Demonstration Versus Discretion
02 Nov 2023Argon Shadowstar
When I began my campaign, such was my confidence and conviction that I felt no need to obfuscate my actions. My personal logs have been public and my activities, brazen as they were, were never hidden or manipulated. The truth, as always, is my sword. However, as my campaign has grown, it has attracted followers. Some of these followers are perhaps more vulnerable than I, and for their sakes, I find I must omit certain details in order to protect them from those who might seek to use them against me. While I remain committed to my policy of truth and the freedom of information, the form of that commitment must evolve to meet new challenges. I can use partial information to demonstrate my capabilities, but omit the details which might allow my enemies to hurt the good people who support my campaign.For instance, I admit the existence of Argon Labs, a small research and development facility which assists me with my equipment, and maintains the hardware which is responsible for the communications network that Revenant Imperium and the Human Liberation Movement use to coordinate activities. However, while I admit their existence and their capacity, I choose to omit details of their location. Thus, my enemies now know that I have a technological advantage and the ability to coordinate a large force, but have no means to counter it. They may waste their time trying to discover the location of this facility, but in the end this will only draw their attention away from my operations to dismantle their war machine. Thus, I have grown stronger.
Such balances are part of life, and form the backbone of an effective strategy. It is one thing to be capable of defeating your foes, but to intimidate them out of fighting you altogether is the ultimate victory and wastes no time, no resources, and no lives. But I know as well that only a fool would expect to bring down the superpowers without a fight, and so I continue to fight, to show them that I am able and willing, and hopefully, in so doing, turn would-be servants away from the tyrants while potentially bringing new recruits to the cause.