Now that everybody's attention was focused on him, Chuck began to deliver his opening statement as to why he called the rest of the Top Five for this latest video conference. "My fellow colleagues, rather than going on another rant about how we're not being efficient enough on our operations and goals, I've taken a step back to look at things from an objective standpoint."
"Chuck being objective? It's a sign of the apocalypse," replied Victor in a dry tone while Cassie snorted in amusement.
Ignoring the comment made by the bald man, Chuck continued to speak. "I've prepared a tentative outline of how things would run according to two approaches for our goal of a mankind that is Natural-free. First, let's look at the current plan which is to phase out Naturals over time."
A few slides popped up on each member's monitor from their respective location. "So here we have small skirmishes and infiltration of military units for major sovereign nations to acquire some resources. We also undertake operations to improve public image and gain public support such as the time where some members of our group helped the Junk Guild get out of GENESIS Alpha. From what I understand, this master plan of Isaac's is to appeal to the rational side of people and convince them that Coordinators are the next step of evolution."
"I've crunched some statistics regarding political propaganda campaign success rates and as far as I can tell, we won't be seeing any potential results for at least five to ten years," added Derek.
"And with this long a wait for us to see anything, Terminal will have ample opportunities to delay our work at the minimum. Also, I'm concerned about other potential threats that are not known to us. To put it simply, Isaac... your plan is just too delicate and unreliable. It's like you're setting up some elaborate combination which can get ruined so easily by the toss of a monkey wrench." Chuck paused before picking up a fancy looking cigar lying on top of his desk. "Fuck... I need a smoke. Derek, you take over."
Derek sighed before continuing where Chuck left off. "As Chuck said, a lot of things can go wrong when you have to keep an eye out on things for many years to come. Now as for the other approach..."
"... the complete slaughter of all Naturals? How predictable," snorted Cassie. "That won't exactly help our image."
"First off, it won't be a complete slaughter as I'll explain in a bit. Also if you haven't noticed, our image hasn't improved much. While we gain a few points here, we've lost some points too. Orb won't exactly be a big fan of ours, considering our assault there to get at the Kusanagi." While Derek paused, a few new slides showed up on the screen. "This approach would be divided into two major parts. The first part will be a heavy focus of the majority of our military resources on Terminal. Last time, we only sent a small number of forces. If we're going to win, we need to overwhelm them hard and fast with extremely high numbers. To prevent ZAFT or the Alliance from getting involved with our military campaign, we'll simply delay their reconstruction plans so that they have no choice but to keep whatever forces they have dedicated to homeland security."
Victor frowned as he scanned through the presentation. "You don't have an estimated timeline for this objective?"
This time, it was Chuck who spoke after enjoying some time inhaling tobacco. "Not entirely. Terminal is a resourceful organization and to try and adhere to a strict timeline with them may be difficult. I would probably give a leeway of one year or so. Of course, we may need some time to recover our military power after we shut down Terminal so a six month reconstruction period should be good enough before we can go down to Earth and take apart the Earth Alliance. Military locations and personnel would be top priority and then we can focus on the civilian population. I was thinking of splitting them into gender-focused concentration camps so only males would be in one location and females in another and we let the last generations of Naturals live there as labourers and die of old age. This approach seems to be more efficient and practical since winning the support of the people is a huge pain in the ass. Why else would we put time and energy to building something like the Messiah and Desolation Messenger?"
Derek came back into the conversation. "But the real kicker is that if a new era of peace and prosperity rings in after our plan goes off, nobody would really care how it came about except for a possible minority. I'm not sure how familiar you are with history but Hitler's campaign against Jewish people breathed new life into Germany back decades ago. They didn't care what was happening to the rest of the world since the Germans were given a new sense of purpose and pride. Then there's the Chinese Communists who were able to bring economic stability and wealth to the People's Republic of China about near the end of the 20th Century and all of a sudden, any student movements on Democracy grinded to a halt as people worried more about making money rather than a change in the Chinese political scene." As he mentioned the two major events, pictures of life before and after the effects were shown to clearly drive the point home.
With the presentation more or less finished, Victor began to express his thoughts on the matter. "While I see your point, I feel that the alternate approach would bear more liabilities in the long run. Besides, your plan hasn't factored in the Junk Guild who accepts both Naturals and Coordinators and any unprovoked attack on them would be frowned upon by both the Alliance and ZAFT."
"I'm still developing some plans for them but since they are more open, it'll be easier for our members to blend in and slowly thin out the Natural Junk Techs while our forces work on Terminal. Your critique is appreciated, Victor," replied Derek. He then turned his attention to Isaac, the only member of the Top Five who hasn't spoken a word at this conference.
"What are your thoughts on this? Do you want to draw out the story according the 'proper' flow or do you want to try my proposed plot twist?"
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(Posted Sun, 01 Apr 2007 22:19)
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