Renegade Combine Sect May Hope to Shatter League,Coordinator

[DeJaVu]

GALACTIC INSINUATOR – The reactionary Black Dragon Society, long a thorn in the side ofCoordinator Theodore Kurita, is said to be plotting a new terrorist attack aimed at the Star League Conference on Tharkad later this year. Whether the target of the attack is the Coordinator—who has allegedly survived no less than three assassination plots against him by the Black Dragons—or the conference as a whole, remains unknown at this time.
The Black Dragon Society—also known as the Kokoryu-kai in the Combine’s native Japanese—has long maintained a hard line against the reforms enacted by Theodore Kurita. These reforms began even before he ascended to the Combine throne. Theodore’s changes—which have included the activation of several regiments manned by “unproductives” (a Combine term including criminals and those of the lower social classes), a relaxation of the stricter elements of the bushido warrior’s code, the liberation of the Rasalhague Republic, and the widening of trade and diplomatic ties with other Successor States—have largely been credited with saving the Combine from ruin in the War of 3039 and the Clan Invasion.
Despite this, the ranks of the Black Dragons have steadily swelled although Combine news agencies have downplayed their effect. Reports—many leaked out anonymously over the last five years—have blamed the Black Dragons for an abortive invasion of Towne in 3058, as well as the provocation of the Combine-Dominion War and the loss of the Coordinator’s wife, Tomoe Sakade, during that same conflict.
Although any resurgence of discovery of Black Dragon operations throughout the state has prompted harsh crackdowns by ISF forces, the Society has managed to survive and even grow in influence. Nonetheless, the ongoing strife has always been viewed as an internal matter by Star League officials familiar with the situation.
The threats to this year’s Whitting Conference, however, may change all that.
“If the Black Dragons target the Star League conference, it will be a fatal mistake for them,” said Captain Armando Refa, of the Star League Intelligence Command’s Member State Liaison office. “As it stands now, the League has remained out of the internal problems of the Combine, but a strike on the conference is a strike at all League members, and all League members will respond accordingly.”
Hohiro Kurita, Commanding General of the SLDF and heir to the Combine throne, declined to comment on Refa’s claims saying only that “the Dragon has matters well in hand…we will not allow terrorists to prevail over justice.”
Nonetheless, warnings issued by the SLIC and the Lyran Intelligence Corps continue to advise local and national agencies to be on the lookout for Black Dragon operatives in Lyran or Rasalhaguian space, especially on Tharkad, host of this year’s League conferences.