Thomas Yarborough
Sarna News
Thomas Yarborough | |
|---|---|
| Personal | |
| Affiliation | Federated Suns |
| Profile | |
| Rank | Captain[1] |
| Position(s) | President-Elect |
Thomas Yarborough was a Captain in the Gulkana Militia.
History[edit]
He was a member of the planet's militia until he overthrew the civilian government and declared himself ruler in the early 3020's. The noble families on the world didn't oppose Yarborough as he promised to honor their positions. Though initially his rise to power was seen as a good thing, opinion quickly turned against Yarborough when he declared the "Competency Laws". These regulations called for every citizen of Gulkana to receive an IQ test and be assigned a job appropriate to their IQ. People who scored high on the test were given important jobs while those who scored low were destined for manual labor. Unfortunately the Competency Laws were a complete sham. Biased against the majority of the planet's population and wildly inaccurate, the results were enforced by Yarborough's well-armed followers. The effect of these test results were immediate and dramatic: The entire world, including Yeffters Weapons, came to a standstill.
First Prince Hanse Davion became aware of the situation when Yeffters Weapons Factory stopped production. Though unable to directly interfere with the planet's government, the prince put pressure on the world's duke to evict Yarborough. In addition several lesser nobles were interested in fighting Yarborough's troops with their own retainers, but Kevin Salos's inaction - the Duke of Gulkana - prevented that. A grassroots campaign to remove Yarborough[1] blossomed into a growing armed rebellion. The situation finally came to a head when Christine Salos assumed the Duchy of Gulkana from her father in 3033 and requested the Armed Forces of the Federated Suns to step in. Even with this outside assistance it would be many years before the planet stabilized and order was restored.[2]