With a fuzzy static, then a pop as the program burst through on the Holonet Broadcast Network, the friendly pretty face of a dark haired woman appeared on the screen.
"Good evening viewers. This is Miranda Cardenal with the League of Sentient Rights bringing you this special report. Recently, through several sources, the LSR Foundation Committee was given several leads to a most distressing situation. As you know, we strive to fight for the rights of all sentient creatures and were appalled to discover the situation that we bring to your attention now." Slowly the screen dissolves and becomes a grainy picture of the inside of a starship. It becomes apparent that this is the galley of a ship, with men lined up with trays, having their suppers dished out to them. The camera zeroes in on the meager portion of gray glop slapped onto the tray of the person who was obviously wearing a hidden video feed. Miranda's voice sudden starts speaking over the footage. "This is the food court of an intergalactic starship that, for legal purposes, we are unable to name the.. 'empire' in which it belongs. This.. 'empire' is fastly growing to be one of THE largest in all the known galaxies and these men are it's troops. The gray.. goop you see upon their trays is their second, and last, meal of the day before they go to sleep for the night. It is a synthetically made by product of nutrients and vitamins. Tasteless, substance-less, the two meals these troops receive of this a day is barely enough to keep them at a healthy weight."
The screen changes to a huge space shot, a large fleet spread out before the viewer, the names blipped out that were visible to the eye of the camera. "And THIS.. this is just part of this 'empires' fleet as it heads off to fight for the 'ownership' of another planet. Impressive isn't? But a striking difference from the meal offered to the troops piloting these ships. Why is there such a marked separation between these two aspects of this 'army'?" Miranda's face came back upon the screen as she sat at her desk, the ISR logo behind her on the wall, her expression grave. "Gross negligence and miss management of resources. Among the score of planets belonging to this 'empire' not one of them has their resources set aside simply to produce food for this 'empire's' troops. ALL of them are turned to producing ships day in and day out, most of them barely making enough food to feed the people who actually LIVE on these planets, much less the excess of troops needed to man this fleet they keep making larger and larger. And among those that ship production is not paramount, most have had a large part of their planet side resources destroyed or largely laid to waste by the fighting that went on to claim leadership of the planet itself."
With a tortured sigh, Miranda folded her hands on the sheet of paper laying on the desk in front of her. "Frankly, the League of Sentient Rights are ashamed that such treatment of loyal troops is tolerated even by those within this.. 'empire'. We feel that the needs of the living breathing people who fight for these groups should be met before another new sparkly ship is put off the production line. But, sadly, this is not the case. Even the leaders of these groups, these... self proclaimed 'emperors', continuously send out command upon more commands that they will fight and strive to rid our galaxies and homes of the 'evils' they perceive to be enslaving us all... all the while their own men fight bravely in battle with barely enough food in their bellies to make them stronger than their opponents. The LSR finds it a crying shame that these men are treated this way, and we feel it is simple GREED that does this. If these 'empires' and their 'emperors' truly cared for this galaxy, they would spend less time destroying parts of it to 'liberate' it from the 'evils' that haunt us, and more time helping those who have been attacked to rebuilt what this 'empire' has helped destroy. Then maybe they would have enough resources to feed the men, women, and all living things that fight for them, to treat them with the respect they deserves and TRULY make this galaxy a better place to live. Thank you and good night. May you all sleep in peace... and with full bellies tonight."
With a snap, the broadcast ended.
"Good evening viewers. This is Miranda Cardenal with the League of Sentient Rights bringing you this special report. Recently, through several sources, the LSR Foundation Committee was given several leads to a most distressing situation. As you know, we strive to fight for the rights of all sentient creatures and were appalled to discover the situation that we bring to your attention now." Slowly the screen dissolves and becomes a grainy picture of the inside of a starship. It becomes apparent that this is the galley of a ship, with men lined up with trays, having their suppers dished out to them. The camera zeroes in on the meager portion of gray glop slapped onto the tray of the person who was obviously wearing a hidden video feed. Miranda's voice sudden starts speaking over the footage. "This is the food court of an intergalactic starship that, for legal purposes, we are unable to name the.. 'empire' in which it belongs. This.. 'empire' is fastly growing to be one of THE largest in all the known galaxies and these men are it's troops. The gray.. goop you see upon their trays is their second, and last, meal of the day before they go to sleep for the night. It is a synthetically made by product of nutrients and vitamins. Tasteless, substance-less, the two meals these troops receive of this a day is barely enough to keep them at a healthy weight."
The screen changes to a huge space shot, a large fleet spread out before the viewer, the names blipped out that were visible to the eye of the camera. "And THIS.. this is just part of this 'empires' fleet as it heads off to fight for the 'ownership' of another planet. Impressive isn't? But a striking difference from the meal offered to the troops piloting these ships. Why is there such a marked separation between these two aspects of this 'army'?" Miranda's face came back upon the screen as she sat at her desk, the ISR logo behind her on the wall, her expression grave. "Gross negligence and miss management of resources. Among the score of planets belonging to this 'empire' not one of them has their resources set aside simply to produce food for this 'empire's' troops. ALL of them are turned to producing ships day in and day out, most of them barely making enough food to feed the people who actually LIVE on these planets, much less the excess of troops needed to man this fleet they keep making larger and larger. And among those that ship production is not paramount, most have had a large part of their planet side resources destroyed or largely laid to waste by the fighting that went on to claim leadership of the planet itself."
With a tortured sigh, Miranda folded her hands on the sheet of paper laying on the desk in front of her. "Frankly, the League of Sentient Rights are ashamed that such treatment of loyal troops is tolerated even by those within this.. 'empire'. We feel that the needs of the living breathing people who fight for these groups should be met before another new sparkly ship is put off the production line. But, sadly, this is not the case. Even the leaders of these groups, these... self proclaimed 'emperors', continuously send out command upon more commands that they will fight and strive to rid our galaxies and homes of the 'evils' they perceive to be enslaving us all... all the while their own men fight bravely in battle with barely enough food in their bellies to make them stronger than their opponents. The LSR finds it a crying shame that these men are treated this way, and we feel it is simple GREED that does this. If these 'empires' and their 'emperors' truly cared for this galaxy, they would spend less time destroying parts of it to 'liberate' it from the 'evils' that haunt us, and more time helping those who have been attacked to rebuilt what this 'empire' has helped destroy. Then maybe they would have enough resources to feed the men, women, and all living things that fight for them, to treat them with the respect they deserves and TRULY make this galaxy a better place to live. Thank you and good night. May you all sleep in peace... and with full bellies tonight."
With a snap, the broadcast ended.