Chorus gave the thumbs up that they were broadcasting. Like with all the other Fiends For Hire live broadcasts they tried to transmit to as many sources as possible—notifications on everyone's phones and computers, as well as many TV stations as possible, not just their own. And this time, it was every single station.
As expected, they received a gag order immediately from the Central Peace Communications Division when Chorus notified the stations about the broadcast a few minutes ahead of time. But the station owners knew better at this point. The Fiends For Hire were going to do what they wanted, and it was better in their interests to humor any threats from the CP instead. Even the station that hosted Prosper City News gave in without a fight.
And that would certainly harm them greatly, since the broadcast started at [500], exactly when the noon slot of their news program was set to air. PCN had been seeing a massive uptick and viewership lately as everyday citizens were desperate to hear any updates about the fighting in Bastion, or The Bastion Liberation as the news stations were calling it—known colloquially on the internet as either The Bastion Genocide or The War for Rathe’s Soul.
The livestream started with a tight shot of Drim and Phon. Phon was standing front and center, while Drim was sitting in an eloquent chair behind her, looking bored and annoyed that his presence was required.
“Hello there, everyone,” Phon gave the camera a cheerful wave. “It’s time for another operational update from the Fiends For Hire, or as some of you like to call them, Phon’s Monologues! We haven’t done one of these in a while, have we? But with all the crazy stuff going on in the world right now, we found it best to allay any rumors and speculation, along with a few new announcements that you might not be expecting.”
“And speaking of, I’m sure many of you tuned in for the noon broadcast and are wondering what the heck is going on. Well, we wouldn’t want to deprive you of your expectations, so why don’t we go ahead and pipe in the PCN channel. Just a picture-in-picture.” The presenter pointed to the bottom right corner of the imaginary screen and a box appeared.
“Yup that’s good. Ah there they are. Hello, Gedring. Why don’t you go ahead and give me a little wave? No? It’s cute that you think you can refuse. If you don’t do it, I won’t move on, and something bad will surely happen to you. There you go, see, can’t we be civil? Why don’t you join in Crihound? Very nice.”
“And I’ll be real with you, audience. I don’t care that you’re missing the news. I just want to personally see Gedring’s reactions to the news we’re about to share. And I want you all to see them too—what the CP’s mouthpiece really feels when she isn’t spouting her rehearsed lies. Let’s see if she can maintain her composure.”
“So we do want to take a moment to talk about Bastion. That will only be a small part of this broadcast, but it’s on everyone’s minds. You all may have noticed the change in reporting over the past few days. First was the big lie that we were holding Bastion hostage.”
“Funny how that came about really. The original piece claiming that as fact actually came from a speculative journalist who merely suggested it as a theory when news of the war first broke. And actually, in the article they themselves only mention it as a possibility and in no way confirm that it’s true. Yet both the media and politicians just saw the headline and ran with it like it was gospel of Cosmos without ever once fact-checking their source.”
“Media integrity is just in absolute shambles these days. And as the truth has come out, along with undeniable evidence negating this, not once have any of the major outlets retracted their original statements. They’ve just shifted the narrative, talking about the tragedy of it all, how many soldiers' lives were lost in this event that could have been easily avoided.”
“Well now that’s something we can agree upon. This never should have happened. The only reason we were involved was to protect a nation from an atrocity set upon them. But you all already know that, don’t you? If you looked online or researched it yourself for two seconds you’ve figured out the truth. The people know what really happened, but those in power refuse to admit it, because that would put them at fault.”
“And I will say that our PR manager, Chorus Mistrion, is planning to put out a full expose of what happened, coupled with countless hours of battle footage that we’re happy to provide, though it may be graphic and disturbing to some. We plan to make it as informative as possible, but I’m sure some of you will still tout us as biased, so I implore that you do some research yourself if you still have doubts.”
“That’s about all we’re going to say about the war itself at the moment. It’s still a very raw and sore spot for our members, so I’d ask to give us some time. What happened was a tragedy, but I hope that you all can understand one thing. We were hired to do a job, and that job was to protect innocent civilians from those who wanted to kill them, and we did the job to the best of our ability.”
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“But with that out of the way, let’s backtrack a moment and talk about why the war happened. I mean greed and power-tripping is the obvious answer, but let’s break it down further. There’s actually been surprisingly little discussion of the bounty in all the coverage that we’ve seen. Besides the obvious coverups, obviously, but even online it hasn’t been discussed too much.”
“I guess the whole money aspect is certainly less important than the lives lost, no argument there. But I was at least hoping for more speculation as to who the money went to. Then I figured that it was never actually announced publicly what happened. I’ll say it right now. We took it, every last common.”
“The money was just sitting there unclaimed, and seeing that we were basically the ones who ensured that Bastion’s induction was a success, one of our members decided to go ahead and take the pot. If you’d like to make a complaint about it, go right ahead. Say it publicly how we took your illegal money.”
“And just to let everyone know, we will be cooperating fully with the investigation into who funded the bounty, as well as a bit of digging on our own end. Believe it or not, we’ve found out some stuff already. We won’t reveal anything publicly since it is an ongoing investigation, but we can announce one conspirator for certain since she’s already dead.”
“One of the major participants in its development was the Horage Vice-Rep who was recently ousted and killed by the Fiend group Above. Just to give you an idea of the caliber of persons involved.”
“And speaking of Above, just a slight side-tangent. Their leader, Creti Sloemin, was killed during a CP raid on their headquarters not too long ago. Figured that those who were waiting on Above to complete their requests deserved to know since the Central Peace was trying to hide that fact. Just another deception for the ever putrid pile. Bet you would have loved to deliver that headline, ey Gedring? Too bad. Maybe try investigating something yourself once and while.”
“But back on topic, the bounty was actually just a distraction. While it served as an incentive for the rest of the world, its actual purpose was to disguise the real reason that the CP wanted so desperately to have every other nation join. And before we disclose this, I just need to mention something to all the politicians listening.”
“What we’re about to say, I’m guessing you’ll assume we found it out because of the Bastion Genocide. But actually, we’ve known about it for quite some time, years even. It’s not exactly hard information to obtain, and is written plainly in the CP guidebook, if you can get your hands on one.”
“Which… I just so happen to have right here!” Phon picked up an old manuscript that was a few hundred pages thick. It was in fairly good condition, as if it had never been read. “The CP guidebook is actually all digital now. This is an original copy of the first edition. You can’t even find them in auctions anymore.”
“If you’re wondering how we got our hands on this, and how we knew what to look for. Well, I’ll just say it plainly. We have a mole in the Central Peace. So you all go ahead and enjoy that fun fact. And no it’s not our uncle or any of the obvious suspects. They’re a politician, but that’s all I’ll tell you. Happy pest hunting.”
“So some of this stuff in the guidebook is well and truly outdated. But not the section that’s important. If you flip allllll the way to the back.” Which the woman did live on air. “You’ll get to the section about governmental protections. I’m not going to actually read this boring zjik to you. We still have important stuff to say. Can’t have you all falling asleep.”
“But the gist is that these protections prevent the Central Peace from becoming the sole governing body. However, several, not all, but several of those protections can be revoked or modified. The condition being that they can’t be touched unless it’s an eighty percent majority vote. And not just by active members. Eighty percent only after every single country has joined the Central Peace.”
“Here, I’ll hold it up for you all to see.” Phon walked a bit closer to the camera and got the words right near the lens. After the camera refocused, she pointed her finger next to the part she was talking about. “Maybe we can get a highlight overlay to make it even clearer, but you all see what I’m talking about.”
“This was the point of the Bastion War, to make sure every existing nation joined. Though in this case, the aim was to destroy Bastion so that it could no longer be considered a country. Quick and clean, if you can call genocide as such. All so that they could start enacting these changes.”
“A few of the reasons are obvious. More centralization of power, stronger military, less accountability. But as for why a few would want this specifically, that we’re still investigating. This isn’t uniform corruption. There are still those in the Central Peace that we believe are doing their best for this world, but others clearly have ulterior motives. And since we’re not entirely sure of those motives just yet, though we have a few educated guesses, it still worries us, and you should be worried too.”
“Funny, though, isn’t it? We fought to stop these politicians' foolish gambit, but they actually won in the end. Regardless of the method, the outcome was still the same. With Bastion joining, every country in existence is now a member of the Central Peace…or are they?”