The Jakobs Creed (Pride Before the Fall)

"The Jakobs Creed. It's in the wood. It's in the walls. It's in the way the family looks at a problem and thinks 'what can I take?' That's the creed. That's the fall."

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Precision is the only nail that holds the world together.

That's what my grandfather said.

He built a gun that never failed.

He built a name that never broke.

He built an empire on the backs of men who failed

Because the world failed them first.

He didn't see the blood that made the line red.

The Jakobs Creed: build it so it doesn't fail.

Build it so it doesn't need forgiveness.

The creed didn't say what to do

When the thing you built was built on ash.

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PRIDE BEFORE THE FALL. PRIDE BEFORE THE GRAVE.

BUILT ON BONES. BUILT ON BLOOD.

BUILT ON THE ONES WHO KNEELED IN THE MUD.

PRIDE BEFORE THE FALL. THE CREED WAS A LIE.

WRITTEN IN BLOOD. WRITTEN IN BONE.

PRIDE BEFORE THE FALL. PRIDE ALONE.

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My father held the creed like a blade.

He said "precision is mercy."

He didn't say what happens when the precision

Is used to cut the hand that feeds.

The workers came to him once.

They asked for a life.

He said "the gun doesn't fail. Neither should you."

They didn't fail. They died.

That's the Jakobs way. Precision is a blade

That cuts the ones who hold it. And the ones who built it.

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"I found the creed in my father's study. Beneath the lists of men who died. 'Precision is the only nail.' His name was already on every page. Every death. Every debt."

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I've been trying to write a new creed.

Something that doesn't start with a gun.

Something that doesn't end with a grave.

But the old creed is in the walls. In the name.

It's in the way I look at a problem

And think "what can I take?"

I don't know if a creed can be unlearned.

But I know the old creed was a lie.

And if it falls… maybe that's the only way to build

Something that was never built on broken things.

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PRIDE BEFORE THE FALL. I'LL BURY THE CREED.

BUILT ON BONES. I'LL BUILD IT FROM MUD.

PRIDE BEFORE THE FALL. THE DEBT GETS PAID.

I DON'T KNOW IF IT'S ENOUGH. BUT I'LL PULL THE NAIL.

I'LL LET IT FALL.

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"The Jakobs Creed. A gun. A name. A debt. I'm giving it back. Because the workers deserve rest. Because the ghosts deserve peace. Because the nail was never the thing that held the world together. It was the hand. And the hand can choose to let go."