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THE briefing room was a crude accumulation of damp stone walls and copper-scented air, the walls riddled with a mismatched ensemble of bolted pipes and cables darting in between the metal bodies of holoporjectors. Alliance members were crammed into every corner of the space, with delicately robed Senator's brushing shoulders with guerrillas in mismatched armour, their voices lowered to a monotonous drone that hummed like electricity in the air. Kit recognised a few of the stony-faced Generals amongst the masses, but the politician's eluded her memory entirely.
At some point during the chaos Jyn and Cassian had slipped from Kitra's view, leaving her to the mercy of the solemn-faced Rebel's alone. She was only just able to make out the gaunt face and bright beacon of red hair of Mon Mothma drawing herself through the mob to stand at the head of the holo-projector. Her presence alone was enough to silence the majority of the room.
"I would like to thank you all for coming on such short notice," she said in a voice that echoed into even the farthest confines of the room. Whatever noise there had been withered and died out like a candle in a cold breeze, and Mothma took her cue to go on. "Many of you undertook dangers I cannot begin to appreciate. You risked exposure, crossing Imperial lines because you believe in our Alliance. Because you believed what you were told when informed of an unprecedented crisis."
The woman spoke with the easy capture of a well-practised politician, even the most hard-won of the Alliance General's hanging on her words.
"I wish that I could say the crisis isn't real. I wish I could say you came all this way for nothing." Her words gave way to a ghosted smile, and an echo of brief laughter rippled through the gathering. "But the evidence we will present is not speculative. It is secretive, yes — and by showing it here, we must reveal certain sources and methods used by Alliance Intelligence; sources and methods we cannot take to the public or Senate. You will hear testimony from both trusted Rebel operatives and newfound allies. If you doubt their word, remember that all of them are marked for death by the Empire."
Her cold gaze swept over the muttering crowds, taking in the solemn, unconvinced faces, and the chasms that formed the Senator's frown lines deepened. "I would ask all of you to refrain from speculation until the end of the briefing. At that time, we may discuss what we have all seen and determine the future of our organisation and our galaxy together."
