Benevolent War
09 May 2022Iridium Nova
It seems I've started a war. Again.My time at the monastery is often spent in either quiet contemplation or training at the dojo, with occasional breaks for socializing and recreation. During one of these breaks, I was advised by Sensei to speak with one of our recent visitors, a member of a mysterious group known as the Kyōsei Gakkai. Very little is known about these people, and my conversation with the enigmatic agent did little to enlighten me as to their nature or motivations. However, she did point me to the Purunsi system, where a new faction known only as "Benevolence" had emerged to pursue an idealistic agenda. She rightly concluded that I would share the concern of the Kyōsei Gakkai that Benevolence's methods, while honorable, might be too idealistic and non-aggressive to achieve their goals. As a result, and contingent upon revealing more information about this gakkai society, she suggested that I make my way there and see what I could do to ensure that Benevolence becomes a beacon of hope for other idealists in the bubble. I admitted that, despite sharing the belief that the bubble is a horrible place and could do with more people trying to make it a better place, I didn't quite see the point; a group with unrealistic ideals rarely survives long in the bubble. So why get people's hopes up?
"It's simple," she said. "a journey is not complete with a single step. It takes many steps to reach a goal. The meiyo no michi, the path of honor, is a long and winding road. We seek that which you do - the better way. This is how we get there."
It's times like this that I wonder exactly what sorcery is responsible for the universal translator, but anyway the suggestion was intriguing enough for me to make the trip. That was roughly a week ago. After arriving in Purunsi, I found most of the factions unwilling to work with me outside of basic PFed missions. Benevolence was the only one I was able to make any headway with, which was well enough since they were the whole point of going there. Unfortunately, it became clear rather quickly that they would not entertain the idea of more direct action. They had grown quite a bit but now were faced with political and social roadblocks from Kui Xiani Purple Netcoms Network, the system's controlling faction, a large Federation corporation with support from the Alliance and Edmund Mahon. They had obviously played their cards right since not everyone can make friends with two different superpowers at the same time. The factions in the system saw the sudden rise of Benevolence as a threat and had endeavored to put a stop to their growth. Popular support allowed Benevolence to overcome most of this opposition, but not KXPNN. The influence and power of the corporation eventually squashed Benevolence's momentum. Benevolence, with its support cut off, settled for a passive campaign, believing that in the end, their ideals would win out. However, within days it was clear this was not going to be the case as the other factions in the system began to take advantage and made attempts to reclaim their lost influence from Benevolence. This was about the time when I showed up.
After failing to persuade Benevolence to target the individuals targeting them, I did an analysis of the political makeup of the system and started monitoring the activities of the other factions, which was made somewhat more difficult by their belligerence toward me. But I found an opportunity at last. In their attempts to reclaim what they had lost to Benevolence, the other factions had also targeted assets belonging to KXPNN, probably opportunistically believing that they could end up a little better off than they had before and blame it on Benevolence later on. You can always count on greed to open up opportunities for manipulation. And so I did, manipulating the lesser factions, redirecting their efforts against Benevolence to more often target Kui Xiani. This created diplomatic problems in the system as the KXPNN authority now found itself stretched thin investigating the other factions, trying to keep them under control. In retaliation, CD-44 10336 Industries, the other Federation corporation in the system, started economically attacking KXPNN, trying to beat out their long-standing competitors in every market where opportunity had now opened up thanks to the destabilization. The other factions also tried to take advantage, but found themselves ill-equipped to capitalize against the Federation corporations. Typical. Federation corporations never play fair. Of course, it didn't help that I was playing havoc with all of their shit at the same time.
With the system's stability now significantly reduced, police stretched thin, and tensions running high, it was time to execute the final operation against Kui Xiani. System authority were completely unprepared when I brought down every network in the system and released all of their corporate data as a system broadcast. Of course, this got me instantly labeled as public enemy number one in Purunsi and pretty much every other system in the vicinity, I seem to be getting used to that now. After all, I was once on the Epsilon Nine list. Whatever that is. And of course, the only faction unaffected by all this chaos was Benevolence, who I was careful to protect during the entire operation. As a result, their humanitarian efforts to help their fellow man during this time of crisis helped grow their influence. And CD-44 10336 Industries took advantage as well, probably the only other faction to be able to weather the chaos without my help. Fed corps, go figure.
So here I am, once again in a battlefield on the eve of war. KXPNN has lost control of the system, and has declared martial law, desperately trying to claw back control. Benevolence has stepped in against the martial law, and the lines are being drawn. KXPNN is now directly targeting Benevolence, blaming them for the chaos as they are the ones who have benefited the most from it. Benevolence is defending themselves, and rightly believes that they were not responsible. I intend to make sure they never know exactly who was responsible for their rise to power. That combination of honorable idealism bolstered by power and influence could have a profound effect on the bubble, though I cannot say exactly what that effect would be right now. In any case, the Kyōsei Gakkai should be pleased with this outcome. I expect to be hearing from them soon.