Falmart. UIU headquarters. January 13th. 2 AEE.

Ulysses walked down one of the many corridors of his organizations HQ. The war with the empire had ended just a couple of days ago with the surrender of Herm Mao's army and with all the empires nobility either having escaped to JSDF territory or simply having been executed or suffering in the camps the north of the empire was ripe for the taking.

Now the Diet meeting scheduled on February the 14th saw the rebel leaders invited as well so it would be certainly interesting to get an insight on what the rebels have planned.

Either way the Diet meeting would determine the fate of Falmart. There was a period in our history called the scramble for Africa. He imagined the meeting would be a bit like that with the Rebels, JSDF, and he and his fellow GOIs carving up Falmart for themselves.

With the civilians population largely asking for a greater sense of unity it would only be appropriate for the GOIs to begin drafting up the ideas for a nation to call themselves. The human population had seen a spike from 2.3 million to 3 million people. This population spike largely occurred from October- January though it was seeing a slow down.

Militarily Ulysses knew that they could easily stomp out the JSDF though Clark was less comfortable using Anomalous weapons or going to war with them in general as while he and his fellow GOIs certainly looked down on those horny JSDF soldiers they really couldn't go about fighting war after war.

Clark had funnily enough personally asked Matt Scot the leader of the fucking pentagram to make an anomalous chemical that could make crops grow faster to help produce more agricultural gains for the population. Some drafting had begun to expand the paradise city a bit and to possibly convert the small settlements of New Hanoi and New Paris into large towns that would later grow into cities.

Ulysses, the leader of ORIA Mehdi Bazargan, and the leader of GRU P Boris Medved had discussed the possibility of reforming the merchants of madness so they could search for anomalous objects in Falmart.

It would be however hard to control those fuckers since of course they liked to hoard anomalous objects and go around creating black markets to sell them at. Either way they would be useful in the longer run but a sort of chaotic usefulness at best.

He then got a message on his phone from one of his operatives. "Head to room 1 A we found something interesting." Said the text.

As vague as that was Ulysses wouldn't help but be curious on what his operatives had dug up.

When he got to the room several of his agents greeted him.

"Sir you have to look at this." Said one of his agents handling several documents, recordings, and showing some security cam footage.

As he read through the documents and listened to the recordings his eyes widened. He had to warn Clark.

Falmart. Clarks apartment. 6 pm. January 13th. 2 AEE.

To be honest today had gone rather relaxing. The other leaders had canceled the daily meetings we usually held so we could begin our planned victory parade to celebrate our victory over the empire.

When the news first reached the civilian population we saw massive cheering crowds and celebrations on the streets. Many including myself felt that a propped revenge was achieved for the stressful Christmas we had endured.

Still as usual I had a whole lot of fucking work to do. I had given up on my anti depressants as well as they never fucking worked. Fuck my life.

My nightmares had slightly calmed down due to the fact a massive stress was lifted off my back with our victory ensured though I had to plan a whole ass speech for myself for the parade and massive celebrations for Victory in Falmart day or VF for short.

I also had made the wise choice to plan for all the political bullshit that I expected to happen in the Diet meeting. Oh boy did I fucking expect heated debates. The JSDF wasn't too happy with me pushing an Aid package to the rebels since they are all for reforming the empire bullshit.

Oh fuck them. The empire can rest in piss we don't need a second iteration of it. For all I care I'm glad that those rebels succeeded.

I had to admit though my personal and love life were hell. I had to tread carefully to try to actually befriend people out of me liking who they were and not out of codependency with which I suffered from.

Though I never had any real success in friendships. I had more allies than friends. Well I had no friends really. Heh. I had utterly given up on finding love since I doubt a PTSD ridden fuck head like me would be an attraction for any girl. Also I forgot to mention my growing insomnia due to my crippling nightmares.

Just shit after shit after shit. Could I get a fucking break. After calming myself down from my internal ramblings I ate dinner at my apartment alone as usual. I had begun to talk to Uriel on the phone less and less until we really didn't talk at all.

There went my last friend.

I heard a knock on the door. I walked over and opened it. It was Ulysses. My first thoroughly was simple.

Fuuuuck.

Whenever a leader from a GOI personally visited me it's to discuss some crazy plan they had or "hey by the way we are about to get into another war."

"Clark my agents have gotten wind of a Coup against you let me in." He said panting.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me." I said annoyed and pissed.

"I'm not kidding and it's supposed to happen tomorrow. I've gotten the UIU ready for a defense of the city and I suggest you get as many GOC units as possibly into the city through Air since several tratiors under general Trang Minh have already blocked the entrance to the city and the valley-." I cut him off before he could continue.

"I won't have fighting in the city." I said. If this Coup is real and goes ahead and we try to resist I already knew the bloodbath that would ensue.

Sure the GOC has plenty of anomalous weapons to combat these fuckers but it would be probably the most destructive battle seen since Ganzir. He was sure that Trang had gotten ahold of some anomalous weapons before his betrayal and with the pentagram also in the city and them more than willing to use chemical warfare to win the battle would be horrific.

The civilian cost would be too great. I considered surrendering but I found a risky alternative but if it worked I would be able to kill to birds with one stone. "Let the Coup happen and allow them to do as they wish." I said to Ulysses.

"But they are trying to take over-." Ulysses said angrily before I cut him off.

"I don't want a bloodbath in the city. Look around you. All this is the fruits of our hard work since our escape from Ganzir. I don't want to kill my former comrades or fellow survivors. I'll admit I'm not a good man but I'm not Hitler or Stalin. I won't kill my own brothers and people. Let the city fall to them." I said calmly and sighing.

"Are you sure?" Ulysses said.

"Yes I am." I said in resolve.

"My last orders to blackout the city and knock out all means of surveillance. Also the UIU is to kill off pentagram leadership and to poison their members. I don't want a single survivor." I said calmly. "What why?" Ulysses said shocked.

"They'll fight for every inch of the city and use their anomalous chemicals in the battle. I doubt Matt Scott will rally care about the survival of the civilians we are meant to protect." I said.Maybe I was wrong but either way killing off the pentagram would do more good than harm.

"What about you?" Asked Ulysses.

https://youtu.be/L-uOhxC_OK0

Theme for what Clark is about to do.

"I'll be disappearing for a while." I said, sighing.

I had already come up with a simple plan. The mountains around Paradise valley and city had a lot of forests and its fair share of rivers, mostly small though. I would on foot cross through the mountains to the other side. Mind you it was the middle of winter so far but in 2 weeks the snow would begin to slowly melt away. I just had to endure two weeks of cold and mountain trekking.

"Can I know we're disappearing too?" Asked Ulysses.

"No." I said sharply. Ulysses nodded and left my aparment to carry out my final orders.

The reason my plan I knew would end up working well at least in the escape part is that all surveillance would be down due to the power and the simple fact that all the other leaders saw me as a ruthless psychopath. Well that's what I thought they saw me as.

They wouldn't suspect a man like me to simply escape through the mountains. They expected me to put up a fight or be caught off guard. I'm sure they grossly underestimated how much I value the lives of our civilians.

I was willing to make the lives of civilians in the empire a living hell to break them but I wouldn't do the same to mine.

I had my fair share of winter gear and rations since I had saved them for a possible battle for Sadera itself but the rebels had taken the city so the chances of my leading the charge into the city disappeared. Now I had use for the equipment I had just waiting for use in my apartment.

It also wouldn't hurt to stop at the HQ to strap some more gear and supplies since I would be on the run. I chuckled at the thought of the infuriated faces of the Engineer, Robert, and Trang when they learned of how I slipped from under them and had done their work for them.

By sending the UIU to kill the pentagram I had denied them of looking like the saviors and having the moral high ground when the pentagrams' little experiments in the camp were exposed.

The only ones gaining fame would be Ulysses and the UIU. They would be seen as the heroes, the other GOIs would be seen as opportunistic usurpers who took advantage of the fall of the pentagram and the GOCs divide to take a bite a the small power vacuum that had formed.

How was ORIA and GRU P in the plot? I didn't know but I knew that their leaders would follow what I told Ulysses to do and allow a peaceful coup to take place.

Just like that I had ensured my closest ally ended up looking like the hero, The GOIs and their leaders partaking in the coup looked like opportunistic bastards, had ensured minimal to no civilian losses whatsoever, and had ensured my escape.

Most importantly I didn't have to deal with the stress of my job. No longer I was free.

I smiled at the fact that the plan I had come up with succeeded in every way possible. The GOIs thought they had me but I was 4 steps ahead of them.

I packed my military backpack with the supplies I needed. Got my SIG Pro Swiss pistol Ran down to the car and drove towards the HQ.

I then got a hold of a disintegrator anomalous assault rifle, a hunting rifle, and several rounds of ammo and charges for the anomalous gun to keep it clean and functioning since the disintegrator didn't need ammo.

As I left the HQ I saw the city's lights go black. The UIU had successfully gone ahead with the blackout. I stealthily walked through the remaining blocks in the way of me and the forests, meadows, and mountains around the city.

I then soon found myself at the outskirts at the western part of the city. I checked the map I had gotten and found a nice little route through a small pass called cramptons pass. I would avoid this pass since I assume once the traitors got wind of my escape they would airdrop guys to block the pass. I would have to do this the long way.

I steeled myself and walked into the woods for the first time. Little could I have imagined the journey I would be swept on by this action alone.

Bet you all didn't expect what I had in store for Clark huh.