Brooks Messages 5: Legacy

## Legacy

### Description

In her fifth dead drop, Brooks discusses her plans to ensure the True Sons survive even if she should die.

### Speaker(s)

Skyler Brooks

**Brooks:** I used to hate Keener when he'd go on his long spiels about 'leaving a legacy'. He seemed like such a pompous asshole. But now.... I think I understand what he was talking about.

**Brooks:** You want to kill me, because you think what I'm doing is evil. If you still believe that, then I won't bother trying to convince you. You clearly either haven't been listening, or so deeply indoctrinated in Division propaganda you can't even see right from wrong without ISAC to help you. But even if you get lucky, even if you kill me, it won't stop Phoenix Fall. It won't stop the True Sons. It didn't die with Ridgeway and however I die, it won't die with me.

**Brooks:** See, every other faction in DC is doomed to fall apart sooner or later. The Hyenas are organized, but in the end, they're common thugs who live solely for materialism and the thrill of chaos. But all criminal syndicates, past, present, and future, have one thing in common, without a unified leadership, they collapse. Even if they rebuild the council, give it a couple of months, and they will either eat each other apart from in-fighting over limited resources, or someone stronger with better training and firepower will come along and wipe them from the face of the earth.

**Brooks:** The Outcasts? They're zealots, but without Emeline, they won't last to the next winter. They can't kill everyone in DC, they must know that. Probably why they've seen such a high rate of defections, and why the original surviving founders have given up. All that's left are the fractured remains of radicals fighting for something they don't truly understand, running low on ammo, food, and most of all, faith in the cause. They're all living on borrowed time.

**Brooks:** And the Black Tusk may have fancy tech and deep pockets, but the amount of training and expense in equipping in their people means they can't replace their ranks quickly, if at all. And they're mercenaries, they fight for money, not some pie in the sky dream of nation building, matter what they say. Sooner or later, soldiers who don't fight for a cause but for money will jump the ship like rats from the Titanic if they feel the risk isn't worth the reward. Honestly, I'm surprised they've held on this long. Probably having Ellis in their pocket gives the survivors some hope. It's misplaced. Everyone knows Ellis is a traitor now. No one will ever accept him as president again, even with a gun in their face.

**Brooks:** And the Division and JTF? Well, you know my feelings on your chances in the long term.

**Brooks:** The True Sons are different. That's not bias, that's reality. Ridgeway was a genius. He knew the Division would write the True Sons off as just mutineers and warlords, that'd they'd assume they would collapse if they killed him. That was their mistake, and as you can see, it has backfired on them.

**Brooks:** It sounds cliché, but the True Sons are more than a faction. It's....an idea. A dream, one Ridgeway started, and one I intend to carry on. You can try and stand against me, and maybe, if you get really, really lucky, you *might* kill me. But here's the thing about me. I'm not one step ahead of you, not even two, I'm ten steps ahead of the Division. I know what move you'll make before you even think of making it. I've prepared for every possible circumstance and outcome. no matter how unlikely. You see, unlike the Division, the True Sons can work together. We're not all a group of cowboys and sheriffs running around doing whatever we want with only loose organization. We have structures, chains of command. And it works, because we can come up strategies a single agent or three couldn't dream of.

**Brooks:** You think I'm evil, you think I'm the villain of this story. But you created me. I was the perfect agent, both on paper and in practice. Army Ranger, psychological warfare specialist, freaking JFK SWCS graduate. You thought your propaganda could overcome me, that'd I'd fall in line and obey like a good little agent. But I have a copy of my psych eval: *Candidate Brooks shows great promise, and has endless qualifications, **but** she shows a tendency to think unorthodoxly, even to the point of ignoring or disobeying orders she deems 'morally wrong'. This, combined with her remarkable intellect and unrelenting drive to overcome any problem, raises the problem of what might happen should she feel the Division has failed in its mission or failed to stick to its principles.*

**Brooks:** In other words, I think on my own, with my own moral compass. And when you're crafting an army of mindlessly obeying killing machines to enforce the will of the government, you can't have that. Listen to this last sentence: *Despite her qualifications, it is the opinion of this evaluator that **Skyler Brooks is not** **a good fit** **for the Strategic Homeland Agency, as she poses a great risk for going rogue if she feels the Division is failing to meet its duties to the people.*** That's right, they knew this could happen, knew it would happen, but your leaders didn't listen. They just wanted another killing machine who'd obey orders, and on paper, with my background, I seemed perfect for the role.

**Brooks:** This is your fault**.** You crafted your own destruction.

**Brooks:** So, let's get one thing clear. I am the Division's reckoning. You've failed this country, and the True Sons will do what you have failed to do for almost a year. Restore order to this country. Save the United States from its enemies and build back something better from the rubble. And if you kill me, my legacy has already been assured. The True Sons will live on, and we will never stop until you're nothing but a stain on the pages of history.

**Brooks:** You might win a few battles here and there, take a base or two, hell, you might even kill me. But the war's outcome has already been written in stone. This is the only way the story ends. Nothing you can do can change that.

**Brooks:** It's over, Division. You...have lost.