[right][sub]The Meeting Place neutral station, Sol system
Addressing everyone[/sub][/right]

Kelsie wished she could be somewhere else. Anywhere. Combat drill camp, war front, hard vacuum of outer space. Didn’t really matter, just not in her spartan office on the Meeting Place, having to talk to the Grand General. She had just retransmitted the Xandalian announcement both back to Ellara and to the fleet in the Zetan system, and just minutes later received an urgent call from Oscar Pawlowski himself.

None of this mess was her fault (at least she believed it wasn’t), yet she felt nervous when a frowning face of the Grand General appeared on the screen. “Sir.” She was not really sure what to say.

General rubbed his temples. “I think we can drop the formalities when it’s just the two of us.” He looked exhausted and older somehow as if he had aged years in the past few days. “I will talk to the rest of the high command later, but for now I just wanted to talk to you. The Xandalians have just dropped a bomb and we need to act fast before the dust settles. There still hasn’t been any official reaction from the ECU?” Kelsie shook her head. “Good, it’s better we beat them to this. Now listen carefully, because I really don’t have time to repeat myself. This is how we are going to spin this… defeat.”

Kelsie wasn't able to hide her surprise. Speechless, she stared at Oscar. That word was a taboo in their culture, to admit a defeat was unimaginable, especially by a Grand General.

“Yes, I’ve said it. We got our asses kicked, lost thousands of men in a stupid conflict. And, as a bonus, we are going to end up in total diplomatic isolation, except for our amazing friends from the ECU, of course. Who would want to have any diplomatic relations with aggressive militants who commit war crimes wherever they put their feet on?”

He was so bitter, this was not the Oscar Pawlowski Kelsie knew. “Sir? Where is this coming from?”

He snorted. “Don’t even ask. Anyway, we need to salvage the situation as much as possible. I will handle things back home, but you need to be our friendly diplomatic face we show to the other nations. It is vital that we redeem our reputation, even if it means not being completely fair to our allies.”

So this was his plan. “You want to blame it all on the ECU.”

“In short, yes. Do you have a problem with it?” His eyes squinted.

Did she? Kelsie liked Abadi, but that was just one person. The rest, well... there wasn’t much to like. Especially after reading Commander Harlowe’s report on the Protector training methods, Kelsie had doubts about their alliance with such people. “No, sir.”

“Good,” he nodded. “I have faith in you, Kelsie. Don’t let me down.” With those words, he ended the transmission.

Shivers ran down her spine. Sure, make some miracles happen, and don’t let me down. Sir, yes, sir. How the hell was she supposed to do that?

[center][b]~~~~~~~~[/b][/center]

Her eyes skimmed the paper one last time. It wasn’t perfect, but it was the best she, David, and Julianna could come up with in the limited time they had before the ECU published their own reaction to the Xandalian proclamation. David gave her thumbs up as she looked into the camera, took a deep breath, and started talking.

“I am Guardian Kelsie Blackwood and I am a representative of the Undefeated here on the Meeting Place. I would like to relay our leadership's reaction to the Xandalian declaration and explain some… confusion and misinterpretations that apparently emerged. The Undefeated never declared war against the Zetans.” A tricky wordplay, but it was the truth. “Any military actions we took were only to support our ally, the Earth Cultural Union, in their righteous attempt to rescue their kidnapped citizen. We believe that any other nation would, and should, act the same way to protect its people.

We refuse any accusations of war crimes versus the Zetan civilian population. If any civilian centers were attacked, it was purely in an attempt to retrieve doctor Bodi. There were no targeted attacks on civilian infrastructure, our men took no prisoners of war, and no cruel or unusual methods of combat were used.” Of course, they didn’t blow Zetan hydroponics. They didn’t even [i]find[/i] Zetan hydroponics. Maybe some of the underground teams got lucky before they died, but had no means of relaying the message to the surface.

Kelsie and David had a big debate on the ‘cruel and unusual methods of combat’ part. David wanted to point out that it was in fact the Zetans, who used extremely cruel methods of combat against the Undefeated soldiers during the tunnel fights. But Kelsie decisively refused. The Zetans were defending their homes, and as such were entitled to use any means possible. Best not to overanalyze who did what to whom, it might put the Undefeated in the bad light. Well, in a worse light than they were already in.

“Envoy Christensen mentioned us censoring the details about the war and accused us of not allowing their ship to move freely in the system. Any ship moving through a warzone is at constant risk of being destroyed. So, if any demands were made on the Xandalian vessel’s route (and they certainly were not made by us), it was purely for their own protection. I would like to point out that we weren’t even a part of the negotiations that later took place on said ship.” Kelsie had to admit that not participating in those talks was a smart move by the Grand General. Now they looked like they had nothing to do with planning and leading the war - basically, they were just a ‘hired muscle’ helping out a friend. Which was exactly what they were trying to convince others now.

“I know my nation can come off as militaristic and potentially dangerous to you. But believe me, we strive for peace just like any of you. Yes, we do not like the Zetans. You might even say we despise them for tossing their humanity away. That is true. But we do not wish for their demise or destruction.” That was a lie. A big fat one. Kelsie was not happy about saying it, but it was the only direct lie she was going to say in the transmission, and it was the one that needed to be said most. “As long as they refrain from any form of contact with our people, we have no reason for any hostile actions against them.”

“Even before the Xandalian message was transmitted, we had ceased combat actions on the surface, only maintaining a presence in the space around Zeta-5 and the adjacent Gateway to support our ally's endeavors. As a gesture of good will and proof of our peaceful intentions, our ships are now being recalled back to our homeworld.

It is our wish and hopes that this unfortunate incident will not damage the current and future good relationships we have or are about to establish with other nations present here on the Meeting Place.” Kelsie kept smiling into the camera until the red light shut down. Then her forehead made a loud bang noise as it hit the surface of the table. “I hate being a diplomat.”