Excerpt from the Killishigi Show recorded 12-002 on the Soprano's Chance,

Jo Killishigi: "Good evening and welcome everybody, to this weeks show. As you know we've been cruising in quadrants near the fringe. I can't give you the exact location, but we've been meeting some of the loyal citizens helping to bring civilization to the outback. We've interviewed kings and colonels, Knights and Emporers. Today we're going to take a break from all that and interview a normal trooper. Please welcome Pvt. Thompson!

applause

"Welcome Pvt Thompson, and from an average citizen I wish to first thank you for your service to the Empire."

Pvt Thompson: "Thank you Jo, that's very kind of you."

JK: "Not at all. I hear you and your ship have been engaged in some charity work recently."

PT: "That's right, Jo. About three weeks ago my ship, the Zhanastu's Courage arrived in the Lasia cluster to aid the hundreds and thousands of victims of the meteor of 361 that ravaged their main planet. I'd like to say it has been a rewarding experience for all of us..."

JK: "But I can see from your expression that it hasn't been. Tell me about it."

PT: "It has been a frustrating and needlessly dangerous exercise made even more difficult by the Lasian government and a traveling circus of so-called aid workers who have invaded our spaces. "

"What really irritated me was a scene I witnessed in the Courage's wardroom a few days ago. I went in for breakfast as I usually do, expecting to see the usual crowd of ship’s company officers in blues and fighter pilots in flight suits, drinking coffee and exchanging rumors about when our ongoing humanitarian mission in Lasia is going to end."

"What I saw instead was a mob of civilians sitting around like they owned the place.  They wore various colored vests with logos on the back proclaiming various cluster agencies.  Mixed in with this crowd were a bunch of reporters, vidmen and Lasian military officers in uniform. They all carried cameras, sunglasses and light weight vacc suits like tourists on their way to an Orbital Resort."

"My warship had been transformed into a floating hotel for a bunch of trifling do-gooders overnight. "

JK: "Wow. That must be hard for a deck troop like you to bear."

PT: "I overheard one of the Lysian strap-hangers, a longhaired guy with a beard, make a sarcastic comment to one of our food servers.  He said something along the lines of 'Nice china, really makes me feel special,' in reference to the fact that we were eating off of styrafoam plates that day. It was all I could do to keep from jerking him off his feet and choking him, because I knew that the reason we were eating off paper plates was to save dishwashing water so that we would have more water to send ashore and save lives."

JK: "The ingratitude of some of these locals."

PT: "As a result of having to host these people, our severely over-tasked DH-66 Spacehawk landers, which were carrying tons of food and water every day to the most inaccessible places in and around Bandanda Arch, are now used in great part to ferry these 'relief workers' from place to place every day and bring them back to their guest bedrooms on the  Courage at night. Despite their avowed dedication to helping the victims, these relief workers will not spend the night in-country, and have made us their guardians by default.

"In addition to the relief workers, we routinely get tasked with hauling around reporters and various low-level 'VIPs,' which further wastes valuable lift that could be used to carry supplies. We had to dedicate two landers and a X-2 cargo shuttle for their local news premier and his entourage of door holders and briefcase carriers. Another camera crew was from The Old Republic Times. I doubt if we’ll get any good PR from them, since the channel is banned in this cluster.  Everyone wants in on the action.  "

JK: "What about the local military?"

PT: "As for the Lasian officers, while their job is apparently to encourage our leaving as soon as possible, all they seem to do in the meantime is raid our commessary and ask us about the latest vinals.  They want our money and our help but they don’t want their population to see that Imperials are doing far more for them in two weeks than their own government has ever done or will ever do for them."

JK: I'm sure if they did they would be quick to overthrow these leeches and elect a government who recognizes the benefits of Empire.

PT: "A carrier is an instrument of Imperial policy and the big stick she carries is her fighting wing. A fighting wing has a set of very demanding skills and they are highly perishable. We train hard every day on patrol to conduct actual strikes, defense, space surveillance, close planetary support and many other missions – not to mention taking off and landing on a ship underway."

"Our safety regulations state that if a pilot does not get a radio silence landing every seven days, he has to be re-qualified to land on the carrier. Today we have pilots who have now been over 25 days without a trap due to being unable to use Lasian space to train. Normally it is when we are unerway that our readiness is at its very peak. Thanks to the Lasian government, we have to waive our own safety rules just to get our pilots off the deck.  "

"In other words, the longer we stay here helping these people, the more dangerous it gets for us to operate. We have already lost one lander, which crashed in Bandana while taking crew ashore to unload supplies from the D-130s. There were no relief workers on that one."

JK: "Sounds like a bit impact on your schedule."

PT: "I’m all for helping the less fortunate, but it is time to give this mission to somebody other than the Imperial Navy. Our ship was supposed to be home on 34 and now we have no idea how long we will be here. The Empire's taxpayers are spending millions per day to keep this ship in space and getting no training value out of it. As a result, we will come home in a lower state of readiness than when we left due to the lack of flying while supporting the relief effort."

JK: "Makes you doubt the mission, does it?"

VW: "Never for a minute. The local government and their officials are pests and parasites, but that's not the fault of the people. I've heard from other deckhands delivering supplies the grattitude they show. We're quick to point out to them the Imperial Sunburst on the side of the crates. Someday that revolution you talked about might come. If so, I want them to know who has their best interests at heart."

JK: "Thank you very much, Private Thomas. I salute your dedication."

PT: "It's just my duty."

(Credits roll, applause)

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