Finally, I got the time to review this:

You know, given what Jacob has been doing, if this still isn't enough to push Ben over the edge completely, it certainly will be near the breaking point. I can see very quickly this causing others in the Whitetails to be wary of him, even if we're not at the point where he killed Eli.

On Faith's end, I can see how just as Jacob used the convos with Ben against her, his actions can also be used against him. Remember, Joseph still has a form of caring, despite its warped mentality. He didn't intend for the people to become cold-hearted and empty-minded killers after the collapse. He still wanted to build the Eden society. Under that logic, Jacob's actions are considered wrong because he's PERMANENTLY screwing up people's heads, leaving them as empty shells, and that's not what Joseph wants.

I wouldn't be surprised of Faith eventually raises this matter to Joseph, accusing Jacob of being too shortsighted, brainwashing people just to win the "holy war," and forgetting about the long-term effects. There've been disagreements amongst the heralds long before the events of the game, but Joseph is still a man who's willing to listen to reason, and it'd be easy to persuade him to allow Faith to look for way to reverse the brainwashing effect (assuming she hasn't begun already).

Now, obviously Joseph could be persuaded not to tell Jacob about this, because Faith could argue that if Jacob found out, he might change his brainwashing methods, which would render her own actions useless. In short, it's still the same way to find "redemption" for Faith, without actually compromising her position, at least for now.

But as for the CURRENT situation, I believe this could lead to usual circumstances. Given what Jacob told Faith about Jess, it wouldn't entirely be surprising if Faith anonymously reached out to Jess to get Ben out of the torture Ben is currently in. Obviously Jess wouldn't know who sent the message to her, but if nothing else both of them care about Ben, and neither want to see him turned into some permanent monster because of Jacob's trials. The whole reason so many peggies in the Whitetail Mountains obey Jacob is because they were coerced into position, and Jacob foolishly believed this would apply elsewhere. In reality, there ARE those who'd stand up to him, even from within the cult itself, he just doesn't realize it yet.

The bottom line is that because she still sees a decent man in Ben, I'm sure Faith would break Joseph's rules to get him free, even if that means she'd have to speak to the Resistance about it. Of course, that's assuming she doesn't speak to Joseph himself first, and hopes he can get Jacob to back off.

These are just some things for you to think about, you just let me know what your thoughts on this are.

Hah, so Benjamin's alter ego 'The Judge' is now into fruition.

Welp, he just killed Eli (I think?) wonder how the Militia will handle that in this AU.
In some sort of messed up way: Jacob is kinda right (Like how you added in references to our current situation in the real world by the way; What Jacob said makes ironic sense if you think about it)

I'm really enjoying how this story is turning out, really puts it into a realistic perspective.

Wonder what will happen to Jacob though; Will he parish or be spared? Seeing how 'Faith' is a pinned character in this story and how Benjamin and Jess are pinned as a romance thing, it's my personal belief that 'Faith' will snap Benjamin out of Jacob's indoctrination and save him from himself.

(Speaking of which: In canon you don't even see 'Faith's' body when you clear up to reality - i find it disappointing how she didn't make an appearance in Far Cry: New Dawn. No way she's dead: No body, no blood. Just didn't add up in my honest opinion)

Keep it up!

Killing Redd was necessary. To him, it seemed like all he ever did was sit on his bottom complaining and griping. Whenever someone else makes a mistake, he could say his idea was better because he made no such mistake. To him, it seemed like doing NOTHING was better than doing anything at all, which obviously isn't the case.

This is something Eli at least understood: in war, you have to work with people you don't like, and in some cases you don't even know if you can fully trust. But desperate times call for desperate measures.

As for Jacob's challenge, I'm curious to see how Ben will take this. He saw Jacob as a coward who always forced others to do his own dirty work, so I'm expecting things will turn out very violent here.

What we're seeing here is exactly what Jacob's brutality is doing to Ben.

Don't take me wrong, war is meant to be a brutal business. It's exactly for this reason why the longer you fight it, the more you cease to become human and become part of the killing machine. Ben can simply ask Grace if he doubts this, given her time in the military. But the problem is at some point you have to regain that humanity, though it's very likely it won't happen the moment the war ends. As many WWII veterans can attest, for some it took decades.

But the point here is this: even if you reach the point where you can't feel anything anymore for killing, that's perfectly fine in the middle of a war (being part of the war machine and all). It's when you start to LIKE it, that's when you've lost your humanity.

This was always the biggest danger Jess had been in regards to herself: more than any other GFH (even the non-specialists), she's the one who had spoken the most that she's going to miss shooting peggies with arrows when this is all over.

It's my hope that given Ben's actions, Faith will once again speak to Jacob on all this, accusing him of turning a decent man into a brutal monster.

damn, this was a great chapter, i love every scene there, that fight between Reed and the Rook was insane and i love it

What do you think of Far Cry 6 trailers?

damn, ben is slowly slipping into insanity, he burned all the food. i hope he fixes himself.

Will Cheeseburger and peaches be in this story also, when you make it to a far cry new dawn story, will there be a male capt of security and will jess survive to be in new dawn if u make it.

You know, given the food shortage problem, I'm surprised you haven't mentioned Dylan's Masterbait Shop.

Think about it: Jacob is also plundering and pillaging in the Whitetail Mountains, just like John did in Holland Valley. Food, supplies, weapons, ammunition, and people are all being taken. This is part of the reaping order given by Joseph at the beginning of the game. It's intended to ensure the Whitetail Militia cannot win in a war of attribution. Jacob went a step further compared to John though, as he burned down Chad's restaurant when Chad chose to help the Whitetails by providing cooked meat and everything. It's the whole reason why had you talked to Chad, he'd have given you the side missions to kill some antler meat, and then bison meat.

But no matter how hard Jacob tries with his plundering, there's NO possible way he could plunder every last possible fish from the ponds and small lakes in the region. Nor would it be possible for him to drain all the water from there. Therefore, as long as the Whitetails can continue to fish, resistance will continue.

Thus the most that can be done on this matter is to remove the fish bait, and that makes Dylan's Masterbait Shop a primary target. Skylar Kohrs and her boyfriend Dylan are both stationed there, and I'm expecting Jacob to get rid of them along with the baitshop in order to starve the Whitetails into submission.

On the last part of the chapter, I'm curious to know if Jacob is catching on to what Faith is doing, or if he's simply unhappy with her going behind his back in her ways to persuade Ben. If it's the former, this'll cause serious problems later on.

Sure, Jacob knows Rachel was converted to Faith years ago, but it's possible he believed for everything Joseph gave her, some part of Rachel is still alive in Faith. If so, then Jacob must have also suspected that the more Faith speaks to Ben, the more he's able to influence her. This is a two-way street, after all.

I wouldn't be surprised if this is the result of Jacob having observed what's been happening between Ben and Jess. After the Cook killed her family, Jacob must have known Jess was left practically in a state of primal rage, unable to listen to reason from anyone anymore. All she wanted was to kill every peggie she could find. But ever since Ben arrived, something changed in her.

If that's the case, then Jacob could conclude that Ben had a knack for changing people when everyone else believes they can no longer be changed. If this has already happened with Jess, it can also happen with Faith. It's possible that Jacob feels that Faith had never acted this way in the years past, which proves Ben is already influencing her.

Thus in a future chapter I can already see Jacob would eventually confront Faith, accusing her of forgetting who's side she's on.

Putting Jess in charge in such a situation would be very new. If you had paired Jess and Grace together as your GFHs, Grace had asked if Jess would want to join the army, because that way someday she might be the boss. Jess said that she'd be kicked out on her 1st day due to her rebel mentality.

For striking the deal with Eli, I'm expecting him to convince Tammy to see Ben in a different manner. After all, he could have refused the deal. Even if Ben took it, he could have said straight to Eli's face that he's the one holding all the cards, and Eli is in no position to ask him of anything. That Ben didn't do this proves he's not so egotistic monster.

The sight of mutilated bodies in the mountains should be more than enough to convince Ben that NONE of the soldier qualities rubbed off on Jacob, and he represented the WORST the cult had to offer. Even John didn't go this far in Holland Valley after all.

What's interesting is that there's been no contact from Jacob, in contrast to John. You'd think as his operations are being ruined, Jacob would at least say SOMETHING. Of course if we're just not at that point yet, then I understand. Still, there has to be more news on Jacob's end for his inability to contain Ben.

Awesome read! Ben really is changing through all this... It breaks my heart reading how much he's given to stopping this Project. Knowing the Deputy's fate in New Dawn, Ben's gonna have a harder road on the way.

God's Speed to him and you!

Keep up the good work by the way. It's all getting better!

Again please don't let the collapse come

It took me 4 days straight to fully catch up to this story! What a great read! I hope you keep this up!

The bond Ben is showing towards Jess proves he had changed her, even if Jess is unwilling to admit it to him. After so many years of being alone, Jess finally opened up. This is a fundamental concept: once you have something, you also have something to lose. It's clear she didn't want to lose her ally to Jacob's actions.

Their fighting in the Whitetail Mountains should make the bond stronger. As you know, back in Holland Valley John had used hostages on the Revelator so that Ben couldn't destroy it without killing them. This should be done in a much bigger scale here in the Whitetail Mountains.

If you had talked to the Whitetail militia enough, there's those who'd tell you that Jacob is forced to take more and more people for brainwashing in order to fill up their ranks because the peggies lost so many people. Furthermore, I'd expect Jacob to put hostages almost EVERYWHERE, regardless of operation, knowing full well the Whitetails wouldn't kill them. After all, Eli had a rule of his own not to leave anyone behind, and Jacob would obviously exploit this.

The majority of the Whitetails (as well as the ones who later joined once you get the resistance points high enough) have AR-15s, shotguns, sniper rifles, or RPGs. There are those with the bow and arrow, but they're not as accurate (nor do much damage), and in any case those wouldn't work when you're dealing with hostages. Yet at the same time, such firearms are important for fighting the judge wolves, given how pumping them full of Bliss makes them stronger and more resistance to damage.

In short, it puts the Whitetails in a bind: using the firearms to kill the judges would only risk getting hostages killed, but to rescue hostages would only risk yourself getting killed by the judges. Only a crack shot with the bow and arrow can accomplish both, leaving Jess as the only viable option for Ben.

The convo with Faith on the other hand makes me wonder if she'll confront Jacob again, where he'd obviously be annoying that she seems to be taking Ben's side, though I'd imagine she'd counter that his brutality tactics so far haven't worked. I'm actually curious to see how much Ben can influence Faith during his time in the Whitetail Mountains.

While I want some redemption for her, I'm also curious to see if you plan to turn Faith against Joseph by the time Ben returns to the Henbane. Of course, that'll also depend on how perceptive Joseph himself is. For all of Faith's important roles, she's still expendable, and if Joseph finds out Ben turned her against him, he'd easily get another Faith to replace her.

Man, what a story. At first I kinda hated Rook’s personality. But it looks like he’s now more willing to be killing. Quite a contrast that in the valley, his allies were fine with “acceptable losses” but the militia go crazy on him for it. Loving the dynamic between him and Jess. I find it interesting how they keep acting different in front of each other, constantly changing personalities.
Finally, I’ll end off by hoping for the character of Faith. I’m worried that Rook’s time in the mountains will make him hostile towards Faith later. But Faith seems to be trapped between her family’s demands and actually caring. Hopefully Rook plays true hero and gets her to come permanently to his side while preventing Jess from going berserk. Hope to read more of this story when it’s continued.