The 26th of June Plot

The following is written by the author itself, no other persons have written in this piece. The piece covers the 26th of June plot and it's surrounding events relevant to the story.

A True Story. A story about a plot.

The 26th of June Plot. I was one of two co-conspirators to this plot. It was tricky; despite our intelligence and our willpower, our plot failed. This is a true story, any and all original names, whether protagonist, antagonist or third party, will remain the same as it was that day. Enjoy the retelling of that fateful day.

On the morn of June 18th, 2008. I happened to come across a play-for-free First Person Shooter by the name of Combat Arms. I immediately was sucked into its somewhat primitive graphics and enjoyed every minute of the game, in beta at the time. I messaged a friend that day to join me. His name was Osok, one of my few loyal partners in all things shootable. They say it's good to have friends in high places. They're not lying. My good friend Osok was third-in-command of Task Force Delta, my gaming team. I proposed to him that Combat Arms is a game worthy of our team's pleasure. He did not disagree, I proceeded to create a poll on our forums that night asking others to try this game, then vote on the poll whether Combat Arms should be considered as a team game.

The poll was dead even at the end of the deadline, 48 Hours. 3 votes Yes, 3 Votes No. I frankly believed with those three votes, plus Osok and I, the proposal would pass. Apparently not. The proposal was shut down by two head admins - Mobius_One_Fox3 and Evostance. I have had no previous beef with Evostance. Mobius is a different story. Mobius was at one time my most hated clan-enemy. Under his leadership, the team was not a democracy as I would have liked it to be; but, in reality, a Hierarchy. Where the most powerful rule, and the rest have most the freedoms they could wish, but no real voting power in a house of representation. That, under Mobius, was Task Force Delta, at the time one of the most prestigious Crysis clans in North America, if not the world.

As for previous history with Mobius, it's a bit detailed: I admit I have a personal anger problem, and have been in the process of rehabilitating it. I have been suspended twice. Once for an argument gone heated, and one for insubordination. I can't explain the argument in detail but I can explain the insubordination. I was back in my first clan practice since an extended leave of absence, on a Friday night, May 30th, 2008. Team practice was average size, eight people. After one round in a public server. Mobius decided to be the de facto leader of the server. I was friends with the clan [WAR] whose server we populated, [ironically we became friends over a custom map made by Osok] and, I personally, was somewhat offended Mobius would take charge of the server. He wanted all non-TFD members to one team, and us on the other.

That's just tyranny to me. I told everyone to ignore him, seeing as I was a more familiar face in the server, I was victorious over Mobius for the time being. On Ventrilo, however, things were a different story, Mobius and I were verbally sparring over my insubordination. I tried to explain that a good Clan Leader wouldn't order around Pub Server like androids, and shouldn't expect them to either. He didn't get the message. I was kicked off of the Ventrilo and, had a talk with good ole' Moby. I tried my best to reason with him, while at the same time appeasing to him. It seemed that day his head was as thick as his mouse. I was suspended for the second time, two weeks originally, but a weekend thanks to Osok's influence and reasoning, whom I owed a debt of gratitude after. Needless to say, relations with Mobius worsened that day.

Fast forward to June 21st, 2008. The judgment on my proposal is final. Combat Arms would never see the light of day in TFD, from that day, to this. The reasons? 1. The game was in beta at the time. [Which never stopped TFD from being formed, back when Crysis was still in beta.] 2. The game was only available to citizens of North and South America, at the time. In a team with European players, in addition to North American players, the decision was somewhat obvious but unfair. My reasoning, that despite its limited availability, Combat Arms compensated because of the price. The plea was unheard.

June 24th, 2008. After some childish namecalling by all three admins, Osok, Mobius and Evostance, Osok is suspended indefinitely by Mobius. Chriscopey, a loyal subject of TFD from the beginning, is appointed interim admin. I try to reason with the admins over this suspension, just as Osok has for me. I was fuming, but not like Osok was. He was angry, after all the language used by all three admins, he says one word and he's stripped of power. Banned from Ventrilo, then spends the next day, June 25th, plotting a plan to overthrow Mobius and Evostance.

June 26th, 2008. Like the conspirators of Operation Valkyrie, we attempted to overthrow a madman and topple his regime. Osok and I laid out a three-step plan, if successful, would keep all admins out, destroy the Hierarchy of Task Force Delta; and install a new government, a Democracy, in it's place. We both knew the risks of such a plan. After all, Operation Valkyrie didn't succeed. If this plot did not succeed, both Osok and I would defect, to create a clan of our own, with the assistance of Snypr, a gamer of extreme caliber, who shared the same gaming aspirations as Osok did.

1235 Hours. First step is simple, I will join the team Ventrilo server as a normal member. Then I will enter the Server Admin Controls with a password, given to me by Osok. The password was simple, rootking. I was in the admin controls, then dumbfounded. Osok's instructions on how to remove Mobius and Evostance as admins wasn't exactly clear, but eventually took root and I succeeded in kicking and removing Mobius and Evostance, both idling at the time. I then appointed myself Administrator quickly, and eventually unbanned Osok. Osok wasn't exactly unbanned, however, until it was too late.

1255 Hours. In the first step, I made a fatal mistake, failing to ban ChrisCopey sealed our doom. Chriscopey and I fought on Xfire over this, but eventually he succeeded, kicking everybody in the server, including myself. I could not join again and everybody was banned for the time being. An Emergency Meeting was called immediately after to announce the news. I quickly lost contact with Osok once the meeting was called and feared the worst. Osok was excommunicated from TFD, and he defected the clan. I came to speak to his defense in the meeting after Mobius explained that he was nothing more than a "faggot" and an "egomaniacal prick". The first word personally offended me. I quickly came to his defense and the conversation in the chat went something like this.

Mobius - Osok has been kicked out of TFD, permanently, it seems he hacked our Ventrilo and attempted to ban Evostance and I, don't know for sure right now. It seems he came on under Jawbone's name and a different IP. He's an egomaniacal prick and that faggot is no longer welcome in TFD.
Jawbone - Wait a minute, what proof do you have of your accusations?
Mobius - He apparently knew the password of the admin controls, only him, Me, Evo and Copey know it.
Jawbone - It's a relatively easy password, you know, anyone could guess it.
Evostance - What's that supposed to mean?
Jawbone - It's...easy to guess...from what I hear.
Mobius - Oh really.
Jawbone - That's not the point, I don't think Osok would do anything this irrational.
Mobius - What's your proof of that?
Jawbone - My testimony to his character.
Mobius - Which is?
Jawbone - He's a totally sane person, he doesn't seem to be the one that burns bridges, or should I say LONDON Bridges, Evo?
Evostance - Shut up.
Mobius - Shut your mouth. One more outburst and you're out of there with him.
Jawbone - Fine. I got two words for you, I Quit!

1310 Hours. During a later one-on-one conversation...

Jawbone - Look Mobius, Osok didn't act alone in this, I did too.
Mobius - I know it was you. Don't ever think of coming back here again.
Jawbone - None of this bullshit would have happened if you weren't so quick to silence opposition.
Mobius - What Opposition, exactly.
Jawbone - I joined this team so I could get better as a player, and maybe make some friends along the way in the Crysis gaming community, dude. I thought this was a clan. I was obviously wrong. I put in more effort than anyone, I showed up to all the practices I could, I've probably improved the most out of any member here. But you seemed too concerned with competition, TFD isn't a clan, it's nothing more than a loose association of nerds with skin problems (I've later apologized for this comment days after) Enjoy it, what's left anyway. You seem too interested in silencing your critics instead of listening to them and attempting to better yourself through their advice and/or criticisms. That's your problem. That's why I helped try to overthrow this fucking hierarchy you're the head of.

The 26th of June plot failed. To Many, it marked the end of an era. Osok was kicked out, I left after my last words, and then I read a post by Evostance on the always fun-to-read forums, explaining that Mobius "set a trap that Jawbone fell for", thinking that he tricked me into spilling the beans and kicking me out. I wrote a 7 paragraph post that took damn near an hour and 15 minutes to complete explaining every inaccuracy in the news post, only to be deleted by Evostance within the hour. I finally snapped, inside. I was reminded why I helped plot against TFD. The freedom of speech was restricted. It's a dystopian society in TFD. You're under constant watch by the thought police (admins). It was 1984 all over again, so I commented to a friend, recently.

This censorship is not unfamiliar to me. When TFD lost a senior member to a rival clan, IMP, the two were on the brink of war with each other. I try to keep the peace by saying that this rivalry should be friendly only, it shouldn't turn friends against each other and tear each other to shreds. I wrote 12 paragraphs and even tried to end on a high note with a Neil Diamond music video. It was quickly deemed unnecessary and deleted. Therefore reaffirming my comparison of TFD admins to the Thought Police.

I later found out that day that Osok and Snypr planned something more elaborate. They secretly recruited many members from TFD to join if things got too heated, if the Powder Keg exploded. This plot was the Powder Keg. TFD won a Pyrrhic victory. It beat the coup, but lost the war. One by one members began leaving the clan, even admins appointed after the coup left to other clans, the newly-formed Hostile Syndicate benefiting the most, of course. In retrospect, without Snypr and Osok's precautions, the plot would have failed totally, instead, it slowly crippled and ate away at TFD's member base. Looking at it this way, we accomplished our objective, and crippled the hierarchy, literally from the inside-out. We Won.

Where is everyone? Six months after the "failed" coup?

Jawbone is me. I later contemplated many things, including setting up a March Madness tournament with clans who would compete for my allegiance. I later joined SOC, and remain there at the time of this writing, happy as a clam!

Osok was, indeed, kicked out. He later formed Hostile Syndicate, an exclusive team with Snypr, which includes former members from =HIGH-PING=, previously independent gamers, and the majority make up =TFD= Alumni.

Snypr immediately teamed up with Osok for weeks, even months before the actual plot itself. He pre-rented the server, helped set up the server, and brain-stormed with Osok, and Hostile Syndicate remains a strong clan to this day; led by Osok, Snypr, Eagle and Evideus, all former TFD members.

Evostance later left TFD during the summer, later to return September of '08 to lead a newly-rebooted Task Force Delta. Whether it's the same Hierarchy as it was in the original TFD days before, has yet to be determined.

as for Mobius? Mobius left TFD once, weeks before the plot, only later to return with new determination and a wish to bring Battlefield 2 to TFD. later slowly lost members in TFD, many left to rival clans. IMP, 760, especially Hostile Syndicate. Once Evostance later left the clan for the summer, he realized he was a man without a clan, like the man without a country. He vowed to reboot TFD later in the year as a Far Cry 2 clan. He succeeded and TFD is a now-successful Battlefield 2 and Project Reality gaming team. He and I later repaired our bitter war of words and have even talked in recent weeks, seeming to put the incident behind us...

I realized one thing. In the novel 1984, protagonist Winston Smith later realized that He was nothing without Big Brother. Mobius, was somewhat, my own Big Brother.
It took a while, especially considering his young age, for me to accept him as a leader. No matter what happened, though, he still eventually earned my respect as a leader. Despite his age and his controversial tenure, he has the skills to be a leader. Winston Smith loved Big Brother. Without him, he was nothing. Without TFD, who know where I would be? None of this would have happened. Mobius, is Big Brother. In the end, no matter what, I realized. I loved Big Brother.