As Tyler gently squeezed his hand for a moment, a small smile came across Page's face despite the situation. As he began to read through the message though, the corners of his mouth dropped once again. From Tyler's manner, he had expected a scaling back of sorts, but this was so... severe.
Recalling the Ravenswood, the dismantling of Space Command; bloody hell they aren't even giving the officers full positions, he thought. All wars have their disconnected bureaucrats I guess - if they'd been pounding on Liberty's door first I doubt they'd have made the same call...
After Page came to the end of the message, he noticed that Tyler was watching him, a devastated and angry look in her eyes. Just as he was about to speak up, she removed her hands from his, in turn removing the leaves from her uniform.
"Well, Congress made it pretty clear what they think of the situation here", Thomas said, picking up the courier. After taking one last look at the Air Force eagle, he closed and latched the device, cutting off the holographic image. "...and where that leaves the LAF."
Page looked back up to Tyler to find her facing away from him, looking out to the busy New London square outside.
"So, keep the uniform and stay planetside, or keep the speed and move back to the secondary fleet? Our Armed Forces might even be willing to have you transferred and stay on the Leeds Front." Putting down the courier, Thomas placed his hand upon Mel's shoulder, his fingers resting upon the tabs where her rank insignia had been moments before. Speaking softly he continued, "Remember there'll always a place in Bretonia for you..."
