The Commodore nodded, with the phalanx of guards enclosing the delegation. Few spoke through the walk, leaving the tread of boots to reverberate throughout the halls. The Cerean delegation had been assigned to the upper suite of rooms for a multiple reasons, such as giving them privacy from the press and easy access to any key member of the Kashan Government. But foremost of the myriad of reasons was security.

Kashan was primarily inhabited with humans, which only a few alien species that came from the CIS element that helped the colonization effort. Current estimates showed that at the most, the aliens consisted of 2% of the population. Thus, with the rarity of other species, there were some on Kashan that could be considered anti-alien and ignorant of those species; hence the reason for the heavy security throughout the whole visit. By keeping them on one of the higher levels of the building, the security would be rather easy. In keeping with that philosophy, one of the building’s balconies had been arranged to safely allow the Cerean delegation to review the Kashan military as it passed by on the parade route.

Fresh air breezed forward into the faces of the delegation as the doors admitted them to the viewing balcony. The peak from the building offered a grandiose view of the surrounding cityscape, as well as an excellent vantage point to watch the troops march by. In a nearby clearing, four of Kashan’s medium cruisers were landed on their struts, ramps open to receive the troops. The Kashan military was already mobilizing, with the Seraph, Steadfast, Resolute, and Redoubtable taking on their troops today. Overhead, a pair of S9 Deathsabers roared over the route, signaling the start of the march of the 4800 troops and 64 Sentinel-class Tanks.

"Impressive..." murmured Pro Moon, as the soldiers marched by. The Deathsabers tore up the air overhead as they passed the delegation, "Most impressive...

"So these are some of your forces?" he said, as the the soldiers marched by. "They seem quite orderly and supported well with technology..." Pro Moon began to rock back and forth on his heels slowly as he tried to come up with something to say - he realized a tad too late that his experience with military parades was lacking. The Coalition armed forces were not usually well known for pomp or embellishments.

Still, as they marched by, the grandoise atmosphere soon caught up with him. After all, here he stood shoulder to shoulder with a military man, looking out on the proud ranks of the newest Coalition member. Pro Moon felt a deep satisfaction, as though his work (minimal though it had been, he knew) had helped bring this about. As though his assistance was responsible for these soldiers marching today. It was a heady sensation, no pun intended.

Unfamiliar though he was with military protocol, the natural Cerean prediliction to logic, reason, and analysis soon gave him an odd observation - that the army which marched before him, though impressively arrayed, couldn't possibly number more than a few thousand. Though the ships, tanks, and so forth were in good supply, they seemed dwarfed by their machines that towered over them or packed them in on either side.

"Tell me, Corise," said Pro Moon, as he kept his eyes on the marchers. "Whereforth do these troops mobilize? Are you sending them to meet their fellows elsewhere? Are you marshalling for some sort of outing? Or is this all just to celebrate our recent turn of events? It seems a curious force arranged before us today, if I may say so."