Altair was overworked every single day, and he barely had any time for himself. He was thrust into a new role far beyond what he was prepared for, and he had made several moves he couldn’t take back. However, he knew he had to stop the bleeding. The Empire couldn’t sustain a war with the ISC. The ousting of Sith won them back some business from the corporate sector, but critical things like fuel and bacta remained locked. He had to take a gamble to try and stop the war.
He was once again on Holonet, addressing the galaxy but specifically the ISC. He was adorned in his crisp, Imperial uniform. He fell back on his lessons on executive presence from military school and presented a dignified and calm bearing, “Citizens of the galaxy,” He began, hints of his farmer’s drawl always in his speech even if he enunciated his words more formally now, “As Warmaster of the Empire, I want to show my dedication in our efforts to distance ourselves from the Sith. Not too long ago, you have witnessed the Dark Lord and her followers marching out of Imperial space and leaving behind their destructive weapons. Many of you may ask - why didn’t we simply eradicate them when we had the chance? Because we are not Sith. Because I am not Sith. I do not operate outside of formal rules of engagement, and I will not eradicate an enemy when I give them a window to exit our borders. This demonstration serves as a reminder that we are no longer the Sith Empire. We are a new regime, one that operates on entirely different principles.”
“I humbly ask the galaxy for a chance to exist as an entity liberated of the shackles of the Sith,” He said as he looked at the camera, “As a show of our commitment, we will proactively surrender all historically Sith worlds. Korriban, Moraband, Ziost, Dromund Kaas and Mustafar will all go neutral. We, the Empire, want no further association with planets that have had deep influence from the Sith. Should the ISC choose to occupy these planets, it will find no resistance from any Imperial entities.”
Altair exhaled before he kept going, “This is a formal declaration of a Sith, not Imperial, surrender. The Sith are considered an illegitimate body. We, The Empire, would meet with President Thorne to accept the surrender terms for the Sith in an effort to end this war that’s costing both our governments.”
It was a tactical spin on the surrender conditions posed by Emryc, but it was the only angle Altair could play without everything collapsing. He had to differentiate between a Sith surrender and an Empire one.
