Nonetheless, many of the equally paranoid and hostile persons who received this mailing had access to Xerox machines and were as desperate as the members of [redacted] itself. It was later determined that by 1981, there were over 10,0000,000 copies of "Hobbysheet #4" in circulation. Eventually on e of them reached the POE group, who were ready for an idea like that.

...

"Brothers and Sisters:
The final struggle is upon us. The big racist-imperalist forces that control Amerika have taken off their fake "liberal" mask and shown their true fascist nature. Look at the record: the assassinations of John and Bobby and Martin Luther King. The unending war against the people of the Middle East. The brutalities of the local police right on television with the whole world watching, during the recent Demokratic Convention. Is it not obvious that the multinational corporations no longer even care to pretend that democracy still exists and are ready to kill us to the last man and woman if we continue to resist?
The others have chosen the wrong path, romantically allowing themselves to be known and defying the authorities to catch them.
We of POE have organized quietly. Our numbers are not for publication, nor our identities. We will not take "credit" for our actions, unlike other web communities. We will not recruit new members. We will send no further communiques to the press. We will work and study to strike the most crippling blows possible against the fascist monster. if you agree with us, do not seek to find us and join us. Do as we have done.

Peace On Earth
-[name withheld]"

Everybody, of course, assumed that the initials POE stood for the slogan in the last line of the letter -- "Peace On Earth." They were wrong. POE stood for "purity of essence." The group had deliberately taken as their model General Jack D. Ripper in the film 'Dr. Strangelove', who launches a nuclear war to protect "the purity of essence of our precious bodily fluids" against fluorides. POE honestly felt that sanity had failed to save the world and that only insanity remained as a viable alternative.

Nor were they alone in this attitude. The same year POE was formed, the American people elected Richard Milhous Nixon to the White House, guided by a similar gut-level feeling that somebody like Jack D. Ripper was needed to confront the growing chaos of the planet with some strong counterchaos.

The real name of the founder of POE was not "Name Withheld" of course. That was a pseudonym.

The original founder had been a fervent Idealist, which was why POE admired him. They were all fervent Idealists too.

The founder, motivated by Idealism, had set out to abolish slavery in Unistat by the twenty-second century. On one of his first raids he murdered a whole family of slave owners. An associate, who was less Idealistic, had suggested sparing the children, But he refused.

"CHET CHUGS HOG CUM," he said.

Idealists were like that. You were much safer falling into the hands of the Cynics. The Cynics regarded everybody as equally corrupt. That was the attitude for instance, of Tobias Knight and the other old hands at the FBI.

The Idealists regarded everybody as equally corrupt, EXCEPT THEMSELVES.

I remember when I was first approached by Her Majesty the Overpositor of Tau Ceti. She had been at my birth and christening, but at the tender age of nine we were to have our first conversation.

"You," she said, "will be the angel of fire and lightning." Then, she brought me icecream made from the frozen brains of JFK, and this was my first Holy Communion. I thought it tasted like those Nerds candies, sort of went pop pop in the tart places on your tongue.

I didn't hear from her again for five years when I had a dream about receiving a letter that I then got two days later. In it was my first target. I had been accepted in Her Majesty's Cosmic Landscape and was initiated into the fine art of alterdestiny. My target was my own reflection, and when I beheld it I blacked out, waking up two days later covered in blood, no longer a virgin.

The first ten years were kind of boring, because they make you work alone in various remote parts of the world and inner solar system. Eventually, though, after shining through on the dark side of the moon in a very successful mission to destroy Christianity, I was introduced to "the brood."

To clarify, "The Brood" are the people on what was originally called "poe red" but has since been supplanted by the small extrasolar strike team that is poeTV.

By the way, guys, Proxima run, amirite! Ha! I fucking loved that plasmorph bastard, too bad we had to kill it.

Anyway, since then I have had a great time re-engineering the history of the Orion Spur. I haven't turned in a favor point in seven years, I don't even want them. For me, it's all about the space travel, the time travel, and my friends on X-Mach, what we call Strike Team poeTV in the paperwork. No, there really isn't paperwork, duh, we're an alien conspiracy.

Since I have a lot of those points saved up, though, I was considering a transhumanition, but I kind of like the ape form, and the compatible models are all kind of insectoid, except, of course, the omnimorphology we all drool over but only goes to the presidential class.

Just a quick shout out to mah lizaaarrrrds, and much reptile love for tha galahxy! Woop! Woop!

Also, Waugh is one of us, don't be bullshitted, I watched him burn an entire planet of info life while laughing and take the bonus check with a smile. He's next in line for omnimorphogenesis, which means he will be president of a Western nation in a decade or so.

Congratulations are in order! Now do that thing where you turn your eyes inside out so they look like they're following you when you look the opposite way, God I love omnimorphology.

Love to y'all!