Lionel Firefly

## Sir Lionel Rowe Alston Firefly

Field Marshall Firefly, displaying his military honours, 2260.

Political Steering of Imperial Court

Field Marshall **Sir Lionel Firefly** was one of the leading figures of the Imperial military forces from around the late years of the 2240s towards the beginning of the 2260s. He is revered for rearranging the Armed forces in a shape fit for a blitz attack never seen before, but also somewhat criticised once said strategy bogged down into complete attrition and a full-scale disastrous retreat. In his later years, he is remembered mostly for his political life and diplomatic steering across several planets all under the fold of the Eternal Empire.

Born on April 2nd, 2205, Lionel Rowe Alston Firefly made marks great enough to shape the lives of billions all across the Galaxy, following the ambitions and actions of an entire nation, that changed his life and history of entire empires by means of violence and destruction at a scale never seen before. To many, the architect behind the operation that would later be recalled as the “Bloody Push”, and the man who forced through such an offensive despite the increasing mounting of losses all across the Imperial command structure and its deep bases. Nevertheless, he was a military figure keen on reforming the style of warfare played up by the Eternal Empire in the journey of expansionism across the Galaxy, playing, amongst many in the higher echelon of the Imperial military Court, a pivotal role to accomplish such a task with so little time and so many enemies all around as they did at the time.

By the time of his death, in 2283, much in the Empire had changed since his earliest experiences throughout the military goals found by the nation. The Eternal Empire, by then more stable, cherished much less resistant foes and more favourable terms of advantage over other civilizations cut off from the rest of the Galactic Community. In the later decades, it was the legacy brought by the Great Northern War, however, the factor that brought down such a powerful giant by once more committing the same mistakes of the past, an action, if not done completely, at the very least partially faulted by ambitious men such as Lionel Firefly.

## **Military Service**

Born under the roof of proud aristocrats and politicians, Lionel sought to win his pride not only by the use of words but by his own achievements in the Empire’s most prominent field; the Military. Being a charismatic person ever since his first words, he managed to steer through the academies and rise to become a prominent cadet from the very beginning of his trials at the war schools. In 2230, he ingressed into the **Royal Army Academy of Leversfield**, the second most popular military training institution of the Empire and reached the rank of Commander by 2235. His stay at New Earth brought a great network of connections he came to utilise during his career, namely the friendship formed with future Lord Regent Jacob Williams, at the time the local commander of troops stationed near the Buckingham Palace, in Mount Westminster; Which gave him many concessions during the 2260s.

In 2239, two years after the assassination of Lord Regent Thomas Ashbury, Lionel was posted in command of the **7th. New Columbia Army Group**, and was shipped with his unit down south to attend the Third Campaign of the Empire in that region. For almost nine years he proved his worth; partaking in several landings and invasions of Xeno planets, carrying out attack operations involving thousands of soldiers at his command and striking several victories at the heart of enemy defences. His most important personal goal, however, was strengthening his network of contacts across the army, something he eventually came to achieve, as Lionel himself rose through the ranks and gained notoriety whilst also building a company of trusted commanders, staff officers and fellow generals with every battle gone in their favour. By the end of the Third Campaign, Firefly had met officers from several colonies and established a society filtered with the best and most capable tacticians of the Army to reform and adapt the Armed Forces for his and the nation’s own benefit; the **Society of Red Rubies**.

In the following years, he and several others were gaining much notoriety in the homeland. By earning the support of the Lord Regent and strengthening his grip in the society as he was promoted to Field Marshall, in 2256, Lionel now had a much broader power in the military, and by tightening ties with the Royal Navy, the Armed Forces were beginning to become something capable of destroying entire nations in the span of months if working together in cohesion.

In 2261, a plan brewing for years had reached its action phase; the **Northern Push** was about to explode in total conflict. The Great Northern War can be easily considered one of his most crucial moments in Imperial history. By his command, soldiers and sailors from all across the Empire were bonding together in the single largest invasion done by humanity at that point, protected by a net of careful planning and cunning tactics that were thought to be unbeatable at the time. Fueled by the support of the entire nation, the army and navy took planet after planet, system after system and sector after sector, until it stopped dead in its tracks by the lack of momentum it started having from shortages of logistical support. What followed were series of defeats done at the hands of the Dyss, their opponents, who cut a path right open towards the heart of the Empire with the same tactics enforced by the Imperials in the years prior. The situation escalated to complete military emergency, and after several military defeats in hopes to stall the Northern Berserkers, the enemy was found defeated in the orbit of the Imperial homeworld and beaten back to their frontiers, bringing with them tens of billions dead at the hand of warfare. By 2266, much of the Empire was free from conflict once more, but that didn’t mean Lionel Firefly was free of fault from his previous deeds in the war.

During that same year, Lionel was forced to resign from the army due to internal pressure, even if the blame was mostly kept from others instead of concentrated towards him alone. In 5 years, his military career of more than 30 years was almost burned in ashes by the number of losses attributed towards the Bloody Push and the Dyss counter-attack, yet that did not mean that Lionel was over with Imperial affairs at the Royal Court. Quickly, there would be a change from strategist to a politician, a second life for the man responsible for the catastrophic war of the North.

## **Civilian Life**

Lionel Firefly ingressed into politics just as soon as the higher military life reached him, if not before, by means of his family influence in the Court. By several years, it was thought that, if not by the military and political disaster that followed throughout the 2260s, it could have been Firefly the one to succeed the regency in the event that Lord Regent Jacob Williams had passed away prematurely; but that is something that would only become possible with years of political victories and waiting, maintaining power and the influence, something impossible given the happenings of the Bloody Push during his career years on.

Officially, it can be said his true first political role in the Eternal Empire came right after the end of the **Third Southern Campaign**, as one of the overseer of troops in the newly occupied planets of the newly incorporated sectors of the nation. Lionel, however, was also a figure who sought to connect both his military career with a political one, and through an array of several characters, accompanied by a backstory of success and connections, he quickly rose to become one of the main advisors behind the war decisions of the Lord Regent, in 2257. With such powers, he and his closest supporters netted closely together with members of the Royal Navy and the recently reformed Royal Air Force into a cohesive formation backing or opposing the issues happening by the Imperial Admiralty and the Imperial Court, something that later on resulted into one of the most detrimental problems the Empire came to face internally, the division inside the great leadership rooms between more radical forces and moderate advisors backing their own causes, all fueled by the nationalistic feel of righteousness behind their intentions.

After the defeat in the war, however, it was clear that some within the high groups would not listen to Firefly once dealing with military matters. He laid down for years until the dust had settled, and in 2270, as a so-called ‘reformed man’, Lionel returned to interstellar politics not as a warmonger, but as a diplomat in service of her majesty’s Eternal Ministry. Of course, the title of diplomat did not strike as one to meet with alien life, as such practice was still thought to be very dangerous for governmental figures, but instead as someone responsible for bureaucratically tying together core and frontier planets of the Empire, by whatever way he’d find the fittest to do as long as it was approved by the Court and the Lord Regent’s insight. He followed service in the diplomatic career until 2277 when he was appointed as Royal Governor of the Southeastern sector of the nation, effectively becoming the second in charge of that region under only the supervision of the capital system of New Sol.

Due to physical and mental indisposition, however, Lionel Firefly abandoned the post in 2281 and retired from office shortly later to spend his last years not running for action as he had done in previous years, but instead to rest and meet a comfortable end to his service for the Empire. He would die in 2283, after suffering a crippling heart attack in his home property of Albelshire, at New Jamestown.

Though present for a short while as governor of the South-East, he enacted some reforms that helped the Court change its opinion over his reputation as a civil leader during his last years. He is not remarked by being an excellent statesman by any means, but his experience in dealing with several different faces ensured that over and over, his region grew, as others stalled with the growing resource requirements of the core homeworlds. His short rule permitted much of the logistical apparatus to be set near the borders with the Celestial Alliance, paving way for the Royal Navy to roam without complications once the campaign was to come. And as for his service in the Eternal Ministry, Lionel surely exchanged his lack of renown for many deals which satisfied the Court, whilst also bringing him to the spotlight whenever it felt convenient to regain the lost pride during the Northern War. In short, his political activity after the discharge from the army was long, yet limited as the previous years halted some ambitions; He is seen as a capable advisor and governor, but the true place he came to excel, the army, was the place he would be forever banned from ever sharing his voice on.

## **Personal Insight**

Judging with critical eyes, Lionel was a charismatic, optimistic and sometimes overconfident commander that was hard to explode in a rage by his early years in the army. In 2238 he married **Karoline Outman**, sharing together two daughters and a son a few years later. His family lived a comfortable life once moving to New Jamestown, and although not always being present to see their children growing, he made sure to always keep contact with them during the span of the entire war. To those who knew him before the Great Northern War, he is mentioned as a man with little frustrations, bearing the respect of a father figure and the leadership for so just as much.

Much of his darker side, however, began to show once the war had turned against the Empire’s favour. In late 2262, his son, Merlin Firefly, an army captain who showed a future just as prominent as his father’s, was killed in action during the Taking of Trasnat, and although he tried his best not to show grief once facing other officials, he could do nothing but also worry about his second daughter, Ursula, a pilot in the Transport Wings of the Royal Air Force deep into the Dyss territory during the height of the war’s brutality. It is said he became delusional for months, hoping for a final victory against the Dyss and sacrificing millions trying to achieve that same unreachable goal by that point. After a number of defeats and crippling losses both in space and in the land, Lionel suffered a health collapse that forced the entire Empire to fall into retreat back to their homeland. Following that, some said he became much more recluded, and with it, rambled in points which were impossible to achieve by that point of the war. Despite being spared of most backlash after the war had de-escalated, he nevertheless stepped out of power and entered a withdrawal phase until his return to political life.

The older Firefly shared some similarities from before the disaster found in the war, but they were nowhere as optimistic as the ones of the veteran Field Marshall. His older daughter, Angela, who also partook political roles in the Imperial Court for most of her life, recalled his entrance to politics as something she never expected given his deplorable state years prior in reclusion. Nevertheless, Lionel maintained a much more conservative and moderate approach in the Court, as well as one in private life. Having to deal with politics, however, is said to have helped him regain senses as time progressed, something that mostly returned him into the older characteristics, but did not help once the topic of the war was brought up ever once in a while.

## **Military Honours**

Showing combat records from many battles in a service history of over 30 years, here are some of Firefly’s most remembered deeds during his career as a military officer:

* **Battle of New Lura** (*Operation Aurora*) - 2239 - [1st. Royal Medal of Service]
* **Siege of Ashbury Peninsula** (*Battle of Gura*) - 2241 -
* **Battle of Red Walls** (*Taking of Jarka*) - 2245 - [1st. White Cross]
* **Ambush of Lambertuk** - 2246 - [2nd. White Cross]
* **Siege of Wara** (*Operation Firedragon*) - 2248 -
* **Push of the 2 Million** (*Battle of Haru*) - 2248 - [Order of Saint Michael and Saint George]
* **Uprising of Amon** - 2256 - [Order of the Home Knight]
* **‘Bloody Push’ Campaign** - 2261/2263 - [2nd. Royal Medal of Service]