章 58: Mutual Parasite
"Sir, sir!"
One of my guards came running to me.
"What is it?" I asked.
The guard looked around and saw all the people watching us with curious eyes. Not the public - the so-called 'regular' citizens were far way; but the politicians. I noticed his nervousness quickly.
"Something private?"
"Yes, sir."
"Well then." I said as I glanced towards the general direction of my companions. "I will have to leave for now."
"Of course." said Abraham Helfried and Nuan Qing at the same time. Everyone else either nodded or waved hands, except for our Minister of Defense who was giving his speech on the stage.
I walked towards the Presidental Shuttle and asked the guard again.
"What is it?"
"I will be open about this to you, we've just got some intelligence." he said. "We believe there are at least two terrorists in the crowd, but we don't seem to be able to find them. If something goes wrong, and something probably WILL, a lot of people may be harmed. We need to stop this commemoration event without causing panic, immediately."
"What do you mean? You don't have the terrorists' identity?" I asked.
"We do. We just can not find them. They are nowhere to be seen!" he explained.
"Then how do you know they are IN the crowd? Maybe they are not, keep looking!" I argued.
"Either way, for people's safety, we need to end the event so people will disperse." the guard said.
"I would expect much better from you." I said.
"What do you mean?" he asked me.
"The moment we attempt to disperse the crowd and tell people to go home, is the time they will attack. They wouldn't risk losing their single opportunity, so they will panic and act on whatever it is they want in haste. We must keep the event going until you find the threat and eliminate it - preferably in a stealthy way."
"But-"
"Or you could as well just come to me later and tell that your intelligence was wrong."
"Aye, sir." the guard said after hesitating a bit, and with his own doubts on the subject still not resolved. Just before leaving, he turned back.
"Meanwhile, I advise you to stay away from the stage and remain here, if possible."
I followed his advice, as I had no intention of being murdered in the first year of my presidency. Alas, my being careful was not required for long. First, there was a smoke, and an explosion! Luckily for most, it wasn't inside the crowd, it was in a nearby open field. Alarms went off and people started running away. Guards encircled and started evacuating 'important people'.
"We should leave, sir." said my shuttle pilot from his cockpit.
"We will." I said, but remained outside for a while.
Large, white banners with hand-written black texts on them were raised.
"INDEPENDENT TALOSSA!"
"NO ROOM FOR TRAITORS!"
"WE ARE FED UP!" ('Fed' was painted in blue as a reference to the Solar Federation flag)
"TRUE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC!"
"GLORY TO TALOSSA!"
Independence for Talossa... What a stupid thought it was!
Talossa, or officially Talossa Colony, was a medium-sized city on the southern hemisphere of Mars; but more importantly, an autonomus region of the People's Republic of Mars. Just as expected, it's status was preserved when the Old Republic fell and the new one was founded. It was to the Republic of Mars what Hong Kong was to People's Republic of China in the 2000's, except Talossa and the Republic never had trouble with each other... so far.
The settlement itself, Talossa Colony (named after a 20th century micronation on planet Earth), was a bit older than the Old Republic itself; and the Old Republic, after it was established, had no problems with granting autonomy to the harmless colony. Talossa Colony therefore had it's own laws, and it acted as an influential economic center in mutual cooperation with the Republic. In return, People's Republic of Mars had provided the colony with resources available from it's territories all over the Sol System, and protected the vulnerable city from outside enemies.
And now, to this day, Republic of Mars did not need Talossa Colony to survive, but the Colony needed the Republic. Talossa itself had very litte territory, and consequently, very little natural resources. It had no military, and barely enough people to fill a single fleet. This is why I had found it so odd to see Talossan people asking for independence - once they rejected the Republic's protection, they would be open to every kind of economic and military threat. Even if no one would declare war over some rather insignificant Martian land, there was still nothing that they could gain by cutting their own supply lines.
If life was a video game, I would actually want to push the parliament to grant Talossa their independence and see how well they could do by themselves.
"Mr. President?"
It was my shuttle pilot. I was spacing off.
"I'm coming." I said and jumped into the shuttle. The pilot quickly closed and locked the doors before we rose into the sky, away from potential danger. Just as we did that, a few escort fighters entered formation flight around us. On the ground, police teams were closing up on protesters.
In the air, I had a Vineura call from Nuan. She was being evacuated with another shuttle, among with some of our other ministers.
"The Federation is asking about the situation. They wish to have a meeting on the Talossa subject as soon as possible."
"How did the news reach them so quickly?" I asked.
"I need not remind you that WE are the Federation now." said Nuan. "What we know, the Federation knows. Anyway..."
"Still, I can not believe that we are having a meeting over this trivial incident." I commented.
"Trivial? Trivial!?" Nuan was going crazy. "Look, it might be trivial to you, but that's just because you were a front-line soldier. You've seen tens -if not hundreds- of people die in the blink of an eye as missiles struck, and God knows how many you killed! But listen, most Earthly Federation citizens have never seen a gun in their lives before, and such news make them shiver as if they were watching a horror movie. They will take this very seriously."
"Okay, Nuan, I get the idea." I said with some ill tone.
"Good." she said. "But what about you, though? This doesn't really make YOU worry?"
"Look at them, they are just a fanatic youth group, Nuan, and not even the first example of it." I said. "They don't represent the entire Talossa!"
"Don't dismiss the matter so easily." Nuan angrily said. "There is some nationalism in them due to their history, there always have been; but Talossans were very accepting of the Old Republic's rule. Besides, nothing can be an excuse for that detonation, even though it was in an open field. But just... just imagine it wasn't, and imagine they actually tried to kill people! Something is off here, and it is very disturbing."
"We are NOT going to get into another civil conflict. This issue will be resolved with haste, and only by the most peaceful ways."
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