video; un: fiona

[cachemoney]

[Fiona is a little out of breath, like she just hustled very quickly away from somewhere. Which she did, but that's neither here nor there. The background behind her is some innocuous wood panelling; she's in a house.]

Okay. So. Crunch time. Things are getting nuts out there, if you didn't notice. We are gonna wind up super screwed if we don't hop to figuring out what the hell to do.

[She holds up a vial. It has some alien writing on it, as well as a familiar symbol on the label.]

We found this inside the hospital. A shit-ton of them, actually. So who wants to find out what Zymandis asshole is responsible for this mess and beat an antidote out of them?



[ ooc. PS, maya, hanzo, and mccree might show up in your threads. feel free to threadjack as well! ]

Comments

[secondnature]

There's a problem. You're missing something big here. [Framing it as retaliation is all good and well, but Keith doesn't think that's the case here.]

They had to get here first. The breakout of the virus started before we landed here.

Our program is behind.

[predomination]

I'm not missing anything.

[not this time.]

Our mission dossier was specific to this incident. If Zymandis caused the incident, then our program isn't behind, but rather Zymandis intentionally incited an incident that would escalate to a Timeline-altering event. They have the means to do that, after all, as the mother organization to ALASTAIR.

Honestly, it's looking more and more like we were lured here.

[pummelling]

Damn it. So it was a trap, after all...

[#UraharaWasRight]

[secondnature]

Not so fast, let's not conclude that that's the case. It makes sense that critical planets would show up on both machines.

[predomination]

It's at least a plausible theory.

[he's not sure yet, but... the facts are there.]

[secondnature]

Okay, so let's say I'm following you. [And he's not sure that he is—Keith has his doubts.]

Why would they focus on us specifically? Our team? It can't just be because we messed up things before. They had also incited the incident on the previous planet. The whole Deemers thing? That was in our mission dossier, too.

[predomination]

But not the primary objective. We could have gone through the entire mission without ever realizing the scope of it if we hadn't gotten extremely lucky.

[another thing he knows far too well.]

Ah, but see? We don't have contact with the other teams nor do we know what their missions are. For all we know, they've all been assigned missions with similar stakes, all for the sake of Zymandis eliminating ALASTAIR. I have no doubt the counterstrike on Perdition's Rest played a part in this, but to think this is solely revenge on us, specifically is probably a bit arrogant. It might have just made them more inclined to move on us, now that ALASTAIR is a confirmed threat to them again.

[secondnature]

Uh, actually—yeah, the Deemers were our primary objective.

If we get caught up thinking that we're the focus of this mission, we're not going to get the right information. Thinking that is only going to hurt us. And look—I've been there. I've done this exact thing.

We can't get blinded by that.

[predomination]

[it takes a lot to make Urahara lose his patience.

and yet his voice goes colder, losing its nonchalance.]

It's a theory. One theory among many, each as true as the last, depending on your perspective. I don't believe in acting on anything unless I have a dozen failsafes to factor in any new information, and I'm not saying you're wrong. If our program is outdated, then it's a problem we need to sort out when we return to Oska. Right now, the focus of the mission are the people who are infected, and I'm not blind to that.

But we shouldn't lose sight of what could happen if Zymandis feels like we're a threat, and that's true regardless of what they're doing here. With that in mind, we need to be cautious. A lot of our team are angry and vengeful right now. They're more likely to be careful if they believe that Zymandis is prepared for that this time.

[secondnature]

I agree. Though a lot of that anger might be because people are sick—

[Keith isn't here to argue endlessly, so his tone actually evens out a bit.]

We need to focus on saving this world. We have two missions now where we showed up after Zymandis already put something into motion. That means our program is likely only able to spot disruptions after they've started. That could be the difference between ours and theirs. They can create a disruption to create the end result of the multiverse that they want because they can act on it; all we can do is react.

Our goal once we get back will be to change that. [This is where Pidge would come in. If only they could get in to the mechanical room ...]

But like I said, I think it's gonna be a big problem if we think we're bait. We're already sick. We're already messed up. And we came into this blind. I don't think we're the big threat we want to be, but it's up to us to change that.

[moneyballer]

They messed up all this shit just to get us here.

[Which means there's no limit to the amount of destruction that they'll cause to get axe the team entirely.

Hiruma was right.]

[predomination]

It's a theory, anyway, but a sound one. We know they caused it, and there's no denying they probably knew we'd come after them, after stumbling on them accidentally last time. We had no idea what the Deemers were and if we had stopped them and halted the mining without learning anything about their objectives, we still wouldn't know.

It means we need to be cautious even more now, Asher-san.

[THIS IS WHY HE DOESN'T TELL PEOPLE HIS THEORIES... of course if he didn't, everyone would be thinking it anyway. he just assumed it was an option a little bit before this. if anything, it's a thought he should have voiced sooner.]

[moneyballer]

No, it makes sense.

[Disrupt the timeline, cause a commotion.

Zymandis kills two birds with one stone... They fuck with ALASTAIR and wreak havoc in this universe, potentially destroying it. Wasn't that why the organizations broke up in the first place? Something like that, about one group wanting to fix things and the other wanting to end them.]

...Do we even know what they're really packin'?

[If this was a lure, there's a chance that the virus isn't the only diabolical scheme their enemies have up their sleeves.

The response from the government seems odd too. When Asher had contacted the mayor, he had pointed fingers at the hospital staff. It seems crazy, but what if the Taraxa have somehow penetrated the legislature in this town? If that's the case, there's no knowing how much power they truly hold.]

[predomination]

I'm not entirely sure, yet, beyond a few vague ideas. The infected being cared for in the sewers tells me that perhaps that is their weapon- a weapon meant to devastate us in the worst possible way. A disorganized group of loyal servants that we're conflicted about harming. The Taraxa were one thing, but they saw how deep the reluctance to harm them was, until we found out they couldn't be saved.

These people can, and they're not shells. They're people pushed in a direction. Can you imagine a more devious weapon against us? A true test of the kind of saviors we really are.

[moneyballer]

[Urahara's words ring true, even if they are uncomfortable.]

Do we know what's up with the Mayor?

[Uttered quietly.]

He knows about us, right? That we're here.

[figureitout]

... So they did this on purpose. Created a virus, infected Adam Bristol, and let it sit until it'd get alarming enough that we'd get sent here.

[ it. sounds more plausible than you'd think. Keith may be thinking jumping to a conclusion like this is hasty, but Stiles is more than willing to believe the worst immediately. ]

You think our team was the intended target, or just any ALASTAIR field team?

[predomination]

I think it could go either way, but assuming they knew this would be our mission is rather bold. It would imply that the mission was given to us specifically, and opens up an entirely different set of unfortunate theories.

[one conspiracy at a time.] But the fact that they might still be irked at ALASTAIR for the failure of last mission remains- they wouldn't care which team turned up, so long as they got their vengeance.

That said, I also don't believe in coincidences, and it's more than a little odd we did get this mission.

[figureitout]

Yeah. I mean, we got this after most of the teams were gathered back in Oska... it's not like we were the only team there to be deployed.

[ and gathering intel on where everyone was going... yeah. better take one conspiracy theory at a time. he doesn't exactly want to dwell on the thought that they somehow have access to ALASTAIR internal files. ]

But you're right — I know this is just the second time we've run into them and technically that still counts as coincidence... but ruling this out as that would be pure stupidity. How likely is it that no one runs into Zymandis for god-knows-how-long and now we do, twice in a row? [ either they have extremely bad (or good, depending on your point of view) luck... or it's a set-up. ]

[predomination]

Precisely. Eliminating anything at this point is poor form. We have to be prepared that we made them angry enough to want to retaliate against us in the worst way possible. And Perdition's Rest made it clear they don't care about the lives of anyone on these worlds.

[figureitout]

As far as revenge goes... destroying a whole city, possibly spreading the infection to the entire world, and infecting people on our team all in one go? I've gotta give that 8 out of 10.

[ grudgingly, but credit where credit is due. if they indeed did this to retaliate... they have to admit it's going well for Zymandis so far. ]

At least this means we know who we're up against... and what we have to do. If we know the virus is of alien origin, at least that's better information than nothing.

[feytality]

Zymandis would do all of this just to get us here...?

[She looks p. horrified]

[predomination]

It's not as clear-cut as that right now, but considering this timeline is set to be destroyed anyway, I can't imagine it would bother them that much to use these people to their advantage and not care what happened.

The Qorral were equally disposable to them last mission.

[feytality]

....

That's awful. What happened on the last mission?

[predomination]

Their Taraxa infiltrators "infected" a number of the Qorral by taking them as hosts, hollowing out their brains, and using their bodies as they saw fit, enabling them to better destroy the core of the planet and disrupt that Timeline. We figured this out a bit too late, but not late enough that we weren't able to put a stop to them. The fact that Zymandis were bested by a group who, up until then, had no knowledge of them likely stung a bit.

It's hard to imagine them not wanting to retaliate even a bit- whether they planned it from the start is of no consequence, in the end. Once they know we're here- and they likely do by now- they'll probably try and trip us up while they still have an advantage. It's precisely why we can't simply hunt them down like dogs.

[feytality]

I heard a little about that. The hosts... you guys saved a few of them, right? [But they're missing memories]

[It is heartening to know, though, that even at a clear disadvantage, they were ablt to beat Zymandis......... hopefully without much murder]

R-Right, I agree. So... what do we do?