West walked out of the Tranquillity headquarters looking decidedly more well-rested than the last time he had to do this. No note's would be nailed to any doors today. He carried a sheet of paper with him and after scanning the crowd for any civilians or officers not on the payroll began to read a short speech off his sheet.

"Good afternoon everyone. I'm here to offer an explanation for the events in Philadelphia a couple of nights ago. Apologies that it's taken me a while to come out here but it's been a busy couple of days. 

Sorry to disappoint but the rationale behind the takedown of Philadelphia was not an especially interesting or original one. We received information from a variety of sources that Philadelphia was intending to attack us and some of our allies in the near future. It would not surprise me to see some descendant of the Philadelphia leadership come out here to dispute this, it's basically tradition at this point, but the information we had was more than enough for me to believe it and at that point there is no choice but to act. 

In the end the takedown was a combined effort of all other cities. I'm beyond grateful to Seattle's allies in Chicago, Detroit, LA, Las Vegas, and New York for their help. No doubt without this level of collaboration it would have been an even bloodier affair, but thanks to them we managed to keep friendly losses to a minimum and all get a reasonably good nights sleep.

I hope it also shows the strong bonds between the leadership of the various cities around the country that we could act together to prevent this attack. I've never felt more confident in our ability to build a long lasting peace where business can get fully back to normal. 

As a final note I'd encourage everyone to pay respects at the funerals of any friends or family members they may have lost during the fighting."

Damn, thank you for such an interesting speech. You might as well have been as honest to say "there was no reason", to this takedown. See, people respect that a lot more than a blatant boring excuse. Thank you for eventually approaching this. 

Great explanation West, hope those poor ones getting killed in Philly now can rest and go on without having to much anger and try to act and be good ones again that they can be most of them killed. Sad war but as I was informed also very important one so not a classic mass.murder would have been put on in here, think we have had those mass-war enough for a while, hope so, but no one know. Thanks and kepp the faith all and make sure to hold head high as long you can.

DarkPhoenix, not matter what reasoning the victors of a war give, those that lost and their friends are always going to cry bullshit on it, like you have.

What other course of action would you suggest people take when the RH to a city says there is an incoming attack? Sit on their arses and hope they don't get hit too hard?

Naive.

Bold to assume I've lost friends or family on this, please don't assume that again, thank you.

I agree wars happen, people explain it in whatever way they see fit, I have reason to disagree with it. This is the streets afterall. Wars happen all the time, I'm just grateful there was a speech eventually, I thought we'd never get one! I hope people are satisfied with it.

I wouldn't say it was a particularly bold assumption, to be honest. I'd say it was quite a rational one.

To flip your argument, Danny, the leader of PH trusted him, so does that make her an idiot as well, by your logic?

No, that's called misplacing your trust. He had shown trust beforehand to make it to the position he was in. His actions afterwards clearly prove him to be disloyal and not a trusting person after all. That doesn't make the person who trusted them an idiot. It makes anyone who believes his shit after boldface betraying his city and idiot, that be whatever was said from his mouth... probably to save his own skin in these matters.

Hey you said it first, she was an idiot for trusting him. You heard it here first folks.

And it was a very bold assumption! You know that as well as I do. Better not to do that in future. 

Fair enough Danny, you make a good argument. There is an difference and you explained it well. Thank you.

DarkPhoenix, I would say it was a bold assumption to make at all. Seeing as you are unhappy with the explanation behind a war that just happened, it would be likely that you had friends that died in it. If you didn't, then fair enough.

As for future assumptions, I'd make it again, because it was believable.

Chalk smiles.

Again, bold assumption. Maybe I'm unhappy because it was a lousy explanation, if an explanation at all. That is my personal view, doesn't mean I am involved. I've seen plenty of people not involved upset because war speeches  that weren't explained properly and people like to know what's going on, absolutely nothing wrong with that! 

The thing is, @DarkPheonix, that this isn't bullshit at all.  Actually, West is being kind.  The truth is many in our community called for Lust's death immediately following the war against Pollo's Chicago.  While we were immensely grateful for the help provided by Las Vegas, Koyuki seemed to be the one to have taken the reigns in running the city and the war effort.  There were questions about whether or not Lust could be trusted after numerous run ins with members of the community when her bloodline has been angered in the past.  There were objections to allowing RobertMoore to stay a crew leader after he pointlessly authed himself mid-war effectively rendering his gun useless.

In complete honesty, West's trust in her is the only reason she survived for so long.  He argued vehemently against any action at all, claiming she was a reasonable woman whom he could trust to have his back in a difficult situation.  When issues came up between leaders; he took her side over other allies.  When people raised objections regarding RobertMoore, he said he trusted her judgement.  And when he got word that several uppers from Philly had discussed removing Chicago and Seattle, he didn't want to believe it was true, but ultimately couldn't risk the lives of his men.  West didn't want this, and if he had, it would have been much easier to kill Lust early with one shot rather than dozens.  

Chalk, you should really consider speaking less on subjects you know nothing about.  Lucifer-Morningstar did not pass any information to anyone regarding an attack from Philly.  He wasn't even listed as one of the people involved in the discussions, so since he was only her Right Hand for a few days prior to her death, it is probable that he didn't know anything to share at all.  

Lets be honest without LV, West couldn't have done the war at all let alone lived through it. He said that straight away in his war thread against Pollo. It's wise to not give people less credit than they deserve, regardless of what happened now. Lack of trust is understandable, don't give less credit where it's due.

Evelina, apologies, the information I had heard was obviously incorrect.

I believed what I had heard somewhere else. Understandable though, as it was said very blatantly, and nobody had come out to say it was incorrect. Also due to the standing the person who was saying it had, and the fact Lucifer now resides in their family, I had no reason not to trust it.

Crossed wires, and all that. They'll get you.

Lust committed her people, and I appreciate her agreement to help.  I cannot say enough to thank the people who fought hard with us.  All credit to those who worked for all of our survival.  Without Las Vegas, it was a very unlikely victory, you are right.  Without Lust specifically... potentially a different story. 

I did indeed say the whole city, I didn't even mention Lust's name. The whole city has complete credit!

Thank you Chalk, I appreciate that.  I apologize if I was overzealous in defense of my friend; I must have misunderstood or missed entirely previous references to his involvement or I would have spoken there as well.   

JWick, it was in another speech that I have since been informed was made in jest. I didn't think a topic such as this would be joked about so soon after the event, which is why I believed it.

My mistake though, and I've been corrected, so no harm done.