Ashgate Scandal (Makko Oko)

Ashgate

Date	October 14, 2023 – May 1, 2025 (2023-10-14 – 2025-05-01)
Cause	The exposure of government involvement in the radioactive poisonings of the populace
Target	His Emperor's Government

Ashgate, also referred to as the Ashgate Scandal, was a major political scandal in Makko Oko regarding the exposure of government involvement in an outbreak of radiation poisonings that had plagued the nation. The scandal led to the nation's greatest attempt at overthrowing the regime of Emperor Conall Solis, and the Empire's first impeachment hearing on Minister of Health Danika Hicks. It stemmed from the attempted cover-up and silencing of the true origin and nature of the radiation, with the government refusing to answer questions posed by the health ministry, which had primary authority in investigating the outbreak.

Before Ashgate

Project Cobra

Project Cobra was an internal top-secret project run by the government's foreign intelligence agency, the FIS, which stretches back to when it was formerly known as the CIB. This project was found to be the start of the scandal because it was the plan to develop a weapon of torture to be used on people that the government needed information from, a weapon that harnessed radiation. The documents that were released revealed that the project was a complete success, and was used on a redacted citizen who was a part of the 2022 Constitutional Protests as a first test. They do not reveal its usage post-development, however, testimony before the Law Council would later reveal that the weapon was used in multiple cases that could not or would not be clarified on.

Start of the poisonings

The poisonings started before the scandal did on July 29th, 2023, in Crestle. The incident began with 5 landfill employees, which "suddenly collapsed" during their work day at the landfill and had to be taken to the hospital. 2 of them had entered critical condition at one point while 1 died during surgery. The last 2 became stable and were released. None of them had visible signs of having been irradiated. Only 2 days after the incident did nurses and doctors who were around those employees begin to fall ill. This time around, though, due to the increased levels of radiation, burns started to appear. Crestleside Medical put themselves on Code Yellow, or radiation lockdown and called in HAZMAT and put on special gear when treating them.

The staff saw similar treatment to the last patients and knew something had gone wrong. A high-priority call was made by the hospital administration to the Ministry of Health & Wellness to get them immediately found and transported to a safe place. The next day, due to a huge windstorm that had hit the night before, over 40 more people ended up in the hospital, and nearly all of them lived within close proximity to the landfill. The city government had suspected the landfill being the source of radiation and called in the Ministry of Health & Wellness to investigate. The landfill was later discovered to be a dumping site for irradiated remains from the project.

By August 5th, the count was up to 50 in Crestle and the health ministry publicly announced their investigation, with no suspicion of foul play from the Ministry of Internal Security, refusing to get involved. Five days later on August 10th, poisonings were reported at the military base in Akugarb, approximately 150 miles away. One insider reported 4 military-related fatalities and over 10 hospitalized with serious complications. Minister of Health Danika Hicks called for preventative and enforcement measures to be taken, citing their intention to propose revisions to the LSA by the end of the month.

Emergency declaration

After poisonings exceeded 1,500, on September 4th, 2023, Emperor Conall Solis officially declared a national emergency, specifically declaring it to be a "public health emergency" per Order #5. The order specifically empowers the Minister of Health "to promulgate and enforce regulations and orders in relation to the public health emergency" and also led to the formation of the Emperor's Liberation Medical Corps. At the time of the declaration, there were six cities affected and over 750 deaths reported. A month later on October 2nd, the Emperor vetoed the proposed expansions that Minister Hicks talked about two months prior, known as the National Health Service Act of 2023. According to the Emperor, it was due to it "attempting to sway influence over the government to fulfill a personal agenda". The law would have secured more authority for the ministry, revamped MakCare into a proposed National Health Service, and would've established a Directorate of Disease Prevention.

Cover-up and its unraveling

The expose

On October 14th, 2023, without anybody in the cabinet knowing, Minister of Health Danika Hicks went live on OBC News and denounced the government, Emperor Conall and the Ministry of Internal Security for their nonresponsiveness and unhelpfulness in combating the poisonings, and bluntly declared that the government were the ones responsible. Immediately the impact was felt, with MakBook and cell towers crashing over an unprecedented load from all of the communications to family, friends and others. Before MakBook went down under the stress, within 2 minutes, #solisiation, #leavetheempiresolis and others all filled the top 100 hashtags. Over 45 thousand posts came out before the crash, all within the span of 5 minutes, not enough time for MakBook employees to react. Later that day, the Office of the Emperor, the Office of the Chief Inspector and the Office of the Minister of Justice released a joint coordinated statement in response to the backlash, stating: "His Emperor's Government was not aware of any abuse of government contracts in relation to our unknown victim cremation program (UVCP). The government assures that these actions, including that of moles, will be thoroughly investigated and pursued personally by the Emperor, and are not sanctioned." This saw the official beginning of the ashgate scandal.

Government Response

Five days later on October 19th, Emperor Conall authorized the Law Council to hold an impeachment hearing against Health Minister Danika Hicks, who was swiftly terminated after the press briefing. Minister of Justice Sara Mauer, the President of the Law Council, was the one to initiate the hearing, which ended up with a 18-2-4 vote for her impeachment, with the 2 neutral votes being members that are no longer present. The same day, insiders reported that Minister Hicks was being charged with one count of 'disclosure of state secrets', a crime under the Secrets Disclosure Act of 2023. The Office of the Emperor had stated that Minister Hicks will be allowed to maintain their employment and work for pay until such time that the status changes.

On November 18th, 2023, Emperor Conall announced in response to the recent "DISCLOSE OR ABDICATE!" protests the disclosure part, to keep the peace of the populace and stay in office. Multiple arrests were made today on high-profile government officials responsible for Ashgate, including the arrest of the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Internal Security, the Minister's #2 and a former CIB, now FIS agent Li Otten. Ashgate led to the lowest popularity for the head of government since the tail end of the Republic. On the 23rd, days later, the public health emergency was officially lifted, invalidating all of the temporary powers that the Ministry of Health & Wellness had during it, and with that, their directives.

Her Impeachment

Minister Hicks was successfully impeached and was referred to the Inspectorate's Court to be tried criminally for the charges in which she was accused of. At this point she had been terminated from her position and was no longer permitted to serve in the civil service or in the military. On December 5th, 2023, the court ruled 3-2 that she was not guilty. Reportedly a week prior, Danika's lawyer, an NCAS representative, argued before the highest court that her arrest was infringing on her Article 1 rights under the Constitution. The highest-ranking judge in the trial, Aamos Sundstedt, wasn't having any of that according to insiders speaking on the condition of anonymity about the case. The argument was thrown out after about 30 minutes of debate between the judges, and was ultimately done for after the judges took a vote, with all five unanimously voting against it.

Investigation & Domestic Response

Cleanup

By October 19th, 2023, approximately 3 months after the start of ashgate, the Ministry of Health & Wellness reported that "only 8 areas of the mainland had been cleared", being 50% of the affected mainland, with origin sites still being declared off-limits to everybody except hazmat officials. The cleanup sites, according to Minister Hicks, are all declared "origin sites" where the radiation is said to originate. Fatality statistics at the time exceeded three thousand, from the 750 reported over a month prior, and hospitalizations are at a record 5,000, which is causing major strain to medical facilities and staff.

Settlement Scheme

The NRSSS, or National Radiation Sickness Settlement Scheme, was established on February 27th, 2025 to provide medical support and financial compensation to victims of the scandal. The scheme was not without debate and dispute, with the first talks on a settlement scheme beginning back in March 2024 during the commission's inquiry into the scandal. The scheme was hated by some and called corrupt because the scheme was not independently run, and instead run by the very government that wronged and lied to them to start with. Some applicants of the scheme claimed that they were verbally abused and chose to reject the scheme altogether in response. The government rejects those claims and has refused an inquiry into the matter.

The scheme provided eligible applicants with anywhere from IDH$7,000-IDH$350,000 depending on the severity of the sickness (symptoms etc.), how negatively it affected the applicant and the expected longevity of the sickness. If an applicant under the scheme had a diagnosed "lifetime" sickness duration, they were given a MakCare Premium Services Plan free for the rest of their life, and if they were no longer able to work due to said sickness, they were made eligible to receive their ORSPS benefit early, no matter their age, and got a permanent 1% boost in their payments, however, it didn't apply if they didn't qualify for their pension normally. Instead, they would only be eligible for a Tier A pension, which allows for a maximum payout of 7%. They were also eligible for the DAP.