====== Phylus's Truth Revealed ====== //Phylus and his squad will remain hidden in the energy collection chamber, occasionally taking shots (and intentionally missing/wounding). He will challenge the player's beliefs by calling out to them - his voice echoing across the chamber so he cannot be located. Note: some revelations might require the player to call out certain questions// -"So you've made it this far my friends. Good, I always knew you had more intelligence than you let on. So, Welcome! Welcome to where it all began; and where it begins anew even as we speak. The end of tyranny begins here, birthed among the worst crime mankind has ever performed. A fitting irony if I do say so myself." -//If they ask what the facility's function is:// -"Do you not know a slave-pen when you see one!?" -//If they either question his ability to use the Chaos Bomb, ask how he plans to detonate the bomb, or question what chaos bombs are:// -"Ah, I see my high regard for your reasoning skills was sorely misplaced. I have the ability to detonate a Chaos Bomb because I have found a rich source of Chaos Energy - the only ingredient needed in such a device. What is Chaos Energy you say? Hmmmm? Oh my poor friends- you are blind to the truth that sits right before your eyes! Yes, there it is, do you see it!? The chaos energy comes from //them//. It comes from you, and me, and from all life on this planet! These unfortunate souls held in array before us are not prisoners, they are //energy reserves//. Look at them! Look at their half-dead eyes! Now do you see the lengths they are willing to go to control us? Do you see now why they must be destroyed immediately, this very instant? A few million deaths at Sector 0 will pale in comparison if we do not destroy this system and its utter madness! Friends, I do this great sin because it //must// be done, or we will all soon be trampled by their voracious hunger for power. The Goddess demands no less." -//If they ask why he started the war:// -"Contrary to what you might think, I did not start this war to seize the resources or military of the Republic, but rather to avert the gaze of our supposedly 'all-seeing' enemies. The USC command processors can only handle so much stimulation, and their offensives in Polus and the South make infiltrating even the most secure laboratories possible. Think of it like getting into a fistfight with a man while the bartender poisons his drink. The fact that my coup failed to unite the entirety of the Republic was expected, and also worked in my favor. The USC craves power and control, but what they fear is chaos. They do not see even the most technologically-backwards Union as a threat because they are orderly, they are predictable. If a unified Agathos was to war with the USC, it would merely dispatch the minimum force required to subvert their enemy. But I did not make war with such a force. I thrust the chaos that freedom creates into the face of the the Divine Machines. I showed them that a truly free man will hate, murder, rape, and steal; and he will only be stopped by his death. Compared to their total order and peace, we represent an ancient evil that cannot be overcome by technology. I drove this idea deep into The Machine's mind, and the cold logic on which the USC prides itself melted away. In their human nature the Divine Machines lashed out, over-reacted, //they panicked//. The opening this creates is exactly what I need to drive the dagger deep into their heart. For years I have waited for this moment, and I will not have my plans brought down just because some pawns refuse to move forward." -//If they bring up all the innocents in Agathos that are affected, or that will be killed in Sector 0:// -"Yes, the assault on a democratic government, the instigation of a civil war, the brutal occupation of my homeland, these are the evils already to my name. I am about to commit even worse through the destruction of a city and the people held hostage there. But when I first saw this terrifying research, saw what they had done to Michael, I first glimpsed the puzzle box I was to navigate. Either the Free World would fall due to my inaction, or the innocent would suffer by any change I would effect. I say to you my friends that as I stand on the precipice of my deep, heavy burden, that I feel nothing but gratitude for the life I have lived. History will say I am a madman, that I was a demon who was brought down in a crash of war and bloodshed. But they will say this in their ever-peaceful lands, and their governments will fear them. The rulers will tremble at their fate when a single free man decides they are unjust. They will cower before the people, as they should. Freedom is a right that all people deserve, and I have taken the most direct route to giving them that. This direct route will cause many tragedies, and the responsibility for the victims of this process are wholly mine. But I would rather kill one billion people to free a planet, rather than let them slowly succumb to slavery. Mortals were not meant to live in cages like you see before you, and I will become The Pit incarnate to free them." -//If they ask about the innocents at Sector 0, or try to convince him it is wrong because of them:// -"Yes, innocent people will die in Sector 0. Millions, probably, will die directly by my actions. But consider: If an army bombs a house filled with the enemy they are absolved of the crime. If the enemy is using civilians as human shields, is the attacking army to blame? In most circumstances, no, they are not. The fault lies in the defending army, who knowing the attacker's intentions placed their military target inside a civilian one. The USC is no different. It has hidden and concealed itself among the city. If I were to bomb only the Central Processing District the web of control would simply reconstitute itself elsewhere. No, only a complete destruction of the entire sector will work, and with my warning to its residents the blood of their deaths will be on The Machine's hand, not my own." -//If S47 asks about his past:// -"Who is to say you have a past to reveal?" -//When they have nothing further:// -"And now, my friends, we have come the end of our conversation. I hope I have not bored you with my verbosity. I am not so vain as to think you cared to know the minutia of my justifications, but I hope you now see that though my path is difficult, it is inevitable and necessary. I will not be so ignoble as to ask you to join me in this burden. All I ask is that you leave this place immediately. Go back to our beloved homeland, heal her from the calamity I have caused in her name. If you do not, I will have to choose between our friendship and the world's freedom. Please do not be offended if I side against you."