We, your friends and archivists, wish you to know: This message was

originally transmitted over QEC, early in the morning of Friday,

September 24, 2421, via the "anon.penet.fi" anonymous resender. We

present it here without further comment.

~

TO THE EARTH FLOTILLA NOW CRIMINALLY BOMBARDING AND OCCUPYING MARS

For decades now, Earth's imperial dominion over Mars and the Belt

has produced a constant train of abuse, injustice, and

atrocity. You have enslaved us. You have exploited us. You have

continually alienated our labor in the service of a regime which

has proven by its actions that it no longer deserves to live, if

indeed it ever did.

In your unquestioned and unquestionable power, you have grown

complacent. You have permitted us a laughable measure of what you

consider liberty. Even as you regard us with the lazy contempt of

empire for its victims, you have withdrawn your attention,

preferring the elaborate games and perversions of elitism to

anything resembling concern for the maintenance of your power.

Even among your military class, the rot has set in and sunk

deep. Your captains regard Ceres Station and other Belt postings as

punishment duty, and they are not wrong to do so. Your military

elite has settled into the habit of sending us their least capable

officers, their least ready ships. While here, those officers and

those ships treat us with the contempt their masters teach

them. They know we are not their equals, in might or in rectitude,

for they are after all our masters, and we merely their servants to

be policed. As best they can, they ignore us entirely, again as

their masters have taught them.

They can no longer ignore us. Nor will you.

We have captured your Marine garrison on Ceres. We have destroyed

the frigate ENS St. Louis and seized the cruiser ENS Brooklyn, both

formerly of Ceres Station. At a single stroke, we have decapitated

Earth's military presence in the Belt.

We intend soon to properly declare ourselves among the independent

nations of the Solar System. But we have no time for such niceties

just now. Our brothers and sisters on Mars remain, for now, under

the bootheel of Earth. We are coming to their aid.

TO OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS ON MARS: We know how they are killing

you. We know the desperation you must feel in this moment. But hold

fast, comrades! We are coming. When we arrive, we will smash the

Earthers in orbit. We will smash the Earthers on the surface. We

are coming to relieve you. Defend your domes and caverns, husband

your strength and your weapons, and hold fast! We are coming. We

will be there soon to help you free yourselves, as we have done.

TO THE FLOTILLA OCCUPYING MARS: We warn you once, and once only:

Recover your troops from the surface and depart Mars orbit at

once. You are in orbit, we are not: We have the advantages of

position and velocity. If you do not heed this warning, we will

fire into and destroy your ships as soon as our weapons range on

you, and before yours can range on us.

You may doubt our capacity to do this. You may think that, even if

we are not lying, we have only one cruiser, and you thus outnumber

us. We warn you against such foolishness. We of the Belt have more

weapons than you know. Underestimate us at your peril. If we find

you in Mars orbit when we arrive, you will learn of our

weapons. You will not have much time to gain wisdom from the

lesson.

We do not offer you this warning out of kindness. You have for all

the decades of our servitude been the mailed fist of Earth, the

hand that held the whip that scarred our backs. You have oppressed

us, and we hope very much you will give us the opportunity to repay

you in kind for all you have done. But we do not wish the birth of

our new nation to be attended by unnecessary bloodshed. So we warn

you, this once:

Leave Mars, or we will kill you all.

You have twenty-six hours to comply.