December 12th 2003

Seattle 101 FM Radio

"HELLO SEATTLE! Well folks, the news is in and Project Phoenix is a go, that's right folks Leviathan, Cronos, and Behemoth, the votes are in and we're going to take their corpses and use them to terraform mars. No one knows if this is just a one time thing or if we will get more worlds as we kill more Endbringers. Though the Thinkers and Tinkers say it might be possible."

Pause.

"I'm going to be honest, it's been a strange, weird trip since Ironwood came here. We were all scared and terrified in those early days. We were used to thinking of the Enders as some force of nature instead of, you know people, guess old Woody proved us wrong. Wife, kids, karaoke, in this radio man's opinion, he's settled in all right."

Pause.

"There have been a lot of changes, the human race is officially at war. I've managed to get a Professor to talk about Project Phoenix, doctor Soros, you're on the air."

"Glad to be here, I'm professor George Soros at Columbia university and I teach geology."

"And you're in Seattle, why?"

"Project Phoenix, geologists, oceanographers, economists, people from all over the world are coming to Seattle to make project Phoenix a reality, of course this doesn't include people who are imputing data online."

"Can't Ironwood just do this on his own."

Pause.

"Sadly no, Ironwood simply doesn't have the power or the background know how to pull it off. We're using the corpses of the fallen Endbringers because they have the power, Ironwood can build the hardware, but he's a medic, not a geologist, or any number of relevant disciplines. This is going to have to be a team effort."

"Isn't this a waste of resources for the war effort."

Sigh.

"That has come up and some people are still worried about Ironwoods loyalty, that said there are seven active Endbringers out there now, and there are ten more waiting in the wings. We know the bad guys' play book. They're going to target our industry to shut down our access to power, they're going to target weaker nations and cause them to collapse."

"Why?"

"Refugees, their goal is to swamp the remaining countries with a tidal wave of refugees to tie up resources, to destabilize those countries. Then once the countries are destabilized, they'll target those countries and cause them to collapse. Starting a domino effect that will end with the destruction of human civilization and once that happens... then there is no more human race, we are hunted until there is no one left."

"That's... ouch."

"The enemy wants to keep us out of space, space based weapons were used to devestating effect against them in the past. They also want to cut us off from those resources, another factor is that with new terreformed worlds we will have a place to put the refugees which will mean less strain on resources, and... look I'm going to be honest, worst comes to worse we need to ensure the survivial of the human race. Ironwood isn't invincible and if he dies we won't be able to do this, and there are more Endbringers coming."

"So we're just going to run away?"

"No, we're not running away but we can't afford to put all of our eggs in one basket, this is going to be a long war, it's already lasted more then a decade. It might take generations, humanity might be forced to leave the Earth and gather our strength to retake our homeworld."

"Grim stuff."

"I know, but on the other hand if we do win the war, and everything goes well then humanity has another place to live. Lots of reasons to do it and not a whole lot of reasons not to."

"Thank you Soros, I'm opening up the phones."

Pause.

"Hey, long time listener Bob Sterns."

"Hey Bob, so what do you want to talk about?"

"Look, way I figure it? Behemoth, Cronos, and Leviathan, they killed a whole lot of people, turning their corpses into fertilizer? It's justice, yah know? They went around destroying our world so now they're going to be used to get us a new one."

"Good point, more callers."

"Blake, I work over in the special district."

"And?"

"Humanity... look morale is important, yah know were dealing with a real hard fight, we need some victories, some good news. If we pull this off, well it's big, and... this might not be a one shot deal. Humanity even in our lowest moment can still do big things."

"Good to know, next caller?"

"Jessica, and I think its a waste of money, we should be focusing on the war effort and the poor and hungry rather then wasting time, money and resources on space."

"A point that has been made, well folks thats all the time we have, now heres some classic rock."