Author's Notes: What no reviews? Just because I'm playing through the DLC (and hopefully, you are too) and the turn around time drops, the reviews drop too? Well, that's one of the lessons I thought I was going to learn, but only through reviews can I learn the lessons I didn't think of.
1
The General's office was quite safely closed. "Why didn't you tell me this was coming?", the General demanded.
"Because it should not have happened.", Desdemona told her. "Everything we had said that Eager Ernie would never give up his racetrack. It's his only leverage with the Triggermen. And it's not like he can bring it into Vault 114.
"And a plan like this can only come from a united Triggermen. So be warned. There can't be one that's dissenting. They are in lock step on this.
"And they are not the maniacs that the Forged or Rust Devils were. You're going to be facing people who can think."
The General sat back in her chair. "Do you have a bet on whether this is legitimate?"
"You mean on whether the Triggermen are actually wanting a vote at the council table? I'm nearly certain. These people don't even wake up in the morning if their isn't a cap involved. But if you mean that the entire movement wants to stop gaining what they do by being criminals? Not a chance. It's part of their culture. You might as well try to sell upper stands residents on the virtues of equality.", Desdemona informed.
The General nodded. "That's kind of what I was thinking.
"If we actually sit down across the table from these people, it would be nice to know what they're thinking."
Desdemona frowned. "And that's going to be very dangerous. If they all actually pull into Vault 114, it's going to be way harder to disappear every now and then for a drop box message out. And anyone will be under more scrutiny the closer they get to the leadership."
"Do what you can.", the General ordered. "If this works out, I'll have an office of Minutemen in that vault wiring to drop the door at the first sign of trouble. If it doesn't, at least I know where all of them are and that's not running around the Commonwealth making nuisances of themselves."
"Sure. General." Desdemona replaced her ASSAULT GAS MASK and exited the General's office.
She held the door for the other Colonels to come in.
Zoa started. "I have an update on the naval status of your forces."
"Thanks, but I'll read the report.", the General cut him off. "This meeting isn't just to keep tabs your projects. You report in and I trust what you say.
"This is to discuss what you've had to have heard by now. The Triggermen want to claim that they are really a community. Vault 114 in fact. And as such, they should be able to sign the Commonwealth's constitution, get a seat at the council table and have all the protections for themselves that we usually turn on people like themselves."
"So that's what you were discussing with Colonel Code-Name.", Shaw stated plainly.
"Yep.", the other woman replied. "And I still have no better information on what they're trying to pull."
Preston looked decidedly uncomfortable. "You want our advice not on what you've assigned us to, but whether we should consider Triggermen citizens?"
"Until they're signed on, they're not.", the General countered.
Then she huffed. "That's just it. Every time the idea is even raised, I get this knee jerk reaction."
Zoa nodded. "If I may? There is a difference between a Triad and a less formal criminal. There are traditions and rules."
She huffed again. "I understand that there was some of that in Asia, with the Yakuza of Japan having an understanding with their police. But the idea of the 'honorable criminal' died a long time before my time on this side of the ocean if it even existed at all. Black hat gun slingers and Capone's syndicate and Dillinger style motorized bandits were more fairy tales than the 'loyal opposition'. And it's not like the other gangs we've taken our didn't have complex rituals or an understanding of artificial intelligence and other robotics."
"Well, I for one did listen to your broadcast.", Colonel Brandis stated. "Whatever one wants to say about the diplomacy of it, you did state there's going to be a negotiation of the situation in Goodneighbor. So if we're actually gonna sit down an bargain with them, we need to figure out how to get the best deal."
The General nodded. "And that first means deciding what a good deal for us is."
Preston nodded. "We don't want them to harm the other citizens of the Commonwealth. Maybe we should ask them to lay down their arms."
Shaw laughed. Garvey objected. "What?"
The General explained. "If they're armed, they can at least fight us to the death and take some of us with them. If they're unarmed, in this world, that means getting eaten by supermutants or torn through when any of the much higher percentage of their population that's ghouls go feral if there's any source of radiation they miss.
"It's like in my time, how the most dangerous neighborhoods would have the most restrictive gun laws and everyone would wonder why the casualty rates kept climbing but would only drop when the Supreme Court decided the bans to be unconstitutional."
Preston frowned. "A supreme what?"
"Never mind.", the General instructed. "The point is that we're not going to get an enemy to turn themselves into prey in exchange for pretending that you can be friends with prey."
"But you do have the right sentiment. Our main priority has to be reducing the threat to the Commonwealth. Which leads me back to just killing them all. But the cost being an expenditure of our forces.
"First, our very close second priority should be not expending our forces if we can help it. And this 'surrender' could help it, very much.
"Second, this move does back us into a political corner. And I know as the military, we shouldn't be playing politics. But we depend on our image with the people of the Commonwealth as much as anything else. We can't look like we want to drag them into war. And refusing something that's actually a reasonable alternative would be doing just that."
Zao frowned. "So you want to appear to be peace lover?", he questioned.
The General's eyes clenched. "Plato's Republic, Admiral."
"Ah.", the ghoul nodded.
Brandis shrugged at Shaw's gaze, and then Preston did the same.
The General took in a breath. "There once was a Greek philosopher - Plato. He would gather his students and they would work through a new thought. First, they would eliminate everything they could, then build with what they couldn't eliminate. Some times it worked, other times they failed to eliminate false things or eliminated true things or just didn't understand the problem to begin with.
"One of these problems was whether or not it was better to be the honest man or the corrupt man. The benefit of being corrupt is that you get to gain everything that doing evil gets you. While the benefit of being good is that you're trusted. The decision was that it was more beneficial to be the corrupt man because it opens the door to lying. Through lying you get to tell everyone to respect you as if you were honest and gain the benefit of trust yet also tell everyone that the honest man is secretly corrupt.
"The Triggermen are a bunch of criminals that have chosen to tell the world that they're peaceful citizens. Because of the lesson from Plato's Republic, we're forced to not come off as violent at least until their lie is exposed as one."
"So why don't we just call their bluff?", Ronnie asked. "We sit down and squeeze 'em. Tell them that they're responsible for law and order, so to help they need to start with blabbing about every criminal thing they've ever done - and in enough detail to hang themselves by their own petard. Tell them that ordinary people don't do what the Triggermen want to do and have been doing and follow it up with the Institute's agreement to abide by the rules. If they're really faking, then we just need to expose them before putting a hole in every single one of their heads. Right?"
The General silently nodded but turned to Brandis.
Brandis smiled in understanding. "But what happens when they're not bluffing. What happens when a culture of criminals actually wants to join, thinking it's some kind of...of..."
"Mobbed up union instead of a government?", the General supplied.
Brandis shrugged. "Sure."
The woman shrugged. "Well, there's definitely one way to find out."
