A Long Way Back To The Top: Esther Lynn Unveils Plan to Rebuild New Westmore in Wake of Christian Hart's PresidencyToday, Major-General, now President Esther Lynn, has unveiled a comprehensive plan to revive and rejuvenate New Westmore in the wake of Hart's presidency. The plan, aptly named the Great Reform, plans to repair and undo much of the One Republic's policies under President Christian Hart. An extremely large and longwinded plan given the wide scope of Hart's damage, the plan intends to drastically change the nation's internal and foreign policy.
In an official statement released earlier today, President Lynn revealed some of the plan's main goals include Westmore potentially joining the ICJ as a means to make amends, reopening borders to humanitarian aid and providing safe refuge for all citizens displaced by Hart's anti-immigrant sentiment. Economically, there are plans to make the country more self-sufficient as to prevent another drastic crash in resources, should the nation ever face a crisis like this again. Talks are currently in place to reopen the free market in the nation. Militarily, Lynn has stated she will do everything in her power to rebuild the nation's armed forces, with the intent to bring the nation's defence resources back to a level that would be sufficient enough to safeguard Westmore competently. How this will be done has not been revealed yet.
The plan has been generally received well by the public, with many confident that Lynn's plan will rebuild the Westmore that many once knew.
In other news, Christian Hart has been presumed dead after a raid on a One Republican stronghold in the Arnhem Islands discovered a loaded revolver in Hart's chamber within the stronghold. There was evidence that a bullet had been fired, and many of the One Republican staffers in the building claimed that he had indeed shot himself. Some believe that the staffers may be covering up for Hart's true whereabouts.
More pills were also found in Hart's room. They were identified to be an anti-anxiety medication called clonazepam, known better as Rivotril. It is believed that he may have been abusing anti-anxiety medication in the final days of his presidency as a means to maintain calm and collected.
Fighting between the Reformist League and One Republican cells continue all throughout the nation. The One Republic now only mantains a stable hold in the cities of Sotholm, Hillenburg and Melbourne, in East Aislada.
...
Arnhem Islands, New Westmore
As the final soldiers pull out of the stronghold and back to home base, Lieutenant Davies breaks away from his platoon and into a darkened room he had spotted earlier.
Something inside was calling him.
Metaphorically, of course.
There was a hidden secret behind that door, marked only with the words "AGENCY."
He pushes the door open, and walks inside, his rifle poised and his flashlight on. It's a room full of boxes, marked with the crest of the IEIA.
For a while now, Davies had long been familiar with the rumour that Hart had been experimenting with mind control for the IEIA to use in espionage and counter-intelligence. The rumour had no merit to it; everything that had been said before then had no evidence to back it up given that what the IEIA did was extremely secretive...
But now?
What is this?
Lieutenant Davies opens one of the boxes, and discovers a dossier. He pulls it out of the box, unclips his flashlight from his gun and flashes it onto the cover of the folder.
PROJECT NMW-DEUTERONOMY
NMWGAUZE
Lieutenant Davies lays the file down on the ground, opens it and starts to read. Page after page, Deuteronomy details the creation of a truth agent and has report after report of it being tested on civilians and persons of interest. One of the pages is a transcript...
Rico Salamanca.
Dzan.
Lieutenant Davies closes the file, and pulls another one out. This one is named NMW-GENESIS, and details the experimentation of mind control to create a sleeper agent that activates only when a sound is played to them.
Atrocity after atrocity.
Crime after crime.
Death after death.
The world needs to know-
"DAVIES! What are you doing... wha- what is this..."
"It uh... Commander... the rumours are true."
The Commander picks up Deuteronomy and reads it. "Oh... my... God."
The colour drains from his face as he continues to read.
Davies stays kneeled on the ground before Genesis. "Commander... what do we do? Esther needs to know about this. The world needs to know about this."
"No."
"What the fu*k do you mean 'NO?!'"
"I mean what I mean, Davies. Only Esther needs to know. The world doesn't. Now, get up and hand me the box."
"Commander, Hart is a war criminal. If we show this to the press, we can finally expose that fascist turd for who he really is-"
"And what does that mean for Westmore? What does this, this thing, make us, if it comes out? What does Deuteronomy and Genesis paint the National Guard as if we leak it to the press?"
"We can't risk the PR sh*tstorm, Davies."
"You care about the PR?! You don't, you don't give a damn that countless people have been hurt by whatever the hell this is?! Commander, the world NEEDS TO KNOW!"
"NO, IT FUC*KING DOESN'T!"
Davies hears a gun click behind his head.
"Give me the goddamn box and head on back to the chopper. Don't make me do this."
"W-we. We need to show the world. Once they k-know, Hart will finally have nobody to support him... support for his regime will finally collapse, Commander."
"And with that, our nation dies as well. Give me the goddamn box."
"I can't."
"You want me to shoot you? GIVE ME THE BOX NOW!"
Davies stands up, with the Genesis dossier in hand, and presses his chest onto the muzzle of the Commander's gun.
"If you want the box, Harold, you'll have to kill me."
"I won't stop at nothing to let the world know, because I have a heart that cries. I weep and I sob. I am a flawed soldier of war, and for that I deserve to die."
"So do it, Harold."
"It is your country, or me."
"But tell my child that I love him dearly. Tell him that I died for him."
...
The Arnhem Islands were once a burial ground for the native people of the island. In olden times, a fallen warrior of the tribe would be taken to these islands at sundown to be honoured with a 'Ka'bak', a ceremonial boat laden with the island's native wildlife and that warrior's worldly possessions. The warrior would then be sent on their final journey through the island chain, out into the ocean, where they will forever lie at peace. The warrior's comrades would stand at shore on the mainland in silent vigil, and would look on as the boat sailed off into the Demetric sunset.
On a cold night, on the 27th of March 2034, thousands of years after the last Ka'bak took to the ocean, another soul, at long last, joins the great pantheon of Djarramhan warriors. His ghost takes the final journey of his life, from the Arnhem Islands out into the deep Berlin Blue.
With him, he takes his secrets.
Like those before him, he has been silenced.
