Haul
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«Welcome back.» Mark let his trademark smile appear. «You may be worried how I can be smiling at another heavy loss our fleet had to endure. Bear with me. Our best mind have worked the last few months to find the Haul home world with little success. But we are not defeated. Not this time. We took down one of their carriers. Yes, you heard me right ... we inflicted enough damage to one of their 1 point 5 kilometer behemoths to take it down! The Haul today lost one of their ships and I while I can't tell you any details, I can tell you this: Even if they have hundreds of them ... we can now take them all.»
Behind him, the virtual background of the studio filled with channel logos which switched to famous faces of well known show moderators. «We will now remain silent for a minute to honor those who gave their lives to buy us the time we needed. To honor those, who gave their lives protecting our worlds. And I will even extend my wish to those Haul who lost their lives today in this stupid war. We do not know what really happened at Pantero. Maybe a small group of terrorists captured a ship and attacked us. We do not know ... today. But we will, one day. One day, the Massacre of Pantero will be resolved. Not today. Today, we celebrate a small victory in a war many of us thought lost.»
He lowered his head, as if in prayer and remained that posture until the little red dot on the floor blinked to tell him that the minute was over. «You can call us now, any channel you like, we're all united in this. My name is Mark Satchez, who am I talking to?»
«This is Mike from Rergular,» came an agitated voice with a lot of shouting and cheering in the background. In the video stream, Mark could see a clone version of what had happened earlier in the meeting room. The caller went on: «Serves them right! I hope they go back hiding wherever they came from!»
«Thanks, Mike,» Mark nodded while the director back stage cut the connection before Mike could make a fool of himself.
The computer selected the next caller and the next channel to put forward by random. Mark's face went into the background as Channel 77 zoomed in. The host spoke with a female on the phone expressing her condolences to anyone who had lost relatives in the war and reminding everyone that the Haul must feel the same. «We must put an end to this, before even more people die!» she concluded.
Caller by caller went on, the whole Rabit Commonwealth seemed to be awake, watching and calling. Mark was put through only two more times. He didn't care. This was the show of the century and it had his name on it. Life didn't get any better than this.