicorp, who planned to ensure convoy group 11 was allowed to make their normal approach to Phobos Station and from there duly enter orbit above Mars. But the largest group were neutral. They didn't know who or what to believe. They just wanted things to be normal again and were pretty furious at everyone involved. Now, back in 2247, Timothy Werner had ordered Commander Way to attack Commander Cartwright. And she said, no, I won't be doing that, and joined the mutiny instead. There had been this fundamental aversion among the shippers to the idea of fighting each other over Werner's nonsense. So there was some hope among both the Martians and the shippers that When Convoy Group 11 arrived, that dynamic would repeat itself, that they would not need to fight each other, that Convoy Group 11 would either turn around or open open their ships to inspection to prove once and for all no nuclear devices were aboard. But that would prove to be wishful thinking. Neither the Anti Omnicorps shippers nor the neutrals had any real desire to fight convoy group 11. They really just wanted them to stop and be inspected, like that's it. But this time, there was a more fanatical group of pro Omnicorps officers on the other side who had a very clear mission. They planned to see through to the end, whatever it took. As Convoy Group 11 made its final approach to Mars, diplomatic tensions on Earth and Mars escalated beyond the breaking point. And just to be clear, the absolute minimum demand from the Martians, the Anti Omnicorps shippers and the other corporations on Earth was that convoy group 11 stop and open itself up to inspection. And the fact that Omnicorps steadfastly refused to grant even that simple request moved a lot of neutrals in the direction of thinking, yeah, there might be nukes on board those ships, huh? Kamal Singh, however, said that the inspectors would just fake the inspection results like they had faked the Gemini vids. So convoy group 11 must be allowed to dock at Phobos Station and enter orbit untouched and unhindered. So that brings us to the Battle of Phobos. Phobos Station, really, Phobos Stations, but they always just called it. Phobos Station was the port of call for all incoming ships. Convoy group 11 would in fact have to stop there because they would need access to the station's facilities after months in transit. So both the Anti Omnicorps and Pro Omnicorps ships in the environs of Mars clustered there. They were not willing to fight each other yet, but both issued contradictory demands. The Pro Omnicorps officers said, get out of the way and let them dock. The Anti Omnicorps officer said, get out of the way and let us inspect them. On July 16, 2250, Convoy Group 11 finally arrived and approached Phobos Station. Ivana Darby issued a final ultimatum for them to stop for inspection and come no further, or else. The senior officer of Convoy Group 11 was Winifred Lowes. And she was under direct orders from Kamal Singh to keep advancing on Mars no matter what, to get the weapons into position, to checkmate the Martians no matter what. And it would appear from a short book that I read called Captain of the Convoy Winifred Lowes and the Battle that Shaped the Solar System. A somewhat comically grandiose title. It seems Lowes was actually prepared to not just threaten to drop the nukes, but to actually drop them. Kamal Singh had produced some very stomach churning analysis that even if one of the three Martian cities was completely destroyed, the setback in phosphide production would be short term, long term, they would be able to expand back to full capacity within 10 years, a capacity Omnicorp would still be in full monopolistic control of. And that was the most important thing. Lowe's believed this and her eyes were on that bigger prize. Human casualty numbers seemed incidental, even if they were listed in the millions. This analysis is actually some pretty chilling stuff. So that brings us to the Battle of Phobos. In total, about 50 ships were involved, with roughly equal numbers on both sides. When convoy group 11 arrived, their gunships and fighters immediately deployed to make sure no one stopped their approach. They were joined by gunships and fighters attached to Pro Omnicorps container ships. In response, the anti Omnicorps ships deployed their gunships and fighters, supported now by a collection of cargo ships that would appear to have no business being there, but which were about to reveal that they themselves were heavily armed. Now, no one on either side had ever taken part in a battle. There hadn't been a battle in space in, like, a hundred years. They had all played simulators, and so they had a basic understanding of tactics and strategies, bombs against scramblers and all that. But right up to the minute the drone bombs started flying, no one could quite believe they were really doing this. But then they did. Gonzales and the Daple were alongside an anti Omnicore gunship when the first drone bombs were launched by the Pro Omnicore ships. The question of whether the shippers would fight each other was finally answered by Winifred Lowes, and the answer was yes. Gonzales set the DAPL scramblers to scrambling, then targeted a Pro Omnicorps ship and sent out a barrage of their own bombs, which were duly scrambled by the Pro Omnicorps ship. Though at first, the two sides mostly just kept these drone bombs in buzzing, whirling confusion. Eventually, a few ships on both sides were hit. But mostly the Battle of Phobos was two evenly matched sides entering into a stalemate. Of course, if either side let their guard down for one second, they would be swarmed with drone bombs. So it's not like they were twiddling their thumbs out there. But for a long time, nothing really happened. According to the oft told tale. About an hour into the Battle of Phobos, Booth Gonzales noticed that the nine main container ships of Convoy Group 11 had bunched closely together away from the fighting. These ships were themselves unarmed. After all, they were not battleships. They were glorified cargo freighters. With all the gunships thoroughly focused on fighting each other, they had left the container ships unprotected. So without asking permission or telling anybody what he was doing, Gonzales abruptly broke the Dapple away, cranked his engines to max, and raced for the container ships. He later said, with studied modesty, that he was thinking mostly he could knock out one or two of their engines, maybe cause enough havoc over there to turn the tide against the Pro Omnicorps forces. The Pro Omnicorps forces noticed this lone ship plunging towards the containers. Too late. As soon as he got the Daple in range, Gonzales dumped his whole supply of drone bombs all at once, sending them all at the thrusters of the outermost ship of the group. Now I should mention these ships had been outfitted with rudimentary scramblers, but everyone actually equipped to handle a swarm of drone bombs like this was already doing that aboard the gunships. So while a few of the bombs were confused, most of them slammed into the back thrusters of that targeted ship. And that's when dominoes started to fall. When the drone bomb slammed into those thrusters, it triggered a little chain reaction that wound up with a far bigger explosion than the drone bombs themselves could have produced. The force of this explosion sent the ship into a pinwheel motion that crashed them into the ship next to them, sending that ship crashing into the ship next to them. Pretty soon the entire convoy group was caught up in this mess. And in shockingly short order, they were all damaged or disabled. This is not at all what Gonzales had expected. It's not what anybody had expected. As the Dapple raced back towards Phobos station, everyone on both sides watched on their screens as this chain reaction consumed the entire convoy. Suddenly the fighting seemed pointless. With all of those containers damaged and suffering God knows how many casualties, the crews of the pro Omnicorp gunships and fighters suddenly had no reason to fight. Sure, they could keep going out of spite or anger, but they had been fighting to clear a path for all those container ships to get through to Phobos Station. And now those containers were not going anywhere. Maybe not ever again. So they surrendered. Even more than the events on Mars during the independence days themselves, the Battle of Phobos truly marked a turning point in the history not just of the Martian revolution, but of the solar system. Bicorps and T Corps had both been involved in events on Mars for years, but only ever in the shadows. Their long term goal had always been to overturn Omnicorps monopoly to everything beyond the line of lunar orbit. And after 22:47 that goal went from future hazy dream to very real prospect in a hurry. But they had still never crossed the line into open conflict with Omnicorp. Sometimes history gets compressed. So the redeclaration of Martian independence is often followed directly by by corps and T corps recognizing that independence. But really there were several weeks where they still stayed merely on the brink. It was only after the battle of Phobos, where Omnicorp was so clearly the aggressor and so completely willing to force nuclear weapons into orbit around Mars and risk destroying the phosphide extraction infrastructure. Just because they didn't want to share with anyone else that they finally decided it was time. Of course, it should also be pointed out that they waited until the anti Omnicorps forces won the battle of Phobos. It was a real profile in courage, let me tell ya. But still. On July 19, 2250, Bicor and TCOR released a joint statement announcing that they recognized Martian independence. They would no longer recognize Omnicorp's claim to a monopoly beyond the line of lunar orbit. Omnicorp had proven themselves for the last time to be unworthy stewards of the PhoenixS5. Bicor and TCOR would now launch their own joint partnership with the Martians to extract and deliver PhoenixS5 so that Earth would no longer be reliant just on Omnicorp. Those days were over. Of course, this was tantamount to an act of war. And Kamal Singh denounced it, announcing that there would be an array of reprisals now aimed at Bicor and T Core and said that any ship attempting to pass the line of lunar orbit would be fired upon. But on Mars, the news of the victory of the Battle of Phobos set off wild running celebrations. They had all faced the prospect of certain death looming over their heads. And now, suddenly, they weren't. It's fine. We're okay. What happened? And then the story started circulating that it had been this one ship, this one captain. What's his name? Captain Booth Gonzales. So his name was cheered and cheers in every drink hole on Mars. And that's when the legend of Captain Booth Gonzales was born. He would never again be able to easily separate who he was as a person from what he stood for in the revolution. And eventually he wouldn't really want to. But we still have a ways to go yet before we get to that point because next week there's going to be no letting up. We will move immediately to the evacuation of Luna Port and the commencement of the corporate war.
- [31:49]
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