Marseilles To Paris Peace March

Marseilles-to-Paris Peace March

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"Shoulder-to-shoulder today are men and women who have fled the destruction of their homes, to find billions being spent not on rebuilding, but on further devastation… This madness must come to an end. The cries of grief reach all the way to Heaven, and to be silent anymore is a betrayal! … Let the cry of peace fill the avenues of Paris, the boroughs of New York, the prospects of Moscow and the streets of Beijing… Let the masters know that the cry of peace is louder and clearer than the retort of any gun."
- Francois Cartier

Although we have our reasons, outlandish as they might sound, for prosecuting this war, our cover explanations have not been well-received by many people in the Federation. Open criticism is common, at least in countries which permit freedom of speech. Recently however, French opposition to the war has been amalgamating into a single powerful movement, centered in the southern coastal city of Marseilles, which has played host to a huge swell of refugees from North Africa and elsewhere. Large peace rallies have been held there since the start of the war; as time has gone on the rallies have only grown ever-larger. We've identified a handful of leaders in the Marseilles Movement, but the most notable is a man named Francois Cartier.

Cartier is a Catholic priest who has spent the years since Impact predominantly engaged in compassionate works in North Africa and Spain. The son of a Pied-Noir French lawyer and an Algerian woman, Cartier is fluent in several languages and intimately familiar with many of the cultures around the Mediterranean basin. A compassionate and energetic man, Cartier energizes the peace rallies with his firebrand preaching and his powerful oratory style, drawing on everything from the Bible and the Quran to the Rights of Man, the works of Marx and the Declaration of Human Rights.

The makeup of the Marseilles Movement is disparate indeed. Many of them are refugees from North Africa who fled to France after the LN War, or during the start of the current one- as North Africa is now under UN control, the hopes of these people to return home have been dashed; resentment, frustration and despair is extremely high amongst these people. However, there are just as many who are part of the movement for other reasons: some have relatives in the army or eligible for national service and are scared; others oppose the current regime and consider the Federation to be a prop for dictators; others belong to trade unions or social justice movements that detest seeing wages and welfare diverted from the needy due to war; and others need nothing but principles to oppose war in general. Cartier, however, is able to speak to all of them, and weave these groups, some of whom are opposed to each other, into a more cohesive movement with the sole objective of ending France's participation in the war.

Cartier's rallies are now seeing attendance in the hundreds of thousands as people come from all around to see him, and despite being forbidden from attending it is obvious that many French soldiers are attending the rallies incognito as well; desertion in and around Marseilles is at record highs, and some vessels of the Mediterranean Fleet are unable to maintain minimum crew levels. Now he has launched an ambitious plan for his Movement: he intends to lead a massive march of demonstrators from Marseilles to Lyon, then to Orleans, then finally on to Paris itself, an 800-km march that will take many weeks and will undoubtedly dominate the air waves as it goes, spreading its message of peace and civil disobedience to half the country. Even worse, it is no secret that more than a few in Parliament openly support the movement, including Martin Pierre Villeneuve.

France is a key member of the Federation, and the resources and forces of the French state keep the war machine moving. We can't afford to see France's participation in the war weaken.

Chosen Option: Address the Movement Personally

Maybe we should try to engage this movement personally, bringing them into an arena where we can debate the situation and try to convince them of the rightness of our actions.

This option has the following effects:
Debate: Yanmei engages Cartier in a roleplayed Social Conflict.
Desertions: Did not Fire. (45%)
Marseilles Movement reaches Lyon: There is a 100% chance that the Marseilles Movement reaches Lyon event fires in Turn 5. This percentage will be modified based on Yanmei's performance in the conflict.

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Options

Repress the Movement

Obviously, we can't permit this movement to waltz wherever it wants, jamming up the roads, blocking military convoys and just generally being a total nuisance. Let's just throw some police units at it, harshly punish and imprison military deserters and break it up the old-fashioned way.

This option has the following effects:
Cruel Crackdown: Federation military members take a -20 penalty to interaction tests with non-Military members until the end of Turn 5.
History of Repression: There is a 75% chance that Yanmei, Mazarin and any other Commanders in the Federation will gain the Enemy (Peace Movement, 2) talent. There is a 15% chance that they will gain both the Enemy (Peace Movement, 2) talent and the Enemy (French Civilians, 2) talent.
Marseilles Movement reaches Lyon: There is a 30% chance that the Marseilles Movement reaches Lyon event fires in Turn 5.

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Hound the Movement through Subversive Means

Using obvious blunt force might not really help in this case and furthermore, it makes us look bad. Instead, we embark on a campaign of subversion. By bribing, cajoling and offering favours to the media, we can ensure that coverage of the Marseilles Movement is negative and paints them as unpatriotic rabble or violent thugs. Furthermore, we can expand our intelligence agencies to infiltrate the movement, undermine its goals of non-violence and dig up dirt on its leaders, which we can use to blackmail them into silence.

This option has the following effects:
Financial Cost: 3 CP is added to your expenses at the end of this turn. It must be paid before anything else is paid.
Desertions: There is a 35% chance that all missions undertaken in Turn 4 suffer a -2 starting morale penalty, and that the cost of repairing Hordes doubles until the start of Turn 5.
Marseilles Movement reaches Lyon: There is a 60% chance that the Marseilles Movement reaches Lyon event fires in Turn 5.

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Address the Movement Personally

Maybe we should try to engage this movement personally, bringing them into an arena where we can debate the situation and try to convince them of the rightness of our actions.

This option has the following effects:
Debate: Yanmei engages Cartier in a roleplayed Social Conflict.
Desertions: There is a 45% chance that all missions undertaken in Turn 4 suffer a -2 starting morale penalty, and that the cost of repairing Hordes doubles until the start of Turn 5.
Marseilles Movement reaches Lyon: There is a 100% chance that the Marseilles Movement reaches Lyon event fires in Turn 5. This percentage will be modified based on Yanmei's performance in the conflict.

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Let them Be

Really, there's nothing we can do to stop these people. Their causes are legitimate and they're exercising their rights; if we don't uphold those rights, then what are we, really, in the end? If we do anything except let them pass, then they've already won, morally. Let time be the proof of the rightness of our cause.

This option has the following effects:
Desertions: There is a 60% chance that all missions undertaken in Turn 4 suffer a -2 starting morale penalty, and that the cost of repairing Hordes doubles until the start of Turn 5.
Marseilles Movement reaches Lyon: There is a 100% chance that the Marseilles Movement reaches Lyon event fires in Turn 5.

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