“Lieutenant General Schoss, the Executive Military Council of the Temurian branch of the Seynian Military have gathered at your request. All dialogue from those present will be recorded, along with video and holographic screenings. The meeting will now begin.”

  “I have gathered you here to discuss the current situation regarding the abduction of Princess Rey Seyn, third daughter of Emperor Kantz Seyn.”

  “Ahem, yes, as you are aware, the group that abducted her is suspected to have crashed in the vicinity of Mek, in the Helma region of Temure approximately nine Temurian days, or 369 hours ago. However, we were unable to locate the survivors until seven days ter, when we caught several unknown figures on the local surveilnce system. Looking back through the footage, we were able to identify the princess-”

  “I want you to withdraw all Seynian forces from the Helma region immediately.”

  “What?! Why?”

  “I recently interrogated a prisoner with connections to the abductors, and acquired some very important information. I then requested a genetic test to be run on the girl who was identified to be Princess Rey Seyn, and called this meeting immediately after receiving the results.”

  “We had no knowledge of this, you can’t just bypass us-”

  “I didn’t want to waste time. I got the results I needed and now I’m requesting immediate action.”

  “What do you want us to do?”

  “I’m requesting the complete annihition of the Helma region.”

  “What?! But we can’t do that with the princess down there!”

  “That girl is not a legitimate member of the royal bloodline. The genetic test results came back negative, confirming what the prisoner told me.”

  “Wha- wait, how do you know for sure? Couldn’t the results be mistaken, or-”

  “I had them run multiple times on separate machines. The facial recognition was also a perfect match.”

  “Then who the hell is she?!”

  “Evidence suggests that she is a spy belonging to an organization with connections to the Alliance. The abduction was likely prearranged. The test results confirmed the prisoner’s testimony.”

  “What’s the prisoner’s current status?”

  “His execution is occurring at this very moment.”

  “But why complete annihition? Can’t we just close the spaceport and quarantine the region while we wait for reinforcements to arrive?”

  “There’s someone skilled enough to kill seven of our soldiers and take out Mek’s electricity. Even if we flood the region with reinforcements they may escape, and we must prevent that at any cost.

  “The Helma region doesn’t contribute enough to the empire to justify wasting more resources and military forces on it. The Temurian branch of the Seynian military has conducted operations like this before.”

  “Yes, but for different reasons, and none on this scale. It’ll be hard to cover up. I can’t just do something like this out of the blue, and I don’t see how the situation is urgent enough to call for such drastic measures.”

  “The longer we give them, the higher the chance that they escape, whether by spaceport, or by nd if that becomes unavaible. The best solution is to keep the spaceport open, but dey all flights until the Seynian forces have evacuated, then wipe out the region all at once.”

  “But who will be left to guard the spaceport while the main force evacuates?”

  “Leave behind a small force to guard the spaceport, then have them take the remaining flights out just beforehand. Order them to disable all the remaining ships before they leave as well.”

  “Well…I can’t just act on this when the Royal family is involved; I’ll have to verify if the information you have is accurate. I can’t just believe you-”

  “Whether you believe me or not is up to you, but this is a direct order from a superior officer. If you have a problem with it, you’ll have to take it to the state council.”

  “That… won’t be necessary. Dammit… The responsibility for this rests on you, Lieutenant General Schoss!”

  “Of course. Have it done immediately.”

  “...Yes, sir.”