Tekker Party

The **Tekker Party**, known originally as the Easterner Party and sometimes called the Tradition Party, is a political party within the Coalition of Intelligent Organisms that was created during the early Coalition Dark Age by a small group of Tychoprian aristocrats. In the wake of the receding First Coalition Golden Age and subsequent Avatar Invasion, the occupants of the Coalition's eastern colonies were feeling very dissatisfied with the attentiveness of the government, none more so than the recently-incorporated Tychoprians. Originally, the stagnating Rhukib Dynasty had chosen to merge with the Coalition due to the economic benefits it would provide them. The Coalition, being a wealthy and technologically advanced civilization, saved the Tychoprian species from economic collapse, but it wasn't long before the detrimental effects of this decision started to manifest. Not only did the Tychoprians now have to follow the law codes of the Coalition (many of which conflicted with characteristically violent Tychoprian tradition), but the absorption of the Rhukib Dynasty had made the eastern portions of the Spur Trinity now safe to traverse for Coalition citizens, which led to an unexpected surge in immigration as a second wave of colonization swept through Tychoprian space. While many extremists among the Tychoprians called for a rebellion against the Coalition, the wisest of them knew that the remnants of the Rhukib military, which had been reduced to a mere fraction of its power after centuries of decay and the unexpected Avatar Invasion, couldn't stand up to the Coalition's vastly superior armed forces. A particularly influential and intelligent Tychoprian known as Tekker Vul-Jawro decided that the best way to revive Tychoprian tradition and earn their species more cultural and economic separation was through the machinations of the Coalition government itself. While the Colonial Party and Primacy Party were busy fighting over the future of the Coalition's western half, Tekker rallied support from Tychoprian voters in the eastern colonies, and when new representatives were being elected, he won by an overwhelming majority. Tekker's appearance in the Species Council came as quite a shock to other Coalition politicians. His vivid, radical beliefs, fierce demeanor and occasionally unscrupulous behavior served as a clear indication to his opponents that he was not to be trifled with. His audacious reputation was matched by his audacious platform, which, to the surprise of existing politicians, was completely original and not connected to the platforms of the government's main parties. Tekker called himself a "friend of the easterners" and claimed to be the first representative of the newly-formed "Easterner Party." His supporters, although not as numerous compared to the other parties, had extremely strong convictions, and aided in Tekker's rise to fame. The audacity Tekker displayed in politics eventually caught up with him, and, just before he completed his term, he was assassinated. Due to the GP's poor handling of the case, and the fact that Tekker's killer was never found, the proponents of his political beliefs intensified their involvement in Coalition politics, fearing their ideology was under attack. To them, Tekker had become somewhat of a martyr, catalyzing the Easterner Party's evolution into the more aggressive and sinister form it assumed throughout the rest of Coalition history. Tekker's influence over the party's ideology and practices was so great, it was soon dubbed the Tekker Party after the Tychoprian representative that had started it all.

What the Tekker Party lacked in terms of popular support, it made up for in the realm of political subterfuge and corporate connections. Their naturally competitive spirits and loyalty to tradition made the Tychoprians very proficient at intimidating their political opponents, while their connections to innovative and ambitious eastern spur corporations gave the Tekker Party financial leverage almost equal to that of the Primacy Party. The policies of the Tekker Party garnered attention from other species in the eastern spur, and led to a number of previously underrepresented species becoming swing representatives for the Tekker Party, giving them a much-needed boost to popular support. One of the Tekker Party's greatest strengths, however, was its ability to appeal to both the Primacy Party and Colonial Party in regards to certain policies it supported. As is common among many organizations in the eastern colonies, the Tekker Party included rapid technological development as one of its main policies, a decision that pleased many Primacy Party representatives that were in association with the private sector. At the same time, the struggle to maintain Tychoprian tradition and cultural sovereignty was appreciated by the Colonial Party, especially after they shifted towards a platform more dedicated to alien rights in an effort to attract Tekker voters. The Tekker Party exploited these similarities to influence the decisions of both parties, shifting its focus whenever one party appeared to gain more political leverage than the other. This allowed the Tekker Party to have much more political power than its limited number of representatives would normally provide, and helped keep the party neutral when tensions between Primacists and Colonials boiled over. Many blame the Tekker Party for the onset of the Galactic Revolution, claiming that their political meddling was intended to deepen the divide between the dominant political parties of the western spur, eventually leading to a civil war that would give the Tychoprians the independence they so desperately desired. Whether or not the Galactic Revolution was ultimately the product of Tekker influence is debatable, but the Tychoprians, as a whole, did use the revolution as an opportunity to secure definitive, if temporary, political independence. The emergence of the Proxima Group in the later stages of the revolution was seen as proof that the Tychoprians had planned the revolution many centuries prior, as they had waited until the Coalition military was preoccupied with rebellions in the western spur to start an insurgency of their own.

Ultimately, this strategic move was not enough to ensure the survival of the Proxima Group, and once the Coalition had redirected its efforts towards incursions into the eastern colonies (along with some help from Unumot Weapons and Utility), the Proxima Group was quickly crushed. Much like the Colonial Party, the Tekker Party reentered the Coalition political dynamic as a crippled, humiliated husk of its former self, now facing tremendous stigmatization from almost the entire Coalition populace due to its associations with the brutality of the Galactic Revolution.The corporate entities that had once given the party its financial leverage were now distancing themselves to avoid profit losses due to political affiliations, as the Tekker Party's poor reputation could easily harm the standing of various corporations if they continued to openly support the party. Even Tychoprian loyalists that had stayed with the party from the beginning were starting to withdraw their support, due to a combination of humiliation and a desire to improve their social standing amidst growing hostility from other races. Although the Tekker Party ended up sacrificing most of their influence in the Species Council, they were more inclined to cooperate with the Primacy Party than the Colonial Party during this time, giving them a very small amount of influence vicariously through Primacy Party representatives. In a way, the Tekker Party accomplished more during this time than at any previous point in Coalition history, as the Primacy Party, acting partially in their interests, had full control of Coalition legislation.

Owing to its origins, the Tekker Party's sole source of reliable influence in the Species Council is through Tychoprian representatives, who, prior to the conclusion of the Galactic Revolution, were almost always affiliated with the Tekker Party. It competes with the Colonial Party over swing representatives for the Jurv and Nenkl, and with the Primacy Party over swing representatives for the Klabalur. Most of the Tekker Party's popular support comes from the eastern colonies, which are overwhelmingly dominated by Tychoprians in terms of demographics. However, there are pockets in both the Coalition core zones and Kiracian Group that support the Tekker Party, though these pockets are usually dominated by political moderates that combine the Tekker Party's platform with that of the stronger party in their respective locations. Interestingly enough, Rhukib Palace, the seat of the Rhukib Dynasty's old government, was used by the Tekker Party as their primary meeting place, allowing it to maintain its relevence to Tychoprian politics even after the Rhukib Dynasty ceased to exist.