My book so far

In 2036 twenty years after a descent into anarchy with uncertain causes which are perpetually mystified due to the rampant delusions of the emerging societies, the ruins of what was the united states are starting to come together. The scale of destruction was massive, but not absolute. societies could easily develop out of what was left and did, but the point in which scavenging the land, while still valuable isn’t going to sustain the populations. The point at which large scale faction warfare is inevitable is also fast approaching. Various social orders are emerging with different levels of development. Factions emerged as a dominant system, most of which were city sized, but there wasn’t really any constant. The normal faction model was characterized by a walled off area encompassing as much as it could with some heavily guarded farms on the outside. The factions played a major role in allowing continuation of civilization and decline in chaos, as well as preservation and development of new technologies. However, they have played an equally prominent role in the suppression of liberty, warfare and destruction. With a world rapidly changing after factions having existed sometime a small group of democratic socialists find themselves rather displeased with this dynamic and the situations in many of the factions themselves and thus set out on a quest to rebuild, unify and uphold their ideas which in their minds hold the end goal of bettering the entirety of humanity.

 

“Although I may act in manner which contradicts my principles. at least the principles I hold come from knowing what is right and choosing not to care. With most people it’s the opposite”

-Reginald

 

“They say if you fight for ideas, the ideas are worthless. Fortunately I don’t fight for ideas, I fight for people, and anybody who attempts to apply the previous logic to my circumstances is just trying to justify oppression”

-Oliver

 

“I do not chose equality in spite of freedom. I choose equality as because of it. If you don’t have an imbalance of power, tyranny cannot manifest.”

-Amelia

 

“We ensure the proper rewards for labor first and foremost by granting control of it to the masses.”

-Dwight

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 1: Dawn of an Era

 

It was a rather cold day at the prison. Dates were essentially estimated but it was clearly autumn. This was a time when all factions withdrew and the time between the hearing of gunshots increased greatly. This was also a time of trouble for many factions and for the socialists it was worse, The attempts on farming fields surrounding the prison were fairly unsuccessful and the amount of food grown could not sustain the groups throughout the coming months. The only resort was trade however the only two factions in reach were risky to deal with. One was about two miles southeast and another was about 5 miles west. The issue was that 2 miles southeast lay the legion who were known for the aggression they exhibited and militaristic intentions and little was known about those to the east but their somewhat democratic ideals.

 

 The group sat down to consider the options. Oliver called together the others and decided what course of action needed to be taken. When Dwight, Amelia and Reginald arrived in the part of the prison where they would meet, a silence filled the room. It was evident that they were all deep in thought and fearing what their choice would merit from their comrades. Oliver Broke the silence as he had a habit of doing so. “We have been in isolation for far too long. Expansionism is our only turn at this point. We recently settled here and if nobody has any better ideas I say we gear up and see what the fuck there is out eastward” the group maintained silence as thoughts were rapidly flowing throughout before Reginald spoke “The legion are militaristic. If one of us snipes their guards at night the legion will enter panic. After that we simply trade weapons for their food supply as more weapons seem to be the solution to everything” to the group it seemed almost as if he was joking but the sad reality was that in the eyes of the legion more bloodshed would solve the problems they encounter. And so the group set off. Amelia and Oliver would go take sniping positions for nightfall while Dwight and Reginald would endeavor into the city to find potential aid and create a sphere of influence within the faction.

 

 The Walk to the area was joyously pleasant as the sun slowly moved downward in a calm endeavor of articularly towards Amelia and Oliver as they came face to face with the forces they were about to attack. Dwight was somewhat scared but mostly a sense of awe clouded his mind and Reginald being the fearless walking through the hills and fields. No marauders or threats were seen throughout the endeavor. When the gates of the legion were within sight a sense of fear came across the group Reginald being the psychopath that he was remained entirely indifferent to the situation. Dwight and Reginald Approached the gates further while Amelia and Oliver moved outward and set up positions. Dwight and Reginald were immediately held at gunpoint. Reginald being indifferent to the danger simply dropped his weapon and said “there you go, now step aside and let us in” the guard was shocked by the disrespect but saw the two did not merit a threat  lowered his weapon. Dwight followed and dropped his weaponry.

 

The city structure was far from advanced but in the ocean of destruction and anarchy the large town was quite an interesting site. The legion was fairly developed with their own currency and structures not solely for shelter or food production. There were bars and entertainment venues. There was a weapon distribution center but policy prevented anyone from walking in and getting a weapon but no policy was in place against Reginald from selling what he had on him. All he had was a knife he found 3 years ago from some dead marauder as his primary weapon had been taken by the legion guards. Reginald walked into the store and dropped the knife on the table. The Person there stared at the knife for a few second before picking it up and inspecting it. The man then placed a paper on the table with a considerable amount of incoherent writing and a large printed 20 in the corner and the words United Legion Official Currency Printed at the bottom. Reginald stared at the paper wondering how much that could get him. The Man noticed this and spoke out of the assumption he was planning to negotiate “I wont change the price. offer is set” Reginald simply took the money and walked away as the Man took the knife Into the backroom.

 

 Back on the crude trails occasionally lined with bricks That were the roads of the city Dwight began to insist that they drink. Reginald was somewhat angered. “We’re here to establish relationships so that when we come back trading will be easier”. Dwight replied quickly and to Reginald seemed to be operating like a child in the sense that he was doing the most fun thing he could while still technically making progress. “Yeah and that means making friends and talking to people” Reginald grudgingly handed him the money in his pocket. “We’re probably not gonna be back here for a while so it doesn't really matter. That said, Don't blow it all. Im gonna go see if i can arrange discussions with anyone higher up” Dwight walked into the bar and reginald continued down the street.  large tower within the town caught Reginald’s attention but there was a building in the surrounding areas dedicated for faction diplomacy. Reginald entered this building in the hopes there would be someone he could talk to. A worker was waiting at a desk and approached him the moment he walked in. “Hello welcome to legion faction unity headquarters” Reginald was not sure how legitimate this was but continued anyway “My name is Reginald. I come from a small group inhabiting a prison a few miles north of here” The worker paused. “We are here to establish relationships with true factions not brutish marauders.” Reginald was outraged by the comment but managed to speak calmly “though few in number our faction is dedicated and idealistic with pure intentions” The worker nodded and spoke sarcastically, “Yes, sure you are.” Reginald was profoundly offended but tried to contain his anger to prove his legitimacy.

 

 Shortly after he gave up and walked back to the bar. To Reginald’s surprise, Dwight was the center of attention. Many people were talking to him and bottles were scattered across the surrounding table. Reginald sat down at the table and began to drink as he heard Dwight continue to talk about ideals. Reginald just didn't care. he was so shocked that someone could put intellect, intentions and ideals aside because the faction he was in wasn’t large.

 

Outside the walls of the faction few hundred yards away on opposite sides of the area Oliver and Amelia had set up sniper posts as guards were shifting and the sun had nearly set. Oliver was on a hill North of the village some distance away ,and Amelia was similarly distanced from the area but South of the area. A group of guards went out to ensure there were no faction members outside and the rest went into the gates. After the searching guards went a good distance they went back in. After about 5 minutes Amelia and Oliver saw the night working guards walk out through the gates. They dispersed and set up positions.

Oliver looked through the scope and had the shot at one of the guards. He fired. The shot was heard and diverted attention to the northern wall and most guards started rushing to the aid. Amidst the chaos Amelia fired and took one out. The sight of the dead body caused a team to start moving northward. Oliver was quite a distance from them but moved back to lower ground so the hill completely covered him. The guards stopped moving when they were near the hill.With a few dead bodies in place the stage was set for the deal. Amelia and Oliver both went to the southern wall to meet up. The two were successful in meeting up and began the long walk back to the prison.

 

The walk back to the prison was full of fear at every turn. every noise in the night could be the pursuit of the legion forces. The temperature continued to drop and the distraction of the cold as well as the distance from the faction base started to cause the fear to fade. After the few hours had passed, Amelia and Oliver had arrived at the prison and safety. After walking upstairs to the rooms inhabited, sleep was the first thought. Oliver fell asleep with a great sense of pleasure from the success of the adventure and Amelia was in confuse about the moral ramifications of her actions but simply ignored the emotions. In the afternoon Amelia and Oliver awoke confused.

 

Chapter 2: Greed and Gains

 

 Oliver awoke to find several unknown individuals within the prison, The immediate reaction was to grab a pistol and aim for the strangers. As he prepared to fire Reginald walked forward. “Relax,they’re ex-legion operatives. Ideals have driven them to us. Is this not what we are in need of?”  Oliver sighed heavily. “We could barely sustain ourselves. How do you expect us to keep these mercenaries alive and loyal?” Reginald smirked. “Firstly, these are genuine loyal idealists not mercenaries. second they bought everything they could from home which is already plenty. And finally I was able to get a good amount of food with the money left over from Dwight getting drunk to acquire food.”  Oliver began to walk downstairs and found Amelia and Dwight laying out weaponry, loading and assembling assault rifles. Oliver looked confused “What the hell is going on?” Amelia looked to Oliver and smiled. “Reginald informed us that after he purchased the food the legion went into a state of emergency. They’re offering big cash rewards to those who remove marauders from the area after our little incident. The cash however useless outside the walls of the area could allow us to create a sphere of influence in the faction.” Oliver was somewhat pleased with this due to the fact that this expansionist move would be one that also expands upon sustainability. Looking back at Amelia after staring off in his own thoughts he spoke. “Well atleast you will achieve something that Dwight clearly failed to. Dwight was shocked but oliver had walked off before he even started speaking.With Oliver gone Dwight resumed his actions and looked at amelia.

 

 After a couple seconds Dwight was able to begin speaking so that the words were not a random thought nor was silence awkward. “The AK47 is a symbol of our ideals and particularly you Amelia.” Amelia taking that quite literally and not in the sense of a complement looked quite confused. “How so. we are libertarian socialist birthed from independent ideal that stem from Marx. We are not communist and as for me i don’t see any parallel between myself and a firearm.”  The literal interpretation almost brought a smile to Dwight’s face if not for his immediate reply. “No. You see the AK47 is resilient and powerful much like both you and the ideals we share. It May go in the wrong direction due to influences but is always true and capable.” Amelia at this point simply rolled her eyes and was no longer amused. “Dwight, I get you want to feel you can connect with humans and particularly me because i wouldn’t simply watch passively as you drink yourself into unconsciousness, but christ  desperate attempts at romanticism are not the answer to your present situation.” Dwight responded swiftly and emotionlessly almost as if he were acting as a psychiatrist. “This is all just oliver trying to disconnect you. His dreams for the species are for everyone to be as miserable as him and this surfaces through you. Stop and free yourself from his grasp!” Amelia became somewhat frustrated with Dwight. “Firstly, you try to evaluate me. Secondly, NO! The reason i’m disinterested in relationships or human connection is because Oliver is a jaded cynic, Reginald is a psychopath, and you are just whatever the hell you are.” Dwight was unaffected by the comments and Amelia didn’t care much about the conversation.

 

The two continued to work as silence filled the room. As Reginald stayed upstairs chatting casually with the recruits, Amelia and Dwight came upstairs and plopped the collections of guns they held into the center of the floor. Reginald Walked outside into the yard where he found Oliver staring eastward. Oliver turned to Reginald. “Those two have shit with the legion, but i have my own intentions. We must move to the east and find the democratic forces. These are the people we want to have sided with us.” There was silence. Reginald responded “We have a goal and i want to help you achieve it comrade. I hope to see you succeed and will do my best. Let’s just hope the legion dont know what exists out there or it's already been reduced to ashes.” Reginald and Oliver set off as Amelia, Dwight and the others prepared to head over to the legion. After a few hours. Amelia and the others had arrived at the legion while Reginald and Oliver were still walking East. Amelia had entered the gates and was instructed to drop the weaponry. A guard took it and Amelia entered. Shortly after, she crossed the legion town. She then entered the same building that Oliver had entered earlier. Seeing the worker there she decided to make a remark “For the shitty condition of this place and its values, the bureaucratic methods are somewhat surprising.” The worker rolled his eyes and handed amelia a form. She listed her party members, home faction, and purpose for stay. She gave the paper to the worker. It was given a validity seal and handed to her. She folded up the paper and placed it in the internal pocket of her coat. She went back to the gates and showed the guard the paper where the weaponry was handed back. Amelia and the others went outward.

 

Dwight was placed as scout and went with one of the Loyalists. Dwight had gone forward about a mile or so as Amelia remained not too far behind before arriving at a hill where Dwight was looking through binoculars. Amelia prepared her sniper and looked in the same direction to see three men. All three were equipped with assault rifles, gas masks and body armor. Amelia looked closer to see there were no uniforms and the body armor looked as if it was stolen from some abandoned base. The assault rifles were also of the Kalashnikov family. This led Amelia to take a shot. The one in the middle dropped to the ground and Amelia was able to pick off the others fairly quickly. Dwight and the other scout went to investigate the bodies and nothing significant was found. A scout reached into his backpack and pulled out a camera. It was clearly taken from some shop as he also had several batteries that were probably also stolen. He took pictures of the dead bodies and quickly turned it off. “Hard to find this kinda shit anymore. Be best to conserve power”. With that over the group began to head back to the legion. by the time they reached the gates the sun was down and it was aggressively cold.

 

Reginald and Oliver had been walking the entire day and at this stage were almost out of breath. Oliver became very angry after it became dark.”What the hell?! Wasn’t it five miles. I dont have a damn pacer but i’m pretty sure we’ve gone well over five miles” Reginald didn’t respond. After another half hour the two came across a town. Oliver sprinted into a house and drew his gun. Reginald followed. After searching the house to find nobody there or any threats. Oliver approached Reginald “Well the lock in the basement is functional, but most of these assholes have guns so we’re gonna have to take two hour shifts. Don’t you have insomnia?” Reginald looked at him confused “Yes dipshit, but we’ve been walking the whole damn day. Nevertheless, i’ll take first shift. The night went on in two hour shifts of constant paranoia in one and glorious rest in the other. By sunrise, neither Oliver nor Reginald had a full nights sleep and decided to continue for a few more hours before leaving. Oliver and Reginald began walking. Oliver began a conversation out of nowhere “I have no doubt that even though we didn't know the correct distance it’s still in this direction.” Reginald just rolled his eyes and kept walking. Oliver decided now would be a good time to bring up a discussion that they rarely had. “Hey reginald? What were you doing before the crash? Did you have any loyalty or goals prior to meeting us?” Reginald responded quickly “No shit i had goals. I will say i was loyal to no faction. I mainly just stirred up shit to cause faction wars. I think I may be responsible for a lot of the factions that fell during start up. Amidst this chaos i was able to capture and kill without even being a blip on the faction’s radar. This kept up until I had finished robbing some southern faction’s farm and they alerted everyone they could about me. You guys found me when i was on the run. I guess either the legion didn’t hear or though I was someone else and the man they were after had died. After all i’d still be burning shit for fun if not for you. This isn’t to say you purified or enlightened me. I’ve always been an idealist, but this idealism lives under a dark sheet of nihilism, psychopathy and understanding of reality. Meeting other utopian idealists caused me to stop, because I want to preserve as much intellectualism in this world as I can.” At that point Reginald was out of breath and Oliver was full of thought but didn't want to say anything that angered reginald.

 

Back at the legion Amelia was about to cash in on the dead marauders that were found. The town was a few square miles but the navigation felt much faster when behind the walls of a faction. They went back into the area to report findings and were requested to present evidence. The images they showed were more than enough for the worker there and he went out to go get payment. Amelia turned to Dwight “When  he said evidence what did he mean? I guess images were adequate but do most people just walk in and plop a dead body on the ground before requesting money?” Dwight didn’t respond. The worker came back and a substantial amount of money was handed to them.”These people are very likely linked to the massacre at our gates. ordinarily we would’ve given you half this. Also the Emperor would like to see you later today.” With a substantial amount of money it made sense to just venture the town and look for something to spend it on. There was a house available in a relatively central location that could easily be purchased. The issue was whether or not to use the surrounding land or the land inside the faction. The surrounding land was rather developed and enjoyed the guard security but Amelia and Oliver were able to cause a mass panic from a couple hundred feet away

Land inside would be completely safe but there would be very little of it and during the growth period would be very detrimental to increases in power. The decision was made to take the risk as they had a habit of doing. Amelia and Dwight prepared to see what the emperor had prepared.

 

 

Meanwhile Oliver and Reginald approached the walls of a new faction.They were approached in a way not uncommon by most of the faction gate patrols and after giving up weapons they were held. This faction was much larger but also had weaker patrols. The area was expansive and there was a high youth population and educational buildings were in place. There was no knife to sell so basically they were broke and in the middle of a faction they hadn't been to, but not so far from home that leaving was an option. Surprisingly the area had a lot of interesting public services and the agricultural state was nice enough to where food stamps were implemented. There was also a massive building for faction diplomacy which appeared to be ideal. Reginald and Oliver walked in to find forms available and a fair amount of people filling them. This was a place that welcomed outsiders with open arms. Oliver seeing this as the faction’s downfall and Reginald seeing this as an opportunity both visions reflecting their respective worldviews.

 

After entering the office Reginald and Oliver grabbed forms and began contemplating his approach to the questions at hand. It was abundantly clear this place was much better in regards to diplomacy then the legion was but was their faith in ideology eclipsed by their devotion to common sense? Oliver had answered in ways that highlighted the emphasis on ideology and philosophy while highlighting ties to the legion in regards to faction resources but made sure to emphasize that they were not loyal to the legion. Forms went through a process and completed records were placed out under the assumption there would be no taking which made sense to most because there would be very little purpose in claiming to be of a faction they weren’t. Oliver and Reginald waited it out. After several hours and folders dropped out. Oliver checked to find the United Socialist Alliance an official faction in the eyes of the new faction as well as Oliver and Reginald being considered diplomatic. It was discovered that soon after that Oliver and Reginald would be meeting the head of this faction and maybe figuring out what it was.

 

Back at the legion Amelia and Dwight were preparing to meet the head of the legion. Walking down a mile or two from the house they were in to find a large building in the back. This mansion was where the head of this militant town that Amelia grudgingly called a faction would be found. Upon walking in they saw who this was. A dark haired, blue eyed man in a generals uniform with such excessive jewelry that  it almost seemed childish. He greeted them “Hello. i am emperor of this glorious militant land. You can simply call me David. I am thrilled to be associating myself with you. Never before have outsiders who were so blatantly rejected by our staff been of such devotion to our cause. Surely reward is incentive to do this, but those who don’t intend on remaining in the faction or depending on it’s people would simply not be interested in our currency.” There was somewhat of a pause. Amelia looked somewhat confused. David seemed somewhat charming but his presentation came across to Amelia as him knowing of the intention to create a sphere of influence and trying to halt that by manipulating them into loyalty. David broke the silence “Well, let’s go to the table and continue to discuss this. I would just love to hear the stories of how you came here and what you wish for both our factions.” Amelia rolled her eyes.

 

At the table David’s charm continued to balance his presentation to a degree that kept Amelia suspicious but not worried. “So tell me Amelia. In the turmoil of the crash and years since, what did you do?” Amelia was in an ocean of thought but went back to the beginning of her life. “I was born before the crash and on the road to a successful future. Being so preoccupied with my writings and thoughts i did not see signs to come. The initial riots struck me as just some dumbasses trying to make the news but this persisted. Living in the suburbs i was initially safe. As things persisted we decided to attempt to move. We ended up working for this group and ironically in a city. The group took power and kept control of the city and surrounding area for years. A fight in their leadership plunged the area into chaos. I fled to this faction and that worked well until i was forced into the military of the faction. There i fell apart, deserted and met Oliver. ever since then i’ve been able to recover.” At that point Amelia Paused. David decided to speak “You’ve changed alot since then. Your loyalty was eclipsed by emotion but since you met Oliver it’s the other way around. You may be curious as to why you are here. I wanted to tell you something.” Amelia, confused as to what it could be, just waited silently. David, again broke the silence “My questioning of your loyalty and companions in your new endeavors don’t strike this as obvious?” Amelia simply looked on confused and waited for David to speak again. “I thought you would be a bit more capable of deducing this but we’ve met before.” Amelia displayed a look of disbelief but responded “I don’t think so.” David responded quickly “Well i do Amelia Robertson. For someone with such a good memory of her past it seems odd that you wouldn’t recognize your former faction commander.” Amelia was shocked. She had been suspicious of that but continued to act ignorant out of fear. David responded in a reassuring tone “If you think i want vengeance you're wrong. I know what kind of person you were and I forgive you but i also know what kind of person you are now and expect more of you. This is your second chance.” Amelia still looked on confused as to what this meant. David, once more broke the silence. “Crisis looms on my land Amelia, and i want you and your friend to join my military and do some work involving rival factions. Amelia replied quickly “I remember who you to. you have changed as well. you were loyal to the faction, but now you’re loyal to yourself. you’re in power. How can i be certain as to your intentions?” David shifted from a charming tone to an aggressive one. “You were never loyal to anything but yourself. You betrayed a faction and let hundreds die, but I need to earn YOUR trust?” After holding back tears for a brief moment amidst the memories of guilt and horror, Amelia responded. “I’m loyal to Idealism now and you need to know that I have moved on from that guilt phase.” David looked at her and shifted from an aggressive tone to a psychopathic one.”Oh really. Past what happened. Then can you explain the guilt in your eyes, the horror, and the nightmares still plaguing you to this day. You are still emotionally connected to the world, and if you think that your disconnection will lead you to happiness rather than suicidal madness i’ve got some bad news for you.” Amelia tried to hold back tears but it was no use. She rested her head on the table and began to sob. David looking on in happiness got up from his seat, threw a paper on the table, turned to Dwight, and spoke. “When you control this mad bitch and let her make a decision while in a sound state of mine, i’ll be right here.” Dwight and Amelia walked back to the house as Amelia continued to sob and Fell asleep on arrival.

 

Amelia awoke several hours later. Dwight was happy to see that she seemed to have gotten past what just happened, Amelia got up and quickly began speaking. “Having thought about what David has just shown himself to be  I’ve made a decision,” Dwight replied.”So you hate him and won’t work with him?” Amelia having realized how the situation went down clarified. “No. he showed himself to be devoted to his cause and not let anything stand in his way. This means more power for us and more opportunities.” Dwight smiled. The two set off back to David’s home and knocked. Shockingly, David himself arrived. “Well hello Amelia. have you returned to sound mind and made a decision?” Amelia replied.”Yes i believe i have. I have seen your devotion to your cause and I seek to help in any way that can further mine.” Ten minutes later Amelia and Dwight were in the legion army.

 

After a few weeks, Amelia and Dwight had done a number of supply raids and marauder hunts. Oliver and Reginald had done various work, but primarily worked towards expanding the socialist party in the democratic union. Another day in the legion. Amelia, and Dwight were walking to work as usual. Amelia was pulled aside by an officer when entering. “Amelia, You and Dwight need to see David now. The mild frustration of needing to go across the area was offset by the anticipation for what would be. After arriving at the mansion, they met David. David seated them just as he did before. Rather than use the charming tone he initially did, David spoke directly. “Listen Amelia. Do you know about a little place 25 miles southeast of here? I’m going to assume you don’t to save us some time. There is a large faction there that is a clear and present danger to our’s when in the wrong hands. My point is that intel from the area has proven some leadership changes recently occurred that indicate this faction may have fallen into the wrong hands.” Amelia understood what this met, but replying wouldn’t have served much purpose. David spoke again. “You, Dwight and some other soldiers are going to go in each with a few weapon parts in your bags, meet up with a contact in the city, and get the weapon reassembled to shoot our friend with, Instructions are on this paper.” David handed Amelia the paper and sent them out. At the exit there was a squad of legion forces waiting for Amelia and Dwight and the forces began the trip.

 

Oliver and Reginald had spent the past few weeks with the primary task of expanding the socialist party in the faction. Reginald had often gone out to find exiles and other people roaming the surrounding land and took them in. Most days he’d find at least a few people who would come in but he also found himself needing to shoot most of the people he found. He had also been taking a very risky approach by not shooting until someone revealed themselves to be a threat. The faction’s population was several thousand. The legion only had about a thousand people. This meant the impact of new members from the outside was insubstantial. Oliver had spent his efforts primarily into integrating more leftist members into their party. What allowed Oliver and Reginald to appear much more morally justified than others was the way they presented the party’s orientation around collective benefit, progress, and ideology rather than an established agenda. After a few weeks of work, Oliver and Reginald had raised the membership of the Democratic Union’s socialist party from 900 to 1400.

 

The fact was Oliver and Reginald couldn’t stay in the democratic union. A large group of people in the democratic union saw Oliver and Reginald as valuable idealists who embodied the future of the faction so much so that they were willing to join them in their endeavors. About 100 people were willing to go. The plan was to leave a few days later and take the people back to the prison. Oliver and Reginald had differing standpoints on the issue. for Reginald this was a chance for power and some actual force in their faction, but for Oliver this meant a large population that couldn’t be sustained unless someone got ripped to shreds. After furious arguments Oliver gave in. They would hatch a plan involving the legion but the conversation was over. After a few days had passed the time had come to go back to the prison. Nearly 70 people ended up deciding to go. The remainder having decided not to leave the safety of their homes.

 

 

25 miles was not an incredible distance. But in a world where every step could be the prerequisite for a bullet impact. Things moved quite slowly. Every noise caused a stop. This was far from paranoia. While marauders were dying out and factions instated supremacy, they still existed. The fact that marauders were dying out simply met the ones that were there to fear were fairly capable.  There were few settlements. The group did come across a town, but chose to bypass it. Dwight decided that despite his previous conversation with Amelia being dismissed, the journey would be a perfect point for further interaction.”So Amelia. I’m going to cut the bullshit and ask you this: when are we killing David?” Amelia was shocked that Dwight had  spoke that way in the presence of loyalists, but none seemed to be paying any attention or caring. Amelia responded. “I hate him, but I don’t want to kill him. I want him dead, but not at my hands.” Dwight seeing this as an opportunity responded. “So you want me to kill him.” Amelia sighed. “No. I would o0nce more call out your attempts to impress me, but the awkward atmosphere and flat out dismissal last time didn’t deter you from trying again.  I want fate to kill him. Say some faction with a more socialist tendency wants him gone, I’d be happy to oblige. I’d also be pretty happy with him being attacked and his mansion being burned down.” Dwight had to think. He responded just as the silence had gone on long enough to indicate the ending to the discussion. “If some faction kills him, they take power. If some socialists want him dead, then we’ll just be to them what we already are to david. The people of that faction live horribly. We kill david, and we earn the devotion of a thousand people. Our endgame is power. We are superior. We know how to make the world.” Amelia processed quickly and replied. “How does one embrace the ideals of unity and equality when that person is profoundly egotistical and entitled. My biggest issue with many of the marxists I meet is their tendency to feel as though they are so great. Don’t say that I haven’t met anyone. There are still several million people in this wasteland. look to the east and see.” Dwight thinking about these numbers of people replied having taken away very different information from Amelia’s words. “The glory of the east is going to be ours. How can one rely on the population to listen when many survivors are loyal to ancient ideals. There must be some authoritarian force to combat this and those who instate it are objectively superior to those loyal to past ideals. Once our world is in effect we can have our will.”

 

At this point Amelia was done responding. The radical ideas were not her focus. Time continued to pass. The slow pace continued normally. As the sun began to set, Amelia and Dwight grew tired. most of the people who were with the group continued, not so much due to formal training, but because the need to work heavily in the legion was very intense. The legion was very oriented on self reliance in ideology, and because the infrastructure of the legion was incapable of supporting any kind of real collectivist systems. After several hours of the continuing movement at an even slower pace than earlier, the group dug in for resting. The cycles of sleep and watching was the system used. After several cycles and occasional gunshots, the group was ready to continue.

 

The walk back to the prison with a large mob was a very similar endeavor to Amelia’s. The difference being most people in this group were unarmed. This moved quickly. Most people felt safe in a large group, and were less paranoid. Most unarmed people were in the middle of the crowd, so it would appear that this mob was just a large force.  By the end of the day, no attacks were encountered, and the prison had a much higher population. Oliver contemplated the lack of assaults encountered at the end. After most people settled down Oliver decided to talk to Reginald. “Hey. so i just noticed something. We don’t have the weaponry to equip all of these people. What are we going to do? We now have a massive demand for resources but only a fraction can acquire them.” Reginald saw this as a parallel of the earlier incident where Oliver was doubtful of sustainability. “Well then Oliver, I’m afraid we must develop some kind of plan to attack the legion. You and amelia did your thing, and that caused an uproar. About 30 of us can be armed using everything, and while we’re outnumbered, I don’t think the legion will be utilizing any form of real tactical operation. We can pull this. Where’s Amelia’s room?”

 Oliver sighed and simply walked up the stairs directly to it. Reginald pulled out some large paper from a cabinet. “Amelia loves writing, and arts so I think we’re going to draw up a little map.” Reginald came back downstairs and pinned the large paper to the wall. Reginald drew a pretty detailed map of the legion and highlighted important locations. “Oliver, the key here is blood. The initial phase involves killing as many as possible. The goal in this phase is not to get resources. It is to cause chaos and create a window of opportunity for us to grab as we please.” Oliver looked at him and maintained silence as he contemplated the situation. “Wouldn’t it make more sense to start upheaval prior to the assault? Get the army into chaos before we even fight them. I saw a huge mansion-esque building while i was there. In all likelihood, that’s the leaders mansion. Its near the back gate, so wed just need some tools to hop it and run in.” Reginald was pleased with the plan but didn't show it. He wanted to be the one who thought of it all, and tried to improve upon Oliver’s idea even more. Oliver could tell what Reginald was doing, and spoke out. “This is for the faction, not your ego.” Reginald simply replied in an attempt to make it seem as though he wasn’t trying to serve himself. “We have a good plan. It will work. I just wanted to make sure it would work best.” Oliver simply stared blankly for several seconds before replying “Bullshit.” Reginald recognized his contribution, and gave up then they went to sleep and would mount an assault the next day.

 

Chapter 3: A Crusade For Us

 

Amelia and the others had arrived at their destination at roughly the same time. The guards did the standard intimidation, but the only weapons were on them. Parts were in the packs, but dropping off weapons would cause the guards to ease off. Upon entering the area, it wasn’t clear what the faction was. It seemed like a generic town. A man walked by Amelia and handed her a piece of paper. Amelia unfolded it to find a hand drawn map of the faction and a location marked. The group walked downtown and entered a small house where they were greeted. “Hello. I can not disclose my identity, but I know who sent you. Refer to me as Nick with the knowledge that is not my true identity. The truth is the legion is very devoted to the idea of self sufficiency. This factions new head has started numerous aid programs, and is causing the people of the legion to look to him more so than david. His policies are also rather against militarization, and his ideas of wealth are rather counter to David’s. he will be passing this street to day and you will need to shoot him.” Nick left the room. Amelia pulled Dwight aside. “Dwight, I can’t fucking do this. He is the embodiment of our ideas.” Dwight reached into his backpack and grabbed a spring and some small metal pieces. “Then i guess he will live.” Dwight put the pieces in his pocket, stepped outside and threw them on the ground. Upon returning Dwight saw Amelia in a genuinely happy state. “I promise David will still die. If I can’t clip whoever runs this, then David’s death will be my great deed to our cause.” Amelia’s happiness started to fade. “Dwight. I know what you’re doing.” Dwight became somewhat angry. “Amelia. I need you to listen. I don’t like you. I want to appease you, because you are the only person in our little world that can still have any genuine emotional reaction to anything and it makes me feel as though i am serving the morale of the cause.” Amelia was left silent. she seemed to be in a very positive state once more. A legion officer came up to Amelia. “We should assemble the sniper rifle.” Amelia replied “Then do it. You have the training” The squad gathered together and assembled the sniper piece by piece before opening the hatch to the roof. The sniper appeared to be working and wasn’t visibly missing anything major.

 

On the roof the operative waited. Several hours later a vehicle came down the road. Vehicles were rarely seen, but still existed and only some factions had the supplies for them.  The operative fired but nothing happened. Pulling the trigger didn’t do anything, In panic, he dropped back through the hatch. “David fucked up!” Amelia entered a rather convincing panic attack stage. Amidst the panic a large explosion was heard followed by gunfire. The vehicle had took off and soldiers flooded the area. An all out firefight was underway in the streets, and the group was defenseless. A man was shot causing Dwight to rush out,get his gun, and jump into cover. Dwight had been less conservative with ammo, but was capable of killing several men before his supply ran dry. He had to stay in cover until the firefight was over. With the soldiers inside the faction winning, Dwight had made the right decision. Over the next few hours word was out that the faction was at war. The faction they were currently in was named The Social Collation was at war with The Imperial Order. Amelia spoke to the group. “People, we must return to the prison. Oliver must know of this war and help in this cause. The legion only wants the leader here dead for his own ego. Can we not see what is true, and fight on the side of ideals? You toil under David as he convinces you of his glory. You work and fight without a system that cares not  about your life, but about the decadence of its own leadership. Join this war on the side of the idealists and a united world will prevail!” This inspired the group and it was time to truly start the battle for the idealists. A high ranking officer pulled Dwight aside. “What you and your comrades do for us is truly amazing. I think i can arrange use of a vehicle to get us more manpower. You see we have a very capable military and a large degree of fuel reserves. The commoner can’t use our equipment, but we deploy it rather generously.”

 

Amelia and Dwight decided to follow the officer. The faction was much larger than anything Amelia had expected. It was an indicator that there were far more survivors than Amelia had anticipated. Walking around the faction took hours. It was now very dark After a while they arrived at the military headquarters. The officer went into the building and several minutes later came out with a piece of paper. A transport was secure. The Social Coalition had been demilitarizing for quite some time, and the need to mobilize was greater than ever and two trucks were available for use. Amelia decided to utilize both in the hopes Oliver had secured more manpower. The trucks arrived near headquarters shortly after and the journey began. What had taken days of caution and hiding could now be done in under an hour. When the truck arrived, Amelia ran into the prison. She found a large group of people asleep and awoke Oliver. Oliver reacted quickly and nearly shot Amelia, before recognizing her. Oliver woke up and worked to get everyone else up. Amelia decided to explain. “Oliver. I know this may seem like a change of pace, but we are at war. A new socialist leader in another area has gone to war with another faction. You are coming with us back to the Social Coalition and are going to ensure our victory. Oliver rushed up and got the others up quickly. Everyone had boarded the trucks within a few minutes and the plan was underway. There was no slowing down in fear. Marauders would never engage a convoy. After the drive, the officer got everyone to the barracks and the following day would be when the true war began.

 

The next day, the forces of the faction dug in. A line of trenches would defend the faction from the next assault by the Imperial Order. The faction had an army of several thousand, and a population of nearly 25,000. There was little doubt that the surrounding factions would not be able to challenge them after the war. Little was known about the imperial order. The forces of the Imperial order were likely well equipped, and now the forces had to wait. The trenches were dug roughly two miles from the walls of the Social Coalition. Days had passed. The army was well supplied as they simply awaited the arrival of the Order’s forces. There was a problem. The temperature was dropping. It had always been rather sporadic, but now it was much colder. Amelia, Oliver, Dwight, and Reginald were in the same area of the front trench. After another day of waiting, the sun set. At this point the order launched the assault. Hundreds thundered towards the walls of the faction before the entrenched opened fire. The fortifications shocked the enemy and drove them into somewhat a chaotic state. Most stayed back and tried to hit the entrenched from further away, while some charged in the hopes they would pass. As the firefight continued grenades started to get thrown. The risk of detonation within the trench prompted most to move forward. Oliver and the others had stayed in the middle of the advancing group. The Order’s soldiers relented as the firefight continued, but the Social Coalition had suffered heavy losses. The trenches surrounded the faction, and just as one fight ended a new one began. The army was now being attacked from two different sides. The forces who were defending the initial line were split to fend off the oncoming attacks on the other sides. The fight on the other two sides was much shorter and enemies relented much more quickly. The Order had failed, and the Coalition was ready for a counter attack.

 

The following day Reginald was called into the headquarters. Reginald felt as though this faction knew him, or he did something wrong. The walk to the headquarters was paved with fear. As always, the safety within faction protection allowed faster movement. Upon arriving, Reginald was greeted by a general. “Hello Reginald. We heard that you are capable of strategy.” Reginald was interested by this. “Yes, but don’t you have adequate leadership?” The general shook his head. “We have leaders, not tacticians. We need someone capable.” Reginald replied “I don’t think you’re just throwing me in charge. If you want some Ideas, i’ll need my group. Amelia, Oliver, and Dwight. We work as a collective.” “No problem.” A vehicle had arrived a little while later with Reginald’s comrades. It felt odd to have just the four again working to create a plan. It reminded him of the meeting in which the first expansionist movements began. There was A large map that was pinned to the wall with both factions mapped out, and the space between present. The group sat in silence for several moments analyzing it. Oliver approached the map. “What if we were to set up several sniping fronts to split forces, and create a diversion. During which time, the main force enters. Entering through the southeast would get us greater access to the ammunition reserves. We need to strangle the supplies. Many farms are surrounding the area. While they aren’t growing now small teams could ambush and burn them.” Dwight had not usually planned much, but he decided to attempt to reveal his strategy. “No. the infrastructure of the area is designed to get us to do that. There is a lot of cover in the area designed for the purpose of grinding intruders down. Moving in such a way that we secure the area surrounding the Supply locations will grind down defending forces. If we go for the Supplies we’re easy targets.” At this point the general simply watched, hoping someone would be able to save the faction. War with the Imperial Order had been feared for a while. The general didn’t want to put pressure or discourage his last hopes, but the reality of the situation needed to be explained. “People. We have not much time left. The Imperial order has a long history of warfare. They’ve destroyed nine other factions, and at one point were fighting 3 of them simultaneously. It’s not due to resources. It’s a well trained force, with a brilliant tactician. You are philosophers. You can look in depth and solve complex problem Our leadership is in panic. I want to see some progress. We’re still mobilizing most of our forces now, but we should be able to take the fight to the enemy.”  Oliver stared at him blankly. He just stared for almost a minute with a look of confusion before speaking. “Taking the fight to them to begin with is exactly what they want us to do. They launch a moderate assault and act as though it’s full force to batter the enemy into attacking them where the majority of the forces against them are defeated, and the actual assault commences. This may not be true for every scenario, but I think we just need to expand the trench lines and hold them. I respect your desire, but the assault would be lunacy. Better equip the forces to hold the line. We are going to give them a taste of their own medicine.” The room went dead silent. Oliver’s attitude would be a reflection of hopelessness, but he was right. Outlandish risks, and Power fantasy were no longer going to drive progress. Accepting the cold, dark reality was the only way one would win this war. The general broke the silence. “ It’s been awhile since I met someone so down to earth. I like the concept of the expansion projects. I will still need you on the field, as we need to defend the are.”

 

The group went back to the trenches. Here there was adequate food and supplies. Amelia had spent a lot of time writing in a small, black notebook. Oliver had occasionally seen this, but disregarded it. After a few hours of waiting, a large group arrived and began expanding trenches. Several people from the line were selected to help, and Amelia was one of them. Amelia handed oliver the notebook and said “Don’t lose this.” Amelia left, and Oliver opened to the first page.

 

 

 This book Is dedicated to documenting the philosophy, and endeavors of Amelia Robertson. Before I begin, I want it to be very clear that Unlike my comrades, I do not do what I do as some token attempt  to justify my inherent mental issues by tying a way of thinking to my personality type. Rather than do that, I simply think about the world’s problems from a direct standpoint, and only do what is right for humanity. I am what my comrades purport to be when they need to appeal to a group of people. I am the altruistic idealist unencumbered by cynicism, madness, or desire for power. When I say this I am not saying I have evolved beyond all others. Many share this worldview, and most who don’t haven’t even established their own complex worldview, as deep thought is not required for them. I truly believe the average person can grasp these complexities, but don’t simply because it isn’t essential for them. Now this is only true for the pre-collapse period. Now we have the influx of people who have been blinded in fear. We will do whatever is needed to protect our own existence. I hope I can change this, but I doubt I can. Regardless, I want to establish my core values. I believe in Equality, Individualism, and Art. Individualism does not refer to success or isolation from the world here. I refer to the valuing of each differing mind and worldview. Looking at each component that creates the network only highlights how they are connected. In regards to equality, those who can contribute more should have a fair reward, but the opportunities should be kept similar, and we should ensure everyone is supported. The logic that feeding a man will make him dependent upon your food is the logic we apply to wild animals who think of resources. Very few people are leeches, and the small portion that are do not outweigh the lives and contributions we save through various social programs. While it may seem the ramifications of the political aspect are simplified earlier, I’m just establishing the basis. Now I want to talk about art. When I refer to art I mean the art that evokes thought and progress within society. Some exploitative musician’s cash grab is not worth society’s reward. If one were to inspire people and shift worldview for our collective benefit, that is what I could get behind.

 

My core values are essential, and I will dive into my worldview later. I want to talk about the people surrounding me, and how they affect both me and my ideas. I think I should start with Oliver. I’ve always found his somewhat docile nature, and lack of leadership a reflection of his cynical mentality rather than stupidity or being a sheep. Oliver does speak quite often, and I find his logic to be great. He is always in touch with reality, and while I don’t “love” anyone in my group, I’d be keen to be with him over Dwight and Reginald. I don’t think I can say his cynical nature is just a reality check. He’s a quitter. He’s the type of person who, as a student would show up and Test in to the highest level, but then flounder that by losing interest and not doing anything. He can do more, but he doesn’t. I would doubt he’s depressed, but that could be a possibility. His lack of genuine emotion in any direction is probably the biggest factor. Surprisingly, he can still display empathy. He simply looks at the situation, and processes how that affects the person, rather than try to feel that person’s pain. I think i will refer to this as analytical empathy. There are pros and cons I can see to this. I can see how it makes objective view of struggle more defined, and can make people more keen to help if they don’t rely on emotional connection. The big fault in this is that it can also make people less keen to help if the situation isn’t objectively that bad. I feel as though Oliver embodies the reality that limits our idealism, while at the same time contributing to the idealism. Basically, I like what he does and stands for, but i don’t like what he is and represents.  I know it seems odd, but i’m sure some of you will get it. That’s about all I have to say about Oliver.

 

Now Reginald. Reginald is a born leader, but the only reason he does the planning he does is to feed his own ego. he has little concern for life, and shows all the signs of psychopathy. That said, he knows how to make the world and cares to see success, even if in the intervening time he does everything he can to please that side of him. He is very indifferent to me, so i guess I should feel the same about him. I feel as though he can become somewhat settled. I see him as between oliver and dwight in terms of both energy and emotion. Reginalds psychopathic behavior is somewhat generic, which is why I don’t find him interesting. His desire for dominance is essential to our cause, and I think expansionism would be harder without him.

 

Lastly there is Dwight. Dwight is odd. He acts very laid back in a lot of situations, but that might just be what i call The Oliver affect. He clearly likes me. I know about him spewing about his own “Emotional well being, and concern for me”,  but that’s bullshit. He’s just trying to appeal to my personality. Dwight is sneaky, odd unknown. His lack of interaction makes him more mysterious to me. Maybe his complex behavior is an attempt to allure me, but I won’t fall for it. I haven’t seem jiom exhibit more than happiness and general apathy. His lack of emotional display also intrigues me. Maybe I am mystified by him because he is complex in his mental state. Oliver and Reginald are so simple that Dwight is on a new level. When i say simple, i refer to deducing how they think. I find none to be stupid here. Dwight is probably the least capable in my mind, but he is still very smart.

 

Oliver closed the book. Amelia’s thoughts didn’t surprise him, but he found it very Interesting that he could look into her thought process. Oliver decided not to read more. He watched as the trench network expanded slowly. As the sun set, work slowly stopped. Enough had been done for positions to shift forward. The night passed normally. No assaults, just a continued wait. Oliver and the Group shifted around as sleep shifts rotated. During a shift rotation, the Imperial Order had launched its strike. The sense of fear that was felt before was gone. It was just another assault. Shots were fired, and the line was held just like last time. There were attempts to flush the Coalition out with grenades, but they were too few and far between to cause heavy losses. The battle took its toll, but another victory ensured that something else would be needed to break the line.

 

In the streets of the Imperial Order, news of another defeat lead to some questioning of chances. Most were still certain that the war would end soon, but some became very worried. The well supplied forces caused food shortages. In the streets of the area there was a large mob protesting. As protests had no immediate danger, the Order would ignore them. This mob was quite angry. Nick was in the streets if the area, and decided to see how much this would escalate. Nick snuck around, and set fire to the food storage. The mob rushed in grabbing everything they could. Reinforcements were called in to attempt to quell the uprising. The crowd was broken apart by gunfire, but most of the taken food stayed in the hands of the people.

 

This incident did not immediately cause any form of massive chaos, nor any great instant demoralization within the forces, but for the people, the fact that there was fighting amongst the faction over supplies was a very worrying sign. Nick had spent most of his time doing things like this. He would always escalate the situation to a small scale riot, and when he did that, he would be satisfied with what he did. At some point during this timeframe, he had learned of David’s intention to target Amelia, due to her lack of response. David did not believe Amelia died. and had sent a small team to ensure the task within the Social Coalition was complete, and ensure Amelia was dead.

 

Nick had little time. He needed to get to Amelia, and did not intend to travel by foot. The way the Order had ambushed before was by deploying the soldiers when they were  only a mile from the battleground, so they had an adequate supply of transport. More often than not, these vehicles would be used as a delivery system within the faction. Nick simply waited it out. When the next vehicle went through he would hijack it. He did just that. With minimal resistance he forcefully entered the vehicle and stabbed the driver, before dumping him on the street. Cleanup would be important, but Nick couldn’t focus now. Nick had arrived in a few hours, and rushed in. He noticed several men well equipped walking towards the headquarters. He continued to follow and listen. “I’m looking for Amelia Robertson, she has worked with my.. shall we say organization, and I need to find her.” The man at the desk looked on for several seconds before replying “You can’t have weaponry here, how did you get that in, I don’t see you registered with-” “Enough!” The guard whom Nick presumed was from the legion draw a pistol and shoot the receptionist. “Let’s ask an officer or some military staff where she is.”  At that point, Nick ran to the gates to see the security there dead. Nick grabbed a rifle from one of the guards, and prepared to target the legion forces. Amelia and the group were walking down the street towards the legion forces. Nick could no longer wait. He quickly gunned the group down before attempting to run. At that point, a regular Coalition patrol stopped him. The patrols were much less frequent due to the war, but were still present.

 

After some time in a jail, The investigation was finished. The dead bodies were confirmed, and all Nick did was defend the Coalition. Nick was not only freed, but somewhat respected as a hero. As he left the jail, he was greeted by Amelia. Amelia’s tone was direct. “I’m not going to share some kind of delightful after-party that ends with you being praised. I’m glad you did what you did, but I would’ve lived without you, but why were those people targeting me?” Nick smirked before speaking with some slight amusement. “Oh dear, You know not who wanted you dead? Do you forget the task you failed in, and the faction you betrayed. I’m afraid the legion want’s you dead” Amelia responded somewhat defensively. “Yeah, I should’ve killed David much earlier.” Nick went back into his default tone. “You have had the intent to do so for some time you see. Amelia, David is at the heart of a failed empire, and wants to move forward. He’s meeting with the Order soon enough. At that point, we can kill two birds with one squad. We deploy a small team and shoot up the high tier of leadership, and there are likely going to be more than just the two faction heads.” Amelia had reached a point where she had built her party into something, and wasn’t willing to risk everything for a potential expansion, let alone her personal demand. “I’ll need some time to think on it, but i’ll see.”

 

At this point in the war, there needed to be a decisive victory, The order would launch everything it had in one direct assault. After hitting that they would spread throughout the trench network, breaking up the Coalition’s forces before advancing into the city. The faction’s food supply was largely within the area, but there was some outside. The pan would be to destroy food and slaughter everything they could. The assault began the next day at around sunrise. vehicles were used to provide cover and the attacking force was constantly moving. The goal here was to cause chaos, and have the defenses lose focus. As the forces in the trenches had their fire stray and lose direction, the Order deployed smoke bombs. Much of this equipment was intended to be stored until the city itself was under attack in the original plan, but now the defenses required more to be flushed out. As most people shifted into the area under attack, Oliver had fled and gathered people to stage an interesting movement. They would move behind the attacking force and cause confusion, but this would put Coalition soldiers in the fire of themselves. The maneuver ended up working surprisingly well. Few casualties from friendly fire and the attacking forces shifted out of order. The Order’s forces regrouped and continued the assault. grenades were deployed and people shifted out of the trenches. At that point, a second wave came forward, and drove the forces into the Coalition. the faction  was prepared. MG nests were all over the city and citizens fired at the Order’s forces.  As the attacking soldiers were ground down by defenses a small vehicle slammed into the entrance and drove to the headquarters. The vehicle was stuffed with explosives, and the leadership and HQ were blown apart. The Order was driven out of the city, but damages were severe.

 

As the area was cleaned up, Reginald decided to stand up and attract quite a bit of attention. “With our leadership dead and our supplies burnt, we have but one hope. The legion and Union. Both these factions have hefty supplies, and a weak army. With what we still have we need to strike. However, my group must voyage further and i encourage many of you to go with them. I will stay here and run the faction, while we seek new territories east.” The idea went well. Reginald wasn’t hated by anybody, and something needed to keep stability. The plan was each member would get a group of soldiers, and would be sent out in a different direction. Amelia would go to the south, Oliver would go to the north, and Dwight would go to the east, and along their way bring back whatever people and supplies they could.

 

Chapter 4: Each To His Own

 

The passing several days saw each of the three journey outward and continue doing what they had already done. Nothing new was seen. It was only after these days that the experience of any member shifted from marching forward. The distance was unknown, but within a week, each found a new faction. Marching was quite slow, so the distance was likely not too extreme, but the areas found were all quite differing. Oliver had come across a faction similar to the democratic union, but far more militarized, and currently embroiled in some irrelevant conflicts. The area was quite well developed and had a large population. The infrastructure was decent, but it was far from ideal.  The food shortages were evident, and it seemed the masses would believe anybody happening to offer a solution. It was reminiscent of an older world in which a prominent problem was put above everything else, and anybody who would solve it would be revered until it was realized the degree of error in other policies. There was little collective work, and farms were organized into a multitude of small, individual farms. Resources such as food were taxed, rather than implement a monetary system. In a period like this, people don’t want money. They want to sustain themselves. This collection system was rather inefficient, and the majority of resources were funneled into a military. With tens of thousands of people, there was a very visible class distinction. As food was a top priority, those with large groups or families would gather a large amount of food, and be able to focus on other aspects of life. Essentially, the percentage of time an individual devoted to food collection would determine their status. That said. there were only a few large farms, and most were built to fit the land each individual owned. The faction was smaller than expected for having a system like this in place with it’s large population, but still visibly more stretched than it should be. Oliver was not entirely sure how he would start or gain power, but it was certain that he would likely have an easy time doing it.

 

Amelia’s journey had took her into a new type of faction. The area was well enough off in food production, and this was the closest thing to an “Industrialized” faction she had seen. Crude production of weaponry, and refinement of existing weaponry, were the largest contributors to the faction. It was very big, and was on a different scale to the Coalition. It utilized a monetary system. While democratic, there was a large amount of power given to the state, but it also was fairly right economically. Unlike the area Oliver had discovered, this faction’s citizen’s were very informed and would frequently discuss ideology. The faction was heavily militarized, and had set up some health service (as crude as it was). The faction was undergoing an extremely prosperous time, meaning Amelia’s plan to gain power was simply to wait until things went wrong. Amelia decided to work in the  police force, while also beginning to write.

 

Dwight had essentially ended up where he started, He came across a war torn area desperate for recovery. The shredded buildings of old were indistinguishable from the shredded creations of the faction’s people. As resources fell apart, it was clear something needed to be done. Dwight would probably have the hardest task of all, and he debated whether or not it was worth the effort, but a population saved by him would be inclined to listen, and aid. The ideologies of the area were irrelevant, and the infrastructure could only be described as torn apart to the point of nonexistence.

 

Reginald had gathered all that he could. Men and materials, and prepared for the attack on the legion. There were around 500 capable people, who the current resources could support. The size of Reginald’s force was comparable to that of the legion’s population, at least it should’ve been. The imperial order sent about 500 men to defend the legion. The legion already had 200 people, so this would be a gamble. Reginald’s goal was to get as many supplies as he could, the answer was simple. The majority of Reginald’s forces would be deployed at the front gates. Their goal would be to hold out and tear apart enemies for as long as they could while a small subset of troops raided the surrounding land, and resources near the back wall of the factions. The march to the legion was made as quickly as possible. It took quite some time, but upon arrival the assault began shortly after. Hitting the front gate was easier than expected as the Order’s forces were poorly trained and equipped. Reginald’s forces were not exactly the pinnacle of faction military, but were much more competent than what the Order had lazily thrown together. As Reginald’s forces pushed forward and the raiders approached the inside, Reginald had come to a shocking realization. The Order set this up intentionally. Reginald ordered a retreat, but by the time his forces arrived back at the Coalition it was too late. The area was ruined, and little was left. The few thousand that were, could no longer sustain themselves in the ruined area. Reginald, decided that the best approach would be to move back to the prison. The march back to the prison was slow. Rather than the second nature movement into striking position that the military had demonstrated before. The walk back was long and drawn out. There was enough supplies to last temporarily. On the way back Reginald recalled his memories surrounding the prison and marches back and fourth.

 

Upon arriving at the prison everybody found some space. The area was somewhat crowded, but the area would work. For several days most people simply rested. The constant chaos at the tattered ruin was not a sleeping environment. After these few days had past, Reginald was faced with a decision. He could either take the risk, and move westward, or go to the Democratic Union, and see what they could do. Reginald would be naturally inclined to chose the former, but the previous incident left him in the middle. Reginald took time to think about it, but the more he thought about it, the more he saw going to the Democratic Union as the rational choice while at the same time, the continuous thought had him forgetting the repercussions of his previous actions and see westward expansion as the proper approach. These effects occurred at similar rates, and reginald was still stuck on the decision. He came to the conclusion that the Democratic Union likely wouldn’t help him, and he had not the capacity to attack it.  He called upon what he had to move westward.

 

This was a return to form for Reginald. Rather than have the only struggle be the long distance to reach an area, he was walking through the unknown. He regained what little sense of fear he could, and found a strange sense of excitement on the journey. Nobody seemed interested in talking to him. He just walked as the crowd spoke amongst themselves. He had never been good with social interaction, as he would always jump into the main points, ending the conversation as quickly as possible unless his goal was to drag the conversation out as long as he could. There was an element of arrogance, but most people just knew he was not a friendly individual. These factors combined made it all the more strange when he was approached by a member of the crowd. “Hey!” A look of confusion came across Reginald’s face. “I already told all of you that i don’t know how long it’s going to be. It’s a gamble that we have to take.” The man looked at Reginald with the same look before switching to the casual tone that he would be using for most of their future encounters. “No. I’m Liam. I wanted to talk to somebody who knows about your group, and the ideals of it. I’ve been reading a good amount of Amelia’s writing. Do you know who Amelia is?” Reginald smirked “She’s somebody who would be very upset with people screwing with her work.” Reginald thought this would get Liam to go away, but it just perpetuated his conversation. “I’ve been reading her theory about factions. Her work states that the factions operate with strangely large amounts of order, and unity with ideals. This is born out of fear of being plunged into the state of the outside world, but as infrastructure develops this fear is reduced. This fear still exists, and she believes that it is this fear which stops new ideals from growing.” Reginald was for once genuinely interested in the conversation. He decided to reply in a way that didn’t lead to a close. “The fault in her theory there is that the point the factions develop to is not set in stone. Often times we see democratic factions opening, drifting into new forms of philosophy, but those with the time to progress in that area are not going to progress in ways that prevent their destruction. So I see where she comes from. Ultimately I think there is a certain balance of Political and Militaristic nature which  we have yet to find.” Liam was interested, but he chose not to get involved in this lengthy conversation at the time and went back into the crowd.

 

Near sunset the group was walking, when several armed individuals opened fire on the crowd. Some people in the crowd were armed and were able to fight them off, but there were a few deaths. Reginald saw a wounded marauder, and stabbed him on the ground. Marauders were seen as scum. People who couldn’t live within society, and had to be cast into the outside world to wreak havoc. The night came in, and people began to sleep. Shifts rotated the night, and by morning things were okay. The journey continued. The journey continued, and after a few more days of rotating through the sleep cycle and walking, they had arrived at the gates of another faction. Behind the faction was a bombed out town, which was odd, because most factions used existing buildings combined with new ones.

 

The faction was nearly deserted. Food, and equipment were still perfectly stored. The group began to scavenge supplies. Reginald and afew others walked by the back, seeing part of the bombed out town. Reginald was anxious to leave. The faction was in too good a condition to just have been abandoned. Just as reginald gathered forces to leave, Liam came out “Come quick reginald” In one of the houses there was a door that lead to a basement. In the basement were scattered military grade weapons. Reginald saw this and had no doubt this was illegitimate. “Come on. We’re lucky enough already” Liam was disappointed. ‘Come on. The time it takes to switch out gear will be worth it.” Reginald  refused. They prepared to leave. Just then gunfire began. Reginald’s forces fled into the faction. Liam went upstairs and looked out the window. There were several armored vehicles opening firing throughout the area. Liam ran downstairs. “Shit! They’ve got armored equipment” Reginald responded “Did they see you?” “No” Dwight looked around. There didn’t seem to be any explosives, but he couldn’t focus with the gunfire” Reginald grabbed a rifle and ran upstairs. The vehicles were near the back of the faction. The living members were hiding in buildings. Reginald took aim, and fired killing one of the machine gunners. Amidst the chaos, this wasn’t noticed. This continued until the vehicles began to move around more in search of the shooter. Reginald had returned to the basement. “Liam! It’s me come on out.” Liam left his hiding spot in one of the storage closets, and grabbed a weapon. An armed man charged into the basement. Liam shot him on sight. This was one of the drivers. Reginald and liam ran upstairs, and saw an armored vehicle parked by the building. Reginald immediately jumped in, as did Liam. They drove back into the town and set up a sniping post in a ruined building. Reginald saw cars move out of the faction gates, and sniped machine gunners. Some vehicles retreated, and some continued. Reginald and Liam had sniped the drivers, and when all were gone, they went back into the faction.

 

The number of deaths was high, but not unexpected. Almost half of what the forces Reginald bought were killed, but now there were less people, and more supplies to sustain them. There were 4 armored vehicles. Each of which could only hold a decent sized crew. Not everyone could get transport, but the goods and supplies would be guaranteed. They spent the next several hours loading up supplies into the vehicles. Food, Guns, Fuel, and whatever else was set up in this death trap.  With the ability to haul supplies back and  forth as well as members. Rather Than risk more  loses. People and materials would be taken back in groups. it took a couple hours to get to the prison, so It wouldn't take too long. After an ongoing cycle of movement, the last of the people were taken back. It was night. The exhausted forces rested at the prison.

 

Dwight’s first priority was to deal with the food shortages at the Faction he had arrived at. He organized the best people he could into squads to swing south, and raid the country. This approach was inefficient at first, but after several weeks of constant raids the food supply began to stabilize. Next was rebuilding shelter. With a high population, materials were easy to find. Farther south there was forest, and surrounding towns could be used. Dwight organized a new workforce for this task. Raiding other areas was only for the top tier. The population should be put to the best usage possible. While Dwight allowed the raid program to expand somewhat, he was still very selective. Most people would join the construction program in the coming weeks, and it would extend to almost all of the faction. The program was more of a success then dwight intended, and rebuilding happened much quicker than predicted. Dwight wanted to avoid more risk, but he needed the essential contribution. He began taking large numbers of men off the construction programs and putting them into raid units. The size of the raid program doubled, but now there was an increased need for ammunition. Dwight assumed the greater numbers would allow the raids to be efficient enough to do that. As rebuilding continued Dwight ordered the creation of an education program. This was surprising, as few factions implemented such a service, and a rebuilding faction would be in much less need of it.

 

Oliver found a much different situation. Almost all resources were being funneled into the war, and he was expected to aid. His only real option was to fight for the faction to be able to sustain himself. The smaller the group, the easier it was to get them to listen to him. Oliver’s goal was to end up doing resource raids. By starting out with smaller teams of people, he could slowly expand his influence. He also wanted to do what he could to solve logistical problems. Performance tests indicated he was skilled enough to do this, but unexpectedly he was to report for a raid that night.

 

There was a small building outside the faction. Here is where oliver met up with his squad. A faction soldier explained to him what was going on. “We will begin our departure soon. Allow me to explain how this works. You either get enough or people starve, and you’re done.” Oliver was unsurprised and unaffected by this news. It wasn’t really news to him, so much as a confirmation of what he had thought. After some moments waiting, a car arrived. They drove for about 30 minutes before being dropped off. They were almost half a mile from the faction they were targeting. Oliver and his team went to the back wall. There they would use grappling hooks to climb up. After entering the team walked around searching for a storage unit. They were usually near the back and heavily guarded, so within a few moments, a team member called the others over. Oliver, and two people would move forward creating a distraction while the others gathered supplies from the back. Oliver and his group opened fire, and several minutes passed before reinforcements arrived. The car had gotten to the back of the wall, and the team responsible for collecting the resources would throw them over the wall. The driver would load materials into the car, and a second vehicle was arranged for transport. As reinforcements arrived, Oliver and his team remained in cover behind the surrounding buildings. Oliver made sure to continue firing as much as necessary to keep focus diverted. Once the vehicle was full, the driver would place explosives on the wall and detonate them. This would be the signal to exit. Once the explosives were triggered. The entire raid unit fell back to the wall. Here they would hold off until their transport came. As the squad celebrated their success, other raids in almost identical circumstances were happening. Few units had transport, and would carry back what they possibly could. One thing was certain, this team had gotten an exceptionally large amount of supplies.

 

Through the next weeks, the war dragged on. A conventional faction war would involve two factions, and the space between, but the distance between these was so large surrounding factions played a key role. A ruined town a few miles southward was the greatest battleground. This town had many in-tact buildings and would serve as a great base for future assaults. The raids continued, and became routine. Oliver just looked at them as a part of his life. They became so routine much of the fear he got from doing them died down.

 

Within the few weeks Amelia had finished her work, and published her work on factions. Paper was available, but not particularly abundant. She titled her writing The Factions Failure: A critique on modern social order.  She read over it one last time tom make sure she expressed clearly what she wanted to.

 

Before I begin the Long list of evaluations, and connections, It is essential That I provide some basic insight on my theory and the history behind our current state.

The first thing that I would like to explain is Amelia’s Law. Amelia’s Law states that Humans will fight for Survival,Resources,Territory,Status, and Ideology in that order. The point at which armed violent conflicts end is an important factor, as the positioning of this on the scale presented by Amelia’s law can help determine when conflicts will end and what people can do to end them.

 

Now, there is a vast realm of ideology that i can build from Amelia’s law and the surroundings observed, but now The History needs to be explained.

 

It was about twenty years ago, that our nation descended into a period of anarchy. There were very few signs prior, but a major devastation in an economy that had been barely recovering was enough to push things further. There is very little knowledge as to the pattern of subsequent chaos or the government’s attempt to hold power, but it can safely be assumed that within the political and military institutions the country we’re divided and strong disloyalty as well as poor resource allocation had led to the governmental collapse and failure. From here there was a few year period of anarchy which progressively intensified. Millions were killed, Millions more we’re starved, and Millions of lucky people fled. During this time there was a huge migration to the midwest, but the cities of the east and west still held high populations, but they also experienced extreme divide and conflict. It was after this few years that we entered a period of factionalization.

 

Factions started off as loose confederations of bands of marauders, and began to grow. At first many people believed the faction to be a waste of effort. The first fac tions faced constant raid of their settlements, and were not much more skilled than the marauders which attacked them. It wasn't necessarily that factions proved superior to the world, but rather that they were able to hold out just to the degree they needed to to inspire others to do the same, as well as the fact that people needed to begin agriculture and were tired of killings. The large central part of this country served as the base for the first factions. Over the next few years factions appeared across the nation, and began to compete. We then entered a stage of warfare and chaos. Factions fell, while the ones which survived expanded. By this point the fight became about resources. (Remembering Amelia’s law) and while it was more organized, and on a similar scale, the brutality was nowhere near comparable to that of before. As str9ong factions emerged the smaller ones died out. With growing population and more development, Amelia’s law dictates that the fighting would naturally shift to territory. I believe the territorial Stage, is what we are currently in. I would also like to specify that Amelia’s Law is a general formula, and doesn’t always apply in a fixed manner because humans are complicated. With a semi-solid explanation of the history, I will now begin to discuss what Amelia’s law means in terms of achieving wider peace.

 

The fact that ideology has fueled much of the basis for human warfare may suggest that the scale which i have presented holds little to no merit. I never stated that once humans resort to fighting for ideology they stop. I simply said, that at one point when ideology becomes similar enough violence declines. I also would like to clarify that having minor ideological differences between factions that are fighting in which both parties have sufficient resources, is only indicative of the conflict being more about status or territory than ideology.

 

Modifying Ideology to a point which natural peace can be attained is a fairly hopeless cause. This is why I advocate a very open and free democracy rather than the Democratic Socialism where the freedoms extend to the system. Creating  this open atmosphere will not make radically differing factions unite (Quite frankly an open democratic union of two  factions who are vastly different ideologically could result in persecution of an ideological minority, or a high tension atmosphere between two parties with similar traction), It will allow peace to be achieved at a sooner point. While we are still in the point of status and territorial war, but those conflicts are quite frankly resolved simply by the ability of one party to make a compromise. Perhaps, I’m looking to far forward, but that is because I am more concerned with the secure fortress of a bright future rather than resolution to the conflicts of the present which are more or less reiterations of what we’ve seen in the entirety of Human history.

 

Being the one to go to the enemy’s faction, drop your weapon and shake hands, may result in some immediate lost, but the future will be yours in terms of the populations respect for you and your people.  I personally want to see within the walls of this faction, a council established to visit neighboring factions and form some kind of union. This Union could be as loose as the first bands of marauders coming together for factionalization or as strong as the unity that exists within a faction. Either way, my goal is  de-factionalization, which is basically the same process as the initial rise, but on a greater scale.

 

Some may consider it a miracle that factions operate like a well oiled machine, and proof of why we can obtain peace, but if anything the way factions operate is indicative of how people will close themselves off and limit the number of people who they will cooperate with. If there was less order in factions, there would undoubtedly be more risk, but there would also be a higher chance for unification and peace to be obtained. The modern faction is built on fear, and everything from the walls around it to the mentality of the citizens within it indicate this. Factions also spawn unity within their own walls, which leads to limitations on ideological development being limited. Any time new ideology develops it doesn’t usually adapt to the militaristic nature of factions. The fear of being reduced back to the chaos  of the outside world is something that also prevents critique of government. I actually do not interpret this fear as constant. Under a more unified policy, we would see people knowing that with the larger groups and unified efforts, the outside threats can be conquered. Simply put, the architecture of factions along with the small scale of them is responsible for this fear.

 

Then comes the issue of the order variance within factions themselves. Many people will convince themselves that because a faction is democratized free thinking survives, and they need not worry about forced ideological changes, but these people simply do not recognize the fear that has been instilled into them. They also do not know of the extreme pride in the factions of people that even a liberalized and progressive faction has faith in. Democratization does not mean peace especially when the climate we live in today.

 

Lastly, I would like to explain how socialism will play a role in this, and how socialisms implementation will vary during Defactionalization. While on the surface, Use of capital would be a good way to bring factions together, it would lead to ultimate failure if widespread socialism is to be obtained across this society. I believe that if capital is used then a violent revolution would be necessary upon completion of this connection. But at the point when these societies are connected and capitalism is at it’s high point, what spirit is there? If something is already decent the only way to make it perfect is to start over from scratch, and the common person would be pleased to sit about in this world. We must push socialism in one faction, and then aid our allies in others. With the support of people, Democracy or Revolution will push these allies in the proper direction. The people of the faction you supported are in your debt, as are their political institutions and economic ones. These allies will support you and you can work with them to repeat the process.

 

Factions, have become too walled off, too driven by their own interests, and too closed ideologically to continue to exist.  That is the problem. The solution is to channel the fear enclosed within these walls into the passion for cooperation in unity. The beautiful thing in all of this, is that the fear which divides us can become the force which reunites us.  However, The ability of this conversion rests solely on the people of our society, and their capacity to realize it.

 

The initial way in which this was distributed was through conversing in her work. She had talked to numerous colleges, but an officer named Chris had a sister who worked at the Factions academic institution. Amelia gave chris the paper, without much expectation. The next day, after work, Amelia was interrupted by a knock on her door. She opened to find a woman standing there, and a greeting. “Hello, I’m from the Factions University, Am I speaking to Amelia Robertson?” Amelia, somewhat confused replied “Yes” “Good!, My name is Kendra, I believe you work with my brother Chris.” Amelia came to realize what this was about. “Oh yes. Is this in reference to my writing?” “Yes, i’d like you to come with me.” This was no military matter, so there was no vehicle access. After having walked a couple of miles, Amelia and Kendra arrived at the University. It wasn’t anything particularly unexpected. The areas had adequate utensils and some literature. Many of what the rooms contained things like electrical and water pumping equipment, with the focus of training the creators of the future infrastructure. The future would see the elites striving to simply recreate what was there, but it was an important task.

 

Chapter 5: Power and Progress

 

Amelia had walked to a room with Kendra, and they quickly opened conversation with Kendra initiating. “Amelia, Faction Elections are soon. The concepts of de-factionalization are nothing new, but the way in which you work to achieve them are. Our party has been declining for a long time, and we need to see a change in that. At the next Party Rally, I would like you to give a speech, and I want to see you given control of the party.” Much to Kendra’s surprise, Amelia responded quickly “Sounds fine, when do you want it done by?” “Within the next couple of weeks would be acceptable.” As Amelia prepared to leave, Kendra said “Also, we’ve decided to begin selling your workings, from the current reception we predict the funds will be enough to tie you over for the next couple of weeks, but I suggest you still work for the time being” Amelia nodded and walked out.

 

After weeks of rebuilding, Dwight had made massive progress in the creation of a New society

With a few armed forces, Dwight allowed the people to work to continue while he went southeastward to find new territories. The goal was to find factions which were going to cooperate and make progress. Having walked for several hours with his security forces, Dwight came across something far earlier than he had anticipated. He walked into the faction with the standard disarming protocol, and found himself in a faction primarily composed of farms. Dwight, needed to communicate with established leadership, but there was no clear indication of any dedicated diplomatic site. After a couple hours of wandering, he found a building labeled Department of Inter-Factional Relations, and walked in. Having seen little activity, the staff member there was eager to greent the entrants, and he asked what their purpose was, Dwight responded “I come from a larger faction a few miles northwest of here. I run the area, and would like to see some Union formed between our two factions, I am ready to prove to him our existence, and let him see the society” The staff member replied “This would require some more information, I will go talk to the leadership to see what we can do. Come back tomorrow.”  

 

With The question of Weaponry and food answered for the time being, Reginald began to move southwest and start a new program. His mission would be to collect building material by whatever means he could. Some of it would be militarized, some of it would not be. Developing the community around the Prison would be the first big step for the faction’s development. As the weeks went onward, the area went through steady development with a small residential area beginning to surround the Prison, many of these structures would still need major improvement if by winter they were going to be useable. The process of construction was what all of Reginald’s focus went in to.

 

Oliver had developed a new raid plan. Rather than simply steal food and supplies, they would find a modernized faction with a monetary system, and steal large quantities of the faction’s currency. They would then divide it among a network of agents within the faction who would buy large quantities of essential materials. The first phase of this plan was finding a target. Using His military’s current vehicles Oliver would search the surrounding area for an ideal faction to raid. About thirty Miles north they found it. The area was well developed, but highly secure. The standard confiscation policy was in effect, so Oliver would need to acquire weapons from the armory. A direct raid on the armory would mean almost certain death. A group would have to take on the risk of launching a raid on the supply storage to divert attention. The faction’s forces had a contact within the other faction who would store the supplies. That night the first stage of the plan began. The first team got up the walls and opened fire, The goal was to cause as much chaos as possible, which would mean some fires.

 

 

As gunshots were heard through the city armed police and citizens moved towards the team. Having set numerous buildings on fire, taking cover around buildings they hadn’t burned and hiding was how they would continue to fight off reinforcements. As the soldiers flocked from the armory, Oliver sniped the guards at the front before entering the vehicle. With some rudimentary explosives, Oliver’s squad blew into the armory and began taking weapons, ammo, and uniforms before putting them into the vehicle. The driver moved around to the eastern side of the town where the journey would take quite long for forces on foot. They arrived at the contact’s house and began to unload the vehicle. Shortly after they were done, and drove off. The team in the back of the town was pinned down and killed shortly after, but Oliver had what he needed.

 

Rather than waste the fuel going back to the Faction, Oliver and his crew drove outward a few miles and set up a camp for the next few days. After this time, they went into the faction to execute their plan. They went to the contact’s house and prepared. They were armed and in the faction police uniforms. As they walked they noticed the burned buildings from the night before. Within an hour or so, they had arrived at the Faction’s bank. They opened fire and began moving in. Rather than a conventional vault with mechanisms to lock it there was simply a large metal door which would need explosives to be brought down. After blowing through the vault, Oliver and the team grabbed vast quantities of cash before leaving. With the police forces already outside then subsequent firefight was intense and drawn out. Police forces moved towards them as they ran outward. With a drawn out series of movements and firefights they had reached the vehicle and drove off.

 

Oliver knew that after that they had no chance of entering the city again, and the main contact within the city had also partook in the heist itself, and therefore was also of little use to return. As they were driving Oliver decided to begin to figure out what to do. “You there, the person from inside the Faction.  What’s your name?” The contact replied “Wyatt.” Oliver grinned before speaking again “Do you still have friends and people in the faction to communicate with?” Wyatt quickly replies “Yes” Oliver spoke again immediately “Good. Now, I’m going to need us to have him sneak into the faction with his money reserves. Another decoy attack would do, but we’re going to need to go back to our faction to get the reinforcements we need” They began to move back home.

 

After the van had arrived at the faction and the raid team went back into the military base, oliver was approached by an officer. “Excuse me. Am I speaking with Oliver?” Oliver replied “What does this concern?” The officer responded “This is in reference for your transfer from the raid team to the battlefield.” Oliver became somewhat worried “We’ve just completed the first stage of a somewhat major resource plan, I think you’re mistaken.” The officer shook his head. “No. Come with me, and i’ll explain everything.” They began to walk towards the vehicle station. “Look, Oliver. If you had the capacities to develop an innovative raid plan like that, I’m sure you will be versatile and useful on the battlefield.” Oliver paused before speaking again. “I don’t mind, as long as the plan is fully carried out.” The officer replied. “It will be. Now, you will be working with some forces not too far from here in a ruined faction that serves as a battleground. Make no mistake, you are not granted extreme immediate authority. You are not our last hope, You are simply some new talent working with us. We do not depend on you, but we’d prefer to have you. Do you understand” Oliver noded. He recalled his experiences in the Coalition for a bit, but realized this wouldn’t be much like that. It was an opportunity for him to see more of faction warfare.

 

Dwight had waited several days before going back to the other faction crossed his mind. When he finally arrived he was able to secure a meeting during the afternoon. There would be an official coming with them. Dwight and his few security would ride in one vehicle and the official and his in the other. There would be no question that if this was a trap, consequences would be faced. Dwight and the official arrived at the faction and went into a building that served as Dwight's planning center where the official had a seat. “Well. You’ve seen us. Our proposition is simple. We are beginning an initiative to defactionalize. You have the privilege of being the first step of that. This would be a mutually beneficial arrangement as we are fed, and you are guarded. We’d also propose to work together to develop better services and create secure passageways between factions” The official replied. “Oh, you misunderstand my role. I need to deliver the proposition to our leadership after you have given me what i need. An official will be sent soon though.” The official got back in his vehicle and had one of the security staff drive the other, and they were off.

 

As Oliver would fight, Reginald would build, and Dwight would expand Amelia was about to make the great jump forward into control and progress. Today was the day she would giver her speech and kick off her campaign for her faction’s future.

“In the modern ruin of a country we are nothing unique at our core. We are a community within walls using whatever it can to develop and grow. The modern faction is the standard. A community only large enough to secure it’s own dreams and kill others. There has been little to question the social trends due to fear and the distrust in humanity. The world beyond walls is much like nature. The order is non existent. But you look within the walls and you see strong unity. Unity which depends on fear. Many people in today’s worlds care for the status and welfare of their faction and that alone. They care not for the interests of the people unless they line up with the Factions, and have no concern for those outside their community. This is because factions were built from the ground up to be hostile to the outsider, and we’ve come a long way. The only new way forward now as large scale war dawns and the cities of the east push outward is de-factionalization. As many Faction’s adopt democracy we have opportunity to work with them to secure collective interest. The idea of forming loose unions with those who are possibly hostile to you is not a new one, nor is it particularly odd. If not for these concepts your society would not exist. I will work with our neighbors to create a strong union of factions which will expand. My goal is that one day this society will be developed enough so that there is little risk in foreign powers. This is not a revolutionary idea. It is simply what we all know to be needed, but were too scared to push for it. This factions liberal party has been in decline. It is clear that the attempt of demilitarization that the liberal’s attempted to undergo in the past was the wrong approach. I want to make one thing clear. I still believe in a strong military. It would be only through military cooperation that we can enforce our rulings and expand. I see force as essential, but something to be used with caution. If our militarism gets too intensive than unity will be forced upon the other factions, and if unity is born out of fear it will collapse. But let us move onto the people of our faction. I find it essential that we do all we can to promote the development of essential services and maintain a high standard of living. If we can spill our blood for the defense of our civilization, why can we not expend some resources for its people. Let us be the ones who innovate beyond larger walls, Let us be the ones who sit down and talk, Let us be the new way forward!” There was heavy applause as amelia left. It seemed as though she was going to become the party leader, and that day polls confirmed it. Amelia had won the heart of the party, now the party had to gain the hearts of the people.

 

Oliver had been transferred to the front where he again spent long time waiting in defense. He was at a sniper's post in a torn up faction half way between the rival factions. He decided every now and then to venture away from his post to study the surrounding area. He began making maps, but couldn’t go too far. There was usually a day or two in a week he would be allowed off, and here he began to venture farther and develop maps encompassing large areas. He made a small effort to sell them in exchange for food, weapons and ammo. This continued for a while. One day, Oliver looked into the distance only to realize where he was. He had gotten nowhere. He was stuck in the middle of a war he had no steak in, and could die at any point. He would not be remembered as a revolutionary. He was stuck in a place where few sets of ideals expanded and nobody saw change. There was no real force he could fight against, as modern faction citizens didn’t see the point in newer pursuits. The modern faction was regressive but not enough for anyone to question it. Oliver wanted to go somewhere where he could make a change. He needed to take a hellhole and repair it in his image, and he knew just where to go.

 

The following night Oliver went onto his factions vehicle storage and entered the building. There was only one person in the building. Oliver drew a blade out of his pocket before stabbing the worker in the throat. After the worker fell to the ground Oliver grabbed the keys and unlocked the door. There were a variety of Keys on the wall with numbers on them. Oliver grabbed the key labeled G-27. and walked outside. He quickly found the motorcycle and began to drive off as the staff found the body. The forces of his former faction mobilized, as the enemy launched an assault. The soldiers ignored Oliver and began to defend the area. Oliver had begun heading south. He had a collection of maps, a small amount of food and his pistol. Over the next few days Oliver had stayed in a variety of shelters, and he passed a number of factions. He stopped at a small camp which wasn’t walled off like most factions. The members greeted him at gunpoint. A guard asked “What do you wish to do? You move for a reason. Why?” Oliver responded “I am a revolutionary who has grown sick of my life up north. I walked for nearly a week only to stay in a similar environment, I was locked in a war and i wanted to move. I wanted to get somewhere quickly for rapid change. I had a goal to make a change and have come to an area I theorize is in need of it.” The guard responded “We are a group of rebels who seek to purge the church from our societies.” A smile came across Oliver’s face “What is your name?” The guard was somewhat confused. “Shaylin. Yours, and also empty the saddlebags” Oliver emptied the saddlebags before speaking “Oliver. The maps are useless and from a different area. Is there any gas here.” Shaylin looked somewhat impressed. “The maps are good. Can you make more?” Oliver replied quickly. “Yes. As long as i am supplied with ammo and food” Shaylin laughed “Food is a given, but you’re going to have to work harder for ammo. The ammo shortages require guards at night. The camp could be raided at any point.” Oliver replied with a question “Are most factions walled off?” Shaylin looked confused. “What would be the purpose of that? So much in building materials lost, and for what? The walls are only as useful as guards around them. It isn’t that hard to get through. Although many areas have trenches around them. We have yet to develop them.”

 

Amelia’s election campaign had been going well. Her opponent was named Tony Elkins. Amelia became widely known by her last name Robertson. Sometime later came their first debate. The moderator asked the first question. “With an ever growing population and expanding construction beyond our walls, what will you do to ensure continued resources?” Tony replied first. “Any sensible person would aid private firms in managing resources as well as not only expanding our raiding, but handing control of it to said organizations.” Amelia responded. “So not only will you trade the lives of your people for resources. You will allow privatization of resource control. Even if we agree to burn our neighbors to the ground and take their resources, We should atleast make sure it’s our people making that decision” The moderator spoke again. “Question two: What will you do to create stronger utilities?” Again, Tony spoke first. “We simply sell off the water lines and loosen our grip on electrical development. We allow the people to decide.” Amelia was quick to respond. “Yes. Decide between the one or two companies delivering that service. Was it not with the government that these services were created in the first place. We aren’t looking for new and innovative ways to do something that’s been around forever. In regards to technology, New discoveries are the main use of private organizations.” The moderator spoke again. “Question three: What will you do about the metal crisis.” Tony quickly answered “Expand our raids to encompass more materials, Begin extraction and Stop allocating so much of our metal to non essential factors.” Amelia replied. “So instead of cutting off the consuming of metal we don’t need and helping parts of our society that need it, You do the opposite. Good thinking. It’s not like the production of weapons and vehicles is why we’re in this crisis in the first place. Also, What is there to extract?” The moderator asked another question. “Question four: What will you do about the moral state of our faction” Tony was quite excited to answer. “Well if it wasn’t for the influx of nihilistic ideals, and the eradication of pride done by previous establishments we wouldn’t have a problem. I seek to restore the church and bring patriotism to the people however i can.” Amelia was frustrated with the statement he had made and began to speak. “Ah yes. Because god built this faction. Maybe young people are all so cynical because the god they’ve been trained to pray to has left them stranded in a crumbling society with blind nationalists performing the same actions that got them there!”

 

With the liberal party gaining traction, and Elkins appearing more and more incompetent, the nationalist government decided to take a new course of action. The faction devoted huge amounts of resources to a church campaign against Amelia, and made a push to raise the voting age to 25. This led to a hike in food prices due to funding issues, and the voting age remained the same. On the faction’s election day in early december the turnout was massive. the result was fairly clear from the beginning. Amelia had won and the faction was about to make a large change.

 

Dwight had met the official some time later, and they agreed to form the central faction confederation.With this Dwight had began to send troops  for protection in exchange for food. Dwight then decided to send scout forces to the southwest. The scouts went about 15 miles before finding another faction. Officials were Sent from both Dwight’s Faction and the Faction southeast of them for the new faction to join. This new faction had a heavy industrial capacity and gas reserves. With this more vehicles would expand outward and grow the confederation. Within the weeks of Amelia’s Election as well as Oliver’s raids and journey, Dwight had gotten 10 factions into the union with a centralized meeting place. He founded a resource coordination committee. Dwight began to strengthen socialist programs across the faction and centralized large amounts of soldiers. However, There was one major problem; The Rapid expansion of the union had led to conflict with faction governments. Dwight struggled to centralize the currency and few factions even went as far as refusing to accept Dwight’s programs. A young rebel named Tyler had begun to speak out in the southern and western factions. The largest of which he dubbed New Richmond. He admired the concept of unionizing factions, but saw defactionalization in the way Dwight implemented it as a threat to individual freedom. Tyler would often make the comparison between factions and states.  Dwight had always been a strong proponent of personal liberty at least in social issues, but had different standings with power. He saw a strong valuing of small communities as a threat to the individual and to the collective. He said to one of his advisors “The faction centered mentality will squeeze the individual out of the collective, leaving him under their rule and siphoning his use from greater society.” Dwight decided to call Tyler to a meeting and arranged vehicular transport.

 

The meeting began in silence. Neither Tyler nor Dwight felt like speaking at first. After several minutes of waiting Tyler spoke “Why am I here?” Dwight thought about the question for a bit as a variety of responses crossed his mind before replying “You’re here to learn. You’re here because it seems you have some misguided positions on the modern faction.” Tyler became somewhat angry. “You propose tyranny of the majority. I propose tyranny of the self. Power is held with each individual to bestow upon his community power if he chooses, and the community shall do so as it pleases as long as it is not at the expense of other communities or individuals.” Dwight replied “This is where you’re wrong.  It is the community that harms the individual and the collective. Centralization ensures consistency of liberty” Tyler replied “Consistency isn’t quality “ Dwight sighed. “I believe you are at risk of succession, and that I won’t allow.” Tyler smiled “What do you mean risk of?” Dwight quickly became angry “We will be democratizing the union, and it seems you’d be much better off to stay until your voices can be heard.” Tyler laughed “No. We’re going to leave and you lack the resolve to do anything. You’re an idealist whose dreams of unity and liberty will forever shackle you to ineffective and bureaucratic methods. I’m leaving now. But thank you for building my nation!” As Tyler walked away Dwight yelled “You’re people will pay for your delusions!”

 

The war was about to begin. The Central Faction Confederation had split into the Socialist faction Union, and the Libertarian Faction Federation. The SFU was north east. It had 5 factions. The capital which was located near the border, Two agrarian Factions. One small and close to the capital and one far out, but much larger. It had two industrial factions which were both closer to the capital and were both quite large. The LFF also had 5 factions. All of which were fairly spread out. It had two moderately sized industrial factions, and Two large agrarian factions.

 

The parallel between this and the civil war was obvious and both sides used it to their advantage. Tyler emphasized the individual liberty and rights of the factions, while Dwight emphasized the disregard for order and the threat presented to the individual.

 

Winter was setting in which meant that not many advances could be made. The SFU had more manufacturing capacity and was able to equip forces to a larger extent, however the weather was only a mild obstacle at this time, and the capital was near the border. Dwight planned to mobilize a small force into LFF territory while keeping his main force in the city. When the first army moved passed the border, It didn’t take too long to push them out. SFU forces had the goal of drawing out the conflict as long as they could, but simply didn’t have the resources to continue fighting for very long, as they retreated from multiple locations before making a last stand near the border. Out of the 500 that had been sent, 274 came back. Estimates were hard to obtain, due to the fact that they were overrun, but it was believed that SFU forces had a nearly 2 to 1 kill ratio. The Capital was somewhat well prepared for the raid, but there was not much time for further preparation.

 

Scouts had reported there was a plan to swing in from the east and hit the city from the side. This would require LFF soldiers to move through a large forest. A force was sent into the forest to slow and weaken LFF units. The SFU forces moved around the forest hitting LFF from all sides. eventually the small force was killed off, but the damage caused was substantial. The battle lasted several hours. The assault continued and with Dwight having shifted the bulk of his armies to defend the east part of the city, the battle commenced. The defenses were heavily bombarded with explosives promoting SFU forces to retreat into the city. Here the tide began to turn, as the SFU could utilize knowledge of the area, and just seemed to be better at fighting in urban areas. With heavy losses, the LFF soldiers began to retreat into the forest. SFU forces continued to pursue and fight until LFF was pushed out. There was minor damage to the city.

 

Dwight had adopted a new strategy. He would send small forces across LFF territory while avoiding hitting the factions. His goal was to slowly grind down LFF forces until the cities couldn’t be defended properly.

 

News of a coalition war had reached Amelia’s Faction. She was actually quite close to Dwight’s union. She was southeast of the Union area, and sent a messenger to Dwight. After some time, The message was Delivered and Dwight agreed to meet with Amelia. Amelia had agreed to join the union and provide aid to the SFU. Amelia decided it was time to attempt to contact Reginald. She had vehicles travel to the prison which took quite a long time. When they had arrived, Reginald was quite shocked. Amelia stepped out and greeted him.”I’m in charge of a faction, Dwight’s in charge of another one and we’re at war. So you wanna come with us?” Reginald went back in and told Liam he’d be in charge for a bit before walking into Amelia’s Vehicle. Liam wanted to ask questions and find out what was happening, but the vehicle had drove off.

 

In New Richmond, Tyler began to adopt a new strategy with the LFF. He had many forces defending the border factions which were most likely to be attacked, and he began to expand southward. Tyler only wanted supplies and men which he would obtain by destroying rather than conquering factions.

 

One day while Oliver was exploring to work on maps, he saw a large force moving around the area. There were uniforms, but they were not very distinct, and the way they conducted themselves made oliver certain they came from the north. Oliver rushed back to the camp and approached Shaylin. “Large force. Northern Factions. It’s happening.” Shaylin remained calm.”What?” Oliver caught his breath. “There was a massive force. They were definitely norther factions. They’re coming here.” Shaylin replied “You certain of this?” Oliver nodded. “We need to check to see if they’re headed for us or towards the church’s factions. Either way, They’ll be here.” A scout force concluded the LFF were approaching the camp and a strategy was devised. All the camps forces were set up in the forces surrounding the area leaving the camp to appear deserted.

 

That night, LFF forces arrived. As they stumbled upon the camp they appeared confused before fire broke the silence. LFF advanced into the woods as the camps forces dispersed. the LFF slowly broke apart as they split up through the woods. With occasional moments of  gunfire to slow them down. The LFF forces began to retreat and as they moved back through they were continually fired upon. Oliver grabbed one of the soldiers and knocked them unconscious, before dragging him deeper into the woods. The LFF had retreated and Oliver had potential intel.

 

Upon waking up, The man who was captured found himself tied to a chair seeing oliver smiling at him. Oliver spoke. “Hello. You see, we don’t do much around here; certainly not anything to cause anger up north. So my first question would be: Why’d you come down here?” The man spoke “LFF ordered southward expansion. I’m just doing my job.” Oliver smiled. “So was I. But what is the LFF? I’ve been up north before, but i’ve never heard of no LFF” The man spoke with a shaky voice. “Libertarian Faction Federation. Our leader is Tyler Kern. We are engaged in civil war with the Socialist Faction Union under Dwight Bernall” Oliver smiled. “I know a Dwight Bernall. He’s a nice fella. Say, if we could get you a car could you bring me to this Dwight?” The soldier replied “Yes, but we’d have to go through LFF. It would be quite risky” Oliver smiled “I don’t care for risk. One last thing though; What is your name?” The soldier replied “Russell”

 

Oliver had a small team. They went to a nearby faction owned by the church. Here they made a discovery. Vehicles were being supplied to LFF soldiers from the church’s faction. This was a perfect opportunity. One of the vehicles was somewhat far away from others. It seemed to either be for scout, or the people in it were testing. Either way, It drove near Oliver before stopping. The driver stepped out before oliver drew his pistol and shot him in the head. He, and the rest of the team got in the car and went back to camp, Here began the journey. Oliver would be driving and Russell would give direction. They stayed away from factions, but used them as a guide. After passing new richmond, Russell pointed out that all they would need to do is go northeast. They soon arrived at the gates of Dwight’s capital where they were greeted with hostility. Oliver stepped out and was slammed against the wall of the car by a soldier. “State your purpose!” Oliver stayed calm “I’m here to see Dwight. He knows me! The LFF soldier in the car is with us. He’s changed sides!” The soldiers took all weapons from the group, and searched them as well before escorting them into Dwight's office. Dwight greeted Oliver Surprising the guards, and all 4 were once again together.

 

That night the group had a celebration in honor of getting back together. The joy of reunification was for one night able to take focus from the war, and even overshadow the cynical nature of the group. But in the morning, It went right back. A meeting was called so the group could discuss plans. Oliver broke the silence “Well, If shaylin and I were able to grind down and flush out the LFF from our post in the south perhaps we could do something similar. Small teams waging a guerilla war.” Dwight replied “That only worked for you because of the area we tried that here and it didn’t work.” Shaylin spoke “You probably only sent a team to distract them, we’re talking about winning the war. I wouldn’t expect northerners to understand these things, but  I thought I could make an exception for you.” Dwight sighed before speaking again. “As cute as I think your plan is, we need to find a target to strike conventionally.” Oliver spoke again. “ The second you get an army, it goes normal. Fuck you. You really want to do what everyone we defeated did. Be resourceful and fight with some common sense.” Reginald quietly muttered “Why don’t you two fuck and get back to me.” Oliver replied “What the fuck was that?” Reginald stood up “What the fuck happened to you Oliver? You used to argue with reason and now this? I’m sick of you acting all enlightened because you failed to get anywhere like the rest of us.” Oliver sat down and sighed. “I’m sorry okay.” Amelia spoke “We’re trying to get them back in our union, so we want minimal damage and we want to grind their forces down. I think we should try to stay outside of the factions while still getting its forces to attack. We wouldn't want to hit a border faction, so we’ll have to find a way further southwest.” Everyone seemed to agree.

 

An army moved through LFF territory, Destroying scout posts and camps on it’s way. It arrived at a large faction which seemed to be full of farms and attacked the gates. LFF forces flooded outward from the front area only to be butchered from fire coming from multiple directions. As more forces arrived from other areas the SFU line stretched outward to continue firing at as many enemies as possible. The initial edge was lost, but SFU still had the upper hand due to the fact that more of their army was equipped with rifles, and the mid-long range fights occurring outside of rather than within the faction allowed maximum utilization. LFF forces from other factions came to the area. SFU began to move around the faction causing LFF to stretch further. SFU was now mostly together as they moved around the faction hitting the LFF. They would split and rejoin as necessary fighting the LFF to the point where it was safe to enter the city. The battle went on for quite some time, but eventually almost all LFF resistance either retreated or were killed. SFU forces went through the city only to dump papers with the words Join the Union Printed on them before moving back. LFF forces suffered very heavy losses, but from the perspective of the people it was worse than for the army. They see the army they put all their faith in butchered outside the gates, but not a drop of their blood was spilled. The people knew their army wouldn’t grant a moment of peace to the SFU people. This called into question the morality and legitimacy of the cause.

 

While SFU forces were on the way back, the LFF wanted vengeance. A faction east of the capital had its scouts reporting that LFF was moving towards it. With SFU forces still a couple days away, defences for the city needed to be set up. Supplies were sent in to arm civilians and children needed to be relocated. Trenches were dug outside the walls of The Faction. When the assault began it initially went quite poorly for SFU. The trench line didn’t take long to break and the forces had to move into the city where there were already enemies. Throughout the initial stage in the cities, SFU were rapidly pushed towards the center to reduce losses. It wasn’t until later that SFU used buildings to their advantage and began to shift the tide. There was also more fire support in the middle of the city from rooftops. There was a marked increase in brutality by the LFF as things began to look unfavorable. They would attack unarmed people and force people in hiding onto the streets. The LFF attempted to demoralize and exhaust the civilian forces, but it simply didn’t work as planned. The brutality the exhibited was only giving SFU more reason to fight.  After taking heavy losses, LF began to move back while setting buildings on fire on their way out. The LFF was now in the outer city where they were attacked from both sides by SFU. As heavy losses were taken LFF forces began to move out of the city and march home.

 

In the city SFU had previously attacked there was a large push to end the war. While the LFF had most of the unions farms, the SFU had a higher population and stored most of the food for distribution. An overwhelming majority of it was going to the war and ordinary citizens were tired of it. Riots began to occur, and the LFF went to extreme measures to crush them. Utilizing much of it’s vehicula force which was beginning to develop after recent interactions with people to the south As Dwight helped rebuild his torn up areas, Tyler would only make them worse. The spirit of revolution had died down and across the LFF, and Tyler knew the war needed to end quickly, and he planned to launch all he could into an offense on the enemy capital.

 

Snow had started to set in heavily, and focus for many turned away from the war. There was very little progress by either side in the war and it made the group once again focused on ideas, and themselves. Amelia was with Shaylin one day when she asked “Have you read my work” Shaylin replied “No. Why would I? You seem never to have ventured beyond the types of Factions you’re used to. You have your limited experience to define the modern faction, so why would I need it?” Amelia responded defensively. “The Faction you see today is becoming the norm. The nationalism within presents threat.” Shaylin smirked. “Firstly, Thanks for summing up you’re entire work for me, Secondly what do you know about faction nationalism? Try having to hide out in a camp because the Factions around you are run by extremists. Sorry, but in the end it’s the influence in the area that matters more than the people. Most of the people don’t know what they fight for and it’s the same with you. I only fought for survival, because if the people do not care or understand a cause they should not fight for it.” Amelia sighed. “So I suppose you believe we should leave the LFF to its own devices.” Shaylin smiled. “Partially yes. It’s the price you pay for overextending and not keeping them under control.” Shaylin then left the room.

 

Dwight began to become paranoid. He believed that if there was a plot to kill him, now would be the Time to act. He became much more quiet and reserved, but still managed to lead the faction. This rapid shift was noticed by those around him, Especially Russell. Due to Russell's history, the attempts he made at helping Dwight were met with hostility.

 

That Night the sound of Gunfire awoke Dwight as the LFF were attacking. A large force with heavy vehicular support was near the faction. SFU forces were holding out near the gate, and they seemed to be getting pushed back. The battle dragged on for hours with little ground being gained by either side. Dwight hid in his office and held his pistol in his hand. Shaylin took a few of the guards and went outside. They snuck around hitting the LFF from the side in short bursts of fire causing confusion and chaos, making room for SFU to advance, when this happened LFF focus would be diverted and she would fire again. At one point a group split off and went around the building where Shaylin had been hiding only to find nothing before being shot at from around a different corner of said building. Shaylin continued to move around buildings trying as hard as she could to damage the LFF’s fighting capacity, when an idea came across. Shaylin went to the government building where she’d been staying and grabbed some supplies where she began to make molotovs. When she returned to her position they began to throw them into the condensed LFF causing them to dsperse where SFU teams throughout the faction could hunt them throughout the city. Those who were unable to retreat outward had to move around the city in the hope that SFU forces would not find and kill them. One of them ran into the government building and into Dwight's office before being shot by him. This made Dwight increase his paranoia, and would have negative impacts in the future. Shaylin then took command of the forces in the city and began to pursue LFF. While there were a large number of vehicles, there was still a large force travelling on foot. Shaylin followed them for nearly a mile firing into the crowd making sure they lose as much as possible before their return.

 

Large scale assaults had considerably damaged the LFF army. It had hurt the SFU, but nowhere near to the same extent. Combined with the fact that he was rather disappointed with the number of forces that had returned safely and pressured by the needs of his people, Tyler had decided to end the war. He stated “It was essentially on Impulse that we started this and while it didn’t last it was because we had the common sense to abandon it.” Tyler went to a meeting a few days later where he agreed to rejoin the SFU with certain additions to faction’s rights which Dwight accepted, as they looked quite fair.

 

Having failed at a revolution Tyler knew he would be looked down upon by most of those around him, and decided to leave the Union. Dwight gave him a car and some supplies and wished him well on his journey. “You wished only to liberate your people. I will ensure that dream remains, I also hope a good future awaits you in whatever you do.”

 

 Dwight would stay behind and govern the union, but the group still needed to expand. Dwight also wanted to know more about the differing regions of the country, but first reginald needed something taken care of. He arranged for Liam to be transported down before leaving. After a lengthy drive the people at the prison were left to rule themselves and Liam was informed about everything on the journey back down. The plan was for Amelia, Oliver and Liam to go southward while Russell, Reginald and Shaylin would go to the east coast.

 

 

 

 

Chapter 7:

 

The Driving seemed endless for Reginald and his group. As they headed northeast the temperature began to drop and the journey continued to get less pleasurable. The three would take shifts sleeping. From dawn to the afternoon, Russell would drive, Shaylin would map where they passed, and Reginald would sleep. From the afternoon to well into the night Reginald would drive, Russell would map and Shaylin would sleep. At night Shaylin would drive, Reginald would map and Russell would sleep. The group moved at a fairly quick speed, but only compared to walking. As they went northeastward, they began to find more intact roads which would speed up the process of their endeavor. Every now and then they’d have to stop for refueling. Reginald thought heavily about the war, and how the belief in liberty will inherently hold negative outcomes. He wrote a but on Liberty, the war and his shift into a more authoritarian worldview, This was only aided by a noticeable increase in the number of marauders out. He saw the worker’s collective strength as a force to be harnessed for protection rather than reserved and abandoned in the name of liberty, and believed very strongly in the state.

 

The Drive Southward had it’s ups and downs compared to the drive north. It got progressively bumpier and slower, but it also got warmer. Oliver was fine with sleeping on the road, but Amelia and Liam found it too difficult. At dawn Oliver would begin charting as Amelia drove, and 8 hours later, her and Liam would switch as Oliver continued to chart. After 8 Hours of Liam driving they’d find an area to conceal the car and sleep for the night. They would start a fire, and sleep near the car with Amelia holding the Keys. One night Oliver found it rather difficult to sleep and saw Amelia with her little black notebook. Oliver took it and began to read.

 

Having Established my comrades I would now like to return to discussing my worldview. As the days go on I look for the force that needs to be smashed, the resolution we need, and the path to prosperity. I have always been a proponent of defactionalizing the nation and creating unity, but I am beginning to develop a newer understanding of what exactly is holding factions back. I will honestly say it isn’t the faction's military or government, but nationalism within their people. If socialism is to be achieved we must first reunite, however it cannot be through capital. If capital uses its power to transcend the faction systems than the people face certain death from the capitalists even if they manage to overthrow the governments. By using capital to push for this unity, the wealthy become more powerful than the governments they push together. This is why under no circumstances can capital’s power be used in any role where its capacity overpowers the state. The path to unity is largely paved with welfare and aid to factions around you. Breaking the nationalistic spirit of people is more important than winning over the hearts of a faction government. I have more to say on this, but I’d rather wait until my thoughts further develop prior to documenting that portion of my ideology.

 

While I probably should’ve put a disclaimer earlier, I would like to note that the topic of this log varies intensively and can be somewhat incoherent in the way it shifts. Either way, I want to discuss my feelings on what I. While I may attempt to avoid it, Killing is inevitable. In most cases it breaks down to survival, but the others are divided into two main groups. Kills in which I defend a faction upholding my principles are ones that I have become fairly comfortable with. While I don’t like it, I kill most ideological enemies with relative apathy. This is likely due to how it plays into survival. The other group are the innocents, and I have truly found no way to cope with killing them. I have probably only killed a few innocent people in my lifespan and that is enough to drive me to tears most nights. When there is a dead innocent, I have no survival instinct to reassure me, No cause to utilize the heat and joy of the moment for a brief second to purge any potential guilt. There is me, the victim, and my mind. Killing an innocent also provokes guilt from my previous actions. Essentially I could kill a hundred of my enemies without any reaction, but if I kill one innocent, the guilt i should’ve had from those hundreds comes crashing down upon me. Recently those who I have helped have begun doing widespread reparation to how I feel as a whole. The main reason i do what I do, Is so that there is a purpose for my atrocities. If we reach the world i dream of, all those deaths will not have been in vain. I hope to make amends to the world, by rebuilding it.

 

Oliver set the book back on amelia and fell asleep. When the sun rose the next day, the usual routine was followed. The trip had lasted a few days, and the group were now definitely in the south, but they sought to continue their journey and find more out about the land. After a couple hours of driving, the car came to a halt as squads of soldiers rushed past the car. A few soldiers turned and pointed their weapons towards the car. The group stepped out of the car with their arms above their heads as more soldiers arrived. An officer ordered them to state their purpose and Amelia replied. “Expedition from the north. Gathering intel on the area,” The group was ordered to stand up before being searched, as soldiers entered their vehicle and took weapons out. The officer turned to another soldier. “Get Lezlie over here, and bring one of the men into the vehicle to help with this. We’re going to need these people to work with us.” The soldier replied “What if they will not support us” The officer took the soldier out of the group’s hearing range before speaking. “They are Expeditionaries from the north equipped with vehicles. The north is a land of progress and equality. For them to have power, they would need to hold these ideals. Besides, anybody would fight the church.” The soldier nodded and went off to find an officer named Lezlie. Upon arrival she, instructed the three to sit in the back of the vehicle, while she would drive and a soldier was armed and made sure to monitor the group in the back.

 

After several hours, the group drove into a faction surrounded by camps similar to that Oliver found Shaylin in. Flying high above the faction was a large flag. The flag had a cross with a circle on top, and a fist in the middle of the circle. Lezlie parked near a base shortly after entering and took the group inside. They went in and went down into the basement where they sat down. Lezlie spoke. “Allow me to explain a bit of history. Long ago, closer to what was once texas there was a society. It is believed to have developed a few years before northern or “modern” factions existed. This society was collectivist, largely agrarian and fairly moderate economically, and was egalitarian socially. Society began to progress rapidly and we even reached many agreements with the mexican governments, in 2027, President Diane Hill died.

 

Following her death an economic crisis began and her brother Austin resigned. Backed by a heavily growing conservative movement Johnathan Moreno rose to power. He began to privatize the collective farms, as well as the national services. He was also very hostile towards Mexico. He also began to restrict rights, particularly women’s rights and the population began to turn against him. In a large protest comprised largely  of workers, Brittany Yee (A feminist philosopher) and three of her sisters rushed the palace, and killed president Moreno. Then the people began a full scale uprising against the government, but it simply devolved into chaos shortly after. Brittany had secured keys to a few government vehicles and amidst the chaos took a group of women with her to find a new society, To create utopia. The governmental collapse and revolution shaped her worldview radically and she became increasingly paranoid and misandric. Her goal was to create a world free of patriarchy, as she believed patriarchy to be the force which created the horrors she witnessed. She even stated that “Patriarchy is like men, in that it remains unstable no matter how much it asserts itself before its collapse, as we saw nearly a decade ago.” With her exclusively female group, she settled and began to build her vision of the future.

 

At first her society was paradise. Only using men to procreate and do some additional work. As women around the ruins of america heard, they flocked to this society. The large growth was her downfall. Brittany's ideology became problematic in that she refused to allow enough men in to act as a labor force. Many of the women who entered the faction believed that women were beyond the labor required to maintain the faction due to the idea’s instilled within them .  Brittany’s solution was to evaluate the population at large and place conservative sympathizers in labor roles. The moderates began to suffer heavily, and soon talk of revolt began. Brittany’s vision of paradise was collapsing before her eyes and there was nothing she could do, as the rage made her philosophy more rigid. Brittany was assassinated by revolutionary members of the party elite. Andria was next in line to obtain power and began to allow many men in. She was very specific about who she allowed in. “Take only those whose lives are in ruins. Whose experience in life is so awful, that when they toil under our boot they will praise us as gods and liberators.” These men became our new labor force, and society got back in the right direction. Andrea’s guilt was immense and she upheld her sister's wish by limiting the flow of men into the faction, To keep the population growth slow and we existed like this for nearly a decade since, until recently when a new threat emerged.

 

Factions emerged around us, but our power remained unrivaled until the church established its own faction. It’s power grew rapidly and until recently, we have been able to live in peace with it. Unrest began over what to do to increase population and Andria was quite stubborn. When the church attacked the unrest stopped and we were at war. We search for any help we can get in preventing theocracy which is why we would like you to join us.”

 

Amelia spoke. “Yes, but only for the war.” Lezlie was excited, :Great. You upstairs and talk to the officers, I’m going to want your friends to come with me.” Amelia went upstairs to the desk  as Lezlie took Oliver and Liam outside and to another building and began to brief them. “As our forces continue to fight in the forests and swamps, The church itself has the potential to fall from within. They recently hired a new general who is making our guerilla operations more difficult. You’re job will be to infiltrate the faction as “refugees” and attempt to move up through. I will leave you with some essential military information which you “obtained while you were here. You will arrange a meeting on the intel and kill him. You will have a radio set up, and will notify us before the meeting. After you kill the general, Go towards the back gate of the faction where the transport will be waiting. Follow me into the back here”

 

Oliver and Liam were supplied with pistols, radios and maps. The two were placed into a car which drove for several miles as Lezlie went over the plans again. About a mile from the church’s central faction Oliver and Liam were dropped off. After a lengthy walk through the territory passing several guard towers, the two arrived at the gates of the church's central faction. The guards had them searched and one asked. “Why are you here.” Liam responded quickly. Liam and Oliver were both generally apathetic, but Oliver often found himself leaning towards cynicism and disregard whereas Liam was capable of a wider variety of emotional display. Liam spoke “We were enslaved by the feminists. We raided an office before leaving and an have been out for some time. I beg you, let us stay here.” The soldier agreed and had a vehicle bring them through the city to a residential area where they would be lead into a room. “Here. We’ll be back in two days. Screen the contents of those papers to see if anything is of major importance. Oliver and Liam searched through the maps and found a collection of documents detailing some operation, while not thoroughly reading it he arranged the papers in a folder which was also in the bag. Liam set up the radio and attempted to test it. On a paper taped to the radio there were instructions which Liam red before speaking into the microphone “Hello.” A few minutes later a response was heard “This is Lezlie. Hello. You still there.”Liam replied “Yes. We’re here.” Lezie took a breath “Alright. Do you have the papers for the operation. There should be a folder located in the backpack i supplied you with” Liams tone became somewhat happier “Yep and It’s all in the folder.” Lezlie eagerly responded. “Alright good, Contact me on this frequency when you are ready, until then change it to whatever the paper says.” Liam yelled “Wait. That channel has a lot of talk about plans and stuff and it seems genuine. We probably wont be getting the radio back.” Lezlie sighed. “Read the paper you halfwit.” Liam looked at the bottom of the paper to find some further explanation,

 

The channel selected is for them to find and use. It is the channel we use for fake operation plans.

 

NOTICE: Once all steps are complete destroy this paper. I believe I have left a box of matches for you to use. Maybe you can destroy a little more with those.

 

Oliver looked through the cabinets Liam to find a note taped to the door.

 

Welcome to the new christian american empire. You are very privileged as a citizen of the capital. You will fnd $100 and a small supply of food. Within a  day or two of your arrival the water and electricity will be activated. Water is a public service and a fundamental need but after two weeks you will need to pay for your electricity. You should have ample time to find a job as our great nation always seeks more labor.

God bless you

God bless our leader

And God bless our empire

 

With not much to do other than fiddle with the radio, Oliver and Liam quickly became bored, and Liam decided to break the silence. “What do you think about this bullshit with the radfems.” Oliver replied “They aren’t technically radfems.” Liam replied “Cut the horseshit. You and I both know that they are by definition radfems regardless of what they feed you.” Oliver’s tone became a bit less serious. “I hate them as much as you, it’s just fun to argue at times. Either way, Their fundamental mistake is that they are blind to class. While men have historically ruled at the top, the bottom of the pyramid is where most of them end up, as opposed to women who are mostly in the middle. They fail to acknowledge this and this is why working men can be painted as rulers when they simply aren’t. It’s hard to believe feminism survived a societal collapse.” Liam chuckled. “It survived countless amounts of facts and logic sent at them.” After a slight laughter, Oliver became refocused.”Progressivism is the authoritarian left gone mad. Their form of authoritarianism differs so much from that of the traditional statist that they don’t see it is there. They see identities as classes and believe social positioning is what ultimately influences a society the most.” Liam responded. “Interesting take. How would you best describe who your stances are for?” Oliver smiled and seemed rather delighted to answer this question, “I’d say our school of leftism applies to anybody who isn’t selfish. The right across all social stances are proponents of strong hierarchy in vast favor of those at the top. The only difference between the libertarian and authoritarian right is the rate at which people enter and exit the ruling classes.” Liam walked to the door.  “I’m going to go see what I can do with this.” Oliver nodded.

 

In the streets liam found not very much to actually do. Apart from the essential services much of the remaining buildings were dedicated to propaganda, and Liam found it difficult to find anything to do. Liam walked home upset and came home to rant. Oliver had been rawing on the back of papers to keep himself from slamming his head into the wall when Liam arrived. “Fuckin hell. This place is boring.” Oliver sighed and looked to liam with a blank expression. Liam ignored this and continued to rant. “All the shit to do here is centered around religious propaganda. I didn’t like the car ride here, but the uncertainty was fun,” Oliver responded. “I don’t necessarily seek any joy here. I’m fighting a revolution. I stay in comfort for now, and dream about what is to come. When happy revolutionaries will not act, which is why they’re hard to make happy.” Liam cut him off “Point being.” “Okay okay. Point is comfort makes you unaware of the uncertainty you face and thus less inclined to act. That’s why i’m somewhat modest with my entertainment.”

 

At dawn gunshots were heard. Causing panic in the faction. It stopped almost immediately and Oliver messed with the radio to see if there was a faction news station. He found one after a couple minutes and heard. “There was a squad of marauders attempting to attack the back wall of the faction. Military officials dealt with the issue and all will be well.” Oliver stayed awake but Liam went back to sleep. The day after that was largely uneventful. So after a number of rants from Liam, some time throwing papers around the apartment, and playing with the radio Oliver and Liam went back to sleep. When they awoke and began to make breakfast, Oliver used the burner to destroy the instruction papers. After eating they heard a knock on the door. Liam ran to the radio saying “We leave now.” A response came from lezlie before Oliver panicked. “Shit. Do you have the picture of the target?!” Liam nodded and Oliver let out a sigh of relief before going to the door and muttering to himself. “should’ve told me asshole” Liam heard him but ignored him as the officers entered the door and sat down to talk.  The officer sat down and began to talk. “My name is Fredrick. I am an official of the church’s central faction. I believe you have information of value to us regarding an extremist feminist group.” Oliver responded. “Yes. We were captured there and escaped. We raided an office on our way out and obtained some useful information. There is a detailed plan about some massive attack on one of your factions. We believe it to be of major importance.” Frederick responded. “Excellent. Come with us to the car.” The group went down to the apartment exit and spend a short time in a car before entering a car, arriving at a base.

 

 Upon entrance they were greeted. The man from the picture. “Greetings gentlemen I am Otto Sager. I would like this information you’ve obtained. If you’ll follow me into the back we can arrange the monetary arrangement. I’d also like to schedule an interview next week about life for men in their faction.” They followed Otto into the back and he turned around. Oliver and Liam drew pistols and Fired on him. The staff ran in and Liam and Oliver turned unloading their pistols in the meeting room before grabbing the guards assault rifles. Oliver grabbed a grenade off one of the corpses and ran to the car. He got in and liam fired out of the window moved towards the back wall. Oliver threw a grenade and drove through the crumbled part of the wall to see a vehicle with the feminist factions symbol on it. Oliver ran towards the car and shouted “Let us in!” The vehicle moved away and fired at them. Oliver went back in the church’s vehicle and drove until they arrived at the feminist faction and walked into Lezlie's office. Lezlie looked at them with surprise. Liam spoke “What was going on with the car there?” Lezlie responded “Church takes a variety of vehicles from people. Our team was unresponsive for a while after we sent them. Church's soldiers probably took them.” Anyway, Im going to have you move in for an operation in a swampy area southwest of here. Amelia will be coming with you. You’ll be protecting a small camp and do some raids on other factions nearby.”

 

Oliver and Liam were taken to a camp surrounded by trees in a fairly dense swamp. The driver had them exit and leave as they were greeted by Amelia. Amelia was wearing a dark green uniform with a pink armband designed like the faction’s flag. She seemed as though she’d just spent a few days in a nice society.  “Hey guys. How have you been?” Oliver responded “Horribly. The vehicle to evacuate us from our mission got hijacked and we stole a church one. We almost died, but I can see your doing fine.” Amelia giggled before responding. “They treated me really well for the first couple days. They want to make their society look better. Liam sighed. “By sending us on a suicide mission” Amelia became somewhat defensive. “What did you expect from the lesson we got? They’re a bit extreme. Anyway follow me and we’ll get you to your position.” Oliver seemed somewhat confused and angry. “Why the fuck are you doing this. Why aren’t we working in a mutualistic sense.” Amelia responded. “If I exhibit too much sympathy towards men or work with them on “their level” I’ll be demoted. I acted like a complete bitch when they asked about my ideology and here that gets you places.”

 

Later that evening, Oliver Liam and a few others went with Amelia. A few miles southeast they arrived near a similar camp. The church’s banner waved over the area and vehicles were seen transporting food and supplies for construction. Oliver and Liam opened fire while Amelia had the rest of the soldiers move around to the heavily populated part of the camp and attacked from behind stopping the enemy from pursuing Oliver and Liam. Oliver and Liam moved back as the church’s force was ground down. The full force moved into the area and lined up the survivors after they surrendered. Amelia had some soldiers take the cars and the rest march the survivors back to the camp. Amelia advocated they be imprisoned or integrated. The leadership in the camp ordered they be executed. The leadership offered Amelia the opportunity to partake in the execution, but she declined which forced Oliver and Liam to do the executions. As reluctant as they were to fire, they were told if they refused they themselves would be shot. While Oliver shared Amelia’s principle of not killing unless to support his cause, Oliver was able to warp the situation and convince himself what he was doing was more right than it was. Oliver was able to shoot the captured civilians with relative indifference. Liam having more difficulty managed to get through the affair, but was considerably more upset than Oliver. Following the execution Oliver attempted to make Liam feel better saying “They weren’t really men. They were fascists” Liam replied aggressively “Can you shut the fuck up? You’re not helping.” Oliver was confused “I don’t see what I did wrong. Was the moral issue not that these deaths were a violation of liberty, but we killed agents of authoritarianism” Liam sighed “No, my issue was we killed non military. We have principles and we seem to be abandoning them in our effort.” Oliver chuckled “Sounds like something to better discuss with Amelia.” Liam walked away ignoring Oliver’s attempts to call him back

 

After a couple days of patrolling the camp a large number of vehicles arrived. The population of the camp was evacuated and taken back to the central faction where they found it very crowded.         Thousands of people armed throughout the faction centered around large building. A woman walked onto a balcony to the microphone “Greetings. I am president Andria Yee. We have armed our population to the fullest extent possible. Today will be the resolution to the long war with the church. We have fought for years to uphold liberty killing many agents of authority and losing many heroes in our struggle. The party has created civilization rivaling that of the north while maintaining peace and later sustaining war with a much greater foe. Today the church shall see it’s greatest challenge. They will face an attack by dedicated warriors with a cause. Revolution will prevail. Oppression is a product not of society’s effort, but the lack there of. Oppression is the product of greed, laziness and a way of life centered around disregard. The people of the christian empire will find themselves and their oppressive way of live at the brink of destruction. The liberation of all is imminent and particularly to the women and laborers who only exist within the faction to avoid the certain death of anarchy. Anarchy has at times become preferable to life as an oppressed person to the point where those who seek freedom find their departure restricted. We shall liberate those who seek it, recruit those who seek to help as and kill all who stand in our way. We will go to any lengths to uphold equality, order, and the feminist ideology. A new era dawns, one which begins with you!” Andria left as the crowd cheered wildly and officers began to redirect and organize people. After the initial cheering, and a couple hours the units were fully organized and the march began. The forces targeted one of the factions under the church far northwest rather than the central faction. After a long continuous march, the forces arrived arrived at the faction in the middle of the night. After tearing through the defenses outside of the faction, but encountered much heavier resistance within. Oliver took control of a small group when the leader was shot, and quickly took control of a building, They used the building to hold control of the street against reinforcements. As more forces arrived to take down Oliver’s group he took his team into the basement and closed the door before enemies arrived in the building. One of the soldiers opened the hatch to enter. After entering he was pulled down off the ladder and fell. the hatch closed behind him and oliver stabbed him.. After this, the group came out and cleared the room before returning to window positions and firing into advancing forces into the streets. As the building was overwhelmed oliver went up to the roof and moved across the rooftops avoiding heavy fire. The church’s forces directing their fire upward towards Oliver caused some of the areas to lose control due to diverting their fire. He jumped down the back of one of them where there was no opposition for a bit, but the church’s forces began to move in around the backs of buildings. Oliver ran into the street where an armored vehicle can towards him. Oliver ran into a building with a family appearing terrified. The man in the house attempted to draw a gun. Oliver immediately shot him causing them to panic. “SHUT THE FUCK UP!” Oliver ran upstairs with to look outside. He saw the church’s forces advancing down the street passed the house, but the area was controlled. and the armored vehicle he saw earlier was near the house. Oliver ripped off his faction armband, hat and jacket before mustering some tears and running outside. “HELP! One of the terrorists came in, he tried to kill my family.  The soldier responded “Follow them, they’ll take a safe route into the city. Oliver began to run before any further questions were asked. He found a dead soldier from the feminist faction and out the armband in his pocket. He then proceeded to move towards the inner part of the city only until he was out of sight of the soldiers. After that he ran outward to another building. This household had no residents, and Oliver ran upstairs to put on the armband. He then looked around and found a pistol in in a small box.

 

Amelia had been leading forces on the opposite side of town and had penetrated deep through the defenses. A police station was taken over before the church’s forces took control of the surrounding area. Amelia and her group had to hold on the police station continuously similar to how Oliver held onto the house, but on a larger scale.  As the supplies on hand were used, the group used equipment in the police station. As forces moved towards the other side of the town, Amelia and her squad burst out and began to clear the street. Amelia ordered other squads join hers and hold onto the area to keep advancing. This push eventually lead to much of the defenses falling apart and the vehicular forces retreating.

 

Chapter 8:

After the drive, Reginald arrived at the gates of something he had never seen. His mind was blown witnessing a modern gleaming city. Shaylin had dreamed of the cities of the north, she was largely impressed by the Factions Dwight controlled. Several soldiers in military gear approached the vehicle and had the group step out of the vehicle and took it into the city. “you can get this back once weapons are cleared out.” The man handed Russell a piece of paper. The group was then instructed to drop all weapons on them which they did, before they were allowed in.

 

The city was comparable in area to a large faction, but the difference was the buildings were much bigger, and built of proper materials throughout the city. There was a legitimate road network with a variety of cars moving through it. As the group ventured for miles deeper into the city things started to get less pleasant. The initial feel of awe began to fade and the group realized how cold it was. As the group moved deeper into the city, there was a noticeable drop in quality of buildings and roads. As the hours went on, they felt less as though they were in a city and more that they were in a faction territory.

 

After a few days, Reginald was able to take control of a small group of armed citizens. Russell would find a job somewhere and maintain an apartment. Reginald Had a Tunnel dug under the wall at the south end of the faction. Reginald would purchase food, clothing and other supplies out into factions, and trade them for weapons from factions nearby. He would then bring the weapons back where Shaylin would distribute them to gangs.

 

Reginald began to get large numbers of people from surrounding factions to flood into the inner city. This lead to more and more people getting involved in criminal activity and reginald being able to profit more and more. There was also an increase in manpower as time went on. Reginald began to convert his trading group into a movement. He now had a group of rebels under his control and the resources to expand it. He decided to run the group politically, and have Shaylin work with Russell on military operations. He first needed a new headquarters and took control of an old clothing factory. The windows were broken. There was no proper lighting, and alot of the space was occupied by old machinery. Here he set up records of members, and coordinated storage. “You can tell a society has made progress when the broken buildings are abandoned rather than used for lower class citizens and crime.”

 

Reginald’s goal was to secure the support of the poor areas in the city. Many of these areas already had large amounts of arms and ammunition, but the areas were unorganized. Because reginald still relied on the gangs for income, he could not begin attacking them. Certain territories within the city would be fenced off and Reginald agreed to limit activity within these areas. With wealth continuing to accumulate and trade activity slowing due to limitations on the volume of goods he could transport without getting caught, Reginald began to allocate funding to food distribution and reconstruction in areas he controlled. Houses were repaired, supplies were provided throughout the faction and quality of life improved though the harsh winter. Reginald’s Primary goal was to ensure that he came out of winter prepared to expand greatly. He made a deal with a nearby faction promising, men and materials for the farm in exchange for a portion of the food output when the time came. His other goal was to give more power to the surrounding factions to encourage them to expand and have the capacity to resist the city’s demands.

 

Things went on normally for a while. As his territory expanded further, the Gangs had less territory to operate in, and demand for firearms began to shrink causing financial trouble. Reginald had previously restricted operations within his territories. Knowing what increased Gang activity would entail, he decided to build upwards and attempt to condense the population further, but he was lacking in money and materials. He couldn’t make an kind of deal with the government or police force, but as Gang activity was increasing, a private organization started by former members of multiple gangs, but their ability to arm themselves was limited by lack of trade networks. Reginald was known for his distribution of arms to the criminal organizations, his deal was that depending on the increase in money offered, he would reduce trade with the gang to a similar degree. At this point his trade with the gangs was decreasing anyway and prices with them were already low, he agreed to cut off his trade with the gang.

 

Some time later he was informed that somebody wanted to meet him. Little information was present as to who or why, but he was told it was somebody who knew him.  Reginald agreed and then a few hours later was taken to the factory. A man was standing there in a suit. Reginald was confused for a few seconds before realizing who he was seeing. "Alex?!" The man responded "Yep. How's it been Reggie. Reginald laughed before switching to a serious tone. "Second time Alex. Three times and I'll stab you." There was a bit more conversation about recent affairs before Alex suddenly switched topics. "Look. We're good friends and all, but you're here for a reason. I want you to cease trade with outside factions. You're hurting weapons development and my organization. Reginald responded with a bit of anger. "You can't afford to operate or compete here, you can kindly go fuck yourself."  Somewhat shocked Alex responded. "I don't see you in years and this is how you're going to treat me. What happened?" Reginald laughed " Nothing. I am stating as a fact that you could operate more cheaply outside the city and in neighboring factions. Move while you can. I've got goals here and you won't fuck them up." Alex became very aggressive. "What goals. You're filling a city with drugs and guns for power" Reginald responded with a condescending tone. "Power. Yes, but not for me. Power belongs to my cause."

Alex became even angrier but he was cut off before he began to speak. "No. Alex, I am arranging a mutual deal and can offer you decent money for your weapons if you move. Please do this. Alex repled "I'll consider it" Alex and Reginald both went back to their buildings.

 

Shaylin had been working with some forces to raid upper class areas and law enforcement nearby. Shaylin's aggressive yet somewhat reckless ways of doing things seemed to be paying off. More crime led to more people who would depend on Reginald's territory for protection. Most law enforcement was currently tied up in the gangs.

 

One morning fire was heard. Vehicles moved on to his fenced off area. Cars and soldiers moved through the melting snow as armed citizens and Reginald's forces began to support them. Law enforcement arrived amidst the chaos as Reginald drove the attackers outward and left the remainder of the work to police in the area. Reginald had plans to cut off and surround law enforcement if they entered the area. The plans were never of use as hours later there was no fire. People returned to their homes and there were few casualties. Reginald didn't much care for the struggles of families. He recognized their use in keeping people together and working especially during war but he couldn't bring himself to sympathize. Reginald decided he now needed to expand and unify more people.

 

He launched an assault to take whatever territory necessary to have a path outward to the wall. Many of the Lower class areas complied but he encountered heavy resistance from police in wealthier areas. Shahin kept a string of attacks continuing further away to tie up government forces. Once Reginald took the territory needed he would fence it off and bring people into it.

 

Russell had his own plan. He purchased property in a faction quite far from the city. The faction had only a couple hundred people and would be easy to take control of. This would mean contacts in the city could run the operation via tunnel network he planned to create. The plan was ambitious but Russell didn't see it as any more so than Reginald's plan to separate from the city.

 

Reginald had consistently operated from a central location in the area he operated in. This made him particularly difficult to reach. It was decided by government forces that a plan to have Reginald taken from within. A plan to have him captured was developed and they would strike. As Reginald was working on his new plan to take the government center in an effort to take control of the entire city fire was heard from the outside. A few soldiers who were working for the government had turned against the security out of Reginald's office. While the old factory was critical to storage and coordination Reginald operated elsewhere when he could. He operated in a two story building slightly better than that of most factions he'd been in.

 

The assault began and Reginald fired out the window as the squad advanced. After pushing through security the government forces moved up the stairs towards Reginald. Reginald panicked as he realized he lacked ammunition and surrendered to the advancing forces. He was knocked unconscious before being dragged to an armored car.

 

He awoke in a prison cell. There were iron bars and even further back was a metal door. He was alone in this area, knowing there was probably a reason why.  Reginald had been in faction prisons before and he could often find some way out. This was a modern proper building and he waited for about 30 minutes before a man walked in. “Are you surprised by where you are, or that you are alive to process this.” Reginald stood up. “I’d say the former, but because there really isn’t much i’ve been doing wrong. I’ve aided the urban poor and saved hundreds, if not thousands of people from poverty within the city.” The man smirked. “Much in the same way Gangs save people? Am I not mistaken?” Reginald sighed. “No. You see, there isn’t much of a difference between you, me or the gang leaders and criminal organizations. What separates me from the criminals is an ideological cause. What separates your organization from mine is the number of guns you wield.” A buzz was heard. The man turned around and left the are saying “I’ll be here to finish this later.” Reginald ignored him and went back to staring at the wall.

 

Reginald suddenly jumped up as he heard gunfire coming from throughout the facility. The door was opened and several armed people approached Reginald before Shaylin came from behind them unlocking the door. Shaylin handed him a pistol. “Come on. I’ll explain later.” As reginald `and shaylin fought through the facility attempting to bypass large cell blocks, forces outside were in conflict with more of his forces. Reginald was able to shoot his way through the facility, before getting to a vehicle and moving back into his territory. After stepping out Reginald saw who was driving.”Yep. The idea to move into factions worked pretty damn well. I thought you were just being a dick.” Reginald responded “So did I.”

 

Reginald made the decision to have all of the people he could abandon the city, and move outward. The brush with authority had caused Reginald to move. His justification being “I am a proponent of authority as long as it’s mine.” A messenger was sent as Reginald prepared to gather what he could and leave, informing Russell they would be arriving shortly. Rather than leave through the gates, Reginald had flocks of people leave through the tunnel they used to use for exiting and they began the journey northward. At this time more intense snow was beginning to set in again. Reginald stayed near the front with security and had shaylin near him, he called her over to explain the situation. “So, You’re in charge of the operation, run requests through management networks. If it’s anything about being cold or not having food, tell them there’s nothing we can do. Unless there’s a large scale decision you can’t make, leave me alone.” Rather than immediately get to work Shaylin stayed near reginald. “Reginald, you’re an authoritarian dick, and you spent most of your time focusing on resource management. Is there an issue?” Reginald sighed “Other than my goals for the city are destroyed while the other members of our group are probably much better off, nothing. Just hoping we do better off in the factions.” Shaylin ignored him and worked on the management.

 

Upon arrival many people had fallen behind. Reginald gave the order to lay down weapons once they entered the area. There was little security and no walls. People from all over approached them, before a car came up to reginald where a man stepped out “What is this?” Reginald responded. “It's a deal. We help aid in security and construction as long as we live here for the time being. We’ll be able to get new housing relatively soon, but until than we’re gonna kind of need whatever space you have.” The man responded “Fine but it's up to these individuals whether or not they help you.” Russell approached Reginald and had him and Shaylin come in to where he was with a few other people. Shaylin came up with the idea to attempt some form of underground shelter, as materials were in rather short supply and it would be fairly quick. She began digging this and within a few days  a couple hundred people had shelter, As days went on shelter was extended, and became more comfortable however, They could only dig to a certain extent as support materials were required. This left Reginald Surprised and feeling much better about Shaylin.

 

One day Reginald was talking to some upper level personnel. At the end of the conversation Shaylin walked in. “So, you and I don’t know each other at all, and-” “I know what you're doing. You want to be more acquainted with me instead of the hundreds of others here. Because you see everyone else here as a temporary tool, but me as a permanent one.” Shaylin was shocked and expressed a degree of sadness “Sorry” She began to leave the room before Reginald spoke. “What are you sorry about. You implied it was true and that is an indication we are similar, You understand things.” Shaylin smiled “What do you know about Oliver?” “Other than that he’s a boring dry person who buries his lack of personality behind a variety of things depending on how he feels, not much. If you wanted to know what I think of him, I think he’s a cunt.” Shaylin looked for a moment with not much expression before laughing. “Holy shit, that’s great. So does everyone in your group hate each other, or-” “No. If I didn’t like these people why would I be around them. I say nice things with them all the time. Switching topics where are you from and what the fuck do you do?” “Well, I’m 19, I was born about the time shit started going downhill and I went off in the country with my family. We would move around and hide wherever, Our goal was to avoid people. when I was a kid The church’s faction was founded and my family moved there. Despite their efforts to fill me with their delusions, I hated it. As it grew and expanded, so did my hatred for them. Later on I took a band of rebels off to go from a camp. I believe this was when I was 16. At one point a messenger from this faction full of feminist morons showed up. I was fairly disgusted, and being as reckless as I was, I shot him. We continued to fight, for a few years until one day Oliver showed up, and I came back with him. You?”

 

 

Reginald walked out of the room after informing Shaylin he’d come back. Shaylin waited impatiently for about thirty minutes when reginald came back. “Alright, Where were?” Shaylin responded with anger “Your life synopsis.” “Oh okay. So I’m 28. was about 12 when thing started getting shitty. We fenced off my town, and during shortages I would steal and sell food at high prices. I was generally not well liked and within a few years I had a growing suspicion somebody would kill me, I stole what I could and left, Between the ages of 16 and 22, I ran around with marauders. I’d usually kill them when I got bored and take their stuff. I had always wanted what was best, but then I didn’t care. Sometimes I’d fuck with factions. I kept this book of what was going on. Anyway, After years of fun, I settled down in this prison where i’d keep stuff. Particularly guns. It was also much easier to shoot at marauders from upper levels of the prison. They usually thought I’d have others. I built a personal shack outside the prison to keep memorable stuff, and I’d work there on some electrical stuff. One day there was a raid and all that was destroyed, I was pissed and started to be more isolated. I felt shitty for months before I went out again. I was in a faction way back and I met this guy named Alex. Him and I were great friends who agreed on almost everything, and we both enjoyed guns. I still stole and killed, but that seemed not to matter until the police raided Alex’s house. I assume he had some shit to hide because apparently he wasn’t mad to see me again. Anyway, I went back and maintained the pointless pursuit of whatever for a few years. I started feeling really good again until one day This bitch and her bitchier friend showed up, and We decided to work towards a cause. One day a few guys not far from the prison were about to execute one of their buddies. I shot them, and saved the guy. That was Dwight. I didn’t care enough to find out what he was doing, and then shit happened until we were here. And honestly I’ll write about our recent history if you care that much.” Shaylin looked at reginald “Are you drunk?” Reginald laughed “Fuck no. See I’ve kept a little notebook with me that has some loose connections of what was going on. I flipped through that and  got a message that the city has shitty stability now, and we should probably move on it ASAP.” Shaylin nodded. “We need to wait until the snow dies down” Reginald sighed “Fine. Anyway throughout my life there’s been this theme of anarchic chaos surrounding some dark cold emptiness, or whatever bullshit. Through that things were build, and when things failed to work as I intended, The two would separate leading to them to move in stages. Now I’m in the shitty stage, But Hey I’m having some fun.”

 

Through this time Dwight had been finding it Increasingly difficult to manage things while rebuilding multiple factions was needed. He decided to loosen economic control in an attempt to help recover things. This helped in some ways but didn’t work in others. Dwight decided that he needed some advisory staff. He had each faction elect one and out of the currently owned 11 factions, He felt that to be a fair arrangement. He considered transferring more power to them later depending on how well they operated. From the faction Amelia was elected to, Kendra decided to represent them in the Union as well as run the faction in Amelia’s place. Kendra provided frequent challenge to Dwight, and now Dwight’s power was somewhat limited, He accepted this and continued to work with towards rebuilding. As well as fund programs to improve water and electrical infrastructure as well as communication. Dwight was largely isolated and didn’t enjoy addressing his people. Over time he became more comfortable with Kendra’s opposition. Dwight still held most of the real power and only had the staff help him maintain the ability to hold it with their input.

 

Chapter 9: 2037

 

Following the attack, there was an order to execute a certain number of people. Again, Oliver and Liam had found themselves carrying out these orders. They were not executed in the streets but taken out in many directions for a vast distance. The process was slow, but over the night it was completed. The next morning several vehicles arrived. The vehicles gradually formed themselves into a line before a few soldiers stepped out of each vehicle. There was a line of soldiers with an empty space over the vehicle in the middle. The soldiers were dressed in well made, dark green uniforms with the faction armband. The armbands were visibly much higher quality than the ones most soldiers had. At both ends of the line a soldier was holding a Large, well made faction flag and the soldiers in between were holding military grade assault rifles. Andria, the faction’s president stepped out. Immediate mass applause greeted her. After the applause ended she announced. “Alright. People, I’m here to survey the area. Do not interfere with my progress. I can meet people later.” The women holding the flags went back into the vehicles, and a few military officers stepped out of the Car Andria was in.

 

After walking around a few blocks, talking with the officials and having crowds of people keep their distance she came across a corner where Oliver was sitting holding his pistol. She looked down at him. “Excuse me.” Olver ignored her. “You there. Excuse me!” Oliver turned to her with a blank expression. “Hello there can you move.” Oliver decided to ignore her and continued to put the magazine in and out of the pistol.  Andria became angry “What the fuck is wrong with you?” Oliver snickered. “Nothing. You can continue walking. I am not going to move from this corner because of your control issues.” Andria smiled “I’ll be back to deal with you.” She walked around him. She realized Oliver was probably going to be a somewhat valuable asset and admired that he refused to move for a person surrounded by armed guards, But she told her advisor “Our goal is to ensure he does not become problematic.”

 

Oliver walked around and found Amelia conversing with some officers before approaching her. “Amelia.” Amelia walked away from the group to talk to Oliver. “Glad I found you. You could do me a huge favor, and deliver a message to Dwight. We have a chance to create a strong alliance.” Oliver stayed silent for a few seconds “No. I’ve spent most of the night purging civilians, because the party grants you the opportunity not to. Besides aren’t there enough people we took in.” “They’re currently being processed in the main faction, but within a week or so most of them will be here. Oh, by the way that reminds me. You could probably get a better house here if you and Liam want to move, however I won’t be here.” “What the fuck? No. I’m fine there, anyway we can find somebody else. Also, I’ll probably be talking to Andria later. She might be mad, not sure.” Amelia was shocked. “How and why would you do that?” “She asked me to move and I said no. Besides, It’s not like she’s going to do anything.” Amelia walked away. Oliver roamed through houses taking various supplies. At one point, He met up with Liam. They roamed around the area, and aside from a few small conversational exchanges, the affair was rather uneventful. Walking around oliver bought up a somewhat interesting point regarding the faction constitutions. Liam pondered the point for several seconds before delivering a response “I’m sure most of them have them. It’s just the degree to which they are practiced. It would be more interesting to see what they have. From what we can infer it was probably drafted by Andria.” “True, I’d imagine Andria probably put into place a few policies to prevent radical ideas from gaining too much power, but she’d still give the so called president  most of the power. I’m sure we’d find out more if we talked to her at some point” “When you refer to radical ideas are you referring to radical or radical from Andria’s standpoint.” Oliver looked with a mix of confusion and disappointment. “What do you think?” Liam realized what was wrong with his question before getting back to the topic at hand. “Has Dwight adopted any kind of constitution” “I’d imagine not yet, but he should at some point. A more important, but less relevant question would be how can the SFU aid with our situation here. It's Likely Dwight will swing southward and expand, but how and when will he challenge the church’s empire.” “That also reminds me, how bad really is the church’s faction system. They seem to be pretty nice.” Oliver sighed “Revolutionaries usually can't afford well to hide their brutality. I have no doubt that we would find them to be engaging in horrible acts as well.”

 

Andria came into their line of sight before rushing over. “You there, Oliver correct.” Oliver turned to Andria with a look of surprise “How do you know my name?” Andria laughed. “I’ve been talking with your friend Amelia. What’s been happening is pretty damn intriguing. I’d like to invite all three of you for a meeting at the palace tomorrow night.” Liam accepted the offer before Oliver said anything. Amelia came up to them sometime later and the three walked back. After the walk, Oliver went another half a mile or so with Amelia to where she was staying. Until now he’d stay in barracks or with whoever was willing to offer them housing. Oliver and Liam both spent most of the time sleeping.

 

The next day, In the afternoon a knock on the door was heard. Oliver opened the door to see a young man. “Greetings, Are you Oliver?” Oliver replied “Yes” “Good, I’ve heard about the SFU, and I’d like to talk to you about it. Is this okay.” “Sure.” Oliver walked with him outside the faction gates and walked several miles around. They walked into a large shed with materials, and equipment everywhere. There was some wiring and electric lighting as well as diagrams on the walls. There was radio equipment on one big table in the middle, and out back there was a crude airplane. “So, Oliver. What do you think?” Oliver replied “I’m rather impressed, but why are you showing me this?” “Didn’t know whether or not Amelia has been influenced by the party. Either way. I want you to take some of these papers concerning radio, and see what you can do with them at the SFU. I’m almost finished with the aircraft, but that’s another story.” Oliver nodded “Thanks, but I need to be back soon.” “No problem” They walked a little further and found a car. Oliver stepped in and was told “Just bring it back soon. The car was seen before by the guards and Oliver passed through. He returned to his house to see Andria walking up to the door.

 

After she knocked on the door, Amelia and Liam walked out into the car. Oliver caught up shortly after. They went to a large building in the center of the faction.  There building had half of it elevated many floors above the first, towering over the faction despite being rather large. Up about halfway to the top on the elevated half of the building was the balcony where Andria gave speeches. They walked i n through the front door and up many flights of stairs before entering a hallway. They walked to the end of the hallway where Andria pushed open the two doors open and they entered a room with a long table and at the end of the table there was a large portrait of a woman who looked rather similar to Andria. Oliver remarked “Who is that.” Andria replied “My sister. I’ll explain later. Food will be here soon.” The group sat down as a few more people entered the room. Andria sat at the head of the table and reserved some spaces for the people who came in.

 

 “So we’re going to have a few more people here, but that’s not going to be much of a concern.”  Amelia responded shortly after “I assume we are here to talk about the Socialist Faction Union, or my writings.” Andria chuckled “Not yet, I think we could open with a little bit of discussion. On the surface it may seem as though my attempts to create a better society as radical and hateful, but I was wondering what you thought of this place” Oliver spoke quickly. “Well, Andria. I believe what you have been doing is flawed. Not so much from a Gender perspective, but from a liberty centered one. You seem to be so militant in your enforcement of policies. I’m not sure how i feel.” Andrias response was quick and somewhat defensive. “If I were the authoritarian beast my opponents portray me as, I wouldn’t be allowing such a conversation.” Liam responded “Yes, but you also wouldn’t be having large scale executions.” Andria remained calm “We’re at war with a fascist empire, as I attempt to create our nation, there will be costs. They do the same shit.” The table went quiet for a few seconds before Oliver remarked on Andria’s comment. “But isn’t that the problem. Isn’t the goal to be better than them.” Liam commented immediately after. “Irellevant, but I was wondering about your population management systems. I here only certain percentages of various groups are to be maintained.” Andria smiled. “One at a time. Oliver, No. At war there is no place for morals. I’m sure you yourself have done some harmful acts in your quests. All of you kill, and there’s no shame in that. Now, Liam that is false. Whoever told you that has probably a rather warped view. The state simply takes measures in order to prevent that from happening.” Amelia became defensive and replied very quickly. “One of the scout officers named Lezlie showed us this. Also, our goal is to create a world in which we no longer kill. It’s rather difficult to do this peacefully. However, I believe we take measures to minimize death. We kill to protect, and it seems as though you kill to control.”

Food arrived shortly after. It had a some of everything, but had a particularly high variety of meats. The group was used to either canned food, or the limited variety of food produced in factions. This was a surprising step up from the quality of meals they normally had. After some time the conversation started up with Amelia. “Our previous discussion was of interest to me. and while we may not agree, what is your opinion on the working class.” Andria took a drink before responding. “I support most of the proletarians, however at the current time It’s hard to keep wages or benefits up during wartime. I’ll probably do more for them when the church falls. However, the majority of men here are in these roles as a result of choice.” Oliver responded quickly “You’ll always have workers. By chance or choice, what matters is you care for them.” Prior to Andrias prepared response Amelia shifted the topic. “Our faction Union is working to expand leftism and there is debate as to where we should move. On the one hand we could move northward and work to defactionalize, or we could defeat this empire. What we take is dependent on your response.” Andria twirled the wine glass in her hand before setting it down. “If you’re asking if I will join the Union. No, atleast not without major changes to policy and some guaranteed role for me in the government created which would be included in the constitution.

I am willing to support you and act as your ally, as well as change some of my policies to extend our alliance.” Amelia became somewhat happy, but not very visibly. “So, would you be interested in attending a delegation to discuss a new constitution?” “Yes, I would. However, I’d need access to radio communication, so i could bring my Communication minister. She’s brilliant, and would be happy to work in any programs you create. I’ll probably need her help setting up the radios anyway.” Oliver interrupted before Amelia could speak. “I actually was given some detailed instructions and schematics from a young man before I came here. Don’t know his name though.” Andria laughed.”Oh I know him, he works with our teams on communication. I guess I won’t need her. Anyway, I’d be happy to come along.”

 

Just then the lights went out, and with only the smallest amount of sunlight coming through the window, the room was dark. Gunshots were heard coming from downstairs, and there was panic. Andria pulled out a small flashlight, “Come with me. They moved down a couple floors before rushing into a room and slamming the door shut and locking it. She grabbed several guns, and flashlights handing them to the group. There was noise coming from all around, and running upstairs to the radio would be somewhat dangerous. Liam volunteered to move out first and ran out down the stairs. Amelia looked semi similar to Andria and moved into the closet. She grabbed a standard party leader overcoat and replaced her current one. She ran out avoiding fire on her way, until she met up with Liam. Together they fought off opposition at the door. Andria and Oliver rushed out down the stairs. Oliver distracted people firing from upper levels and eventually moved out.

 

After escaping the four got into a car with Andria driving. Andria drove over to. Police station afew blocks away. Andria walked in surprising the staff before an officer approached her. "President Yee, what are you doing here at this hour?" Andria responded in somewhat of a panic. "Attack on my home. I need transport to a backup location and an investigation on the scene. I have 3 valued guests with me and we'll need them accommodated. If you don't know what to tune the radio to ask your superior."  The officer expressed some confusion. “What about the other staff in the building?” Andria sighed “I couldn’t get to them, They probably held up okay. Just make sure the team is armed.” The officer nodded, and went into the back. Andia took a seat, and after a few minutes of waiting the Officer came back out. “There will be a car here in a couple of minutes.”

 

When the car arrived, A woman walked into the station informing Andria that she was there to take her to her backup location. Andria looked outside to find her group had moved into the back of another car with several vehicles surrounding them.  and some soldiers in the area. Andria got into the front seat and the vehicles moved outward. Near the west end of the faction, Andria had a large house reserved for when she wasn’t using her main building. When the vehicles arrived Andria walked out. “Okay, find a room that I’m not in and go to sleep. I’ll write an order to be carried out as we leave tomorrow.” “Wait” Said Oliver, “Where are we going?” Andria smiled. “The Socialist Faction Union. I’d love to meet this Dwight fellow. Oh, and Oliver, Do you still have those papers on you?” “Yeah, But the condition is less than ideal. Call your minister of whatever the fuck, and we’ll be fine.”

 

In the morning, Andria drove off earlier not waking anyone, but came back in a few hours to find the group awake and changed. Andria frowned “Don’t use my water without asking.” Oliver remarked “Is it really that big a deal, The Church’s central faction had electricity and water as a standard for most people.” “It’s not that. It’s A.Harder to move this far and somewhat wasteful, and B.It’s my house, and faction. Anyway, Let’s hit the road. Last night some scavengers found a gas station with a little bit of fuel left, and a lot of food, so we’re going to be able to enjoy this.”

 

 

Amelia reminded the group to go back to the house she had been staying at as the maps were kept there. Following the trip to Amelia’s house, the group set off. The trip seemed to feel as though it was moving quickly. After the first couple of hours Oliver decided to initiate a conversation. “So, the events that led to societal collapse are vague at best, Personally I don’t feel as though there was a particular group or element responsible. It was just the anarchic nature of humans. Each individual within a structure has so many variables and when you take into account the number of individuals within a structure, anything could happen at any time. Now, not to say there isn’t a reason for this, but it’s damn near impossible to find. It seems as though planning with consideration for what you know is better than reflecting on what you don’t, Andria?” Andria responded. “Well, many people such as yourself view society as a whole is the product of individuals that’s why you find yourselves unable to fix it. But when you look at society as a series of mechanisms which may be swayed by individuals, remain dominant and largely resistant to individual actions, you get a larger picture. Instability within the mechanisms are a product of the classes that run them. If a mechanism collapses society will subsequently fall.” Liam laughed “What, “mechanisms” are you referring to? Oliver replied before Andria could. “I assume she is speaking of interlocked systems of oppression that work in cooperation, but are all run by a different class and in some cases people oppressed by one of these systems are oppressing others, but those people should somehow cooperate.” Andria remained confident. “You were somewhat close. Some mechanisms are more dominant than others. My form of intersectionality is based on the domino effect. It seems to be largely successful.” “Yes, but wouldn’t most members of various groups have their own ideas of what system is dominant.” “I’ve heard this argument from others.  The only legitimate argument is if it is race or gender. We chose the latter and you can see how well that worked.” “There are societies established which have dictators, Kings and other supreme authority across the land. Even the church is successful” “Perhaps from a territory or technological standpoint. Not the social positions of people” “When the state exerts more control than necessary for purposes other than shared prosperity of all,  It is not social success. It is the worst of statism.” “Oliver, your argument is starting to fall apart. You are saying that equalizing rights and positions of women doesn’t fall under shared prosperity.” Oliver exhibited frustration. “No. Firstly you are saying equal rights means equal position. This is untrue. Trying to balance the positions people are in is entirely different than giving them each the same opportunity to progress at least in regards to position. The only thing that fell apart was the false narrative you created.”

 

Meanwhile, Dwight took a turn in a bit of a more positive direction. He discovered the degree to which people in the union respected him, and while Dwight still had much to do, the creation of a faction union on this scale was an achievement. He decided to expand his control more directly, and seek praise. His behaviors became rather reminiscent of Andria’s and he decided to greatly expand and emphasize construction by cutting down on military, and using most of his military to collect resources by raids or other means.  His construction was particularly heavy electrical and water infrastructure and it was rather costly to implement. Dwight always saw the lack of safety between factions as an issue. He launched an initiative to style between the factions. There was rapid growth over these weeks but the expense was massive. Dwight planned to relax his building in late winter and conserve as much as possible for an agricultural expansion.

 

One night as Amelia was driving through the empty plains a car approached them. The people driving attempted to make it clear that they intended no harm, but Amelia became more worried. She eventually stopped and drew her pistol after waking the others. She stepped out of the car with her pistol aimed at the other one. The other car stopped, and out walked a man with his hands above his head. "I hear there is a union of factions. And I hear you're going there." Amelia experienced some fear but she adequately covered this up when she spoke. "How do you know?" The man responded. "That shouldn't matter, I need safety. Please let s come with you. We have our own fuel and car. If not you may as well shoot me now because I'm a as good as dead." Amelia's sympathy overwhelmed her and she agreed to have him follow. She returned to the car and informed the group about the situation. Nobody seemed to react strongly, so both groups continued onward. At some point during the next afternoon, a thought crossed Oliver’s mind. He directed his attention to Andria and asked “How have you managed to continuously wage war and survive against the christian empire. If they were able to take those territories, It seems irrational that one could hold out against them for so long.” “We haven’t really been able to make too much progress against them. They’ve never launched a full scale assault on our home. The cost would probably be quite intense, so the massive resource advantage they have is somewhat void. Oh, and to my knowledge they have some poor military leadership. The one you killed was probably their good chance. We’re gonna be safe for a while.” “I understand that the last instance i was a part of was probably the first capture of one of the territories” “That’s correct. We spend most of our time moving between the controlled factions. It decentralizes them, and keeps our risk pretty low.”

 

Within a few more days, they had reached SFU territory. Following the maps became significantly easier and it did not take long to reach the capital. Upon entrance, Staff asked Amelia (Who was driving at the time) the purpose of entry. Amelia quickly explained they personally knew the Union’s president and have a faction leader with them. Amelia also explained the people behind them were with them, and that they could come in. After a little bit of driving the other car diverged. Amelia continued driving for several miles until they arrived at the building where Dwight worked. Upon entry, Dwight was eager to greet them. They sat down with Dwight and began discussion. Oliver opened up, despite the fact that i was obviously not his time to speak. “We found this faction, and they’re at war with a large christian empire. Discuss the possibility of alliance and union, and the new one Andria.” Oliver’s statement did save some time that would be spent with a more proper introduction. Dwight turned his attention to Andria. “So, I assume it’s you who represents our potential ally” “I don’t represent them so much as lead them, however we came here with some large scale plans that i doubt my diplomatic staff could handle.” “Well, Andria. Merely joining my union isn't very difficult.” “I’m not here to join if there aren’t some large scale changes. I’d be happy to agree to an alliance” Amelia interrupted. “Firstly, can we get to the matter of communication before we keep talking about the specifics of the arrangement.” Oliver set some papers on Dwight's desk. Dwight looked at them as Andria spoke “We’ve had strong radio infrastructure for sometime. It would be very beneficial if you could get some people working on your own. Now we’re going to need some towers in between your territories and mine. I propose we give some resources to local powers to prevent attack.” Dwight reorganized the papers. “It would be best to provide these areas with means of protection. And the problem is we’re kind of in a bit of economic trouble. I don’t know if we can really afford to allocate resources to such a project without cutbacks in our other developments. I’m afraid that we’ll risk compromising our electrical and water systems, as well as housing programs. I could show you some of what resources are being allocated and where to, as well as the state of our monetary systems. They’ve been fairly successful, but in most projects our concern is still the actual resources as our programs are largely what generates them. If you offer a solution, I’ll gladly work with you.” Dwight and Andria left the room and moved up the stairs after Dwight informed Amelia, Oliver and Liam that they should check back soon as most of this discussion wouldn’t involve them. Though it wasn’t Dwight's intention to exclude them from the process that’s what he ended up doing. Oliver didn’t much mind, as at this point they were far from implementing any major legal changes, so it seemed unnecessary to stay. They decided to walk around and learn more about the area itself.

 

Dwight was able to make some rearrangements to his budget to accommodate the communication plan however, they found complications in resource trading as the journey from his territory. Andria’s solution was to have large scale convoys along controlled paths paid for primarily with SFU resources. Dwight’s solution was a more long term project with aerial transport. It would not be able to be implemented for some time, but would be much better in the long term. Andria kept pushing dwight to swing southeast to challenge the church’s empire, however Dwight needed time for his previous expansions to start paying off. Dwight offered to send troops in exchange for construction resources, as well as food. He said “The sooner I can increase my supply of these, the sooner I can expand with other plans. Your propositions create a variety of dangers to my economy.” Andria agreed to the initiative under an agreement that Dwight would subsidize her vehicle factories, to create the means for this. This would be met by an agreement to adopt a standard currency. Andria and Dwight both seemed to like the idea of having some skilled individuals help implement this and do the math required. Andria was also concerned with stability in Dwight’s union. She urged Dwight to adopt a standard faction constitution. Andria didn’t want to make it appear that she was trying to gain input or control in the society, so she didn’t make many propositions for content. After the lengthy conversations Dwight was tired of them. He told Andria tomorrow they’d be getting into the specifics of the agreements and the constitution tomorrow and this would need to include Oliver, Amelia and Liam in the process. He told Andria that she could stay in his house, and tomorrow he would pick her up.

 

Despite not being included in the conversation, after walking about Amelia, Oliver and Liam discussed what they would need to incorporate in the central union constitution. Oliver was for more economic control, but more social freedom. Both him and Amelia agreed a democracy would be needed, but Oliver advocated provisions to prevent shifts too far to the right within the population. Amelia disagreed saying that “The study of the union’s history and the surrounding world will be enough to hold back major reactionary movements. If this is not the case they will simply suffer the subsequent consequences which rightfully plagues them.” While the discussion expanded far further than  these two basic points, the subject of provisions was what took most of the time. Liam fell somewhere in the middle, but leaned slightly towards agreeing with Oliver. After the time had passed, Dwight walked out and the group quickly approached him. Dwight spoke as he entered the car. “Wait in my building I’ll be back later.” The group walked in as Oliver and Liam shared a feeling of concern and confusion regarding Dwight. “What’s wrong with him. It seems as though he’s doing as much as possible to avoid us.” Liam expressed his agreement, but Amelia spoke out. “He’s trying to build a partnership. One on one is the best way that he can do that. It provides opportunity for him to see where they stand as individuals in their efforts. If we were there it would’ve probably hurt this early stage development.” “But we’re out massive campaign to renew his interest. The coming three weeks were nothing more than sporadic shifts of interests. Amelia had most of the middle class voters who didn’t support some conservative party and Dwight had most of the state employed workers of varying classes which gave him a slight edge. The battleground was for the votes of the working poor. Both Amelia and Dwight were appealing to them, but the main difference between them was that Dwight played on their anger, and Amelia played on their hope. Dwight and Amelia were neck and neck, and Dwight decided to take a new measure. He called a meeting with Amelia prior to a public debate.

 

Dwight sat in an office waiting for Amelia when her car pulled up. Amelia walked in and sat down. “What the fuck is this about?” Dwight smiled. “We’ve known eachother for a while. We have fought side by side to further our causes and not always been moal. Now we face a crisis” “You face a crisis. You acted immorally. You are projecting here. What do you want?” Dwight sighed “I want you to drop out of the presidential race” Amelia laughed “Why the fuck would I ever do that.” “Well, Amelia because the presidency isn’t a job you’d enjoy or be best suited to. Economy, Transport, Research of all forms. There is a department for anything you’d want. Why bother with the administrative work?” “I’d rather make sure there's money for those departments than work in them with uncertainty. You also fail to take into account what I want to do is create a better world. How can that happen with a leader whose goals and methods of obtaining and exerting power the only reason I care to challenge him?” Dwight raised an eyebrow “Key word there is power. Why do you have this hatred for power, and if so why do you seek it? I’ve ruled out the possibility of jealousy because you’ve made it clear that there are two different motives, or a pyramid of some sort. You’re vision of a better future makes you demand power, but honestly you seem to emphasize me not leading over yourself. Why could that be?” “Because you’re an arrogant entitled psychopathic piece of shit who can only justify a role in this faction because you helped create it. It reminds me of mother leaders who went down a similar path.” A slight grin came across Dwight’s face. “Men like David. But that’d be too easy. David’s just the time you got blood on your hands, and back then he wasn’t in power. What happened with the leadership earlier?” Amelia stood up “I don’t have time for this.” As she approached the door Dwight suddenly called out. “Family!” Amelia turned with a look of curiosity. “It was all rather obvious really. Government did something to a loved one. You felt guilty. It wasn’t your fault but you still blamed yourself, and you already had those emotions. The guilt surfaced again in the first time innocent blood was on your hands and you could channel all of that two ways. David and yourself. Only so much could go into hatred of david so you blame yourself for what happened. You feel an obligation to prevent harmful power structures as you want to change things for yourself.” Amelia was holding back tears. “You’ve just given me ten times the reason to win.” As she walked out Dwight called to her “But i’ve cut the means by roughly the same factor.”

 

Amelia sat at a desk in her house. She’d usually stay here as opposed to near the central government area. It kept her focused. She had writing utensils, paper and half a bottle of whiskey left. Her goal was to prepare a speech to end the deadlock between her and Dwight. By sunset she had a few sentences written down and her thoughts shifted from sadness to a confused cloud of scrambled ideas which progressed in coherence as time went on. By around what she assumed was 10:00 her thoughts were somewhat clear. She began to write again paying very little attention to what she was actually saying. Her goal was to generate ideas which she did with incredible efficiency. She kept thinking that she should look over it but ignored that thought whenever it crossed her mind. There was a knock on the door. Amelia continued to write for a good three minutes rapidly before she got up to to respond. It was Liam. Liam looked almost as bad as Amelia. They exchanged mutual glances of confusion before Liam spoke. “What’s going on here?” Amelia leaned back and expressed a substantial degree of confusion. “I was gonna ask the same thing, but in an effort to prevent the conversation from slowing or becoming awkward, I’m writing a speech.” Liam smiled “Must be pretty intense.” Amelia laughed “Come on in.” Liam sat down “I’ve been doing fuck tons of work. Having to keep the policies up to date, struggling to manage his horrible budget and arguing constantly with staff. I can’t fucking stand it, but he promised reward if he won.” “Just go sleep over there, I’ll end up sleeping at my desk soon, I’ll finish the speech and we’ll get to it in the morning.

 

At around noon Amelia and Liam woke up. Amelia read over her speech and found it surprisingly good. Liam woke up feeling relieved. Amelia walked in “Alright Liam. You seem to have quite a bit you want to do. Now, You’re a nice person. How well are you acquainted with the people around here?” “Not as well as I am with the government, but I still maintain acquaintances here. I think you should be able to make some friends and operate my campaign with the urban poor. We should be able to secure some votes. Help me with that a few hours, and I’ll do what I can to support you.” Liam nodded before Amelia came to a realization. “Where’s Oliver?” “He seems very preoccupied with something, I’m not sure what, but I see him coming in and out of the city pretty often. You know him better than I do.” A knock on the door was heard , and Amelia rushed to answer. It was one of her campaign managers. “I would like to inform you of an upcoming debate this evening between the candidates. Be prepared.” Amelia acknowledged the woman at the door before closing it. Her speech could wait, now was her chance to defeat Dwight publically.

 

Liam went off and upon receiving the news that he had left, Dwight had to spend most of his time working instead of preparing. Amelia had plenty of time after showering, and was rather confident in her positions. She was rather bored of writing and began to continue exploring her renewed interest in art. Her room at the prison was full of various writings most of which were abandoned, but her drawings served to contrast that. Her mind was also on the election. Her drawing began with the first third of the paper a city in turmoil. Crumbled buildings and fires as well as scattered bands of armed people until transitioning into the next third of the paper. Here there was a rather advanced faction city with people going about their lives normally. There was a wall around the city, but over it in the background walls around other cities could be seen with rather dark clouds. The last third of the paper depicted a large city and in the distance more buildings in the background, The area was unified with a large sun shining down upon the city. In the bottom corner she wrote Social Democrats 2037. The detail and effort she put into this consumed substantial time, and she found herself rushing to get to the debate. She arrived a bit early, but wanted to ensure she was there. There was Dwight, and a candidate from the conservative party but that was it.

 

The first stage of the discussion focused primarily on social issues. The expansion of the PCNA had several issues in this regard. The first was immigration. It was not yet at a level of a crisis but would be in the near future. Dwight had not much to say. Essentially he would worry about it when it became more urgent. Amelia's response was rather interesting to mist. She believed that the PCNA would need to expand outside faction walls and wanted to create settlement incentives  so that the capacity would vastly expand. The conservative candidate had a similar response to Dwight, not caring much about the issue. The second main topic was the police force. It was rather expansive and more so in former LFF areas. Dwight saw not much if a problem staying that it would eventually balance itself out. The conservative candidate wanted to take heavy policing out of the former LFF, but didn't say much about the north. Amelia seemed to have more of a response than others again. Advocating some cutbacks and the creation of a voluntary corps to manage smaller level affairs. The last main social issue discussed was substance usage. Drugs still existed and were grown in some factions far off. Here Dwight and Amelia mostly agreed and the conservative  candidate stood out.

 

The economic discussion had far more variety and substance. There were a wide range of topics which spanned over the course of a couple hours. Dwight's positions were appealing, but the population at large was beginning to question the viability of Dwight's proposals. The conservative party was certainly strengthened, but it was more than likely a leftist would win. Amelia managed to both appeal to hopes and understandings. Though Amelia had expanded her following among the urban workers where she substantially gained was with farmers in southern factions. The election would belong to the Social Democrats but the question would only be by how much. As frustrated as Dwight was he was able to prevent himself from acting until he had relaxed. He did not want to jeopardize his friendship. He let Tyler go simply for his image, and while that was the motivation for his current actions to an extent, he also genuinely cared about maintaining what he had.

 

One night within the next few days, there was a knock on Amelia’s door. It was Oliver. He seemed very energized for this time and had woken Amelia to talk. Amelia answered the door and was somewhat shocked by Oliver’s appearance and arrival. Expression of this was hardly visible due to the lack of energy. Oliver spoke rather loudly, as the excitement had overwhelmed his ability to control the volume with which he spoke. "Get in the car! I want to show you something very important." Amelia considered slamming the door and returning to sleep, but the fact that Oliver’s activities over the past few weeks were unknown lead her to reluctantly come into the car. After passing the exit gate Oliver drove outward for a good twenty minutes before a large shed with lights surrounding it became visible. Oliver rushed out of the car and ran behind the shed. Amelia followed and upon walking around was filled with awe and energy. There was an aircraft which resembled that of a world war 2 era fighter. Constructed mostly with wood, but had adequate metals where they were needed. The young man Oliver met earlier was there, but was unfamiliar to Amelia. This didn't mean he was unfamiliar with him and was more than happy to introduce himself. "I've heard of you Ms . Robertson, and must say I am excited to have you here at this occasion. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Gerald. I worked with the feminist party's teams in designing electrical and water infrastructure. After the project was defunded, I found myself working on a very low budget to supply electricity to lose income areas. This was of course not required as we were at the height of our conflict with the church. After a raid on a church research center we were able to successfully complete work on radio systems which went into widespread use. With most of these achievements the party as a whole was recognized and I never felt I was receiving the praise I deserved for my efforts. I worked on developing cheaper communication systems and a variety of electronics, until I shifted my focus to flight. At the point in time which I was ready to give up, your friend here helped me." Amelia waited a couple of seconds before responding. "Alot to take in, but how is this in any way related to me?" Oliver was quick to respond. “Not much, but you’re the only one who cares. You’re going to be elected and I wanted to share my role in this breakthrough with somebody who cares, and will utilize it. Also, I wanted you in particular to see I wasn’t wasting all of my time.” “Why me in particular” “Just look at who else there is, that should cover most of the answer.” Amelia thought for a moment before walking back into the car. Oliver followed and the took off. As they were on their way back to the city, Amelia bordered on falling asleep. Oliver looked at her. “Why was your response so minimal.” Amelia opened her eyes more widely. “Timing. Just remember the impacts of poor timing on people.”

 

 

Chapter 10: Chaos of a Different Sort

 

As the SFU became the PCNA, and elections loomed, Reginald maintained his affair in a different manner. As the snow remained heavy in the far north every day was different. His boredom lead him to explore. He’d sometimes help with resources or construction, but that was more to build an appeal to the common people whom he depended on. He’d drive far off and find smaller factions, get a few friends and wreak havoc on towns. This renewed desire for fun and uncertainty was spiked by reflection upon his past. Shaylin saw massive appeal in this as it reminded her of guerilla war against the church. Reginald now had two lives; one where he would rule with decisive action out of good for his people and one where his actions had no impact on him personally meaning their implications wouldn’t either at least as far as he was concerned. Shaylin and Reginald were side by side reliving their earlier days. Neither of them were old even compared to others living in this era, so it was more about reliving the times with an outside force that created their joy than it was about feeling like they were younger. Reginald and Shaylin also became much closer than before.

 

Alex had been using Reginald’s messaging staff for some time and while he didn’t like Reginald’s behavior he put up with it. The situation between them seemed to be increasingly unsustainable, until Russell and Alex were able to find a degree of common ground. They found similarities in each other's life stories, and were able to ignore Reginald. This increased the instability of the situation, but postponed its ending in the short term. The snow died down some number of weeks later, as Reginald had sustained his forces through stolen resources. He wanted to double check the situation in the city, and sent a scout. Upon his returned it was discovered that the city was wide open for them to come in. Varying districts came under the control of urban warlords following riots, and clan warfare was in full effect. This was the time for Reginald to move in. Uniting the lower classes of many hierarchies between governments would lead him to a definite victory.

 

Hist force rushed down the next day, and fought easily through the few guards left at the gate. After taking a few turns and walking in a few hundred meters they found a bar with armed guards. There was a custom flag raised above the building. The guards were sniped, and Reginald with a few men walked into the bar. The leader was near the back, and easy to identify. Upon seeing him reginald commanded his men to kill him and immediate guards, before blocking off the exits. This worked swimmingly, but while the people were contained the chaos wasn’t reduced until Reginald shot a member of the crowd after having his commands for silence ignored. All eyes turned to him. “Now, you may seem worried, but I have no hatred for you. I hate the leaders and clans which fight here. I want to see the people oppressed by this system of rule. The leaders are the only enemy, and if you doubt my legitimacy I offer you this pistol to shoot me.” He tossed a handgun on the floor and watched as nobody picked it up. He grabbed it before speaking again “We have a great city here, lefts not destroy it. Come now for unity!”

 

Over the next few days this repeated itself, but went on a larger scale. As different groups held multiple buildings it was easy to create disorder. Eventually with a massive force Reginald moved towards the government buildings and took them over. He began to move outward and enforce control throughout the land. More and more people were absorbed until he encounter remaining government forces in the southern part of town. The government forces moved up, and Reginald needed to act quickly. He got together what he could and prepared a defense near an apartment block not far from the government forces. Hs men opened fire, causing a brief moment of panic before experiencing massive retaliation from government forces. This continued for sometime and ended with Reginald’s opposition retreating, but that was not his goal. Reginald passed command of the armed forces down to Shaylin and worked with Alex and Russell on economic planning. Shaylin over time found and eliminated most opposition, but this came at a cost. A large number of Reginald's soldiers had died and Reginald had to spend much of his time helping her.

 

Reginald was now in a hurry to reorganize and plan, especially in regards to agriculture, but going from roaming freely doing whatever he thought would interest to him, to spending all day in meetings and issuing orders had a negative impact on him. His anger lead him to always act quickly trying to get things out of the way. He would often find himself disregarding the input of others and act as he wished to improve the way he felt. This lead to some rather harsh policies and a high pressure on his people. Within the next few weeks progress was rapid, and society was nearly reorganized with most of the city operational. He began development of the agricultural program. There was a base set up a few hours car ride southwest with housing and other facilities. He issued as much money as possible to allow this to happen. People would perform rather simple tasks for high prices as Reginald emphasized the importance of this. This project was extremely resource consuming, but worth every penny in Reginald’s eyes. He begun developing a web of people to carry down orders, and carry up requests, leaving him with much less work to do. Reginald used this time to explore more interests. He enjoyed taking apart some of the weapons, creating various political and ideological flowcharts and concepts although none of them ever became anything more than a string of thoughts to pass the time, and designing intricate puzzles. Most of what he did wasn’t for any practical skill related purpose, but just to pass time. This kept him from being as stressed when working and decreased his aggression and authoritarianism, but he still maintained those elements to a lighter degree. Uncertainty and freedom could exist in his private affairs, with order prevailing in his public life. Shaylin would often leave somebody else to manage her affairs while she would see Reginald or run off for a couple of days to enjoy creating confusion and rage within further off factions. Reginald remained on top of his administrative tasks, and was finally able to give Russell and Alex a break.

 

Russell and Alex remained good friends. They seemed to share a distrust in reginald. One day while they were outside the city walls shooting a rather significant conversation emerged. Russell asked “What ended up happening with you and Reginald?” Alex was hesitant to respond, but eventually did. “He fucked me over. Police raided my house due to his consistent shitty behavior, and I ended up on trial. After the case was resolved I ended up with a new outlook, and began to work towards a goal. I moved out eastward, and started to try to make something of myself. I found this in selling weapons here. He hurt me in the short term, but allowed me to grow up more in the long term through this. I can’t really see why one would be angry at him.” Russell thought for a brief moment before responding. “Do you think he’s grown in the same way?” Alex laughed. “No. He’s simply got some papers and a desk. Still the same old person who enjoys not caring. He’s gotten away with a lot and one day something will happen to him for this behavior. He’ll change at some point, but to answer your question: No.” Russell took it all in rather slowly and after a few more shots developed more to say. “Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, correct?” Alex looked puzzled “Yes?” “Okay, so if you’re string of helping Reginald was brief, and your span of destruction limited the reaction was just enough to get you to change. There wasn’t punishment. You’re mistakes were mild enough to where you could realize what would happen.” Alex nodded before Russell continued to speak. “If that were the case what would become of Reginald. It’s more than clear his string of destruction and disregard has extended well past realization. Would the just reaction and ending for him be possibly that he realizes his errors before anything can be done?” Alex thought about this for a rather long time. There was a substantial pause in the conversation before he responded “I can only hope not.”

 

It was sometime in early march. This was after the aircraft was revealed to Amelia, but before election day. It was a warm morning, and truly felt like springtime although spring itself was sometime off. Reginald and Shaylin drove outward towards the agricultural area to check on progress. Some small talk and trivial discussions occurred. The discussion shifted to their pasts and became a bit more serious, until Shaylin asked about Reginald’s past relationships. Reginald's response was rather quick. “If you’re off fighting, stealing, building an idea with strangers how does one maintain interactions? Any time I attempted anything it didn’t work due to lack of time.” “But you work as a leader now. Your life should be rather stable soon.” Reginald expressed confusion before asking. “Are you implying that it would be easy to sustain a relationship with you?” Shaylin nodded, but seemed worried. Reginald's response surprised her. “I see no reason not to pursue this. It’ll make my life more unpredictable. Not much more than what we’ve been doing other than in name.” Shaylin smiled, as they continued to drive off.

 

As much as Reginald wanted to keep his time properly allocated, he couldn’t help but spend more time with Shaylin then he should’ve. His new relationship lead him to become much more relaxed in his policy making. He allowed more private property and allowed more input from others in his decisions. His freely dynamic endeavors were no longer contrasted by an orderly grip on his nation and people. His personal endeavors became more unpredictable, as he’d run off with Shaylin whenever, and his grip on the people loosened. Long discussions with Shaylin allowed him to feel more fulfilled and complete as he moved through life in the following weeks. There was no longer the host of variables surrounding turmoil and anarchy in the city, but there was a host of variables in both his and Shaylin decisions and emotions.

 

During these view days Russell made the observation that “While there is no limit to the negative impacts of his anger driven action, there is a limit to positive impacts from the lack of action.” Russell seemed to be right as the benefits of Reginald’s lack of interest started to come into effect with a lack of progress. As he was relaxing with Shaylin he was informed of a major finding. A couple miles north there was a base where weapons and vehicles were stockpiled. It was discovered some time ago, but Reginald had other concerns. He was told that there were comprehensive maps of the surrounding areas for a great distance and Helicopters with fuel. He decided now was the time to make a trip. He put Alex in charge of the city, and ordered his staff find a trained pilot who would be able to take them to the capital of the SFU. After a few days, his staff found one. His name was Dimitri, and he was a former government soldier, although he fought against government forces during the period of anarchy. Reginald took a risk by trusting him, something that wouldn’t change even with his relationship. The next day he would be flown off. He gave alex some comprehensive structures and guides for policy making as well as preventing workload from getting too heavy. Before he drove off to the location he spoke to Alex. “Look, I’m sorry. For everything. I am a changed man and will do right. I’m just glad I realized this soon enough. My destructive behaviors have come to an end, and I leave you to run this not out of my refusal to do so, but as the ultimate compliment to you as a person. So long!” “Goodbye, Reginald.” Reginald laughed “Don’t say it like that. My departure is more coincidental and unrelated to my realization.” Reginald drove off with shaylin to the helicopter.

It took a couple of hours for Dimitri to find and reach the SFU capital, before landing outside the gates. Upon landing, Soldiers surrounded the helicopter and reginald stepped out with his hands in the air before speaking. “I know Dwight. I’m simply returning from a mission. Call him here yourself. Please let the pilot move the helicopter.” The officer present allowed this, but guns were kept pointed at the helicopter until the pilot landed it near a secure location. The officer present issued via radio the order to let it land. Reginald and Shaylin threw their weapons to the ground. Not long after, Dwight arrived with security staff. He called out. “I know these people, It’s good.” Reginald and Shaylin got into Dwight’s car and were off.

 

While it seemed amelia would win the elections there was still heavy competition. And the atmosphere of competition kept the public aware and interested in political affairs. Reginald was briefed on what had occurred up to this point, but was more interested in finding something to do. He was told that he could be off to do whatever until the elections, as long term projects being started now was not a good idea for anybody. So until the election, Not much occurred. But right after would come major change.

 

Chapter 11: Yet Another Movement Forward

 

March 20th was the election day. The entire group was eager to see the results, and stayed up actively as they came in. Voting was able to continue until 10 PM, But results weren’t supposed to be finalized until midnight, although it took longer than this for them to get in. Eventually everybody but Reginald fell asleep. Results were delivered and Reginald simply set them on the table before falling asleep. The next day the group woke up mostly around noon, but rushed to read the results. Amelia and the Social democrats had won controlling 90 out of 150 seats in the legislature. The workers party had 36 seats leaving 24 to the conservatives. Amelia would be able to get what she needed through easily, and began her life as president.  She spent most of the first few days working on restructuring the budget before her next major action. She proposed the creation of a new force. The Inter-Factional Workers Alliance. This force would be given an initial resource investment and would need to expand independently. Amelia's proposal was heavily supported within the legislature, but she wanted to call together a few people to discuss this and see what they thought of it.

 

Oliver, Reginald, Liam, Dwight, Shaylin, and Andrea were called to a conference sometime later. This would be an ideal opportunity to discuss moving forward quickly. Upon arrival Discussion was difficult to manage. There’d be side arguments between people, until Amelia managed to calm everybody down. She then addressed Andria. “With the cutbacks in respect to military which I have made, I regret to inform you that I will not be able to provide military aid. However, economic opportunities are still on the table. Any particular requests in respect to trade?” Andria shook her head, and spoke before Amelia would’ve moved on. “We can deal with this over radio, and I’ll come here if I need to. I’m going to await my transportation home.” Andria left the room ignoring any of the other’s attempts to speak to her. Amelia waited until she left to make her next statement “What would say for an opportunity to move all around and expand our sphere of influence. This organization will have the sole purpose of expanding leftism throughout all factions.” Oliver responded. “You mean like what we did before we got here, but we don’t end up settling down?” Amelia nodded. Oliver replied “I’ll do it.” Amelia turned to Reginald. Reginald, already knowing what would be asked spoke. “If you can get some bureaucrats to go back to my place, I can and I know for a fact Shaylin wants to. There’s a map in the helicopter and i’m quite certain staff no where Dimitri is.” “Okay, that brings us to Liam.” “I honestly hate moving around as much as we have. I’m comfortable here, but if Oliver’s going so will I.” “Alright, Tomorrow morning I’ll have the soldiers, supplies and workers for you to depart.”

 

Reginald wanted confirmation as to where he would go, and where his house was here. Amelia Drove him and Shaylin there. She dropped them off and called out “I’ll be back with your equipment soon.” Reginald waved, and Amelia left. After entering and sitting down Shaylin bounced back and forth between thinking whether or not she should ask the question she thought of. She ended up deciding to ask. “Reginald, You say prior to the prison, you were off doing what you felt like? Can you describe this in some more detail.” “After leaving initially, I’d spend summers out with marauders and winters fucking with factions. Although I did spend a good chunk of time aiding some leftist causes with information. There was this one group. They’d visit me semi regularly at the prison, and I’d give them a portion of our supplies. I was left in charge of managing them, so lying wasn’t hard. They moved further west and I don’t know much of what they’re up to. They said that I’d be repaid at some point. Now, I’m wondering a bit more about your operation against the church.” “I ran a generic guerilla war. It was fun, but there wasn’t much more to it than that?” “Much?” “Okay, they do have a bit of an Idea of who I am and what I look like, and they would really love to have me dead. Although I’m sure they have more important worries.” Reginald and Shaylin both seemed to reach the conclusion that the dangers in the future could match that of the actions of their past, and that this would present a risk. Neither wanted to say anything and thus would remain silent on the subject out of fear for the other. Reginald spent the next couple of hours with some supplies designing a rather intricate game with the papers and cards present. He managed to finish setting it up, and explaining it to shaylin before they began investing time into playing it. It was then that Amelia came in and gave them supplies explicitly stating that they would leave well before sunrise. Reginald acknowledged her and then went back to his game. It was a civilization managment type of affair that turned out to take a large sum of time. With Reginald having set up some what he thought would be pointless and useless provisions dragging the game out. To keep things interesting he had also used cards to indicate random events which could divert attention. This didn’t help that Shaylin proved herself to be rather intelligent. It wasn’t the type of game where one just mastered from the basics. Resources, Population, and Military all had to be juggled and different concept skills evolved at different rates. It was dark by the time they agreed to pause with not much of a winner established.

 

Oliver and Liam would both be staying at Amelia’s. Liam came into the habit of staying there out of boredom, and Oliver acted in the same manner. Amelia probably wouldn’t even be staying there as she wanted to tie together matters with Andrea. Liam asked Oliver what was so appealing about the task. Oliver was surprisingly slow to respond, but he did. “You get comfortable, and you don’t want to go back to discomfort. I’m, going so that doesn’t happen I’m not happy to have out little union and live here. we need to go further in helping the world. No matter how much time and energy it takes. But if you want my personal reason it’s because i've never felt truly happy. On journeys, In gunfights, when working or wherever I never feel completed. So why would I just sit here?” Liam’s expression immediately triggered a response from Oliver “Don’t be upset with yourself. Just understand why I do this shit. okay. I think thIs will allow you to strongly carve out your own identity.” “What’s that supposed to mean?” “I mean you’re a nice person, and you don’t have excessive drive for power/recognition. Out there you will be of use and valued much more.” “Couldn’t one argue the same for you?” “Yes, but I don’t care.” Liam thought about Oliver’s recent statement and how it may have tied into his lack of happiness. Instead of remarking he just nodded and ended the discussion, although he did have a new impression of Oliver. sunset approached Oliver and Liam decided to go to sleep. When Amelia had come back with weapons and supplies she’d explicitly stated that it would be well before sunrise that they would leave.

 

Oliver and Liam found themselves awoken by soldiers. With initial panic, Oliver realized what was happening before he drew and fired his pistol. One of the soldiers told him that they were requested to prepare within five minutes. This, they did. They got into a car and found themselves leaving the city. It was before the sun had even come up, but after most lights were out. Eventually they arrived at the area with a large number of other Soldiers, seeing Reginald and Shaylin eager to meet them. After nearly 30 Minutes of waiting Amelia arrived. After getting the attention of the crowd she began to speak “Over the time we’ve been here much has changed. We unified 11 factions and built a union, managed an uprising and reintegrated the rebels, We established a government, and have broken the culture of faction identity. We are united in our quest for a better world, and empowerment of our population. It is important to remember the fear people lived in. Families would find themselves in fear of lacking food, Nobody could be sure if their community would be around the next day, and the future was uncertain. In most places, This is still true. We thrust upon the world of chaos a unifying force, meant not so much to unite all in perfect order, but to formulate a new kind of world. The daily struggle will be what new project are people undertaking today rather than what project will be destroyed. The PCNA, has formulated a force to do this. This force was formed with a single goal. To create our vision for a better tomorrow through cooperation that transcends all faction boundaries. A force whose members are armed not to force will upon others, but to protect them. A force who carries with them important supplies information and ideas, but with this comes risk. As much as I am fond of peace, that won't always be how this force is to resolve things. The men and women of this force will be risking all they have for everyone BUT themselves. This force, which is the embodiment of hope, prosperity, peace, change, unity, and fairness is you. You will be off to change the world. Let the men women and children of this faction forever remember your deeds!” Amelia returned to her car, and drove off. With manuals of information provided to Reginald, Oliver, Liam and Shaylin. Oliver issued the first major order “ Go northwest.”

 

Mostly fields were ahead of the group. The group had adequate vehicles, But coordination and orders meant that they couldn’t move incredibly fast. Moving through fields for hours, the group was relieved when they found their way to a road. At around noon they found a small town walled off. Reginald ordered them to approach the town where guards did the usual faction procedure of Panic. Reginald approached them and dropped his weapon. “I will not harm you, but enable me to keep my weapon and I can grant much to you.” Oliver ran up near Reginald and spoke. “He’s not lying. We have some information that could be of critical value to you. Design for technology and infrastructure, maps of the area, and literature. If you’d be so kind to allow us to use your printing facilities we can share this information with you. All we ask is that you let a few of us through. The rest can wait elsewhere. Oliver called Liam and Shaylin as well as afew other soldiers, and guards escorted them in after they collected the information they needed. It took a few hours to produce all the essential materials for them. The faction leader approached them in the building and asked “What do you want in return for all of this?” Reginald responded “You to use it for good.” Shortly after they went onward. Oliver asked Reginald “What’s happened to you. You’re acting rather odd.” “Something you won't understand, believe or apply to your life.” Oliver walked away realizing what he was implying.

Not much else was seen. There was an old town which had nothing but a few families, and as the sun began to set, It was clear that there wouldn’t be much more that day. This was until gunfire was heard. A group of people began firing on their position. Shaylin and Reginald both stepped out of the car, quick to fire back. With overwhelming force against them, the attackers retreated. There were a few dead, and several wounded. Staff on the trip did what they could for some, but a few would die from their injuries. The fact that the need to move was there, but with no enemy made this event rather upsetting to some. The group still had to push on, carrying some, and mercifully killing others. Reginald may not have cared that much, but this reminded him of something. It reminded him that this could happen to random people, who’ve done nothing and that he had reason to die. He suppressed this, and continued onward, but this thought remained present.

 

At night the group ate. Reginald ate very little, as he was overwhelmed with thoughts. He thought about Shaylin, and the future surrounding him. He was genuinely worried for those around him. His empathy in this scenario was only partially developed, and his thoughts weren't quite clear due to a mixture of suppression and exhaustion. He made up for his lack of food consumption by reaching into the supplies and taking a good quantity of rum. He didn’t much mind this at the time, and he was now back in the mindset of not caring. This continued into the morning, and the thoughts seemed to die down. After collecting the supplies and moving on, Reginald spent extensive time with shaylin. Going over orders and attempting to create a positive atmosphere. There weren’t any other real threats or opportunities during the day. There were some old bunkers they came across with some preserved food, but that was it for the day. Liam gradually adopted responsibilities of distribution and managing some of the map creation, but not much more occurred. He didn’t seem very interested in talking to Oliver which is why Oliver spent most of his time alone. During the night gunfire was heard, Liam was quick to act and assemble the forces. It turned out to be a mistake with security, but Liam did feel a lot better from the experience.

 

The next day he approached Oliver. “You were kind of right. I’m not very happy being taken along for this, but you were partially right. that’s all I have to say on that matter.” Oliver smiled “Just wanted to help.” Over the next few days cycles repeated. All factions were greatly appreciative, and there were few more attacks, which would usually result in reginald responding. As oliver drifted off he came to a realization. The only uncertainty in what he did was the uncertainty of what cycles would manifest. His life was a system of cycles which he was blind to. He became very isolated and didn’t much care for anything. Liam approached him one day ignoring Oliver’s attempts to shove him off. Liam had the car where oliver was stop and dragged him out before punching him. “What the fuck is wrong with you? You spew all this bullshit about the fin of this and then you quit!” “I realized it’s meaninglessness” “Cut the horseshit. You have a problem with cycles, throw more into them! You can’t do this now. You need become something in the eyes of people. So quit feeling sorry for yourself, and be useful.” Oliver had a spike in energy. “Fine. I’ll get back to my obligations and do more. You’ve made your point.”

 

A major turning point occurred when they came across a large modern faction, Now there was a major opportunity. The entirety of the group decided to stay in the area as the information was copied. Soldiers talked to citizens of the area and as a favor they had some PCNA flags manufactured for people in the area. Oliver and Liam socialized heavily with people in the area, and there was a degree of sadness as they exited. The government actually sent vehicles to allow people who wanted to to come with them with the president saying it was “The great movement of the century.” The faction had some existing radio towers and stations outward to expand the wave. Oliver did some tuning and issued a message to Amelia before they left. A staff member broadcasted back indicating the message would be documented before Oliver spoke. Aemlia received the news that

 

We’ve shared our capacities with several other areas, and have encountered a more modern one. The recent one has been most interested in our writings and history, but is interested in the aircraft plans. Anyway, there’ve been a few deaths, but not much we couldn’t get through. I also wanted to share with you that I have had a great realization and would like to see you at some point soon. I’d give more details, but I have to leave.

 

After they left, Oliver decided he’d begin to use his spare time to write, although he didn’t usually have much of it and his projects would be drawn out over time. Reginald was rather well acquainted with the new allies who came from the recent visit. Conversations on Policy and Principle were abundant for most of the day, but later on he’d spend more time with Shaylin. Reginald wanted to express his regard for her. He handed her a paper which read

 

Firstly, as much as I hate writing you are important enough to do that for. My voice is generally utilized more towards the collective, so i found this to be more significant. You are to my role in this crusade what this crusade is to the world. A force which provides hope and meaning which only cares for itself in the context of how it impacts the task. Though a proper reaction would be allegance to the force for its impacts, the force fights against reactionaries and reactions and sees its goal as its own reward. This is the case in our situation. Now to break the analogy and state several things. Though I remain reserved, and my actions may not indicate this you have had a massive impact on my life and worldview. It is because of you I prize liberty, and empathize with those around me more genuinely and I can never thank you enough.

 

Shaylin chose to respond to this with a writing placed after it.

 

I think your analogy is flawed in that you’ve placed the roles incorrectly, although you feel the same way when I say this. There is only some much good i am capable of experiencing or feeling, and not all of it can be in vision in hope. Apart from the world appearing as we build it, you are the only material embodiment of this joy. One cannot focus solely on a cause for humanity without any close connection to people. You’ve given me this realization. You’ve also allowed me to acknowledge and understand the cycles of my life and allow me to cope with them. While I always seek thrill (for if I didn’t I would not be here today), I know that  you have allowed me to cope with its absence.

 

Reginald saw no reason to stop with this. He replied again through writing

 

Consider how you talked about thrill. You say I am a substitute for thrill. I prefer to talk of joy or raw happiness and in this you're not a substitute. You are the source. Especially considering you continue to do this back in fourth where we build upon positivity with no stopping point. Who else could do this, What else could do this? I’d say almost nothing.

 

Shaylin replied yet again. This time she took considerable time in thinking of her response.

 

You take how I talked of thrill plus how you talked of joy in combination with fulfillment, and you have your impact on me right there. It’s not so much an infinite building as it is a chess game with you. An infinite building situation would be where the winner is not who conveys the most, but who reinforces the bond. Which we’ve done equally well. I’d like to believe that our families survived the collapse, and we both survived out actions for this to happen although such an assumption would be childlike. This was all by chance, and thus with little purpose for everyone but us.

 

Reginald responded yet again

 

We keep creating these formulas of what the impacts are. I propose an end to this analogy back and forth and back to emphasis on us as people. Because in the end, our impacts reached immeasurable levels as the tower you previously mentioned reaches heights so let’s bring it to a stop before a collapse. As a unit we shall now progress, and the world does the same. I am very fond of that idea, but only because of your response to it.

 

Shaylin was much quicker to respond this time

 

What collapse. If a tower built upon all the good of our connection is to break apart will that not just leave a chaotic mess of good for us to move through? Or do you not prefer good in the form of chaos?

 

 

Reginald responded wanting to bring the discussion to a close at some point soon

 

The tower itself is chaotic enough in its infrastructure. Joy plus fulfillment scattered about is not as good as when they are multiplied into a structure of some form. Collapse isn’t to be feared though, as the force i spoke in detail of earlier would pull it back together. And let us not forget that our joy is best set not when looking forward, but at the moment.

 

Shaylin responded again

 

Is glory not in our future? Such would break your initial analogy. Looking forward creates a lot of this joy we supply ourselves with. How would you rationally argue otherwise.

 

Reginald replied

 

If looking forward is what builds this then it is non existent or already there without our role. I like to think of our actions as guiding something larger.

 

Oliver and Liam didn’t really do too much with their friendship. It seemed the general trend was that they’d be happier as they moved on. One night all four Oliver, Liam, Reginald and Shaylin sat together. Oliver spoke “Upon our exit it was hopeful, and it became less so over time but that seems to have reversed. We now stand ready for the future and better as individuals with stronger connections between us and our people. Reginald?” “This has served greatly. It wasn’t just another movement. It was a genuine experience. Throughout the past six months or so, I’ve felt stuck. I’d move, but I wouldn't get anywhere, I’m almost certain Oliver here can relate. Glory to the PCNA!” Shaylin spoke next after chugging down whatever liquor she’d put in her water bottle. “United forever in friendship and labor, our mighty republics shall ever endure. This great Peoples Coalition will live through the ages, The dream of a people their fortress secure!” Liam spoke last. “All of you guys have done so much for me. You’ve given me drive, ambition and meaning and helped channel that into creation of a better world. Let’s do that!”

 

 

Chapter 12: The end of an era

 

“To the men women and children of the People’s Coalition of New America: Thank you. It is the will of the people which drives us forward in building our future. You have worked tirelessly to build our world. And I owe all of my success to the people of the world. Our social democracy has reduced Poverty, Unemployment and Crime. Why? because that is the way leftism is supposed to be! The goal of the state is to serve the people, and balance the freedom to act with the freedom from being acted upon. If this principle is ever violated, I encourage you all to find someone better or step up yourselves. If at any point this state becomes anything but an agent of the people’s will, it is within your right to resist. Now looking forward, what are we going to do? The short answer is more. However, I’m not one for short responses. We’ve implemented self policing programs in some areas that have turned out to be a success. In the future we hope to expand this as well as withdraw military from former LFF territory. We are going to trade with other factions when we need to to save our funds, and put all we can into the wellbeing of our people. Education, Medical care, Infrastructure will grow, and we will have by the end of the growing season enough to feed our population for at least the next two years! The social democratic party as long as I head it will be the friend of all people, and will not fall victim to corruption or reckless authoritarianism. The era of the conventional faction is over. Even as I speak, we have men travelling outward empowering societies with technology that will make this trend pursue into the future. Factions will become Coalitions, Coalitions will become Nations, and the Nations will unite and restore. I am convinced that the best way to do this is social democracy. We will be able to untie the people, and give them the power to prevent subjugation from the parties. We see with the capitalists and the conservatives that the idea of the freedom to act can lead to failure in freedom from being acted upon. We see in the left the idea of freedom from being acted upon can lead to a failure to uphold the freedom to act. We can and will have both. The idea that individuals are incapable of oppressing each other in all contexts not just with economics needs to be dismantled. If individuals couldn’t band together to exert their will upon others the state would be nothing to fear. This is not the case. We must find a way to improve the state and create an agent of the people, not destroy it. This party has found, and will now travel that road to bring a new era of defactionalization peace and prosperity to all!”

 

After her speech, she found the message from Oliver. Unable to respond she simply returned to what she was focusing on earlier. There radio network was complete sometime later, and heavy communication between Andrea and the PCNA was seen. However, here came an even greater shift. The so called christian empire had sent a message to Amelia detailing plans for a meeting. Amelia responded accepting this offer, and agreed to meet in a southeastern PCNA faction within the next couple of days. Amelia sent more detailed information about the location sometime after.

 

The drive to the territory was brief, and Amelia waited impatiently for the diplomats to arrive. When they arrived, Amelia quickly moved into the building where this would occur. There was one man and a security team, who was quick to introduce himself upon entry. “You can refer to me as Philip. I’d rather just cut to the substance of what I am here to say. First off, I will adress some of the myths which you may have heard from Andrea. We are not strictly christian. Religion plays an important role in our culture and we have a rather devout population, but we have freedom of religion and speech. We also are not an empire. We are a strong web of factions. Also, Andrea has many more factions down southward where she pools her resources from. She has done a good job defending her territory, but her resources aren’t as limited as she would like you to believe. There is a degree of racism involved in many of her actions as she maintains control over the area, but that’s irrelevant. There’s always somebody lined up to take her place, and now is a good time for her to lose that place. The person currently lined up is willing to democratize the nation and end the war.” “How do I know you’re not lying.” “You think for five seconds. You’ve met Andrea and she’s egotistical and insane. If we wanted to win the war we’d go after her generals. It’s your call. Take these papers and tell us when you’re ready.” Amelia nodded before exiting quickly and returning to the car.

 

Amelia thought for some time and decided to store the plans somewhere where they wouldn’t bother her, but had new things to worry about. There was a vast influx of messages from factions the workers alliance had visited, and Amelia decided to launch a grand initiative with what resources she could obtain for it. Finding a location to build a new territory comprised of citizens from various factions to push for greater unity. Her new plan was met with overwhelmingly positive responses, and a location was agreed upon. While she wanted to send a much greater supply she didn’t want to make the mistake dwight Did. Within a few days teams from various societies had gotten together where Amelia wanted and began to build up. Amelia even visited the area and met with several of the expedition leaders to discuss with them hopes going forward and the PCNA, and what resources needed input where. Amelia offered most of the essentials and production, however there was a massive shortage in building materials. Progress ground to a halt, and Amelia decided to contact Andria via radio. The response was slow. A couple of days with a group not able to do much progress before a Andrea responded. She wanted information about what Amelia hoped to accomplish. Amelia responded quickly. Andrea was interested and said she would be willing to consider it. After a few more days Andrea presented a large offer in a variety of areas, but had extensive demands. She wanted to have a role in this system, but had extensive demands. She demanded the feminist party have control of the security forces and military in the area, that any buildings constructed with the materials which happen to make a profit give a percentage of that to the party, that the party is entitled to build in the surrounding area, and that Amelia arm and supply her as well as cease any unauthorized communication with the church’s empire. While Amelia always viewed Andria as the lesser of two evils she was skeptical on communication policy, but after taking into account the last communication attempt was just a move for Andreas enemy to gain ground she figured nothing of value would be lost. The real question was whether or not the economic and military sacrifices would be worth it. Amelia Dwelled on the question for sometime before deciding to agree. Progress was rapid within the next several days and Andrea spared no expense to help Amelia. Amelia felt as though Andrea’s hopes were well intentioned, but the fact that she developed that feeling played a part in increasing her suspicions. The forces Andria had in control of security were rather advanced, but that was to be expected. Amelia returned to the PCNA to continue with her other work.

 

Dwight was tasked with managing the city reginald had gained control of and integrating it with the PCNA. Dwight held off on Amelia’s request to have the city enter the PCNA, but traded heavily with her. Dwight worked closely with Russell and Alex to improve state industry and services. Dwight spent most of his time looking carefully at state plans and revising them. Things started to turn upward a bit faster than under Reginald, but he was not very well liked. He was extremely liberal with spending and resource allocation, lowering the stored wealth. Within  rather brief time the resources were in the state they were before Reginald called for central organization. Although Dwight managed to prevent things from getting much worse, an event would spark a major crisis.

 

Food was in limited supply with an abundance coming within the next few months. While there was a limited supply, people were for the most part able to get what they needed. Dwight attempted to create some self policing areas, but one of the armed segments of a poor neighborhood had an organizer by the name of Hayden Brooks selling weapons for food. This caused a gang attack to be able to cause substantial damage, killing several people. Hayden responded to allegations from the community by starting a rumor that state bureaucrats were limiting food supply to create turmoil and subservience. Hayden and several men took control of the government police department in the area. He then built support in the area before taking control of a network of territory. He formed the National Coalition of Liberty. This found itself split off in the form of several subgroups which maintained a practical alliance. There were delegations which Hayden was president of. The NCL began facing off against police, and raiding resource centers. over the course of a couple of days the NCL had become a major threat to the city. Dwight wanted to retain control of the city, and he didn’t want a small force of upset citizens to take that away. Alex encouraged Dwight to utilize the armed forces, while Russell wanted to negotiate. As the damages increased, Dwight had to make a decision. He decided to send in armed forces to prevent a full scale uprising. Armored cars rolled in with heavily armed soldiers to push back NCL rebels.

 

The NCL held out for quite sometime, and although it was pushed off the streets, Hayden survived and most of the members continued to engage in illegal activity. The surrounding suspicion prompted Dwight to develop a new solution. He needed to sway the public and found the way to do it. A couple days after troops were sent in Dwight gave a speech at the party committee which would become very widely known.

 

“The nation today faces a rather extensive variety of threats and challenges. As we recover from the bloody revolution which gave the socialist party the means to drive us forward, we face the last time period of rationing before the harvest. We face budgetary crisis. We face a militant organization with little to no regard for the well being of the population, and a risk of losing our sovereignty and power. While I am by no means an active proponent of nationalism, this city is one of the remaining slices of america before. Keeping this culture and way of life alive is crucial in piecing back society and finding the objective cause of our collapse. It is a way to ensure the will of the people are not bound by a distanced hierarchical orders that will only divide, rule and limit us. Now, I’m somebody who makes decisions based on the environment and implications of them, and while it is true I bought the factions together in the PCNA, I acted based on situation, and in this case we need to ask a question: Are we in the situation to integrate into another nation? My answer here is no. We are distanced from the PCNA in land and culture, and our industrial base structure involves heavy coordination based on the framework we currently operating in, meaning it is very rigid. I would by no means oppose trade and alliance with factions and nations, but we currently must focus on preserving our ideas and ways of life. Now, traditionalism is something I’m even less enthusiastic about than nationalism, but in the case of reunification it would stand to reason the remnants of america stay strong. I am by no means counter revolutionary. In fact I’d go so far as to say that the american ideals were threatened simultaneously by anarchy and fascism within the nation prior to Reginald’s rise to power. So, now I am announcing some new initiatives to be considered. Firstly I shall propose the means through which I intend to finance the other projects. This will be an initiative to both maintain worker’s strength and release the financial burden from the state. We must grant the needed materials for workers to operate means of production and distribution in a non hierarchical structure independent of private ruling classes or state bureaucracy. Initiatives are being taken to expand public transportation and allow more automobile exports. Secondly. now is when it is most critical that we continue to expand research and education programs. Technological progress is the most important aspect of a society. Moving on, with the NCL protests, I seek to form an agency to protect our population in the area. NCL leaders must be prosecuted, but it is essential this is not at the expense of the people and the committee will be regulated tightly. I will also be seeking somebody who I can trust to manage economic affairs under this plan. I will be submitting the specifics and papers of the plan later today.”

 

Dwight began heavier trade and workings with Andria in order to help finance his plans, but he was still eating away at the treasury faster than he expected.  Andria was very willing to take over some of the expenses for  Dwight, but split the income to help him. Andria also adopted a large amount of the security responsibilities. With Andrea preparing for a visit, Russell expressed growing concern, but was continuously ignored. He decided the best approach was to find all the time. I doubt he even cares about our input. Why would he not explain what’s been going on to us” “Well, Oliver. He’s probably busy, and set that aside. If I didn’t know any better i’d say that you’re using us as tools to justify the fact you don’t like not being at the center of a discussion.” “We’ve known him for a while and he’s not acting normal. There is something going on and it’s got fuck all to do with his work. He’d engage in discussions with us at the prison regularly for hours upon hours before going off on a long raid, and coming back eager to continue. I think the power he holds has fucked with him on some other level.” “You think what you want.”

 

 

Dwight walked in shortly after. He looked at the others for a few seconds before turning his attention away. he then redirected his attention to them. “Guys, come on we’ve got some shit to do.” Dwight walked out into the car. Liam quickly followed, Amelia thought for a moment and Oliver hesitated. They were dropped off by a house not far from his building. Dwight returned to his office. It was already sunset but there were some staff left. Dwight gave the order to call one delegate from each faction to a meeting within 2 days. The messenger immediately began working on this. By morning, most territories received the news and the radio setup was completed in the capital. Radio setup would continue in other territories, however the messages were still delivered normally as the network would not be complete. Dwight would spend his day revisiting some of the economic plans as he awaited the arrival of delegates from all 10 of his territories other than the capital. He informed Amelia, Oliver and Liam that things would be postponed for some time. The next few days were rather uneventful apart from some of Dwight’s economic discussions with Andria, and accommodation for the arriving representatives.  There was a large building which formerly acted as a government building long before the SFU manifested which had a large conference room capable of holding much more than the small delegation. Dwight decided to meet here.

 

The next morning after it was decided where the meeting would occur, Dwight wanted confirmation of the date. Calendars found were replicated to adjust to the years afterward. Dwight was informed that it was february 3rd 2037. After several days of meetings, furious debates and discussions the final draft of the SFU ( Renamed to the People’s Coalition of New America ) Constitution had been completed. It had an interesting distribution of powers which were heavily shaped by Andria’s input, but the president didn’t have the extent of power Andria wanted to see. The Document was ratified by all 11 territories within a few more days and on february 11th went into full effect. Elections were scheduled for march 20th. Dwight was extremely worried about holding onto power and Amelia’s review of his budgeting plan had lead her to question his ability. Dwight made an agreement that liam would be appointed to a high position in a department of his choice, provided he adopt Dwight’s responsibilities while he was campaigning. As resources were draining and stagnation was in the foreseeable future, Dwight looked towards his past and promise of hope while Amelia looked for a force to counter that. Two great minds competing for the future of the world.

 

Amelia kept her intentions secret for nearly a week before she made public the creation of Social Democratic party. Dwight responded a couple days later by founding the Labor party. Dwight made it abundantly clear that his goal was securing the urban poor. Dwight’s strategy was simply to sit back and let his history win the election for him, but in soon became clear that was not going to work well for him. Amelia openly criticized Dwight’s spending amount and shifts in focus going so far as to say “He’s not only the type of person who writes a paper and then halfway through writes another one, He’s the type of person that will keep doing that. He can’t pick what he stands for because he thinks he can do everything, and as a result does almost nothing.”  Amelia seemed to be more appealing in almost every aspect, until Dwight launched a