Alvin sat heavily at his desk, leafing through reports. "Let's see.  The little green men are throwing a parade, how nice.  Hal-2 got snuffed, that's... that's a little worrying.  Gem squad's wiped out, hands up who's surprised by that.  And oh look, Senate's suicidal again.  Christ."

He pinched the bridge of his nose and tried to remind himself that he promised to stop drinking early in the day.  A compromise with his better angels was reached in the form of half a glug of bourbon in his coffee.

"Eventually they're going to realize that no matter how big their group is, it's not going to mean much until they get universal support.  As long as there's at least a handful of senators that aren't on board, the Emperor can still claim it's a renegade faction and disappear them without anybody really caring.  I mean I get that they got into politics to do good things, but you sort of have to get the politics out of the way first."