TARKIN MEMORIAL CONFERENCE CENTER
Northwest Conference Room - @[member="Darth Kentarch"], broadcasting; @[member="Masamune Tametomo"], negotiating with some planetary officials, businessmen, lobbyists, etc.
@[member="Rave Merrill"], @[member="Amadalia Vyrn"]
The blonde came to a slow stop in the center of the crowd of lobbyists; silent, watching, observing. Those alongside her did not sense her presence; could not. No, the blonde's very existence... was seemingly not there. There was something more what it seemed with the silver tongue of the Lord of the Fringe's speech. A passing glance at the way that the emotional levels within this very conference room spiked made that clear.
So much had changed. But the key components were still the same. He twisted what the Former Lady Protector created; had done for these people. Twisted it into something rotten and corrupt. The blonde's lips straightened to a thin line in growing displeasure.
He was manipulating them, that was for sure, she didn't need to pinpoint the use of the Force in order to realise that. As the shouts of 'Free Eriadu' filled the conference room, with live footage streaming through the Holonews at this very moment-- at this poignant moment in time, the blonde Observer took a deep breath...
And in that instant, her skin seemed to shift, almost like water. It began with her face, muscle, sinew, and bone realigning, cheekbones shifting higher, skin turning into a darker tone. There was no use of the Force with this; this was a racial ability, a painless method known to the Shi'ido as skin-shifting. The blonde was a changeling, and unlike the Clawdite counterparts, did not give any indication of agony as her figure began to change.
Blonde hair began to darken into a luscious deep auburn, and her figure filling out into a more voluptuous form. She gave a blink, and within seconds, her ice blue eyes began to change hue, until they were a deep burnished gold reminiscent of the finest Whyren's reserve. No one around her noticed her shifting, for the woman was still heavily focused on maintaining the photokinetic manipulation of light around her that had completely kept her hidden from view.
Until now.
With a single thought, the little known Disciple of Twilight dropped the use of her cloak, allowing the crowd to swallow her up, almost birthing her in their growing frenzy. Quy'tek meditation automatically bloomed within the mind of the Force User, hiding her Force signature as she'd always done; a second nature really. She did, after all, hold her privacy close to her heart. In this she was not going to change, but the speech manipulated by the Lord in front of her demanded her attention; in the most public way possible.
There, with hair reminiscent of the finest corseca gems that had not been seen for nearly half a year, that iconic figure and heart shaped face that all of the citizens within Protectorate space and that of countless governments beyond, finally appeared before the public eye. One long since thought missing, and dead by all accounts due to her abrupt disappearance in the wake of several assassination attempts.
There, stood the former Lady Protector Cira herself.
It began slowly, a pair of eyes from a local Eriaduian catching a glimpse of her bright red hair, his pumping fist coming to a slowing halt, his voice in cheer quietly fading in growing shock. His hands rose to rub his eyes, as if he could not believe the sight before him. However, no amount of rubbing would be able to blend away the image of the stoic Cira that stood alongside him.
Her former title was uttered in a low hush of shock, surprise bathing the features of the male as another joined, catching sight of the former's sudden change in demeanor. A gasp. Another name, this time, said in breathless wonder.
"Cira."
The name began to grow louder, her presence spreading like wildfire within the conference room, the shock of it all managing to slowly break the thrall of the Lord's voice that his speech had so eloquently stirred.
With a raise of her chin, the former Lady Protector finally spoke, as all the holomedia news reporters suddenly twisted their holocameras to the woman that had seemingly come back from the dead. 'She is alive!'
The Lady Protector is
alive.
"War-profiteering?" she began, as she slowly began to move forward, ambling towards the man with a full hipped gait,
" Mercenaries?" there came a small husky ironic chuckle from the woman, as the lobbyists and leaders of Eriadu parted like the proverbial sea to let her pass.
"I do not deny that the Protectorate was founded as a private military contractor," she began, her unwavering golden gaze boring down upon that of Kentarch
, " But it has been a long... long time, since Omega Pyre has held influence over the governmental entity, that is the Omega Protectorate."
"Almost ten years; ten years that the Protectorate has grown and provided a method for all systems within her influence to finally be reconnected in trade, in community, in economics, and in safety since the four hundred year darkness in the wake of the Gulag Virus."
"She has protected systems from warlords, pirates, rakghouls, crime syndicates, and the Bando Gora Reavers that would come and tear apart any aspect of sentiency for their Gods, making their victims little more than experimental slaves that would rape you to death, eat your flesh, and sow your skin to their clothing; and if you were lucky, in that order." there was no sense of flair or exaggeration in her words, it was truth. The Bando Gora had once been a spacer tale to those of the Core Worlds --- but to those who made their homes in the Wild Regions, Outer Rim, Expansionist, and Colonies... the twisted sadistic reality of the Reavers were very real. Trade ships feared being caught by the macabre ships stained with blood and decorated with corpses chained to their hulls. They were a savage cult, brutal and primal, that committed to combat, rape, murder, and cannibalism.
"This is what the Protectorate is known for; for preserving life, from protecting her systems under her care from the monsters that would ravage you." she drew closer,
" Not once, after Eriadu had come into the bosom of the Protectorate has she ever asked for more than what Eriadu could provide; that being enough to rise up to protect this system in the event that she would need defending. What taxes has she asked of you? None. In what manner has she denied you your sovereignty? Has she not left you alone to once again become a trade hub of Eriadu's former glory? " murmurs rose, nods came.
"Other than an observer that would report the activities within this sector, the Quintad have the full authority to run Eriadu as they desire. The only time the Protectorate has come to interfere was to come to this planets aide during the rise of the plague of the Dark Harvest, in which it was the Protectorate's Defense Force that protected her citizens and our medical technologies that along with the Republic, fought to discover a vaccine for your sake. For your lives."
"He says that the five ruling families have been disposed?" she finally came to a halt nary three meters from the Lord and his guard, as the tide seemingly began to turn.
"Are you not here, in the flesh, ruling your own planet?" There was no denying that fact.
"Money drying up due to contracts? When Omega Star Corp that funds bacta, technology, trade goods, and mining among the known Galaxy? The same Protectorate that also used their own funds to reestablish economies, rebuilt factories, processing plants, and provide fuel after freeing the slaves of Malastare. Who gave a home to all manner of Fringe Force Organizations to freely practice their methodologies without any hindrance from the Protectorate? The Shapers of Kro Var, the Zeison Sha, the Jensaarai, the Disciples of Twilight...." there would be just a subtle flicker of gold in her eyes at the mention of the latter. "
Has the Protectorate not sponsored deep space expeditions for the benefit of education and the preservation of our history? Has she not utilized the infinite knowledge gleaned from Polis Massa to provide innovation in new medicines long thought lost to her people? Have you not prospered with the knowledge that traveling within the hyperlanes protected by the Omega Defense Force assured your safety? Did you not sleep well at night safe with the thought that no Bando Gora, no warlord, no pirate, would come to ransack your home merely because you were a citizen within the Protectorate --- safe in the knowledge that if even one dared be harmed by an outside force, the might of the Protectorate would come to your aid."
"That was my promise. That my goal."
"War? You talk of war? Tell me... why have you've not divulged the growing amount of skirmishes along our borders with the Fringe?" oh there had never been concrete proof, but there was no denying the fact.
"Or how about explaining why you come in force, with a Dragon, a military one may consider to be an invading force, while spouting that you come here in peace?" There was no denying the earlier holonews at the sight of a dragon combating mercenary forces come to lend a hand against those who had attacked them first.
"Why do you come here, spouting with a silvered tongue..... all the while holding a sword at your back?"
True be told, one normally would not be allowed to talk so much when in the presence of an envoy determined to overthrow the government that protected this particular planet --- but considering the shock of seeing the former Lady Protector in the flesh....
Well, it wasn't everyday one came face to face with the dead.
