Chp-29: Speech Time!
A speech. I had given a few of these over the course of my short career, and yet they were as nerve wracking as the first. Sure, the people of Minda now seemed to actually like me, but still. Any public appearance was the chance for rebels, assassins, criminals, and political rivals to take a shot at me.
Unfortunately, a public appearance was necessary every now and again to keep people happy, and keep a positive image of me present. While I enacted a variety of changes, I was rarely present in announcing them, so the public subconscious seemed to slide over the fact that I was behind them.
If nothing else, I could thank the now defunct Consortium for burning a solid chunk of my face. Because of that, I had the perfect excuse to wear a nice helmet. Of course, I made it a whole
fit. I had a little hud inside, and a nice
K-3 Vindicator blaster hidden beneath the cloak. Looked badass, if nothing else.
Now I was standing on a podium in front of the capitol building, a large crowd gathered in front of me. Just a year and a half ago I stood in a similar position, on a watchtower, telling people to fuck off cause I was lowering taxes.
Now I stood here without them yelling or screaming or throwing rocks. Partially due to the fact that I had informed people that I would both be here, and that news channels were allowed to report on this.
Yes, we have news channels, no, we don't give them much freedom. I start handing out free press, I get executed. Instead, news channels are basically told that you can report on what you want, but any anti-empire news or opinions get shut down, and if we tell you to say something, you say it or heads roll(Grant's part, of course).
The other reason people weren't rioting(aside from the fact they have no reason to) is because of the people beside me on the podium.
Commander Grant was decked out in some custom armor next to Mugwuffin. Sure, it wasn't the mech suit she wanted, but it was a cut above the rest. Oh, and you can't forget the two modified
LECA's on each side. The Commander had insisted that I have extra heavy protection, and I could find no reason to disagree.
These Executive LECA's used the standard modular frame, but came with beefier armor, power systems, weapons, servos, you name it it was better. Costlier to, but apparently it wasn't seen as particularly weird for me to get the best of the best. These poor oppressed bastards probably saw it as normal. Weirdo's, the lot of them.
Staring out over the crowd, I waited patiently for the last murmurs to quiet down before I began.
"People of Minda. I come to you with news. A few weeks ago, the pirate gang called The Crowns was taken down by Commodore Veers and captured by Commander Grant. It was discovered that they had illegal ties to the now deceased governor of the Edin system. Both the Sector Group Admiral and Sector Moff have been removed from their positions on charges of incompetence, and the new Moff has seen fit to give Edin over to me. That means that my time, attention, and resources will be split between Edin and Minda. For all of you, that means that many construction projects will be slowed or halted, and immigration will be put on pause. Many of you may even find yourselves working in Edin for our teams there. It will not be easy, as Edin is a cesspool of criminal elements. In fact, when she isn't here, Commander Grant is on Edin coordinating strikes against criminal hideouts and bases."
Slowing down to catch my breath for a second, I take in the crowds' reactions so far. They seem accepting of such a thing, but there is some apprehension lingering. Clearly, they know theres more, and think it might be bad. Regardless, I resume.
"Because of the sorry state of the Edin system, it will require my full attention, and I will be relocating myself and a large amount of staff to said system. While I am gone, I will be assigning my Secretary, Darna, as Interim Governor. She has worked for me loyally and effectively, and understands the job just as well as I. She will be managing Minda for some time, and it is expected that she will be treated with the same respect as I would be. Any, and I mean
any reports of harassment, riots, or other such malicious actions against her tenure due to her species, gender, or any other such trait, will be punished with
extreme prejudice. I pushed for the acceptance of non-humans because it is conducive to the prosperity of Minda and the Outer Rim as a whole, and I will be
damned if that's ruined just because I'm not around to babysit, understood?"
As I take a small breather, I once again scan the crowd's reaction towards my little rant. A little overboard it might have been, but I knew how the Empire got regarding aliens, and I needed that drilled into peoples heads. People seemed surprised that I would speak like that, but I could discern no real anger. The general vibe of the people, as far as I could tell, was acceptable. And I had gotten pretty good at telling how people felt as of late. Like weirdly good. Should get that checked out.
Mugwuffin purred, looking over the crowd imperiously. Smug little shit, shoulda never let her on the podium.
Ignoring the offended look she sends me, I begin speaking once more.
"Now, I will be gone for some time. Are there any questions?"
At that, the news sections surges forwards, comlinks raised out to get a quote. It takes one slight
twitch of Grant's head for them to immediately compose themselves, instead politely stepping forward, cameras kept a respectable distance away.
Eenie meeni miney-"You" I say, pointing at a Umbaran man in a sharp fitting, very high collared suit of some kind.
"Ulwe Tork, Ugean News Central. How will the Guild be affected by this new system, Governor?"
"Good question, Ulwe. There are plans to expand the Guild into Edin once Edin City has been made safer. It will undoubtedly be a center for mercenary contracts, as Edin is chock full of criminal elements that will have a great deal of bounties to hunt."
Pointing at another reporter, a human man. "Glac Morno, Accordian Daily. Governor Mola, does the expansion of the Guild and an increase in the bounty contracts mean that the government is incapable of dealing with Edins criminal element."
Ah. One of these. Well, best get to it. "While we most certainly have the power to deal with these criminal elements, our current forces cannot stay committed to a single area for too long. To do so would leave other areas under defended for longer." It was at this point that my PDA pinged, the message appearing on my helmet hud with a quick prompt.
"Ah, and I've just received a message from the Commodore. Nearly one hundred major criminal hubs across Edin 2 have been identified and subsequently destroyed with orbital turbolaser fire. The new Sector Admiral was all too happy to lend some forces to assist us. Of course, no civilian deaths, these locations were all in the countryside. With that, the main criminal houses of Edin have been severely weakened, and will be eliminated in the coming months. However, something always falls through the cracks. We cannot spare the forces to track down every pirate, marauder and gang that wasn't caught in our initial strikes. That's where the Guild will come in, offering bounties to help keep down the criminals that survived. The Guild will also start offering longer term contracts for mercenary groups to act as militia units for farther out towns and cities until more local forces can be trained up to an acceptable standard. Does that answer your question?"
Apparently, my helmet was even more intimidating than I realized, cause he was wider eyed than an anime girl. Well, it was either my helmet, or the fact that we just shot artillery at a planet. Shit happens, man.
With that, I moved onto the next one. This continued for another twenty minutes or so, with the questions ranging from legitimately interesting questions about future economic plans, to that one crazy looking girl that wanted to desperately know if I was dating Grant, Veers, Darna, or all three.
It was none of them, of course. I'm their boss, that would be highly unprofessional.
Another asked what boss of the recently released high fantasy soulslike Grudge Killer that was the flagship game of the new YewCast ExperienceMachine gaming terminal was my favorite.
"Requiem of Vengeance"
"Isn't that the most broken boss in the game? People have been complaining about near impossible parry windows?"
I inhaled. This could ruin my career. I didn't care. "Skill issue, get gud."
And with that, I left. The distinct aura of astonishment emanating from the crowd behind me. I really had to go to the doctor. Feeling others emotions like this isn't normal.
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Hi there folks. Originally planned a second Kaela POV for this chapter, but I started writing late and I try to release at least one chapter a day when possible, so the next chapter will just be a little longer. Thankfully, I have two classes tomorrow, from 8 to 4 so I have plenty of time to not pay attention.
As for the whole discussion about the things in the cave from chap 27, I obviously won't get into too much detail, even though more will be revealed in tomorrow's chapter. However, I will confirm that it isn't a zombie virus or pathogen or any type of infectious anything. Only hint that I'll give is that those things were failures.
Thanks for reading!
-Freefaller
