¶ Mir saves McKenzie and the League
Characters: Captain Miranda Collins, Commander Hugh Daniels, Captain David McKenzie, Captain Marcus Reid, Major Camilla Sonya, Lieutenant Commander Gabriella Lopez, Rekonin
- Miranda takes Rekonin to Prometheus's last known location
- David reports that there's an interdiction field that matches known specs for Prometheus.
- Daniels and Rekonin try to work out how long the interdiction field can last for; according to the specs it shouldn't even be able to generate one.
- They realize that there's likely two stations, one built inside the other. The second station generates the power for the interdiction field, but McKenzie only provided specs on the first.
- Given some hard limits, Rekonin thinks that they only have a little over 24 hours they could possibly run the field for.
- From the time contact was lost with the station, they must basically be at their limit.
- Mir thinks that there has to be some kind of stalemate going on inside; if they're trying to keep something in, (most likely), then the distance is so close, an all out fight wouldn't last long.
- This means when they go in, they will likely be in the thick of it.
- Mir discusses strategy with her squadron leaders
- Mir explains the situation, and they point out that they will lose prescious time if they wait to launch fighters till they know where they'll be needed.
- David points out they can launch before hand, hanging off the hull so they're ready to go the minute Rekonin breaches.
- Mir tries to object, but David's plan wins out.
- Mir contacts the Marines
- There's a problem with having enough assualt craft; the last action messed up several of them, and Engineering isn't going to be able to get them all flying in time.
- Lopez comes up with an idea that ought to work, it's crazy, but it's what they've got.
- Rekonin breaches the interdiction field
- Most of the support fleet is disabled, though a few ships are attacking each other while the stations attacks them both.
- At the edge of the field, an uncompleted dreadnaught is trying to escape while an Archigos class attacks it.
- Rekonin's fighter peel off, and the ship heads towards the dreadnaught.
Characters: Fleet Admiral Alastair McKenzie, Captain Nicholas Hayes, Kashk
- McKenzie is at the helm of the Archigos, while Hayes and Kashk help out.
- She's holding together, but she wasn't even fully fixed from Tel'Erani.
- McKenzie is flying her because he knows her, not because she was the best option.
- They're getting a lot of hits on the dreadnaught, but she's proving hard to take out.
- Rekonin shows up, starts providing cover fire.
- Mir asks if that ship's the ship she thought it was and McKenzie confirms.
- Mir wants to take over fighting the dreadnaught, but McKenzie won't back down.
- Instead, he orders her to send over some people, and keeps pressing the attack.
Characters: Captain Miranda Collins, Commander Hugh Daniels, Rekonin
- Daniels is looking at sensor readings, feeling very troubled.
- He almost reckognizes the weird sensor readings from the dreadnaught, but he can't place it.
- He gets super upset with McKenzie for pressing the Archigos back into service.
- This is a bit of foreshadowing about this issue being brought up later.
- Suddenly it clicks; he remembers about how the Archigos was designed to try a new form of subspace engine, and how the readings looked a lot like this.
- He tries to sound the alarm, but it's too late.
- Mir has them begin cleanup operations and moves on; there is nothing they can do.
Characters: Captain Miranda Collins, Commander Hugh Daniels, Rekonin, Fleet Admiral Alastair McKenzie, Captain Nicholas Hayes, Kashk, Jirael, Major Camilla Sonya, Lieutenant Commander Gabriella Lopez
- McKenzie has a private conversation with Mir, chiding her about Rekonin's uniform choices
- Mir points out that unless he gives her a commision, she's technically equipment, and she doesn't give a shit what she wears
- McKenzie still objects
- Mir shuts him down with 'If she makes you uncomfortable, that's on you'.
- Kashk starts off the meeting with thanks
- Jirael objects to his open-ended offer to help however he can
- McKenzie refocuses the meeting on the problems at hand
- While he starts presenting, Rekonin notices that Jirael is growing more uncomfortable, and realized her pain medication is wearing off.
- Doing some leet hax, she figured out Jirael's favorite tea, and orders that, along with some medicine.
- McKenzie gives a brief update about how they've managed to get the local situation under control.
- Lopez interrupts, and basically says, "what the hell? The Terrans had a sleeper in the Joint Chiefs; we're so fucked."
- McKenzie admits it wasn't the Terrans.
- McKenzie gives a briefing about the Sooni.
- He explains they were once human, but were instead genetically modified to be better.
- Then then mentions the blade summoning.
- Lopez, slightly, looses her shit. “¡No (me) jodás! You’re telling me that the Joint Chiefs were killed by magic fucking space ninjas?”
- McKenzie explains there's no magic here, just more laws of physics than we previously knew. Everything here could be done with technology, if they tried hard enough.
- Mir counters with, 'but we can't except this on blind faith. We need to understand, in order to be able to fight this.'
- Jirael snaps back that Rekonin is based on these principals, and if Mir can't get that, then maybe she didn't need to be in command.
- Rekonin rushes out to meet the tea and medication, and brings it in.
- Jirael sees what Rek is doing, and it defuses the situation.
- McKenzie continues, explaining about Focus.
- Daniels objects to the idea, saying there would be scientific evidence if it were true.
- Khask says the NorAellians have such evidence, but are not great at applying it. That honor goes to humans.
- Daniels, again, objects.
- Kashk points out that while most of the time it isn't this, sometimes humans looking for something alter the nature of the universe in order to find it.
- The room is still skeptical.
- McKenzie rains on their parade.
- “And,” the Admiral cut in, “we have our own evidence. Throughout human history there have been gifted individuals who can do things that we didn’t think possible. The governments in power invariably cover it up. And then they try to harness it, only to find that the ability is either impossible to control, or unreliable. These cases are vanishingly rare; I’ve uncovered about a dozen possible in the whole of human history. But the most recent, and one of the most powerful was only two hundred and fifty years ago. And he is still alive.”
- "...This man was a real piece of work. Serial killer, talking to an imaginary, invisible demon he thought was his lover. Has the ability to create people out of nothing, though. Seems to only recreate his victims, and even then they’re oddly incomplete. More like moving dolls than people, easily bent to his twisted will. Only once did he create someone from scratch; and he has no control over her.”
- McKenzie says they all need to just accept this, before they move on; it's real, it's true, and every thing else hangs off it.
- Sonya reminds everyone she's still in the room.
- She says she just wanted to know what her people were up against, and makes it clear she isn't going to write them off.
- Hayes tells her it's possible, but not super likely they're still alive.
- We get a reveal that Hayes was a Marine before joining Intelligence.
- Mir says that for now, they're trying to track the ship, but that's all they can do for the moment.
- Mir brings up the issue of not being able to trust anyone, since they don't know who might be a sleeper agent.
- Rekonin points out that she knows no one in this room is a Sooni. And she can help with DNA tests to sweep the rest of the fleet for sleeper agents.
- Mir says that DNA tests can be faked, or else they would have found them already. And false positives could be even worse.
- Rekonin points out that doesn't matter. They won't find any Sooni, because she'll just lie.
- When there's objects, she pointed out she already lied about Sooni being onboard. People trust machines, so they'll use machines to restore their faith, while handling things like they always have. Flag potentials, keep an eye on them, and just play the spy game.
- Daniels gets into the whole idea
- Suggests adding a little theater to it, and using an ineffective way to collect the sample, with all kinds of weird sensors thrown on.
- Hayes throws more fuel on the idea, suggesting a non-ranked spook and marine escort for the tests.
- McKenzie says he'll burn a few deep cover agents to get some positives.
- Kashk reminds him rumors might be enough.
- McKenzie orders Rekonin to work with Hayes and Daniels on getting this set up.
- McKenzie drops an even bigger bombshell
- The Sooni successfully assassinated the the entire executive and legislative branches of the government.
- They also got the Terrans, and several noble houses.
- Rekonin confirms that makes McKenzie next in the line of succession.
Characters: Mr. Zaine, Myron (League child), Alecia (League mom), Unnamed Leage father
- Mr. Zaine is walking along the streets of the League Capital
- He's ruminating on his near total success.
- They only missed three, all on the League side. He's rather grouchy at a 'nearly perfect' outcome.
- He thinks to himself that he'd kill himself in dishonor, but he's too fond of living.
- Down the street, a child runs out of a house, where the parents can be heard to be fighting.
- Zaine remarks on how selfish humanity is, how unwilling they are to help a neighbor. He can't believe parents are given free reign to raise their children, without any thought to how poorly raised children effect the whole of humanity. It seems like complete chaos to him.
- Zaine heads over the the kid, while remarking that a single shred of hope calmed the chaos in the streets, and is keeping things quiet.
- Zaine marvels that in 24 hours, the capital went from rioting, to being calm and peaceful, thanks to one man.
- Zaine introduces himself to the child, and asks what's wrong. Meanwhile, he monologues to himself.
- The child, trying not to cry, says his parents are fighting.
- They exchange names; the boy is Myron.
- Zaine askes what his parents are fighting about.
- Myron says he's not supposed to talk to strangers.
- Zaine says he's not a stranger, he's here to help.
- Myron accepts this logic.
- “Well, ok. They’re fighting because my dad has been drinking, and he thinks mommy had a friend over. I told him she didn’t but he doesn’t believe me. He’s been yelling a lot since all those people died in the government.”
- Zaine counters this by explaining the Myron's dad is scared, and yelling because of that fear.
- “A lot of people are scared about what happened. Sometimes people we love say things they don’t mean when they’re scared. The get mad, when really what the need is our love.”
- Myron's mom comes outside, and talks to Zaine.
- At first she's wary of Zaine.
- The boy says Zaine is his friend, and the mom sends him into the house.
- The mom asks how he knows her son.
- Zaine lies that he lives a few block away, and has seen Myron a few times when he goes for walks around the neighborhood. He appologizes for getting involved, but he heard the fight and saw Myron crying. He tells her that Myron is a good kid.
- She agrees.
- "Listen, I know it’s not really my place. But if there’s anything I can do, for you or for Myron, I’m just four blocks that way, the blue house with the white trim. My name’s Zaine."
- She says they're fine, it's just a bad night.
- Dad comes out, asks who the hell he is.
- She says he's no one, he just lives down the road.
- Dad loses his shit and askes if this is who she's been sleeping with.
- She says no.
- Zaine says something to set this guy off.
- “Hey, now, I don’t want any trouble. Clearly I shouldn't have stopped by, I’m sorry.” Zaine looked passed the man to the woman. “Tell Myron goodnight. And, Alecia, remember what I said. Anytime.”
- Dad says he'll teach both of them a lesson and runs into the house to get a gun.
- Mom runs in after him, and there's a scuffle.
- Zaine resumes walking, still monologuing to himself
- After he gets about a block away, he hears multiple gunshots.
- People start coming out of their houses to see what's going on.
- Someone screams, and the sound of distant sirens can be heard.
- Zaine smiles to himself; he has a plan.
- He's going to let humanity do what they do best, and just give them enough of a shove to turn on McKenzie.
Characters: Lieutenant Commander Gabriella Lopez, Rekonin
- Drunk Lopez is wandering away from the Presidential Inauguration
- She was on the guest list, and her and her crewmates are being treated like royalty.
- She doesn't want to be at the party, instead she's come down to the depths of the space dock, for reasons.
- We learn that all "windows" were really clever projects and computer renderings; they weren't really windows.
- Lopez finds what she's looking for: Archigos
- Lopez curses at 'the old bitch'.
- We learn McKenzie has made her his flagship, and she's getting a full refit, to his personal specs.
- Soon, the last traces of Tel'Erani will be erased.
- “Yeah, well, FUCK YOU. People ain’t as easy to repair, you bitch. Sure, you’re gunna look as good as new. Going to have a nice shiny new engine room. Scrubbed fucking clean, I bet. Well, just because you can’t fucking see it, don’t mean his blood ain’t still there!” She knew she was screaming at an inanimate ship, but she had to say it aloud. Tears came, and she didn’t care. “I ain’t a goddamned ship! I can’t just scrub m’self clean.”
- Rekonin is there, and asks her who she lost
- Lopez cools, not really wanting to discuss him, so answers vaguely.
- Rekonin presses the subject, and Lopes doesn't respond.
- Rekonin breaks the silence by saying she memorized who died on the Archigos.
- "I memorized them. The names and faces of everyone who died on her. Memory works a little differently for me; if I need a fact, my subconscious simply queries it from whatever system or systems I’m connected to. I have access to all the League’s records, as long as I am connected to the right systems. But my own experiences, my own memories are stored differently. They’re a part of me, just like yours are a part of you. That’s where I put those names and faces. It… felt important. To honor the ones I couldn’t save."
- Lopez softens at hearing Rekonin's carrying that burden.
- She points out it's probably not worth making a habit of it. Doesn't sound healthy.
- Rekonin says she won't make a habit of it. Just the first ones.
- “I guess I feel a little bit like she’s my sister. I know she’d want to remember everyone, and since she can’t, I decided to do it for her.”
- Lopez tells her about Steve
- Rekonin knows how he died.
- “He was still pinned when you evacuated Engineering. You left him behind to save as many of your crew as you could.”
- “No, that bastardo Daniels dragged me to a goddamned escape pod! My last memory of that fucking ship was spiraling away from ‘er as the damned sedative Daniels gave me knocked me out.” She punched the window. “‘Least I coulda done was die with him.”
- “I’m glad you didn’t, Chief.”
- Rekonin is crying, but Lopez is unable to reach out.
- “I have blood on me, too. Did you know that Chief? They can clean every surface. Replace bulkheads, strip everything with a laser abrasion tool, and it doesn’t make it go away. Their blood seeps into the decks. Becomes part of the ship. Every man and woman who has ever lived or died on that ship leaves their mark. They may be too small to see, but they’re there. Even metal can’t ever truly forget.”
- Lopez finally breaks, and gives Rekonin a hug.
- Rekonin says she needs to be strong for the crew
- Lopez says she can't keep that all inside; doing that isn't being strong, it's being scared. It takes strength to admit you're hurting.
- Rekonin asks if she loved Steve
- Lopez says she doesn't know. But she wanted to find out.
- Rekonin admits she's got a thing for Daniels.
- She worries that since he says Lopez is his best friend that she has to tell him.
- Lopez says no, she's not drunk enough to deal with that shit.
- The two collapse into a heap, with Lopez thinking about how she's just a poor replacement for Steve, Daniels real best friend.
- Lopez decides that neither her nore Rekonin needed to be alone that night.
- It's open-ended if anything happened between the two, or if it was entirely platonic. That's intetional.
- Lopez is Bi, and Rekonin is Pan.
Characters: Jonathan Simon, Julia, Sylvia, Grey
- Simon lands on the world the Grey attacked.
- He took a luxury ship there, "entertaining" the owner over three days.
- Simon lands and starts walking around the ruined colony.
- Julia manifests herself, and talks to him.
- Simon is unhappy with her manifesting, but she points out Abby does it all the time.
- He asks why she's here, and she says her reasons are her own.
- As they walk through the colony, he remarks on how not a single piece of technology seemed to survive, how it was all just a twisted, broken landscape.
- As they walk, Simon and Julia banter
- He says he's not the man she used to know.
- She says that he's the man she loves; if killing her didn't change that, neither would ignoring her for two centuries. And he hasn't change as much as he likes to think she has.
- He gets upset, braging that if Sylvia were here, she'd see what true lvoe looked like.
- She counters with, 'Where is Sylvia?', and he starts ignoring her.
- He does think back to when he killed her, wishing he'd known he'd have been stuck with her.
- She points out not killing her would have been kinder.
- They get to the center of the destruction, and Simon picks up a fused piece of destruction, admiring it.
- Julia points out it's radioactive and will kill him, so maybe he should leave it behind.
- He gets annoyed at her concern.
- Simon realizes he has to make is way around the crater, going through would actually kill him.
- Simon considers killing her.
- We learn that she can read his thoughts, unlike the other way around.
- They walk in silence until they get to a more rural part of the colony.
- Julia asks why he didn't land closer, and Simon says he didn't know what he was looking for.
- Simon makes his way through the house and into the basement that still has some backup power.
- Julia asks if he thinks anyone survived, and Simon says he's sure of it. And more than one.
- Simon enters the basement, and finds Sylvia waiting for him.
- Sylvia tells Simon to banish Julia, who's paying a lot of attention to the wall.
- Simon informs Sylvia he can't banish her.
- Sylvia gets upset and says as long as Julia's here. she won't be.
- Simon gets bent out of shape over this, because Sylvia leaving him is a bit of a trigger for him.
- However, he can't get rid of Julia, so there's not much else he can do.
- For her part, she just said 'oops'.
- Simon starts to work on the other 'survivor', a Grey
- Sylvia has already worked on this thing, but Simon is going to get all the information he can out of it.
- Simon starts in on it, wanting Julia to see 'the man he always was'.
- She says she's watched ever kill. And she knows what he's become. She still isn't leaving.
- They Grey goes off about their religion of pain, and Simon decides to put that to the test.
Characters: Gunnery Sergeant Matteo Silva, Sergeant Charlotte Graves, Lance Corporal Arno Hendricks, Lance Corporal Gabriel Novak
- The marines are hiding out on the dreadnaught
- They had a commander and two fire teams (nine), but are now down to four survivors.
- The Sooni weren't without casualties, however.
- They've take out two Sooni of the 5 to try an escape.
- Once the marines had figured out the Sooni had escaped, they'd switched to guerilla tactics.
- They managed to take out the forward reactors.
- The Sooni shut down two of the remaining 4 reactors.
- This means they're done running
- They are prepping a shuttle.
- The Marines double-time it to engineering
- The Sooni escape, but leave behind a shuttle the Marines can use.
- They make the call; instead of going home, they decide to track the Sooni, and call in the pain.