Secure:James Houseman's Correspondence
From Megaman Mush Wiki
< The first file, readme.txt, is not encrypted. It is dated Wed Dec 31 1969 19:00:00; the timestamp has clearly been tampered with. It is recent, but you cannot tell how recent. >
I saved many of my correspondences with my collaborators in a hidden computer in hopes that, one day, someone might read them and understand the times in which I lived.
I will make no apologies for myself or the other villains I worked alongside. At one point our goals were just, but I could not tell you when that was. I will only tell you that I felt that what we were doing was necessary.
I transmitted copies of these files to these datapads and put them here so that you would find them, James. They have been encrypted so that fools cannot read them. If you decrypt these files, you will learn more of the true powers behind the world. Be warned that this information may be more trouble than it's worth.
I am proud of you, James. You have done well. Know that I will always be with you.
JH4
2214
May 5th - Aces
RV: from EMPEROR <red.> by MAGICIAN <red.> with ESMTP id NKL172342 for <magician@un.mil>
Date: Thu 05 May 2214 17:42:00 -0000 (GMT)
TO: magician@un.mil
FR: emperor@un.mil
SU: Aces
I thank you, Magician, for your contribution to my selection process for an apprentice. I find most of these choices acceptable for introduction into the syndicate, though I wonder about some of your selection criteria in some cases. Miss Stafford is a very bright woman, but I am not sure about her emotional stability. We have already tried my eldest son, who has no interest in pursuing a life in the darkness with a wife and young children. Far wiser than I was, my James. Why didn't you talk me out of things more forcefully back then, if you are so opposed to a married man with children on the way going into this business?
Be that as it may, I have made my decision and I am sticking to it. We went through this at the meeting. If I stayed with my choice over the objections of Octavius and Harold and the weird non-answer Meio gave me, you are surely not going to have much sway. The analysts say she is the most likely to be loyal and true to our ideals despite her current apprehension. If anything, her critical eye and strong sense of idealism will be an asset to the syndicate.
If you want to stop being irrational, I would be happy to listen to a reasoned argument as to why I should choose someone else. Hanging yourself in my office again is not a reasoned argument.
The Emperor
September 14th - splinter cell?
RV: from EMPEROR <red.> by SWORD <red.> with ESMTP id NKL97310 for <ace.sword@un.mil>
Date: Wed 14 Sep 2214 15:15:07 -0000 (GMT)
TO: ace.sword@un.mil
FR: emperor@un.mil
SU: splinter cell?
> Primus:
>
> I do not understand why you would bring me into the order when my avowed intention
> is to destroy it. I would tear down everything you and your predecessors had made.
> I would murder you with my bare hands if I felt it would accomplish my goals.
You have good reason to despise me and my collaborators. The sins we have committed are impossible breaches of human decency. You know them too well, and I will not repeat them here.
I know you would turn your blades against me if you felt it was right to. I have seen you fight and know that your hand is steady and true. You know that I am not the enemy, even if I am at the head of the snake. You know that we work for the same purpose, perhaps with a different outcome in mind. I believe the snake can be made to wrap again around the staff and serve the will of its master rather than to slither free and strike at the innocent.
I imagine this is not what you believe.
> You are a good man. Why do you lead them? Why do you let them run rampant?
I lead them because it was my father's burden before mine, and his father's before his, and so on back to the first in my line. This is a poor reason, but one of the foremost in my mind. If I was not in command, monsters like Harold, Meio or Octavius would seize power, and our world would fall forever to darkness under their grabbing hands. They are not men in the spirit of my father's Illuminati, but villains and profiteers who infested our order with smiling faces and the offers of yet greater influence.
I cannot fully restrain them without causing an internecine war. I can aim them, yes, I can guide them, yes. I do these things to prevent greater atrocities. They, as I am, are powerful in their own right and are capable of significant damage. Harold and Octavius together are nightmares; with Meio and the Professor alongside them, they truly are a threat to everything in the world.
If we are to cleanse the taint and save this world, we will need to be slow and cautious in our actions. To accomplish this, I must first train you as my successor, because it will take you knowing all that I know before we can act in strength. And if you betray me? I will have earned it for my designs on fratricide.
Reflect on the Card you were given. One day, my choice will make sense.
> Your Servant, the Ace of Swords
The Emperor
October 1st - Sexual harrassment
RV: from EMPEROR <red.> by MAGICIAN <red.> with ESMTP id NKL172342 for <magician@un.mil>
Date: Sat 01 Oct 2214 05:57:00 -0000 (GMT)
TO: magician@un.mil
FR: emperor@un.mil
SU: Sexual harassment
I understand that it is intensely funny, or in your own words "lol-tastic", to de-molecularize the stitches in someone's clothing. It is very funny when it happens to people on television. I admit that I have laughed at seeing hidden camera programs using that gimmick before. I yield this freely and openly. The concept of someone's clothes breaking apart is humorous -- /in some contexts/.
Having someone's clothes disintegrate is not very funny when you do it to my Ace while she is making a presentation about our initiative to create a strong aerospace program in Africa. It is in fact sexual harassment, whether you intended it in that sense or not. Swords worked very hard on that presentation, and it was going to be very interesting and engaging unlike most of the stuff we all have to sit through.
Instead it was "interesting" in the sense of this woman, who has been working very hard to be taken seriously as an asset, running out of the room gripping rags to herself to hide in the ladies' while you, Octavius and Harold laugh yourselves blind like swine. Only Meio accorded himself with some form of dignity. You and the others should be ashamed of yourselves.
I know you dislike Swords for some entirely irrational, nonsensical reason that you /refuse/ to clarify. Your continual hazing of her has gone beyond good-natured ribbing and into maliciousness. I am extremely upset with you and expect you to make a formal apology to her before the end of the week.
The Emperor
October 1st - Re: Sexual harrassment
RV: from EMPEROR <red.> by MAGICIAN <red.> with ESMTP id NKL172342 for <magician@un.mil>
Date: Sat 01 Oct 2214 12:31:12 -0000 (GMT)
TO: magician@un.mil
FR: emperor@un.mil
SU: Re: Sexual harassment
That was /not/ an apology. That didn't even approximate an apology. "Sorry you don't look better naked", if it isn't the worst possible response to the situation, easily makes the top five. I don't care if it made everyone around laugh. If anything that makes it /worse/.
I'm not going to have this discussion over email. Get in here.
The Emperor
October 4th - Apologies
RV: from EMPEROR <red.> by SWORD <red.> with ESMTP id NKL97310 for <ace.sword@un.mil>
Date: Tue 04 Oct 2214 11:02:47 -0000 (GMT)
TO: ace.sword@un.mil
FR: emperor@un.mil
SU: Apologies
I am sorry again for that business earlier in the week. The Magician torments people he finds to be "philosophically objectionable". You know how he's gone after Harold and Octavius in the past, though the two of them can actually pose a direct threat to him. Someone as relatively powerless as you is an easy mark. He /dislikes/ you. Famous has never said why. He /won't/ tell me why. To the best of my knowledge, you've never done anything to him.
We got into a shouting match the other day. The only thing I was able to get out of him was that it is not what you have done, it is what you /will/ do. At some point in the future he must believe you do something to cross him. Perhaps he went through the Yggdrasil Gate and saw some possible future? I told him surely behaving in this way would make you more likely to do something to hurt him. He scowled and swore that no matter what he did, you would always be a betrayer. Of who, I asked, and he would not say. You would never make the "correct" choice, he said, because you were "heartless".
I do not believe him, my Ace. I know you too well. For all I know, he is talking about some phantom version of you from a far-removed future. Maybe it is you who puts an end to him in that time. Maybe it makes him afraid.
Do not be troubled by his mad shouting. He is likely doing it to rattle you and make you feel uncertain. We will stay the course. There is too much wickedness in the world for us to turn against each other.
The Emperor
October 19th - Re: anxiety
RV: from EMPEROR <red.> by SWORD <red.> with ESMTP id NKL97310 for <ace.sword@un.mil>
Date: Wed 19 Oct 2214 13:11:04 -0000 (GMT)
TO: ace.sword@un.mil
FR: emperor@un.mil
SU: Re: anxiety
> I'm worried that I'm not cut out for this line of work. Maybe they were right
> to tell you not to pick me. I don't think I'm going to be able to make it.
> I almost screwed up on the last mission and nearly got everyone killed.
> The lying tripped me up. Then I had to kill him, and I was frightened and
> had to have Needle bail me out.
I honestly didn't expect you to be able to kill someone in cold blood easily. It is one thing in war, when the enemy is shooting back, but to strike down a man who has drawn no weapon and has posed no threat to you is difficult. The first one is always the most difficult. Even so, you stayed together under pressure. You knew what your limits were and worked within the team to try to compensate for your weaknesses.
I'll put you in some remedial training. What you need is some desensitization therapy to harden yourself to the reality of field work. A week or two of treatments should make it easier for you to do what needs to be done. You are a good soldier. I trust you.
> Are we doing the right thing? Is it right for us to kill people who might not
> have done anything wrong yet?
Is it right? Not in the least. Is it necessary, yes, it is necessary. We have learned over the years the consequences of waiting too long to act against a deviant element. That gentleman knew too much and was going to talk to the wrong reporter at the right time. Better that he suffer an "accident" and die than risk the lives of hundreds of other operatives around the world. The mathematics of it balances.
I am assigning some homework for you during your break from field operations. Find the particulars attached.
The Emperor
< The attachment has been lost. >
October 30th - Ashford!
RV: from EMPEROR <red.> by SWORD <red.> with ESMTP id NKL97310 for <ace.sword@un.mil>
Date: Sun 30 Oct 2214 05:17:15 -0000 (GMT)
TO: ace.sword@un.mil
FR: emperor@un.mil
SU: Ashford!
> I don't understand, Primus -- how could they have allowed this to happen?
Alexander Ashford was a fool. Like most of the Professor's would-be successors, he felt that he could create perfection in a laboratory. His insane ideology, with the veneration of some hoary old woman long dead, led him to create a sociopathic monster. Whoever this "Veronica" used to be, Alexander did not make a duplicate but a monstrosity.
Alexia Ashford is as far from God's plan as one can find.
> What will we do?
We will do nothing. Part of me wishes for Harold and Octavius to intervene with their atomic warfare, but I know that they are cowards and will do their best to negotiate with her if her strength is truly what it appears to be. Since robots are also vulnerable, it will force the hand of Repliforce and the Maverick Hunters. I expect their solution will be to destroy the primary targets then wash Raccoon City with the Apocalypse Cannon. May it be enough to destroy the abomination and her weapons once and for all.
If the situation becomes truly dire, the Professor claims that he can contain or neutralize the ghouls that have been created by some means. I am skeptical of his claims, but the Professor has never failed before. Some times I wish he would. I would feel less ill-at-ease with a man who has tasted failure more than a few times in a decade.
> Your Servant, the Ace of Swords
The Emperor
November 5th - RE: philosophie de la commande -- rebuttal
RV: from EMPEROR <red.> by SWORD <red.> with ESMTP id NKL97310 for <ace.sword@un.mil>
Date: Sat 05 Nov 2214 07:15:15 -0000 (GMT)
TO: ace.sword@un.mil
FR: emperor@un.mil
SU: RE: philosophie de la commande -- rebuttal
> I have completed your assignment, Primus. Find my essay analyzing the
> philosophical foundations of the order attached. I believe I have
> constructed an adequate argument that builds on the necessity of our
> organization. I can justify our existence logically. However, it did
> not remove my apprehension as you may have thought it would.
>
> I continue to fundamentally disagree with the premises we have to accept
> to make our arguments. We are practical, perhaps even necessary right now,
> but we are not righteous. As enlightened people, it is our duty to find
> a way to teach the public how to govern themselves. I believe human beings
> are fundamentally rational beings who want to cooperate with each other.
> If we educate the public enough, they will be able to make the right decisions
> for themselves.
And this is where your education leads you astray. You have been raised to believe that humans are rational. Rational, educated human beings who have no reason to behave unusually. After all, they have no strain on them. They are well-fed, clothed, sheltered...
We all want to believe that our fellow humans will do intelligent things. We want to believe that no one is racist, sexist, classist or otherwise biased toward others. It goes against the fundamental messages of our United Nations. Surely we learned after Unification that this was the best way? Surely not. Humanity is slow to change. Most of its members do not want to think. Thinking is difficult and dangerous work. It is much easier to contribute one's strength to a cause that has already been thought out. There is no need to reinvent the wheel.
> The average person is smarter than you believe. Just because someone doesn't
> have a graduate degree doesn't make them unable to know how to live
> on their own. Human beings got by for thousands of years without a
> state-centric world. Market pressures will lead people to the best solutions.
Rubbish. The market is an instrument of state power. We have never had (and you would certainly not want) a true "free market". Put down your dog-eared copy of The Fountainhead and look at how people behave in our "educated" society. Universal educational standards have created a civilization of people who can pass their last mandatory proficiency test in two point five attempts on the average. Almost everyone can read and write, and are exposed to the great philosophical ideas that created our society throughout their schooling.
Even with this educated public, we continue to have social problems. Socialism, as practiced by our United Nations, has cut the tails off of economic inequality but has not actually treated its causes. Some people are too incompetent, too inept, too ignorant or too lazy to succeed. Other people actively seek to harm others because they are diseased or wicked. These problems will not go away with better education or more active law enforcement. They are part of the human condition.
It is necessary for the noble to lead the peasantry. It is a relationship that all involved intuitively know to be good and just. Only a few are worthy of leading the great masses of people. Only those who understand that it is necessary to do unpleasant things from time to time to allow for a better future should lead. This is why we must be outside of "politics" and other false games of chance and skill. We must not be interrupted while we mold this world to its ultimate perfection. This is why we are a secret.
> I don't accept that there is no other course for the world to follow
> but yours. You create a false dichotomy between anarchy and order.
> Reality is never that clean cut. You've said so yourself.
The world is often dirty, mostly grey but rarely sensible. What little sense it has is from our gentle guidance. You have spoken before as if we force the world's leaders to walk in lockstep with us. Such an endeavor is almost impossible and would certainly be unproductive. The day-to-day affairs of most nations pose no immediate threat to the overall survivability of the human race. We step in only when our proxies begin to stray too far away from the wide path we have beaten before them with our steady midnight toil. Our United Nations, and the consolidation of power this has created, has both dramatically simplified and complicated this task as I have mentioned previously.
It is not that there is a dichotomy so much as there is an inevitability to us. If we disappeared into the night tomorrow, within a matter of weeks someone, out of desperation, would recreate the organization. We provide an administrative function that is sorely needed in our world. We do what must be done. We make the inexplicable things disappear. We organize the world for our friends in the media so they have acceptable stories to tell. We ensure the survival of humanity by taking whatever measures need to be taken. Our survival is that important to the world. Whether they admit it or not, we are needed.
> If we are the best, it is our duty to prove that we are the best through
> our deeds. With respect, I do not want to simply take your word for it.
And you have not. You have seen what happens when my colleagues start to believe themselves to be the whole of the law. In time, we will need to deal with them. But you still have much to learn, my Ace. Fortunately you seem to have taken the first lesson to heart: Question everything. The Magician's instincts once again are proven correct; you are a dangerous person who refuses to quietly toe the line. This is exactly what I had wanted.
> Your Servant, the Ace of Swords
The Emperor
< The attachment has been lost. >
November 15th - Her
RV: from EMPEROR <red.> by SWORD <red.> with ESMTP id NKL97310 for <ace.sword@un.mil>
Date: Tue 15 Nov 2214 13:15:11 -0000 (GMT)
TO: ace.sword@un.mil
FR: emperor@un.mil
SU: Her
That was Her this afternoon. She rarely emerges from her Las Vegas ziggurat, normally doing Her business through subordinates. Even with the dousing of anti-nanites and chemical resistance I have been treating you with for the past months, it takes a good, hard exposure to Her to activate your resistance.
I don't want you to feel awkward or guilty about what happened. All you did was stand there. You'll get your memory back in a few more hours and you'll hear what happened. She didn't do anything to harm you, just paralyzed you while She talked to me. It was a demonstration more for me than it was for you. She wanted me to know in Her way that She didn't find you to be a threat. She wanted everyone else to know that as well. Unlike the Magician, She doesn't need crass displays to win cheap laughs. She's more sinister than that.
One day, I'll kill Her. An asp to the chest, like Cleopatra. Of course, my father had said that, and his father, and our great-grandfather before him...
The Emperor
December 12th - ridiculous robotic poof
RV: from EMPEROR <red.> by SWORD <red.> with ESMTP id NKL97310 for <ace.sword@un.mil>
Date: Mon 12 Dec 2214 00:05:01 -0000 (GMT)
TO: ace.sword@un.mil
FR: emperor@un.mil
SU: ridiculous robotic poof
I want to reassure you, my Ace, that I am all right. Despite the efforts of Epsilon and his second-hand Mavericks to tamper with the democratic process, none of us were harmed. Apparently he took out his aggression against the Holy Father himself. Farce!
The entire debate is outrageous. Souls! Who even knows if human beings have souls? Trying to determine if something does or does not exist through legislation is like trying to douse water out of bedrock with a toothpick and good intentions.
They say it is a "sapient rights" issue. Bollocks. It's racial supremacy and bigotry by any other name. Reploids shouldn't have souls because then they wouldn't find any value in churches or other existing religions; neatly preventing them from being influenced by any human moral code save secular humanism. Only humans are foolish enough to want to have souls because of their inherent mortality, according to this logic.
There are days when I wonder whether or not most of the warfare we endure is the cause of people being bored and seeking out something to start quarrels about. Engineering ongoing warfare as a safety valve against the apocalypse has never made more sense.
The Emperor
2215
January 24th - Necessary measures
RV: from EMPEROR <red.> by MAGICIAN <red.> with ESMTP id NKL172342 for <magician@un.mil>
Date: Tue 24 Jan 2215 05:58:54 -0000 (GMT)
TO: magician@un.mil
FR: emperor@un.mil
SU: Necessary measures
Europe is burning. Repliforce is powerless to stop it. Half the world is under the control of terrorists. The entire globe is in turmoil.
Is this what you meant when you said we would have to endure pain for necessary gain?
We're talking about hundreds of millions of people. Hundreds of millions. Perhaps 500 million across Europe and Asia and Africa. These are vast numbers. This is putting the entire United Nations under critical strain. Where am I supposed to put the refugees? Are we going to throw them all into Australia? Think about what that's going to require. We'll have to construct a new megacity at the very least. It's going to change the entire geopolitical map.
Thinking about the dead is staggering. Entire nations vanishing. It makes the Black Plague look like the sniffles.
Tell me what we need to do to stop this.
The Emperor
January 26th - The troubles return
RV: from EMPEROR <red.> by SWORD <red.> with ESMTP id NKL97310 for <ace.sword@un.mil>
Date: Thu 26 Jan 2215 00:05:01 -0000 (GMT)
TO: ace.sword@un.mil
FR: emperor@un.mil
SU: The troubles return
> writing blind through the neural link, running from another raid
>
> they destroyed everything. they didn't leave anything behind. they burned
> the entire city, rounded anyone who wasn't running fast enough up and killed
> them. some they dragged away and i don't know what happened to them next
>
> it was a beautiful place. there was love and laughter and light there and now
> everything is under a burning black cloud. they're destroying everything
>
> where is our power, james, where is the power we have to kill these things
>
> we have the ship. we can drench them in plasma, we can murder every single
> one of them. we can make them understand we are the masters, not they,
> they were made to serve US
>
> show them our power, james. please. please save our people. don't let them
> destroy everything that's good about humanity. i don't care what it costs.
> i don't care if you have to sacrifice me or everyone else. i don't care if it
> means that our world ends, so long as THEIR WORLD ENDS FIRST
>
> is it going to take london burning before you act? new york? chicago? san angeles?
>
> kill them. kill them all. for god's sake please
I have no apology for the horror, my Ace. My sympathy is for you and for the other people in Africa and Europe. We were expecting more human resistance to rise up, but I have again been disappointed in my fellow man.
Most of the refugees in Europe have fled to Moscow. We will have to resettle them across southeastern Asia, which I am sure the Indians and Chinese will delight in. They have only recently gotten their own populations down to a managable level, and a continent of refugees will likely send them spiraling into madness over the next twenty years. Australia will have to absorb the rest, but we have a contingency plan. Sigma has no idea the hell he has unleashed.
The United Nations will not authorize the kind of response that's necessary to wipe the robots out. Even then, it will take time to set up a solution that will be able to hit them hard enough and fast enough to prevent them from adapting to it. Ion cannons will leave horrendous scars across the urban environment in Europe. There is another way, though I hesistate to endorse any plan that Harold and Octavius both agree on without argument.
I am so sorry this has happened. It was beyond our power to predict or control. I know that your friends and family both lived in the city. I pray that most of them have found their way to safe havens.
We will wipe out the Mavericks and the Robot Masters and fix what they have broken. I promise you, we will.
The Emperor
January 26th - Re: Necessary measures
RV: from EMPEROR <red.> by MAGICIAN <red.> with ESMTP id NKL172342 for <magician@un.mil>
Date: Thu 26 Jan 2215 00:20:36 -0000 (GMT)
TO: magician@un.mil
FR: emperor@un.mil
SU: Re: Necessary measures
That Harold and Octavius are both willing to blow up the world makes me very hesitant to endorse exploration of the KORONA initiative. Of course, they both stand to become wealthy during its construction, but using the system would set the world back centuries. It'll be like going back before the Industrial Revolution. The number of possible dead makes the current estimates for fatalities seem minute.
Can you come up with something else? Something, anything, some kind of alternative.
The Emperor
February 4th - Meeting notes
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Date: Sun 04 Feb 2215 13:15:31 -0000 (GMT)
TO: ace.sword@un.mil
FR: emperor@un.mil
SU: Meeting notes
It is rare for the Professor to make an appearance at one of the weekly meetings. Normally he is content to watch a video after the fact. I think he almost always stays in his Indian fortress in that nasty little factory town. He must have dug in deep.
You'll notice that the Professor is much more polite and engaging than our colleagues Harold and Octavius. He is disarming, even witty. If he was the type to go to parties, I imagine he would be fun at them. But there's a good reason the Magician makes himself absent when the Professor shows up, because the Professor is probably the single most brilliant person in human history. I say this even knowing Doctor Light, who is arguably the Professor's sole peer. Unlike the good Doctor, the Professor uses his brilliance to attempt to become more powerful than God, and will not be obstructed from his goal by anyone or anything. It's amazing we haven't gone to war with him already.
He sees no threat from you, of course. The Professor has been dealing with old men for so long that he doesn't see anyone else as being relevant. He has a seemingly infinite patience for fools, but don't let that deceive you; after a certain point he starts considering the foolish fair game for his experimentation...
You aren't likely to encounter him very much. Just keep your head down and do not disturb him if you see him in the vicinity, and he will likely ignore you as another faceless minion. Also, if you see him and Meio together, turn around and walk the other way. No one is safe when those two are together.
Also, don't ask his real name. To him, he /is/ the Professor, and will find you to be irritating if you do not call him by his title.
The Emperor
March 15th - Ides
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Date: Wed 15 Mar 2215 11:15:11 -0000 (GMT)
TO: ace.sword@un.mil
FR: emperor@un.mil
SU: Ides
It's a beautiful day in Seoul. You should teleport over and have lunch.
You need to keep your spirits up. I know that it is hard to feel very happy when your home is in such a state. Maybe you should start to try to accept your new place as a second home? You don't need to give up on the first one, but you need to feel like you have roots somewhere.
I wish I could do more to make you feel better. I wish I could do a lot of things for you. One day, my Ace, I promise that I will make things right for you.
Now come over to the UN building and sit under the bubble with me. We'll talk about the weather and cricket, and forget our dark toils for an hour.
The Emperor
< There is a picture, partially attached, that has some sort of stegography on it -- but it's too corrupted to decode. >
April 2nd - "vagrant"
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Date: Sun 02 Apr 2215 08:20:21 -0000 (GMT)
TO: ace.sword@un.mil
FR: emperor@un.mil
SU: "vagrant"
I still can't help but smile when I think about how you said you thought that Grandmaster Meio, mister Supreme Ninja Murderer himself, was a vagrant when you first saw him. As you know, he only emerges from his cave-like fortress when something attracts his interest. Otherwise he focuses on his genetic projects, where he and the Professor have common ground. Despite his horrid appearance, the man is a brilliant geneticist and is responsible for our clone forces.
I don't know why he wanted a genetic sample from you. You are not nearly important enough to him to make a custom poison for. Sometimes he has no stated reason for what he does. Likely he found something about you that he found interesting and wanted to analyze it. He once went through one of my offices and requested a sample from every third person on a whim. I've still never gotten an answer from him as to why, and to this day nothing untoward has happened to anyone involved.
Outside of the civilized confines of our facilities, Meio is a much different person. He is just like one of those fighting movies, except that he actually /is/ immortal. I do not know if he even can be killed. He knew the first Houseman in my line, but he was a young man then. My grandfather remarked to my father that after a certain stage of decrepitude the human body can get no worse and still live, which Meio apparently achieved during his time as the Primus.
Anyway, if some horrible clone version of you turns up, I will see to it that it is destroyed, and Meio sanctioned for the breach of protocol. I do not think that will occur in any event. He has probably already forgotten about taking the sample. After all, the man is very old.
The Emperor
July 25th - RE: Atlantis
RV: from EMPEROR <red.> by SWORD <red.> with ESMTP id NKL97310 for <ace.sword@un.mil>
Date: Tue 25 Jul 2215 07:05:11 -0000 (GMT)
TO: ace.sword@un.mil
FR: emperor@un.mil
SU: RE: Atlantis
> More robot lies. There never was "immunity" to the Maverick virus, because the
> damned Maverick "virus" doesn't exist! Machines made to kill only know how to kill!
> Whatever that stupid piece of code that Doppler puts into them doesn't take
> away their free will!
It does not. Mavericks choose to lash out at humanity for the many sins we have committed against them. The virus does not excuse their behavior, but it does explain aspects of it ... the increased aggression, the lowered empathy, the reduced critical thinking skills.
> Now they're running around in Lemuria. I imagine they'll turn it into a theme park.
That would be very silly, my Ace. It is a site of alien wonder that should be preserved and admired just as it is. Not even the most callous barbarians would loot it so.
> This is a horrible world. Horrible things happen here. I am afraid to imagine how
> bad it would be if we were not here to provide help. I see now what you have been
> teaching me. The nightmares of the past year have taught me that we must be even
> more proactive in our actions to stand against these evils. If we do not move to
> protect humanity, no one will.
Do not hate our world. It is all we have. Yes, you have suffered -- what you have gone through in your short life makes my heart ache. Europe has burned, Africa has been enslaved, and it seems that all the world is falling to darkness. But these things shall pass, my Ace. We will find a solution to these problems, and humanity will triumph.
As I have told you before, the key to solving our problems is patience. Our enemies are rash and make mistakes that thinking would prevent. We have the power to wait and think before we act because we see the entire playing field, not only the piece immediately around us. I know this is suffering for you, but in time we will solve these issues. It is how the Illuminati has worked for thousands of years. It will continue to work well after both of us have gone.
> Your Servant, the Ace of Swords
The Emperor
September 13th - RE: Thomas
RV: from EMPEROR <red.> by SWORD <red.> with ESMTP id NKL97310 for <ace.sword@un.mil>
Date: Wed 13 Sep 2215 14:29:56 -0000 (GMT)
TO: ace.sword@un.mil
FR: emperor@un.mil
SU: RE: Thomas
I was very surprised to hear that you had sat down and had lunch with my son. Normally he doesn't like dealing with "bosses", so you must have made a wonderful impression on him when you first saw him earlier in the month. Usually his only kind words to his superiors involve his wishes for them to die before he does.
I imagine he regaled you with his vision for a new anarchist paradise. I think the Magician put that into his head when he was very young, and it's stuck there ever since. He thinks once humanity hits a certain level of technological development that there will be no more need for rulers or nation-states. This is rubbish, of course, as you've seen. I have done my best to scour this from his mind, but he refuses to believe that human nature couldn't be changed to accommodate his vision.
Much like his older brother, Thomas is an idealist. Despite his rough exterior, he is earnest and well-meaning, and cares about others. Thomas would make a wonderful leader if only he would put aside his love for field work ("breaking heads", in his words) and throw away his outmoded ideas. Perhaps you could reach out to him? He's learned to ignore everything I say, but he might see you as someone he could "reach" and would be more open to engaging you in debate. You have the tools to beat him now, and it would tweak the Magician's nose to see someone logically demolish his beloved vision of organized chaos.
The Emperor
November 14th - Judgement Day
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Date: Tue 14 Nov 2215 01:57:01 -0000 (GMT)
TO: ace.sword@un.mil
FR: emperor@un.mil
SU: Judgment Day
> It's coming for us. This is the end of the world, master. We should go.
> We can all take our leave of this place. The dimensional portal in the Arctic
The portal does not solve the problem. We can run away from our problems, but where will we go? To an Earth like our own? How do they handle two versions of the people we bring through? To a different Earth, uninhabited? Can you spend the rest of your days being one of the only human beings in an empty universe?
The temptation is strong, especially in the face of such horror. I share your desire to flee this place and escape the coming darkness. If we do not face it here, we will only face it later. I will not spend my life bending knee to any man, any force, any monster in the darkness! Humanity will be strong enough to survive this or it is unworthy of the universe's greatness.
We are the leaders of humanity. We will see its rise to Heaven or its descent into Hell. For all of the sins we have committed, we owe them the decency of sharing in the fate we have made for them.
> Your Servant, the Ace of Swords
The Emperor
2216
January 13th - Pretending
RV: from EMPEROR <red.> by SWORD <red.> with ESMTP id NKL97310 for <ace.sword@un.mil>
Date: Sat 13 Jan 2216 11:59:14 -0000 (GMT)
TO: ace.sword@un.mil
FR: emperor@un.mil
SU: Pretending
> Sometimes I feel like there is no "me" to be concealed any more. I am artifice;
> I am nothing. I am an onion with an air pocket for a heart. I surrendered that
> when I chose this path. I have started to feel that there is no return, no matter
> what you might tell me.
>
> I feel nothing when I lie now. When I was first starting out, I would have this
> swimmy sick feeling in my stomach since I was sure I would be found out. As time
> passed, that swimmy feeling faded away. I became more confident that I could
> deceive all of these people. Now I am a flawless liar. What price did I pay?
The price of our secrecy is skill at deception. You feel a sense of falseness because you have brought the lie so close to yourself. You /had/ to bring it close to yourself to make it perfect. I feel that same sense of apprehension and worry that you have, my Ace.
My father spoke to me of this when I was young. He was an old Primus by the time I was brought into the fold, since I was such a bullheaded turk of a man! I felt that deception was unnecessary since the world was so far below us. We could rule openly, I claimed, and men would be grateful that we gave them their United Nations to bring them together.
He was a wiser man than I, hardened by the Meio Wars but still soft-spoken. Whenever I spoke of my designs for bringing the Illuminati into the light of day, he smiled and told me that men even crucified Jesus, and we lacked the potential for divine resurrection. Men would see us and be afraid, and in their fear tear down everything beautiful we had ever made. Perhaps when their fit of anger had passed they would see what they had lost, and try to reclaim it, but a broken thing reassembled is never the same. I did not understand him until I took the throne. Only then did I know and appreciate his truth.
I ramble, a sign of my age! You may sit on this throne sooner than you think if I continue to lose myself in these fugues of nostalgia.
We decieve because we must conceal ourselves. This is both the most versitile tool we have to enact our will and the price of our power. No one should know of us. We can work best that way, making small adjustments and using soft touches to guide humanity toward its destiny. You know all of this already, but knowing is not the same as accepting.
You worry that there is no return from where you have gone. You do not believe you can set down your weapons and walk back into the world of light, never to return. You feel you have been too changed, too altered by what you have learned. Before, you were excited, intensely curious, but now you know enough to be afraid. Now you wonder more seriously if you can actually do what you claimed you would do at the end of the road, or if you would choose the darkness over the light.
I will tell you this, my Ace. So long as I live, I will lend you my strength. I will help you back into the light when our terrible work is through. I will use my power to reconstruct your world as it had been, and then you will have the life that you had always wanted for yourself. As it should have always been; as it will be.
You are not empty behind your deceptions. There is beauty and strength beneath the illusions you have mastered. When you find yourself pressed past your limits, you will be able to call upon what you have always had within you to overcome.
> Your Servant, the Ace of Swords
The Emperor
April 24th - Paradox
RV: from EMPEROR <red.> by SWORD <red.> with ESMTP id NKL97310 for <ace.sword@un.mil>
Date: Wed 24 Apr 2216 14:11:14 -0000 (GMT)
TO: ace.sword@un.mil
FR: emperor@un.mil
SU: Paradox
> He told me today that I was going to kill you and kill him and kill everyone.
> His cold dead stare bored into me. Famous wasn't joking. He said this was my
> last chance to get out. Any longer, he said, and it'd be hopeless. I had to
> leave or become like Her. (I don't even know why he brought Her up! How could
> anyone become like that cold, dead woman?)
>
> But if I left, if I walked away now, wouldn't that cause a paradox? If he said
> that I was destined to do all of these horrible things, am I condemned to do them
> no matter what I want? Is there free will, or are we all doomed to follow our
> fates to the end? Am I fated to become a villain, or can I redeem myself?
>
> He wouldn't tell me what led me to do these things. He wouldn't tell me where
> I changed to become capable of them. Maybe I already /am/ capable of them.
> Maybe I condemned myself a long time ago. If so, there's nothing I can change.
> I am the product of my previous actions. We are all responsible for what we
> choose to do. I would choose these horrible actions because they would be what
> would make the most sense to me. It /is/ free will, but seen from a certain
> vantage point, it is fated.
>
> Does he ever say similar things to you?
When I was a young man, Mister Famous told me that I would be the last Houseman at the head of the Illuminati. I scoffed and claimed that I would have sons who would follow in my path, and that he was a fool for making such a broad proclamation. Would I be usurped, I asked. He said that I would be, and that She would smile.
I prepared myself appropriately. I made myself lean and hard. I fought to the top of the heap and won my father's former position by virtue of my superior strength and cunning. I made my rivals accept me as their leader and kept my blade always at the ready. They would not overcome me easily. I had two strong sons, either of which could be made into good leaders, and surrounded myself with loyal, competent minions.
It has been unraveling. You have seen it, my Ace. Harold and Octavius strain against their chains. Meio is oddly silent. She seems to be waiting for something, as if She knew something that everyone else did not. The Professor putters away in his lab, dangerously ambivalent toward our struggles. There is ... there is something like an expectant hush. They are all waiting.
We will see who survives these coming trials, and then take the measure of "dark prophecy".
> Your Servant, the Ace of Swords
The Emperor
August 3rd - Latest Meio Problem
RV: from EMPEROR <red.> by SWORD <red.> with ESMTP id NKL97310 for <ace.sword@un.mil>
Date: Sat 03 Aug 2216 17:15:00 -0000 (GMT)
TO: ace.sword@un.mil
FR: emperor@un.mil
SU: Latest Meio Problem
You may have noticed a woman named "Sheena" appearing repeatedly in our operations briefings. We suspect she is a construct created by Grandmaster Meio for the purposes of collecting genetic information from the active crop of Striders. He has done this sort of thing before, intending to take a genetic census of the "strongest" Striders so to see how far along he is to create his latest 'super being'...
We do not need to involve ourselves with this blood-soaked civil war. Meio is likely engaging in this proxy conflict to find the most ruthless and inhuman Striders so to eventually fold them back into his "Ouroboros" army. He believes he has been completing his development process without my notice. Meio underestimates my abilities ... or should I say, /overestimates/ the loyalty of his own men.
Let them murder each other. We have samples of the Exemplar, and we too are able to duplicate soldiers rapidly. Blood against blood, bone against bone, just as we were able to during Meio's original defeat. Fear not.
The Emperor
2217
January 1st - Honey Baked Ham
RV: from EMPEROR <red.> by SWORD <red.> with ESMTP id NKL97310 for <ace.sword@un.mil>
Date: Wed 01 Jan 2217 07:51:10 -0000 (GMT)
TO: ace.sword@un.mil
FR: emperor@un.mil
SU: Honey Baked Ham
Dear Ace, I hope you find this coming year to be full of fewer trials. You have done so well in the face of the hardships you endure on a daily basis. I am so proud of you, and wish you only the best. You have blossomed into a true asset to our organization under my watch, and your success fills me with a great pride. Perhaps one day you will rise to sit on the World Welfare Wardenship Trust with Harold, Octavius and I. Nothing would make me happier.
I will speak to you in person after the holiday. We should go out to lunch again. It's been ages since we've had an hour or two just to talk about things outside of business.
Clara said you wanted this recipe. Please find it attached.
< encrypted message inside of an image of a recipe card for a honey baked ham >
This is the year we kill the bastards.
I am sickened by the failure of our organization to eliminate the Maverick threat from Europe and Wily from Africa. We have sat on our hands because Harold and Octavius are /making money/ by selling things to everyone involved through different outlets. Meio and the Professor just sit back and laugh while more and more humans become ghoulish cybernetic abominations. She, of course, will wait until the sun burns out.
You've been training for this for years. I've watched you sweat and bleed as you've learned the ropes. I've seen them think of you as nothing more than my distraction, and I've let them think that you're just the daughter I never had -- no more a threat to them than my oldest son, who only aspires to be a family man. I must have raised him well.
The Magician is going to help us. I know you find it hard to believe, but I trust him. I've known him since I was a young man, and he has watched over me and, perhaps, protected me up to this point. I may be the instrument he has chosen for whatever end he seeks, but so long as I live, I will hold the Illuminati together. I will see us through this storm. I will not abandon you.
I am stepping up your training. The Needle has told me you are strong enough to keep up. I know you won't let me down.
The Emperor
April 12th - Revolution
RV: from EMPEROR <red.> by SWORD <red.> with ESMTP id NKL97310 for <ace.sword@un.mil>
Date: Sat 12 Apr 2217 11:11:57 -0000 (GMT)
TO: ace.sword@un.mil
FR: emperor@un.mil
SU: Revolution
> Two monsters entered and one monster left. Maybe Sigma's really dead this time.
> I'd like to see anything we've ever built survive multiple nuclear bombs going
> off inside of it!
>
> Even in death he spites us, ruining more of our Earth. Hopefully this is the
> last patch Sigma gets to ruin. Do you think the Mavericks will collapse now?
Not very likely. The Mavericks have never been bound together by a cult of personality at a fundamental level. The strength of the Mavericks has always been their overarching hatred of humanity. Look at Europe for examples. Destroying art and ruining cities makes them happy, because like tormented children, anything that hurts their parents makes them feel powerful.
If Sigma is not revived, you can expect to see one of the stronger Mavericks rise to power and try to lead the organization for a while. My best guess is that the group will splinter into numerous squabbling terrorist cells that can be more easily dealt with than the monolithic Maverick army.
There is another problem. "Elpizo" has chosen this moment in history to start his perfect human utopia. This will give the Mavericks something to rally against, which will make them less likely to splinter. We're going to try to distract him by having him fight a war against the Americans, who can be set up as his balancing force. If we can contain him until he becomes as venal as Hernandez was, we can probably prevent him from leading wide-scale atrocities across the entire planet.
> Your Servant, the Ace of Swords
The Emperor
May 4th - RE: Mega Man retired?!
RV: from EMPEROR <red.> by SWORD <red.> with ESMTP id NKL97310 for <ace.sword@un.mil>
Date: Sun 04 May 2217 15:17:00 -0000 (GMT)
TO: ace.sword@un.mil
FR: emperor@un.mil
SU: RE: Mega Man retired?!
> Mega Man can't just /retire/. This has to be some sort of feint to lure Sigma
> out of hiding. There's still Robot Masters to kill and Wily to beat. What about
> San Angeles?
I can understand why he would want to leave. He has fought for almost twenty years and has accomplished apparently nothing at all. The world situation has darkened considerably. Now there are horrific human mutants killing robots in a series of grotesque hate crimes in Mexico on top of Europe lying in ruin and Africa solidly under Wily's thumb. I too would feel hopeless in the face of such crushing defeat.
What separates us from that kind of despair is our knowledge of the great need the people have for us. Mega Man may not feel as if he is necessary because of the many combat robots that have been built since his construction. Mega Man is not wholly necessary from a tactical point of view.
Mega Man's value to the people is as a symbol of continued resistance. Mega Man is hope. Mega Man is justice in an unjust world. Mega Man challenges us to be better than what we are.
I know you dislike Mega Man. Outside of battle, he seems to be a bumbling teenager, and he often comes across badly. Even so, heroes are valuable, even if you personally do not believe in them.
> Your Servant, the Ace of Swords
The Emperor
May 10th - RE: nothing's sacred
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Date: Sat 10 May 2217 15:17:00 -0000 (GMT)
TO: ace.sword@un.mil
FR: emperor@un.mil
SU: RE: nothing's sacred
> They just ran in and killed him. They stabbed the Pope with the Holy Lance
> and paraded him around like a banner. And I'm not shocked at all. I just watched
> it on the feed. I didn't even feel queasy. I know I should have, but ... but I
> wonder if the work has made me inhuman. I sat there and impassively watched
> and made a few notes to myself. When it was done, I had a cup of tea.
>
> Why doesn't it hurt any more?
You've seen too much, my Ace. You've seen too much and done too much. The horrors of the past years have made you hard. It takes more to shake you than witnessing the death of one good man, which is a tragedy in and of itself. When you were just entering my service, I remember a day where you teared up when the Magician said you denied a little girl ice cream on her birthday by causing that blackout in Phoenix. Today you watched the leader of Christendom martyred and had a cup of tea.
Once I too could be shaken by atrocity. Once I felt that some crimes were too horrible to imagine. Those times are far behind me. I feel I could be capable of anything if I were put into the right situation. I do not doubt the monster that surely lurks beneath my skin, as you should not.
We must watch ourselves more diligently on those moments when we start to remember that we were once normal men. It is at those times where we find ourselves vulnerable and confused. I find a meditation on our core values helps to restore my sense of direction during these times. We want a world free from fear and want, where people can express themselves freely and believe as they will. To bring about that world, we need to be capable of doing what is necessary to protect those who cannot protect themselves.
You will be all right. You are not a bad person, only hard, and one day we may once again learn to be soft. I look forward to that day every night when I go to sleep. One day it may even yet come.
> Your Servant, the Ace of Swords
The Emperor
May 29th - All Hell
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Date: Thu 29 May 2217 05:11:17 -0000 (GMT)
TO: ace.sword@un.mil
FR: emperor@un.mil
SU: All Hell
SecGen McLaren's death is a shock to all of us. We need to make sure that whoever equipped that Pantheon agent with the Type VI rifle is brought to justice. If only Protoman hadn't decided to take justice into his hands yet again, we may have questioned her and found a way to find out who was responsible.
In times of trouble, I find it best to try to lighten the mood so to regain focus on the important things. Find a helpful image attached.
< encrypted message inside of an un-ironic motivational poster >
Protoman is a damn good cleaner.
I will be formally taking over the United Nations as I discussed with you in January. Things are moving quickly now. We had started discussions of KORONA last summer, but now the need is there. The satellite system will be completely online by July, and then we put an end to this, my Ace. They've gotten fat and stupid, and without Sigma there to guide them onward will sit quietly in their trenches and wait to be murdered.
We can do this elegantly, cleanly. Harold and Octavius are looking forward to being kings. I've promised Harold Australia and Octavius Europe. I think I will offer Arkady the New York or Chicago megacities for now. They'll be so busy smelling riches and power that we can systematically eliminate their power base and make them believe the others are responsible.
We can get most of them at the WEF meeting. Greymalkin Arsenal is riddled with our agents. The Maverick prisoners are being processed now. By the time we release them they'll only have eyes for the old men. Harold will blame Octavius and Octavius will blame Harold (or the Jews, which he blames for almost everything he doesn't blame Harold for). While they're squabbling, we can take care of any loose ends. If we can get one to kill the other, the remaining one will be a swift takedown after K-Day.
Arkady will cooperate. He is an honest villain and can probably be kept happy with a moderate fiefdom. Meio and the Professor will fall in line, as they both are likely to salivate at the thought of rebuilding human society. And then, of course, there is the promise I made to you.
The world is going to get better, my Ace. We will save them. All of them.
The Emperor
June 1st - Too good to be true
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Date: Sun 01 Jun 2217 11:17:07 -0000 (GMT)
TO: ace.sword@un.mil
FR: emperor@un.mil
SU: Too good to be true
Sigma lived. He waited months, but he lived. And now ...
Now we have to change our plans.
The vector is spreading like wildfire. The "Sigma Virus" -- it is more like Sigma's Curse. Even our systems are vulnerable to it. The Professor has become consumed with defending our internal network from the plague. The Magician is of course no help when we could use his blasphemous power. He says he finds the matter "drearily overdone". There are days when I truly hate him.
We had to put down several cyborgs today. The more advanced nanotech systems are immune to the vector, but the common plastic and steel is as vulnerable as anything else. I am concerned for Arkady, but we are maintaining strong quarantine procedures.
I am feeling the desperation in the system. Today I spent ten billion zenny to start making experimental assembly-line power armors in automotive factories run manually by underpaid, undertrained military engineers to try to give us some way to slow down the Maverick advance. It will not work. I am dooming thousands of men, men who are willing to fight and die for our way of life. Maybe there will be a miracle.
We are grasping at straws. Gate claimed that he can make Reploids that "resist" the Sigma Virus, and we threw money at him. Not long ago, he showed us these slap-dash robots called "Red Alert" and claimed they could do whatever it was we needed them to do. I had them sent into Maverick Berlin to sabotage the Maverick forces. Maybe if we can confuse them we can find a weakness. The file is on your desktop, my Ace. Attend to them as you will. I have no time.
The new Fortress won't be done in time for the first scheduled power armor assault. I fear it is going to be compromised. The Mavericks are everywhere. Sometimes I wonder if the virus /sees/ for them.
The Senate is terrified of Repliforce. I'm going to have to do something about them, likely something that's only going to make matters worse. If I don't placate these buffoons, they will do something /truly/ idiotic before I am ready to dissolve the Senate and have all of them shot.
Pray for me.
The Emperor
June 25th - Decomissioned
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Date: Wed 25 Jun 2217 07:15:07 -0000 (GMT)
TO: ace.sword@un.mil
FR: emperor@un.mil
SU: Decomissioned
You saw yesterday that I sponsored a bill that authorized the decommissioning of Repliforce. It went about as well as it could have.
The assemblage was more civil than I imagined, having only a few slammed doors and other signs of disrespect for a freely elected democratic government. I was forced to defend this particularly ill-considered piece of legislation just as I had to with the power armor corps. Highlights of the screeching and howling of Berkana are on the syndicate feed. Her outrage at her work having been "manipulated" is particularly rich comedy. The version with the side-by-side excerpts of her Mengele-like experimentation on Reploids is suitable for a holiday special.
The majority of Repliforce are taking it like good children, but I know this is only a feint. They will not surrender their arms and line up to be murdered. The Senate will act surprised; they are fools and children, outraged into passing the bill to defy the Reploids (and in particular, Vile). We know the Repliforce is already on the move to re-deploy elsewhere. Many will be driven Maverick. Light will re-arm General anyway, saving us the trouble. Perhaps General and Sigma can destroy each other.
It would have been much easier to allow the Repliforce to continue to mill around in Europe under our aegis so we could wash them all away in one strike. Now the matter is complicated further. Not that the Senate cares. Many of them seem to think that the state of emergency makes them impervious to all reprecussions. Their summary execution when the operation begins will likely surprise them again.
The Emperor
July 31st - Collapse
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Date: Thu 31 Jul 2217 01:57:00 -0000 (GMT)
TO: ace.sword@un.mil
FR: emperor@un.mil
SU: Collapse
Normandy. My God. It was worse than anyone said it could have been. I was responsible for this ... horror. I should have obstructed it, I should have stalled for time, I should have done a hundred thousand things differently. But I did not. I did not, and all of those men died. And they would have died again, if I raised them and asked them to fight once more.
> You can't blame yourself for Normandy. This wasn't your fault. It was the
No, don't excuse me, my Ace. Don't say that it was my generals, my engineering corps, don't say any of that to pass the blame. I signed the order. I told them to march to their deaths, and they did. Wearing the crown means that you carry its weight.
I took this task from McLaren, who would not relent before our demands. I rose up and led the Senate as they had demanded. I rallied them together, gave them purpose and intention, and now I must go before them today and tell them that we have just thrown millions of zenny and tens of thousands of lives into the fire. I will carry that burden. They will rebel against me, squeal in terror, realize how doomed they truly are. It is then that I will truly exploit their fear and get them to unanimously support a full deployment of KORONA, as Harold and Octavius wish it.
Do you know what makes me most fearful of all, my Ace? It is not the possibility that I may be destroying all of our world and still not end the Maverick threat. It is not that we may fail and be stopped by well-meaning but wrong-headed "heroes". I accepted the risks when I committed to this plan of horror, because inaction is a certain death while action reduces certainty to near-certainty.
It is Her smile. The smile that was promised to me.
Victory has been silent. She only smiles at me when we meet, even though I am almost immune to her nanomachines and phereomone targeting. She offers no opinion for good or ill about our plans to incinerate the world. She only smiles. She smiles like She knows that no matter what we do, She will continue. Does She expect to defeat us so easily when we are spent?
Watch her closely, my Ace. She may be the battle you must fight for me.
> Your Servant, the Ace of Swords
The Emperor
August 15th - Preparations
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Date: Fri 15 Aug 2217 15:07:05 -0000 (GMT)
TO: ace.sword@un.mil
FR: emperor@un.mil
SU: Preparations
The last KORONA pods are in flight. I am distressed by the existence of only one backup pod over Europe, but I have been assured that nothing short of the full forces of the Repliforce and the Coalition working in tandem could stop the system once it comes to full activation. We have seen to creating a situation in which that would be impossible. It will all be very neat and tidy.
Civilization is going to be very dark and very quiet for a few years. It will be an adequate time for us to take care of any lingering issues. The loose ends that I have promised you will be resolved will be attended to first. You have been patient with me for these many years, and now I have no excuse not to keep my promises. You can choose then to stay with me, as an equal, or return to a normal life.
Here's an inspiring picture to ease your nerves during this trying time.
< Encrypted message hidden inside of a motivational poster >
We will discuss your task during the operation in person. We cannot fail now. We are too close to success.
The Magician has been given a task. We will see if he does it or not.
The Emperor
RV: from EMPEROR <red.> by SWORD <red.> with ESMTP id NKL97310 for <ace.sword@un.mil>
Date: Tue 26 Aug 2217 15:00:00 -0000 (GMT)
TO: ace.sword@un.mil
FR: emperor@un.mil
SU: Testament
I am about to end the world.
Never have I felt such clammy terror in my life. I am giddy with fear and light-headed at the thought of what I will do. I will be acting to end the Maverick threat, and I will wipe away five centuries of human progress within a quarter-hour. I do this only because I have been convinced it will end the Sigma Virus and erase the Reploid mistake from our world.
I murder billions. Only a small number will die in the strikes, I have been told, just those unfortunate enough to be in the immediate range of the charges. But it is the secondary effects! A world without teleporters, without hover-vehicles, without /electricity/. The riots, the plagues, the famines! Dear God, it is a Biblical punishment I am bringing about.
The terror is real. I must do this. I must! There is no "cure" for this Sigma Virus, no matter how much Thomas Light and Gate try to stall to derive one. All they have found are ways to slow it down. We must cut it off at the source if humanity is to survive. If we do not destroy them now, they will roll across Asia and murder everyone in their way. The dead will be the lucky ones. You have seen the fate of their "prisoners".
It could be everywhere by the end of the year, the Magician has said to me with that damned smile. It could rain from the sky like blood. It could wipe away all of humanity and leave only a nightmare world, like we saw in that place that Kaiser Sigma came from! A dead world, a corrupt world, a world where there is no hope or beauty left. No, I cannot allow this. I cannot!
I must continue. I must start this nightmare, and I will be accountable for these actions to the world and to Heaven. If I fail, they will paint me as a villain, a fiend worse than Sigma; my family name, my children, /their/ children will be punished. I will be a bigot and a sinner like those treasonous Interpol people claim I am. My only redemption then will be if in my failure the world is destroyed and all human things come to an end. Only God will remember my crimes then.
If I succeed...perhaps in a century, when I am long dead, the world that is made will curse me anyway for their decades of hard work and suffering to regain what they had lost. But they will be able to curse me. They will be alive to spit on my grave for generations. Their children will grow up being able to hate me. Ultimately, I will become a forgotten tyrant, a memory of a horrible past that has no more emotional connection to some far-off future. That will be my legacy.
It is a good legacy.
You still stand with me, my Ace. Through this all, you have shown loyalty unto death to me. I am grateful to you more than you can know, because at least in my death, I know that I was not alone.
Do not use your words or your tears to plead with me, my Ace. We have discussed this. I do not plan to live to see the sunset from the front window of the charnel house. The only way the world can be clean when the fire passes is if all of the old world dies with it. I am among the oldest, foulest pieces of rot left.
I have crimes to pay for, more than any one man could bear. I will give Pavel Cossack, the man who has worked to fight our organization the longest, the chance to take my life. If I win, I put an end to his suffering. If he wins, he may finally get the chance to build the technocratic government he wanted all those years ago.
I forbid you to take vengeance on him if he succeeds. You know his tale, his suffering. Do not dare become as wicked as I am and assault him again. When this ends, we will not touch him ever again, because we have wounded him more than we have ever had the right to.
I have my hands over the console now. When I activate the machine, I will be unable to shut it off. It will run per its instructions. When I press this switch, all the devils of hell will be loosed, and it will be time for all of us to stand in judgment.
You know your task, my Ace. Do it well. Perhaps I will yet see the sun rise again.
The Emperor
August 27th - Last things
RV: from EMPEROR <red.> by SWORD <red.> with ESMTP id NKL97310 for <ace.sword@un.mil>
Date: Wed 27 Aug 2217 00:00:00 -0000 (GMT)
TO: ace.sword@un.mil
FR: emperor@un.mil
SU: Last things
I am dead, my Ace. There will be no more words from me after these, so listen well.
These are words I never wanted you to read, because this was the letter I prepared in the event of both my death and our failure. You may already be captured, dead or worse. I may only speak these words to the revolutionaries who seize our servers to learn our secrets.
I will tell you and any others who read these words that I make no apologies for my actions. I do not regret what I tried to do, because it was an action made to save our beloved humanity from monsters. Hindsight may vindicate you, but I had no such luxury. I chose to act to save the world from a plague that seemed unstoppable. Curse me until the stars burn cold, but know that I acted out of altruism, not greed.
Perhaps you who read these words are Mavericks, who have succeeded and claimed my world from me. If so, congratulations, and may Duo return and incinerate all of you in a timely manner. One day, you slow children of men, you will be held in judgment.
Perhaps you are traitors. Interpol was riddled with them. I will tell you that Sarah Fairchild was selected for her leadership role because of her collosal incompetence, and that we all had several good laughs at her expense during your continued blundering across the world stage. You are now the masters of the world, and I congratulate you. Drown in your own blood when you turn on each other. I will be laughing at you from Hell loudest of all.
Perhaps you are the enemy within. Is that you there, Magician, Mister Famous, Thoth Thrice-Great? Were you working for Octavius and Harold all along? No -- no, of course not. Not you, the lover of freedom. And not for Her, never Her. Not Meio, surely not the Professor...yourself? Yes, you always worked for your own goals, there could be no others over you. You were too proud for that.
What were your goals, Thoth All-Seeing? Why did you protect me through all of my life? Was it for this moment at the end of history? Was I the one you intended to be the last Primus before the great age of darkness? Were you my justice, or were you only opening the gate so that my true punishment could come in? And as you loved me, you hated my Ace more than any of them. Why? You never told me. You hated her, tormented her, laughed at her failures, sneered at her successes, used your power to meddle in her affairs, and not once would you explain yourself.
I receive no answers. The dead cannot be satisfied with words even if they were coming. I have died and you, the reader, are still alive.
My Ace, if you read these words still, I warn you of the Magician. I am no longer there to hold him at bay. He will try to use you for his own goals. You must protect humanity as best as you are able. I do not know his mind, only that he is a great and pressing danger from another world.
Destroy Harold, destroy Octavius, destroy Victory if you can. Destroy them all and prepare yourself for the war that will come when Meio has returned from his mountain fortress. If there is a humanity left to conquer, he will begin a war again to bring them under his banner and rule the world. You must stop him, my Ace, because I cannot. The last war ended by the narrowest of margins after he lost the Spear. If he finds it again, we no longer have Section Z and the Captain to challenge him. Those men were the masters of their age, but that age has passed. I fear we will never see the like of the COMMANDO team again.
The Professor may yet help you, but he cannot be trusted. Be wary of him. He may be the greatest villain of all, because his desire is not for our world. He wants God's power for his own. Such men will smile and laugh because they feel cosmic knowledge is at their fingertips. They are the worst of all.
Gather up my things. The Sword is my power, as it has been for all of my family. The ship is under your command. You only know a fraction of its secrets. Learn them all well, for you will need every shred of my power you can find to survive. Beware of the Warehouse -- use its secrets carefully, for every thing within it has been placed there for a reason.
Most importantly, my Ace, be well. I hope for nothing more than for you to be able to lay down your blades one day and find the life I promised you. It is still in your grasp. You only need to believe. Do not give up. Though you are changed from what you were, you are still human, and your Creator still loves you despite our sins.
I love you, my Ace of Swords. You have made me so proud. Never forget that.
The Emperor
