Across the street from the Senate building stood one of the many prominent towers that was easily recognizable in the Coruscant skyline. This same building contained the offices of many FWA senators, and with the Galactic Senate body expanding, many more would soon be making their way into the building, setting up their staffs and getting their senate offices in order. Today in the courtyard between this office tower and the Senate building, a typical sight was prepared. The scenery and proximity to both the offices and the Senate building itself made it a popular place for press conferences.
On this day, and at this time, Soygun York called an impromptu press conference, and given his circumstances and the very public investigation and rumors surrounding him, the full press corps showed up to hear what Senator York had to say. Many 24/7 news media stations would carry this press conference live. Nearly all the other stations with news programming between their sports, sitcoms, and dramas would at least show clipped highlights.
York stepped up to the podium, and allowed the cameras to get everything appropriately framed. After a few seconds, he would begin.
"Enough is enough. Earlier today, the Sector Rangers, as part of this farce of an investigation against me, raided my office at a time that they knew I was not there. I'm being told that they harassed my office staff. They raided their personal belongings. They were threatened. Now, I expected the Senate to be full of bullies. Planets like Coruscant have long bullied their smaller neighbors into political submission. What I did not expect was for an organization with the rich history and the proud heritage of the Sector Rangers to act as the bully's club. What happened here today was an absolute disgrace. An absolute disgrace!"
York feigned anger, seething with a fake, but believable righteous fury. "The absolute gall of the Sector Rangers is embarrassing, not just for the Rangers, but for the Senate and the F.W.A. at large. Mere moments after they starting harassing my staff, the Rangers pulled the alarm to this building requiring a full evacuation. How do I know it was the Rangers that pulled the alarm? They SPECIFICALLY TOLD THEM to leave their personal belongings behind. Leave your purses. Leave your briefcases. My friends, this was a calculated effort, an illegal effort to rifle through the personal belongings of my staff looking for who God knows what? Leverage? Blackmail? Against young staffers trying to build resumes? Is that how the Rangers are operating now? Their recent failures are embarrassingly public, and they know they will come up empty on this investigation as well unless they fabricate some evidence. So what exactly were they doing during this evacuation? They didn't even show their warrant, and I'm not even sure they had one in the first place. What I'm quite positive of is that on the off chance that they did have a warrant, it would have been limited in scope to dedicated office space, files, and office electronics, not personal belongings of hardworking staff members and interns."
York leaned in and added a sarcastically questionable face. "Ask yourself, why would the Rangers pull the alarm? Plant evidence? Go through personal belongings they had no warrant for? Why did they not want anyone in the office building while they conducted the search?"
The Kattada senator slammed his hand on the podium. "It wasn't enough for the F.W.A. leadership to give F.W.A. sovereignty away, YOUR sovereignty away to a man who has made it clear that he does not even like the Free Worlds Alliance, nor does he care about the people or the economies therein. Now, they are taking the drastic, illegal, fascist steps of silencing people who speak reason in the face of their madness. This is the type of bullying our history tells us about in regards to the Galactic Empire, and that makes the Rangers nothing more than Stormtroopers!"
And now, the call to action. "People of the F.W.A. If you don't want to live in a fascist state. If you don't want to feel like you will be bullied and snuffed out under the thumb of an oppressive, corporate-run, fascist government and the club they will use to beat you into submission called the Sector Rangers, I beg you to send a message to your senator. Flood his or her mailboxes and call systems. Let them know that this type of bullying will not be tolerated in the F.W.A. As of now, the F still stands for 'Free.' It's going to take good people like you and like me to keep it that way. We're going to have to stand together, join hands together, and raise our voices together against this corruption to simply say, Enough is enough!"
The press corps would largely stay professional and not give an opinion. They started yelling questions, but York would ignore them. Some of the people that gathered in the busy courtyard would cheer and yell. Even some of the senators had come out to hear what York had to say. Many of the smaller systems, particularly those that are now on the verge of not having a voting presence in the new Senate gave full support. York would wave and then hold a fist in the air as if he was prepared to fight the power before sliding back behind the stage and heading back to an undisclosed location.
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