At the same time.
The system's faint blue text materialized in Reinhardt's line of sight.
[Be it negotiations or stalling for time, everyone caught in this political maelstrom knows one thing clearly: they have no path of retreat. The road ahead is fraught with peril, but behind them lies a bottomless abyss.]
[Claudius knows full well that ever since the news of him massing troops in Cyrenaica for a rebellion was leaked, he has been left with no choice. Only two paths lie before him: victory or death.
Even if he agreed to negotiate with the Grand Governor, even if he promised to withdraw his troops, he would never meet a good end.
Should he return to the system of the Imperial Administrative Region, the Grand Governor would have ten thousand ways to kill him.]
[Claudius did, of course, receive a request for negotiations from the Verne Front Line. But these talks, meant only to buy time for both sides, had already fallen apart before they even began.]
