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The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/SSBAlienNation on 2024-10-29 11:24:20+00:00.
5:30 P.M. EST
Steps Toward Tomorrow
[This takes place right after the meeting with Amilita, before he sees Natalie.]
Bancroft Base had a few more people in it than before I’d left. Either word had already gotten out, or the teams in question had been told to rally back there.
“Meeting,” I called out, waving the inner circle forward. Even Vaughn trotted along, dressed once more in his Vendetta coat and mask, though unarmed. When Gavin and Sullivan hung back, I waved each of them in, too. I didn’t want our new associates left out in the cold- and then I saw Maize, arms crossed, and glaring daggers at Vendetta from behind her glasses. I pointed at her, too.
“What’s the deal?” Sullivan asked, glaring and following in Sam’s wake.
“Well, simple enough,” I answered. “We’ve won.”
“We?” He asked bitterly. “All I got told was that we were releasing the hostages. All of 'em.”
“We’ve been waiting on them for a year,” Maize said, sounding a little offended.
“Yeah…” I trailed off. “Let’s just say I used them to leverage a ceasefire. One massively in our favor.”
Everyone reacted differently. Radio cheered. G-Man was his usual ‘wait-and-see’ self. Vaughn shook his head, making the chainmail of his mask shake and quiver- and it was probable he was trying to capitalize on Sullivan and Gavin’s sentiment, which looked downright mutinous, while Maize and Sam just seemed shell shocked.
I motioned to the empty storage units.
“Alright. Tell me your problems. Go ahead, because I promise you there’s more to this.”
“We didn’t step out of the shadows and pull strings just for you to immediately sell out,” Gavin sounded no less angry. “Boss- we should-”
“Should what? Little fucker already got our other asset.” Sullivan grumbled. “He’s the only real game in town, unless you wanna roll the dice on Jester.”
Gavin shook his head mutely, but he didn’t look happy. At least they hadn’t started shooting.
“Ceasefire, huh? How are you gonna enforce that?” Vaughn stepped in before I could ask what they’d meant. He seemed like he’d finally had enough of being conspicuously ignored and passed over. I guessed he didn’t care, knowing what was going to happen to him regardless. “What about cells who think they’re gonna take a shot at the Shil’ anyways?” He asked loudly. “You think they’re gonna just sit there and take it when the Shil’vati do something wrong? You’re gonna what, hand 'em back over to the Shil’vati, like a fucking traitor?”
There was a Roman Emperor, once, who had suffered a similar problem as Amilita was staring down. Valentinian had secured the border with the marauding Goths and secured a truce. Only for small bands to immediately begin sacking villas.
Furious, Valentinian had the Gothic leaders dragged before him- only to find out the raids had started without any kind of order, and the Gothic leaders were powerless to stop their own people from doing things on their own initiative, if they didn’t even know it was happening. Valentinian apparently got so angry at them he’d died of an aneurysm.
I happened to like Amilita a fair bit more than the Goths liked Valentinian. She’d been kind to me, and at least tried to understand humanity.
Besides, there was another angle I hoped to play- one that I needed to keep Amilita ignorant of if this was going to work.
I supposed he had a point. I let him rant at me with complete calm, because I had an answer ready.
“You think you’ll survive that?” He hissed, when I didn’t respond. Even G-Man seemed curious to know how I’d answer.
“Bad for business,” Sam muttered. Maize said nothing, her case already made.
“Listen.” I said, holding up a finger and waiting until I felt the tension rise. “Delaware has won. The war is over and a ceasefire agreed to, in Delaware.” I slowly, almost theatrically turned on my heel to Gavin and Sullivan. “Now, weren’t you two just telling me a couple hours ago how Maryland’s gone from Red to Yellow? And I do believe before the battle of Camp Death, we were just about to launch ourselves over the border, weren’t we?” I motioned to Radio for confirmation, without bothering to check if he gave it before turning back to the spymaster. Sullivan looked ready to blow a gasket until I added: “So, what about opening new fronts in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia? All at the same time. And having Delaware as a safe haven for all our operations, where the Shil’vati don’t dare to fuck with either us, or the terms of this peace.”
Now everyone stared at me in silence for a few seconds. I could hear the roar of the Brandywine river tumbling over the old mill’s shattered dam.
“What?” Radio finally asked.
“Think about it! We get a whole state for a base of operations. The Shil’vati call it the ‘Delaware Ceasefire.’ Humanity might call it the ‘Delaware Accords.’ I call it: 'Don’t Shit Where You Eat’.” I waved at Maize and was careful with my wording. “We get a safe haven to operate and plan from, while we carry the fight to every adjacent state and turn them scarlet. Meanwhile, here we put in training grounds, armories, storage facilities, recruitment, logistics, shipping, all of it out of the enemy’s reach. We can transit through here between fronts, even. Form squads, train officers. The works.”
“They won’t stand for that, will they?” Gavin asked. “They’re all part of the same fleet. The Admiral can probably just order her to stab us in the back.”
“Yeah, sure- they break the truce and turn Delaware Red again, overnight. They’ll be shown as cowards who couldn’t beat us any other way- and we’ll make them pay dearly for it by the time the issue comes to a head. You think they’ll get loyalists to show up for anything after that? They already threw a bunch of them to the wolves once. Besides- this area’s technically under civilian governance, not military jurisdiction. Amilita’s also acting as Governess, at least until the new one gets here. Then when she does, whoever she is, she’ll be thanking her lucky stars she doesn’t have to deal with a state that’s on fire anymore- and has a General who brokered the truce and takes all the flak for the agreement. That’s why Azraea took both roles- she didn’t want to answer to anyone. The state’s technically under civilian jurisdiction, and has been since the war ended and whenever a Governess arrived.”
“How’d she pull that off if she’s a commoner?”
“Guess Military rank matters for a lot,” I shrugged. “But from what I understand of the Shil’vati, this will work.”
“What do they get from not backstabbing us on this peace deal?”
“Think about it. They get Delaware Green- which their new Governess is going to want, badly. Remember that one we ousted- Bal’Shir? She kept the state Green even after we knifed down her predecessor in her own mansion, in the middle of the military base. Why? Because it was good for tourism and collecting bribes to let people down here. The Shil’vati want this peace, badly, and they were willing to give up a lot for it. All kinds of cultural wins. They’ll recognize human customs, traditions, elections- they’ll even let us walk around with masks on and certify the elections! We’ve got something money can’t buy. We’ve just gotten legitimacy.”
Sullivan blinked a few times, and let the cigarette dangle down a bit. “Well,” he said hoarsely before coughing. “I suppose.”
Gavin looked thoughtful, too. “Training grounds would be good.”
“How would Miskatonic like proper facilities for cellular research set somewhere in Delaware?” I turned to Gavin. “Somewhere the power’s on all the time, where you don’t have to look over your shoulder?”
Then I turned to Vaughn- and skipped him. Who cared about a dead man’s opinion? My eyes settled on George.
“We knock over these other states, too- what’s in them? Maryland and Virginia, and then-”
“-And then we’ve got Washington D.C. in a pincer.” George said with some satisfaction.
“We can besiege it,” I agreed. “One at a time, we start flipping states, forcing the Governesses and Generals to deal with us- and recognize human power, self-governance. To recognize us. Think of what it’d mean to the country if the Shil’ lost D.C. They can’t bury that, and can’t bury us anymore. We can grow, and keep growing.”
Sullivan was nodding along now. “Alright.”
‘Alright’? I thought it was a really good idea!
“The war’s not over. It’s just beginning. But for Delaware?” I laughed. “Well, we’ve gotta keep this place perfect. No more strikes on Delaware soil. It has to be the carrot we dangle in front of them for cooperation. In the meantime, we beat the aliens and their collaborators with enough sticks in every other state they’ll beg us for peace.”
“They’re gonna play dirty when they figure out what you’re up to.”
“Let them try,” I said. "They betray our deal, every inch of the state burns, from Carpenter’s Crossing to Fenwick. In the meantime we’ll have gotten a head start in organizing ourselves in several more states. Think about it- Azraea arrested a lot of our guys, sent them to their prisons to rub elbows with other insurgents. We couldn’t have asked …
Content cut off. Read original on https://old.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1ges7ea/aliennation_chapter_221_steps_toward_tomorrow/
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