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Story By JA Baker[]
| ...Certain Point of View | |
| Facts | |
| Author | JA Baker |
| Series Name | Tall Tales |
| Alternate Universe Name | |
| Year Written | July 26th, 2020 |
| Story Era | Dark Age Era |
Please state your name for the record.
Fang Singh.
Occupation?
School teacher.
And before that?
I was an Adept of the Word of Blake.
Designation?
Ghost Beta Singh.
You were a Manei Domini?
Would I be chained up like this if I wasn't?
A fair point. Why were you working as a school teacher?
Good a job as any.
It just seems... unusual, for someone of your background.
War's over, right? Got to make a living somehow.
That's unusually, rational for a Manei Domini.
What? Expecting me to be all frothing at the mouth and promising doom upon you?
Truthfully? Yes.
Sorry, but I'm just not that kind of cyborg. I was recruited because I was loyal to the cause and yet able to blend in easily. Hence why I only had the most basic of enhancements...
Cybernetic Eye, left: inferred vision. Cybernetic Ear, right: signal pickup. Secondary power supply of unknown type, embedded in your liver...
Liver is vat-grown, power pack put in place before implantation. Thankfully, they managed to cover up the scar pretty well, so I can still get away with a two-piece.
...monomolecular blade, hidden in right hand between the middle and ring fingers. Electromagnetic deployment/retraction system.
A lady can never be too careful, you know?
How exactly did you end up joining the Word in the first place? You don't come across like the more typical member...
The crazy, mouth frothing kind, you mean? Hate to tell you this, but any organization over a certain size is going to have a few crazies: it's just the law of averages. The Order just made the mistake of putting some of them into leadership positions. But, for the most part, it was people like me. I'm nothing special. I grew up in the St Ives Compact, as was, and it was an odd place to be a kid. Not quite Capellan, but not exactly the Commonwealth, either. Kind of a toe in each, if you understand my meaning. Living like that give you a certain prospective on life. I had more freedom than I would have if we'd still been a part of the Confederation, and I could appreciate the advantages that gave me.
But, at the same time, there was a constant reminder that we only existed because our Steiner-Davion patrons allowed it. Almost prophetic, in away.
So, there I am, a school kid living under the constant threat of having my liberties taken away, when they start teaching us about The Clans. How, just beyond a line on a map, there was this horde of fanatical warriors just waiting for the opportunity to enslave everyone. And they were way worse than even the Confederation, because at lest the Capellans see you as human. But the Clans? Anyone not 'Trueborn' is little more than livestock to them. The Warrior cast tells you where to live, what job you must do, even who you can start a family with. And, if one of their little overzealous slap-fights gets out of hand and you find yourself caught in the crossfire... Well, that's just your bad luck.
As a kid, that terrified me: ComStar had grown everything they had at the Clans and nearly stopped them. What hope did the Compact have? And that's when someone handed me a leaflet.
The Word of Blake?
Yep.
When you're someone like I was, just another number on the census, it's easy to feel... insignificant. But the Word... the Word offered us the chance to not only be a part of something greater, but to change the face of the Inner Sphere through sheer force of will. It was that kind of dedication, not to self, nation or even the Order itself, that they were looking for in diplomatic espionage.
Excuse me?
Diplomatic Espionage. That was my specialty within the Manei Domini. I was never intended to see the front lines. There were plenty of people more suited to that kind of work. I guess someone higher up didn't want to be too reliant on ROM. Also, my aptitude tests showed that I was better suited to a more subtle mission. Some forged papers here, a little hacking there, and I was bale to slip into pretty much any social gathering necessary. I've listened to rabble-rouses in vacant lots and rub shoulders with some of the most powerful people in the entire Inner Sphere, and not one of them ever guessed who I really was.
Truth is, I'm actually impressed that you caught me. I didn't think that SIS had it in them.
What makes you think that we're SIS?
Because I'm sitting here, taking with you. Maskirovka or LIC would be dissecting me to try and find out how my implants work, while ISF or MIIO would simply shoot me and dump the body in a shallow, unmarked grave. SAFE is too fractured to be any threat, and the Watch is overly reliant on drugs to get information. That leaves SIS, which makes you... what, a Grey Knight?
Not exactly.
But you are SIS?
Does it matter?
Not really: just wondering how much you, and your superiors, think you know.
In what way?
You think that being a Manei Domini makes me some kind of maniac, a religious zealot willing to let a cabal of mad scientists cut out my humanity. You think that I've got the blood of countless innocents on my hands, and that you're doing the universe a favor by black-bagging me off the streets. But you're overlooking one very important fact.
Which is?
I didn't resist. Not in the slightest. I realized immediately that it was a professional snatch job, and I did exactly as I was told and didn't hurt anyone. And, given you've just listened my enhancements, you must have some idea of what I'm capable of.v
Okay, so assuming you're right, why didn't you resist?
Because you're going to let me go back to teaching literature, and pretend like this never happened.
Why would we do that? You've admitted that you were a member of the Word of Blake, a Manei Domini...
In all the time you've been watching me before today, have I committed any crimes? Do you have any evidence that I committed any crimes not covered by the general amnesty?
No...
Then you have no valid, legal reason to hold me. Unless you want to admit that my detention is illegal.
Exactly. I'm not a maniac, or a zealot, and, if anything, that makes me more dangerous to your superiors. Because I sound and act rationally, people would be more inclined to listen to what I say, rather than dismiss it out of hand. So, if I was to stand up in public and say that, in the end, that the Word of Blake won...
Bullshit!
Ah, is that a hint of hesitation I sense creeping into your voice there? The faintest doubt taking root?
In what way, exactly, did the Word of Blake win? Your armies were defeated, your leaders killed or captured, and Terra was liberated...
Do you even know what the reasoning behind everything the Order did was? All of the Shadow Divisions, the new weapons, even Manei Domini like myself?
To take over the Inner Sphere and...
No.
Excuse me?
We never wanted to take over the Inner Sphere... Okay, maybe some of the fringe elements did, but that was never our overall goal. We saw ourselves as a guiding light, a shield against the inhumanity of the Clans, and the sword needed to push them back once and for all. That's why they had all the troops and ships and everything ready in '67. We were hoping that the Star League would grant us membership, and we wanted to be ready to show them everything. We wanted to show them that they didn't have to live in fear of the Clans any more, that we could push them all back out into the Periphery, even destroy them, like they had the Smoke Jaguars, if needed.
But then, just as the Star League started to fall apart, the Wolf Dragoons attacked us. They fired the first shot, not us, and all because they didn't like what we were doing in the Protectorate. You know what we were doing that angered them so? Building schools, hospitals, roads. Trying to undo three centuries of war.
Hell, we saved Paladin Victor's life during his little family squabble.
I don't follow.
When he went to secure Coventry in '63, his sister sent a Warship, the Arthur Steiner-Davion, to intercept him. Only, we sent one of our own ships, the Immortal Spirit, to clear the way for him. Wasn't exactly my field, but I heard it was because certain people thought he was too important to the future of the Inner Sphere to risk him getting killed so easily.
Then how do you explain everything that happened?
I can't. Not really my area of expertise. I can make an educated guess, if you'd like.
Please do.
This is just me speculating, but I'd say somebody panicked. Maybe it was the AMC attack on Mars, or the Star League falling apart, or maybe someone got out of the wrong side of bed that morning. Whatever the reason, somebody overreacted, and things just snowballed from there. I'm sorry I can't give you a full breakdown of the inner workings of the Order, but agents like me were kept in the dark for the most part: operational security and all.
Anyway, I left as soon as it became apparent that the lunatics were running the asylum.
That doesn't explain why you think that the Word of Blake won the war.
Remember what I said about our true goals?
The Inner Sphere is at peace, probably the best peace it's ever known. Everyone's too exhausted to fight, even the Clans, so everyone has to take stock and rebuild.
Peace, stability and security. Everything that we wanted. And with one of our own in charge, none the less.
Bullshit! No, I'm sorry, but Bullshit! Exarch Stone is...
A mystery, supposedly even to himself. He just appeared right out of nowhere in a prison camp on Kittery. Pulled together a rag-tag coalition, and miraculously managed to defeat the Order, where everyone else failed. Then he goes all Peace, Bread, & Land. Then suddenly everyone, even the Clans, are falling over themselves to turn their swords into ploughshares, because we ain't gonna study war no more.
I swear, if one of my students handed in a story with a plot like that. I'd fail them on the spot.
You think there's more to it than that?
I think that anyone who believes the official story without question is seriously disconnected from reality. All I know is that pretty much everything that the Order wanted has been achieved, and nobody's asking too many questions about the man behind it all.
Not that I'm complaining; I actually like living in the Republic, I'm just not completely sold on the miraculous, mythical Devlin Stone. Be real interested to see if he had any enhancements.
The End
- Notes from the Author
- Not the first person to suggest this: I think that the "theory" is even canon, but this is my take on it