Video - Keeping Promises

[checksum]

[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

voice; private/hackable

[birdhousesoul]

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.

[septim]

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.

voice; private/hackable

[birdhousesoul]

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

[septim]

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

voice; private/hackable

[birdhousesoul]

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.

[septim]

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.

[birdhousesoul]

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?

[septim]

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