For immediate Public Release:
When in the Course of Human Events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them to another, and to assume among the powers of the stars, the separate and equal station to which the laws of Nature entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among those rights are the right to life, liberty and property, that to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, and that whenever any oform of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new Government, laying its foundation on the principles and organizing its powers in such form as to them shalll seem most likely to protect their rights. Prudence, indeed will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transietn causees: and accordingly all experience has taught that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evidences a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, or to abandon them to predation from outsiders, or to reduce them to poverty, invasions, horror, or death, it is the duty of the people, and their right, to throw off that government, to establish new guards to their security and prosperity.
Such has been the sufference of these several worlds and systems. Firstly and most anciently abused by the Rim Worlds Republic, and then, by the Star League's corrupt leaders of the past, and then severally by the Lyran Commonwealth's neglect, excessive taxation, and finally intentional abandonment when under crisis and facing invasion.
In accordance with the Articles that formed the Lyran Commonwealth, we declare independence from that body, to seek our own future, further, as we withdraw from that body, these united independent systems demand the return of that which has been taken under false pretense from us by the same, and we request recognition of our sovereign right to withdraw from the War, to be left alone to deal with whom we will under terms of our choosing, to trade fairly with anyone else of our choosing, and to conduct diplomacy on our own terms with whomever we wish, to include open communication, trade, free travel, and to bar these same from anyone we so deem necessary.
With malice toward none, and charity for all, we do declare our rightful independence and sovereignty, and our allegiance between one another.
Duchess Debra Macaulliffe, Arluna
Charles Vanh, Speaker of the Assembly of Citizens of Kowloon
Everett Reynolds, President of Parlaiment, Australia
Karline Schrakenberg, Duchess Winter
David Lauder, Governor, Anembo
Greta Schigram, Governor, Jerangle
Mary Polk, Governor, Neerabup
Dennis Raines, Governor, Inarcs, for Tamara LaRue, Duchess
[video file]
The woman that appears on the screen is in her early twenties, but her nut-brown hair is streaked with gray already, and her green eyes have the stare of one whom has suffered and seen horrors beyond the imagining of those with more normal lives.
"I have been told by some very wise folks that this is not the time to go independent, that with the Clans bearing down in this area, the last thing one should desire, is to withdraw from a power the size and potency of the Lyran Commonwealth..." she stands up, and walks around the desk, to sit on it.
"That would be true, if the Lyrans hadn't abandoned us already, perhaps. It would be true if they had not isolated us, cut off our trade, drafted our men, and fed them into the fire far away while leaving us to face Clans, Bandits, Pirates, and Plague on our own. We recieved more help from the single-world nation of NIOPS than the entire Lyran Commonwealth, we recieved more from Clan Wolf in Exile, than we recieved from the Lyrans, more from the attacking Clan Star Adder, than we did from the Lyrans... and the threats we now face, as independent worlds in control of our own destiny, are teh same ones we faced as subjects of the Lyran Commonwealth-but with one key difference."
She clasps her hands before her, "We're facing them without a distant, uncaring ruler to strip away our means of coping to save worlds that refuse to stand on their own because their rulers play golf with the Archon's staff-and believe me, I worked for Peter for several months, this is exactly how decisions WERE made at the highest levels."
"We aren't looking for trouble, fact is, we are open for business, trade, diplomacy, and even alliances-but as equals, not subjects any longer...we'll deal with anyone, and deal honestly-except for the Rim Worlds Republic."
[zoom to just her face.]
"Daphne, You and your friends murdered ten billion people, more than two billion of those here on Arluna with your bio-weapon. It is my belief that you, and your friends, were the force behind the nuclear fireballs on Tharkad. Daphne, I hope you die slowly, and painfully, I hope your ovaries rot with gangrene, and that all your dreams are turned to dust and ashes. Do not come here, do not send an emissary, if you do, I will send him home in pieces."
[zoom out]
"Everyone else is welcome, so long as it's not at the head of an invading army." she says with a bright smile, "I bid you all a wonderful evening."
