Eavesdroppers: Tomoe

[Fab]

Eavesdroppers, PART II
Scars are permanent reminders

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The echo of low-powered engines thrumming through the maintenance corridors of Bethlehem Station is broken by a sharp clang - the signal that someone has overridden the communications array. A crowd of Zoners gathers in the main atrium, drawn by the unmistakable voice of Commander Ryzek, ex-Freeport security officer, Operation Pesticide veteran and now the de facto leader of one of the militant wings of Zoner radicals. His tone is grim. The station’s public speakers buzz to life, silencing the hall.

“

Administrator Tomoe... I listened to your address. I ask you this: what price do you place on dignity? On the blood spilled on Erie’s soil when Liberty boots cracked through our gardens and gunships shadowed our skies?

We Zoners built this way of life with our own hands. We bled for it. We left the chains of the Houses’ politics, the Houses’ greed, the Houses’ corrupt governments... and now you dare open your ears to the very tyrants who occupy our home?

Liberty is not a partner. It is a parasite. It feeds on worlds like Erie, cloaked in promises and treaties - and when it’s done, it burns the rest.

You think you can barter with snakes and not get bit?

I speak now not just for the free Zoners. I speak for every man and woman who saw the Erisian sky turn black with Liberty fire. We will not bow. We will not trade with our oppressors. And if this station becomes a platform for compromise with tyrants… then Bethlehem will no longer be a sanctuary.

Consider this your final warning, Administrator. The people have long memories, and short patience.

”

The crowd cheers...

The militants are enraged by the mere mention of diplomacy.

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