Behind the Scenes

[Reeves]

//This will be a thread full of one-post stories about incidents, mundane events, or otherwise purely unremarkable and fluff-oriented details regarding life in the LFR

Fortress Ramsey; Ontario System; Liberty Free Republic

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For a moment he was nervous. He'd let "Captain" Belle talk him into another one of these speeches. At least the audience out there couldn't currently see Damien pacing back and forth backstage, unsure if he had found the right words to say or would even be able to say them. He was acutely aware of what was at stake, of why he was doing all of this. A small part of him just wanted to cancel this appearance and get on with more important things, but his better judgement knew that would be a terrible idea. And so he went out there, letting his well rehearsed mannerisms carry him up to that podium and hide the fact he had been internally debating himself for a solid 30 minutes and had no actual script on hand.

His posturing at least means that he doesn't have to ask for people that had been waiting there for an hour there to be quiet, the sight of him brings them into perfect silence, somewhat placated by the fact that decently brewed coffee had been served just moments prior. His voice - which comes after a few moments of assessing the room is calm, clear, and reaches every pair of ears in this large hall.

"I’m not here to give you a victory speech. We’ve had enough of those over the years. This is different."

At this juncture it seemed like the audience was very much paying attention but were uncertain what they were in for. Was this going to be some long winded lecture about how a strong economy would keep tyranny at bay? Was he going to wax poetically about the struggle? Some of his critics were no doubt looking for any excuse to remove him from the running and prevent a possibly imminent reelection. After all, the casualties of the battle for Ontario had been horrific.

"We held Ontario. Let that sink in. We didn't simply bring down a trade-lane, bomb some cobbled together outpost, seize an undermanned garrison, or just scrape by. We held. We planted our flag, and it stayed there. This system is ours now. Not on loan. Not in dispute. Ours."

There was tension in the air now. He was hitting the right points, keeping their attention and never letting himself speak too much at once that would risk the perception of rambling.

"I know what it cost. So do you. You’ve seen the lists. Some of you wrote them. Some of you buried the names on them. Hundreds gone. People we trained with, fought beside. Friends. Family. And despite that, I can stand here and say this: If that price bought us a place to build something better—if it means our children don’t have to fight the same war—then it was worth it. No doubt. No hesitation. Our people knew this and went willingly. They went gladly."

There were some quiet murmurs. It didn't sound like derisive chatter, his eyes could pick out an individual who had broken down at this specific mention, they were being comforted by those standing shoulder to shoulder alongside them. His senses compelled him to act on this.

"But I look around this room, and I see more than pilots and marines. I see the people who are going to shape what comes next. The future teachers, engineers, doctors, governors, presidents—the source of generations of heroes that haven't even been born yet. Maybe you’ll raise them. Maybe they’ll sit where you are now one day, and ask what it took to give them this chance. And you’ll have an answer they can be proud of."

Their rapt, undivided, and total attention was his now. That was dangerous. So many eyes and ears to disappoint with the wrong word. And never any real certainty of what the right words were. Hesitation would be perceived as weakness, and he allowed himself none, instead his voice and energy escalated ever so slightly as his nerves served as fuel.

"You can tell them that you were there when we sent the Lehigh howling back to California with fire trailing off its ass. That you were there when those torpedoes struck the Robert Peary and sent it to hell. And that you were the reason Congress looked at Ontario and realized that they couldn't stop us!"

There was a small-scale ignition of applause and some cheering from sections of the audience, the sort of thing that was infectious if he kept going and could do better with his delivery and the words used, even more so if he was to let himself become personally invested.

"I spent my entire life wondering about the point of it all and my purpose, but now I know. You've shown me. You've shown yourselves. And we are never, ever, going back again. No matter how hard the days ahead might be, no matter how much more fighting there is, that white star is only on the wall because you put it there in outright defiance of all those people who laughed and told you that it wasn't possible. Let them say it now. Let them say it to us centuries from now when we've eclipsed them and outlived their petty empires. Let us now strike out and bring our people home."

He'd painted his last stroke right before the roar that gripped the room rendered even the speakers and connected amplifier useless.