“And, that brings us to why I contacted you, why I wanted you on Mars. I am an operative of the Legion of Man and wanted to recruit you. I was the one who arranged for the death threat to be sent to you, but only to have you stay in place. Rest assured that no such action will ever be taken, even if you decide to side with the United World Government. The message simply killed a few birds with one stone, if you will, as it cemented in people’s minds that you are in fact an enemy of the Legion of Man. At the same time it placated those within the Legion that wanted to take actual action against you, as, to be honest, you did severely damage some fairly important operations. Now—”

“Wait, so that was you in-game in San Francisco?” Alan asked. Despite the alarming revelation, Alan remained rather calm. The fact that the death threat wasn’t real relieved him.

“Yes that was me, and your escapade actually motivated me to get a set of the armor you were wearing. It works quite nicely, though I see yours has… a number of improvements.” Alan detected a hint of jealousy in Icewolf’s tone.

“Anyways, moving on to the whole Legion of Man, our goals, why I joined and why you should join as well. The plan is quite simple, really. It’s to overthrow the United World Government and cement ourselves in power before the immunity period is up, developing allies and not deceptive enemies. It’s quite beautiful, you see, as Haxlards will not be able to directly aid the United World Government as long as the immunity period lasts, and if we successfully overthrow the government without causing too much damage, we will be able to take over all the defenses the Haxlards paid for, debt free! A faction victorious in war does not inherit the conquered faction’s debts, just its territory. So, you see, this is the one true path to freedom!” Icewolf gestured about wildly, punctuating each remark, animatedly showing that he believed this was the correct path.

“Uh, okay,” Alain said slowly, unsure of how to react to such unbridled enthusiasm. He thought that Icewolf was oversimplifying things. “Have you perhaps considered this is what the Haxlards want? After all, war is expensive, and it is undoubtedly wearing down the United World Government’s resources even faster.”

Icewolf shrugged. “A risk we have to take. It does not matter, for if we fail, then the Haxlards will simply take over Earth, sooner rather than later. Don’t you see? This is the only path, the only true way for freedom, for an Earth under human control.”

Alan began a response, then closed his mouth, as Eve was communicating with him. “Wait, let me think this through for a second, and discuss it with my AI,” he said.

“Of course, take as long as you need, this is heavy stuff,” Icewolf responded, bringing up a few screens to work on.