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Now, I have nothing but the truth
The much beloved (and still more feared) leader of our “Republic”, the ‘man’ you loyal citizens all call President Will, has taken everything from me. My children, my loved ones, my honor, even my humanity. My husband and I were heroes; we saved the Republic time and time again. But heroes weren’t enough for Will. He needed perfect killers. He needed monsters. Living extensions of his undying and terrible ambition- to rule the world. We had always served him loyally, but that wasn’t enough.
My name is Cassiopeia. You know my name and my legend. You have heard my story, my brother-in-law’s story, and my husband’s story in newspapers, documentaries, authorized and unauthorized biographies, even ghost written autobiographies. But you have never known the truth.
You’ve heard tell of Cassiopeia the beautiful, Kilgannon the bold, and Jesse the noble, three ordinary people who alone saved a world from the fearful world of the Atlanta Seperatist League, succeeding where the Red Army failed. You’ve seen the clean version of this heroic fable, watched in your mind’s eye as we rose up and saved the people of Jersey City from the House Atlantic terrorists who threatened to destroy that planet if the republic would not let them go, and then delivered the terrorists rightfully into the hands of justice.
You cheered for us, as we returned home to Avalon, smiling and waving as we paraded through the streets of Avalon city. You bought our books and watched as we were interviewed in special after net special. You thanked us for signing your autographs and nick nacks, supported Jesse until he was a legend on the Inter-Colonial middle weight circuit, and wished my husband and I the best for our children: Matthew, Maria, Patrick and Chase.
You knew us as heroes of the republic, but you did not know us as the killers our work for President Will had made us into, or as the humans we once were. You did not see me train on Paris to stop people’s hearts with my mind. You did not watch my husband kill his first target at the age of seventeen on New Mexico; did not see his face covered in blood as the life left his victim’s eyes. You did not see the tears in Jesse’s eyes as he left our mother’s side- her death bed on Avalon- to ship out to join us on our three year tour of duty.
We gave everything for our Republic. We killed dozens for it. We gave up friends and family for it. We risked life and lost limb for it. And blood on our hands and the screams of our victims- men just as scared and human as we were- echoing forever in our hearts as we returned from our ‘heroic triumph’ on Jersey City, we hoped only that we had won a better world for our children, and our children’s children.
This would not turn out to be the case.
We were the greatest warriors the Republic had ever known. Our reward? To be made into monsters. The dictator William Carter and his mad prophets and intelligent agents have stirred up a cyclone of paranoia in the turbulent mind of the Population. Like any good tyrant, President Will fears the shadow of treason being cast by any number of sources: the secessionist forces of the still-kicking House Atlantic, the Verkulak-nation of Midgard, the unrelenting Xionist search for a Xel homeworld, the “moral revolution” lead by Lady Mariah of Bethlehem Sector, and the disquieting echoes of dead and dreaming Gaia in rebelling intelligences throughout the galaxy. Will decided he needed killers like my husband, me, and Jesse to keep the peace and protect his supremacy. Killers exactly like us.
He assigned us to the K.B.I.’s science sector, and put us in the cold, capable, and half-mad hands of Dr. Simon Cross. We were subjected to an endless battery of horrible tests, as they drew just what made us special out of our blood. We were heroes, and this was our heroes’ reward; our ‘superior’ genetic materials were to serve as the building blocks for creating a whole race of super-soldiers. From our blood would spawn a whole new generation of killers. Independent Reconaissance Operative Bionic-Organic Trainees. The IRO-BOT program would create genetically engineered, mechanically enhanced creatures fanatically loyal to President Will, known collectively as “The Ascended”, supposedly greater than human.
From the blood of my husband, Kilgannon, would come forth progeny with his deadly strength, speed, and fortitude. Type 1 IRO-BOT- codename: “Beast”
From the blood of my brother, Jesse, came a race of creatures with his ferocity, fiery temper, and unique combat psionic talents. Type 2 IRO-BOT - codename “Inferno”
And from my blood a creature would be developed with my cold analytic intellect and my natural propensity for the manipulation of the psionicist and the subtlety of the Aetherial adept- Type 3 IRO-BOT - codename “Knowledge”.
We could have forgiven the cruelty of this final assignment- being forced to ‘give birth’ to race of killer children even less human than our monstrous, heartless selves- if not for the final decision of the K.B.I.. In Dr. Cross’s first trial of the IRO-Bot program, he decided that the subjects least likely to reject our genetic material would be our own children.
First, Will took us away from our family to train us as killers. Then, Will took away our sons and daughters and made them monsters. He must have known we could never forgive him for taking everything from us. He sent R.I.A. assassins to kill us in our cages at Cross’s research facility, but he had trained us far too well for that. We fought our way out of that place and took the first trial series- our beloved Matthew and Maria, Patrick and Chase- with us. Now, we are on the run from the Galactic Armada, the Republic Intelligence Agency, and the Red Army. They want to silence us as failed experiments, as they continue to use our blood to brew killers.
My husband, Jesse and myself have found friends now. Those who knew just how evil Will is, and who know how to bring his tyranny to the end. We spent our lives killing for the Republic- now we will see it unmade. We were never the heroes you made us out to be- perhaps now, though, we can at least no longer be villains. Those with some shreds of knowledge whisper in terror, rumors and legends of The Crowing, and of Sigmus, The Fallen, without really knowing what these things mean.
I have learned what they mean, and what The Fallen stands for. A galaxy ruled by a bastard like Will does not deserve to live. I would snuff every star in it rather than let him rule on. We will shatter this corrupt dictatorship, take it away from Will as he took everything from us. As the arms of the fallen, we will close and condemn this ugly world.
You have been told we are outlaws, criminals, mass murderers. Been told to report us on sight, to help the authorities hunt us down. You know nothing but the lies Will pours in your ears.
Now, I have nothing but the truth.
I have so much more than you do.
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