This population, however, was not the obedient and united thing the Empire desired nor that the Nation needed. It was fractious, hostile, and individual. This necessitated the off-world colonization effort 'Die Abreise,' spearheaded by the Grand Empress, to ensure the continued survival of the young Eusan Empire.

Klimaforming technology ensured that Kitezh and Buyan became the centre of extraplanetary colonization, with Heimat becoming a well-developed logistical and administrative hub to ease further development of the Aussensystem and Kuipergürtel. Each of these parts ensured that Vineta, for all its willpower and numbers, could never truly strike against the Eusan Nation.

But it was still 'home.'

It was also the place where everything was. In spite of all efforts, including the shipping of such facilities off-world, Vineta simply had too-much. A century of work, even driven by the Grand Empress' will, could not replicate the millenia that formed Vineta.

And when the Revolution occurred, both sides knew it; the Nation most of all. It was only due to the administrative collapse caused by the Grand Empress' death (and many, many assassinations and defections) that Heimat was taken at all; Rotfront was a poorly-urbanized colony, and with its Duke aligned to the Revolution and AEON it became a hardpoint against attacks on the new capital planet.

Buyan and Kitezh both failed; the common rebel and Reichsritter dying valiantly to allow the nascent AEONite Nobility to flee the range of cruisers and emplacement guns.

Vineta was where neither won. With the collapse of Imperial authority and the secrecy of the Revolution, neither had a firm strangehold on its colossal population; nor its resources, nor its foundries and manufactories. Nor its symbolism. Whoever won Vineta would be legitimized as the proper authority in the eyes of mankind.

For the Empire, Vineta was much-more a symbolic necessity. It had a multiplicative advantage in population over the Nation, and the foundries of Kitezh were united, if... strangled of resources normally funneled from the outer system. Losing Vineta would shatter the populace's spirit more than be a true loss, as they'd lose the last link to 'home.' Maybe, of course... that wouldn't matter, and a new identity would be formed in the wake of the Empress' passing and Vineta's loss. A truly Imperial identity.

For the Nation, they needed everything else. Some materiel had, of course, been secured from Buyan and Kitezh. Heimat was the warehouse of the solar system, and the center of far-solar logistics... but it wasn't enough for a war. Guns needed soldiers to fire them, soldiers needed bullets to load, soldiers and bullets were worthless without guns.

Vineta had factories. Vineta had mines and refineries. Vineta had people... and Vineta had the Central Neural Archive. Too complicated to move, too critical to abandon. Without one on Heimat, it was the Nation's only potential source of Replika. Sabotage of the Buyan Neural Archive would only last for so long. They needed that territory.

Having the advantage of 'not having been tyrannically ruling for a century' certainly helped buoy the Nation, and many rebel groups folded in to the new Volksarmee; old national identities coming out of the shadows to align themselves and stoke legitimacy for the new uprising.

The Nation, of course, supported such movements. Made promises. Those who truly led the Nation did not intend to deliver, but there was no reason for them to know that.