The Day the Truth Died

Asmodeus shares his experience in the newest field of warfare; that of information.

Fifty years ago - maybe even as little as ten - it wouldn't have been possible. It was amazing to watch the people sell their freedom so willingly and cheaply. What is most surprising is that they were smiling as they did it.

You might remember that movie from a few years ago, part of the franchise involving an intelligent supercomputer sending robot skeletons back in time to kill various people that were going to be a threat to it in the future. The computer, not the robot, the robot wasn't worried about any of that because it was nearly indestructible but that doesn't really matter at the moment. What does matter is that this episode in the series focussed on something real; it made the supercomputer spread itself out over the internet and, masquerading as the latest new multi-platform operating system, offers users free everything.

Except - ha ha - free-dom...

OK, Ok, I know a lead balloon when I see one but the point stands; you humans laugh and entertain yourselves about this movie and completely fail to realise that you have already done that! Entertainment holds up the mirror for you to see and you completely fail to see the strings.

Really, you make it much too easy...

You walk around with that little device in your pocket seven days a week and it records every place you have been, every action you take and, so it is rumoured, every word you speak. It sees your conversations, it records the images of you and all of your loved ones, it knows your secrets. Do you think it does this for its very own self?

We own your data, we own your likes, we own your very thoughts and prayers.

You have gladly sold it all to us for the ability to see what millions of other people are doing, what they think, for access to what you think is uncurated, unlimited information. Oh dear.

Ignorance in the Age of Plenty

You may be surprised to know that, in a time when the entirety of humanity's knowledge is, quite literally, at the fingertips of anyone that knows how to look for it, ignorance is on the rise. Any fact that you hear at any time can be checked, verified, disproved in a matter of minutes. You can choose to ignore the opinions of increasingly biased news agencies and obtain your data from a multitude of sources, filter it, digest it, mull upon it, and decide based on your knowledge and experience.

But you don't.

A well scrubbed man or woman in a suit stands at a pulpit or poses before a camera on television and tells you what is fact and, shock and horror, you believe them without hesitation. Tell me why?

You can read an article on an internet news service or a social media site and, as long as the general tone of the source matches your favoured biases, you believe that too. I suppose it's much easier that way.

It also makes you people very, very easy to manipulate.

What Asmodeus Does

I can give away quite a few 'trade secrets' here, if I choose to and you will, thanks to the very system I am going to tell you about, never know for sure if I have told you the truth or not.

Years ago, once the internet started to develop and we began to see both its popularity and potential, we looked into what it could teach us about you. It may well have started as a way to make you buy more things but it wasn't long before we saw that products, whether physical or otherwise, were not the greatest treasure being dangled over our eager heads.

It was information, it was data, it was power.

A politician who knows what people are talking about at home, what they're afraid of, what their hopes are, can cater to and feed those feelings. He can steer his speeches to tap those hidden veins and be exactly what his listeners want him to be. A very wise seeker after power can seed all the necessary pieces in advance and prepare the ground for their arrival.

Today, the power belongs not only to he who knows the most but to he who can make the most people believe it.

I struck upon a solution on how to do that some 70 years ago...

The Roswell Incident

Back in 1947, we weren't really thinking about the Information Superhighway, we were thinking about getting to the Moon. World War II was winding down and people were moving on but we had Nazi's to move and work to do. Earth was becoming, by degrees, a less private place to do things like that so, among other reasons, we decided that to be our goal. Well, Lucifer did, you know how it is. He also wanted those vicious Jew-Killers as far away from him as possible because, while their zeal was useful, he didn't like their ideology one little bit. When they eventually died, having helped him achieve his purpose, Lilith and her children would be waiting for them.

So, out at that infamous airbase in Los Alamos, NM, we used a lot of the technolgy we'd recovered both from Germany and other locations to develop what we needed. Lucifer named it, with no apparent sense of irony, the Icarus I.

It was an aircraft like no other seen outside of underground hangars in Los Alamos. It was to be an aircraft capable of both atmospheric and space flight using new SCRAM-jet and rocket propulsion systems making it capable of flying with limited oxygen and none at all. It could take small numbers of Nephilim to the Moon and, once the technology was tested and perfected, more could follow.

That was the idea, at least.

Of course, the bleeding edge of technology is wont to cut the unwary and the Icarus I - rather predictably in my opinion - followed the example of its Ancient Greek namesake. As it crested the limit of the stratosphere and switched from SCRAM-jet to solid fuel, something unforeseen made itself visible; $70 million worth of advanced airframe and two rather surprised Jeepies in high altitude shift came thundering towards the small town of Roswell, NM, breaking up as they fell.

How do I describe the shift the Nephilim were using to you without going overboard? Think Grey, as in those child-sized aliens with the the huge heads, massive eyes, and grey skin of very popular culture today.

They were dead before they were even within any decent distance of the ground and stayed that shape as the half-disc of the fore-section of Icarus I broke free; the huge rocket engines consumed the rear and left so much technological confettii falling in its wake. The impact left enough of the aircraft and pilots identifiable to witnesses and, being advanced beyond anything those backcrountry hicks could ever imagine, the conclusion they jumped to was an obvious one.

Lucifer, as you might well imagine, went spare and was ready to make some heads roll. His enthusiastic downswing might easily have come close enough to include mine in the reaping.

The Birth of Conspiracy

Now, conspiracies existed before then but they were nowhere near as mainstream as they are today. It more like involved gossip back then.

The talk going around was this; nobody could find out about us. Nobody could be allowed to know about the Nephilim and the advanced technology we'd saved and recovered from Atlantis and the tunnels with Germany's help. How were we going to bury this? The rancher that'd found the Icarus and its pilots had spoken to the press and local law enforcement and it Had Gotten Out. How could it be stopped before the humans found out things they were not supposed to. There were an awful lot of nervous Fallen Angels and Nephilim in that room as Lucifer ranted, raved, and threatened.

The farmer said it was aliens. A lone yet brave voice opined.

Lucifer failed to see how that would be helpful, humans would disprove it easily enough once they got hold of physical evidence, everyone knows aliens would never make it this far, it's been arranged that way.

But what if we let them think they're right and then...

You all know what happened. We, the military, went in mob handed and took the evidence away, all the time vehemently denying that what we were sending close to one hundred men and heavy vehicles to recover anything more important than a weather balloon.