Hunt the Truth/Saison 2/00 VO

A rebel rally ends in slaughter, FERO is unmasked, and a new hunt for truth begins.

(A crowd of rebels applauds.)

FERO: That’s what they do. They conceal their atrocities in elaborate theater. They invalidate the truth with their coordinated swarms of lies.

ODST GREY: Got visual on FERO.

FERO: We had the attention of every man, woman, and child in occupied space, even the moderates in the Inner Colonies were starting to wake up. But the UEG got on the networks and sang them a lullaby, putting the masses back to sleep, smearing those who would speak the truth. That's what they did to Benjamin Giraud.

(The crowd cheers.)

NOAH (Over Coms): What’s the head count down there?

TULLY: About 130, 140 plus half-a-dozen VIP’s.

WILEY: Just looks like a buncha innies in a field to me.

GREY: Perimeter secure, sir.

NOAH (Over Coms): Roger that, hold positions.

FERO: They convinced the public that it was Ben who lit this fire in the Outer Colonies... but we've been burning for decades. Not because a journalist cried "injustice," but because our children cried in pain. We offered our resources, we saluted their flag, but when we cried for help, no one came.

TULLY: Check your three, Wiley.

WILEY: Roger that.

FERO: When our cities were choking under the insurrection, the UEG called in the cavalry, they leveled our homes. When our families were melting under Covenant war ships, the UEG, our government, stood by and watched us die, whole planets. But now, they tell everyone that our struggle was Ben's fabrication, that I was his invention?

INSURRECTIONIST CROWD: NO!

FERO: No, I wasn’t invented, I was born in these colonies and our struggle wasn't fabricated, it was forged in the ash and glass that was left after the Covenant attacks. We survived, and no matter how many lies they shovel on top of us, this fire they started, the ideals we stand for, will never burn out.

WILEY: Man… That’s some scraggly lookin’ Innies.

NOAH (Over Coms): Cut the chatter.

WILEY: Oh, we got ONI actin’ as C.O. now, boys?

TULLY: Shut it down, Wiley.

WILEY: Yes, sir.

INSURRECTIONIST CROWD: Free Gir-aud! Free Gir-aud!

FERO: I hear you. And Ben will get the amnesty he deserves, but not until we have the strength to give it to him. We need to send a message to the UEG. A clear sign that we-

MUTINEER 1: We need to drop a thermo-nuke and spray imperialist guts! That's the message we need to send!

MUTINEER 2: From fire to blood!

MUTINEER 1: From fire to blood!

FERO: Bombing a UNSC recruitment center or some federal COM target isn’t going to free Benjamin Giraud. We have screamed “from fire to blood” for decades. And for decades, blood is what we’ve been drowning in. That’s what they want. A shooting war. Something they know they can win.

GREY: I’ve got some movement at the refinery.

TULLY: Structure out of range. Stay focused on the target.

FERO: Every day we plot revenge, they grow stronger. We toss ourselves into the flames, calling it revolution? No. This needs to be a war of ideas, not fenced in by battlements but lifted up by economic prosperity, building a force that the UEG will have no choice but to bargain with. That’s the war we can win.

MUTINEER 1: You’ve had us sitting here for weeks! It’s time to strike!

FERO: No, it’s time to stop blindly tossing our sons and daughters into-

MUTINEER 2: I was at Mamore with the FLP in 2511.

GREY: Mamore?

MUTINEER 2: Where the hell were you? Huh?

GREY: I thought they all got scooped?

MUTINEER 2: You weren’t even born yet.

WILEY: The guy’s all bark.

MUTINEER 2: Now you stand up in front of a bunch of real freedom fighters and talk soft like Sekibo? That’s the only suicide mission I see you goin’ on.

BOSTWICK: You need to back up.

MUTINEER 2: You need to watch yourself, young’un. Grown-ups are talkin’.

BOSTWICK: I said back up.

FERO: Bostwick, it’s fine.

WILEY: Hey, we got an old-school rebel rat approaching the target. Dude looks ready to go.

TULLY: Alpha Team, watch your flank.

GREY: Roger that.

NOAH: Alright, go in. Now.

TULLY: Extraction’s a go in 3... 2... 1...

(A Pelican dropship flies in. ODSTs charge out.)

TULLY: Go! Go, go, go, go, go!

(The ODSTs attack the crowd.)

BOSTWICK: Ambush! Pull around!

(The ODSTs grab FERO)

BOSTWICK: They got FERO!

GREY: Target acquired.

TULLY: Copy that. Get back to the ship!

(The ODSTs run back to the ship.)

TULLY: We’re clear, let’s roll!

(The Pelican takes off. The ODSTs release FERO.)

FERO: WHAT THE FUH--get off me!!

WILEY: WHOA! What the hell?

FERO: Whose op is this?! Huh?! Who authorized it?!

WILEY: WHOA! Calm down, FERO -- heh!

FERO: Hey! I outrank you, Lance-Corporal. You don’t get to call me “FERO”, it’s “Commander Sankar” to you, copy?! And you just ran guns blazing into an active civilian operation, you corn-fed Cro-Mag. Who authorized it?!

WILEY: Hey, I didn’t see civilians down there. Just looked like a bunch or rebel rats to me.

FERO: Where’s your C.O.? Your ass is getting put on ice, I can guarantee you that.

WILEY: Yeah, good luck with that.

FERO: You wanna make a drop without a pod, trooper? Huh? You wanna slap a K.I.A. on that jacket?

WILEY: Oh. You gonna kill a marine now?

FERO: Y’know, from this height, you might just live. Those rebel rats could send you home a piece at a time as a weekly care package to your mom! NOAH (Over Coms): Maya-

WILEY: Damn, that rebel stink must be seepin’ into your brain.

FERO: Do not test me.

NOAH (Over Coms): MAYA!

FERO: Noah!? What in the hell was that!? You authorized that strike!? What kind of-

NOAH (Over Coms): Maya! I’ll explain everything when you get here. Are you okay?

FERO: I... No. No, I’m not okay, Noah. I’m not okay at all. Half those people were civilians and you’ve got Neanderthal Hell Jumpers going in hard with full ordinance, I mean...

(Fighting continues on the ground.)

FERO: Wait, there’s still another team on the ground?

NOAH (Over Coms): Yes. There’s a second team to-

FERO: Call them back now.

NOAH (Over Coms): I can’t. It’s still an active op. Bravo team’s on clean-up.

FERO: That’s not clean-up. That's a slaughterhouse. Sound a bunch of trigger-happy jumpers killing civilians. Pull the rest of your team. Now.

NOAH (Over Coms): No! You were the only deliverable asset.

FERO: The only deliverable for what? What is this?! I’ve risked my cover more times than I can remember and I haven’t gotten so much as a whisper from you or command since I wrapped on Giraud. I am-

NOAH (Over Coms): I know, I’m sorry. Command put us on strict no COMS three weeks ago. My hands were tied.

FERO: I have been in the dark for almost a month and right now, I am in the pitch black on whatever the hell this op you’re running is. So please, tell me, what?

NOAH (Over Coms): We had to pull you. It came from the top and it happened fast.

FERO: What is command even doing?! When they activated me for Giraud, the whole point was to create more regional stability. I thought they’d have it all locked up by now.

NOAH (Over Coms): They do.

FERO: Tell that to Petra Janecek. After her last message, people are still pissed-

NOAH (Over Coms): You didn’t hear? Acquisition team picked her up hiding on transport freighter out on the fringes.

(Noah plays a recording of Petra.)

PETRA (Recording): What… After what… God, what am I missing… Don’t stop! Don’t stop looking! Connected the dots before it’s too late-

(The recording of Petra’s capture stops.)

FERO: I can’t… What?

NOAH (Over Coms): Things are changing inside ONI. What you did... killing those agents in Ben’s apartment…

FERO: I can’t believe this…

NOAH: I know, listen. I know.

FERO: Section three orders me to murder fellow agents and now they’re laying it at my feet?

NOAH (Over Coms): It’s not official. It’s just a political move. Someone’s trying to appease some of the other Commanders.

FERO: I looked them up, y’know. The two agents.

NOAH: (Over Coms): Why would you do that?

FERO: The younger guy had a three-year old daughter… did you know that?

NOAH (Over Coms): Maya…

FERO: He was 27, and the other agent was a year behind me at the academy. I killed both of them... And for what?

NOAH (Over Coms): Maya... I wish I knew how to make this easier for you. Everything’s just... I tried to do what I could, even though I couldn’t reach you. There are questions…

FERO: Questions?

NOAH (Over Coms): Mshak Moradi... Your weapon never registered as fired on that mission. The kill was never recorded. Is he—

FERO: It didn’t register, because I didn’t use my weapon.

NOAH (Over Coms): What do you mean?

FERO: I’ll spare you the gory details, ‘kay?

NOAH (Over Coms): You didn’t have a choice, Maya.

FERO: I know.

NOAH (Over Coms): He was about to blow your cover. If you hadn’t-

FERO: I know. They listen to me, Noah. They believe in me, or- FERO... They want a better life. They really do, they’ve just never been shown how to get there.

NOAH (Over Coms): Believe me, I know. Nobody could have predicted what you’ve been able to accomplish, but that fact of the matter is-

FERO: It’s outside the scope of my objectives, I know.

NOAH (Over Coms): Yes

FERO: God... Well, we’re going to have a hell of a time sealing up my cover after that joke of an extraction. We need to assess the post-op ground narrative as fast as possible for the release-

GREY: Excuse me, sir, casualties ready to report.

NOAH (Over Coms): Go ahead.

GREY: Twenty-six Rebels down, two VIPs, forty-one injured survivable.

FERO: I need to get back in, Noah.

NOAH (Over Coms): And you will, Maya. But not yet. They’re bringing you to Midnight Facility.

There’s something that ONI doesn’t understand about human cost. Maybe the people do. The individuals? But as a collective, when you look at people as numbers on a chart. As probabilities... Just factors in a bigger equation... What happens is you actually lose the bigger picture... They… They run these complicated algorithms, weigh the cost/benefit analysis of what a human life is worth... I recognized every single name on that list of 67 casualties. To ONI, they were just 67 insurgents. But I knew what their voices sounded like. I knew why half of them were there that night, what they wanted for their lives. Seven people who had sworn allegiance to me, who I'd known for years, were dead. I'd lost two of the best friends I'd ever had in that operation. And as the person who had sworn to protect them, I- I didn’t know how to process that loss, but what terrified me most, was that after five years living as FERO, I had no idea what Maya was supposed to think about any of it.