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The Surprising Truth About Lying
relations. The functional lie that held nations together,
the promise of mutual deterrence, the strategic
ambiguity, the noble pretence of humanitarian effort,
had been annihilated by the Truth Mandate.
The situation was focused on two nuclear-capable
nation-states: the Commonwealth of Sol (CS), a
resource-rich but militarily weak federation, and the
Iron Union (IU), an aggressive, populous, and heavily
armed regional power.
For weeks, the two nations had been locked in a
cold war, held at bay only by the shared, unspoken lie
that neither side was willing to risk total global
annihilation. But under the Mandate, this pretence was
no longer possible.
The communication was taking place over the UN’s
emergency, mandatory-transparency channel. Every
word spoken was being filtered instantly by the
remaining, untainted parts of The Gaze, verifying that
every statement was an Absolute Truth.
The representative for the Iron Union, General Kael,
a man whose face was hard and unreadable, began the
proceedings, legally compelled to reveal his
government’s strategic position.
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