Hunt the Truth/13 VO

Every story has a villain. Today, we meet ours.

[ECB MNEMONIC PLAYS]

KESSLER: Welcome back. Later in the show we’ll be continuing our “Day of Remembrance” coverage with more survival stories from the labor camps, but first we have an exciting ECB exclusive. Journalist Benjamin Giraud is here to talk about his story that has been making waves throughout the colonies and here on Earth. It’s called Hunt the Truth: The Story Behind the Master Chief and Ben is here to tell us about some exciting developments. Welcome to the program, Ben.

BEN: Thank you. It’s great to be here. I, uh-

KESSLER: Oh, Ben, I’m sorry. Hold that thought. We’ve just got a breaking development from Biko. After a tight-lipped investigation, Magistrate Laurel Adams and UEG officials have just released additional security footage and autopsy reports from the embassy massacre, issuing a joint statement that federal charges have been filed against an extremist group called Sapien Sunrise, effectively clearing the Master Chief and the Sangheili of any wrongdoing. The UEG called the massacre “an attack against peace,” and vowed to continue supporting local diplomacy with alien delegations.

Freshman Senator Andrew Del Rio also came forward to recant his earlier condemnations, calling the Chief a perennial hero, and saying, quote, “Every statue of him is a monument to be treasured.” According to his office, as of this morning, the Senator is taking some time off… for unrelated family matters.

Wow… Well, Ben you’ve been working on the Master Chief’s profile for… a while.

BEN: Um…

KESSLER: What do you make of all this?

BEN: Did you- Did you actually believe the Chief did that?

KESSLER: Ben, my speculations about guilt are irrelevant.

BEN: Well it’s classic ONI half-truth; Yes, Chief was the hero on Biko, but the Sapiens couldn’t have done it without the UEG. If you pull up the Adams conversation thread from the files I sent, you’ll see what I mean.

KESSLER: Oh, it- it appears we’re still processing all of the files. J-Just a moment on that.

BEN: It’s fine, I can just pull it up here…

KESSLER: Okay…

BEN: Huh, sorry… I’m having issues… with it too… Oh they better not have… I can’t even... Hold- Hold on. Let me try it again.

KESSLER: So wait, let’s back it up, for those unfamiliar with your story. Are you saying-

BEN: Whatever. Okay. Look, Sekibo asked the UEG for security help before the talks, and they rejected it flat-out. Could’ve prevented a couple dozen deaths, but they didn’t even read the request.

KESSLER: Now- Well, let’s-

BEN: And now they’re peace partners with Adams? I mean c’mon.

KESSLER: Hold on. You’re saying the Biko embassy made a federal security request, but was left vulnerable because the Senate refused the request without proper deliberation.

BEN: “Arrogant negligence” is what I’m saying.

KESSLER: Right, but the embassy hasn’t said that.

BEN: Not to reporters. Well, not to anyone anymore, now they’re in on it. They took whatever Earth table-scraps they could get... I’m sorry- I’m sorry. I have a question. Where is Ray Kurzig?

KESSLER: Um…

BEN: I mean, he sent you the files, right?

KESSLER: Yes, we received your files, but-

BEN: And now he’s not here. He was supposed to meet me here.

KESSLER: Let’s move on shall we-

BEN: What about Petrosky? I mean, is he gonna disappear too?

KESSLER: Corporal Petrosky is being patched through shortly. Let’s change gears.

BEN Yeah, of course. Sorry.

KESSLER: You were originally hired by ONI to do this story, correct?

BEN: Yes, that’s right.

KESSLER: And what happened?

BEN: Well, I stumbled on several inconsistencies between the sources and they fired me.

KESSLER: You were fired for finding inconsistencies?

BEN: No. Look, don’t act that surprised. You and I both know ONI makes you twist the story, just, y’know to placate… But this Chief story, I’m telling you, was a whole other animal. At first, the cracks were small, but then it got worse, and worse until nothing made sense, and I tried to fix it, y’know, until… until I found out the truth. The sources they’d given me were fake. They were actors. I mean, not all of them, some of them were real people who just needed a push, others just had had no problem feeding me the elaborate lie, but seriously… actors. How devious is that!?

KESSLER: We’re still working to verify the legitimacy of all those files, but we have the video cued up. Would you like to introduce it?

BEN: Absolutely. Okay. So you’re about to see the actor who played Deon Govender, John’s supposed childhood boxing coach… This guy had me hook, line, and sinker. And then I found this video of him honing in on his performance for the role.

DEON [RECORDING]: In Elysium City, people just disappeared back then…

DEON’S ACTOR [RECORDING, OUT OF CHARACTER]: Uh, what’s that…? Mmm, ah. Okay, okay.... Because he’s cracking here, right? Right. Alright, cool... But, we’re still good with working-class-urban, barbecue-Granddad overall though, right...? Okay... Yeah, I’m gonna bring the waterworks with this guy.

DEON [RECORDING]: In Elysium… Elysium…

BEN: You can stop it there.

KESSLER: That’s… I- I don’t know what to say.

BEN: I know.

KESSLER: We are here with Benjamin Giraud for this breaking story. The team is working diligently to verify all of the evidence and documentation that Ben has provided surrounding his story if you’re just joining us.

BEN: So- And here’s the disgusting part: The real Deon… is dead. That’s how far ONI was going to cover this up.

KESSLER: So, what exactly are you saying they were covering up? Why would ONI go to the trouble of furnishing-

BEN: Oh, I’ll tell you exactly why. The SPARTAN-II program. Ask yourself this: How did recruitment luck into such an amazing crop of heroes? They didn’t wait to recruit them. Someone at ONI made a list of impressive young children, kidnapped them, replaced them with clones designed to die, secretly brainwashed the kids into soldiers, and then butchered half of them in unethical medical procedures-

KESSLER: Ben, sorry to cut you off. First of all, what you describe is unconscionable, and if true, we’re not talking about deceit here. What you’re asserting here are capital crimes against humanity.

BEN: Completely, that’s exactly where I was, but, I brought files-

KESSLER: Hold there, before you continue, I’m getting word that our team has just finished reviewing your files, including what we just watched, some of which are dated from forty years ago… And I’m wondering, how do you explain the fact that all of the files you sent were created in the past two months?

BEN: What?

KESSLER: Ben, I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing here. But, none of the seals are real. You provided us with fabrications.

BEN: What? No.

KESSLER: The interviews, the documents, all of it.

BEN: No, no, no, no. That’s not true, Charles.

KESSLER: I don’t know what you’re trying to do here, or why you think you can come on my show and just-

BEN: That’s insane. Charles, how can you even entertain-

KESSLER: I’m at a loss. Did you think we wouldn’t check?

BEN: Okay. Wait- wait a minute. Hold on… If that was somehow true—that I’m some mastermind who made this all up, why would I come here and admit my own crime?

KESSLER: I have no idea, Mr. Giraud. Exposure? Fame? Ego? All of the above? It wouldn’t be the first conspiracy theorist who had come-

BEN: That is- No. Uh, no. No. No, listen. That’s not-

KESSLER: See, on my program, we actually vet sources. Which is why I’m close to throwing you outta here.

BEN: I’m on here, Charles, trying to expose government-sponsored mass kidnappings and child murder, is that worthy of your program?

KESSLER: Well, Ben, that would all be very brave of you if you hadn’t completely fabricated all of it for your own self-interest.

BEN: You don’t believe me!? Petrosky can verify all of this, get him on the line. Ask the eyewitness! Can your guys handle that?

KESSLER: Happy to. Joining us now is retired Orbital Drop Shock Trooper, Corporal Anthony Petrosky.

PETROSKY: Are we live?

BEN: Thank you! Finally...

KESSLER: Anthony, hello.

PETROSKY: Oh. Good afternoon.

KESSLER: The honor is ours. It’s always good to see a veteran in uniform.

PETROSKY: It’s an honor to be here.

KESSLER: If we can just jump right in, you’ve been working with Ben?

PETROSKY: Yes, I’ve been in contact with Mr. Giraud for several weeks now.

BEN: Anthony, just tell him about the augmentations, they’re, uh- They’re trying to spin everything-

KESSLER: Okay, Mr. Giraud you’ve been interrupting since you got here, don’t make me cut your feed. I’m sorry, Anthony, in what capacity did you contact him?

PETROSKY: Three months ago, I contacted Mr. Giraud as part of a special investigation.

BEN: What?

PETROSKY: The UNSC had been monitoring a new sect of violent insurrectionists bent on starting inter-regional war-

BEN: This is not something we’ve discussed.

PETROSKY: And my assignment was to infiltrate the group, and expose a plot to smear a high-profile military figure.

KESSLER: The Master Chief.

PETROSKY: Yes, sir.

KESSLER: So you were undercover?

PETROSKY: Yes, sir. I was posing as a disgruntled veteran sympathetic to extreme insurrectionist ideology.

BEN: Anthony, Anthony what are you doing?

PETROSKY: I made contact with Be- Uh, Mr. Giraud, and, uh… and convinced him I wanted to help him demonize ONI.

BEN: Anthony. Don’t do this…

PETROSKY: I earned his trust, helping him fabricate a statement that I’d personally witnessed proof of atrocities.

BEN: Anthony, don’t do this!

PETRISKY: It was part of Mr. Giraud’s extensive misinformation campaign.

KESSLER: Would you just cut his mic?

BEN: Please don’t do this, Anthony.

KESSLER: Cut his mic. You are out of control! Cut his mic!

BEN: I don’t know what they threatened you with, but you don’t-

KESSLER: Apologies. Mr. Petrosky, please continue.

PETROSKY: I, uh… I helped Mr. Giraud construct dramatic interviews to make the revelation of his fiction as entertaining and compelling as possible for his listeners.

KESSLER: So, you were helping make provocative statements for his show, but all the while, you were serving the UNSC in your role as an undercover agent... Is- Is that correct?

PETROSKY: Yes, sir.

KESSLER: Was any of it true? Did you witness anything that would corroborate the rumors about the Spartan program? The abductions, or-

PETROSKY: No, sir. I’ve never witnessed anything like that. I never saw a child with biological augmentation scars. And as to all the other stuff about ONI and the Spartan program, I was just dramatizing old military ghost stories. No one really believes those rumors.

KESSLER: I’d imagine that would be difficult. Misleading the public, slandering a hero...

PETROSKY: Yes, sir. That’s the hardest part.

KESSLER: And you’ve never met John-117?

PETROSKY: No, I have never met John-117, but I would be honored to one day. He is the greatest hero of our time, and I want to go on record saying that.

KESSLER: Well… Thank you for coming on, Anthony. And thank you for your service.

PETROSKY: Thank you.

[PETROSKY LEAVES]

KESSLER: Ladies and gentlemen, if you’re just joining us we’re here with Benjamin Giraud, covering this story as it unfolds live. Ben, do you have anything to say for yourself?

BEN: I don’t know what ONI did to him, but those are lies he’s been fed. They compelled a good man, a soldier, to lie. To make me look like a-

KESSLER: Ben, let me try to help you out.

BEN: You know you’re a puppet, right?

KESSLER: Let’s deal with facts.

BEN: Perfect. Perfect.

KESSLER: Can you tell me where, exactly, you found the files you gave us that you’re saying came from ONI?

[BEN SIGHS]

KESSLER: If there’s a time to divulge sources, Ben, it’s right now.

BEN: I’m really getting sick of this.

KESSLER: That makes two of us.

BEN: Listen… I don’t know what the time codes say, but I downloaded those files two days ago from a server I accessed in an abandoned ONI facility on Bliss, okay?

KESSLER: You found your trove of government secrets in an unguarded shack on a glassed planet?

BEN: I’ve seen the conspiracies you people pull together. I just never thought I’d end up embroiled in one of these.

KESSLER: Mr. Giraud. I want to show you something. This footage was taken two days ago. Is this you? Entering the bunker on Bliss?

BEN: What? Wait, how did you get that footage?

KESSLER: The files you sent were all uploaded two days ago from that bunker we just watched you walking into.

BEN: Wait, no. How did you- No. How did you get that footage?

In a raid yesterday, local police found a large cache of weapons and that server of yours in that bunker. The property-

BEN: Are you- Oh, give me a break!

KESSLER: The PROPERTY the bunker sits on, belongs to a shell organization with ties to an insurgent named FERO, who, earlier today, was implicated by surviving members of Sapien Sunrise as the arms dealer who provided them with the weapons they used in the embassy massacre.

BEN: You’re trying to pin Sekibo’s death on FERO? She wasn’t involved in that!

KESSLER: And the mods on those weapons came from the exact same place as the mods police found on the weapons in your bunker.

BEN: Oh, okay. Oh, I get it. Let me guess, I’m a terrorist who’s been working for FERO this whole time? GOD!

KESSLER: No. Apparently, you’re not working for anyone, Mr. Giraud.

BEN: What? What is that…?

KESSLER: We’ve also received this security camera footage from a few days ago showing two members of Sapien Sunrise entering your apartment building.

BEN: No. They’re not Sapien Sun- No…

KESSLER: Where, based on preliminary reports from the coroner’s office-

BEN: They’re ONI. They were ONI.

KESSLER: They were murdered.

BEN: They were murdered?

KESSLER: So what was it, hmm? A deal gone bad?

BEN: No, they were ONI! They were coming to kill me, FERO saved me!

KESSLER: Shortly thereafter, for the first time ever, ONI agents got a hit on one of the proxy bank accounts used to fund FERO’s terrorist activities. Near your apartment. At an army surplus store. And here is a video of you making that transaction.

BEN: ONI had gutted my apartment, they sent people to kill me. She saved my life, she gave me some money. I was just trying to not die!

KESSLER: We have all the feeds from the neighborhood, and the only people who entered your building that night were you and the two Sapien Sunrise members you murdered.

BEN: They’re not Sapein Sun- No. No, no, no, no, no, no… They’re doing it… They’re doing it…

KESSLER: Look, Mr. Giraud, FERO, whatever you call yourself—You’ve got the soapbox you wanted, so if we could just skip to the part where you make your big rebel speech for all of civilization to hear, I would like to end this circus of an interview.

BEN: …

KESSLER: No? Fine... I think I’ve reached my limit of sociopathic narcissism for the day.

BEN: Where’s Ray… What happened to Ray?

KESSLER: Raymond Kurzig is just fine. We spoke with him yesterday.

BEN: I don’t believe a word coming outta your mouth.

KESSLER: Ray did provide us with all of the files you’d given him, just as you asked, but he also gave us detailed information on exactly how you fabricated all of it.

BEN: I don’t believe you. I don’t believe you. Where’s Ray? Where is he right now? I want proof that Ray Kurzig and his family are alive and well and moving freely. Get Ray on the phone now.

KESSLER: After all the reckless accusations of atrocities and treason your self-righteous Truth Hunt has hurled at innocent people, allow me to speak on behalf of our free press and everybody with a conscience in occupied space, when I say, without qualification, that you are the atrocity, Mr. Giraud, and you are the definition of a traitor.

BEN: ONI killed Mshak, they killed him. Or they put him in a black bag and threw him in a hole, I don’t know. I don’t know- but now, but now…

KESSLER: Alright, that’s enough-

BEN: Listen, I’ve heard so much in the past few months. I know… I know what it means when I say The Chief…IS A HERO. He is my hero. He should be everyone’s hero, but you all turned on him. All you fair-weather pricks!

KESSLER: That’s it, cut him off. Mr. Giraud will now be exiting in the custody of federal agents.

BEN: Make up your own minds! Decide for yourselves! Do not just let them tell you what- GET OFF ME! AGH! Listen!

KESSLER: Cut his mic- Cut his mic! You’re done!

BEN: Listen! And you will find the tr-

KESSLER: I am sorry ladies and gentlemen. I would like to apologize to everyone who had to witness that. These are the dangers of live reporting. I am certainly not going to sit by and let that kind of deception take over my show. At least now, we know the real story. I’m Charles Kessler, we’ll be back after this.

[NEWS BROADCAST ENDS]

PETRA: Everybody saw it. The Chief was cleared and the world blew up in Ben’s face. And now we finally had a story to tell ourselves. “The hero and the Traitor”. That was the story we’d really wanted to hear. And as far as ONI was concerned, that’s all this was supposed to be.

All the ugly ONI rumors and Chief-smearing would be laid at Ben’s feet, he would be tarred and feathered, and with Ben as the sacrificial lamb, the Outer Colonies would come back into the fold. Trade would resume, the Waypoint buoys would power back up, and all that incendiary anger would disappear into whatever hole they were throwing Benjamin Giraud in right now.

Ben said it was his “wounded pride,” the way ONI tossed him aside, that finally set him off. They used him.

I had to hand it to them. However ONI did it, the way all those dominoes fell. It was inspired.

I’d always thought I was too clever for all that. But in the end, I was just another pawn in their game. Their master stroke. The server on Bliss was Ben’s undoing, it was bait. Whether I was meant to take it or they knew I’d pass it on, either way, they played me.

While Mshak, and Ray, and Petrosky, and everybody else that came near Ben’s story got shown either the carrot or the stick, ONI hadn’t offered me either. And since I didn’t go down in their net, I’m free to walk away from all of this.

I think deep down Ben really just wanted respect. But that’s not ONI’s currency. For them it’s all about fear.

But I’m not afraid. Not with what I’ve got. Ben was sloppy, but Ray wasn’t. He’d sent the backups to someone he trusted too— just in case...

This is my story now. My mission.

So I’m picking up where Ben left off. I’m gonna carve out the truth, and I’m gonna put it on display. Not because of any sort of lofty principle. No… it’s just that wounded pride, stinging me like it stung Ben. But unlike Ben, I prefer to do things ONI’s way… and they’re gonna wish that I’d gone down in that net too.

This is my investigation now, and I don’t give a rat’s ass about respect. This story… is going to be all about fear.

I’m Petra Janecek, and this is Hunt the Truth.