"This woman and her core of followers have managed to intimidate other members of the planetary legislature into not impeaching her. Her conspirators were quite canny in covering their tracks and we were able to produce no proof that this heinous perversion of democracy took place. Under the law, Whiting had to remain in office."
"This is actually pretty amusing," Laura pointed out. "It is sad to think that most of the WestHems will actually believe it."
"If you see it on Internet," Jackson said, "then that's what happened. Right?"
"But our FLEB agents stationed on the planet Mars were not intimidated by Ms. Whiting and her thugs," Williams was saying. "They watched her every move knowing that criminals like Whiting always make mistakes. Well Whiting made many of them and she was caught at them. A legal indictment was issued, an indictment which Whiting says she will not honor, and our brave, diligent FLEB officers in Eden went to arrest her as they were commanded to do."
She paused, staring into the camera, anger spreading across her face. "Those federal agents were ambushed by followers of Whiting as they entered the capital building. We have confirmation that more than ten of them were killed, gunned down by thugs masquerading as soldiers, using the very weapons that our military has provided for planetary defense."
"Notice how she doesn't mention," Jackson said, "that we taxed ourselves to pay for those weapons."
"The whole thing is a production," Laura said. "God forbid they admit that there are discontented people. God forbid they admit that they'll fight to the death for this planet because of money. Oh no. There have to be oppressed people and horrible human rights abuses. Earthlings are so shallow."
They turned their attention back to Williams, who was now talking about the attack on TNB.
"These terrorist criminals entered Triad Naval Base under cover of darkness. They were led by this man." A graphic of Jackson was placed on the screen.
"Hey," Jackson said to the applause of the assembled staffers, "there I am. But what the hell did they do to my face?" The image of Jackson had been worked on by someone. His handsome face had been altered to look evil and scowling. His eyes had been darkened considerably giving him an almost demonic appearance. And the blackness of his flesh had been enhanced, making it appear darker than it really was.
"So-called General, Kevin Jackson. The man Laura Whiting appointed as the head of the Martian Planetary Guard. This man, who we believe to be Whiting's chief conspirator, led a group of armed, radical separatists, equipped with MPG weapons, to the gates of Triad Naval Base. They were allowed entrance to the base by this man."
"Allowed entrance?" Jackson asked no one in particular. "We blasted our way in."
"Who the hell is that?" asked Whiting. "He's not one of our people."
Jackson looked, his eyes widening in surprise. "That's Sega!" he exclaimed. "The Martian marine commander for the expeditionary force."
"General Ronald Sega," Williams confirmed. "And I am sad to state that this man is not a separatist. He is not even a Martian citizen. He is, or rather was, a highly trusted commanding general in the WestHem marines."
"Holy shit," Jackson said, shaking his head. "They're gonna blame Sega for all of this!"
"This man was in charge of the marine forces on the planet of Mars." Williams said with utmost sincerity. "He was also the highest ranking military officer on that planet. We now know that he is the worst traitor this great hemisphere has produced since Benedict Arnold in the American Revolutionary War. General Sega apparently provided Kevin Jackson with access codes that allowed him and his thugs entrance to Triad Naval Base. The MPs on the base responded quickly to the intrusion and managed to pin the invaders near the front gate of the base. General Sega, as I mentioned before, was the highest-ranking officer on the planet. He declared an emergency and then sent a message to all WestHem military personnel ordering them to surrender to the Martians. To surrender! To throw down their arms. He stated to the brave commanders leading these MPs at Triad, as well as his very own marines at Eden Marine Barracks, that the situation was hopeless, that fighting on would only get them killed. And these brave soldiers, who lacked the information to make any decision to the contrary, who had no information to tell them that their commander was exaggerating things horribly, did as they were ordered.
"Thanks to General Sega, Martian separatists have taken control of all of our military assets on that planet. We have information that the separatists then marched onto TNB and executed more than a hundred of the MPs that were fighting them!"
"Executed?" Jackson nearly screamed at Williams' image. "You have got to be..."
"Shhh!" Laura hushed him.
"Before communications with the naval base were shut down we received frantic cries for help and horrid descriptions of these thugs lining up the MPs and spraying them with machine gun fire, of shooting grenades at them. These are atrocities on the magnitude of the Asian Powers during World War III. Worse even. At least the Asian Powers were humane about how they killed prisoners."
"Laura," Jackson said, "are you sure we should be allowing this feed out to the entire planet. Some of our people might believe this crap. This could alter the vote."
Laura simply smiled. "On the contrary, Kevin," she said. "I have a little more faith in the intrinsic common-sense of our citizens than that. I believe these broadcasts will do nothing but help our cause."
Jackson was doubtful but he knew that Laura was almost supernaturally adept at reading the pulse of the citizens. He would trust her judgment over his own.
Williams lies continued. She claimed that General Sega himself had executed scores of marines after the base fell. She claimed there was evidence of a sexual relationship between Sega and Whiting. She claimed that thousands of MPG troops had been shot or imprisoned by the "rogue elements" when they refused to take up arms against WestHem. "It appears now that Generals Jackson and Sega have purged the MPG of all soldiers that have professed allegiance to WestHem," she said. "And unfortunately, all of our soldiers on that planet have been captured. Their fate is unknown and our prayers are with them. Our prayers are also with all of those loyal Martians and WestHems trapped as hostages on that planet by this terrorist take-over."
"Terrorist take-over?" Jackson said in disgust. "Hostages? Shit."
"Did you really expect anything else?" Laura asked him.
"No," he admitted.
"But you can be assured," Williams proclaimed firmly, "that this lawlessness and terror will not be allowed to continue. As we speak, preparations are being made to send a force of WestHem marines to Mars to restore order and to effect the arrest of those responsible for this situation. As you all know it takes some time to travel to Mars; approximately eight weeks at the current planetary configuration. It will take at least two weeks to assemble the forces and equipment necessary for this operation.
"We on the council realize that this leaves two and a half months for the current situation on Mars to continue. As horrible as that sounds, leaving those poor people under those conditions for that length of time, there is no other option. We will of course commence negotiations with Laura Whiting and her cohorts and let them know in no uncertain terms that what they are attempting will not be tolerated and that we will hold them responsible for any lives lost during this period. We will try to convince her to surrender herself and her thugs before our Marines land.