You'll find that the Bastet you were so quick to make me bargain for with my Son on the line is now in your hands again, this is the second time you have threatened something close to me, the first threat was with exposing a loved one of mine to danger, the second was the detainment of my own infant-son if I refused to hand the ship over. I honestly find it ironic that you claim to have a 'hero' complex, yet do a terrible job of portraying this in actuality.
We maintained some semblance of a partnership before these two incidents, as well as countless others where I have been either abandoned to my own means or simply treated like a pawn in your grand scheme of things, both of which are gestures that I do not appreciate. So why am I contacting you now, you wonder? Why when all I seem to be saying can be capsulated into a single line of "I hate your guts". Well I'll tell you.
Why do you as someone who fancies themselves a hero act the way you do? Why isolate people and threaten those close to them? Please don't feed me the excuse of not having any other choice, for you and I both very well know that there are in-fact multiple better choices, it just requires more effort and compassion than what you may be used to is all. An answer would be greatly appreciated, but forgiveness is not something I'm ever going to offer after all that's happened and you needn't worry, I'll never sink to your standards nor am I going to pick sides in these pitiful feuds your people seem to have a talent in generating, the only exception being if it threatens what I'm sworn to protect.
You could have very well appealed to someone's morality and chosen to be what you claim yourself to be, a paragon of good virtues. But you instead chose to be selfish to whatever your own agendas might have been, as hard as you might try, Jeremy, you'll never be a hero, that part of you died a long time ago. At this rate, the time to make amends will follow suit.
Where once, Avery, I could merely ask, merely request, I have begun to suffer brick wall after brick wall. My goodwill eroded due to protocols, my own senses, and ultimately failure to know something was even happening. No, what we had was not partnership. it was friendship, one I valued. Something I should stop giving, as everyone seems fanatic in their trouncing of myself, because I can't save everyone, or I must do what I must, and watch the bridges burn knowing, at the very least, there will be something left to build new ones elsewhere.
Why must I manipulate and harm you, Avery? Why must I threaten those closest? That my former friend, is the fact I hate most - it's the same weakness I have. The same one that has been exploited, once to nearly my own terrible death. It was so clear I had to force my way into places, that I chose the most direct and exploitable. I chose a weakness, Avery, and harmed you to ensure there was still a Liberty that would stand. Because you, nor I, are important. It's the survival of our race, of us as a species. If I must hide the compassion you claim I lack or the understanding of the efforts I go through every day, to become the demon you all want to tout, then so be it. I would rather die a demon to the sins I admit to, than a fallen angel who attempted justice.
Now you claim I wish to be a hero. No, I merely have a hero complex. The real heroes of Humanity, they are dead or dying. Hale, Orillion, Pryde, Malacos, Tucker. Names of which most you don't know, because you think you know what it's like. We must suffer the imperialistic advances of the Core, so they may not use alien technology to grow, become stronger and actually threaten to become an evil humanity cannot ignore. We fight and die against the Nomads, in battles, in places you would drop your mug at. You sit in your office with your goddamn coffee and line of frackbuddies out the door, your ex wives and girlfriends, and get to sit there and judge me, for fighting a battle that your bosses don't see as important right now.
Now you claim there are plenty of other options, other ways I could go about things. Yes, but there is one thing your moral compass cannot defeat - bureaucracy. Rules, regulations. Even I cannot succeed against the protocols and regulations I am put against for the safety and continuation of the Order, nor can you, Avery, stand against the Laws of Liberty and disregard them so that those laws will never become a lost history to an extinct race.
Now you can call our "feuds" pitiful, but there are things behind the scenes, there are things going on you do not know. And you can sit there, and threaten, and refuse to condone my actions - but that is your choice. A choice I fight to ensure remains, a choice I will respect.
Just as I respect your lack of giving me the choice of appealing to your morality. Because you all consume the propaganda that is Liberty. That is Liberty. You all think we are terrorists. You treat us as demons, then you wonder how we can claim to be good when we do such terrible things? Because yes Avery. We have no other choice. I have tried my best to stay on the side of Liberty. But it seems you prefer the company of people who are worse than me.
But why should anyone really care? They act perfect and pretty. They act like they can do everything we can, but nicer, cleaner.
This isn't kindergarden, and you know it. If you want to condemn me for twice forced to protect the Order using means I personally detest, then start condemning everyone you know, from my mother and her relationships, to the philandering Fleet Admiral, to the traitorous LSF and corrupt LPI. Then condemn yourself.
I'll never be a hero. I'll die a demon, knowing I did everything I could to ensure your son grows up in a universe where the only thing he has to fear, are the arseholes across the border, the arseholes his father can easily rend asunder.
The ends will justify the means. Even if I don't live to see it. Just like I won't live to see amends made. Because my regret has been made clear. I make regretful decisions every day, and have sent hundreds to their deaths so you may judge me. I've been fighting this war a lot longer than you, Avery.
I won't lose sleep over your hatred of me. I suggest you continue to not lose it over me, either.
-Admiral Jeremy Hunter
OCV Oathkeeper
3rd Battlegroup - Gallant Dawn
I'm disappointed at your response. This was your one chance to mend the bridge that you all by yourself had broken. Instead you resort to being petty, claiming that I do not know how hellish the battlegrounds can get.
I'll clarify everything you just accused me of like an utter juvenile. I do not have ex wives, I have one ex wife who I intend to support in the provision of a home and anything else required. I do not have girlfriends and I'm certainly not interested or promiscuous enough to have pleasure friends.
I stood against the core in omicron delta, I have come toe to toe with the foes you claim to be actively working against. And I did all of that and everything else you asked for to be threatened and manipulated in return?!
You say we had a friendship, yet I'm sure the only reason you subtly coaxed me into infatuation with Isa was to manipulate me to do whatever you wanted. I expected you to at the very least realize your faults and try to make amends, but it's clear this won't happen.
The man I knew as a naval officer must have been a figment of my distressed imagination. You act nothing like him. Transmission: End
Once chance to mend a bridge? One you already said yourself was done for, that you had no forgiveness for me? And you are disappointed I have zero care for what you say and decide to go ahead and grandstand because at the very least you deserve more than a mere "go to hell." and a cut? What can I say, it's what I get for deciding that fighting for forgiveness I'll never get is useless.
Did I embellish, exaggerate your life and times? Very much so. The very notion that I would ever coax infatuation, when I myself have felt the hole in my heart of loss of love, life, companionship due to work? No Reeves, that insults me greater than anything. Isa truly loved you, she truly cared for you. When I was told she was now married to you, I did not give a damn. She deserved better than what she chose - the life of a blank slate of a pilot, deployed to die. To be accused of using Isa as a manipulative tool...diabolical, I'll admit. But considering I burned to ash people who touched my family? I don't do that. I leave that to the arses who think it's fine to toy with love and loss.
The only fault I had, Avery, was deciding to use Isa against you to ensure you didn't betray me. My faults, are being the very demon media makes me out to be. A cunning, manipulative bastard.
You want amends, though? I would, but you're the one whose said I'm past redemption, I do not get to earn forgiveness. How can I make amends when you've made it clear you don't want them, yet now you do? How am I supposed to give a damn, when I'm not even sure if you care about my apologies.
And I never was a "navy officer." I'm just a bastard in a battleship, ordering men and women to die every day. So, you got a taste of Delta.
That's not even the worst.
You want my apology, then fracking tell me. You want amends, tell me. Leave the flowery words to the Unioners and their self-righteous three hundred year history.
-Jeremy Hunter
OCV Oathkeeper
3rd Battlegroup - Gallant Dawn
I'll always be someone who's willing to stand for Liberty's true concepts. So despite the frustrations we may both have for one another, I will do everything necessary and in my power to protect my home. I'm willing to bury this hatchet, provided past instances that led us to this conflict of ideals not be repeated.
Trust is a premium in my world, no operative can really trust anyone else except themselves, and even if they do begin to trust someone it always involves verification, constant observation to ensure the interests we work for aren't undermined. I'll meet you on neutral ground to discuss this further, pick a venue I have no tricks up my sleeves and let that be proof of it.
So long as you remain justified in your cause, I have no reason to question you. But that doesn't mean I'll always agree with the methods of your peers, just like you won't agree with the opinions of my House brethren. Remain open with me and do what is right and you may potentially restore some semblance of friendship again. Trust needs to be regained from both sides here.
That is what I currently want. And any person with passions is going to react appropriately, my passions lie with my home and when the same is threatened I react accordingly, I'm sure your passions lie with your family and if you were ever faced with a circumstance where I threatened their lives to ensure betterment of either myself or the House, you would have reacted the same way.
I'll save the rest for whenever you do want to schedule this meeting. I'd prefer if you didn't request a location that's ridiculously far from me, a mid-point between the two of us will serve the purpose of this talk. Transmission: End