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Date Posted: 20:45:24 02/04/02 Mon
Author: Lady Embyr
Subject: "Senator Decius...all of you...raise valid points."
In reply to: Senator Decius 's message, "Decius stirred a little in his seat" on 16:51:58 02/03/02 Sun

It was not a loud voice she spoke with; rather the opposite. Soft and cracking, it was a voice which compelled the listener to strain to hear every word. It was this quietness that gave Lady Embyr power and importance as a speaker; far from a blowhard, her serenity spoke volumes more than any fist or swordstrike, and she found she had their attention.

"As i sit here listening to these arguments about out own resources, about calling on allies, about fleeing eventual destruction....I feel utterly compelled to ask: why? Why in all of these proposals is there nothing...more proactive? Are we honestly to sit and wait and play a defensive game? We know what the long range findings are from Lord Betacron....should we not deploy some ships to get a better reading? Perhaps a whole offensive strike? Hit our unseen enemy before they reach us? Cybertron's spirit is better than this. We are a proud people and some of those I once sought alongside would be disgusted to see the kind of cowards we've become. Is this what Megatron's occupation has made of you all?"

With a hiss, Embyr's chair cracked open, revealing her thin, corroded legs. Drawing a fine rapier from her thigh, she balanced herself upon it and stood, facing the room with stern, narrow eyes.

"Unity. We need unity. Betacron seeks salvation in the form of our Dracan friends. Schism and Pantera support him—nice of you to finally join us by the way, dearie. Onitron is understandably wary of both a foreign fleet potentially stronger than our own. Indeed, with our own people bolstering the Dracan's own military, I have no doubt their's is a powerful unit. And perhaps they would be willing to repay their debt to our people for our role in helping them rebuild and defend against and more attacks on their most precious resource. There has not been a third invasion since they acquired our friendship. But I do see Onitron's and Decius' objections to a degree.

The fles--Senator Shelley seemed also to have an interesting solution, in seeking our more public counterparts in this three-tier government. While we are as reclusive as the Chancellor himself, the Council already occupies a spot in the public eye.

Flawed."

She spoke the last word with a hiss, pausing to allow it to settle into the others.

"Decius, your proposal to reinstill some of our more fearful weapons is not without merit, and I would agree with all but one. Technogenic weapons must by their very nature be a last resort. Desperate times I understand, but Corrodia Gravis, Senator? A rather desperate and risky measure, no?"

Again she paused, not for dramatic effect, but to collect herself. At this precise moment she found herself painfully aware of every patch of rust, every Scraplet wound. Bits and pieces of herself lost to the centuries. Badges of honor and courage. Reminders.

"Flawed.

Each and every one of your proposals is, in itself, flawed in some way. But, applying the unity I speak of, taking all factors into consideration and working together...well, that just might be the path to survival."

A map lit up the table now, displaying Cybertron and Draco, as well as a larger planet looming beyond both. Embyr found it ironic that she who had pursued her own quest alone for so long, now found herself the voice of unity. She felt the same rush she once lived by alongside her fellow seekers, working together as a unit to crush their Autobot enemies. Ruined though she still was in body, since returning home and taking the senate appointment, the wounds of her mind were at last beginning to heal. Or perhaps this was simply a second wind.

"As Decius already eloquently stated, we do not know the NATURE of this menace. It could be a cosmic phenomena, something better handled by the Council's more scientifically bent-minds. It could be a foe against which our bombs would fail, or a technopathic agent would only feed. The first and best military strategy is good reconnaissance, without which strategy cannot begin to be formulated. Lords and Ladies, when the enemy is scurrying about your backyard you deploy the hounds. I believe in this the Council can aid us. With their freedom of movement and portalling capabilities, they can get out there faster than our fleets and get us information so that we can best prepare to hold our ground. In the meantime, on the home front, we quietly begin dusting off our older weapons in preparation. I say quietly because I do not think the fragile populace need be whipped into a frenzy needlessly.

Forgive this crude display....distances are not accurate but, based on what Betacron has shown us, it gives us a relative postioning. If these diamond-shaped objects are indeed hostile, and if the Council reports a foe our own resources alone might not be able to defeat, then we might do well to call upon the Dracans. We would not be asking a superior fleet to sweep in and save us; rather, the combined frontal assault of the Cybertronians and side attack of the Dracans would be a pincer movement in which both worlds working together would crush our unknown enemy.

Unity, my fellow senators. We take everything that has been put on the table this day and combine it into one successful operation. Bickering gets us nowhere and time may well be an issue. Be it the Council or a ship from the fleet already deployed, we need to get something out there before what's out there...gets here. I have said my piece; I motion for a vote on a course of action. Do any second? Are there any other suggestions from Lux, Hegemon or Eulogy? Anything further to add by our more vocal members?

What say you all?"

Embyr sat once more, on the verge of a collapse she was too proud to allow any to notice. Perhaps Decius picked up on it; perhaps not. As she sheathed her blade and her hoverchair ensconced her securely once more, all she could think about was the four blips on the table before her and how she, the knight, and the others, would have once been the first deployed. The hounds. The seekers. Now, she was proposing to send others where she could not go herself, and as she contemplated the possible doom they would be heading for, she wondered if her own commanders dealt with the same dilemmas? Her youth was as prideful if not more than her present days, and she never considered a single assignment a suicide mission. But now she had to consider, now that she was on the other end. Were some? Was....that last one?

Before her, the diamonds blipped forebodingly, moving closer and closer to the crude representation of Cybertron and its moons....

"Never mistake motion for action."
-Ernest Hemingway (1889-1961)



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