The Unstoppable Truth

[Laowai]

The rain fell lightly down as the man walked towards the glowing lights of the window. He was cold, and drew his heavy coat closer to him as he walked. Drawn by the glow of the window shining like a beacon in the cold drizzle. He peered inside. Within he saw laughing, smiling, happy faces, men and woman sitting down at finely set tables eating meals that he would not be able to afford after a month of begging for change. He hadnt eaten anything of substance in two days, his stomach ached with hunger. "Hey you!" a gruff voice called out from nearby, a big man, security, LPI was coming towards him, "Get the hell outta here" the man shouted.
"Please, I meant no harm, its cold; I just wanted something to..." His voice was cut off by a swift blow to his face. He cried out and fell to the ground as the security man kicked him, "Get the hell out of here you scum, we dont want your kind here"! He scrambled desperately out of the way as the guard kicked him again, struggling to his feet, "ok ok im going" he ducked again as the guard hit him across the back with a baton, "Get out!" the man growled again.

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Sitting in a bench he watched as they streamed out of the theater. His hands trembled, he could smell his own stench wafting up from the rags he had been wearing for weeks. Ever since he had lost his job, ever since he had been evicted from his small apartment, ever since he had been on the streets. They laughed; they smiled, decked out in finery. A tall Rheinlander hailed a flier, his chest bedecked with Rheinland trinkets, on each arm, a young, beautiful eager looking Libertonian girl, drawn by money, drawn by power.
He scowled.

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A year previously.

"What do you mean fired?" Adam Greerson shouted in disbelief, "You mean all of us?" The Foreman stood before them, flanked by two LPI guards; He held his hands up to quiet the room as shocked mutterings began to rise. "The contractors from Samura have offered us a better deal and Im afraid we have no choice in these difficult and highly competitive times to take it, the company has to survive". Adam clenched his fists in disbelief, "Survive? This is about lining your pockets; this is about your fat Kusari friends and you pocketing our livelihoods!" A chorus of angry cries grew up around him, men started to call out in anger. The foreman turned to the guard next to him and nodded. "Allright you bastards, meetings over, everyone out!" the guard shouted, several more LPI officers entering the room and lining up before the assembled workers began to hustle them forward, shoving roughly, some of the men shoved back, Scuffles broke out, The LPI officers began to use electro-batons, shouts, cries of pain, Shots were fired
Adam fled.

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He stood outside the kitchen window, waiting for the handout that would sometimes come, if the place wasn't already full that is. A sound behind him caused him to startle and he turned, colliding with a large Kusari man and accidentally hitting him in the jaw. "Watch where you are going you Liberty Filth!" the man shouted. "I didnt see you there, I didnt mean to..." Adam said. The man spat at him and walked past, the large Samura patch on his arm clearly visible. Who the hell do you think you are?.. Adam thought. A door near him opened up and a dark faced man stuck his head out, "you coming in for the food or what?" Adam nodded eagerly.

The Peacemaker food hall was one of a few places the destitute in this part of California could find food. But more then that, they could find others like them, these places had become a refuge of the despairing, a hotbed of extremists, where the fringes of liberty society huddled, and a fertile recruiting ground for those who were - organized.
As the crowds ate, people would stand at a table at the front of the room, some would tell their stories, others would advertise for work. This night, feeling the hopelessness around him, the simmering anger in is own heart, was the first night that Adam Greerson spoke:

My friends.

We have arrived here, from different places, but sit here, in this room, for the same reasons. We were driven here, driven against our will, to this place. I see these same faces before me, I see you in the streets, I see you lining up at the kitchens like this one, I see the same looks in your eyes. These are the same things that I see when I look within myself.
We were driven here. Why? I ask. For food! I hear you say, for food to feed our starving bellies, the starving bellies of your children, of your husbands, your wives! For food you tell me. But I tell you no! That is not why. Why were we driven here? We were driven here so others could profit, we were driven here because it was economically expedient to reduce us to this, we were driven here like dogs, like animals, so someone else could get rich, so someone else could ply the skies in their luxury liners, wear their diamond and niobium trinkets. So someone could buy their Corsair artifacts while their rich overfed brats squander even more wealth on cardamine and spacecraft, clothing and finery.
This is why we are here!
Who did this to us? Well.. I will tell you who did this to us, I will tell you, who your enemies are. They did this to us, the foreign companies that control our corrupt and morally bankrupt government, The Corporations of Kusari, Of Rheinland, Of Brettonia, who grow fat off our wretchedness. And the final villain, the final co-conspirator in this disgrace? Your own government, and its police, who lay in bed with the traders, the businessman, and the foreigners, who prostitute themselves before the lure of riches. Who desecrate our Liberty values, our sacred heritage which our ancestors dragged to Sirius from distant earth! They did this to us, THEY drove you here.

Excerpt from The unstoppable Truth Adam Greerson, Pg 103.


The crowd had grown increasingly still as he spoke, the sound of clunking cutlery and eating dying down as his words drew them in. They began to murmur in agreement, nods of acknowledgment. By the end, the crowd stood and loudly applauded. Later that night, as he stood outside talking to some of the people who had waited around to speak to him, he saw the Samura man again. He was on the other side of the street, walking quickly. "See... That's what Im talking about" Adam had said.
He hadn't instigated anything, had not suggested anything, only those standing around him had seen the man.

The Samura man was found by the LPI a few hours later, severely beaten to within an inch of his life.

After that first night, Adam continued to speak, first at the Peacemaker kitchen, but people invited him to others. At first, people would gather to eat and they would hear his speeches. But soon, people would come just to hear him speak. At the Factory Dock kitchen, he crowds were so great that they spilled out into the street, the kitchen owner using a microphone to amplify the speech. There was a growing anger and restlessness among the people and Adam flamed it incessantly. Acts of vandalism against corporate targets began to increase, violence against foreigners rose sharply, at one point sparking a comment from the Rheinland ambassador.
Though nothing ever tied Adam to these events, he became known as an agitator.

Late one night the door to his new apartment, financed by groups who supported his speeches and his politics, crashed open and a squad of armed LPI and LSF officers burst into his room. He was arrested and sent to LPI Huntsville in Texas.

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