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"ImPorts should control their own lives."
-the central idea of the Constellation
Now that Count Dooku is no longer part of Mask or Menace, this post will serve as a look back on the main focus of his career as an imPort: the founding and leadership of the imPort criminal organization and dissident political movement known as the Constellation.
BACKGROUND
There was already a long history of imPort friction and distrust of the government before the Constellation's founding, offering Dooku a fertile field to sow his ambitions. For example, fear and resentment of government control and surveillance underlay the creation of the MirrorNet, past attempts at hacking the government, a sprawling array of Registration discourse, and future Constellation leader Jesse Pinkman was plotting insurrection before it went mainstream.
The true seeds of the Constellation were really sown in two events: the war that the Soviet Union declared in early 2016, and that summer's Ambassadorial elections which Count Dooku contested for the seat of Maurtia Falls. The war was a seismic and traumatic event for many imPorts, including the Constellation's eventual founders, who saw imPorts abducted, tortured, brainwashed, and tightly controlled by a hostile government, while the American government failed to protect the Porter cities and killed thousands of civilians overseas. Dooku himself was brainwashed into being a Soviet puppet during the occupation, and afterward vowed that never again would he be made so vulnerable. In the election, Dooku's Reform platform experienced a humiliating defeat, leading to him pursuing power outside of legitimate processes. The Count and his allies were convinced that something had to be done to achieve imPort independence and security, and that it could not be accomplished within the laws of any government.
FOUNDING
Dooku spent much of the latter part of 2016 laying the groundwork for a new rebellious imPort faction. He recruited the brilliant and charismatic Raina to be in charge of the scientific aspect of the organization, and made an alliance with Jesse Pinkman to fund the endeavour with his black-market fortune.
The organization that eventually took shape was as paranoid and deceitful as its creator. All Constellation members were concealed behind astronomically-themed codenames and organized by a ranking system. Dooku (Antares), Raina (Maia) and Pinkman (Sirius) were the Stars, the leadership, while full members were known as Planets and affiliates were Satellites, with codenames to match.
The Constellation's members were expected to communicate in a top-secret contact network, which almost immediately became a wasteland of clashing egos and bickering over codenames. However, the group still engaged in a variety of missions in support of its ultimate plan of eventually seizing the Porter for themselves, and collected significant assets in the course of its rise to power. Even as the Constellation began recruiting and amassing resources in the shadows, Dooku publicly began promoting one of its central promises: that imPorts could one day control the Porter.
RISE
The Constellation reached its greatest heights of influence during 2017, a year marked by tension and intrigue in native-imPort relations. Count Dooku made his propaganda a monthly event through his podcast Counting Truths, which appeared regularly in the Majority Report and featured Dooku interviewing other imPorts regarding the key political topics of the day. Other members, like Raina, did their part to stir the pot as well. Meanwhile, General Grievous (Mars) began training Constellation members in combat, which didn't end well for Adachi (Uranus).
The Constellation made their real debut in the spring of that year, with Kavinsky (Mercury) plunging people into a paranoid dream world where the Soviets triumphed in 2016 and the occupation continued. This was part of a complex revenge scheme by Kavinsky, but also served as a useful distraction for obtaining secret government information on an imPort watch list. The Constellation revealed this list, along with themselves, in the most dramatic manner possible.
At its peak, the Constellation had over twenty imPorts as its members, with more allies and contractors hovering around its edges. As the group's profile rose, more imPorts began investigating their criminal activities. Duo Maxwell (Charon), Yusuke Urameshi (Prometheus), and Tohru Adachi (Uranus) all acted as moles within the organization, attempting to penetrate its web of secrets and codenames to expose its true nature. The youthful anti-corruption vigilantes known as the Phantom Thieves made targeting Dooku their main objective. This had grim consequences when Adachi's loose lips were exposed, leading to Yusuke being ordered to torture him for information on how much he had leaked.
This drama did not take place in a vacuum. During 2017 tensions were also ratcheted up by the Heaven Scent corporation, an affiliate of the OTO, who cloned imPorts and set these malevolent copies loose against the Porter cities. Devoted to battling all enemies of imPorts, the Constellation shared information on their investigations and their members participated in the final confrontation with Heaven Scent's scientists and their clones. Information retrieved from these activities, analyzed by Raina, led to a damaging revelation regarding imPort nanites- far from being a sinister surveillance measure, they were in fact vital to the functioning of imPort health and powers. The violence led to locals lashing out against imPorts with harassment and vandalism, with the government promoting a reconciliation event to lower tensions, while the Constellation took a more vengeful approach to those who had targeted imPorts.
Undaunted, the Constellation mobilized for what would be the high point of their pro-imPort, anti-governance message: the Swear-Out. During the usual government-run Swear-In at a hotel in Maurtia Falls, Count Dooku and his allies organized an alternative event for imPorts and their native fans to attend, a combination protest and outdoor festival that encouraged attendees to voice their grievances against the status quo. The event was a success, attracting significant attention relative to its government-run rival and significant media coverage, but also something of a backlash.
FALL
The organization's fortunes began to turn at what should have been a moment of triumph for their ideology: imPorts getting a chance to investigate the Porter in person. Ken Kaneki, who was an ally of Count Dooku but not a Constellation member, was able to obtain government permission for a team of imPorts to encounter the main Porter at Cape Canaveral for research, achieving through persuasion what the Constellation had intended to seize through force. The visit did not go as planned: although information was uncovered about the Porter's nature and origins, it also resulted in the machine shutting down, with drastic consequences for imPorts.
Dooku took to the Network in an attempt to defend the visit to the Porter, only to be Ported out at the worst possible time. While he was back in his own universe, he lived out the rest of his canonical life, including his betrayal and death. When he Ported back in, he was a changed man, and not for the better. From this point onward, Dooku would be on the verge of desperation: keenly aware that his life's work back home had all been for nothing, that only death awaited him at his next Port-out, and that his only hope for survival was to seize the Porter- an objective that had been discredited in the eyes of most imPorts.
Things continued to go downhill for the Constellation as 2018 began. Jesse Pinkman was Ported out, and while a new, memory-wiped version of him joined the Constellation at the behest of a message left by his previous self, the organization still lost one of its founders and leaders. A new contact post was established, where Dooku tried to rally the organization to install Dio Brando (Jupiter) as Maurtia Falls Ambassador. This effort also descended into pointless bickering and disorganization. The Constellation was still far from the loyal, united, efficient faction the Count had intended. Worse still, the actual victor in the election was Padme Amidala, one of Dooku's nemeses from back home, who quickly became an ally to the Phantom Thieves.
Dooku now made three more fatal errors. First, he allowed his home-universe feud with the Jedi to cloud his judgement when he mobilized Constellation members to brutally murder Obi-Wan Kenobi over what was essentially a misunderstanding. This was not the first time the politics of the Star Wars Galaxy had impacted import life- be grateful this post doesn't include any Jedi Discourse- but it was the first time the Count had conflated the Constellation's supposedly grand mission with his own personal grudges. At around the same time, Dooku also rejected a promotion application from General Hux (Pluto), denying him the chance to be elevated to be a Star and help lead the Constellation. Resentful and bitter, Hux immediately resolved to betray Dooku at the earliest opportunity.
The final error was Dooku's decision that to turn around the Constellation's declining fortunes, he would need to win a daring victory. He decided to mobilize the Constellation's maximum resources to launch a daring raid on an arms corporation containing potentially game-changing technologies, including Continuum and nanite prototypes, escalating his campaign from politics to organized violence. But he was betrayed from multiple angles. The fact that Dooku would lead the operation in person made it the kind of opportunity the Phantom Thieves had been waiting for, as well. When the raid began, the Constellation and their allies found their target fore-warned and an ambush prepared. A battle ensued in which most of the Constellation's minions were captured or killed and Dooku himself was finally defeated by Yusuke and Adachi, all their work and sacrifices and planning paying off at last. The Constellation's uprising was over before it could truly begin.
AFTERMATH
Being captured was only the beginning for Dooku, however. The Phantom Thieves had the power to 'steal the hearts' of their targets to awaken their consciences and force them to confess their crimes, which is exactly what they did to Count Dooku. While he was in custody, a remorseful Dooku was a model informant for the police and apologetic toward his victims, helping to take apart what he had once built. His downfall was both total and highly public.
As for the remnants of the Constellation, the group splintered without its leader and under the knowledge they had been infiltrated. Hux, now calling himself Regulus, claimed leadership and took command of the remainder of the group's assets. He continues to pursue his own agenda to this day. Other former members went into hiding, weighed their options, or struck out on their own. Raina quietly turned herself in to the authorities and cut a deal, and later admitted to a carefully-edited version of her involvement after the heat had died down, and re-entered politics. As for the Phantom Thieves and their allies, they went on a well-earned celebration trip.
Dooku himself eventually left prison- and the Sith Order- and was a very annoying probation charge for Jaime Reyes. But while the law might have let him go, not all his victims were so forgiving, and General Grievous finally took his revenge on his one-time puppeteer. The Count never regained his former power for the remainder of his time as an imPort.
In the end, Dooku's campaign never got anywhere close to its grand designs, which were impossible to begin with. The Porter could not be meddled with, the nanites could not be removed, and the imPorts could not be united against the government. The final and perhaps only legacy of Dooku's ambitions may be the people the Constellation harmed, but also the connections and conversations sparked among those imPorts who were willing to question the status quo. As long as there are imPorts who want to control their own lives or who resent their hosts in this dimension, the idea that the Constellation represented is not entirely dead...
SUPPLEMENTARY
I made three fanmixes for the Constellation during the arc: a villain-themed one on 8tracks, a softer-sounding one on 8tracks, and one NSFW playlist on Spotify.
