Jacques sighed.

'Shame so little reaches the parts of Sirius that aren't directly involved in the situation.'

He adjusted his position and started.

'Well, I suppose we should start from the beginning. Back in the day, over eight hundred years ago, during the Exodus there were six sleeper ships. I'll risk the statement that you know what the story of the first five is - Liberty, Rheinland, Kusari, Bretonia and Hispania. There was a sixth though - Gallia - that launched in secrecy after the first five.

They believed their launch had been delayed due to some kind of conspiracy by the other five ships. I am not the one to judge if that's true, but that thought made the seed of hostility planted in Gallic hearts.'

He saw Fynn smirking at the metaphor.

'Oh, come on, I am a writer for crying out loud. But, okay, I guess you want facts not unnecessary poetry. Well, anyway. They made their way to a star cluster relatively close to Sirius and settled in a system later known as Ile-de-France. That cluser was reasonably smaller than Sirius, but also a lot richer in resources. Good question to ask would be why neither of the first five houses settled there. When they did settle, the first colonised planet was New Paris. From the beginning though they knew where not first and they knew of Sirian nations.'

He looked at Fynn a bit, then smiled lightly.

'You know, Junkers' past and their beginnings are shady, but it's most likely what we know now as Sirian Junkers actually originated from Gallia. In there, Junkers are one of the most powerful groups, having more connections within lawful side of the specrum. They were first to leave Gallia and 'gather information', or to use a more proper word, spy on SIrians, their technology and actions.'

He swirled his tea, then tested the temperature, winced and put it back on the table. Too hot.

'Fast forwarding to a few years ago. Gallia since its origin was a monarchy, and