Vostok and the Lieutenant

Iron Age Media Prompt: The Dirigible

"He's already inside, lieutenant." The police officer opened the door to the interrogation room for the lieutenant, who proceeded into the room.

Within the four concrete walls was a single holding cell with a bed and toilet inside in lieu of a bench. This spartan room appeared to double as both detainee quarters and an interrogation chamber—the ideal place to attempt a thorough extraction and debriefing.

Lieutenant Engel walked to the lone table in the room, folder in hand, and sat in the only chair, organizing his files as he began questioning. "I'm Lieutenant Mason Engel, of the Meriba—"

"I know who you are, lieutenant. Yes, the 'rising star' of the Meriban Reprisal Forces. The 'Slayer of Sleek-Hairs' himself!" The detainee gesticulated sardonically, lying in the bed with his eyes fixed on the ceiling light above him. "Please, tell me, what do I owe the occasion of such a promising, young officer?"

Lieutenant Engel then placed the papers in his hand down flat, looking at the detainee. "Well, I suppose I can skip the formalities here. Let's start with some identification. Please tell me your name, rank, date of birth, and military unit."

The detainee rolled his eyes. "I am Colonel Alexander Mark of the Vostokian Infantry Forces, 15th Division. I have served for over 35 years as a decorated—"

Lieutenant Engel interrupted. "What is your date of birth?"

"Do you want my serial number, too? How about my martial status? Ooh! Surely, it would help this investigation if I shared my most intimate details? Lieutenant, would it help you to know how often I've used the toilet here?" Colonel Mark's transparent indignance echoed throughout the room.

"Tell me your date of birth," repeated Lieutenant Engel, more firmly this time.

"Oh, Lieutenant, spare me! We're both painfully aware of the guidelines for intelligence collection. You'll lose control very quickly if you insist on this asinine game where you ask me questions you've already confirmed!" Colonel Mark looked at Lieutenant Engel assertively, before returning his gaze back to the ceiling and scoffing. "To think, you people have spent centuries extolling yourselves as the 'builders of society!'"

Lieutenant Engel pulled a photograph from the dossier that contained up-to-date information on the colonel. He held the picture with both hands to show Colonel Mark. The colonel turned and glanced at the picture but returned back to the ceiling giving another eyeroll. "Ah, yes, the Massacre at Cloutier! Where the savage, brutal Vostokians destroyed a dirigible simply transporting trade goods and leveled the once-great city of Cloutier as a consequence! Tell me—what do you wish to know, lieutenant?" He stood up, turning towards the lieutenant.

"Were you at Cloutier on the morning of July 20?" an irritated Lieutenant Engel asked.

"I not only was there, lieutenant, I gave the order to destroy that dirigible!" he barked.

Lieutenant Engel glared. "You would readily admit to killing hundreds of people, most of whom were civilians?"

"'Hundreds?' Lieutenant, I've killed thousands!" Colonel Mark declared emphatically.

"So, you are confessing to a war crime and a hate crime?" Lieutenant Engel became aggressive as he asked that question.

"A hate crime? How can it be a hate crime when I enjoyed doing it!? Whenever I encountered a Meriban, I eliminated him. I did so enthusiastically and efficiently! If employing the same rules of engagement my enemy has is a crime, then I am guilty as charged!

"You see, you pride yourselves on building greatness. The culture and institutions you created transcended mankind beyond succumbing to selfish notions such as preservation and control. You established rule of law, you relished in the fruits of civilized society. But your complete history is no more pristine than ours, lieutenant. You disregard any failing, any misdeed, any atrocity you've committed as the work of an outside instigator. But you—you!—were the ones who allowed it. It was trivially easy to appeal to your own societal standards to introduce chaos and catastrophe. And, so long as you benefited, you were completely apathetic to the consequences!

"Oh yes, lieutenant, you indeed built a great society! A shining exemplar of how one not always need to succumb to human nature to thrive! Yet within mere moments your publicans, your citizens, your entire society regressed to pure self-interest, and once others started working in kind, you bawled over unfairness when their success was greater than yours! You were so naive and so fascinated with your society that you could never see your part in its decline! Surely, it's not your fault! Vostok is to blame! The uneducated, uncivil, obscene People of the East committed the abominable sin of not caring for your arbitrarily-enforced rules! Of an agreement you made with us! Yes, you invited us to work together equally 'in the spirit of friendship,' until you weren't on the better end of that agreement!

"But in the past, you had no problem with the agreement. We had a wealth of resources you could benefit from, while we were dependent upon you to advance our society. Then we advanced, but not to the way you wanted. You see, after learning our lessons with you, we knew that no implementation of civilization is perfect. Men are flawed, and eventually, vigilant protection of a social contract is overcome by vigilance in maintaining power. The difference between a leader and a tyrant is jealousy. Once we began to grow, you resented it!"

Lieutenant Engel, still attempting to follow protocol, rejoined, "No civilization's history is perfect. We have all committed atrocities! Those things you speak of were in the past, yet your people still resent us for something long ago that isn't even happening now! Everyone is regarded as an individual and judged as such!"

With a weak smirk, Colonel Mark looked above, shaking his head in disapproval. "Lieutenant, I've been on the ground. You say that everyone is judged individually, yet our Vostokian kinsmen—who were born in Meriba but have the heritage of Vostok—are not seen as Meriban. They're still Vostokian, even if they only speak your language and have never set foot on our soil. Any unbecoming action any one of them commit is vindication for you. You really believe people are regarded individually? Did you not once say, 'Those animals always make themselves known?'"

The lieutenant struggled a bit as he looked for a rebutally. "That—yes, if you're going—if you go around destroying neighborhoods, like you did, you have no respect for human life. I have no interest in accommodating violent criminals, and I stand by every word of that speech."

"'Violent criminals?' So child molesters, thieves, or prostitutes can be accommodated? Violence is the key factor here? Why? Because that's the only kind crime you can put on us? Lieutenant, do you believe that your people limit their heuristic generalizations based on confirmation of criminal violence?" the colonel asked incredulously. Although he was exasperated, he still had yet to lose his composure or confidence at this point.

"You mean do some people ascribe those violent acts to all Vostokians? Yes, I'm sure there are—"

"You're 'sure?' Lieutenant, on the ground, I've heard for a complete extermination of Vostokians, of Vostok itself. I've seen peaceful Vostokians in your country still labeled as violent, unintelligent, and vestigial. Your people have extended that to our country, to the point they've demanded conquering it to 'make real use of it.' Not only that, they—'ironically,' of course—elude to genocide or enslavement as 'necessary' solutions, though they're too 'civilized' to outright call for death. In fact, this interrogation is just to satisfy a furious people! How can you posture about our bad actors while discounting yours?" The colonel tried to restrain himself, despite being pleased with his retort.

"If there were such peaceful, well-meaning Vostokians, why didn't they ever speak out against these miscreants and troublemakers!?" Lieutenant Engel had grown tired, hoping he would be able to extract the last bits of information before he finished.

"Ah yes, why don't good people call out bad people? Well, lieutenant, where were you when your people were calling for genocide? Where were you when your people were kidnapping ours? I, the sudden representative of all of Vostok, should disavow all bad behavior, but you need not do the same, because, I'm sure, you're not responsible for the actions of others.

"To answer your question, they did and have. Your media, of course, was not seen reporting it, so it never happened. Your military was not seen when our kinsmen calling for peace were killed while the violent mob pressed on! They didn't care, lieutenant! They were only there when chaos erupted, when there was something for everyone to see. When kinsmen tried to escape the mob, you responded with guns. 'Wallow in your own destruction!' they said.

"And all the while, your people watched with glee as they see themselves in the role of the mighty defender of justice, exacting retribution on the inferior People of the East. Your extremists could claim Meriba has returned to its former glory. Everyone delighted as any Vostokian who teased, bullied, or out-competed them now saw the depth of their vengeance. Your anger permitted you to discard the rules of combat. Any response Vostok gave would justify any action you took.

"Unfortunately for you, we responded without any pretense about what we deserve! No! We carried out what you could only cryptically elude to, and we did it better! We systematically exterminated Meribans while you were too busy 'ironically' wanting to do the same to us. We crushed them in the most efficient and effective operation in history! You had to beg us for a cease-fire after your own aggression!" The colonel was prideful and bloviating, hoping to demoralize the junior officer. Lieutentant Engel indeed feared he lost control. As he was fishing for an excuse to break, the colonel sighed and said, "I need a break. Surely even a war criminal can get a brief recess…"

The lieutenant stood up and walked out of the door, regaining some of his confidence. He went into one of the office buildings to review the evidence. Lieutenant Engel decided to review any evidence of the colonel's time on the field between May and August, searching through logs and history about the colonel leading up to July 20.

"He kept saying something about being on the ground… but when?" His seeming familiarity with particular events was suspicious, and he had hoped he could find out if there was evidence he was not only at Cloutier July 20, but that there was confirmation an attack was ordered.

The lieutenant found that the colonel was supposedly ordered to carry out a series of evacuations in the months preceding the attack. The colonel was ordered to evacuate all inhabitants from areas deemed at risk of civilian casualties. Among those locations was Cloutier, where the colonel was dispatched July 14 after finishing a previous evacuation attempt. Lieutenant Engel tried attempted to verify authenticity both from records intercepted from Vostok and Meriba reports. Once the lieutenant was satisfied with his understanding of the events leading up to the attack, he returned to the interrogation room and slammed his manila folder on the table, shouting at the colonel.

"You never gave the order to shoot down the dirigible!"

"What are you talking about?" Colonel Mark asked.

"Oh, you were at Cloutier, but you weren't there to slaughter a bunch of innocents, you were trying to evacuate them! It says right here in your report that you were dispatched to Cloutier six days before the attack to evacuate all inhabitants!"

Slightly annoyed, Colonel Mark replied, "Why would I try to evacuate a bunch of worthless individuals?"

"You tell me. Vostok somehow received intelligence about Meriba flying weapons posing as simply trade goods into no-go zones, and you found out that dirigible was a weapons ship. I get shooting it down, but you didn't make the order. You were still trying to evacuate people, while the aerial division issued the command. What I don't get is why you would lie about the attack."

Colonel Mark simply shook his head in amusement. "You haven't listened to anything I've said, have you, lieutenant? Why would I withhold information? In a sham investigation to precede a show trial? In a land with a 95% conviction rate of which Vostokians represent an overwhelming amount? This verdict was decided the moment I was captured! There was to be no review of the details or facts! Your people need catharsis, just as mine do! We rejoice at home over our resolve to indiscriminately eliminate all Meribans. You convict and execute the Butcher of Cloutier. Meribans feel pangs of vindication to justify their thirst for violence. But you will only kill one. And then another. And another. All in your precious judicial system, so you can justify your thirst for violence. You are too sophisticated for mere slaughter. You go through ceremony to demonstrate what you want everyone to see: I am guilty. It doesn't matter if I slaughtered those people or not. I surely slaughtered someone, and for that, I must pay.

"You've declared me a criminal, and as a Vostokian, my only fate is death. You obsess over how you arrive at the conclusion to claim impartiality, but the reality is this is mere pretense. You walked in here, dedicated to proving my villainy. Once you've done that, there can be no doubt that I am subhuman and have a callous disregard for life. I deserve my fate, whether you have anything to show for it or not." His delivery was much sober this time.

"You submit your life to your enemy so he can kill you, yet you would put guilt on him for murdering you without cause," the lieutenant said, admonishing him.

"Oh, lieutenant, desist with your guilt trip. If I were guilty, my execution would be justified. If I were not guilty, my execution would be justified. You would have found an excuse no matter what. I didn't do it, but I probably would. Since I probably would, I probably have, and since I probably have, I definitely did, so it's good I'm dead." The colonel stood up and walked towards the cell door.

Lieutenant Engel called for the guards as he unlocked and opened the cell. "You can deny human nature all you want, lieutenant, but it always has a way of rearing its ugly head. Now, look alive! The great Lieutenant Engel will be rewarded for his successful interrogation of the venerated Colonel Mark, the pride of the East. Those beastly Vostokians will suffer greatly and the Meribans will heal. And you, lieutenant, overcame a superior officer, and for your valor and dedication, you'll be promoted. Rejoice, lieutenant! A subhuman is going to die at your hands!"

The guards walked over to the colonel and grabbed him. "Take him to the brig, and arrange for transport," the lieutenant said, blankly. As they walked to the door, the lieutenant asked, "Why did you try to save their lives? The lives of the people you evacuated?"

The colonel looked straight out of the door and laughed. He shook his head in amusement as the guards escorted him to the brig.