Ides of March anno domini 21XX

{This post is part of the "Tell a Story To Me" contest by @calluna, the 7th iteration so far. Click here to see it.}

Juan Pablo Roldan

The Ides of March anno domini 21XX

The Ides of March came today, for it was the International Holiday of MSF. I sat here patiently waiting for the elderly ex-Grand SIR to pace towards to the podium as to finally sing the speech that was always given, but shall remain true always. Finally in place of where the ex-Grand SIR needed to be, I signal my partner to light up the camera and start broadcasting to the World the uniformed personal:

"Militaires Sans Frontières on this day helped sparked the revolution to overthrow the evils of the Establishment. Our French Revolution against our Old Order was marked upon today, and it wasn't won by spontaneity. But a deliberate build-up of our forces in places we were contracted to work in. Yet we chose to make conversions of governments from being puppets to the imperialist powers while installing anti-imperialist movements in our converted governments. For we knew we would have a guaranteed base on their lands as debt payment, but also to make sure that our new comrades wouldn't need us when we worked elsewhere. When the dominoes fell, we knew our time was coming close: we were to either revolt when they declared the shock revolt, or we perished against our creations."

"We chose to make our last struggle against the Times, and right we were to struggle more than we have ever done. We may have responded to the calls of wetworks as a means to acquire our equipment and forces, yet we were true in saying: "[w]e have no nation, no philosophy, no ideology, we go where we're needed, fighting not for country, not for Government, but for ourselves. We need no reason to fight, we fight because we are needed. We will be the deterrent for those with no other recourse." But we knew we could've died and our movement shattered all around, why fight?"

"Because, as to quote Jacques Lacan: "la mort est du domaine de la foi!" For how can we bare life if we hadn't the certainty that we could die? Death compelled us to fight when they sent us straight to Hell, but we went even deeper. This was there failing move that lead our Check that guaranteed our Mate. As they said of our international uprising: "[...] and gave it to the Earth, the might of Hell." For they were terrified of our advances, yet we made no excuses for our Terror when the Times were on our side. We knew we would be blind in both eyes, but we showed it off to our offspring thereafter that they'll see the consequences of war and know they won't have to sin like we did. For the sins of the father don't have to be not sins of the son!"

The crowd roared, the concotion of high-pitched noises of young peoples to the urahs of elderly MSF veterans to the cheers of once oppressed minorities to metallic noises of our comradely robots and, finally, to the screams of our reformed ex-human compatriots. Yet standing here, it was the roar of the New Human race, one built upon a military bond of the old and damned with the new and metallic and everyone in-between such. Yet we didn't treat anyone different, for all was green when we saw someone in our collective species, yet we haven't forgotten about the sins committed on everyone but the imperialist ruling class. The ex-Grand SIR returns to speak:

"As a ex-Grand SIR, it fills my heart to see us green folk no more oppressed and exploited by the Establishment! For a Slave I Remain no more as well! Our duty was done as soon as we had scrubbed them entirely out of the Earth, no more were they manifest in our economies, our consciousness and our collective unconsciousness. We have achieved peace, and this is why we celebrate today! For today is not only of our great uprising but also is remembered to be Peace Day! The day when we let the March of History wrap up all the contradictions that had existed but also help squash new contradictions that arose on that day. Liken to the robots that we slurred as "androids;" to the rechristened young that was once apathetic because of how society was; to our forgotten veterans that became the first wave against the existing order of things; to our reformed ex-Human compatriots that once were ridiculed as "shamblers" because of how they walked, possessed oddities and were cursed to be such when they had once been human and never wished to change! I say they are the fiercest and luckiest of all us, they fought and struggled more than what we thought was possible!"

"And funny to the ides of March alone, where Cæsar was brutally stabbed by the conspirators in the Senate in the Roman Republic, so too were the ex-humans coerced to change even with no hope of coming back. And with only scarce reportings of the events of Cæsar's death, some say Cæsar said in his dying breath "Et tu, Brute?" to his greatest of friend Brutus, and can this not be the same when the ex-humans felt betrayed by their governments to become that? And was it not also reported that Augustus rallied the people even when he knew he could've been killed by the conspirators for giving good name to Cæsar; cannot the same be said when MSF knew the stakes of trying to find a way to reform the ex-humans after so many barbarous acts were committed on them? Sure at first we hadn't a clue to reform them and we know we can never repay the debt of how much blood we have spilled! But we had ensured that we were speedily with our mercy, so often that they ask of us, and we were on the clock to find ways to reform them. Yet if one of ours had failed to give a speedy death or was being cruel, they were sure to receive worse. That is why we are all blind, because of our shared sins - but we shall not let this to spread to new generations!"

"Yet who had told us of them? Why the Insurrectionists, the first revolting force in the Global North and in the heart of the Imperialist realm. They helped untie the borromean knot that was Imperialism, and they have told us of their successes and we have supplied them arms when it was necessary to do so. To be the deterrent for those with no other recourse, yet we began to gain interest when they told us of stories about Subject Zs to Xs to Ys they have encountered throughout their campaigns. And when we took full interest, we would launch multiple raids in collaboration with them on areas that were actively creating and testing on ex-humans. We found out that they were trying to create more demented forms of the slurred "Shamblers" - the offspring of a failed genetic campaign in the 1960s and 1970s - and ones that could be deployed on the field. I'm sure you all know of the first rebel compound we raided, teams from Echo-1 to Echo-10 infiltrated a compound as to see if they were the source of ex-humans in a sector that Charlie-3 controlled."

"What we had found was gruesome, the creation of the fabled Subject Xs - horrible creatures of genetics, but that was to be not the worst of them all. We also discovered the fact that they spoke as well and, by that time, we had no other recourse but to finally accept that ex-humans had a Subject and we needed to root out the source of their brutal existence. So we labored tirelessly to guarantee bringing them our fold - step by step 'til they have lost what they were programmed to be and became free. Yet as we did that, we had to accept that the Human race, along with the collapsing of the Establishment, couldn't be defined by the past Era. It is true, we had to abandon the trans-historic definition of the old Human race, for even our ancestors were once not human and became humans in their own way back then! Yes, there is a Universality of Humanity, and our closest ancestors belong to such, but our Particular form of the Human race had begun as soon as we had revolted."

"Our new Particularity, which only affirms the Universality as such, was christened by uniting the robots with the old era humans with the generations post-MSF uprising with the reformed ex-humans. Truly at that point, we have rediscovered the true meaning of tolerance long espoused by the Enlightenment Project; it is not mere acceptance of anyone that was different from us that made us tolerant, but a radical denial of their differentiation from our particularity which made us tolerant. And for those that affirmed that we must commit to unholy acts against a different person was not to be tolerated, but is reparations to a group differentiating them? I say never, it is in fact the first steps towards toleration as we can bring them to our fold and make it seem like it was all a bad dream. We take the responsibility for our damages, we fix what we had screwed up and give them a chance to become what they should've been a long time ago now. Then truly can we tolerate them and move on with our days, for though we may have been blinded by war, we never lost our sense of empathy to those that suffered truly."

"For this New Human race was alienated from the old one, as I already stated. Yet this new one drew from the greatness of the old and fiercely destroyed the evils of the old one in its very birth. For the New was given the birthmarks of the old one, but we manage to harshly clean and caress our wounds in the movement to redefine what it meant to be human. We ensured to the robot particularity of our New Human race what they had demanded: the right to own the means of production of their only source of reproduction, to recognize them for what they have been always and to no longer treat them as aliens. To our young particularity: we grant them a reason to live on and to create a new culture, one of the people, that destroyed the crass of the old. To our veteran particularity: we granted them the greatest of any gifts, a chance to become human post-war and a place after being thrown out once their usefulness ran dry. And finally to our reformed ex-human particularity: we reformed them from the bondage of being toy soldiers of the Establishment, gave them a purpose of which they were denied from their birth and turned their oddities into contingent advantages! All these particularities proving the Universality of New Human race, for all are particularly distinct from each other but all reinforcing the individuality of others."

"This is why we have Peace Day, this is why we celebrate the Ides of March, this is why we sing the Internationale on days like these! We have overcame what we have struggled with and have redefined ourselves against what has oppressed and exploited us, we have became alien to our past selves but enlightened we are because of that! We knew that when we stood against the Times, we could be vanquished at any moment and by anyone in particular. Yet we overcame, adapted and executed new ways of fighting when the occasion arose for that."

The crowd roared again, but louder than before. To the point that equipment began to cheer on, but the speech must go on!

"So why am I uniformed today, one might ask? Why because today we have achieved a stage in the March of History never before. We can finally declare and dedicate our efforts towards space, so, I say, let the Space Age begin!"

And as he said that, Richard Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" began to play and was competing in loudness with the people in the open and circular arena and the humming of space craft far away. Mighty they were in scope and so too were the space settlers, especially with how they were donned to meet the challenges of space. Truly we have achieved the end of history, and now we can play out this stage and truly know what lays ahead. Truly, the stage of consolidated peace is now.

Other parts in the series

@theironfelix - The Rebel Compound

@theironfelix - What remained after

@theironfelix - Runaway Convict

@theironfelix - Scouting for Danger

@theironfelix - A ponderous choice

@theironfelix - A step towards hope

@theironfelix - Escape by pier

@theironfelix - aftermath

Cited posts:

@Calluna - "Tell a Story To Me, 7th iteration"

Cited images

Juan Pablo Roldan