The Hohenzollern Empire 5: Holy Phoenix - An Empire of Jerusalem Megacampaign in New World Order

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Chapter 463: The Eternal Regency

The Jinyiwei could not be trusted. For over a hundred years, they had stopped at nothing to destroy the Reich and install China as the rightful rulers of the world. They murdered, cheated, and sabotaged their way through the First World War. They brought down the governments of the Central Powers and induced them to heretical revolution. They even struck at the heart of the Reich and murdered Blessed Karl, father of Otto the Great. And now they claimed another innocent Jerusalemite life, the Autokrator Wilhelm V. When the dust settled, the heir to the throne was dead; none of his predecessors had a shorter, more uneventful, or more pointless reign than him. Jerusalemite succession law, which could only be changed by the Autokrator, clearly stated that only the male descendants of Wilhelm IV could sit on the throne. And since there were no more male descendants of Wilhelm IV and nobody to change the law, that meant the throne would now be permanently vacant. The committee stepped up to the occasion, as it had been chosen by Wilhelm IV to represent his interests. Now it would rule the empire in his name. And thus the committee became known as the Regency. A regency that would rule over Christendom for eternity, unless Jesus Christ himself returned to take his rightful throne.

The Regency’s first task was to deal with the Chinese treachery. In June, Chinese forces assaulted Jerusalemite patrols outside the city of Tashkent. The Regency immediately demanded an explanation from Nanjing before soon regretting it because Han could not be trusted to give an honest answer. The madman himself claimed it was the Crusaders who trespassed on sovereign Chinese territory, but that was impossible, because Jerusalem would always respect the sovereignty of other nations. But Jerusalem viewed all other nations as heathens and heretics, and after being expelled from the UN, it had also revoked recognition of every single nation. In Jerusalem’s view, the only legitimate nation was Jerusalem itself.

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(From here on you will be seeing custom events which were improvised while I played the 2030s and were my first attempt at a committee-based story. A lot of them no longer make sense with my final story, so I've tried to rationalize them in this chapter.)

As the tensions between the two superpowers rose yet again, many countries wisely decided to get out of the way of the imminent showdown. Yavdi and the CAC fully expelled their Jerusalemite ambassadors and all regime-affiliated organizations. The former, having already left Schengen, officially joined the Tianxia Alliance and called on Han to help neutralize the Jerusalemite bases. The latter, spurred on by the charismatic (if a little foul-mouthed) Shahbanu Gunduz II of Persia, mobilized its troops and began digging fortifications on the border, expecting any Jerusalemite offensive against China to go through Persia first.

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The traitorous Indians began mobilizing their troops again, not having learned their lesson from the previous war. Rumors spread of a power struggle between supporters of Jayasimha and General Ahluwalia and those of Amit Shah and the BJP. The fools were more concerned with killing each other, huh? The Regency had no love for the Hindutva—although they agreed that religion should be in every aspect of society, they disagreed on what religion—but found they were very useful idiots. As for the others who left Schengen or whatever partnerships they had with the rump alliance—Ryukyu, Korea, Ainu Mosir, and North Japan—they wouldn’t be missed at all. They would only be weakening the forces of the equalist Kirova and giving the Tianxia yet another front to defend. Srivijaya also had severed diplomatic ties, but who cared? They were more busy fighting equalists in the jungles than actually doing anything else. At least Nepal and Penglai saw the light.

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(This and other events assumed the India shenanigans never happened (I was assuming I'd retcon it out in the story) and a sane China remained in the UN and led everyone against Jerusalem.)

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Brave and faithful historians had recently uncovered the truth the party cartel had been keeping a secret for centuries, that the Hohenzollern line had died out in the early 17th century. The "Hohenzollerns" who had sat on the throne ever since were all frauds and imposters, descended from a Genoese doge and a Croatian count instead of Friedrich the Great and Friedrich the Glorious. Never again would they mislead the people and sit on a throne that wasn't theirs. Once the truth was revealed, the faithful of Christendom turned against their oppressors and over the course of a week rooted out the treasonous false Hohenzollerns and Schweinfurts and put them to the sword, eliminating their affront to God from Earth. With the traitorous Hohenzollerns and Schweinfurts dealt with at home, the only threats to the Regency’s rule came from overseas, in the form of the Russian puppet Vasily Romanov, who had pressed his claim to the throne and declared himself the rightful Kaiser. How pathetic. An old Russian man with a little girl for an heir claimed to be the ruler of all Christendom. He was a fool. He should be sent off to a monastery like the ex-princess Wilhelmina was. It didn't matter. They were all frauds anyways.

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(The original idea for Wilhelmina was instead of going to Russia, she would go to Sudafrika where she would form and lead a government in exile. Then her city would be nuked, a Jerusalem fleet would arrive in the harbor...and then there would be a resistance arc. When Wilhelmina instead went to Russia, I repurposed that idea for Bremerhaven. I left the event in here as I really don't like removing stuff, especially stuff I made myself, unless I have to.)

The Chinese made the first move, or so the Regency claimed. On September 3, an incident went down on the Neurhomanian border, in which a Crusader patrol reported some casualties. As the incident happened in a remote area and at night, video footage was spotty and inconclusive as to what exactly happened, but the leading theory was a friendly fire accident. However, the Regency quickly claimed the patrol had been fired on by Chinese soldiers. Not Tawantinsuyuan soldiers who had been seen mobilizing in the north, but Chinese soldiers. Han again claimed credit for the “attack,” despite having no proof to confirm or deny it and it making no sense. He bragged his troops had handed the Regency a decisive defeat and goaded the Regency to try to fight back, “if they were man enough.” Two weeks later, the Regency was further humiliated when a group of Korean hackers stole and released confidential emails from among certain Regency members.

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In retaliation, the Regency punished the illegitimate United Nations by nationalizing its assets and properties in Europe, withdrawing completely from the organization, and imposing sanctions on it as a “heretical terrorist group.”

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(Ignore the lack of text in the second option. As well as the obvious issue of this event assuming Jerusalem was still in the UN.)

As October rolled around, Jerusalem found itself backed into a corner even more. More and more nations severed ties with the rogue regime. Mali was one of the last nations to sever all diplomatic ties and revoke recognition of Jerusalem, on October 5. This was because as a country entirely surrounded by pro-Jerusalem territories, it feared immediate military retribution.

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(I don’t know how to justify this one, so I’m going to pretend it’s something about sanctions.)

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(And this one too.)

The vultures continued circling, sensing weakness. The roadkill, defying nature, banded together to bring down the vulture, going against God in the process. On October 8, the Tawantinsuyuans launched another invasion of Neurhomania, having plotted to seize the entire province and its vast wealth for over a hundred years. They could not have it. All Crusaders in loyal territories around the Amazon delta were quickly mobilized to counter the barbarian invasion and strike back at the barbarians’ heartlands, with the republics of South Japan, Nepal, and Penglai pledging their assistance against Tawantinsuyu and its globalist Eimerican Federation backers. Fusang, despite being a Federation member, declared its neutrality in the matter and instead targeted the fleets of the traitors across the Pacific. An unexpected development, but one that was much appreciated.

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(My original idea was the Pacific fleets were pro-committee.)

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By the end of October, the Eimerican savages had been soundly defeated. The cities of Tenochtitlan, Tejas City, and many others around them had been cleansed of their impurities by holy sarin gas or SVI fire from the heavens.

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Crusaders in gas masks marching through occupied Cuscowilla, Este Mvskokvlke. (I didn't notice the Jerusalem crosses photoshopped in until a few weeks ago, and it perfectly fits now.)

Footholds had been established in North Eimerica, and soon the Federation would be brought to its knees. That was until the Chinese got themselves involved in something they had no business with.

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(Uh...)

Sending an ultimatum almost exactly the same as the unreasonable one sent by the mad Lithuanian king August in 1914, Han and his false emperor demanded an end to the just war, the abolition of Christianity, and the swearing of loyalty to false gods and emperors. He again insulted the masculinity of the Regency and believed God’s divinely ordained leaders were not man enough to rise to the challenge. He would pay for his inso—

Markland.

Gunnolfsfell.

Tejas City.

Tenochtitlan.

Michigan City.

Harbor City.

Hongzhou.

Zhumasi.

Jinshan.

Conoy.

New Peten.

Panama City.

Cusco.

Bamako.

Timbuktu.

Gonder.

Mombasa.

Dar es Salaam.

Georgtown.

Johansburg.

Kaunas.

Riga.

Talinn.

Copenhagen.

Stockholm.

Oslo.

Helsinki.

Kiev.

Minsk.

Kursk.

Yekaterinburg.

Tsaritsyn.

Perm.

Samarkand.

Bukhara.

Kabul.

Ghazna.

Karachi.

Hyderabad.

Mumbai.

Kolkata.

Allahabad.

Bangalore.

Ahmedabad.

Chennai.

Jaipur.

Lucknow.

Indore.

Delhi.

Yangon.

Mandalay.

Thimpu.

Bangkok.

Phnom Penh.

Vientiane.

Saigon.

Hanoi.

Hue.

Kuala Lumpur.

Singapura.

Yogyakarta.

Jakarta.

Manila.

Edo.

Sendai.

Nagoya.

Yokohama.

Niigata.

Sapporo.

Seoul.

Busan.

Daegu.

Gwangju.

Urga.

Haishenwai.

Lhasa.

Khotan.

Chengdu.

Chongqing.

Xi’an.

Wuhan.

Kunming.

Hong Kong.

Guangzhou.

Kaohsiung.

Taipei.

Quanzhou.

Xiamen.

Changsha.

Qingdao.

Yantai.

Tianjin.

Dalian.

Zhengzhou.

Shenyang.

Changchun.

Harbin.

Hangzhou.

Shanghai.

Beijing.

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At precisely 2:30:26 AM Imperial Standard Time on November 2, 2038, Jerusalem launched a nuclear first strike comprised of intercontinental ballistic missiles, long range bomber attacks, and portable nuclear weapons against several hundred targets around the world, combined with a simultaneous cyberassault against computer infrastructure protected by Tiger’s Defense as well as the Internet itself as a whole. Use of Strategic Defense Initiative’s network of orbital directed energy weapons platforms completely neutralized the second strike and significantly hampered the defensive capabilities of India and China. Although several hundred warheads were fired at every major city on the planet, duds, malfunctions in the firing mechanisms, interference from Tiger’s Defense, and remaining nuclear defense capabilities shot down dozens of warheads, including most targeting China. But those remaining warheads still inflicted massive damage. The immediate death toll from this single attack would later be calculated at 800 million.

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A Crusader Multiple Independently Targetable Reentry Vehicle (MIRV) ICBM releases 16 475-kiloton nuclear warheads over downtown Hongzhou.

Simultaneously, Jerusalemite forces, which had been mobilizing in secret for weeks (with news kept hidden from even the empire’s own Megas Domestikos himself), launched an all-out offensive from Königsberg on the Baltic shore to Basra on the Persian Gulf to Central Asia and India. Within a day, the Russian military was forced to retreat, although it remained mostly intact due to Olga Kirova’s anticipation of such an attack. Her troops fought fiercely but avoided direct confrontation, allowing her to pull back her forces to major cities like Kiev and Tsarberg and buy time for her citizens to evacuate. The Crusaders reached Tsarberg on November 8, where Kirova confronted them with the full might of the Russian Army. However, after a quick battle, the Crusaders prevailed and seized the city. On November 9—the 27th anniversary of the 2001 attacks and the 13th anniversary of the Sentinel scandal—Kirova was executed in a live event broadcast around the world. Later that day, the Regency declared the beginning of a Great Crusade against the myriad barbarians of the world, a crusade to spread the light of Christianity and unite the world as Friedrich the Great did a thousand years ago, this time to unite them under God’s banner. But to the rest of the world, this war would become known as World War IV.

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(I don't know why the CBs are a little messed up.)

The unification of Earth had begun.

Josiah Burkard said:
“Faithful of Jerusalem, children of God, I speak to you now, on this darkest of days, because I know as well as you do that a great danger lies in our midst. Holy Jerusalem, the sole beacon of God's light in this benighted world, is imperiled.

All around us, threats the likes of which you cannot imagine are gathering. The barbarians know that we are more vulnerable now than ever before. Our great nation has been plundered by equalists, left in ruins so that a final decisive blow might snuff out the Christian spirit forever.

But we, the Blessed Regents, will stand firm. The Kingdom of God endureth forever! His divine empire is injured, but it still lives! Salvation is still within reach! Stand with me, brave Crusaders! Stand for Christendom, for the Lord God! Take up arms, as your ancestors did, and cleanse our lands! Just as Joshua swept into Canaan and exterminated the monstrous heathens who polluted it, we must scourge God’s own Earth clean of the heretic, the barbarian, and the infidel! Hail Jerusalem! Hail the Lord Almighty! Raise the banners high, and strike down His foes!”

---

Okay, let’s get some technical details out of the way. Frankly, the event to trigger the war was a mess because the Eimericans declared a separate war completely unscripted (with India declaring its own unscripted war later on because it bowed out of this one) and split the war in three instead of everyone joining in a super-alliance against me. In-game, Jerusalem fights against three sides: the Eimericans, Indians, and then the rest of the world minus Nepal, southern Japan, and Penglai. The war screen shows Jerusalem has still more military power than the rest of the world combined (after subtracting my three allies’ negligible military powers). I’ve given China the same Soviet military boost modifier from 1984, which I didn’t change since then.

Here’s the Soviet military boost modifier for reference:

+50% land organization
+75% naval organization
+50% land unit starting experience
+50% naval unit starting experience
+50% leadership
+50% research points modifier
+50% raw research points
x2 mobilization size (pretty sure it’s still accidentally written twice so it’s actually x4 mobilization)
+50% organization regain
-300% supply consumption
-75% mobilization economy impact
-75% mobilization total impact

In hindsight, I should have given myself the modifier, because I had to improvise my story a lot to fit the gameplay as a result.

On the story side, I’ve split the war into four factions: Jerusalem and its allies (Nepal, southern Japan, and Penglai), the Eimerican Federation minus Fusang, the Tianxia Alliance led by China (including Fusang, Yavdi, northern Japan, Korea, Ryukyu, Srivijaya, Ainu Mosir, and Bhutan), and finally the Schengen Pact led by Russia (including Scandinavia, Livonia, the CAC, Mali, East Africa, India, and loyalist Romans). Jerusalem is hostile to the other three, Schengen and the EF are both backed by the UN but the Eimericans act on their own, the Tianxia is hostile to both Jerusalem and Schengen, and the EF does not like the Tianxia because of Fusang’s unilateral actions but is not openly hostile. The nukes and SVI are a purely story side thing as when I started this war in-game I envisioned it as a purely non-nuclear conventional war, and I wrote an event for the nukes to fly in case certain conditions were met (the description of which made little sense). There are no vanilla SVI/SDI events other than a couple modifiers affecting the vanilla nuclear attack events.

Also, I actually spent over half an hour calculating the total population of those 100 cities (a mix of urban and larger metro areas) and then just…deleting them. It came out to about 790 million. An extra 10 million deaths would come from the margin of error.
 
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(From here on you will be seeing custom events which were improvised while I played the 2030s and were my first attempt at a committee-based story. A lot of them no longer make sense with my final story, so I've tried to rationalize them in this chapter.)
Mabey you could have old events like the Tashkent incident be Jerusalem propaganda. That way they could still be somewhat relevant?

On the story side, I’ve split the war into four factions: Jerusalem and its allies (Nepal, southern Japan, and Penglai), the Eimerican Federation minus Fusang, the Tianxia Alliance led by China (including Fusang, Yavdi, northern Japan, Korea, Ryukyu, Srivijaya, Ainu Mosir, and Bhutan), and finally the Schengen Pact led by Russia (including Scandinavia, Livonia, the CAC, Mali, East Africa, India, and loyalist Romans). Jerusalem is hostile to the other three, Schengen and the EF are both backed by the UN but the Eimericans act on their own, the Tianxia is hostile to both Jerusalem and Schengen, and the EF does not like the Tianxia because of Fusang’s unilateral actions but is not openly hostile.
Before I read this I thought it was going to be the Schengen Pact and Tianxia Alliance against Jerusalem similar to TTL's WWII in were the Roman Loyalist might not have been allies with the Soviets but they were both focusing more on the Angeloi than each other since the Angeloi was the bigger threat. The same was true in OTL's WWII in were the Allies were working with the Soviets to defeat the Nazis but almost immediately after the Cold War began.

However after reading this it sounds more chaotic than any of the first three world wars. Almost like a type of Battle Royal for control of Earth.
 
After fifty years, World War IV has come, this time to decide the fate of Earth and humanity once and for all. Saints Wihelmina and Gunhilda grant us victory in battle, for no one else can.
I guess it is possible for Jerusalem to lose this war with the buff you gave to China, through I wouldn't want Han's China to unify Earth should they defeat all other factions, especially if they and Jerusalem defeat Schengen and then China inevitably dismantles the Reich when they win. As for the story side China will still be scary beast even with all nukes thrown its way, not to mention Han now has an opportunity to continue China's swift into totalitarian with Tsai dead and the other Asian nations and democratic/meritocratic powers in no position to challenge it.

Fitting to see Nepal and South Japan throw throw their lot in with Jerusalem to attack their enemies, but it's surprising to see Penglai join in against the rest of the Sinosphere.

Farewell to this chapter format, it's had a long ride. That said, I'm looking forward to the new format future chapters will be using and seeing what it will be like.

Also, you said one other country besides Persia and Jerusalem's allies wasn't attacked, would you mind telling us what that country is, as my geography isn't good enough to tell from the list of cities in this chapter.
 
Holy shit...that's apocalyptic. Interesting to hear about these events from the Jerusalemite perspective, but also terrifying. The world has truly gone batshit crazy, RIP hundreds of millions dead from radiation.
Also, just in case (unless it's a spoiler) - how would the anti-Jerusalem forces handle succession in case they actually win? Since both Wilhelms are dead, whom does Wilhelmina have in mind as successor (or the issue of succession is irrelevant for as long as Eternal Regency exists?)
 
Mabey you could have old events like the Tashkent incident be Jerusalem propaganda. That way they could still be somewhat relevant?
I was able to work things out that the Tashkent incident actually "happened," although I will leave the actual details ambiguous to fit with the propaganda angles of both sides which are the same.
Before I read this I thought it was going to be the Schengen Pact and Tianxia Alliance against Jerusalem similar to TTL's WWII in were the Roman Loyalist might not have been allies with the Soviets but they were both focusing more on the Angeloi than each other since the Angeloi was the bigger threat. The same was true in OTL's WWII in were the Allies were working with the Soviets to defeat the Nazis but almost immediately after the Cold War began.

However after reading this it sounds more chaotic than any of the first three world wars. Almost like a type of Battle Royal for control of Earth.
That actually was the plan while playing the game. I scripted the event chain so literally everyone except Penglai, South Japan, and Nepal would form an alliance with China, which would then declare war on Jerusalem. That way everything gets neatly put into one war mechanics-wise. But after writing the story, I wanted the war to be even more dynamic and chaotic after I came up with Han, plus the EF AI declaring its own unscripted war really messed up the original plan.
After fifty years, World War IV has come, this time to decide the fate of Earth and humanity once and for all. Saints Wihelmina and Gunhilda grant us victory in battle, for no one else can.
No angels will be saving us this time...
I guess it is possible for Jerusalem to lose this war with the buff you gave to China, through I wouldn't want Han's China to unify Earth should they defeat all other factions, especially if they and Jerusalem defeat Schengen and then China inevitably dismantles the Reich when they win. As for the story side China will still be scary beast even with all nukes thrown its way, not to mention Han now has an opportunity to continue China's swift into totalitarian with Tsai dead and the other Asian nations and democratic/meritocratic powers in no position to challenge it.
As long as I don't attack China directly, I should be fine since nobody else has the buff. Yeah...I should be fine...

Schengen is pretty much screwed because it's just Russia, Scandinavia, Livonia, Yavdi, and the CAC against both Jerusalem and China at the same time. Adenauer and Kohl are rolling in their graves.
Fitting to see Nepal and South Japan throw throw their lot in with Jerusalem to attack their enemies, but it's surprising to see Penglai join in against the rest of the Sinosphere.
Han to Zhao: "You have become the very thing you swore to destroy!"
Farewell to this chapter format, it's had a long ride. That said, I'm looking forward to the new format future chapters will be using and seeing what it will be like.
I really love the new format. I found I could do a lot more with it than I ever could with the original format. And it's nice to actually have cropped and edited screenshots so I don't have five unmodified screenshots coming right after the other. Not having to worry about the dates and background details as much as before opened up way more storytelling possibilities.
Also, you said one other country besides Persia and Jerusalem's allies wasn't attacked, would you mind telling us what that country is, as my geography isn't good enough to tell from the list of cities in this chapter.
It's a spoiler for now, although you can guess from the list of cities if you feel like trying again. But here's a hint: it's not an Eimerican country.
Holy shit...that's apocalyptic. Interesting to hear about these events from the Jerusalemite perspective, but also terrifying. The world has truly gone batshit crazy, RIP hundreds of millions dead from radiation.
You think this is crazy? laughs and screams in terror at the same time
Also, just in case (unless it's a spoiler) - how would the anti-Jerusalem forces handle succession in case they actually win? Since both Wilhelms are dead, whom does Wilhelmina have in mind as successor (or the issue of succession is irrelevant for as long as Eternal Regency exists?)
If Jerusalem falls and Wilhelmina is put on the throne, she'd be succeeded by her son Joseph and then Joseph's son Friedrich.
 
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The Fourth Weltkrieg has truly begun, and whoever emerges victorious shall stand over a mountain of corpses and a world of ashes. All while the Worm plots for the inevitable subjugation of humanity, truly the end times are here. Also Penglai throwing in their lot with Jerusalem was rather surprising, I wonder what Han must have thought of Zhao's betrayal? Probably throwing a tantrum similar to this. The battle for Earth has turned into a melee-a-trois, gonna be interesting to see who is the victor at the end of all of this. Still though, 800 million....
 
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That massive list of cities really puts it all into perspective.
 
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No angels will be saving us this time...
On that note, as they are presumably dealing with Worm stuff to intervene, I wonder how Angels that have interacted with the Reich the most like Wilhelm, Saint Wilhelmina and Saint Gunhida would react to the madness that has unfolded?
Han to Zhao: "You have become the very thing you swore to destroy!"
You know, Zhao is basically the Mussolini of 21st century fascism, only makes sense Penglai would be the WW2 Italy to both Jerusalem and China’s Nazi Germany.

I wonder what Jerusalem’s alliance of ultranationalist far right dictatorships would be called in this war? I’m thinking something pretentious like ‘The Blessed Covenant for the Unification and Purification of Humanity’ would work, or maybe something like ‘the Holy New World Order’ for something that‘s a little less mouthfuly.
That massive list of cities really puts it all into perspective.
Yeah, if Humanity somehow survives this, nobody will still be able to come out of this unscathed regardless of who wins, especially in regards to the Reich’s geopolitical standing and the promienxe of democracies/meritocracies even if Jerusalem falls and Schengen and the loyalists come out on top against all odds. That said, things will be really, really bad if either Jerusalem or Han’s China come out on top. This will have major consequences for Stellaris for sure, possibly consquences that will endure even into the inevitable conflict with the Worm and the Annionaverse.
 
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The Fourth Weltkrieg has truly begun, and whoever emerges victorious shall stand over a mountain of corpses and a world of ashes. All while the Worm plots for the inevitable subjugation of humanity, truly the end times are here. Also Penglai throwing in their lot with Jerusalem was rather surprising, I wonder what Han must have thought of Zhao's betrayal? Probably throwing a tantrum similar to this. The battle for Earth has turned into a melee-a-trois, gonna be interesting to see who is the victor at the end of all of this. Still though, 800 million....
Han is absolutely pissed the man who helped bring him to power has sided with his archenemy. He hates how hypocritical Zhao was when talking about protecting Chinese civilization. The war in the Pacific is shaping up to be a full on three way fight as Han, Zhao, and the loyalists all try to destroy each other.
That massive list of cities really puts it all into perspective.
Even the pro-Jerusalem narrator was shocked into silence by that list.
On that note, as they are presumably dealing with Worm stuff to intervene, I wonder how Angels that have interacted with the Reich the most like Wilhelm, Saint Wilhelmina and Saint Gunhida would react to the madness that has unfolded?
Wilhelm would have shut down long ago as everything unfolds exactly as he foresaw and he is powerless to stop it. Raphael for once is now the one hoping the future can still be changed for the better (having switched roles with the pessimistic Wilhelm), but he is rethinking that.

Wilhelmina and Gunhilda hate how their lives and beliefs were perverted into such horrible calls to genocide.
You know, Zhao is basically the Mussolini of 21st century fascism, only makes sense Penglai would be the WW2 Italy to both Jerusalem and China’s Nazi Germany.
Pretty much, yeah.
I wonder what Jerusalem’s alliance of ultranationalist far right dictatorships would be called in this war? I’m thinking something pretentious like ‘The Blessed Covenant for the Unification and Purification of Humanity’ would work, or maybe something like ‘the Holy New World Order’ for something that‘s a little less mouthfuly.
I guess something simple like “Holy Covenant” might work. But Jerusalem wouldn’t consider its “allies” as equals enough for it to come up with a bloc name other than “Holy Roman Empire of Jerusalem.”
Yeah, if Humanity somehow survives this, nobody will still be able to come out of this unscathed regardless of who wins, especially in regards to the Reich’s geopolitical standing and the promienxe of democracies/meritocracies even if Jerusalem falls and Schengen and the loyalists come out on top against all odds. That said, things will be really, really bad if either Jerusalem or Han’s China come out on top. This will have major consequences for Stellaris for sure, possibly consquences that will endure even into the inevitable conflict with the Worm and the Annionaverse.
800 million deaths on the first day is only the beginning. This war won’t be something we can easily brush under the rug in a few decades.
 
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I guess something simple like “Holy Covenant” might work. But Jerusalem wouldn’t consider its “allies” as equals enough for it to come up with a bloc name other than “Holy Roman Empire of Jerusalem.”
That would be ironic if God forbid Jerusalem ends up winning and taking their ideology to Stellaris. Imagine a Human-Covenant war, but this time it's HUMANITY that are the bad guys and the ones trying to exterminate the rest of the Galaxy in the name of God. And God forbid even more if there are Precursor tech capable of annihilating populations just scattered around.
 
That would be ironic if God forbid Jerusalem ends up winning and taking their ideology to Stellaris. Imagine a Human-Covenant war, but this time it's HUMANITY that are the bad guys and the ones trying to exterminate the rest of the Galaxy in the name of God. And God forbid even more if there are Precursor tech capable of annihilating populations just scattered around.
We're going to make the Holy Terran Empire look like a pacifist utopia.
honestly, Burkard's speech reminds me in its tone of this, especially the parts about exterminating heathens
Now I can't help but picture Wilhelmina as Integra, and I think that China fits the Millennium part.
I could see Elias going absolutely mad and ranting like that if the war doesn't go in his favor.
 
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Conditioning

Rural Russia - November 16

Josh’s transport trudged down a pothole-filled dirt road. He, Gustav, and the other soldiers inside jostled and lurched with each bump.

“We’ve gotten reports of one of our supply convoys being attacked, stuff stolen,” Ferdinand said, “Our job is to assess the damage, determine the culprits, and bring them to justice. Understood?”

“Yes sir!” the squad shouted.

Ferdinand swiped up, and suddenly Josh’s field of vision was filled with pictures and a 3D representation of the convoy and surrounding area.

“According to our sentries’ reports, the convoy’s attackers were well-organized,” Ferdinand said, “Likely military-trained. Possibly Russian Army remnants. If so, show the pagans no mercy.”

“Where did they go?” Gustav said.

Ferdinand put up a picture of a farmhouse.

“Some locals mentioned a man by the name of Heidegger,” Ferdinand said, “An exile. Local oddball to his neighbors. They consider him some kind of religious freak, ironically enough. So we’re going to pay him a visit. Now, he may be a traitor and a filthy heretic, but we’ll keep him alive for now. He will answer many of our questions. If there are rebels, we show we’re ready for them. I’m putting up more relevant information on him on your P’s for your own reference.”

More info boxes, as well as a picture of Heidegger’s traitorous face, appeared in Josh’s vision. The man seemed to have received a lot of complaints from the locals. He wasn’t particularly an outgoing person in the years he had lived here. There were medical records indicating severe mental retardation, as they called it at home, as well as a terminal diagnosis of the incurable mental disorder known as liberalism. No wonder he was helping rebels. Even his own neighbors hated him.

They pulled up in front of Heidegger’s farmhouse and got out, readying their guns. A recon drone was already circling overhead, slowly building up a model of the house in the Panopticon.

“Doors to the front and rear,” Gustav reported, “Windows blacked out. Chimney smoke. Someone’s home.”

“P-check,” Ferdinand said, “Everyone got the full layout?”

“Check,” everyone said.

“Alder, Volkard, Colmar, check the buildings over there,” Ferdinand said, “One at a time. Josh, Gustav, and Leo, with me. Leo and I will talk to Heidegger. Optimal outcome, no shots fired, unless we come across rebels.”

They approached the front door. Ferdinand knocked politely on the door. A middle-aged man with a crazy beard opened it and stared at them.

“Can I help you?” he said.

Dobroye utro, sir,” Ferdinand said, spitting out the Russian, “Heidegger, right? I assume based on your background there’s no need to speak the base tongue.”

“Of course,” Heidegger said, “What do you want?”

“To talk,” Ferdinand said, “Is that not obvious?”

“Well…we’re talking,” Heidegger said.

“It would be more Christian if we talked inside,” Ferdinand said.

Heidegger reluctantly opened the door for them. As soon as they entered, Ferdinand motioned to Josh and Gustav.

“Check upstairs,” he ordered.

They did as they were told.

“I’m not your enemy,” Heidegger said.

“Says the traitor who left the Kingdom of God to live with heretics and barbarians,” Ferdinand said, “But don’t worry, we’re not here for you today. Where are they?”

“Who?” Heidegger said.

“You know, a supply convoy was raided by some highly trained Russian soldiers a mile away just a couple hours ago,” Ferdinand said, “You know anything about that?”

“No, of course not,” Heidegger said.

“See, it’s not just the materiel stolen,” Ferdinand said, “They’re going to use that materiel to make life harder for everyone. Both for us and locals.”

Ferdinand looked at a cross hung on the wall. “You’ve still got morals, huh?”

“We are all God’s children, even if we don’t believe in Him,” Heidegger said, glaring at him.

“Look, as a fellow Christian, I completely understand,” Ferdinand said, “We’re all God’s children…so you protect godless pagans more than actual Christians who do believe in Him. You let them get their hands on these dangerous weapons. You let them terrorize us. We don’t stop them, they’ll use those weapons to attack more convoys, take more weapons, and plunge this whole region into chaos. And so the cycle of violence and death continues. Every rebel you save today, you condemn God knows how many good Christians to suffering tomorrow.”

“You don’t see them as human,” Heidegger said.

“I see them for what they factually are, as barbarians,” Ferdinand said, “Remember, it was the Goths who plundered Rome. Attila the Hun rampaged through Europe, slaughtering all who opposed him. The Vandals sacked Rome and many other cities so thoroughly we got the word vandalism from their barbarity. They all plunged us into the Dark Ages, where the Catholic Church and godless pagans oppressed us and burned good Christians at the stake. We will not let these modern barbarians plunge us into a new Dark Age. That’s the hard truth. We all have to make sacrifices for a better future.”

Josh continued searching upstairs. He slowly approached a closet door and pulled it open, finding the back wall wasn’t there. There was an entrance hastily covered by a curtain. Pulling aside the curtain, he found a secret room…full of Russian soldiers aiming AK-47s at him.

“FRAK!” he said.

The soldiers tried opening fire, but Josh, with the Panopticon’s help, shot first, quickly mowing them all down. As he did so, he felt a dull pain between his eyes, and his vision slightly blurred. Damnit, not now. It had been happening since Tsarberg. His trigger finger briefly dulled and slowed down, which would have been fatal had he not wiped out all of the soldiers already. Gustav ran into the room.

“Did I miss something?” he said.

One of the soldiers wasn’t dead. He lunged at Josh with a knife. Gustav raised his rifle but strangely froze in place. Was he suffering the same issue? Frak. Josh raised his hands and grabbed the soldier’s arms, slamming him against a wall. He wrestled the knife out of his hands and then slashed his throat with it. It was actually pretty easy.

“Okay, we’re done here,” Josh said, “Let’s report to Gaillard.”

They went back downstairs, where Ferdinand had already handcuffed Heidegger.

“Why don’t we just kill him now?” Josh said. “We found proof of his treason.”

“No, we’re sending him to base camp for enhanced interrogation,” Ferdinand said, “Anyways, good work, team. Secure the area, eliminate any stragglers, take back the materiel if you find it, then burn the place down.”

“Yes, sir!” Josh said.


Jerusalem forward operating base, southeast of Tsarberg - later that day

Sarah Astoria attached several electrodes to the back of Josh’s neck. Gustav, sitting in a chair nearby, already had the electrodes attached.

“So can you tell me more about the incident?” Sarah said.

“Well, I was fighting some rebels, as I usually do,” Josh said, “Then my HUD started glitching, and I felt some interference with my aim. Like the Panopticon was malfunctioning. Has been happening since Tsarberg.”

“Huh,” Sarah said, “Interesting. This has never happened before. Nobody else from Tsarberg reported anything out of the ordinary.”

“That’s why Theodor flew you out here, did they?” Gustav said.

“He has a vested interest in making sure all of you perform to expectations,” Sarah said, “Especially someone with a kill count filled with so many high profile individuals. You’re pretty much his favorite soldier, Josh. Alright, let’s begin the diagnostic.”

A cube appeared in Josh’s line of sight.

“What do you see?” Sarah said.

“A cube,” Josh said.

“Same,” Gustav said.

“Rotating?” Sarah said.

“Yes.”

“Yeah.”

Sarah pushed a button, and the cube was replaced with a large tree in the middle of the room.

“Now?” she said.

“A tree,” Josh said.

“What kind of tree?” Sarah said.

“Apple tree,” Gustav said.

“Can you touch the apples?” Sarah said.

Josh and Gustav got up and “touched” the apples. Josh actually felt the apples themselves, even though they didn’t exist. It was almost like he could take a bite out of it.

“Okay, you both pass,” Sarah said, “So, it was like a headache and some motor function issues?”

“Yeah, it was quick,” Josh said, “A slight pain behind my eyes.”

“Like I was frozen for a second,” Gustav said.

Sarah looked at the results.

“Well, I’ve checked the diagnostic,” she said, “No signs of any malfunction. And physically, you’re in exemplary shape. Both of you. Probably hit your head somewhere.”

“There was this, uh... this thing…that happened in Tsarberg, if that helps,” Josh said, “Chancellor Kirova…before I killed her, she took out a pen and did something.”

“A pen?” Sarah said.

“I destroyed it soon after,” Josh said, “Don’t know what it did.”

“You know what Russians are like,” Sarah said, “Always doing irrational and crazy things. Like all of equalism itself.”

“Well, I’m not so sure,” Josh said, “Just felt like bringing it up.”

“Well, Sarah, are there any other issues?” Gustav said.

“Seriously, both of you are fine,” Sarah said, “The P’s are operating normally. But if you have any other concerns, maybe you should speak with—”

“How about me?” Theodor said, walking in.

Josh and Gustav immediately saluted.

“Herr Tesla,” Sarah said, “I wasn’t expecting you.”

“My apologies, Dr. Astoria,” Theodor said, “When these two here reported a malfunction—only the second and third since we began the program—I wanted to come here in person. Or did you forget I was the other person who developed these miracle tools of war?”

“Of course, sir,” Sarah said.

“So, you must be Gustav Johansen, right?” Theodor said. “And Josh Johansen, originally known as Joshua Zelensky, is it?”

“It’s just Johansen now, sir,” Josh said, “I want nothing to do with that name.”

“At else, gentlemen,” Theodor said, “Please, take a seat.”

Josh and Gustav sat down.

“So, I understand both of you recently went on a rebel suppression mission,” Theodor said, “Johansen the younger here killed, let me see…”

“Ten, sir,” Josh said, “Ten rebel scum.”

“Impressive,” Theodor said, “As for you, Johansen the elder?”

“Unfortunately, all of the kills were taken by the time I got there,” Gustav said.

“Regrettable,” Theodor said, “You know, kid, you could stand to leave a few kills for your good old uncle here.”

“I’ll try, sir,” Josh said, “But I’m just following my orders. As any good soldier should.”

“Of course,” Theodor said, “I totally understand. Anyways, could you explain to me how exactly the situation unfolded?”

“Um, so,” Josh said, “We were in a farmhouse. I found a hidden room and almost walked into an enemy ambush. I got the drop on them and opened fire. Those kills…it was automatic. By the books…blam-blam, you know?”

“Right,” Sarah said, “Just like your training.”

“Just like that,” Josh said, “Really, it was closer to Halo or something.”

“Halo?” Theodor said. “Which one?”

“I always liked the fifth one most,” Josh said.

“Same here,” Theodor said.

“Anyways, towards the end of the fight…that was when things got weird,” Josh said.

“How so?” Theodor said.

“I felt a dull pain behind my eyes, and my gun arm froze up for a few milliseconds,” Josh said, “It was like I was…hesitating? Or something?”

“I felt the same thing when the last guy came after us with a knife,” Gustav said, “Dull pain, my whole body froze for second. Then he was on Josh.”

“Close quarters combat?” Theodor said.

“Yeah, he was on top of me,” Josh said, “I couldn’t aim my rifle from that close. My hands were busy holding back his knife, but I soon overpowered him, took the knife, and slashed his throat.”

“How did that feel?” Theodor said.

“…how?” Sarah said.

“Emotionally, I mean,” Theodor said.

“Well, I didn’t feel anything,” Josh said, “As usual. I mean, it was quick. Self-defense. You could say I felt some relief he was dead.”

“Relief, huh?” Sarah said.

“Yeah,” Josh said.

“It’s not unusual to experience other feelings,” Sarah said, “It says here in your records you frequently experienced euphoria after past kills.”

“Yeah, I did,” Josh said.

“How about you, Gustav?” Theodor said. “Feel anything?”

“Relief, same as my nephew,” Gustav said, “Not as much euphoria as he does, but I do feel it. I don’t know, I thought maybe I’d feel…something else, I guess.”

“Something else?” Sarah said.

“Yeah, like regret,” Gustav said, “Something like that, but I didn’t. Maybe it was for the best.”

“It was for the best,” Josh said, “Man up, uncle.”

“So you’d do it all again?” Theodor said.

“With pleasure, sir,” Josh said, “I’d do it ten times over.”

“I’m not so sure,” Gustav said, “Like, I’m still worried about the glitches.”

“But the P’s passed the tests,” Sarah said, “There’s nothing wrong with them.”

“I don’t know, it feels like something might be off,” Gustav said, “Look, I want to do my part, and I can’t if this implant isn’t working at 100%.”

“But there isn’t,” Theodor said, “Don’t worry. It’s probably some fluke. You should be proud. You’re making a great contribution for the world.”

“But—” Gustav said.

“Dismissed,” Theodor said.


Downtown Tsarberg - November 17

Josh’s transport rolled down a crater-filled street. The district had suffered heavily during the attack two weeks ago, and there were still hotbeads of resistance. His mission today was more rebel suppression.

“It seems Heidegger didn’t stay silent that long after I went to work on him,” Ferdinand said, “He’s given up a location, a rebel stronghold. It’s a housing project that Kirova repurposed from an old Soviet-era tenement to deal with urban homelessness. We are approaching it right now.”

A model of the building appeared in Josh’s line of sight.

“High Command wants us to do some recon, possibly flush out any rebel rats,” Ferdinand said, “Let’s get to it.”

After a few more minutes, they arrived at their destination and got out.

“Standard operating procedure,” Ferdinand said, “Alder, Volkard, Colmar, set up a perimeter. Leo, get the drone up.”

“On it,” Leo said.

He concentrated, and soon a drone flew up from the roof of the transport and began circling the housing project.

“Can we hurry it up here?” Josh said. “We ought to burn the whole forest down. Give those barbarians nowhere to hide.”

“Leo, status report,” Ferdinand said.

“I see something,” Leo said, “Here, let me pull it up on the P’s.”

A live video feed appeared on everybody’s Panopticons, showing the building rooftop.

“See there?” Leo said. “Solar panel looks cleaner than the ones on neighboring buildings. In almost perfect condition too. And there are cables hooked up to it. Must be rebels leeching power under our noses.”

Ferdinand tapped his earpiece. “High Command, this is Gaillard. Positive ID. Signs of rebel activity at the housing project. Solar panel looks clean and intact, with cables hooked up to it. …Alright, copy that. Understood.”

Meanwhile, Gustav kneeled down for some reason.

“Uncle, have you gone senile?” Josh said.

“Smell the grass,” Gustav said.

“Why?” Josh said.

“Just do it,” Gustav said.

Josh knelt and smelled the grass. Surprisingly, he could smell the…grassy odor.

“Huh,” Josh said, “I don’t remember the last time I smelled grass.”

He didn’t want to remember, though. It smelled terrible.

“That’s because we usually can’t smell grass,” Gustav said, “Or really that much else either. Hey, Leo. Smell the grass.”

Leo sniffed at the grass. “Nope, nothing.”

“When did you notice that?” Josh said.

“After Tsarberg,” Gustav said.

“Requesting course of action,” Ferdinand continued, “…didn’t read…please repeat…okay.”

He turned to the squad. “High Command says we should fall back and await rein—”

At that moment, he was shot in the head. Everyone scrambled for cover.

“Frak!” Leo said. “Frak, Gaillard’s dead!”

“What do we do now?” Colmar said.

“Who’s in charge?” Alder radioed.

“Anyone?” Volkard said.

“Josh?” Gustav said. “You’re the second highest ranked.”

“Am I?” Josh said. “Sweet.”

He picked up the radio.

“This is Josh Johansen,” he said, “I am assuming command. Everyone, weapons free. Go in and kill them all!”

The squad charged across the parking lot up to the building. Leo brought the drone around to scan the front.

“I see him!” he said. “Frakking Russkie got a sniper rifle, second floor.”

The sniper fired several more shots, forcing everyone to take cover behind abandoned cars.

“He fired six shots,” Leo reported, “Hunting rifle, bolt action. He’ll need to manually reload. I estimate ten seconds.”

“That piece of scheiße,” Josh said, “He frakking killed Gaillard. We’ll get ‘em back. Alder, take the left. Volkard, the right. Leo, stay out here and scout around. Colmar, Gustav, with me. We go in and take him out. Are you with me?”

“Yeah!” everyone said.

“Let’s go!” Josh said. “Follow me!”

They ran across the building and up to the front door.

“Ready?” he said. “Three, two, one!”

Volkard kicked the door open, and Josh charged in.

“Uncle, cover me!” he said.

“On it!” Gustav said.

There were some rebels inside, who grabbed their guns, but Gustav shot them first. Josh ran through the lobby, shooting any Gustav missed, while Volkard, Alder, and Colmar finished off any survivors.

“Split up!” he said. “Find any stragglers and kill them!”

They ran upstairs, and Josh soon found the sniper. Before the man could even turn around, Josh shot him several times, then several more times for good measure.

“That’s for Gaillard!” he said, teabagging his body. “Git gud!”

He heard some shots ringing out from the upper floors, as well as Gustav cursing.

“Hold on, Uncle!” he said. “I’m on my way!”

He ran up to the fifth floor. Stepping over the bodies of some rebels, he caught up to Gustav in another room. It seemed he was…talking to a rebel?

“It’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you,” Gustav said, “You need to go.”

The rebel woman was scared. She had one hand in her coat, reaching for a gun most likely.

“Calm down!” Gustav said, putting down his gun. “It’s not safe here. There are rebels here.”

“Uncle!” Josh said. “What the frak are you doing?”

Gustav turned around, and the woman began withdrawing her hand. Josh immediately raised his gun to shoot her, but his arm froze again, and his Panopticon’s UI glitched and distorted wildly, worse than before. A sharp pain shot between his eyes, and he saw a woman standing there, holding something he could barely make out with his blurry vision. A millisecond later, his vision cleared up, and he saw a gun. Josh curled his finger around the trigger and quickly shot her in the head.

“What did you do?!” Gustav said.

“What do you mean?” Josh said. “She was a rebel!”

“She was unarmed!” Gustav said.

“She was reaching for a gun!” Josh said.

“She wasn’t!” Gustav said. “Look!”

Josh looked at the body. The woman was holding a phone.

“She was holding a gun,” Josh said, “I swear she was holding a gun!”

“It was a phone, Josh!” Gustav said.

“Then who was she calling?” Josh said. “More rebels? You should have killed her, Uncle. You’re growing soft.”

They continued their sweep of the floor. Josh pushed open another door, finding what looked like mattresses set up on the bare concrete floor, next to lamps and other lights.

“Looks like that’s what the cables are for,” Gustav said.

“What are they planning here?” Josh said. “Some kind of hideout to launch a raid on the rest of the city?”

“I don’t know, I don’t see any weapons here,” Gustav said.

“Maybe they left already,” Josh said.

Josh opened a door and entered another room, only to recoil when he realized it was full of heavily armed rebels of various ages. He began shooting, but Gustav grabbed him and pulled him back.

“What the frak are you doing?!” Josh said.

“I should be asking you the same question!” Gustav said.

He turned to the rebels. “Run! You need to go!”

“Why are you helping them, Uncle?!” Josh said. “Are you a traitor too?”

“No, you’re just slaughtering these people!” Gustav said. “They’re not even rebels!”

“They’re clearly armed!” Josh said. “They’re shooting at me!”

“No they’re not!” Gustav said. “Can’t you see? Can’t you see there are kids here too? Why else aren’t they shooting back? Same as Heidegger’s place! They didn’t even shoot back!”

“You’re not making any sense!” Josh said. “Pull it together and man up!”

“No!” Gustav said, pistol-whipping Josh across the face.


Unknown

“You see me as who I am?”

“Of course I see you.”

“You don’t see a terrorist?”

“No, you’re unarmed.”

“Good. Finally someone on your side isn’t mad.”

Josh woke up, finding he had been tied to a chair. His Panopticon didn’t boot up as usual, but he didn’t need that to know they weren’t in the housing project anymore. They were in what appeared to be a warehouse. Josh focused his eyes on Gustav, who seemed to be talking to a woman and her son.

“If you weren’t rebels, or fighting against us, why didn’t you say so?” Gustav said.

“Because you can’t hear us,” the woman said.

“Why’s that?” Gustav said.

The woman pointed to the back of her neck. “Your implants.”

“The Panopticons?” Gustav said.

“Yes,” the woman said, “Before this war, I was on a team Kirova had assembled to research Panopticons, using information leaked to a team in Persia. We don’t know who’s on the Persian team—Kirova wouldn’t tell us—but while they worked on immediate countermeasures, we wanted to understand exactly how they worked. We found that in addition to its publicly known function of helping you fight, it also…makes you see certain things.”

“Certain…things?” Gustav said.

Josh could barely hear them, let alone respond.

“It works by intercepting electric impulses to and from the brain, rewiring your brain to sense what they want you to sense,” the woman said.

“And why would they do that?” Gustav said.

“Beats me,” the woman said, “Control? Loyalty? Efficiency? Can’t say for sure. But what I’m saying does make sense, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah, it does,” Gustav said, “Would explain why when the implant glitched, my perception of you and the others changed.”

“Kirova knew the Panopticons operated on electrical impulses,” the woman said, “And she happened to have carried, for the last fifty years, a piece of Cold War technology that specialized in disrupting electronic systems. So she modified her weapon to affect your Panopticons. But with the war beginning as it did, she only had enough time for a partial implementation. Which is why your implants glitched, but didn’t completely fail.”

“I see,” Gustav said.

Josh had recovered enough to feel his arms again. He had to act quietly about this. His uncle was clearly deluded and had to see a psychologist. These rebels were leading him astray. They had to be eliminated, even though they weren't armed. Even the boy too, so he wouldn’t grow up to become another Olga Kirova. And he had to alert High Command the Panopticons’ data had been leaked. He slowly reached into his back pocket and took out a pocket knife they hadn’t found, which he used to begin cutting the ropes.

“So then why didn’t the other locals say anything?” Gustav said.

“Honestly?” the woman said. “They’re scared of you. They're scared they might be seen as rebels next. So they’re more willing to sell each other out if it means they’ll survive.”

“We were told we were bringing Christianity and civilization to the barbarians,” Gustav said.

“All you’re bringing is death and destruction to the world,” the woman said, “No wonder you see us all as terrorists and rebels. You already think we’re barbarians. But maybe the real barbarians are the ones looting and pillaging our cities. My name is Yekaterina. My son is Alexei. We’re not barbarians. We’re people too. Please, you have to help us.”

“I’m going to do what I can,” Gustav said, “You just have to—”

Josh cut through the ropes and lunged out of his chair. In one second, he had reached Yekaterina and slashed her throat. The blade caught in her neck, probably embedded in bone. Frak, he had cut too deep in his rush. He dropped the blade and Yekaterina and grabbed Alexei’s torso before he could run away. He lifted him up, spun him around to gain momentum, and then brutally bashed his skull into a concrete wall.

“That’s what you get, terrorists!” he boasted, teabagging their corpses and flipping them off. “Git gud!”

Next, he turned to his uncle.

“Tell me why I shouldn’t kill you, traitor,” he said, cracking his knuckles.

“I’m your uncle,” Gustav said.

“When has that ever stopped me?” Josh said. “I killed my first wife and my own dad. What the frak’s gotten into you?”

“None of it’s true,” Gustav said, “None of what we’re seeing is true.”

“Frak you!” Josh picked up a crowbar and slammed it into Gustav’s head, knocking him out.


Jerusalemite forward operating base

“Seriously, why the frak am I in the cell too?” Josh said. “I reported the whole thing!”

The guards outside the cell didn’t respond.

“Are you seriously ignoring me?” Josh said. “Really?”

Gustav, who had been strapped down to a bed, stirred awake.

“What the frak did you do, Josh?” he said. “Where are we?”

“I’ve been trying to find that out, but nobody’s been giving me a straight answer,” Josh said.

“That’s because only we can give you answers,” Theodor said, walking in with Sarah.

“Herr Tesla,” Josh said, “What is going on?”

“I have to owe you two an apology,” Theodor said, “Astoria didn’t spot the error with your Panopticon until she reviewed the data again.”

“Really?” Gustav said.

“I downloaded a full error log from your Panopticon while you were knocked out,” Sarah said, “Whatever was in Kirova’s weapon was designed to shut down the P’s from within by hijacking and redirecting the electrical signals it sent.”

“These barbarians are more ingenious than we give them credit for,” Theodor said, “We’ll have to update our Panopticons to patch the flaw.”

“Theodor, without the original weapon, I’m not sure we can,” Sarah said.

“Then we can at least take solace in the fact that Kirova’s weapon seems to be one of a kind,” Theodor said, “We can reinforce the hardware to reduce the effectiveness of such attacks, but I’m sure the software is fine. I’ve designed it without flaws, and there’s no way I missed anything. As for the leak? I’ll do an internal investigation.”

“It’s all a lie,” Gustav said.

“What’s that?” Theodor said.

“It’s a lie,” Gustav said, “You made us kill innocent people and made it look like they were armed and fighting back.”

“I’d rather not have to explain it to everyone, but since you already seem to know, fine, I guess I’ll tell you,” Theodor said, “Yeah, we did that. I totally know why you’d say that.”

“Why I’d say it’s all a lie?” Gustav said.

“Wait, you’ve actually been doing all this?” Josh said.

“Yeah, we have,” Theodor said, “You know, the reason our enemies are so dangerous is because they look just like us. We give ourselves a bad rap, and we like to think otherwise, but we are genuinely empathetic as a species. Even when our lives depend on it, we don’t actually want to kill each other. Which can be fatal when your future depends on wiping out the enemy.”

“How much history have you studied in school?” Sarah said.

“Enough,” Josh said.

His least favorite subject.

“We’re talking 20th century military history here,” Theodor said, “At the time, most soldiers didn’t even fire their weapons.”

“Yeah, I learned about that,” Josh said, “If they did fire, they would just shoot over the heads of their enemies. In World War I, generals would walk the line with a stick and hit their men until they shot. Even in World War II, only 15% of our men would actually pull the trigger.”

“The fate of our world was at stake, and only 15% of them fired,” Theodor said, “Pathetic. We would’ve beaten the Angeloi much faster if we got our act together.”

“Exactly,” Josh said.

“I don’t like where we’re going with this,” Gustav said.

“So we adapted,” Sarah said, “Better training and conditioning. In Siam, the percentage goes up to 85%. But…”

“The kills were still low,” Josh said, “And many of those who did kill came back…crazy.”

“We noticed it,” Theodor said, “That’s how things were until we got the Panopticons. You see, we’ve actually been working on it since Siam. We had a few hiccups—ever hear about the Preacher incident?—but we made steady progress over the years until the model you two were outfitted with. That chip is the ultimate weapon of war. It helps with your intel, targeting, communication, and, most importantly, your conditioning.”

“It influences what we see so we’re more willing to kill,” Gustav realized.

“Exactly,” Theodor said, “It’s a lot easier to pull the trigger and shoot your target when you’re shooting the bogeyman, isn’t it? It’s not just your eyes, though.”

“It takes care of your other senses, too,” Sarah said, “You won’t hear their screams. You won’t smell their blood. You won’t see their mangled bodies.”

“That’s why we couldn’t smell the grass until just now,” Josh said.

“Are…are you mad?” Gustav said. “They’re human beings! I can get fighting enemy soldiers, but when we start making innocent civilians into targets, that’s going too far.”

“Do you have any idea what service we’re doing for the world?” Theodor said. “These Russians have only brought ruin to the world for over a century. The scourge of equalism. Then the drugs and cartels they sent over the border to kill our people. All they’ve contributed to the world is destruction and chaos, and it’s in their very blood. Just look at the amount of scheiße they carry in their DNA. Higher rates of cancer. Multiple sclerosis. Heart disease. A whole host of genetic disorders. Substandard IQ. Radical and criminal tendencies, as Varennikov and the cartels showed. Sexual deviance, as Kirova showed. It’s all there. It’s not just the Russians. It’s the Chinese and the Persians and the Eimericans and the Indians too. That’s why they’re truly barbarians out to destroy us, both physically and biologically. And if you let them breed, and with our people, everyone born into this world will be afflicted with it. Is that what you want for the next generation?”

“This…this is genocide!” Gustav said. “This is wrong!”

“It’s not wrong if you don’t know it’s wrong,” Josh said, “If you don’t know it even happened. Don’t feel bad about doing your job. Good soldiers follow orders.”

“The people at home won’t do it,” Theodor said, “They don’t have the P’s. The P’s let you do it. You’re the only ones who can protect Christendom. That’s an honor from God.”

“There’s no honor, only murder,” Gustav said, “Lies and murder.”

“Nobody lied to you,” Sarah said, “You knew this would happen.”

“What do you mean?” Gustav said.

“When you signed up for the project in 2024 and had the P’s implanted,” Sarah said, “It was part of the contract you signed. Don’t you remember?”

Not really. Josh didn’t see any use in reading all that complicated legal-speak.

“Don’t care either way,” Josh said.

“No,” Gustav said.

“I see,” Sarah said, “I don’t expect you to remember. The implantation itself may have messed with your memories a few days before and after. Very common, especially for the 2024 model. The brain initially can’t handle an entirely new source of electrical signals, but at the same time it accepts it. We can’t just put it in like that. We needed you to accept it, willingly.”

“Well, I no longer accept it,” Gustav said, “Take it out.”

“Excuse me?” Theodor said.

“You heard me, take it out,” Gustav said, “If you want me to fight, sure, I’ll do it, but I at least want to know who I’m killing.”

Theodor said nothing. Then he nodded to Sarah, who handed him a remote. Theodor pointed the remote at Gustav. Suddenly, Gustav’s head jerked back, and his eyes rapidly blinked. Then Theodor turned the remote on Josh. Vivid memories suddenly played back in his head, as vivid as they days they happened. More vivid than any video could possibly be. He saw himself killing Alexei, feeling his tiny body struggle against him and his mouth shriek as he hurled him through the air and smashed his head into a wall with a sickening crunch. Killing Yekaterina by slashing her throat, smelling the fresh blood that splattered over him, feeling the knife blade catch on the bone. Those people at Heidegger’s farmhouse…they weren’t rebels. They were just refugees.

“Please…don’t shoot! Please! Have mercy!”

They were putting their hands up and surrendering when he opened fire; the guy who charged him was only desperately trying to run past. He remembered killing Olga Kirova, but he could now hear the gunshot and the bullet tearing through flesh and bone, as well as the smell of the blood and brain matter splattered on the ground. Time rewound to his various rebel suppression efforts during Red Christmas and the years afterward. He heard the screams of each victim, their pleading for mercy, their pleas of desperation, finally the complete breakdown of their spirit when they realized their fate. He remembered the loud gunshot echoing up and down the tunnel as he shot Angela Hansen, then the smell of ash and gasoline when he set fire to the Die Zeiten office and hung Anders Humboldt, watching his feet dangle in the air like a puppet. Time went back even further, to the India campaign of 2034. He remembered killing Jayapal, riddling her body full of bullets even as she had her hands up. Putting two bullets in Jayasimha’s knees and then listening to him scream in pain while he tea-bagged him. Back further to Bloody Tuesday. Dismembering Theresa Novak with a bone saw and listening to her screams as blood spurted all over him. Murdering the Athanatoi squad of Angelica Haus in a one-sided slaughter. He heard each agent’s screams as he mowed them all down, then walked over and shot them once more in the head as each survivor pleaded for mercy again. Plunging a knife into Diana Frank and feeling the life bleed out of her. Before then, to Uberbowl 2029, when he killed the terrorist with a shot to the head before he could say Theodor paid him. Back to the East Africa campaign, where he showed no mercy to the MLA rebels.

“No!” Gustav said. “What are you doing to me? Oh my God…I did…all that…my God…I’m a goddamn monster…oh my god…what have I done…”

Coward.

“We control what you see, Gustav,” Theodor said, “We’re making you and Josh relive every single kill you’ve made since getting the Panopticons installed.”

“Give me my frakking eyes back!” Gustav said. “Make it stop!”

“But wait, there’s more!” Theodor said, adopting the exaggerated accent of an infomercial narrator. “We can even play back your former superior Kurt Moreau’s memories! He’s had an older Panopticon prototype for at least ten years before you got yours, did you know? Part of a classified experiment. Here’s some footage from a test we did in a place called Huaxtepec on July 12, 2016.”

Suddenly, even older memories came back, of the campaigns in the last years of the occupation of Mexico. Kurt was running through a destroyed street, dodging gunfire and smelling the heated lead. That lead smell was so strong, yet Kurt ran through like it wasn’t there. He spun around and shot a random woman in a second story window. Another minute, another kill of an innocent civilian. Rinse and repeat. Kurt’s hands were numb, yet Josh could feel every ache and soreness in them, even if Kurt didn’t notice. A kid ran away from him, wearing a backpack, and Kurt shot him. He rounded a corner and found an old man praying in Nahuatl, shooting him just like with the kid. The enemies on the pyramid were actually terrorists, but the recollection ended just as Kurt attacked the pyramid, letting out a fierce “Hoch!” as his war cry.

“What…Kurt…no…” Gustav said. “No…you couldn’t have…”

“That’s what really happened in Huaxtepec,” Theodor said, “That was why the party cartel and the lügenpresse were making such a fuss about war crimes back then.”

“Because it was!” Gustav said.

“Can’t be a war crime if there’s no evidence of it,” Theodor said, tapping his head like the meme, “Especially on the part of the alleged perpetrator. Alright, now that you’ve seen that, both of you have two options. Reset your Panopticons to get them back to normal, or immediate court martial.”

“Hell no!” Gustav said. “You are getting the damn Panopticon out of us! Now!”
Theodor pointed the remote at Josh. “Or do you want me to keep Josh lost in his memories for the rest of his life? Unable to tell past from present?”

“Hey, let me make this clear,” Josh said, “That recollection did absolutely nothing.”

Theodor was taken aback. He stared at him in shock.

“…excuse me?” he said.

“I still felt nothing,” Josh said, “All of the things I did…that was all me. I know it was me. I did it of my own free will. Even if my enemies turned out to be different from what I saw…even if I could smell their blood and hear their screams…they’re still my enemies in the end. And I don’t regret what I did. Not at all. If I didn’t have the implant, I’d still do it all over again.”

“You…really…don’t feel anything?” Sarah said. “Even without the Panopticon?”
“Haven’t for many years now,” Josh said, “Gotta be a man, you know. Unlike my sorry excuse of an uncle.”

Theodor opened his mouth, trying to find something to say, but he couldn’t. It was clear even he was surprised by this development. Finally, he put a hand on Josh’s shoulder.

“I like your attitude, kid!” he said. “Perfect for the man who killed Diana Frank, Theresa Novak, Anders Humboldt, Angela Hansen, Olga Kirova, and Pramila Jayapal and paralyzed the Samrat Chakravartin himself. We really need more men like you. If everyone was like you, we’d have won this war already.”

“Josh…please tell me you’re joking,” Gustav said.

“No, Uncle,” Josh said, “This has always been the real me. No Panopticon will change that.”

“Well, as convenient as this is, I’m going to have to rethink my approach to this,” Theodor said, “Okay, Josh, all you need to do is get your Panopticon repaired, and you’re clear for duty.”

“I’d appreciate that,” Josh said, “But I’d prefer you disable the sight changes. I want see my enemies for who they really are.”

“Sure, I’ll make an exception for you,” Theodor said, “Gustav Johansen, though…you are accused of committing treason by aiding and abetting the enemy. That is undeniable. You have two options. First is we do a hard reset of your Panopticon. All of your memories since the capture of Tsarberg will be erased, and the Panopticon will be repaired to normal.”

“Frak you, I’m not taking that,” Gustav said.

“I had a feeling you’d say that,” Theodor said, “On to option 2.”

He pointed the remote at Gustav, who clutched his head and screamed as more unfiltered memories streamed through his mind.

“You will be convicted in a court martial and sentenced to life imprisonment,” Theodor said, “Because death by firing squad would be too merciful.”

“Frak you!” Gustav said. “I can take prison!”

“Think again,” Theodor said, “The Panopticon is your friend. Without it, you’ll remember every single thing you did. What you’re seeing right now is life without it. You’ll relive every battle you ever fought, every kill you logged. Every life you’ve taken. I have it all logged and ready to stream directly into your brain, 24/7.”

He pressed the remote again.

“No…no…no…no!” Gustav screamed. “Make it stop! Please! Make it stop! No! No!”

“You'll see and smell and feel it all,” Theodor said, “Is this what you want? On infinite loop, in a cell all to yourself, for the rest of your life?”

“Argh!” Gustav said. “I can’t handle this! Stop it!”

“Uncle, remember,” Josh said, “Good soldiers follow orders. Be a man.”

Gustav continued screaming.


Rural Russia - November 18

Josh’s transport trudged down a pothole-filled dirt road. He, Gustav, and the rest of his squad jostled and lurched with each bump.

“We’ve gotten reports of our scouts being fired on in Novgorod,” Josh said, “Our job is to assess the damage, locate the enemy forces, and eliminate them. Understood?”

“Yes sir!” the squad shouted.

“Let’s gut those barbarian rats!” Gustav said.

---

This was the other Black Mirror reference I had and among the first committee-related ideas I came up with.
 
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Jerusalem Internet on November 9, 2038

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Wow, that’s terrifying. I’ve heard wacky of things governments could do to soldiers like the Nazis feeding their soldiers meth on major campaigns like France, but I never suspected the truth behind the Panopticon and what it does to soldiers equipped with them could be so horrifying, no wonder why Thea wants it completly destroyed. So much for supporting the troops. And to think all this was going on before the Committee took power in older wars like the East African and Mexican conflicts and why the Athanotos war crimes unit was conveniently disbanded. I feel kinda bad for Kurt and Gustav now seeing as they were basically forced to do some horrific war crimes and participate in genocide without their knowledge and a false perception of their combat experiences, through Josh has cemented himself as a true monster by this point.

Guess I was right about WW4 being a total war of genocide then, sorta like what the Nazis in OTL had in mind for the eastern front with Lebensaurm after WWII or Imperial Japanese war crimes in that same era, tho I wonder if Jerusalem would even bother with having collaborators aiding them in their occupations in this case. Definitely terrifying outcome should Jerusalem win, through it’s also important to be worried about what Han would do in the event of the Tianxia’s total victory. Either way, no one is going to forgive the Reich for this if/when Jerusalem crumbles despite the wishes of Ollin, especially since most people probably won’t know the full extent of what the Panopticon does and how it forces every solider equipped with them to be unwitting genocidal war criminals.
 
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Yeah I second Alvious' statement, Josh is too far gone now. So that's how the Panopticon works huh, truly diabolical in the grand scheme of things. Guess I was kinda right about Argus fielding proto-Super soldiers. Very scary stuff, and the fact that they can just erase the memories if the soldiers can rebel. One consolation I can get out of this is that at least Ferdinand is dead. Good riddance, especially for all the crimes he had committed. Since we're probably gonna be seeing more Man in the High Castle references, I do wonder if Josh ends up like John Smith did in the show. That'd be horrifying. And would probably contribute to why the next gameplay chapter is called History of the End.
 
I could see Elias going absolutely mad and ranting like that if the war doesn't go in his favor.
I fell like even if Jerusalem is wining Elias would still go on a mad rant like that due to how crazy he is now.

The soldiers tried opening fire, but Josh, with the Panopticon’s help, shot first, quickly mowing them all down. As he did so, he felt a dull pain between his eyes, and his vision slightly blurred. Damnit, not now. It had been happening since Tsarberg. His trigger finger briefly dulled and slowed down, which would have been fatal had he not wiped out all of the soldiers already. Gustav ran into the room.

“Did I miss something?” he said.

One of the soldiers wasn’t dead. He lunged at Josh with a knife. Gustav raised his rifle but strangely froze in place. Was he suffering the same issue? Frak. Josh raised his hands and grabbed the soldier’s arms, slamming him against a wall. He wrestled the knife out of his hands and then slashed his throat with it. It was actually pretty easy.
So are these some of the early prototypes of the Panopticon canceler?

Jerusalemite forward operating base

“Seriously, why the frak am I in the cell too?” Josh said. “I reported the whole thing!”

The guards outside the cell didn’t respond.

“Are you seriously ignoring me?” Josh said. “Really?”

Gustav, who had been strapped down to a bed, stirred awake.

“What the frak did you do, Josh?” he said. “Where are we?”

“I’ve been trying to find that out, but nobody’s been giving me a straight answer,” Josh said.

“That’s because only we can give you answers,” Theodor said, walking in with Sarah.

“Herr Tesla,” Josh said, “What is going on?”

“I have to owe you two an apology,” Theodor said, “Astoria didn’t spot the error with your Panopticon until she reviewed the data again.”

“Really?” Gustav said.

“I downloaded a full error log from your Panopticon while you were knocked out,” Sarah said, “Whatever was in Kirova’s weapon was designed to shut down the P’s from within by hijacking and redirecting the electrical signals it sent.”

“These barbarians are more ingenious than we give them credit for,” Theodor said, “We’ll have to update our Panopticons to patch the flaw.”

“Theodor, without the original weapon, I’m not sure we can,” Sarah said.

“Then we can at least take solace in the fact that Kirova’s weapon seems to be one of a kind,” Theodor said, “We can reinforce the hardware to reduce the effectiveness of such attacks, but I’m sure the software is fine. I’ve designed it without flaws, and there’s no way I missed anything. As for the leak? I’ll do an internal investigation.”

“It’s all a lie,” Gustav said.

“What’s that?” Theodor said.

“It’s a lie,” Gustav said, “You made us kill innocent people and made it look like they were armed and fighting back.”

“I’d rather not have to explain it to everyone, but since you already seem to know, fine, I guess I’ll tell you,” Theodor said, “Yeah, we did that. I totally know why you’d say that.”

“Why I’d say it’s all a lie?” Gustav said.

“Wait, you’ve actually been doing all this?” Josh said.

“Yeah, we have,” Theodor said, “You know, the reason our enemies are so dangerous is because they look just like us. We give ourselves a bad rap, and we like to think otherwise, but we are genuinely empathetic as a species. Even when our lives depend on it, we don’t actually want to kill each other. Which can be fatal when your future depends on wiping out the enemy.”

“How much history have you studied in school?” Sarah said.

“Enough,” Josh said.

His least favorite subject.

“We’re talking 20th century military history here,” Theodor said, “At the time, most soldiers didn’t even fire their weapons.”

“Yeah, I learned about that,” Josh said, “If they did fire, they would just shoot over the heads of their enemies. In World War I, generals would walk the line with a stick and hit their men until they shot. Even in World War II, only 15% of our men would actually pull the trigger.”

“The fate of our world was at stake, and only 15% of them fired,” Theodor said, “Pathetic. We would’ve beaten the Angeloi much faster if we got our act together.”

“Exactly,” Josh said.

“I don’t like where we’re going with this,” Gustav said.

“So we adapted,” Sarah said, “Better training and conditioning. In Siam, the percentage goes up to 85%. But…”

“The kills were still low,” Josh said, “And many of those who did kill came back…crazy.”

“We noticed it,” Theodor said, “That’s how things were until we got the Panopticons. You see, we’ve actually been working on it since Siam. We had a few hiccups—ever hear about the Preacher incident?—but we made steady progress over the years until the model you two were outfitted with. That chip is the ultimate weapon of war. It helps with your intel, targeting, communication, and, most importantly, your conditioning.”

“It influences what we see so we’re more willing to kill,” Gustav realized.

“Exactly,” Theodor said, “It’s a lot easier to pull the trigger and shoot your target when you’re shooting the bogeyman, isn’t it? It’s not just your eyes, though.”

“It takes care of your other senses, too,” Sarah said, “You won’t hear their screams. You won’t smell their blood. You won’t see their mangled bodies.”

“That’s why we couldn’t smell the grass until just now,” Josh said.

“Are…are you mad?” Gustav said. “They’re human beings! I can get fighting enemy soldiers, but when we start making innocent civilians into targets, that’s going too far.”

“Do you have any idea what service we’re doing for the world?” Theodor said. “These Russians have only brought ruin to the world for over a century. The scourge of equalism. Then the drugs and cartels they sent over the border to kill our people. All they’ve contributed to the world is destruction and chaos, and it’s in their very blood. Just look at the amount of scheiße they carry in their DNA. Higher rates of cancer. Multiple sclerosis. Heart disease. A whole host of genetic disorders. Substandard IQ. Radical and criminal tendencies, as Varennikov and the cartels showed. Sexual deviance, as Kirova showed. It’s all there. It’s not just the Russians. It’s the Chinese and the Persians and the Eimericans and the Indians too. That’s why they’re truly barbarians out to destroy us, both physically and biologically. And if you let them breed, and with our people, everyone born into this world will be afflicted with it. Is that what you want for the next generation?”

“This…this is genocide!” Gustav said. “This is wrong!”

“It’s not wrong if you don’t know it’s wrong,” Josh said, “If you don’t know it even happened. Don’t feel bad about doing your job. Good soldiers follow orders.”

“The people at home won’t do it,” Theodor said, “They don’t have the P’s. The P’s let you do it. You’re the only ones who can protect Christendom. That’s an honor from God.”

“There’s no honor, only murder,” Gustav said, “Lies and murder.”

“Nobody lied to you,” Sarah said, “You knew this would happen.”

“What do you mean?” Gustav said.

“When you signed up for the project in 2024 and had the P’s implanted,” Sarah said, “It was part of the contract you signed. Don’t you remember?”

Not really. Josh didn’t see any use in reading all that complicated legal-speak.

“Don’t care either way,” Josh said.

“No,” Gustav said.

“I see,” Sarah said, “I don’t expect you to remember. The implantation itself may have messed with your memories a few days before and after. Very common, especially for the 2024 model. The brain initially can’t handle an entirely new source of electrical signals, but at the same time it accepts it. We can’t just put it in like that. We needed you to accept it, willingly.”

“Well, I no longer accept it,” Gustav said, “Take it out.”

“Excuse me?” Theodor said.

“You heard me, take it out,” Gustav said, “If you want me to fight, sure, I’ll do it, but I at least want to know who I’m killing.”

Theodor said nothing. Then he nodded to Sarah, who handed him a remote. Theodor pointed the remote at Gustav. Suddenly, Gustav’s head jerked back, and his eyes rapidly blinked. Then Theodor turned the remote on Josh. Vivid memories suddenly played back in his head, as vivid as they days they happened. More vivid than any video could possibly be. He saw himself killing Alexei, feeling his tiny body struggle against him and his mouth shriek as he hurled him through the air and smashed his head into a wall with a sickening crunch. Killing Yekaterina by slashing her throat, smelling the fresh blood that splattered over him, feeling the knife blade catch on the bone. Those people at Heidegger’s farmhouse…they weren’t rebels. They were just refugees.

“Please…don’t shoot! Please! Have mercy!”

They were putting their hands up and surrendering when he opened fire; the guy who charged him was only desperately trying to run past. He remembered killing Olga Kirova, but he could now hear the gunshot and the bullet tearing through flesh and bone, as well as the smell of the blood and brain matter splattered on the ground. Time rewound to his various rebel suppression efforts during Red Christmas and the years afterward. He heard the screams of each victim, their pleading for mercy, their pleas of desperation, finally the complete breakdown of their spirit when they realized their fate. He remembered the loud gunshot echoing up and down the tunnel as he shot Angela Hansen, then the smell of ash and gasoline when he set fire to the Die Zeiten office and hung Anders Humboldt, watching his feet dangle in the air like a puppet. Time went back even further, to the India campaign of 2034. He remembered killing Jayapal, riddling her body full of bullets even as she had her hands up. Putting two bullets in Jayasimha’s knees and then listening to him scream in pain while he tea-bagged him. Back further to Bloody Tuesday. Dismembering Theresa Novak with a bone saw and listening to her screams as blood spurted all over him. Murdering the Athanatoi squad of Angelica Haus in a one-sided slaughter. He heard each agent’s screams as he mowed them all down, then walked over and shot them once more in the head as each survivor pleaded for mercy again. Plunging a knife into Diana Frank and feeling the life bleed out of her. Before then, to Uberbowl 2029, when he killed the terrorist with a shot to the head before he could say Theodor paid him. Back to the East Africa campaign, where he showed no mercy to the MLA rebels.

“No!” Gustav said. “What are you doing to me? Oh my God…I did…all that…my God…I’m a goddamn monster…oh my god…what have I done…”

Coward.

“We control what you see, Gustav,” Theodor said, “We’re making you and Josh relive every single kill you’ve made since getting the Panopticons installed.”

“Give me my frakking eyes back!” Gustav said. “Make it stop!”

“But wait, there’s more!” Theodor said, adopting the exaggerated accent of an infomercial narrator. “We can even play back your former superior Kurt Moreau’s memories! He’s had an older Panopticon prototype for at least ten years before you got yours, did you know? Part of a classified experiment. Here’s some footage from a test we did in a place called Huaxtepec on July 12, 2016.”

Suddenly, even older memories came back, of the campaigns in the last years of the occupation of Mexico. Kurt was running through a destroyed street, dodging gunfire and smelling the heated lead. That lead smell was so strong, yet Kurt ran through like it wasn’t there. He spun around and shot a random woman in a second story window. Another minute, another kill of an innocent civilian. Rinse and repeat. Kurt’s hands were numb, yet Josh could feel every ache and soreness in them, even if Kurt didn’t notice. A kid ran away from him, wearing a backpack, and Kurt shot him. He rounded a corner and found an old man praying in Nahuatl, shooting him just like with the kid. The enemies on the pyramid were actually terrorists, but the recollection ended just as Kurt attacked the pyramid, letting out a fierce “Hoch!” as his war cry.

“What…Kurt…no…” Gustav said. “No…you couldn’t have…”

“That’s what really happened in Huaxtepec,” Theodor said, “That was why the party cartel and the lügenpresse were making such a fuss about war crimes back then.”

“Because it was!” Gustav said.

“Can’t be a war crime if there’s no evidence of it,” Theodor said, tapping his head like the meme, “Especially on the part of the alleged perpetrator. Alright, now that you’ve seen that, both of you have two options. Reset your Panopticons to get them back to normal, or immediate court martial.”

“Hell no!” Gustav said. “You are getting the damn Panopticon out of us! Now!”
Theodor pointed the remote at Josh. “Or do you want me to keep Josh lost in his memories for the rest of his life? Unable to tell past from present?”

“Hey, let me make this clear,” Josh said, “That recollection did absolutely nothing.”

Theodor was taken aback. He stared at him in shock.

“…excuse me?” he said.

“I still felt nothing,” Josh said, “All of the things I did…that was all me. I know it was me. I did it of my own free will. Even if my enemies turned out to be different from what I saw…even if I could smell their blood and hear their screams…they’re still my enemies in the end. And I don’t regret what I did. Not at all. If I didn’t have the implant, I’d still do it all over again.”

“You…really…don’t feel anything?” Sarah said. “Even without the Panopticon?”
“Haven’t for many years now,” Josh said, “Gotta be a man, you know. Unlike my sorry excuse of an uncle.”

Theodor opened his mouth, trying to find something to say, but he couldn’t. It was clear even he was surprised by this development. Finally, he put a hand on Josh’s shoulder.

“I like your attitude, kid!” he said. “Perfect for the man who killed Diana Frank, Theresa Novak, Anders Humboldt, Angela Hansen, Olga Kirova, and Pramila Jayapal and paralyzed the Samrat Chakravartin himself. We really need more men like you. If everyone was like you, we’d have won this war already.”

“Josh…please tell me you’re joking,” Gustav said.

“No, Uncle,” Josh said, “This has always been the real me. No Panopticon will change that.”

“Well, as convenient as this is, I’m going to have to rethink my approach to this,” Theodor said, “Okay, Josh, all you need to do is get your Panopticon repaired, and you’re clear for duty.”

“I’d appreciate that,” Josh said, “But I’d prefer you disable the sight changes. I want see my enemies for who they really are.”

“Sure, I’ll make an exception for you,” Theodor said, “Gustav Johansen, though…you are accused of committing treason by aiding and abetting the enemy. That is undeniable. You have two options. First is we do a hard reset of your Panopticon. All of your memories since the capture of Tsarberg will be erased, and the Panopticon will be repaired to normal.”

“Frak you, I’m not taking that,” Gustav said.

“I had a feeling you’d say that,” Theodor said, “On to option 2.”

He pointed the remote at Gustav, who clutched his head and screamed as more unfiltered memories streamed through his mind.

“You will be convicted in a court martial and sentenced to life imprisonment,” Theodor said, “Because death by firing squad would be too merciful.”

“Frak you!” Gustav said. “I can take prison!”

“Think again,” Theodor said, “The Panopticon is your friend. Without it, you’ll remember every single thing you did. What you’re seeing right now is life without it. You’ll relive every battle you ever fought, every kill you logged. Every life you’ve taken. I have it all logged and ready to stream directly into your brain, 24/7.”

He pressed the remote again.

“No…no…no…no!” Gustav screamed. “Make it stop! Please! Make it stop! No! No!”

“You'll see and smell and feel it all,” Theodor said, “Is this what you want? On infinite loop, in a cell all to yourself, for the rest of your life?”

“Argh!” Gustav said. “I can’t handle this! Stop it!”

“Uncle, remember,” Josh said, “Good soldiers follow orders. Be a man.”
Yea Josh has truly condemned himself and cant be saved. At least Gustav was able to somewhat redeem himself even if he is going to be menially tortured for the rest of his life. Like @TWR97 said I can see Josh becoming more like John Smith from the show.

That would be something having three people (Elias, Theodor and Josh) who have eventually gone batty run the show.:eek:
 
Wow, that’s terrifying. I’ve heard wacky of things governments could do to soldiers like the Nazis feeding their soldiers meth on major campaigns like France, but I never suspected the truth behind the Panopticon and what it does to soldiers equipped with them could be so horrifying, no wonder why Thea wants it completly destroyed. So much for supporting the troops. And to think all this was going on before the Committee took power in older wars like the East African and Mexican conflicts and why the Athanotos war crimes unit was conveniently disbanded. I feel kinda bad for Kurt and Gustav now seeing as they were basically forced to do some horrific war crimes and participate in genocide without their knowledge and a false perception of their combat experiences, through Josh has cemented himself as a true monster by this point.
Yes, the most horrifying parts of this reveal are that Josh is still a monster regardless of the Panopticon and the Panopticons, ironically, were created and tested under the old regime. I've been building up to this since all the way back in the X-Division arc.

The war crimes unit being disbanded was actually based more on the FBI's war crimes unit being dismantled a few years ago in real life, but I soon realized it fit perfectly with the Panopticon foreshadowing.
Guess I was right about WW4 being a total war of genocide then, sorta like what the Nazis in OTL had in mind for the eastern front with Lebensaurm after WWII or Imperial Japanese war crimes in that same era. Definitely terrifying outcome should Jerusalem win, through it’s also important to be worried about what Han would do in the event of the Tianxia’s total victory. Either way, no one is going to forgive the Reich for this if/when Jerusalem crumbles despite the wishes of Ollin, especially since most people probably won’t know the full extent of what the Panopticon does and how it forces every solider equipped with them to be unwitting genocidal war criminals.
Probably worse because even the Nazis and Japanese, for all of the genocide they did, didn't try to kill literally everybody who wasn't on their side (look at that, this update is making me argue the Nazis aren't that bad even though they are and Jerusalem is just even worse). If there's still a Russia after this...I don't think they will forgive the Romans ever. Same goes for the rest of the world.
Yeah I second Alvious' statement, Josh is too far gone now. So that's how the Panopticon works huh, truly diabolical in the grand scheme of things. Guess I was kinda right about Argus fielding proto-Super soldiers. Very scary stuff, and the fact that they can just erase the memories if the soldiers can rebel. One consolation I can get out of this is that at least Ferdinand is dead. Good riddance, especially for all the crimes he had committed. Since we're probably gonna be seeing more Man in the High Castle references, I do wonder if Josh ends up like John Smith did in the show. That'd be horrifying. And would probably contribute to why the next gameplay chapter is called History of the End.
What makes you think the soldiers can even think of rebelling? Their Panopticons rewrite their minds to make them completely loyal to the committee to begin with, so they won't even think of rebelling.

Unfortunately, Ferdinand's death means nobody will truly know what happened to Jared Karasi or where his body ended up. His death and disappearance has been completed and made final with the death of his last killer.

Josh is already even worse than John Smith. At least John put his family first, at least at first. Josh doesn't care about his family, only himself and his bloodlust. I did take the Alexei scene from what John did in Cleveland in Man in the High Castle though.
I fell like even if Jerusalem is wining Elias would still go on a mad rant like that due to how crazy he is now.
I'm starting to picture Elias doing a Downfall Hitler rant. Maybe it's time I brought that reference back.
So are these some of the early prototypes of the Panopticon canceler?
No, Josh's Panopticon was still glitching from Putin's pen, which Olga had rebuilt into a prototype nullifier. Yekaterina had another prototype but it wasn't as close to completion as the pen and only worked because Josh's Panopticon was already glitching.
Yea Josh has truly condemned himself and cant be saved. At least Gustav was able to somewhat redeem himself even if he is going to be menially tortured for the rest of his life. Like @TWR97 said I can see Josh becoming more like John Smith from the show.
I don't think he redeemed himself in the end, as he did accept the memory wipe and went back to his genocidal programming.
That would be something having three people (Elias, Theodor and Josh) who have eventually gone batty run the show.:eek:
And their most powerful enemy, Han, is also batty. The world is run by complete idiots and everyone's being dragged down with them.
 
Probably worse because even the Nazis and Japanese, for all of the genocide they did, didn't try to kill literally everybody who wasn't on their side (look at that, this update is making me argue the Nazis aren't that bad even though they are and Jerusalem is just even worse). If there's still a Russia after this...I don't think they will forgive the Romans ever. Same goes for the rest of the world.
Sounds like Tsiolkovsky would have fit well under the Jerusalem regime had he been alive, if he existed in this timeline at all (IRL his philosophy included removing any "unhappy" life). Also, is it just me or Jerusalem is so fucking bad at publicity (outside of internal propaganda) or just covering up its atrocities that after (if) it's defeated there won't be even ironic (or esoteric) admirers of Jerusalem, because it would be clear even to the last idiot that Jerusalem's model of governance is plain murderous?
 
Sounds like Tsiolkovsky would have fit well under the Jerusalem regime had he been alive, if he existed in this timeline at all (IRL his philosophy included removing any "unhappy" life). Also, is it just me or Jerusalem is so fucking bad at publicity (outside of internal propaganda) or just covering up its atrocities that after (if) it's defeated there won't be even ironic (or esoteric) admirers of Jerusalem, because it would be clear even to the last idiot that Jerusalem's model of governance is plain murderous?
Jerusalem simply doesn't care about publicity at this point because no matter what the government says, their people will still believe the propaganda and support them 100%. Everyone else is simply an enemy who can't be reasoned with and is bent on destroying something they don't understand out of fear. The perfect bogeyman. But don't underestimate the lows people can still sink to. There are still Holocaust deniers and flat earthers even with overwhelming evidence refuting their claims. I wouldn't rule out Jerusalem sympathizers existing after the war if Jerusalem falls.