The following statement was posted by the "Election Victory Initiative for LeberMac" for the Commandership position of the [Itan] guild. The Campaign Manager for LeberMac formally states:

We request a formal investigation into the election practices of the ad-hoc election committee (which consists of one Jestatis Bess) for the Commandership election of the [Itan] guild!

Several boxes of uncounted votes were found floating in Divinia, a traditionally LeberMac-leaning area. And absentee votes from the Azek I-4 sector were "lost" by couriers contracted from Xang-Xi station maagers, with whom LeberMac has had known disagreements.

In addition, some of the votes cast have hanging chads, and many voters in Pelatus were unable to comprehend the voting instructions, due to their long-term exposure to Xithricite fumes. They are assumed to have acidentally voted for "Other"

The "Election Victory Initiative for LeberMac" demands that the Itani Election Commission order an injunction and immediately look into this matter.

Sincerely,

Campaign Manager
Jandis Bosh

OOC: haha, Leber the conservative is pulling a Gore ^^;

IC: So you lost huh? Shoot

There goes the universe.

And your guild so sad...

I would have voted Lebs. Oh wait I did.

I bet you folks used the same voting software I had for the Lecter trial.

You have to use the -win [foo] argument to skew the results properly.

--Mogul

Ps:

Oh looky! Eo himself making figures in space! Nice maneuvers too, for a someone without a ship.

Check the vote again Leber. I can't say if there were any hanging chads but the vote is basically over.

Smittens won.

The commander is dead, Long live the Commander. God have mercy on our (your) souls.

JB

Supreme Court! Where's the Supreme Court!?

I formally request a recount! People have voted twice! I saw Jestatis Bess handing out voter regstration forms to UIT traders passing through Metana!

I demand that the voters be heard!

Actually we have 3 more people who just voted. I hope more people vote before monday when the race will be officially over :)

Some times you need to kick people in the butt to remind them of thier resonsibilities.

JB

Uh-hu.

LeberMac woke up in a daze to his campaign manager shaking him vigorously and yelling things he didn't comprehend yet. Rolling out of his storage bin, he instinctively reached out for his bottle of tequila and took a swig.

He recognized the man yelling at him now as Jandis Bosh, but couldn't quite make out the words. He took another swig.

Now he could discern sentence fragments, and it seemed that Bosh was indeed yelling AT him, hrm. One more swig should do it...

"...last chance - I've called a press conference! Wake up you idiot!" Bosh screamed.

LeberMac raised one eyebrow at his campaign manager and wondered how he had come to have a campaign manager. Oh yes, that's right, Bosh had approached him last week in the wake of the messy Mogul Velaio affair, with advice and suggestions on how to handle some of the problems of guild politics. His advice had seemed sound, initially, and LeberMac had given him perhaps too much leeway.

Bosh was a shifty, skinny itani from Pherona, and had run campaigns for such lumanaries as the Tekkar family, which seemed to be in power perennially, and would probably still be in power a thousand years from now if people like Bosh got their way. LeberMac didn't care much about the political scene, but this Jandis character had an amazing ability to produce the finest tequila on a moment's notice, and that was certainly a skill that LeberMac respected. He wondered where Jandis got it. Regardless, Jandis was well-connected and it was always good to have powerful friends, right?

Bosh grabbed LeberMac by the collar and struggled to pull him up, failed, and LeberMac's head landed back on the cold steel deck. "Get Up!" Bosh screamed.

"All-RIGHT.. keep yer pants on, Bosh..." Lebermac scratched his chin and meandered down the hallway towards his ship reflexively...

"No, No, Leber, THIS way..." the wily political operative clasped LeberMac's shoulder and led him down the hall towards Ellias Stand's conference center. The glow of lights and the buzz of reporters crowded the hall, the tension in the room was palpable and the camerabot-droids arced gracefully above the murmuring crowd.

LeberMac tuned to Jandis Bosh quizzically and said, "Wow. Big scene. Who're these folks here to see, Bosh?"

"You."
Bosh said with a wry grin, and pushed LeberMac out into the glaring lights of the news media...

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OOC: Here's where the "press" gets to ask questions... ask away!
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Mr. Mac:

As a representative of SKV, I was wondering what your policy is on the cooperation of our two guilds. A continued alliance is something SKV looks forward to.

Also, I'd like to hear your ideas about the war with the Serco and what role you have planned for ITAN.

In addition, what are your feelings about the new followers of Akan who are sprouting up everywhere, with A1S and whatnot?

"Um..."

LeberMac shielded his eyes from the camera lights and looked back at Jandis Bosh with hate in his eyes, vowing revenge for this...

"Yes, the question from the transparent [SKV] representative"
"Um.."

Several seconds of silence ensued from the podium. LeberMac looked uncomfortable, and the crowd of reporters and correspondents started to whisper.

At that moment, LeberMac let out a huge belch, loud enough to cause feedback on most of the mikes aimed at him. "BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPPPPPPPP!!!!"

"Oh, 'scuse me. MAN I've been wanting to let that out since I woke up this morning. Didja ever have one of those? Ha ha.... heh..."

The crowd of reporters silently regarded LeberMac as if he was a paleolithic hominid specimen.

"Yeah..." LeberMac stalled for time and looked back at Jandis, who was furiously making hand motions that indicated that he should TALK. So, LeberMac talked.

"OK yeah, so... cooperation is good, right? So, we'll cooperate with SKV whenever cooperation would make sense in co-operative kind of way."

LeberMac looked out at the crowd, as if he had just given an answer that he was unsure of in front of a grade-school class.

"And, uhhh.... " LeberMac looked back at Jandis, who was hitting his head against a wall, "And uh, yeah the Serco, well, they're bad. So I guess we should continue to shoot them."

"Ummm.. as far as [ITAN], uh ,we've got lots of good stuff planned that will be good... and stuff! I think we've got a bridge tournament set up for next Thursday, in fact!" LeberMac nervously adjusted his collar as the shocked reporters made SURE they got all of this...

"Oh, and akanese. Yeah. They're bad as well, and we'll shoot them, too. Well, unless they've got itani-neutral or better standing, and then we really can't do much to 'em."

LeberMac, pleased with himself, looked out at the shocked crowd of reporters, who now salivated at the thought if interviewing this walking PR disaster.

LeberMac looked back to give Jandis the thumbs-up, but he was nowhere to be seen.

Jandis stormed away from the press conference and ended up underneath the stage, and was making a vidcall to an unknown compatriot.

"...king train-wreck. Yes. YES! What, did you not hear him BELCH into the camera? 10 billion itani households just wrote him off as a drunken idiot!"

Jandis paused as the other party commented...

"Of course, I KNOW. Yes. We'll begin the transfer immediately. When? I do not know, probably tonight - we can't afford another scene like this. One is manageable. We can still fix this. Yes. YES. Right. I'm on it."

Jandis Bosh hung up and immediately made another call, to someone he knew could fix things.

Who ever told you SKV dislikes Akanese? I think you are pretty wrong about that one. Why would you ever shoot a loyal Itani?

LeberMac pointed to a virulence in the crowd, waved, then answered his question.

"Hello, OK, yes, well..." LeberMac hemmed and hawed, "I myself dislike the Akanese, I consider them terrorists. This new guild A1S isn't much of a threat at the moment to the Serco, or to any plans that we've got, so... for the moment, they are not a threat to the Itani." Of course, that might change, so we'll monitor the situation.

LeberMac straightened his tie, which was actually a brown paper napkin stuffed in his collar from dinner the night before. He didn't notice, he was too worked up in what he was about to say:

He spat the words out, "Real warriors do not hide behind politics or paper treaties or false pretenses. Real warriors decide matters on the battlefield in the presence of honor and according to a code that is known to all warriors, no matter for whom they fight. Terrorists know nothing of this, their deaths are universally meaningless, hollow. The deaths they bring by their actions are just as hollow, and indeed serve no purpose other than to galvanize the proper warriors of the universe against them and their misbegotten cause." He continued, "The akanese are not loyal itani citizens, they have their own agenda, they scheme and plot to continue a war which could be easily ended if we would work together as partners openly. Yet they continue to hide in the shadows and work at cross-purposes to the true spirit of Itan."

LeberMac took a drink of water from the stand. His eyesight blurred a bit and he felt odd, but in a good way. He finished up:

"I think that my point is that the akanese are not loyal itani citizens, therefore we should treat them like the bandits they are."

Borb quickly stood from he seat to ask Leber a question wondering how long it would take the Itani to find out he was at one of their press conferences with KOS faction on two different sets identification paperwork, both of which where the only one's he had with him at the time further complicating things. But all that aside an interview with Lebs and a chance to screw around with ITAN some more could not be passed up due to some thing as petty as local laws.

"What are your plans for the UiT as a nation? Will you blockade and suppress them like SKV does? Also do you plan on hunting down and punishing former Commander Mogul? And how will your personal feelings affect your leadership of ITAN should you become Commander?"

Borb would have like to have kept rambling but he could see the Itani security forces slowly pouring into the main entrances of the building and decided to catch Lebers response on the 10 o'clock news.

He could not suppress his grin as his hand closed around the handle of his concealed Phase MX5 SMG, and he plotted his exit.

LeberMac watched Borb as if in slow motion...
The infiltrator keyed a command on some kind of keypad within his vest, and then whipped out a wicked-looking submachine gun, taking several people by surprise.

Guards shouted warnings and the reporters scattered like frightened sheep. Some raised their weapons, but Borb already had the jump on them. His cybernetic implants identified and priority-rated all the threat elements in the room in microseconds, and he let his muscle memory take over, sweeping the Phase MX5 around in a beautiful crescendo of violence.

The keypad device had activated his ship, which silently coasted to a stop outside the station and cut a hole into the hull of Ellias Stand. The hull section broke away and fell from the ceiling, landing inches away from LeberMac, who was the only one still standing on the podium.

Borb had disarmed or killed around 8 guards, but more troops could be heard advancing down the corridors outside. The alarms blared, smoke rose from the barrel of Borb's SMG, and emergency lighting kicked in.

The two regarded each other for several seconds.
"Borb." LeberMac said.
"Leebs." Borb said.

Borb pulled another device from his vest, raised his arm and shot it upward towards the ceiling and his waiting ship. A cable ascension device.
LeberMac dove for one of the dead security guards and grabbed his sidearm, rolling onto his back and bringing both hands together for a steady shot at the fleeing Serco operative.

By now at the top of the room, Borb reached his ship and twirled around to detatch himself from the ascension cabling as he made a grab for the hatch. Just then two rounds entered his left leg, fired from LeberMac's weapon. Bone shattered and tendons snapped; however, the wound was not threatening. The docs back on Sol II could fix it up easily.

It hurt like blazes, but, hell, the trip had been worth it. Borb stuck his head out of the hatch as before he closed it, grinning from ear to ear and giving LeberMac a familiar hand gesture. He buttoned up his ship and made a hasty retreat from the station, which was venting oxygen into space through the now-open hole in the roof.

It didn't last. The automatic shielding cut in, sealing the hole and ending the whoosh of rushing air through the conference chamber. LeberMac got up and took stock of the situation. 4 dead, 6 wounded, all so a maniac could ask a couplea questions at a conference? Well, at least the little incident had cleared out everyone but the most persistent reporters.

They, of course, prompted him for an answer to Borb's question, even as the guards were being carted off on stretchers.

LeberMac thought hard and the pain in his skull increased a little, and the answers to the questions came to him as if from a dream:

Well, [Itan] has no plans regarding the UIT nation as far as I know, and if I get elected we won't have any plans. [SKV] does not blockade them and suppress them as it is. I personally plan on hunting down our former CO-gone-akanese, but I can't speak for the guild."

LeberMac paused. "Personal feelings? Who has time for personal feelings? We've got a mess to clean up here." A black-draped stretcher passed by him.

He looked around, expecting to see the reporters gone, but, as usual, the hardcore were still there, hoping for that elusive tidbit, that final scoop. Reporters. They were like vultures.

The normal lighting kicked back in and the security teams began to seal off the area. "Well, anyone else?" LeberMac asked...