Cadre Three, Albion Economic Prefecture, Sarlet District, Heragul Empire…Two weeks since the fall of Verlanda.
Line by Line, Governor Tay-Lyn-Ly’s scanned the document on the computer in front of him. His eyes darted back and forth, hiding the emotion building up inside him.
Once finished, they erupted like a volcano in a bellowing scream, “How did this happen! There are three dead civilians outside of a grocery store and your soldiers now look incompetent!”
Across the table sat General Ark-Lay-Can. Except for the occasional blink, he remained frozen like a statue as the Governor continued to spit out his rant about the recent stampede.
When the screaming was done, the general calmly answered, “My soldiers performed exactly as they are trained.”
“Exactly as they are trained!” the governor glanced at the computer in his hand one more time, “According to your own soldiers report, only the one named Kee-Lix-Hale actually did something and his actions quite likely got a civilian shot in the leg!”
Ark-Lay-Can’s composure collapsed, “Its not my fault I don’t have the budget to train my soldiers!” Slamming his hands down on the table, “I’m not one who approved giving the navy 90 percent of the budget to build their pretty spaceships! You better hope they know how to use their toys once the Surakari arrive!”
Governor Tay-Lyn-Ly dropped his shoulders and waltzed to the giant window behind his desk. Perched like on a bird on the edge of its nest, he scanned the capital city of his planet.
Slowing the speed of his voice and lowering his volume, the governor started, “I just never expected that we would face this problem,” he paused, “I don’t mean the Surakari invasion. Anyone who lives in the Sarlet district must confront that Surakari are a threat and that one day they may come to their planet. The riots are what I am talking about.”
Tay-Lyn-Ly twisted his body back to the general, who had returned to his seat, “Planet after planet things went the same. Civilians battled for spots on the few precious evacuation transports. Heragul died in all sorts of ways in the chaos and in the end only a few of our citizens could be saved. Still to this day we don’t know what happened to those left behind. Imprisoned, enslaved, tortured, or slaughtered we just don’t know. I didn’t want that chaos to consume my planet. I wanted to reassure the population that we could defend them. Clearly that only instilled the fear of an indefinite siege in them. Same result, different cause,” the governor finished.
A knock on the door interrupted the general before he could respond.
“Come in!” The governor ordered.
A Heragul pushed open the door and poked their head into the room, “Ten minutes to the news conference.”
“Thanks. I will be there shortly,” the governor turned his back to the general and asked, “What do you need to get your soldiers ready?”
“The Caldera system has plenty of qualified army instructors who are available to help. I just need them here, the resources for their stay, and about eight weeks for training.”
“Transport and resources I can provide. The navy will just have to deal with a few less warships. As for the eight weeks, that is up to the Surakari.”
