"Now, the Imperial expeditionary fleet has passed through the Southern Heavenly Gate and New Babylon. The warships flying golden dragon banners are tearing through our last line of defense. Their shadows have already fallen over the ruins of Heaven's Gate Starport. My fellow citizens, this is no drill, no threat. Our civilization, which has endured for six thousand years, and our nation, founded sixty years ago, are about to face the ultimate judgment!
"More than one person has told me that surrender could preserve Mother Earth's people. But let me ask you: when the invaders' iron hooves grind the marble paving stones of Freedom Square beneath them; when they set up orbital gun platforms on Earth and train them on every city; when our children have to bow to the Eight-Dragon Banner and kneel before the Emperor's portrait every day before school, how much dignity will Marshal Victoria Li have left? Where will the future of Earth's civilization lead?
"After my life fades away with the tsunami that sweeps evil from the world, do not look for a successor. A true leader will be born amid the flames of war."
Those were the closing words of President Keith Nishita's final speech.
Of course, anyone with half a brain knew that this so-called final speech had been delivered before he was shot—in other words, before he went missing.
Even so, the speech he gave in Independence Square would go down in history as The Last Speech. The Blue Star Commonwealth's legitimate head of state was probably dead, but at the cost of his own life, he had declared all acts of surrender that came before it illegal.
Legally speaking, a former president who could no longer fulfill the duties of head of state was not really in a position to challenge