So I asked myself: How is the Malign (political opposition and other governments too) gonna spin the whole Beowulf incident? How are they going to convince the average, well-informed (wo)man in Manticore, the Solarian League to accept their narrative? What narrative would they even want? Remember, no one knows about Darius.
Well, I have an answer: "It was the Mesan terrorists, with the nukes, in the Ballroom." More precisely the claim would be it was definitely a Mesan terrorists, possibly fringe radicals of the public Mesan Alignment, and the Ballroom played a role in pulling off the attack. At a minimum, Beowulf's tolerance and support of terrorist activities made them an easy target, but its possible that the Ballroom was actually involved.
Why is this convincing?
That really has two questions: why Mesan Terrorists and why the Ballroom
Why Mesan Terrorists? Mesan Terrorists are the only ones who regularly toss around nukes, so its their MO. Plus Mesan terrorists are the only ones who have a good motive for hitting the Megadeath route. They think the GA did it to them. Sure, Beowulf isn't the GA, but they're GA adjacent. As a bonus, Manticore is blaming Mesan terrorists too, except with a bonus racist* conspiracy theory thrown in.
Why the Ballroom? The logical reason to say the Ballroom played a role is because the Mesan terrorists only hit Beowulf, not Manticore or the GA proper. Beowulf letting the terrorists in is the reason the terrorists had the assets to pull the attack off in Beowulf, but not Manticore. The illogical reason is people like to feel safe. This tells everyone "As long as your nation doesn't support terrorists, you're safe."
Why is this useful? What's the point of spinning things this way? Well a bunch of different groups will have different reasons.
Why would the Malign use this spin? It clears them of blame! Plus it makes Beowulf look bad. Plus it doesn't hint at any sort of conspiracy where Mesan nukes itself. That's all they want.
Why would political opposition want this? If you're the opposition in Beowulf or Manticore you know what would be really nice right now? An investigation into terrorism of all kinds. Since the government is in bed with terrorists!
Harrington? Long** history of working with and supporting terrorists. Cathy, the Queens friend? Active terrorist supporter. Queen Berry? Seems awfully suspicious. If this becomes the dominant narrative you get to paint your political opponents as the ones who, at a minimum, let millions get murdered.
Why do other governments like this spin? It does two things: First, you get to accuse the GA of being in bed with terrorists. Second, you now have an excuse to place the blame squarely on the GA. Even if the GA is cleared for their actions at Mesa, it was still their job to keep law and order. If terrorists from Mesa nuked Beowulf, that's the GA's fault.
Bonus horribleness: Spreading this theory, assuming it gets any traction in the GA, will likely lead to a backlash against people from Mesa. Even genetic slaves. When this happens be sure to blame that on the racist* conspiracy theory the GA is peddling.
*Sure, it might not actually be a racist conspiracy theory, but it sure looks like one! Claiming a minority group is part of some sort of horrible conspiracy is a pretty classic racist tactic.
**Okay, it was just the one time. And really all she did was not arrest the terrorists. But those are just details.
