Video - Keeping Promises

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[The video opens on what could be a video game interface - a first-person view looking down from above, a courtyard with Initiative personnel taking a break from their work, enjoying lunch and the outside air, each individual bracketed with HUD reticles as they go about their business, while a variety of status indicators frame the edge of the display. Osprey's voice is heard, calm and professional.]

It has been 32 hours since I issued my demands. There has been no apology from the Initiative, nor has there been any indication that any is forthcoming.

[Osprey's sniper rifle comes into view in the frame, and the display changes, zooming in on one particular table down below, where several men are having lunch. The tracking reticle on one changes color from white to red, and the video of the man discussing the use of the mind control drug displays next to him.]

Colonel Jonathan Landry. The man responsible for the attempted brainwashing attempt.

[The video disappears, and crosshairs appear, centered on the Colonel's head. Then comes the bang, and the man's now headless body tumbles from his seat, before the video cuts to Osprey in front of a non-descript background.]

I repeat my demands. A public apology from the Initiative. Immediate cessation of the drugging. And increased openness and collaboration with the transports in the execution of the campaign against the United Earth. If no apology has been delivered in 24 hours, I will attack a new target, and then again 24 hours after that.

If there has been no apology by the time of my third strike, I will be forced to conclude that the Initiative prefers a state of guerilla warfare, and the pace of attacks will increase. I await your response.

Comments

[Video]

[noble_nate]

[Nathaniel stares at the screen in disbelief, watching the scene unfold in stunned silence. It takes him a few minutes to respond, but really, there's only way for him to respond.]

Have you lost your damn mind?

Voice

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I am in greater command of my faculties than you are, unless you've managed to find a safe source of food and water since we last talked. The Initiative has demonstrated that they are unwilling to participate in dialog except in extraordinary circumstances. Therefore, a change in circumstances is called for.

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[noble_nate]

I'm of perfectly sound mind. Anders and I have been away from the city for a few days. The food and water we had wasn't tainted.

I don't have to be drugged to know that executing members of the Initiative is not going to get us anywhere. They may have committed a horrible crime, but they don't deserve to die for it.

Voice

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Actually, according to the rules of war where I come from, the late Colonel does. The use of psychoactive chemicals on non-voluntary subjects is punishable by death and erasure of all backups under the Tycho Conventions.

I just didn't want to wait for the war crimes tribunal.

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[noble_nate]

And who exactly appointed you to the task of deciding who lives and who dies here?

The only thing you're going to accomplish with your actions is to start a war. And I don't just mean a war between the transports and the Initiative; civil war is just as likely judging by everyone's reactions to your act of terrorism.

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[birdhousesoul]

Funny, I could ask you the same question.

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[noble_nate]

What are you talking about?

...you can't possibly agree with what he did.

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[birdhousesoul]

They've been mucking about in your mind. They're no better than blood mages. What Osprey did was nothing more than justice.

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[noble_nate]

Bringing someone to justice and executing them are not always synonymous. I know what they did, but I don't agree that they need to die because of it. Especially since this is only going to bring about more bloodshed.

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[birdhousesoul]

We can't negotiate with them in good faith, because they can't be trusted. There is no alternative to bloodshed.

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[noble_nate]

Well thank the Maker people like Osprey are here to make those kinds of decisions for us. Picking them off one by one is not going to make them more likely to help us.

[He lets out an audible sigh.]

If every crime was punishable by death, I would have hanged years ago.

permanently private video that anyone 1337 could h4x0r

[birdhousesoul]

Oh, I fully agree it's no use picking them off one by one. I'd say it's better to take a good number out at once.

[The sigh doesn't give him pause, but the mention of hanging does. Someone thinks Nathaniel should have been hanged. Someone used to harp on that theme, actually. It wasn't Anders, and it certainly wasn't Nathaniel.]

You ... didn't try your hand at mind control, either, all right? You tried to reclaim what was yours. That's not even theft. That's completely different to this.

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[noble_nate]

[Oh, Nathaniel well remembers Justice's disapproval...]

My intention was to kill the Commander of the Grey, so it isn't as if my motives were altruistic.

The problem with wiping out the Initiative is that they're the ones who know how to get us home. They're also the ones who know how to defeat the Masked.

You remember the Masked, don't you? The ones who broke into our home and assaulted us? If anyone deserves to be brought to justice, it's them.

[birdhousesoul]

[Anders scrunches his face like a child who's been presented with a vegetable dish he doesn't like.]

Killing the Commander of the Grey would have been vengeance. It would have been justified.

[You just keep telling your Justice!self that, Anders.]

You were simply misinformed. These people have no such excuse. Whatever information there is to be had, they're the ones who have it, and they're not exactly forthcoming. If they do know how to get us home, it's because they abducted us from our homes.

The Masked deserve to be obliterated. The Initiative isn't excused its wrongdoing. Unless ...

[A thoughtful look. A thoughtful look that, on Anders, usually bodes no good.]

Hm. Are you saying we take out the Masked first, then the Initiative?

[noble_nate]

[See, they have facepalms in Thedas, too.]

No, Anders, that is not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that we'd do better to work with them than against them.

[birdhousesoul]

They've violated your mind.

[noble_nate]

And now they're not.

It's not worth starting a war over.

[birdhousesoul]

[Outright disbelief.] You're willing to just ... take this. As if it never happened.

[noble_nate]

I won't forget it happened. And I'm not... forgiving them, not really. But I'll do everything I can to keep a war from starting over this. We're fighting against too many things as it is.

[birdhousesoul]

[Anders scowls ferociously. It's not a very Anders-like expression. Still, no blue gleam in the brown eyes.]

You did not deserve to be hanged.

[Non sequitur? Tangential? Recursive? Anders doesn't evince any sign he's aware the reply is less than linear.]

[noble_nate]

[Nathaniel blinks, caught off guard by what feels like a change of topic]

I completely agree with you on that one.

[A thought occurs to him.]

Though perhaps Justice doesn't agree.

[birdhousesoul]

[Anders looks sort of snarly.]

He hasn't got anything to do with this.

[Riiiiight.]

[noble_nate]

I think he's got quite a bit to do with this.

[birdhousesoul]

And what would you know about Justice?

[noble_nate]

I knew him. He was my friend once upon a time.