Rutha sort of painted me into a corner with his news broadcast, so now I have to attempt to roll with it
. Anyways heres chapters 5 & 6, alot shorter this time though.
Chapter 5
Commander Dravel stared at the purple orb of Kornephoros X. From 700 kilometers up it looked so calm, so peaceful, a kind of subdued beauty that only ones home world can have. Its endless clouds did not show any of the chaos that had happened nearly 15 hours ago. Dravel trembled at the thought of those endless hours, he was sure they were the longest of his life. Such horror such pain, so much loss.
Among the dead was his Father, the President of the Republic. Several senators had died as well, but those losses paled in comparison to the death totals that had come across his desk not 15 minutes ago. There were so many names on that list. More names than he had ever seen, names that burned in his mind, not hundreds, not thousands, but hundreds of thousands.
The image of the city disappearing into the vastness of Kornephoros X replayed itself in his mind again. He had felt so helpless at that moment, unable to do anything as the very people he had sworn to protect were lost. The hours that followed he had tried. Oh creator how he had tried. Dravel had used all of home fleet's resources, every shuttle that was capable of atmospheric flight had been sent to search for survivors, but except for the few that had made it out on skimmers, they found nothing. Nothing but light wreckage of Landing City that had some how gotten caught in the endless wind currents of Kornephoros X.
Still while he had been searching for survivors others had been searching for answers, but there were precious few to be found. Most of the evidence had been lost with Landing City. It was known that a nuclear detonation had erupted on the eastern side of the city, but beyond that no one knew how it had gotten there, or who had placed it. The republics nuclear specialists had flocked to the location where the doomed city had once been, looking for answers in the clouds around it, but after 15 hours they had, had little to report.
Not long after the disaster he did his duty and contacted the Prime Minister, to tell him that the President of the Draven Republic was dead. Yalare had of course given his condolences , and promised that he would use all the governments resources to find those responsible. Dravel had stared at the screen for long seconds after the Prime Minister had cut the circuit. His father had never liked the Prime Minister, the two had battled for control of the government ever since Yalare had been elected prime minister. His father had outmaneuvered Yalare when he took control of the Defense Committee, and Dravel suspected that Yalare had never forgotten that. Now, the game had changed.
The Presidency was an inherited position, technically Dravel was now the President, but the Republics constitution mandated that a new President could not take office until the next general election. Until Dravel took office the Presidents duty's entire fell upon the Prime Minister, who by law was the only one who could call a general election. Dravel got a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach, Yalare could postpone calling an election for at the most 4 years, but until that time the Republic was being controlled by one of his father's worst enemies.
Chapter 6
Yalre stood in the center of the Great Hall of the People's Committee. Both the upper and lower committee's were here today for this emergency session. There was no doubt as to the reason, word of the disaster at Landing city had spread across the whole of Kornephoros X, and would soon spread across much of the Republic. Yalare knew that the response to the news would be panic, especially for the residents of the floating cities, something had to be done, and quickly.
Yalare cleared his throat. "Senators of the People's Committee I am here today under the Gravest circumstances. We have been attacked, our people have been murdered, our President is dead." He paused for a moment letting his words sink in. "The cowards who did this did not attack from a starship, they did not make any demands, they simply slaughtered innocent Dravens without mercy, without thought. These monsters planted a nuclear device within Landing City, their goal simply to kill as many men, women and children as possible."
"However, my fellow Dravens, their effects will be much worse. Already people are trying to abandon the great floating cities of Kornephoros X, for fear that they may be next. Soon this scene will be repeated all throughout the Republic." He paused, and watched the terror seep into the eyes of the senators, and they imagined the floating cities, the lifeblood of the Republic, abandoned in an endless sea of clouds. "We cannot allow this to happen, we cannot allow the Republic to slip into the ashes of history, we cannot allow it, I will not allow it!" His Last words came out with such force that few in the room could doubt his resolve.
"That is why I am here before you today, to ask that you help me save the Republic from its own fears. Later today I will propose a resolution to enforce martial law across all worlds of the Republic." Muted conversation suddenly lit up around the room, no one could believe what they were hearing, martial law had never been declared in the republic.
Yalre held his hand out for silence, "I wish there were a better way, but unless we stop people from leaving the floating cities we will see an end to all that we hold dear. We must gain control of the transportation, and communication systems if we are going to be able to stop this madness from spreading everywhere. We must act now!" He banged his hand on the podeum, as the room burst in exploded with applause, and in his mind a lone voice, encourage him, always convincing Yalare that what he was doing was for the good of the republic.
At the end of the day over half the Senators voted in favor of martial law, none of them knew that they had signed their own death warrant.