Luckily, the much-anticipated demonstration attacks by the Centrists and the Church of The Machine never came to be. Perhaps they did not find the event worthy of disrupting, but the more likely answer was that they could not compete with the security measures put in place by the MultiStellars. The Big Corps, DKI and the like, did not want the celebrations to be marred by violence. The Anniversary was, after all, a terrific public relations machine that they could not afford to have ruined. Providing a large security presence was just insurance on the investment. If the growing population of the Republic continued to believe that the standard of living was rising again, it would justify a great many transgressions on the part of the Big Corps.
Even without the celebrations, there could be no question who had brought the Republic back from the dark ages that had reigned before. It had been nearly a hundred years since the Eristicon War. The conflict had destroyed much of what was once the Imperium, and the Chaos Years that followed claimed even more. Still, a few of the particularly lucky corporate entities managed to survive, albeit in a greatly diminished capacity. Survival, as it turned out, was good enough to ensure them a prominent role in the formation of the Byler Republic. And in this founding role, the big Corps made many important contributions, providing jobs, acting as a trade conduit, and providing access to technology that had long been lost.
The Republic, in return, allowed the Multistellars to operate with near perfect impunity, compared at least to the strict control the former Empires used to impose. The general population of the Republic did not have much of a say in the matter, either. It was far from a perfect democracy, but the average Republic citizen was not one to complain. The Big Corps had brought a better way of life to those who lived within their sphere of influence, and those who lived outside it had no appreciation for the subtleties of the power shift that had occurred.
This is not to say that the MultiStellars had no detractors. The Centrists struggled to restore the Empirical Model of government, and disband the MultiStellars along with the Republic. The Luddites still had a strong following, even though their days of governing Terek had passed with the end of the Chaos Years. There are many who could still recall the Cleansing Fire that burned on each night, consuming anything or anyone who was believed to be tainted by technology.
And within the ranks of the Big Corps, there were still the eternal corporate wars that had simmered since the days of the Empires. The desire for a weak but stable government was all they shared, and in that regard, they formed the Alliance of Commerce to ensure the Republic would continue to be. Behind the scenes however, these corporate giants fought each other using any and all available means, from legal attacks to out and out in space battles. The remote nature of MultiStellar "Offworld Operations" made for particularly fast, loose, and violent forms of competition between these companies.
In the end, the biggest threat to the survival of the MultiStellars and the Republic is still the Eristicon. History states that the Eristicon had become self-aware somewhere in the Colony Worlds, and within days had infected Starships, communications networks, defense systems, and planetary infrastuctures across the Star Empires. The war to defeat it never officially ended, although the Brauletter Liberation was considered by most to be the final event of the war. Even though the Eristicon was vanquished from Imperial Space, it was never completely destroyed. A great many ships were never accounted for, and the consensus arrived at by the combined Military Service was that these vessels, and their captive crews escaped intact to a location or locations unknown.
It had been almost a hundred years since the Liberation, and twenty-five years into the new Republic. The relative stability of the new government was a cause worth celebrating, in spite of the occasional rogue Eristicon attack out at the Border Worlds. There was also the rare Relapse Emergency somewhere within the Republic, usually the result of illegal reactivation of pre-war technology. There is also a constantly changing landscape of external crises with neighboring states to the Republic. But, the Republic had shown remarkable ability to weather these storms, keeping it's member worlds together in a mostly stable and prosperous union, and it was worth taking time at this point to recognize the fact.
The festive atmosphere generated by the Anniversary served to mask darker feelings and suspicions harbored by many in the Republic, however. Worries remained that all was somehow not well. Feelings that the peace would come at some later price lingered. These doubts about the true stability of the Republic went largely unvoiced. Those who did speak out critically were often ridiculed and persecuted, even though many secretly agreed with their arguments.
The years ahead would be a challenge for everyone, but no one knew just how difficult the times to come would be...