Demanding Justice

[jammi]

To: General Jean Quenneville.
From: Captaine Ruiz' de lu la Ramper.
CC: Public Enquiry; Public Trial; [C] Findings.

Monsieur, you have my deepest sympathies for the loss of Colonel Loup. Despite this, it is my duty to pen the following communication. I have been authorised by Amiral Levesque to contact you regarding this... incident, and the, might I say, dubious results of your enquiry.

Firstly, I am to deliver a message. The Republique does not want blood, and nor did it before the Colonel's demise. I don't know how you run your camp, but we find the death sentence to be barbaric and repulsive. Had he been found guilty, he would have been imprisoned, and faced judicial charges.

These could have ranged from a prison sentence, to labour, to exile - depending on the severity of the conviction. Blood does not come into it; justice does. The same principles would apply to all and any who have sundered the law - for example, I know for certain that upon his arrest the King will be facing numerous life sentences. For a sweet sense of irony, he will probably be jailed in exile in a remote corner of Sirius (if they will take him).

Now, on to the case at hand. You say that Colonel Loup should be given the benifit of the doubt, merely because he was "a high ranked and trusted Council military officer"? Monsieur, you do realise it was thinking like that which sparked the revolution? No-one is above the law, and it is our duty to investigate any case in which it may have been infringed. The very fact that the integrity of such a highly ranked officer is being called into question should be enough to spark a thorough, comprehensive and public enquiry! This was no mere Aspirant, who could have been passed off as a Royalist infiltrator - it was a member of your high command! If one such as himself could be called into question, that casts an incredibly poor light on the rest of your operation hierarchy.

You can withhold the public enquiry, and lose face on an organisational level as the people call your conduct and integrity into question. Or you can permit a public enquiry and publish the findings openly. At worst, you absolve yourself of a rogue unit. At best - as I expect the result to be - you clear your friend's name.

Now, to the meat of my actual purpose here, besides rhetoric, non? I am one of the most accomplished bomber pilots of the Armee de la Republique. I know the Basilisk as I know the back of my own hand. I also know the stress factors a "Vache" class transport can withstand, having worked with the crews of Republique shippers in the past. This means I know a decent amount about both my Basilisk's technology as well as how survivable the Vache is.

I can tell you now, that your findings stink of a cover-up. Analysis of the ruins of the La.Fayette before Royalist salvage teams arrived, after being cross referenced with intelligence from a sympathiser inside IDF (who for now shall remain anonymous in the interest of preserving his safety) revealed the grade of equipment that was being employed.

An Advanced Civilian Shield relay. For those not familiar with the technology, simply put, it means that a concerted effort must be made to drop it, a la an Antimatter torpedo followed by a burst from the primary weapons battery. After this, the powercore would have to be recharged and another round prepared. Following this, a final antimatter torpedo would have to be launched in order to breach the hull.

From start to finish, this sequence of events - optimistically - could have taken no less than 40 seconds, providing the victim in question made absolutely no endeavour to save itself. Monsieurs, to put it bluntly, no automatic targeting system can account for such a lapse of judgement. No competent pilot would have allowed such a travesty to have happened accidentally. There are fail-safes in place to prevent exactly this sort of situation from ever occurring. The escorts that gunned the Colonel down were merely acting as they had been trained - they had just witnessed their fellow employees apparent murder by what they were told was an "enemy of the state". How else would you expect them to react?

Do you now see why a public enquiry is required? As of now, Colonel Loup's reputation rests between that of a gross incompetent or a murderer. You do not want this. We do not want this. We want the truth, presented impartially, and transparently. We want the reputation of your own wing, and that of the Republique cleared.

We are not Royalists - we do not give 'get out of jail free' cards based solely on past conduct and military or social status. We are not blue blooded nobles or haughty aristocrats that believe they are above the law. We are the soldiers of the people, and we are all answerable to the people. Me, you, Amiral Levesque - all of us.

Sombrely,
~Captaine Ruiz' de lu la Ramper.

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