exsilium | Video - Keeping Promises

[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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

For the record, I am acting alone, without consultation with any other transports.

And given the way the Initiative has handled this entire operation, I am extremely skeptical of their ability to 'put us down', if they choose to pursue that point.

And that is exactly why what you've done is wrong. You did not consult any of us about this, a stunt that could cost us all.

You underestimate them. Somehow, they were able to bring all of us into this realm. That is no easy feat. I might doubt their strategies, but I don't doubt their strength.

If he'd consulted us, he'd have tipped them off.

Not if he'd done it in person. The Initiative can't possibly have eyes everywhere. [ Because they're no Blades. ]

So you say. So they'd have you believe. They own our apartments; they built our apartments. They've drugged our food and they've provided the little boxes we use to communicate.

Tell me whence your certainty derives, if you're so certain face-to-face meetings are secure. How is it, exactly, that you think we could have secured real privacy?

And how is it anything but justice to strike down our captors? They've tampered with our minds. That makes them no better than demons.

[ Not answering your questions, Anders. ] I will not make an enemy of the people who hold our only hope to return back home. [ Martin can't return to Tamriel, so he's speaking for those who do. ] Trust me, Anders, I do not take kindly to drug-induced hallucinations, which I have suffered at their hands, but I won't involve children in a war for selfish reasons. [ Not unless that's what it turns into.

Divines have mercy. ]

They made enemies of us when they ripped us from our homes. Given they're the ones who forced us to come here, what makes you think they'll ever be willing to send us back?

We have leverage. They need us. Just like we need them.

They need us for what, precisely? Mostly we sit around and try to figure out what in the Void to do with ourselves.

To fight for them. Their situation must be desperate if they're trying to turn us to their cause through force.

Or they've no idea what they're doing. We have no proof they even know how to use the machines that brought us here. Certainly they don't seem to have much control as to who or what they pick out. Now they've got us here, they may be desperate to control us, but why? We depend on them for subsistence. That's control enough.

They must be stupid or mad.

They're desperate because we're their only hope. However, I agree with you. If they wanted our loyalty, they've lost it. Their methods are counterproductive and worse, wrong.

Edited 2012-05-24 22:14 (UTC)

That's why they can't be permitted to continue.

You and Osprey are free to start a fight. Just don't involve the rest of us.

Osprey didn't consult me any more than he consulted you. Is that what's got your knickers in a twist? That no one checked with you beforehand?

We. Are. All. Already. Involved.

The Initiative involved us.

No, what's got my 'knickers' in a twist is that he's involved us all, people who can't fight or are children. War should be a last resort, not a threat thrown as if we were throwing a tantrum.

[ A long pause. His voice is calmer, wistful. ] I care not for my own skin, I'm already dead in Tamriel. But I won't let people here die needlessly.

Edited 2012-05-24 22:26 (UTC)

Again. Who involved the children? Who involved the people that can't fight?

Who brought them here to make up an army?

Andraste's bleeding bunions, Martin, how thick can you be?

That doesn't mean we should declare war on them! We are not ready. There is no chain-of-command, no consensus, nothing!

If they could weaponize that technology effectively, they would have. Instead, they grabbed us. I was able to enter their Hold, shoot a high-ranking officer, and make my way back out again without being detected. I very much doubt their strength.

You have a valid point about involving others, though. I will attempt to address this.

[ This is just as pointless and frustrating as arguing with all his counts and countesses. ]

See that you do.

Video - Keeping Promises

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