A Noble Honor

Written by Adam Mullen, with art by Mike Lombardo & Marcello Millicay, and edited by Ted Kendrick.

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To my esteemed colleagues on the Ruling Body, I hope this message finds you safe and in good health. The reports you received from my father, Reginald Tropp, were indeed accurate. The siege of my planet and estate on my weathered planet of Yaltrix is imminent. 

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I give you my thanks for making me head of my family, for it is indeed a noble honor. In doing so, you have made my first priority to my people who need immediate evacuation from the planet. For nearly forty years of this endless war, my family did not ask for much until recently. I saw how quickly you admonished my father, and how eager you were to replace him with someone you thought to be foolish and simply follow your command, but that is not me. If you ignore this message, you sign our death warrants. We do not possess the fire power needed to defend an assault by an entire armada of warships.

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Deshu Bo, the most noble of us on the Ruling Body, has served since the original agreement of the first Ruling Body to protect the people and let them live the way they had for hundreds of years before the toppling of the Commonwealth. Deshu Bo, I speak directly to you with these words: protect the people of Yaltrix, just as you protected our people from Zao Skran the First nearly eight hundred years ago. You have lived for centuries and witnessed so much of our shared peoples’ history that you have long been loved and respected by humanity. The people of Yaltrix share in that love and respect for you. 

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In our greatest time of need, I, Shanea Tropp, plead with you, my esteemed colleagues, to send reinforcements to my planet. I fear there is not much time before the Imperium forces reach us and begin their assault on the ancient fortress I have called home for my entire life. Once a place of history and pride of the peoples of the Protectorate to visit, the castle has in recent times fallen to the wayside as it was seemingly forgotten by those who call it their protectors. We are loyal citizens of the Naams Protectorate, and I demand that you send us military ships at once. If you send your armada now, I calculate our ships can head off the Imperial Navy in a day or less. Please do not ignore my pleas. Though my words are fierce, my heart is in the right place, and beats only for my people who I was charged to watch over. 

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