12, Video

[darwinatrix]

[Major-General Armstrong is standing in her small, Spartan office, her back to the camera. As always, she's in her blue Amestris army uniform, though this time, she's also wearing a long, dark coat lined with fur at the collar. She very deliberately reaches up to grab a long, ornately decorated saber from where it hangs on the wall.] So it's come to this.

How many of you know war, I wonder? Not the violence of a brawl, or play-acting at being heroes, but war. I know it far too well. Back where I come from, I command a fortress at the border my nation shares with its greatest enemy. Amestris and Drachma have been at varying states of war for decades.

[She turns to the camera, resting the tip of her saber on the floor.] What they do not tell you is that war is boring. If you were under my command, every day you'd sweep the battlements for icicles. You'd maintain our weapons, our tanks. You'd ensure our supplies are sufficient to withstand a siege. War is drudgery, day to day.

And then, one day, you're awoken by artillery shells exploding twenty feet from your head. You scramble for your rifle, to get dressed in the pitch black of night, wondering if the next shell is going to be twenty feet closer. You're too scared to even piss your goddamn pants. And even when your orders cut through the chaos, you won't stop being scared. But you damn well do your duty, as you've been trained.

The sound of bullets... it's a curious sound. Quite beautiful, in its way. Bullets whistle, coming past your ear. [She mimicks the sound, a little thwip, with her own mouth.] In that instant, you don't realize that hearing the bullet means that if you'd been standing six inches to the right, your brains would be over the floor. [A tiny, cold smirk tugs at her mouth.] Hearing the bullet is good, because it means you're still alive to have heard it.

This declaration of war is a declaration of war not just on this nation, but on imPorts. We are under attack, and if they want war I damn well mean to wage it.

The courageous, join me. The rest, stay behind our backs. War is no place for the weak-hearted.

Comments

Voice; private

[takethestairs]

You have my support as always, Major General. But with all due respect, I think my talents may have a better use than the battlefield. Tell me, how do you feel about the place of diplomacy in war?

Voice; private

[darwinatrix]

It's not my department. If the cannons start firing, diplomacy has failed, and unless something changes, there's no point going back to the negotiating table.

Changing that something is all I care about.

[daimeinashi]

What is it you intend to do, Major General?

[It's a rank he's entirely unfamiliar with, and so mostly meaningless to him, but Sai pays attention to the network. And if there's one thing he knows, truly knows in this world--it's how to be a soldier.]

[darwinatrix]

A state of war already exists. They've taken some of our number.

I mean to get them back.

video; private

[rassera]

[Because he sure as hell doesn't trust the government anymore.]

I don't want a war, I want my friends back.


America. Russia. They're the ones who want the war.

video; private

[darwinatrix]

You've got one, whether you want it or not. The Soviets have declared war on us as much as they've declared war on the Americans. Trying to avoid fighting at this point is useless.

[text]

[thelimitdoesnotexist]

I will be honest in saying I don't know war.

but I know what it is to be a weapon.

Video

[darwinatrix]

What kind of weapon?

Video

[mammal_robot]

So are you building your own army or are you with the US or what?

Video

[darwinatrix]

Consider the powers possessed by your average imPort. We have the potential to be our own army, do we not?

I work alongside the government, and it would seem our goals align. But the Soviets have taken our people, and as such we're obligated to retrieve them, are we not?

video

[medalsome]

I have only ever known true war through the stories I've heard and staring at my father's grave. But back home, back in Mexico, things are hardly peaceful.

I had hoped I would never have to go to war, really. Not because I'm afraid of it, but because I worry what that would mean for my friends and my village. Now I'm here, away from home but no less worried over the people I know.

I want to help, I really do, but I know I'm outclassed here. I know so little of modern warfare, and my powers are not battle oriented. Even my sword techniques are obsolete with how easily accessible guns and bullets and even more destructive weapons are. If I were to join in, would I manage to be much help in the long run?

video

[darwinatrix]

I don't care what you can't do. What can you do?

video;

[givetheslip]

I've been a soldier before. I'm prepared to do my duty again.

video;

[darwinatrix]

Have you been keeping up with your modern weapon training, Thorpe?

video;

[helpline]

The rubbish robot's right. What's your stake in this?

video;

[darwinatrix]

I've long believed imPorts have the right and responsibility to care for and police our own community. That means defending it, too.

[Video]

[nagachika]

...Well.

Different types of ways to describe 'war', you know? I suppose you could call the messes that happened back in my world 'war,' but it ain't it in the 'traditional' sense of the word.

But, that aside.
I said it before and I'll say it again.

[He'll give the camera a proper salute.]

You got my Support, Major General.

[Video]

[darwinatrix]

Good. What personal resources do you have at your disposal?

video

[justimom]

War in all it's incarnations is something I am all too familiar with. Though I will admit I am not used to fighting a war for others. My people prefer to keep to our own unless it is necessary. [ Aka they are shits that usually just stay to themselves unless they're dragged into it. ] Do you have a plan in this?

video

[darwinatrix]

I'm making one.

Plans are useful precisely up until the moment the guns start firing, but making a plan is indefensible.

Voice; private

[bindsthedead]

Sir.

I'll work with RISE in this, but there are also those who both distrust the government, and don't intend to stay out of this. People who have no interest in acting as America's weapons, but want to recover those captured.

Voice; private

[darwinatrix]

Tch, prideful idiots.

What do you know of them? If nothing else, they can be a diversion.

[video]

[lightandglory]

Oh, no, war isn't boring at all! Why, even when you're not in battle, there are always plans to make, scratches to mend, and people to talk to! I met my dearest friends in the midst of war, as a matter of fact.

Now, I would love to hear what you have in mind!

[video]

[darwinatrix]

You take this far too casually, girl.

I don't intend to speak of my plans openly, but I intend to recover our number one way or another.

audio.

[sweetarts]

Except this isn't just a ground combat war we're fighting here.

How well do you know nuclear weapons?

audio.

[darwinatrix]

Well enough to understand the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction. The Soviets know that any usage of nuclear weapons on their part will be answered by the full might of the American arsenal. To use them would be suicidal.

Consequently, it's very unlikely that they'll use anything beyond conventional weaponry.

[Video]

[learntofly]

Eh . . . That was a pretty impressive speech, but what exactly is your plan? Courage alone isn't really good for much.

[Video]

[darwinatrix]

What makes you think I'd talk about the details of my plan in public?

video;

[superposition]

And here come the hawks, right on schedule. [derisively. CAN YOU GUESS WHO'S IN THE DOVE CAMP...]

General Armstrong, are you familiar with the concept of nuclear holocaust? I am. If this war gets off the ground - the second someone hits that button - it's not going to be a romantic affair. This will be a war where civilians aren't just incidental casualties, but primary targets. It'll be fought not with soldiers, but with intercontinental missiles, disproportionate retaliation, preemptive strikes. Whatever doomsday devices they may have hidden up their sleeves, on both sides. And that's not even to mention the imPorts.

Millions could die. Hundreds of millions of innocent people, men, women, and children alike. And most of them won't die quickly. I've seen cities left empty except for the dead and the moans of the dying. People still alive, but too weak to move out of their own waste, their skin sloughing off in chunks, and no one can help them because that's everyone.

[Nearly the first thing they'd done, after it was over, was to assess the damage. And as close as he could figure, the radioactive cloud had done more concrete harm in a few short days than all the Plutonian's rampages combined. China, India, Indonesia, Australia, Russia, and on, and on... Entire regions, entire countries, littered with bodies. Entire peoples, obliterated.

Never again.]

Tell me. Is that the war you damn well mean to wage?

video;

[darwinatrix]

I am. I'm also familiar with the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction.

You think the Soviets don't know that if they hit their launch triggers, the Americans will retaliate with the full force of their arsenal? Engaging in a nuclear war is national suicide.

The only way to win a nuclear war is a first strike that completely neutralizes the other side's ability to retaliate. Their first strike was to kidnap individuals. If they'd wanted a nuclear war, we'd have already had one.

So no, it isn't the war I mean to wage, because I don't think it's a war the Soviets intended.

[Video]

[equinamity]

[Hawkeye is glaring proverbial daggers at the ornate saber, her eyes narrowed, her stomach tied very tightly in an unpleasant knot. She was in no way unfamiliar with war--but she's not going to endorse jumping to violence first.]

I intend to participate first in diplomacy, Major General.

[The sniper's gaze darkens, and she glances away. The imitated sound of a bullet only served to remind her of the position she seems likely to end up in, just the same: in a tower, firing at whomever she gets order to shoot at.

And yet, she had sworn to herself she would never end up in another Ishval.]

My duty first lies there. I will not be picking off lives one by one from a tower, not like before. Not if I can help it. [A pause. Off screen, her fingers are quietly drumming on the table.] But you can be damn sure that should all else fail that you know where I will be.

[Video]

[darwinatrix]

Tch.

I'm surprised, Lieutenant. I'd no idea the Eastern Army had grown so soft.

War's already been declared. There's no sense in trying to drag the Soviets back to the negotiating table unless we change the situation they're negotiating from.

video;

[sidecars]

Wow. Your speech was a lot better than mine.

[ Doesn't hurt that the view was better with yours too, mmhmm. ]

video;

[darwinatrix]

I'm not one for speeches. This was a warning more than anything.