Since his dismissal in 2298.08.09 by the Commonwealth Navy, esteemed fleet admiral Jurgen Müller has been at the heart of a great deal of controversy surrounding the circumstances. His replacement, An Liang, a recent Academy graduate, is considered an ill-suited successor to Müller, who won multiple campaigns against both the Jakly Heralds of Death and Prikki-Ti, paving the way for the obtaining of numerous star systems.
In the wake of the dismissal, several prominent military theorists and political scientists have attempted to draw their own conclusions to the reason behind it. The Commonwealth Navy itself has been quite quiet on the matter, refusing to make any comments when plied by reporters. Ex-Admiral Müller has chosen to seclude himself in his old residence on Gridwood, where paid security keeps him away from undesirables.
To get one opinion on the topic, we chose to talk to esteemed military theorist Pedro Fernandez, who spent five years shadowing prominent officers in the Commonwealth armed forces.
“A surprising amount of decisions made in the military nowadays aren’t made in the interest of our power,” said Fernandez, speaking from his personal science vessel.
“What many don’t realize is that the Commonwealth of Man hasn’t had the need for a high-level fleet admiral since the 2270’s. That was during the subjugation of the Prikki-Ti, where a certain amount of coordination between ships was required to maintain a certain level of effectiveness. Individuals like Jurgen Müller were chosen to be commanding officers because they excelled at that kind of leadership. But we haven’t had a war anywhere near that big since those times – everything past it has been small anti-pirate actions and border skirmishes.”
It’s true. The Gangway Affair of 2285 was the last time the Commonwealth mobilized a significant portion of its navy to respond to Jakly border incursions in the Scipiton sector. Since then, the main threat has been raids on shipping lanes by pirates – the 2290 Threat Assessment Dossier, released on a five-year cycle by the Office of Naval Intelligence, stated that over 45% of all Commonwealth Navy assets were devoted to guarding trade routes.
“Another thing to consider is the recent economic recession,” commented Dr. Guo Sima, a socio-economist studying at Jackson-Beauclair University on Unity.
“The Commonwealth is still feeling the far-reaching impacts of our subjugation of the Prikki-Ti. Even with the planet under our control, it took years of crackdowns on organized crime to wrestle Gish’s economy back to a profitable level. Even now, we still sink hundreds of energy credits into keeping the planet afloat. Managing twenty-five million enslaved xenos is no easy task, and the two months of martial law declared back in ’95 scooped out a good portion of our financial reserves to pay the garrison tasked with controlling the planet.
Retired Navy Lieutenant Paulina Torres, who formerly served aboard the CNS Punisher as a battlefield tactician, was asked to provide her thoughts on the Admiral’s dismissal.
“The fact of the matter is that Müller was being paid for the wrong job. He’s a battlefield leader. He’s won several battles against state navies – organized military forces with rules, honor, predictability. How well would Müller fair against pirates? They fight dirty, if they ever chose to fight at all; they use guerrilla tactics we haven’t seen since the 2274 UNE campaigns, and they have a level of civilian infiltration that the Navy literally can’t do anything about. Müller wouldn’t stand a chance.
“And this is why new talent, like Liang, is being brought in to replace the old. Are they better? Debatable. A lot varies amongst these new candidates, but there’s one trend I always notice: they save money. All these new officers come from logistics backgrounds.”
New legislation passed by Grand Marshal Gauthier in 2298.02 dictates that the interests of the state would be better balanced between military and economic. Though a good deal of Commonwealth citizens dislike the pro-civilian turn of the current administration, it cannot be denied that it is starting to fix the downward spiral of the economy after the Prikki-Ti subjugation and subsequent planetary revitalization.
The military, economic, and political turnaround of the Commonwealth has combined into a new philosophy of frugality in the armed forces. Once-great officers are being dismissed in favor of fresh-faced Academy recruits, fleets are being split to patrol additional sectors, and warships phased out in favor of system patrol vessels. One thing is for certain, however: though this policy may be beneficial to the economy, it is certainly lethal to the careers of officers like Jurgen Müller.
Last updated 2298.10.5
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