HPG send direct, JFS Emerald Talon to Kowloon...
"I brought a fleet." Nathan said, "We are poised to enter your star system, there will be destruction, damage, death and blood if we have to do this the hard way, but if we have to do it the hard way, the end outcome will only differ in the numbers of your people dead. I want to offer up an alternative."
"I think you're wrong about the outcome, but I'll listen." Elizabeth said.
"I will offer you the opportunity to resolve this in a civilized manner." he said.
"War is by its nature neither civilized nor clean." she answered, "I told you before, we will not surrender. If by fighting, we tie your assets up long enough, you will find that Tukayyid was the turning point, as the rest of the Star League kicks you out of their territory and sends your survivors back into the exile they chose."
He laughs, "The Traitor lords dissolved the Star League!"
"No, they adjourned the council, seems without a tie-breaker vote, the council was deadlocked on the topic of a new First Lord and the only man they could agree on was someone none of them felt was competent to serve-turns out they were right. the Star League is meeting, right now. They will select a First Lord, I will gie you this-your invasion made that possible. It pushed them to look past petty rivalries and at a future under a system even worse than the Rim Worlds if their infighting were to continue. I only have to hold you here, long enough. so bring your fleet, bring your invaders, we will clutch you and hold onto you as your empire dies in fire." she taps the desk, "You see, the problem you have, is that what I have accomplished? is nothing, tiny. All I did, was allocate resources and say 'yes' to the right people. any world can do what I've accomplished and lots of them are in better shape to do it-but not on your side, your system, your social structure, your society prevents that from happening."
"you know nothing of our society-"
"I have surveys of the Clan Homeworlds, I have spectral surveys, you'd be amazed what was left archived on the Belleau Wood, Star Colonel, your worlds are rich, safe, arable paradises compared to what my ancestors found on Kowloon-we have one billion people living on the surface, and well into half a billion throughout the system, and we're economically self sufficient. My people don't go hungry, Star Colonel, because we didn't waste our collective potential. Forty eight thousand original colonists with lower tech, in worse conditions, and we're more prosperous than a paradise gem like Strana Mechty. By its fruit shall you know the tree, yours is bitter tree that makes barren fruit. My people know this, I could no more surrender to you, than walk on liquid water even if I wished to do so...and york? let's talk about York. Earthlike, to an obscene degree, rich in edible life, arable lands, a vast paradise where it is easy to live. shall we go on? Londerholm! How in the hell could you have let that happen? Your people have squandered paradise, turned it into hell, because you don't know what you're doing."
she's...enraged? Nathan listened, because these were words he had never heard from anyone, really.
"Your people, the ones we captured, claimed our worlds were a legendary paradise." she said, "i look at the survey data your ancestors started with? You had the paradise, you were safe from the constant-back-and-forth, isolated, you had paradise planets rich in life, edible life, rich in minerals and materials, with better technologies to make use of it, and you turned it to what? you turned it on one another! You adopted the single worst economic system you could devise, and stifled your own growth, a justice system that does not provide justice, you are all slaves. Your people are treated as property, no wonder you're desperate for someone else's accomplishments, all you can claim, is your weapons!!"
"In the days of my ancestors, Kowloon stood alone against the Rim Worlds and stood alone against the Rim Worlds and the Terran Hegemony, we fought by Kerensky's side to lift that yoke from our necks, and from the necks of those who looked away when our people were burned." she intoned it, "We do not stand alone now, but we can and will stand against you, as is the duty of every free nation of free people, we will stand against tyranny, and oppression, dominion and genocide. WE hold the memory of Running Deer Mountain, we hold the memory of the Gulags of Amaris's Empire, we hold the memory of your ancestors and their broken promises, the Oaths that your founders cast aside, we hold to them. Bring your fleet, Star colonel, this is the portal you shall not pass, and though I will die before the age of forty, I will witness the fall of your twisted, perverted, demented society and live to drink one toast to Elbar, one to Kowloon, and one to Free Stars." she leaned forward into the camera, "This is not a benediction, it is not a promise, it is not a prognostication, it is a damned fact. Before I go to hell, I will see your whole damned society leading the way ahead of me."
"Then let the contest begin." he said icily.
[/end record]
