December 17th, 2267. 09:55 Vosture Prime – John’s Homestead

John nodded as he smiled. The Xenuvians had gumption, that was for sure. They didn’t care what the police said were doing. They took their safety into their own hands and made damn sure the junkies gave them a wide berth. While he didn’t care for them one bit, he couldn’t help but feel a modicum of respect for them.

“That was most unexpected. Bravo, I am being deadly serious. We may be enemies, but I can respect that,” John said as he stood up slowly and walked over to the open bar, “The police just fucked off as simply as that?”

Elias shook his head, “We got a talking to by one of the lieutenants of the colony’s police department. They weren’t happy that we hired mercenaries to do some dirty work for us. They didn’t blame us for doing just that though either.”

“They couldn’t argue much against it since y’all were forced to do that because their presence was shall we say, lacking?”

“More like non-existent. We had heard sirens of course, but the first time we saw a police officer was when they drove to our facility and officially informed us of Paulus’ murder.”

“After it had already been made public of course,” John grinned, “Piss poor job they did of that.”

“Or the accident. Anything that involved the old industrial district they waffled or outright ignored,” Elias said, “The lieutenant was most sour when I had explained to him that we had called the police but heard nothing in return. Besides, we didn’t kill anyone that time so all it did was drive home to the locals that the area was not to be trifled with.”

John picked a local bourbon produced on the colony and poured himself a drink, “How much of a reprieve did that give y’all?”

“Two and a half weeks. After that, we checked the buildings every other week. Four people were killed in our defense of our home in total.”

“I would’ve done more from what I saw of them. Those were permanently lost souls; society benefits when they are no more.”

“Such a vulgar thought.”

John chuckled, “Yet, here you are ready to wage war on my way of life. Hypocritical much?”

Elias squinted at John angrily. There was no good comeback to that statement. He was right, their view of the Confederacy was little different than John’s view of the drugged-out vagrants of this colony. The galling thing about it was Elias agreed with John’s general assessment of that segment of the population.

“I think there are some similarities, but in the end the…”

“Elias, I mean no disrespect when I say this, but any which way you, or for that matter I, use to justify a war of extermination is nothing more than easing our conscience of the evils of said act. The difference here is I knowingly accept responsibility for my acts fully aware that they are in fact evil. You continue to justify to yourself that what you are doing is right,” John took a drink and smiled, “You aren’t fully committed to your cause because you are still striving for that justification. As hard as you’ll look, it won’t be found.”

“Spoken from experience?”

“Immeasurable experience,” John said as he walked back to his seat, “By the way, how long till the reinforcements show up?”

“That’s a good question. Inside three or four hours I suppose,” Elias then paused, “How did you coopt the third debate? We had full control of the colony’s internal communication services. We saw everything…”

“You saw the unencrypted channel. Personally encrypted channels were beyond your eyes,” John paused, “Well, figuratively speaking, I guess. You could see that traffic in that channel was flowing, just not what it was.”

“We didn’t see an increase in traffic to that channel though…” Elias trailed off.

“No, I don’t suppose you would. One more person sending messages to and fro wouldn’t generate a ton of additional traffic. Especially since you weren’t able to track from where the messages were sent and to whom they went too,” John grinned, “Plus, face-to-face meetings are helpful when you aren’t being actively tracked.”

Elias leaned forward, “Please, by all means, I’d like to hear how you pulled off the impossible.”

Five months ago. July 8th, 2267. 09:15 Marven Industries

John was bored as hell. He had let himself into William’s office before the workday had started. Based on his now publicly viewable schedule it showed several hours of work at his business in the morning before working on his campaign in the afternoon. Luckily there was a teleconference scheduled for fifteen minutes.

He still had wasted over three hours of his life relaxing in the chair. Which truthfully was quite comfortable. But he had other, more pressing issues. Like tracking down the team or group that was taking over the colony.

“Who the hell are you?” William said, catching John by surprise.

“Mr. Marven, I’m a friend of sorts, please, please close the door and take a seat. You’ll want to come up with some bullshit reason to avoid your upcoming meeting.”

“You aren’t from the Colonial Bureau. Nor are you from the Sector Intelligence. Could you be from Naval Intelligence? You aren’t a civilian, you have that look of a soldier. Yeah, you’ve got to be one of them.”

John nodded, “Formerly of them, I’m a line officer these days but got loaned out to them for this dull-ass mission. Please take a seat, I need your help. In return, I will help you win this campaign.”

William closed and locked the door. His curiosity was piqued. If this mysterious man was an assassin, he’d already be dead. And to be frank, if that man did want him dead there was likely nothing that he could do to stop that eventuality.

“Why would you presume I’m with Naval Intelligence?”

“They are boogeymen to the common man, hell even to the upper class they play that role. And there’s the challenges we have with contacting our business partners from outside of our system,” William said as he casually walked towards his desk, “Hell, reaching our forges in the outer belt has been a bloody hassle.”

“What have you heard?”

“That your compatriots…”

“Former, I’m not with NI…” John interrupted William.

“Whatever, three agents went missing about the time our communications went tits up,” William leaned back in his seat, “Did you know that we’ve resorted to sending an employee to certain colonies to order products physically.”

John chuckled, “Highly inefficient.”

“So, let’s cut through the horseshit, who are you and what are you wanting with me?” William stared at John as if he was piercing his soul.

“Who I am is unimportant. I know you aren’t being controlled or influenced in any way by the third party that…”

“Fucking hell, I know that sleazy asshole was getting assistance,” William said, “I know Dale well enough to know the man can’t formulate a concise argument without sufficient planning.”

“Kinda like that last question at the previous debate, no?” John said.

“He was far less concise and clear. Who is helping him?”

“I wish I could tell you, I’m not actually sure. I’ve already killed one of their members, but I haven’t tracked them down to their base of operations.”

William paused and looked John up and down, “Hold on, why are you telling me all of this?”

“You know I don’t give two shits about the internal politics of this colony. Something is going on and I need eyes. Your various firms produce goods for just about everyone and everything produces in this solar system.”

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

“Ok, so if I report to you any irregularities what will I get out of such help?”

“I’ll make sure you are the governor. Ideally, that will be through a popular vote, but if I have to resort to assassinations so be it.”

“I doubt very much…”

John then cut him off, “I have no rules of engagement for this mission. I could blow this fucking planet up if I deemed it necessary to do so and I wouldn’t be tried for such an action.”

“Jesus…” William said as he trailed out, “Let’s hope that it doesn’t come to that.”

John looked as sarcastic as he sounded, “Obviously. I’d prefer not to go to that length to achieve a successful completion of the mission.”

“Well, I’ll have my analytics team conduct an…” William grinned, “Quarterly audit, your timing is rather brilliant, no?”

John then slid a data slate across the table, “Use that to send me the data. It’s encrypted and completely untraceable.”

William picked it up and stared at it. He heard another one be placed on his desk and saw it gently hit his other hand. A confused look on his face grew as he looked up at John.

“Political campaigns rarely get dirty here. This one will get dirty down the road. The good news is the dirt they have on you is decades old and frankly inconsequential. Use that information only after he slings any mud your way.”

“My campaign advisor does not…”

“Don’t start the fight William, end it,” John said as he stood up, “You are the better candidate, so my help here doesn’t make me feel itchy all over. Naval Intelligence will deny anything happens here, it’s best to describe any meetings with me as regular business or deny that they ever occurred.”

“I can’t help but notice that you have the moderator's most recent notes in here for the debate this week,” William said, “This is your way of leveling the battlefield.”

“William, I’ve killed thousands of people over the course of my short life. A shocking number have been intimate affairs where I’ve seen their life leave their body. I would prefer to avoid painting the streets here red with blood. No one, not you, not the police, not the normal citizens, is standing in my way of accomplishing this mission.”

“Let’s hope that it doesn’t come to that. We’ll be in touch,” William said as he leaned back into his seat.

John nodded, “Good luck with the debate, though I think we both know you won’t need it anymore.”

“What makes you think I won’t turn you in?” William said just before John went through the door.

John turned and smiled at him. The smile was off-putting to William, it felt so unnatural for this man to smile in the way he was. No, it was deeply disturbing because this government killer was legitimately smiling. Was he happy that he had asked that question of him?

“You want to win this campaign as much as I want to succeed in my mission. This is a scenario where I can help you and you me. We both benefit from such an arrangement. Turning me in will not help you in your campaign and while you may not entirely believe why I am here; you know that I am not here because I want to be here.”

“Well said. Consider us partners then.”

John nodded and walked out the door. The secretary was very surprised at John’s sudden exit. Such was her surprise that she walked into the office immediately after John exited the office.

“Sir, are you alright? There wasn’t…”

“You needn’t worry. My friend there was sent there to brief me on a rather sensitive business deal. He was let in by security as far as I’m aware,” William smiled at his secretary and spoke normally to her.

July 10th, 2267. 19:40 John’s Homestead

The debate had been going on for nearly one hour and forty minutes. It was being held at the only accredited university on the planet. A point that was annoying was made every commercial break. The political drivel that was being discussed bored John to death. John wondered if the political games he played were at all like this.

“They are,” John rolled his eyes, “kind of.”

The commercial break ended and a live image of the two candidates appeared on the screen. Dale’s answers were unusually well-prepared. While he said the right words and things, the online audience reacted that he didn’t feel authentic. William’s responses, on the other hand, were frankly similar to Dale’s but felt much more honest and reasonable.

Dale had no clue at that time how much he was losing this debate. With a couple of quick gestures of John’s right hand, the live metrics appeared on the right half of the screen. William was winning this debate by nearly a four-to-one margin. Though he was still substantially behind Dale in likely votes, only accounting for forty percent of the votes.

“Mr. Rosberg, there have been numerous requests to make additional cities which have thus far been denied. Do you believe the central government should approve the request to create a new city?” the debate moderator said.

Dale took a sip of water and nodded his head, “Well, one of the problems with the primary city is blight. And as much as I think I, and I presume my fellow candidate would agree, would like to fix and rebuild those areas, the concern I have with the government financing is it will ultimately be the taxpayers of this colony paying for those significant renovations. It is of great concern to me that we may fix one area only for blight to appear elsewhere.”

“At the end of the day, I do believe a proper secondary city makes sense. I believe, from the outside looking in that is, that the main reason the local government has been reluctant to greenlight such a development is how to connect the two cities. We don’t want the cities so close that they grow into one another or be affected by the same natural disaster. It is a simple fact that we don’t have any airline support or infrastructure to support quick transit between cities.”

Dale took another sip of water and looked back at the audience, “The environmental impact of building a rail and road connection between cities hasn’t been released but was commissioned as early as two years ago. If the rumors are to be believed we’d be having significant issues with rare local animals to the north and west. To the east is a rocky mountain ridge and to our south is the ocean.”

“I fear that we may need to wait until we can get our air travel industry imported and working before, we can even think about creating a new city.”

“Mr. Marven, your response?”

“I don’t believe the local government has the authority to deny a city being created. I firmly believe this direction that the government has gone is wrong and shortsighted. We aren’t guests of this world, we ought to be stewards. They should approve a city, but I think where the government does have a role in is helping the citizenry find an appropriate location that will have a minimal impact on local fauna.”

“Having said that, not only should the government green light this and find a way to get started building the city, but we also need to look at our own capital city and fix the serious issues we have. The sprawl of this great place needs to stop, and it needed to stop yesterday. Fourteen farming communities have sprung up in the last ten years. Think about that. Fourteen small towns of under two thousand people each now exist in this world within ninety miles of the capital. Why has this happened?”

William paused for a moment, “Because people are sick and tired of living in a large city. They don’t know their neighbors. There’s a lack of belonging. These small towns on the other hand give people something they desperately want, belonging, purpose, and a better place to raise a family. We can do better here in the capital.”

“Win or lose, I am putting my money where my mouth is. I closed a sale this morning for twelve square blocks of the old industrial sector. No active businesses were present nor were any of the buildings occupied, legally or otherwise. Tomorrow we will begin tearing down and recycling the old buildings. They may not look great, but we are going to use the old to build the foundation of the new.”

“I am also happy to say that the local planning board has already approved the zoning changes. I implore others of like mind, financial well-being, and ability to join with me in taking the first steps to rebuild our great capital. Additionally, I hope the outgoing government begins projects on its own. The government alone is not going to be able to accomplish this rebuild.”

John smiled as he heard the enthusiastic clapping from the debate’s audience. Of course, he knew William was wealthy, but he didn’t think William would take the initiative like that. He snickered to himself when Eve displayed the price he paid for the properties.

“Pennies on the fuckin’ dollar,” John said, “Eve, are we seeing any unusual comms traffic?”

“There is significantly more in the encrypted channels,” Eve responded, “Additionally, the third stolen motorbike was recovered by police just thirteen minutes ago.”

“Whelp…” John said sarcastically, “Will have to find another one then.”

The clapping died down before the moderator then spoke, “Thank you both gentlemen. I will start with you Mr. Rosberg; do you have any final parting words?”

“None, I believe my comments stand on their own.”

John was surprised to hear that response. Then again, Dale wasn’t exactly in tune with the riffraff that makes up the middle class of the colony. Nevertheless, it was a highly puzzling answer that was shared by a large number of citizens on the planet. The amount of ‘WTF?’ comments that whizzed by on the left-hand side of the screen was epic.

“Mr. Marven?”

“We have a civic duty this fall to elect a new government. It is my hope that the newly elected government returns to office with a focus on making this world a better place to live. That prerogative has been lost in the shuffle of bureaucracy and micromanagement. Change needs to occur and with your vote of confidence, I hope to do that for everyone. God bless.”

“Thank you, gentlemen, this concludes our third debate. Our planetary ABC affiliate will be hosting the next debate scheduled to take place in one month’s time.”

The screen then began displaying credits and thank you messages to various vested parties. John stood up and stretched. He then bent over and picked up his glass of water and took a sip before speaking.

“Eve, track the encrypted lines, with a focus on the blighted sector. Let’s see if we can find a source of any sent messages there.”

“Passive subroutines are already in place. I will begin compiling hourly reports for you.”

“Good, also, please compile sentiment and feedback from this debate. I want you to analyze it to help William’s team focus their message to appeal to the most would-be voters. In addition, I want a third-party site ready to begin leaking Dale’s naughty dealings.”

“I was under the impression we weren’t going to go low?” Eve’s voice sounded both curious and worried.

“I want things ready in the event the idiot decides to go low. There ain’t any depths I’m not willing to go down to.”

“I believe Alice would say otherwise…” Eve responded sarcastically, “I will assign additional subroutines on both of those measures. Do you need me for anything else?”

“Not at this time,” John said as he stepped outside and began to watch the sunset.

Today was a win for the good guys. Even if William didn’t win the election, his showing was such that it would make it nearly impossible for Dale not to nominate him for the Lieutenant Governor role. One way or another William would be the governor.

John closed his eyes and enjoyed the last bits of warmth the Vosturan sun would shine on his property that day. He knew it would be less messy for William to not only win the election but for Dale to run a dirty campaign. Actually, that was exactly what John needed to happen. The fewer murders he committed the better.

“What if push came to shove…” John trailed off quietly before turning around and going back inside.