Admiral Bishop's Emergency Session Speech

Admiral Bishop's Emergency Session Speech was delivered to the UEE Senate during an emergency session on October 10, 2945, in which Bishop urged the UEE to commit to a full war against the Vanduul after their attack on Vega II. After finishing his speech, less than a minute and a half in length, he received a standing ovation from nearly the entire UEE Senate chamber.

Full Transcript
For two hundred years we have battled the Vanduul. We have called these attacks "raids" or "skirmishes" or "incursions." But I am here to tell you that we are at war! Tiber, Orion, Caliban, Virgil—once human systems—all but abandoned in the face of the enemy. The Vanduul are at our gates, weapons speared, while we... we hide and cower; retreating as they burn and decimate everything around us.

We cannot let the tragedy of Vega happen again. We cannot give the Vanduul any more ground. To defend this empire we must attack! And we have to be committed to that attack, whatever the cost may be. We have to rebuild our fleet. We have to use the power of human innovation to reclaim these so-called "red systems" and strike back at the enemy!

This will not be an easy fight. It will cost us—in resources, in credits, in lives. Some of you may be asking, "Why undertake such a thing?" and I—I can tell you in one word: victory! For if there is one thing the Vanduul have taught us, it's that without victory there can be no survival!