Chapter Eleven: The Mayor-General of the Orbit of the Capital

The Orbit of the Capital is considered one of the more important positions in the Ministry of Space, being the office responsible for trade, the interior including internal relations and immigration, and the anti-proliferation of illegal substances. It is from this desk that the Ministry proposes the management of industry and commerce, the movement of products, supervision of Lobbyists, and the certification of the standard of service.

It is headed by the Mayor-General, currently Kim Paolo, who was alerted earlier about the attack at Hedgeringe involving a Space Ship expertly commanded by a legitimate Lobbyist from the world of Werewolves. Although the merchants were later on proclaimed to be safe and unharmed, the incident brings about a peripheral issue on the overall safety of the tasks entrusted to the Space Transportation.

The Mayor-General was quite assured that the matter was an isolated case, and the Space Border Services Agency has promised to improve the invisibility of the Galactic Fences in the most vulnerable route of transport, especially those bringing products from the colonies and into the Stellar Sectors. But while the President of the Planetary Co-Op wanted to assume that the situation is under control, he cannot simply assert, even to himself, that his orders were sufficient to ensure that no further such incident will happen anew.

Surely, there was something wrong in the present situation of things, and deep down inside him, there is a disaster waiting to happen. He simply cannot quite place what he was feeling. Anytime soon, it will strike like the heavy lifting of the grinding of an axe.

The Mayor-General is now making an Urgent Statement in the Combes Plenary, clearly making a case regarding the sufficiency of the controls in place, especially within the interior and the rest of the planetary highways.

"Mr. President," Mayor-General Kim Paolo began. "The Orbit of the Capital is in receipt of several reports concerning attacks against accredited Lobbyists who are doing lawful business with the Planetary Cooperation, and we are suspecting that this piracy is brought about by the worsening state of smuggling of scams and the trade of illegal substances that finance successful looting in the identified vulnerable trade routes."

He paused for awhile to look at the Delegation for dramatic effect, and then continued reading his prepared speech.

"We are confident that together with the Space Police and Home Authority and Space Transportation, this matter will be given priority to prevent any more deliberate space vehicular accidents to happen. It was agreed by the Ministry of Space that more Elite Enforcers will be deployed in all vulnerable routes to ensure that the supply chain will not be sabotaged again that may bring shortage in all the products traded."

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This Chapter is sponsored by Adidas.