posted
Hello. I am designated as Commander Four-Charlie. I lead a squad of elite soldiers to perform secret and surgical strikes against terrorists and their supporters as directed by a shadow command under the government. My life belongs in service to my country, destroying the evil that festers in it's core. It is my sole purpose in life to wipe them from the earth. My work has caused be to lead an ascetic life. I claim nothing as my own, and I walk a fine line between maintaining my humanity and performing the terrible deeds my orders require of me. I am not happy, but I am content with this life. I'm good at it, and it makes my country a better place for its citizens.
At least, that was true until yesterday. A terrorist infiltrated our command and coordinated a massive explosion that not only took us out, but the government building under which we were hidden. To my knowledge, I am the only survivor. I have lost everything. I lost all connection to the outside world when I joined the command, and now I don't even have that. According to the government, I don't exist. My designation is now meaningless, and I lost claim to any name I might have had. Furthermore, certain politicians who had been overseeing and funding our command want all traces wiped out. No records, no witnesses. That means I must die, to protect some brown-nosing bureaucrat's reputation. I am not yet ready to die.
All I have left are the skills I have honed to perfection, and the mindset that will allow me no other choice but to continue doing what I have been doing. If I lose that, then I truly have lost everything, and am no longer a man. So help me god, I will fight to my death to wipe this scourge from our lands and protect our great country, whether the government supports me or not.
And yet the infiltrator's words before his death trouble me, and I know not why. When I pointed my gun at his head, he laughed, and said that I would be exactly like him when this was all over. Surely, I could never sink to their level...
posted
Hello. I’m glad that you’re not ready to die. No defender of this great nation should die without cause. Do you have a plan? Are you going to recruit to fill ranks? Are there any elected officials you can or could trust? What proof would you need to get them to trust you? Why do “certain politicians” want all traces wiped out? How can you fund your fight if the government doesn’t? What will you do to keep yourself from sinking to “their level”? What moral code do you ascribe to? What line can you not cross?
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posted
I am glad you agree that I should not yet die. I am working on a plan, though complications keep cropping up. It appears I may have to find and train my own soldiers, but setting up a training facility that is undetectable by the government has many complications. There is a castle up in the mountains which was the start point for a mission where I made the greatest mistake of my life. Perhaps now I can go back and do something to rectify it.
As for politicians, I know nothing of any of them. Our command was careful to have nothing to do with them. We were never even told which of them knew about us and funded us. How can I approach one out of the blue, reveal the existence of a secret organization based in the capitol where brutal acts were performed to prevent terrorism and expect him to trust me at all? There is no proof of any of it. We were meticulous to ensure that. How can I prove that a village I led men to destroy was really a haven for terrorists when all those who could verify it are dead? We did unspeakable things for the sake of our country, under the noses of our entire government. Things that, should they become public, would cause an uproar from the bleeding hearts and idealists of the country. Our enemy cannot be fought with normal means. We must face terror without mercy, and strike it down completely. We fight secretly with terrible means to ensure that those who would decry our actions can live on without being troubled.
As for funding, I have accumulated quite a large amount of wealth over my years, stored in a foreign account. I have never had need to spend much beyond basic personal items. The budget is much smaller than our command had, but the scope will be smaller. Our aim will be more direct now. Since we will no longer have large intelligence and tactical departments, we must simply hunt them down and destroy them. We will stop at nothing to protect our country's citizens from terrorists. Terrorists use belief and dogma to incite followers to make public displays of destruction, killing innocents for a cause that will never be fulfilled. So long as our actions are in the best interests of our country, and our actions do not cost unnecessary innocent lives.
quote: Hello. I am designated as Commander Four-Charlie. I lead a squad of elite soldiers to perform secret and surgical strikes against terrorists and their supporters as directed by a shadow command under the government. My life belongs in service to my country, destroying the evil that festers in it's core. It is my sole purpose in life to wipe them from the earth. My work has caused be to lead an ascetic life. I claim nothing as my own, and I walk a fine line between maintaining my humanity and performing the terrible deeds my orders require of me. I am not happy, but I am content with this life. I'm good at it, and it makes my country a better place for its citizens. At least, that was true until yesterday. A terrorist infiltrated our command and coordinated a massive explosion that not only took us out, but the government building under which we were hidden. To my knowledge, I am the only survivor. I have lost everything. I lost all connection to the outside world when I joined the command, and now I don't even have that. According to the government, I don't exist. My designation is now meaningless, and I lost claim to any name I might have had. Furthermore, certain politicians who had been overseeing and funding our command want all traces wiped out. No records, no witnesses. That means I must die, to protect some brown-nosing bureaucrat's reputation. I am not yet ready to die.
All I have left are the skills I have honed to perfection, and the mindset that will allow me no other choice but to continue doing what I have been doing. If I lose that, then I truly have lost everything, and am no longer a man. So help me god, I will fight to my death to wipe this scourge from our lands and protect our great country, whether the government supports me or not.
And yet the infiltrator's words before his death trouble me, and I know not why. When I pointed my gun at his head, he laughed, and said that I would be exactly like him when this was all over. Surely, I could never sink to their level...
Been trying to get here for the last two days. Wonder why they would want you gone when starting over would let the mission go on. But have you thought about changing your appearance. Is there a safe house you can use? Seems like that would have been the first thing set up with a squad like yours. Even if this bureaucrat knows about it I would be surprise if there wasn't a second one only you and your team would know. If there is there could be money to help start over again but if not where would you get the money you would need? Have you thought about faking your death? Kinda of old hat...cliche-ish but it still seems to work with bureaucrats. Then a new name. Or two new names? One for every day use and one for your real job?
posted
Greetings, LDWriter2. Your questions are similar to Josephine's, but I will answer them for you, as I am a patient man.
A few years ago there was a scandal where the public discovered that our military was using a foreign prison to torture prisoners of war for information. Being out of our country, the military rationalized that our laws did not hold, and so those prisoners were not entitled to the basic civil liberties of our citizens. The citizens decried the actions, and demanded the prison be shut down and our soldiers returned home. We have learned a great lesson from this: our people want the government to protect them from terror, and yet, by virtue of the magnanimity of the public outlook, refuse to grant the government the tools required to effectively safeguard its people. By protecting the lives of individual terrorists for the sake of the moral good, we protect their allies and allow them to destroy more innocent lives, and the people. And so people would decry the government for not preventing such strikes, despite the funding of the taxpayers.
More to the point, the government has learned that they cannot let the public know that there are organizations protecting them that ignore the ideals of civil liberties and fight terror on its own level. Revealing the existence of such an organization would cause another such scandal and further mistrust of the government. There would be much more scrutiny on the government, and while time and resources are spent in this way, terror regains its foothold. This latest terrorist bombing nearly revealed the existence of the command. So, to ensure that no person is left to reveal the existence of such a project or, more importantly to the politicians of the oversight committee, anyone who could reveal such things to discredit them and cast them from power. Politicians are by nature paranoid, and want to tie up any loose ends... like me. Most likely they will immediately start up another command, but only once no evidence is left to reveal that this is the sort of thing these people do.
I gave up my life, my identity, and my name when I joined the Command, and so officially I don't exist. My appearance has already been altered by the explosion, and if trouble persists, I may seek other forms of disguise. Faking my death will accomplish nothing. The bureaucrats have subcontracted my termination to a mercenary company, who will not report success until they have my corpse in their possession. My best hope, I believe, is to continue to elude them and attempt to do what I must. There are many sites I can go to. Since the oversight committee was only informed what groups of terrorists were terminated when, they have full deniability about the locations of our strikes. I have already determined the location of a suitable "safe house," and will be pulling from my considerable savings of years of officer and hazardous duty pay. I believe these should be sufficient to our needs.
I have no need of a name at this time. I am the Commander, and that designation should be suitable. I can never go back to life in normal society, even feigned, I fear. All I have left is half a designation, and must first fill that before I can even begin to think about filling a name, let alone two.
posted
I find that I am disturbed by some of what you say.
quote:Politicians are by nature paranoid, and want to tie up any loose ends... like me.
Politicians are people, which is to say you cannot paint them all with the same brush. Most are simply public servants who do the best they can. Some are purely self serving, true. And a few are truly evil in that they are willing to spend the lives of others for nothing more than their own gain. I assume that you would place your “oversight committee” into this last category. And if they are were willing to go so far outside the law with such black-ops as you describe, then perhaps such is the case. It just seems like a very limited view of a very complex world. Beware flat characters and established clichés.
As for ID, you cannot hope to ghost your way completely, especially if you will need to travel to carry out your missions. You should look into cover IDs of various complexity, and therefore disposability.
Regarding banking, I appreciate the foresight of establishing foreign bank accounts, however this does present some difficulty in accessing funds, have you taken this into consideration?
Another nagging question is why? Why do you fight? Why do average citizens matter to you? Do individuals matter? Would you forgo saving a child in pursuit of your quarry? Would you take the life of an innocent man, possibly a husband and father, to save a crowd? Where is that moral line for you? What in your history, your life, your childhood drew that line? What drives you to fight on when you have lost all that you knew? In every man’s life there is that which inspires passion. Strangers do not inspire passion unless they remind you of something precious.
I recommend watching the TV show Burn Notice, it may inspire you as to some of these answers.
posted
Hmmm. Perhaps you are right. I have been without an ID for so long, I don't even know where to start in getting a new one. Our command has always had its own transportation methods, but obviously that option is no longer available to me. Furthermore, an ID would allow me to establish a local bank to which I could wire (and therefore access) my funds. I should seek someone who knows more about this as one of my top priorities.
Why do I fight? Well, when I was still a common man, terrorists bombed a building where both my parents works. A few years later they bombed a train that was carrying my wife and daughter. I fight against those who perform such deeds in their memory. I fight so that other people are saved from my fate. And I fight because there is nothing left for me. I am a mere shadow of a man who has not completed his mission. I will stop at nothing to strike them down. I have, and will continue to choose the loss of a single innocent life for the sake of a crowd. Individuals matter little to me, especially compared to the welfare of this great country.
((I will now step out of character for a moment. While this story is about the actions of this former commander, the real focus is the impact of prejudices and limited worldview. Most events in the story cause him to rethink his views, or if they are drastic enough, to impact them without him realizing. He is currently running under the fervor and rage of his quarry having once again destroyed his entire world, though he fools himself to think himself rational. I realize that his view of politicians is extremely limited and even cliche, but that will change in the course of the story. At his current point, he only has the distant view from when he was a common man, where he heard the generalizations of "greedy, self-serving, and untrustworthy", and then his only interaction with actual politicians were the very worst kind.
Also, Burn Notice has become one of my all-time favorite shows, although his current situation is much more like Jason Bourne's than Michael Weston's. Thanks for all the help! It's been really helpful.))
posted
(Also stepping out of character) This type of story is really one of my favorites; it is part of why I’m so interested in where you are taking this. I served four years in the Marine Corps, and although it was peacetime, I still wrestled with the questions of “what would I do if…?”
I’ve also gotten to know one of the new freshmen that just got elected to congress. I think it would be really interesting if you turned that particular stereotype on its head, especially after setting it up to be the cliché. How amazing would it be if our hero had a congresswoman for an unexpected ally? One who actually was a person of honor?
Anyway… just my more and more interested two cents.
(Back in character) Don’t forget that this country is only great because of the individuals that make it up. Sacrifice the individuals and it’s all just real estate. The Constitution that you swore to uphold and defend was written (in part) to protect the individual from being sacrificed for someone else’s perceived “greater good.” Have you ever noticed that everyone who says that “there should be a law…” is looking to curb someone else’s behavior, not their own? And those who speak of sacrifice needed for some unspecified greater good, are rarely speaking of themselves. Those like you who do sacrifice themselves are noble beyond words, but beware the trap. Taking an innocent life, indeed taking any life, should never become an easy thing to do.
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Josephine had already stated some of my feelings so I won't repeat something someone else said as I did before.
However, I wondered if you would be working alone all the time. It seems like you would need some permanent help. Other members to fight with who have a similar hatred of terrorists or even someone with computer knowledge who would fight behind the scenes.
And I was going to say that even though there are a large group of the populace who do not care if a terrorist gets rights or not. After all they are not criminals but at most POWS and at worse not even enemy combatants so they don't have to have the rights of criminals. But at the same time I can see how a politician would be afraid of those who disagree. Or a bureaucrat would be afraid for his boss.
And I was wondering if it is safe to believe you are the only survivor, Someone may have helped that terrorist. Obviously there is no way to check the bodies but you may know of someone you can ask if there are rumors or some such.
And I also wonder what you do for down time. You won't be running or fighting all of your waking hours so a civilian identity or a place to go between missions would be needed. I have read about one guy kinda like you. He was either on a mission or training in some way. He left himself very little time to just relax even though he enjoys a great meal at a good restaurant once in a while. But even there he is always on guard. He has a real history with a mercenary group so his cover story is that he is an ex-merc who is on extended vacation because he got tired of the all the killing but in actuality he is working on his own now.
[This message has been edited by LDWriter2 (edited February 04, 2011).]
posted
Josephine- Your talk of the value of an individual hits on a topic that has persisted my thoughts quite doggedly through the years. When it became too hard, I could hide behind the shield that I was merely carrying out orders until the pain dulled. That is no longer an option. We shall see how this plays out. So you can see, taking life is not easy for me, even now, and I know that is something that will not change. I have not even become desensitized by my violence, as some claim happens with violent games. To my knowledge, none of my men have been desensitized, and some have broken beyond help.
LDWriter2- I will not be alone. I have just left the hospital I was taken to when it became apparent that they were having issues with my identity and retreated to the closest rendezvous. To my extraordinary good luck, a unit from section 5 returned from a foreign reconnaissance mission just after the bombing, and the Lieutenant-Commander has been waiting here for any other operatives who survived. Section 5 recon units are half the size of section four active units like I used to command, so filling the ranks will be our top priority. We also have a helo at our disposal. It won't work for our main mode of transportation, but it'll certainly be useful. Not being in intel myself, I will be relying on the LTCDR to procure the necessary help.
As for someone being left alive who helped the terrorist, there is one: me. I unwittingly let him into our organization. I was the one who recruited him, and oversaw his training. I noted that his strengths lay in quickly finding an enemy's weakness and exploiting it, and the thought crossed my mind that he could be already using that strength against us. Rather than let anyone know, or getting rid of him on the spot, I decided to watch him closely. He seemed so genuine, I wanted to believe in him.
In my down time? I fear in the coming days I will have little enough of that, but I enjoy quiet evenings with a glass of Merlot and a book. Lately I have been reading the treatises of a great philosopher. They are very illuminating, and musing on the abstract and ideal makes for a lovely break from the nitty-gritty of reality. And as for restaurants, it has been a long time since I went to one for food. We had an excellent mess hall at Command, and when out on missions, we brought our own food. Since that is no longer an option, I may find myself dining out.
posted
Thanks for your time. That's all the questions I have for now...if I do come up with any more I will be back.
And the going out to restaurants was just an example of how different people in your situation do down time. But it sounds like you may have that covered.
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