https://twitter.com/Kethervir/status/1875315407768199338REPORT ABOUT THE SITUATION OF ZEMINA TORVAL IMPERIAL FACTION - by an imperial trader -
Zemina Torval's Underrated Imperial Faction is unexpectedly much more active than usual, from multiple fronts and in different ways, in recent months it has been attacked from all sides, even from internal relations within the empire that have been strained for many years. But it seems resist, and also appear more rich and sstable than ever.
With the neighbor Denton Patreus for example it has many disputed systems that quickly pass to one faction or the other. This is also due to the unexpected and secret strong alliance that Zemina has established with an independent faction that is always omnipresent in her system and very often shares its space stations, so much so that many are totally independent, despite being under Zemina's control.
Beyond the military front disputed with Patreus, Zemina's Systems, recently rather fragmented, are threatened by a more hostile force on the edges of its territory, Archon Delaine's faction which is the source of many attacks that even push towards the capital attacking, without the slightest success, even the strongholds. So while Archon controls more systems and has more strongholds, he doesn't appear to be an immediate threat to Zemina's grand alliance with the Independents at all.
Still speaking of internal wars within the empire, Empress Lavigny is neighboring with Zemina, but does not seem to be interested in her systems, at least apparently, investigating a little better however we understand how her moves are not very evident and she acts in secret by carrying out small actions, expanding her influence in a small window of systems between Zemina and Aisling Duval, it is not clear whether the intent of the Empress is to create a buffer to mitigate the dubious influence of Aisling, in an attempt to restore peace between the imperial factions, or if it is an attempt to conquer beyond those systems, in fact in this way her influence has brought her to the borders of the systems controlled by Edmund Mahon and Nakato Kaine of the Alliance factions, which could be a source of great profit for Lavigny.
Aisling, in the rear, has always shown herself to be an ally of everyone, but her intentions are much more selfish than one might think. She has spies everywhere and her influence is very wide even in systems where she doesn't expect them to be controlled by her. Her way of doing things allows her to bring entire systems into crisis without even fighting, but only with the influence of her numerous spies and her recruitment through advertisements of the stations and her good looks. She is really everywhere.
Another danger for Zemina's borders are the systems controlled by Yuri Grom. For him there are no clear borders and in the last few months he has easily invested Zemina's control bubble arriving silently close to the capital. In any case it seems that Yuri and Archon have more than a few systems in common, which would make it a really dangerous alliance, fortunately the conflicts between Denton Patreus and Felicia Winters of the empire are so frequent that they destabilize the fronts preventing Yuri from gaining the upper hand and crossing the front towards the systems controlled by Zemina, Precisely the war that is going on between Denton and Felicia, allows for a certain serenity within Zemina's systems, many of their respective systems are within Zemina's bubble of influence as reinforcements of the battle fronts, but both evidently find it convenient to exploit the rich mineral systems and the influential and profitable trade routes between Zemina's planets. In fact, going around the systems you can notice how the federation does not seem at all interested in conquering the space stations controlled by Zemina, at least it does not seem so, but much more interested in fighting the war and military factions of the empire, as if wanting to weaken the empire as a whole.
The personal interests of the fragmented imperial factions, ensure that there is a lot of destabilization in the control of the Systems. If only the families were reunited, the empire would really have a decisive and stable influence in a much larger fraction of the bubble.
Anyway, even if the situation is this and it does not seem very stable, Zemina with her hidden strong alliance with the Independents, it doesn't seem to suffer too much, even if with their numbers it is one of the factions that control at least less systems compared to other power, but looking more closely from the inside, those few systems that Zemina controls are very stable and the influence it has on the systems she controls is always very high, even in the presence of 3 factions, even neutral/hostile, present at the same time in a station.
So analyzing better you understand how Zemina's control is not so in decline as appear, indeed, according to the orther Traders, who earn large profits from its systems routes, it is always in continuous and slow small growth, incredibly so it seems that Zemina's kingdom is really unexpectedly very solid, but due to its size, very undervalued, which for business is really a good thing.
Especially after the colossal battle against the Targhoids in the Sol system. Many factions, even hostile ones, have taken huge advantages from the trade routes that imported and exported goods to and from the Zemina systems, which is why the pirates are getting dangerously close, but fortunately it seems that they cannot get past the front of the great Imperial alliance with the Independents.