By Chester Seaton, News

14/1/282- Rumors have been swirling for several weeks now that Alejandro Julianos, High Admiral of Monteddor’s Air Defense Fleets and recent recipient of the Guardian of the Triumvirate Medal, would be meeting with Triumvirate Authority military command to propose a new defense initiative for the Empire. We can now confirm that meeting did indeed take place, and what was discussed.

“The Summit Attack late last year hit the Triumvirate Authority two fold,” said Jasper Stapleton, High Admiral of the Triumvirate Authority. “The physical cost of the attack was nearly a quarter of the fleet’s ships. We’ve had trouble patrolling the borders ever since, and Seylene Plamondon has been getting frisky as a result.

“Even more than the physical cost was learning that our remaining ships are simply not up to the task of going toe to toe with the ships used by our attackers. They were simply more advanced: faster, with longer range weapons and better armor. They were kept aloft by rotors, not by balloons. Such ships shouldn’t even be possible, but they are, and we need to figure out how to match them.”

Such was the brunt of Julianos’ proposal, according to Admiral Stapleton. The Monteddorian High Admiral proposed a new fleet of fifteen ships, built in the same design as those used by the Summit attackers.

“We balked at the idea, at first,” Stapleton said. “Not because we thought it was a bad idea…it isn’t. More important, it’s necessary. It was an issue of cost, in both money and time: research and development, manpower, construction. One ship would take years, we thought. But fifteen, in the time frame Julianos proposed? The Empire would be bankrupt.”

That’s when Julianos did the unthinkable, and ordered a ship to maneuver down from the clouds where it had been hidden.

“That son of a [expletive removed] had already built one,” Stapleton said. “I was floored. I have no idea how Julianos managed it, but he’d built a working prototype. Not only that, but from the plans he provided us, there are several improvements to the design.”

In the end, Admiral Stapleton says that the Triumvirate Authority approved an eight ship fleet to start, to be commanded by Admiral Julianos, making him the first Monteddorian Admiral in Authority history. They plan to increase that fleet by the end of next year, with rotary ships being added to regular fleets over the next decade.