November 11, 3056...
The right honorable Ryan Steiner stepped out of the troop bay of a Coast Guard Raptor and into the glare of Kowloon's double suns, attired for court. Not "courtly attire", but a proper suit nonetheless, aside from the handcuffs. With him, were three lawyers from the Konbauer, Schriver, und Gloss (Gmbh), one of the most expensive law-firms in the Inner Sphere, much less the Lyran Commonwealth.
The Lawyers were not under guard, but they were here at the insistence of the Law.
A man might consider it a small concession, (or a very large one), to have the trial held outside of the Isle of Skye, on a world which had gained notoriety not eight years ago for being a classic example of official neglect and near-ruinous imposed foreign rule.
The presence of one of the justices of the Commonwealth Supreme Court as the judge for the trial could be imagined to be a sign of political desire to impress just how serious the charges were.
one might. then again, one might consider that the Archon Prince was here as plaintiff, that Ryan Steiner was facing charges related to a domestic terrorist group, that his past associations with another terrorist group were well established fact, and that the world he had been brought to, had a certain...reputation.
and one might also suggest, that bringing him here, to Kowloon, whose Duchess was nearly slain by that same conspiracy, might be a bit prejudicial as to the outcome.
However one might wish to cover the subsequent trial, there is a single overriding fact; The Kowloonese insisted on prosecuting after he had been found guilty on the conspiracy against the Crown, Rebellion, and Treason, before the sentencing phase.
Thus, why he was brought here, today, in a Coast Guard vehicle, attended by his legal team, to face a judge, and a jury of twelve civilian citizens after already being a convicted traitor.
Already under one death sentence, Ryan faced the potential for a much more gruesome fate, for Kowloonese Legal precedents include the Elbar Field Courts-Martials, and sentencing history that includes such warm, and fuzzy concepts as crucifiction, slow-drop hanging, and the use of the condemned as bayonet practice.
His conspiracy had included the attempted murder of Duchess Elizabeth Ngo, a girl half his age, with a fraction of his experience in politics, and she insisted on a Jury Trial.
Very quickly, motions for extensions were denied. Motions for dismissal, were also denied. A motion for dismissal on standing was considered, argued by the proscutor, and then denied.
this was all on camera, in front of the world. The evidence phase was brutal, recordings, HPG messages, records, financial transactions and the vast bureaucratic debris left behind by a series of audits were presented with clear explanations and power-point projections explaining how the bureaucratic and financial institutions of the Commonwealth worked, and how they had been subverted and perverted to fund violent men doing violent things to civilians in order to compel the government to do yet more violent and brutal things in response.
The financial connections were drawn so clearly that even the carpenters, mechanics, housewives and janitors on the Jury were able to grasp this, in part thanks to four years of education being handed out without charge in exactly these matters. The connection between terror incidents, financial theft, fraud, and electoral politics, and the connections from electoral politics to Inherited Titles was also drawn clearly enough for these average, mostly-working-class civilians to grasp what Ryan Steiner and his co-defendants had done, were in some cases still doing.
Thorpe sat in the audience, watching each day, as more and more things governments usually strive to hide, were brought out and exposed to the citizens on 'live' holo-vee, as forensic accounting was explained, as the connections were demonstrated.
"Jesus, Romo Lampkin wouldn't be able to get these guys off."
By the 17th of November, it was time for the Jury to consider the verdict.
it took one hour.
"We the Jury, find the Defendants guilty of criminal misuse of office, of bribery, extortion, conspiracy to murder, conspiracy to property damage with the intent to cause Terror, with conspiracy to abuse of office, with criminal misuse of public funds, to embezzlement of public funds, to conspiracy to embezzle public funds, to fraud, to conspiracy to defraud investors, with conspiracy to defraud the public, with conspiracy to commit Treason against the government of the Commonwealth, to conspiracy to commit murder, to grand larceny, to conspiracy to obstruct justice on all counts, to conspiracy to murder civilians, to defrauding the government in wartime, to profiteering, to Extortion on all counts, to blackmail on all counts, to corruption of military officials on all counts, to perjury, all counts, contempt of Court, all counts..." and on it went, for nearly an hour, each count was listed off, or announced as 'all counts'.
The sum total sentence on the non-capital crimes exceeded 1000 years of prison time using the standard guidelines, with the first 'real' probation hearing being likely in 3165.
using standard Lyran Commonwealth sentencing guidelines.
but this is wartime.
and there were capital crimes as well.
"the Estimated death toll from secondary impacts of your little group of conspirators..." Elizabeth Ngo, the Duchess of Kowloon, said as she stood before the Magistrate and the defendants, "...is on the order of six hundred thousand civilian lives, per defendant, if we divide them evenly between the fifteen of you..."
she tapped her cane on the judge's box. "Fifteen times six, is ninety. add six zeroes behind that. Not quite a planetary scale, but it's awful close out here on the edge, it's a major city or two, at least. of course, that's the direct casualties, not the indirect secondary impacts, and some of you-Ryan, have more than that body count to your name."
she snapped her cane against her palm. "Not including me. I specifically wanted to save that bit for if you got this far, because while Ryan Steiner has the highest body count, he was not the one who said, 'Hit Liz Ngo'. At least, not directly. Your cases have been heard. Your appeal, is sitting over there-" she pointed the stub end of the cane to where Victor Steiner Davion sat in the audience. "-and he has found against you, rejected it, and left the ball for how to carry out sentencing, in my hands. This is wartime, each of you are guilty of crimes against the war effort. each of you are also guilty of crimes in the civilian world, totalling a rough thousand years of prison time, loss of your assets as forfieture, loss of title as well. epic punishment for an epic pattern of crime, but..."
she sighed, "your machinations have harmed whole sectors of the Commonwealth, crippled the defenses, and indirectly led to the loss of an entire sub-state, the Tamar Pact, to an invader. Your crimes have also crippled the nation's ability to respond to that invasion...and you felt no guilt. I would wager you each felt it was your due, to do these things, to pervert the system for your own ends." she leaned forward, cane braced between her hands.
"I ordered men hanged for rape. that was a gang rape of a single person. what you have done, is to rape the whole of the commonwealth."
she paused. then, she reached into her pocket.
"one for you." she said, placing a small velvet box in front of Ryan Steiner, "one for you...you already have one, one for you..." down the line, "Those are yours. a keepsake for your heirs, now, let us all go outside, the execution of the sentencing will begin shortly."
"When?" Ryan asked, nervously.
"When I finish digging the holes." she told him, exchanging her cane, for a pair of workman's gloves, "It is unconscionable to ask a normal citizen to do a task one is not willing to do oneself. Unable, perhaps, inexpert, perhaps, but merely unwilling? NO. that is wrong. the harder and more traumatizing the work is, the more important it is to, whenever possible, do it oneself. I would never force a good man to do to another person, what I am about to do to you."
The defendants were led out into the sunshine on Tiger Ridge. and gasped at the sight-of a post-holer, and a stack of fifteen bluewood stakes, three meters long, and a block-and tackle, set up with a pair of stirrups.
"Crimes by Officials are infinitely worse, than crimes by non-officials." Elizabeth recited at the top of her lungs, projecting it to the news media. "An official is granted special privileges as part of their duty, in order to perform that duty and serve the citizens. These officials have abused that authority, and that is unacceptable in a way that can only be equated to an atrocity. Lyran Law forbids the use of cruelly unusual punishment for wrongdoing, it also enshrines the principle of proportionality. Each of these fifteen people, taken together, have killed millions of Lyran citizens for their own gain, and when the additional harms are accounted, maimed tens of millions, deprived hundreds of millions of Justice, and enslaved hundreds of millions more to the invading Clans."
Ryan tried to kick her face when she fastened the stirrups to his feet, and struggled as the loop was passed over the sharpened end of the stake.
"This is proportional to your crimes." She announced, "As Duke of Skye, you held a special responsibility to the people you led, and to the people of the Commonwealth. This provided you with special dignities, special authorities, and you abused those authorities and relied on those dignities to protect you from the consequences of your actions. You attempted to start a civil war when your misdeeds were uncovered."
she set her feet, and grasped the loose end of the block and tackle, passing it through one end of a winch.
"on Elbar, my people found the remains of three million citizens whose murders were committed under the color of law, with the intent to terrorize." she began to winch. "Your crimes, when the damage is totaled, are worse than those of the men my ancestor impaled at Running Deer Mountain." the butt of the stake caught in the hole, as the rounded point caught in the seat of Ryan Steiner's pants.
she stopped, and locked it at a shallow angle. "Now, tell me why I should not keep cranking that wheel until your body is forced to a position of attention as you slowly die on the stake, Ryan. Make it good, because I don't want to do this, so if you give me a good reason to stop, I will stop. but if you don't, you will get the stake, and I will have one more nightmare added to my psyche...but nobody else will have to live with having done that to another human being."
His panicking mind latched onto the oddest things. like the tears welling in her eyes, as she said, "Please, in the name of god, tell me why I can stop, tell me why I don't have to do this. give me a reason."
"p-please..mercy? I..I'm sorry. I didn't realize..." he begged.
she unlatched the winch. she unlatched the stirrups. Two men carried the stake away and Ryan Steiner was allowed to stand up, on his own feet, to die like a man instead of an animal.
she shot him in the head instead. Then, she shot the next one. and the next. when her revolver ran out, she reloaded it, and fired until it was empty, and then,she reloaded it, and fired three more times.
Fifteen convicted traitors, and the news media caught it all. "I am not Tran Truk Ngo." she said, "I guess that's reason enough."
