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I don't know. Prophet has a point; if one of us gets caught doing something overt, it could be the end of the Gospels. Collective safety is vital, and there's no call for throwing caution to the wind.We can incite rebellion, cause a little bit of havoc, but the more direct we are the more risk we run of getting caught. What we really need is organization. I know Indigo and I are each working on individual projects, but it's kind of disorderly. I also know a number of us are completely idle, and that's just plain stupid.Prophet, as much as I hate to ask you to "hold our hands", some direction would be nice.
Let me tell you a story. It's fictional.It begins with a few isolated incidents. Maybe the power will cut out for a few seconds, or a scheduled food delivery won't arrive. Perhaps supervisors assigned the lowest depths of our capital city begin to show up dead in the streets outside their factories. Police teams sent to the lower level are never heard from again. A few influential individuals down there decide to cut power to the elevators, which means that military patrols can't get down anymore. It's too sudden and nobody has any time to respond - an organized lower caste has rebelled, taking with them their factories, their generators, a city unto itself.In a matter of days, the middle tier wakes up to a bleak new reality. Government backup plans are initiated, and a few buildings in the middle tier are converted to serve the needs of a far greater demand. It isn't enough. Hyperinflation spirals ever upwards, and credits are next to worthless. Nobody in their right mind accepts them."Only gold, silver, jewelry; just what we can carry," repeats a store clerk on the middle level, turning away disappointed caste workers who are still so naive as to think they can pay for a can of mushrooms in credits. The only other employee in the store rolls his eyes and slings the steel pipe he's holding over one shoulder. Together they've laid claim to the small market, but they know they may have to move quickly if better-armed profiteers arrive.A few more weeks pass, and food riots in front of the Citadel are met with lethal force. Most citizens from the middle level are terrified of what awaits above them, but the upper caste also represents their only source of resources. In uncharacteristic alliance, "tier teams" of white-collar workers storm checkpoints and upper-caste houses. Sometimes they succeed. Warlords emerge. Their followers vie for control of elevators. Taxes are imposed on mid-to-upper-tier elevator use, payable in consumables.Any police units still in the middle tier are killed on sight, just for their weapons. Many choose to go rogue, and some end up becoming warlords themselves... it's safer than active deployment. Most of the military has been ordered to secure upper-caste rationing stations. As water stockpiles dwindle, supply to the middle level of Haviah gets cut off entirely.Vending machines still work, and they still dispense palatable and occasionally nutritious food. Automated pharmacies are still run by the Citadel, but they are few and far between. Prices are almost fourteen times what they were a month ago. Anyone who is even a little wise to the situation and has access to an automated dispenser will stock up on whatever's still available through traditional lines of credit, before account balances are frozen. But whether food or medicine, the middle caste eventually runs out of it. They aren't being issued paychecks, so when the pills are gone, the more convicted among our number get creative. There are still more pills in the machines, they're just too expensive. It's common knowledge that all they do is check your right handprint against your account details. We soon realize that someone else's hand works just as well.Chop. Simple as that.Meanwhile, the lower caste revels in the abundance of resources. Sure, traditional electronic money and the VCN don't work anymore, but it doesn't matter... they have the food, they have the infrastructure. Those who are dissatisfied search for ways out of the city - most of the security cameras have been smashed by now. Desert towns are quickly populated by liberated and well-supplied lower caste emigrants. There's a new future out there for them, and they're all too willing to take it.Oh, and... uh, Marshal? I lied about the fiction. Opposite Day's coming.Peace and love,Sylph
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Topic: Gospel Information File: Sylph (Read 352 times)
