Talk:Gallian Republic/@comment-12161342-20161030020307/@comment-12161342-20161102235524

Kul walked into the room, bending his head as to get through the doorway. In a way that was almost self-conscious, he pulled out a chair before the Prime Minister’s desk and sat down; when he put his weight upon the chair, it creaked audibly, and a lesser man would have winced.

Kul did not, but simply leaned forward – inciting another creak – and spoke, his tone solemn. “We have been in Gallia many months, Prime Minister. Our ships have assisted in removing the radiation from your land, rebuilding your mountains, and filling your lakes with clean water once more. Our troops, including my honored Astartes, have assisted in keeping the peace within your cities as you rebuild, and even taking stone and brick ourselves in order to reconstruct this place as it once was.”

“But Aneph is a freedom-loving nation. We support the oppressed; we support the hurt, the weak. What we do not support is those who imitate the excesses of Stalin in their policies. Your dissolution of the Houses of Commons and Lords is reminiscent, to us on oversight of the rebuilding process, to the dissolution of the German Weimar Republic-era parliament by Hitler. And your purges of Communists, of ‘dissidents?’ If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, you flatter Stalinist-era Russia.”

Kul laced his hands before him, the black gauntlets interlocking like un-augmented fingers. “So, Prime Minister, Aneph is faced with a choice. We can continue helping you; rebuilding your nation faster than you could, keeping crime down to unprecedented levels during civil crisis…”

He deliberately trailed off for a moment. “Or we could withdraw our support entirely, as the cost to our reputation – nay, even our moral values as a country and a navy – would be too much when weighed with the altruism we deliver through our aid.”

There was another short pause, then Kul continued.

“Your choice, Prime Minister Holland, is fairly simple. You can provide your people the freedom to think how they wish, behave politically as to their majority wont, and all without the threat hanging over their heads of death if they cross the regime… Or you could watch crime spike, rebuilding efforts halt for months on end as you attempt to draft new workers, and take years longer to complete this work than with Aneph-Gallian cooperation.”

The Astartes shrugged, his powerfully-built shoulders making the motion seem like tectonic shift in a mountain range. “Both I and all of Aneph trusts you will make the right decision.”