Every news channel directly owned by Miarre’s station abruptly interrupted their scheduled broadcasts that morning as people were getting ready to leave for work. Miarre appeared onscreen on every channel seated behind an ornate desk, her expression serious. The dark circles under her eyes were cleverly hidden with makeup, but anybody could tell she was exhausted.

  “This is Miarre Kiala, reporting to you live with breaking news,” she announced. “We apologize for interrupting your shows, but this simply cannot wait.” She straightened in her seat and glanced off-screen for a moment.

  People from around the world fired off messages to their friends and family and the station saw record numbers tune in to their channels in a matter of moments. Her supervisor flashed a surprised expression before promptly signaling to Miarre to continue her announcement.

  “There’s been much speculation in recent times about the military’s strange behaviour around the disappearance of one of our flagships and half our fleet. We’ve discovered that the Tribunal has failed to enact first contact protocols with a newly discovered species.”

  An image of Adrian strapped to a chair surrounded by gru’ul took over the right half the screen, with Miarre being shifted to the left half. Though she couldn’t hear the gasps directly, she was sure that those tuned in underwent a moment of collective surprise.

  “The man you see onscreen is not a’vaare,” Miarre continued grimly. “He is of a different species closely resembling us. One where all people are similar in coloration to him. We don’t know what his connection to the gru’ul is yet, save that he was subjected to horrific experimentation. It’s unclear whether he has been liberated or is still under their control.

  “We’ve posted video proof on our site of this man undergoing experimentation. However, I must warn you. That video is not for the faint of heart and most definitely not suitable for children. It is the most horrific depiction of pain never before thought possible. Watch it at your own peril. For those that do, I’m deeply sorry for what you’re going to witness.

  “The Rukkan have sent a diplomatic envoy in secret to confront our Tribunal about this man’s existence, only for them to be mercilessly wiped out by our military. As far as we know, only their High Diplomat survived. We have confirmation of a recently destroyed ship not belonging to our faction near the edge of our solar system that corroborates this intel.”

  A commotion outside the news room distracted Miarre from her speech. The locked doors flexed inwards as something tried to force them open. The smell of burnt metal filled the room alongside a sizzling sound as part of the door melted away. It was flung open and when Miarre saw who was on the other side, she panicked.

  “We’ve been lied to,” Miarre said to the cameras hurriedly as the soldiers came for her. “Don’t let them get away with this. I don’t know what’s going to happen to me, but you needed to kn—”

  The broadcast cut, only to be replaced by a black screen and utter silence.

  Nessah swore loudly in her office after giving the orders to apprehend Miarre. She took an emergency call with the Tribunal and reassured them that the problem would be dealt with swiftly. Immediately after, she called upon the supervisors of the team responsible for monitoring Miarre up to her office directly and ordered for those on shift during the last twelve hours to be detained for questioning.

  The officers looked like they had something to say, but one look at her expression disabused them of their foolishness and had them swiftly scurrying out of her office to carry out their orders lest they too be detained for questioning.

  When Nessah received confirmation that Miarre had been successfully captured and brought to a secure location, she left her office and got in an unmarked car. She ordered the driver to bring her to their prisoner in a tone that brooked no disobedience.

  Her soldier obeyed and off she went, ready to rain hell on the Sunalii faction’s newest enemy who dared defy her.

  They’d come for her, and she’d had no chance to escape. Miarre sat in a damp, cold room chained to floor utterly terrified. She knew there would be consequences, but she hadn’t expected to be arrested so quickly at the beginning of her broadcast. There was still so much more she’d wanted to the people to hear before the announcement got cut.

  Nessah hadn’t lied.

  The car sent for her hadn’t brought her back to military headquarters. Miarre knew that by now she’d been declared an enemy of the faction and that there would be no recourse. She could only hope that her viewers would help free her.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  The door to her cell swung open and two heavily armed soldiers entered. Miarre recoiled as they approached, but there was nowhere she could go. She could only wait helplessly as one of them undid the restraint keeping her chained to the floor. They left the manacles on her wrists in place and hauled her out of the room roughly.

  She was brought through the building and ultimately pushed through a set of plain doors where she suddenly found herself face to face with an utterly irate General.

  “Do you know what you’ve done?” Nessah said, struggling to keep her voice down. Miarre looked into her eyes and saw fury incarnate. A cold, terrifying anger stared her down and for the first time, the reporter realized she’d fucked up massively.

  Miarre choked on her words, unable to speak for a moment. “I exposed your lies,” she squeaked out, her voice breaking as she spoke. “You have a duty to declare first contact protocols.”

  “You fucking fool!” Nessah yelled, unable to keep calm any longer. “You’ve doomed us all! Did you stop to think for one minute about any of the details behind the information you somehow miraculously got a hold of?”

  “You think yourselves beyond reproach when that simply isn’t the case,” Miarre replied defiantly. “It’s my duty to report the truth and hold the Tribunal accountable for their actions. Especially when you’ve drastically reduced our planet’s defenses over it.” She couldn’t help but flinch at the hard, flat look in Nessah’s unimpressed gaze.

  “You think you’ve done the world a service?” Nessah spat. “You just might go down in history as one of the biggest idiots to ever live. Everything we’ve done has been to keep our faction safe from harm. We’ve discovered an existential threat so great that it required the utmost secrecy until we were done our preparations lest we be destroyed.” She narrowed her eyes at the subject of her ire. “Now, thanks to a certain someone, our enemy will know that we’re aware of more than we let on.”

  “You fear the strange man’s race that much?” Miarre asked, stunned.

  “We don’t even have proper contact with his race!” Nessah exploded. “We discovered that man entirely by accident.”

  “So it’s true then!” Miarre declared triumphantly. “You were hiding an alien race from us!”

  Nessah pinched the bridge of her nose, realizing that nothing she was saying was getting through to the dense reporter before her. “By the gods, would you stop and think for a minute? Is that too much to ask? Where did you get that information?”

  “I don’t have to tell you that,” Miarre said. “My sources have the right to remain confidential.”

  “You’d better tell us,” Nessah threatened. “Because if you don’t, there will be real consequences this time.”

  Miarre faltered. “What kind of consequences?”

  Nessah flashed a cruel smile full of teeth that did little to put Miarre at ease. “Guards!” Nessah yelled. The door flew open and three armed soldiers entered the room. They saluted their General briefly and stood tall, awaiting their orders. “You find before you an enemy of the faction,” Nessah said to them. “She’s hiding vital information from us. Make her talk, but don’t kill her.”

  Miarre blanched. “I’ll talk!” she said hurriedly as the soldiers approached her, but Nessah never rescinded her order.

  “I know you will,” Nessah said as they grabbed Miarre’s arms. “But first, a little lesson about disobedience.”

  Miarre’s screams were music to Nessah’s ears as she was dragged out of her sight kicking and screaming.

  Beaten black and blue everywhere except her face, Miarre sat huddle in the corner of her cell. Her guards hadn’t bothered to chain her to the ground again, knowing full well she knew better than to try escaping. She’d learned how that would turn out the hard way.

  The door to her cell slid open and she flinched, raising her cuffed arms to protect herself from harm. When no pain came, she dared to look at her visitor.

  Nessah loomed over her. “Have you learned your lesson yet?” she asked, smiling when Miarre vigorously shook her head affirmatively. “Good. Where did you get your information?”

  “I don’t know,” Miarre sobbed. “A mysterious data packet appeared on my holoscreen right before I was going to leave.” She detailed the events that led to her making the emergency broadcast. “That’s all I know, I swear!” she cried when she was finished.

  Nessah took a moment to digest the information. At first, she’d worried it was somebody on Jyn’s team or Irric even, but after hearing what Miarre had to say, she knew that wasn’t the case. She didn’t know how that rat had done it, but she would find a way to make Annkor pay. “Why did you release the video of the tan man’s experiment?” she asked, changing topics.

  “I had to put a stop to you before you weaponized that gods awful chemical,” Miarre replied. “Why would you create such a thing?”

  “We didn’t,” Nessah said bluntly. “The gru’ul did. We were trying to keep its existence a secret given just how awful it is, but your video has been copied and shared so many times it’s impossible to keep track of. There’s no hiding it anymore.”

  Miarre paused. “You weren’t complicit in its creation?”

  “No.” Nessah shook her head. “Safeguarding it was one of the reasons we dispatched so much of our fleet. We didn’t want it falling into the wrong hands. The Tribunal has declared that chemical weapon the highest crime against the living possible.”

  “Oh,” Miarre said lamely. “But what happened to the man in the video? Did he survive?”

  “He did,” Nessah confirmed. “We rescued him from gru’ul experimentation and brought him back to Verilia.”

  “Why are you telling me all of this?”

  “It’s not like you’ll get the chance to tell anybody about it,” Nessah replied simply.

  “What does that mean?” Miarre asked fearfully. After her most recent treatment as an enemy of the faction, she fully believed that Nessah’s threat implied she’d be silenced for her actions. She became acutely aware that she was at the military’s mercy and that begging for her life wouldn’t have any effect on whether or not she’d get to keep it.

  Nessah didn’t say a word as she turned and left the reporter to rot in her cell. She would call upon her pawn again when the time was right, but that would be at her discretion, not Miarre’s.