[center][h1][color=007236]The Following Dawn[/color][/h1][/center]


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	[indent]The conference room was simple; an elongated room with no windows, a thirty foot table with chairs in front of a twenty foot display screen and a dim, blue aura shed by a small circled array of ceiling lights. At the table sat twelve of the most elite of the sovereign’s advisers, and the sovereign herself taking the center chair. 

All members of the conference at first said nothing in response to the new image received from Orbiter 7 on the twenty foot monitor, presenting a detailed, if not disturbing aerial view of the Badlands, specifically the area where the two hundred and twenty six civilians and one hundred and fifty X Type soldiers were presumed to have been slain. The atmosphere in the room was duly thick with that of dread and repulsion. 

Her Eminence Goaldinhoe was the first to speak, though unable to take her eyes from the bloody mess displayed in front of her, her expression one of slight bemusement in the breaking of the deathly silence:

“Am I the only one seeing this?” 

Hix Forson, Zandorian’s leading psychological counsellor, took the sovereigns question as the perfect excuse to shift her attention from the massacre, swiftly turning her wide-eyed look to the sovereign, and replied; “I suspect that’s a rhetorical question, Your Eminence?”

“It is not,” Goaldinhoe said frankly, and now turned her sights away from the view to heed SOC Flax, who was also present in the room. “SOC Flax!” 

Flax flinched a little at the Sovereigns snappy alert, yet he maintained his ever flat expression while his index finger tapped lightly on the table. “Yes, Your Eminence?” 

“Is it not true,” She asked, “that your report on this incident mentioned two hundred and twenty six civilians in the Badlands, some of which were driving motorized vehicles?” 

Flax nodded, agreeing. “Indeed it is true, Your Eminence.” 

“Then tell me, SOC Fax, did your report also mentioned that each of these citizens were naked?” 

There was a small snicker in the room among several members in response to Goaldinhoe’s question, while Flax regarded the sovereign with an almost humored change of expression. “That is not in the report, no, Your Eminence. I am certain the civilians were clothed.”

“Then my next question is this,” She said to him; “Were the one and half century of troops you ordered to retrieve these civilians wearing their uniforms, or were they possibly without attire of their own?” 

“A assume they were attired fittingly.” Flax answered, as his finger slowly stopped tapping the table. 

“And did not our troops enter the Badlands by means of military air and land vehicles?” She asked. 

Flax cleared his throat and straightened in his seat, glancing about at the other members in the room who now had their eyes fixed on him. “Of course, Your Eminence,” He said, taking his eyes back to her. “All troops were appropriately clothed and entered the Badlands by military vehicles.” The new no-longer-flat look on his face suggested he knew where the sovereign was going with this line of questioning, but he dared not speak further, as doing more than answering her questions at this point would have undoubtedly come across as disrespectful. 

“Then where are they?” She spoke bluntly as she then turned her attention to the leading military technology and science adviser and coordinator, Bolstic Thak, seated directly beside her. “I see no vehicles, military or civilian. I see no clothing. No uniforms. No corpses. No body parts. No flesh. I see not even so much as a stray shoe amid this distasteful display. All I see…” She concluded, turning her eyes back to the image, “…is blood. Nothing more. Am I mistaken?” 

“Not at all. You are not mistaken.” Bolstic Thak confirmed. “I find the lack of practical items equally questionable. But I assure you, Your Eminence, I will be doing everything within my power to discover a reason for these obvious discrepancies.” 

“And be sure that you do. Quickly.” She told him, and addressed Sharsha Malin, Senior Ground Operations Manager for Orbiter 7, enquiring; “Sharsha Malin, am I to assume the other images from Orbiter 7 are no more revealing than this… picture?”

Sharsha Malin, a woman in her mid-thirties and wearing a face of cold stone, confirmed the sovereigns query with a firm nod. “That is also true, Your Eminence.”     

Goaldinhoe stood from her seat, regarding each face in the room before making her formal announcement:  

“It is of my very own opinion that the information we have thus far is inconclusive. What we are looking at here is an artifice, and a weak one at that. I see no substantial reason to believe that these two hundred and twenty six civilians and one and a half centuries of soldiers are, without doubt, dead. As of this moment I am declaring these people missing and am hereby launching a Level 10 mission of retrieval.” 

At that, an uneasy stir broke out among all present members, most of which taken by shock at the sovereigns command. A Level 10 mission of retrieval had never before been issued in the history of the Zandorian Empire. Though they murmured among themselves, not one of their comments were directed at the Sovereign while she patiently awaited their reaction to settle. When quiet finally returned to the room, she ended the meeting with a clear elaboration of the command she had given them:

“Any and all costs to resources in the efforts to accomplish this mission are hereby rescinded. All ranking and use of personnel restrictions, so long as doing so serves in direct aid to this cause, are hereby waved. You have no limits. By any means necessary you will solve this mystery, you will seek out, obtain, and bring to court those responsible… and you will return my children to my Empire. My command is effective immediately.”  

While all members now sat in stunned silence, Her Eminence Goaldinhoe, and in the company of Basal Troven who followed in her wake, made her way to the exit of the room where she paused to look back at SOC Flax, and spoke with the utmost sincerity:  

“Congratulations on your success.”[/indent]
 

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[indent]Thus, it was so. One and a half years prior to the present day, Her Eminence Goaldinhoe sanctioned a movement that changed the course of Zandorian technological development. The efforts made in the search and rescue of the missing soldiers and civilians in the Badlands paved way for a whole new era of scientific and industrial advancements.[/indent]