CYTM62

=Chapter 62=
==Can you tell me where can we start over?==
Paradiso city
Inarcs, Lyran Alliance
March, 3066
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The newly constituted Inarcs Jaegers RCT, largely staffed by Blackstone Highlanders, weren't prepared for what came out of the sky.
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Island 22, Golden Lake
Kowloon, Lyran Alliance
March, 3066
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"Where is Evelynn anyway? I was sure she would have accompanied you, quiaff?" Henry asked quietly.
"What time is it?" Elizabeth asked.
He checked his chronometer, "Zero Six hundred hours."
"Paradiso, Inarcs, with the 171st Kowloon Volunteers Brigade." she told him, "They're executing a punitive expedition."
"what?? why?" exclaimed Henry
"That's because I've chosen a side." She told him evenly.  "I was forced into it. Really, but I accepted that choosing a side was, in the end, necessary."  she cradled her coffee.  "If for no other reason, than because thirty days ago, everything in the region, including Kowloon itself, was declared in open rebellion by the Regent on Tharkad, Field Marshall Nondi Steiner. They were staging forces to begin attacking us." Liz sighed, "She didn't take to General Adam Steiner declaring neutrality in the civil war. Having decided to choose our side for us and declaring nationwide state of emergency. Tharkad was suspending the Articles, and arresting nearly half the Estates General, including people whom I know for a fact are not connected to Victor's temper-tantrum.  I think the continued existence of men and units she targeted for destruction may have been a contributing portion toward that declaration. However, she singled me out in particular and I suspect that is due to my using Kristen's Krushers to establish training in Bien Hoa, when they had been first used in a coup. Then discarded and marked for extermination by her side."
"Then who is left here?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Elizabeth countered, smiled, and then said, "I have enough left here to fight your trial. When the war up there-" she pointed at the ceiling "-dies down, I'll have more coming back.  If you can't afford to lose it, you can't afford to use it."
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[Quotes from figures during Federated Commonwealth Civil War]
*Information is Ammunition - -General Adam Steiner
*"We have lost so much that we have forgotten the names of the things we've forgotten" - Elizabeth Ngo
*“You have to understand the code of duty and honor that rules those who pilot these engines of destruction. Placing such an awesome weapon in the hands of an individual implies a similar gesture of trust." - Anastasius Focht
*"Good citizens of the Federated Commonwealth, I could wish many things for us. That the great union of two nations which my parents forged would not have foundered. That I would never have found it necessary to leave you while fighting to end the Clan invasion. That my sister, Katherine, could have quelled her hunger for power, no matter what the price. "But wishing will not make it so. Such dreams have already died." "And any hope I might have had for peace between the two realms I once led died with my brother Arthur, who was killed two days ago in a vicious terrorist attack." "Arthur was a soldier, a good man, and he was learning to become a leader of men, women and worlds. For that, someone decided that he had to die. Arthur's death convinced me that my duty to protect the Commonwealth can no longer be denied. The troubles on Solaris were a harbinger of things to come, and Arthur's violent death underscores the fighting already taking place on worlds such as Kathil, Robinson and Kentares. "His death will not be in vain. No longer will an unfit and unjust ruler sit on the thrones of the Federated Suns and Lyran Alliance, one who has seen fit to bring violence against her own family, betraying the memory of our father, our mother and the trust of the people of both realms. There is blood on Katherine's hands, and no amount of propaganda will wash them clean. "None of us wishes to see more conflict, but we can no longer ignore the problems plaguing us. Now we must live with the results, however painful, as we acknowledge the irreconcilable differences that continue to divide my sister from me. It is no longer possible for me to stand back in the interests of peace. The time has come, my people, where no other choice remains." "None but war." "This mandate has been pressed upon me by Katherine's tyrannical actions, and by the sacrifices of patriots already fighting on the worlds of Kathil, Benet, Kentares, Demeter, Bromhead, and others yet unreported. We will resist with any and all means at our disposal the efforts to subjugate and enslave our freedoms. We fight with the truth on our side, and we simply ask that everyone listen and judge accordingly. "In the end, I know we shall be victorious, re-establishing a trustworthy and accountable government among our people, worlds and nations." - Prince Victor Steiner-Davion in a broadcast to the people of the former Federated Commonwealth, December 8, 3062.
*“I don't want him neutral, I want him dead. I want you to destroy my brother and everyone that follows him. Then I want you to round up everyone that supports him and make an example of them, too!” — Archon Katherine Steiner-Davion, giving orders to Field Marshal Simon Gallagher and intelligence advisor Richard Dehaver, 7 September 3063
*"If you can't afford to lose it, you can't afford to use it." - Duchess Elizabeth Anne Ngo, Kowloon, 3066
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