ANN News Desk
From Alliance News Desk on the Citadel
January 7, 2197
Alliance Parliament Debates Troop Deployments
By Jill Scarlett
NEW ARCTURUS STATION - Chav's President Marc Riley passionate speech to the Alliance Parliament marked the third day of debate on the deployment of troops to Chav against Cerberus forces occupying the planet. Johanna Jay Swift from the Mars delegation raised the following issues after the speech:
Why did the Alliance leadership fail to inform Parliament the nature of the threat (Cerberus)?
What is the nature of the mission and does it have an end date?
Will the deployment embroil the Alliance in a war with the Terminus Systems?
Prime Minister Steven Hackett replied to this questions by reminding Minister Swift that:
The Alliance Sub-Committees of Intelligence and the Committee for Joint Defense where fully brief on Cerberus return.
That the goal is to assist local forces to retake their world and that they will not stay a day longer than that.
That the Terminus System is not an unified nation and that Cerberus presents a threat to all sentient life in the galaxy, within and without Citadel Space.
Thu Van Thieu, head of the South East Asia delegation, expressed fears that this would lead to a further expansion of the Alliance Military budget that might truncate Earth's economic comeback after the devastation of the Reaper Invasion. Aadhya Evani countered that the Earth depends from imports, specially food and raw materials, from the colonies on the Verge and the Terminus Systems. Failure to protect them would imperil the lives of billions in Alliance space.
Parliament Speaker Lee Chen called for a vote on the matter no later than January 9.
