† 009 [31 july, shortly after fitz's post]

[klutziness]

[even though the feed is garbled, rikkus' frustration and something akin to fear are clear in her voice]

Don't be ▒▓▒▓ing idiots. Get to medbay or somewhere not en▒▓neering! Trust me, you don't want a▒▓ of what's here.

[there's a short pause]

I need my engineering cr▒▓ on deck though. Stay together, stay safe. Find Fitz, stick with him. He'll ▒▓▓▒▒▒

[the feed abruptly cuts to white noise]

Comments

voice

[knackered]

We're running out of munitions and by the sound of it alone, the ship has taken serious damage. It didn't look good either while I was out there. [Space ships, air ships, water ships; they all needed a certain amount of structural integrity. Arthur is by no means an expert but it doesn't take an expert to use their eyes and ears to gauge serious damage to any vessel.]

The risk is death, but that goes without saying now. Anything we do will have a high chance of mortality--near certainty, if we keep trying to fight them and do nothing else.

If nothing is done, we will be captured, and-or killed. We don't need numbers to tell us that.

[although he wouldn't mind if someone had a more sciencey take on it.]

[kutte]

We're in bad fucking shape. I'll second that, we can't keep this up for much longer.

[ no science, just the view from the gunnery deck to back this up. ]

[knackered]

[with arthur's experience in warfare a firsthand update is science enough]

It's up to us if we want to surrender to the people with more guns who want to kill us, or attempt a risky escape on a very likely crippled ship. No option is a good option but I'm trying not to think on it too much.

[kutte]

Better to risk it than the turn ourselves over. I'm betting whatever happens to us once they've got ahold of us isn't going to be pretty.

[dogbane]

biological liquefaction following the physics of jump failure don't sound pretty either.

incidentally, this process is instantaneous and poorly understood.

the process of experimentation, building manticores or whatever the fuck-- we have insight into that. we've seen it takes time. say what you want about how sinister that sounds, but nothing's actionable when you're fucking dead.

[knackered]

Nothing is actionable if you're locked up and sustaining torture.

It won't fail if enough of us put force behind it. The connection to the ship has to serve a purpose for better or worse and we ought to use it to our advantage, especially when it's our ONLY advantage.

[dogbane]

> it won't fail if enough of us

where are you getting this information from

[knackered]

You say we have no control, but I believe we just might.

There's literal strength in numbers. I watched, read, heard the discussions, I've read about the history of this vessel and the people on it and what they've, what you've done.

I may be an asshole but not for this.

[dogbane]

NO one has ever fucking talked about this or anything approaching this

we've collaborated using powers for 2 fucking months. these powers have included memory swaps, manifesting some toys and medicine, telepathic conversation.

Absolutely nothing about controlling the alien technology that has been known to liquefy people who were not in their tubes

nor about how to fucking steer it.

Charlotte says it could work. she didnt say it would. and she sure as fuck did NOT say that the more people push, the more likely it'll work out. she gives no illusion of any fucking control


the illusions are yours. you are an asshole for not fucking admitting so.

your optimism is very fucking swell and good luck with it

but don't goddamn pretend it's based on anything even remotely resembling fact or historical evidence.

[knackered]

She said it needed everyone, and I'm not pretending anything.

[dogbane]

Where does she say that

[Look, the brevity caught him so far off-guard he stopped yelling for 3 seconds.]

[kutte]

So what, you wanna suffer and let them turn you into a fucking monster or die while they try? Hell of a cop-out when we got at least one play left. I'll take a quick death over that shit.

[dogbane]

we could nuke Engineering and get the fuck out during debrief

kill van rijns ass

whys it everybody's scenario is we're the ones who fucking die

voice

[lostsoldier]

Plenty of things can kill you. I'll take a shot in the dark over what's out there any day, but we're gonna need more than me and you to do this.

[ And passionate but vague speeches aren't going to convince everybody. So: numbers. ]

voice

[knackered]

[he'd have been more specific but space-age technology is about 70 years in his future. he's just been doing an incredible amount of reading since he arrived months and months ago.

basically: he agrees wholeheartedly.]

We're going to need everyone. Or as many people as we can possibly enlist.

--So, right. Everyone.

pardon me im going to delete lower-down comments to reduce redundancy and move em around

[dogbane]

there are families on this fucking ship.

families who can't get off at this point because we've blown our wad on fucking shuttle fuel.

if you are telling me you'll give these kids an immeasurable-to-1% chance of survival based on incomprehensible physics, unseen technology, and the psychic abilities of amoral demons we have zero goddamn control over, instead of opting to fight the local military and their scary petri dishes, then you are an asshole.

[EVEN IF YOU'RE AN ASSHOLE WITH A NICE BUTT ON EITHER SIDE OF IT.]

[forgodssake]

we have been fighting them and we are losing

"scary petri dishes" are yo
u out of your fucking mind?

[dogbane]

when is the last time you won a fight against exploding in a giant fireball plus or minus imploding vacuum of space using technology you didn't know shit about?

can you tell me how you managed

because that would make any of your fucking arguments sound actually sane

short of that.

[forgodssake]

we are losing William

listen to Gunnery, listen to Flight
listen to what's happening in Engineering

[dogbane]

not to be rude but

you could be equally well-served by shooting yourself in the head and taking a walk out of the airlock.

you know, leave the rest of us out of it.

take your friends!

[forgodssake]

please continue to be a ridiculous muppet
maybe you won't scare everyone off the only choice we have left available to us after all

[ BYE FELICIA. ]

[dogbane]

jesus fucking christ.

i know you're probably off the charts in terms of standard intelligence measurements and probably have some kind of degree in sciences that are completely irrelevant to any at hand, but

if you really think that's the only choice we've got left, that's



well, at any rate, welcome to name-calling. my best friend's kid has got a broken leg. i am glad you think yourself qualified to euthanize him.

video

[knackered]

[this is england. this is england being stern, and not shouty. this is england looking like england and not some 20-year-old english brat.]

William.

I never would have suggested this if I thought there was any way we could avoid it. If there is slim hope then we ought to take that road, but we have more control over this than if we surrender our control to them.

Do you want those families to suffer under a government who doesn't give a bloody fuck about us?

This is our best option and we ought to prepare for it whether it happens or not.

[dogbane]

[This is William looking--

--well, you can't see him without video. But he does sound pretty shouty when he types something like,]

how is it that fucking difficult for you to wrap your head around the fact that

i don't want

to surrender our control

to you

who are also an imperialist cunt of impressive proportions, utilizing rhetoric across the network to try and get me to put my people in danger.

[knackered]

[and there is a flash of anger across his face, and then-- guilt? sadness?--and he's back to his self-imposed stoic, stony stare]

I don't want anyone surrendering their control to me. This imperialist cunt happens to give a shit about Heather and Takeshi and Newt and Remus and Sirius and yes, even you.

All I want is to give us a fighting chance now that we can barely defend ourselves. Wrap your bloody head around that.