As it turned out, the robotic racer known as UR-86 proved to be quite impressive on the track, as well as quite ruthless. However, he was a true lone wolf on the track, and the group's team tactics proved more than he could handle, and Jak and the others were able to escape any serious damage as a result. His primary racing strategy was to hang back and blast his way to the front, causing as much damage as possible. Unfortunately for him, even when he targeted a member of Jak's team that lacked the Red Defensive weaponry, another member would swoop in to their assist, whether with their own defensive weaponry or by carefully shooting missiles or grenades out of the sky with machine guns.
This cooperative strategy allowed the group to clear the next qualifying race with ease, with Jak once more coming in first as planned. It wasn't long after this that the group once more gathered around to hear what Daxter had to report from Blitz and Pecker's news reports, to see if any of the information was useful. Unfortunately, the only thing Blitz had reported on was the approaching Grand Prix.
Of greater interest to the group was Jak's report. "I got a private communication from Sig," he spoke up. "Seems things on his end are going well."
"What do you mean?" Rayn asked curiously.
"Let's just say, we didn't come into this blind or trusting," Jak explained. "We had a couple contingency plans in mind. Sig wanted to let me know that...Plan B was ready to go anytime, and that Vin had almost finished preparing Plan C, and it was fully viable."
"And...what are those plans?" Rayn prompted.
"It's not important," Jak replied easily, waving it off. "Right now, you need to focus on keeping track of everything race related." He gave her a firm look. "Our lives depend on it, after all."
"Yes...quite," Rayn replied, turning to leave to attend to that.
"So...what are Plans B and C again?" Daxter asked quietly once she was gone.
"Plan B involves taking this city by force," Jak explained. "Of course, that is incredibly costly in terms of resources. I'm hoping that whoever Plan A is placed against is more reasonable, or at least can be brought to be reasonable out of fear of Plan C being implemented."
"And...Plan C?" Shining asked worriedly.
"I asked Vin to look into repurposing the laser weapon Mar built to penetrate the Metalhead Nest," Jak explained. "Turns out, all it really needed was to be moved...and despite no longer having a live Precursor inside, the Precursor Stone still has plenty of power." He took a slow sip of his drink. "That, and breaking into the Nest was done on the 'low' setting. Vin's calculating the necessary angles, just in case."
Ashelin's eyes went wide and her face went pale as she put together what Jak was saying. "And I thought my Father was dangerous when he was under the influence of the Metalheads," she murmured softly. "Are you really gonna...?"
"Damas and your father both taught me that the power of a ruler is based entirely on a threat," Jak explained simply. "We pretend to be civilized, cooperate under rules we agree on...but boil it down, and civilization is based entirely in someone in power saying, 'Do it my way, or else.' Most people consider the 'or else' bad enough that said threat doesn't have to be carried out very often, but it always has to be there. If it isn't, there's nothing there maintaining order, and anarchy eventually awaits, because someone else is willing to carry out their own 'or else'." He leaned back, an unhappy expression on his face. "This is especially true if you're attempting to unite many disparate cities into a single unified country for the good of a planet. The threat has to be worse than anyone else's, because the primary motivation for cooperation is self-preservation, that we function better together than apart."
He took another small sip of his drink. "And if power is always going to be based in a threat, and the biggest threat brings the most to obedience...then I'm going to make damn sure I have the biggest threat around, so those I'm supposed to protect are never in danger because I'm afraid to pull the bloody trigger."
Daxter shuddered violently. "Jak...have you talked about this with Keira?" he asked softly, hoping there was still something to prevent what they were talking about.
"No, I haven't," Jak replied. "With luck, Plan A will work, Plan C will never be carried out, and I'll never have to think about it again. If that's the case, she doesn't need it preying on her conscience that it even exists."
"If not..." Shining began worriedly.
"Then I'll probably lose her forever," Jak confirmed sorrowfully. "And I'll hate myself for that for the rest of my life. But that's what it means to be a King. Doing what needs to be done, even when you hate it, and even when the consequences are soul-crushing. And that's why I never wanted the job." His face hardened, looking for a moment as fierce as it had when he'd first escaped the Dark Soldier program. "But it's my job now...and I won't flinch from it. Haven, Spargus...they need me to be strong. So that's what I'm going to be...even if it kills me."
Ah yes, the nuclear option...
Always fun to learn that.
and now, being a character in a story, he's slated for death row now. good going author, Jak dun goofed.
That whole little speech reminded me of Asgore from Undertale.
7446065 actually, and Tats has done this before, that reasoning comes from the book Polgara the Sorceress, its near identical to the reasoning given by Riva Irongrips son, Daran, when a pair of powerful families had a dispute that led to a mini war on the Isle of Winds.
... Holy shit, Jak.
well death beam awaits
"Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown." Looking forward to more.
Keep up the great work. Deus tecum.
Another enjoyable chapter. Well done.
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“And let it here be noted that men are either to be kindly treated, or utterly crushed, since they can revenge lighter injuries, but not graver. Wherefore the injury we do to a man should be of a sort to leave no fear of reprisals.”
― Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince
An important lesson for a ruler.
Jak breaking down what is essentially dictatorship, or merely politics with weapons involved.
Also, I think of Gaius' awesome lecture on being a king in Tales of Xillia 2:
"By sitting on that throne, you embrace the needs of the many and forsake the needs of the one. To rule is to accept a lonely life. A king must discard his own sense of self."
Well shit
At least is not a pony ruins everything fic even if he had to loqse his kindness.
just...damn. willing to give up everything he personally cares about to protect his world. now thats a true hero
No wonder the dragons don't take ponies seriously.
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More than that; that is the sign of a true leader.
That is all
I am suddenly very afraid of how much damage that laser can do, especially if it was on low the first time!
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It’s the cost of being at the top.
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The fanon I heard, and go along with a modified version of, is that the ones about the size of a Pony house all know that Little Ponies are like wolf pups. Some of them have a bite, but nothing worth worrying about really... but beware the parent defending their pups for she is cunning, and strong.
Some of my additions:
The royal guard isn't a military force in the conventional sense. They are (mostly) scouts and living tripwires to let the alicorns know when and where they are needed. Shining Armor was the exception to the general rule that the LEAST capable warriors are kept closest to them (because the response time is lowest to call in the heavy hitter). Celestia might not be the be all and end all at close range (as at the wedding), but give her a few hours to reach orbital altitude and she will politely ask all the solar photons passing through a few hundred square miles of area that would be wasted off into space go "say hello" to whoever is threatening her subjects. Luna uses meteorites.
Celestia makes sure that such incidents are one of the few things NOT easily lost to history.
Basically, imagine if 1,000 WWI byplanes, and 1 "Airwolf" was representative of the forces available to you.