EIGHTH TRANSMISSION - VOICE;

[redcosmedic]

[ It's a few days after the Feywild magic has been handled and its changes worn off. Everyone has returned to normal, and today Knock Out sounds contemplative. The last time he'd made an idle inquiry to the network like this, he'd gotten a very good response and it had been an intriguing distraction. ]

What's an example you've seen of someone rising above their station or circumstance? Pull off something improbable with nothing but determination and a little dumb luck. Accomplish what they'd never been trained for or expected to do...

[ For a moment, it seems like he might just leave the question there, inviting answers, and then abruptly he seems to forge ahead with the rest of the thought. ]

About 20 megavorns ago, give or take, I was stationed at a medical outpost in the Lilloyn system, on a moon above Dagaun III. The system itself had already been stripped and moved on from, but its location was midway between two active front lines, so it made tactical sense for the hospital to be there. There were around 8000 injured mecha, four doctors including myself and about 30 assist staff.

One minute I'm laterals deep in a tank's chassis patching shredded fuel lines, and the next thing I know, I'm being hauled out of the rubble missing thirty percent of my frame and a fifth of my spark chamber. An enemy stealth bomber had orbital dropped a ternary fission payload on us — we had no warning. Everything just went... white.

The official ruling was that the other side had gotten faulty intelligence that our location was a weapons depot, and targeted it accordingly. Whether that's actually true or just the convenient party line, who knows.

The only Decepticon facility within three week's flight was an old strato refinery platform one system over. Minimal crew, maybe 10 mechs. They had one staff medic, trained for industrial injuries — equipment wounds, blunt damage, that sort of thing. Not trained for trauma, and certainly not for the complicated process of repairing a spark casing.

Search and rescue brought her thirty-one badly wounded survivors from Dagaun III. Despite having a medbay the size of a storage closet and minimal supplies, she only lost two of them. Twenty-nine mechs stayed online because of her.

And you know what her original caste was? Trade. She was a finances handler back on Cybertron, managing stocks and investments for wealthy clients. She took a basic medical upgrade after the war started because... well, because she could, I suppose. There wasn't anyone left enforcing caste-specific modifications by then. Which... was kind of the whole point.

[ Knock Out resets his vocalizer; the verbal shrug is audible. ]

Anyway... watching people grapple with being changed the last week, not just physically but mentally as well, yet still making do with it... reminded me of her.

Comments

voice;

[jichengren]

[ There's a lot about this broadcast that Jin Zixuan doesn't understand. What's a Decepticon? How could there be a medical outpost on the moon? What is Daugan III?

But he has little else to do, so he'll comment. ]

I have seen those lowly born rise above their station and excel. Some of the disciples of my clan were born commoners, and serve the Jin Sect loyally.

[ His half brother is one such example, but... Things with Meng Yao are complicated, to put it best. And besides, he may see this message. Better not to mention him by name. ]

Re: voice;

[redcosmedic]

What made them lowly born? Just their economic status, or...?

Re: voice;

[jichengren]

That, and the strength of their Golden Core. Though, that can be strengthened with practice.

Re: voice;

[redcosmedic]

[ Yeah, that means absolutely nothing to Knock Out, and even a cursory search on the internet doesn't yield anything. It must be something world-specific, he supposes. ]

What is a Golden Core? I'm not familiar with the term.

voice;

[jichengren]

It is the qi reserve inside a cultivator's body that he draws from to power his cultivation. It allows us to have greater strength, agility, and resilience.

Voice

[swordsense]

I mean, I've seen a group of villagers with sticks fight off a squadron of soldiers with farm tools. If...that counts?

Re: Voice

[redcosmedic]

Yes, that counts. It must have been some extraordinary circumstances to move them to do such a thing.

[swordsense]

When your homes are threatened, generally...yeah.

And I...She-Ra...can only be so many places at once. So, they learned how to fight. I'm proud of them.

[redcosmedic]

[ Knock Out's tone is sober. ]

Just... be careful, that they don't become demonized by others for fighting back.

Voice

[thyarchon]

Doth the tale need be one of personal witness or would a second hand accounting be acceptable? Tis oft how things truly go when the likes of those hailed as heroes afterwards art involved in affairs.

Re: Voice

[redcosmedic]

[ Knock Out is amused. ]

Secondhand is fine, I'm not vetting senatorial candidates here.

Re: Voice

[thyarchon]

There hath been many then. Both ally and enemy, well known and passing acquaintance.

Dost thou desire a tale of single-minded determination, the purest of dumb luck, or one of both in equal measure?

Re: Voice

[redcosmedic]

[ Knock Out's not quite sure what to make of the language, but he figures everyone's got their quirk and since he's able to understand the meaning, no point in bringing it up. ]

Oh, I could use a laugh. Let's try the dumb luck one.

Voice

[moonlitpath]

That's really brave and talented of her to do that and I'm glad she kept you online. Um... Did... did she make it through the war? To see peace?

Re: Voice

[redcosmedic]

The war's not over yet, bitlet. I haven't even made it through to see peace yet.

But I don't know what happened to her. After I'd recovered, I offered to take her with us. I could get her assigned to a medical services regiment, somewhere far from the line where she could train up any specialization she wanted. She'd have been an excellent medic. I had my officer's commission by then, and I knew what strings to pull to make it happen.

But she turned me down... she wouldn't leave her crew on that platform without her. So we left and she stayed, and I never saw her again.

Video

[moonlitpath]

[Excuse you, she swaps to video just so he can see her Frowny Face of Frown.]

Yes you did! Here counts! Maybe it's not home, but you- you made it through to see peace. And, I- I bet she's fine, because if she can keep twenty-nine people -um, mechs- alive, she's like, a superhero and they always make it through to the end no matter what!

[The sagest of sage nods.] So, maybe one day she'll come here and see peace too!

[Naive hope? Probably, but it's still hope and she's ridiculously good at that.]

Re: Video

[redcosmedic]

This is a lull, not peace. Peace is when the fighting's done, not... on pause because you got spirited away to a parallel universe.

Her crew was very tight-knit. And they weren't soldiers, so... yes, I'm sure she's fine.

[ All right, that's a bit of a stretch, Knock Out's hardly sure about it. And war hardly spares the kindly or the well-intentioned. But it's hardly the time to point that out to someone like Mizuki. ]

If she does, I'll be sure to introduce you.

video

[a_gaggle_of_ghosties]

Seen? No. Not really.

But I suppose I qualify.

Re: video

[redcosmedic]

Oh? You can't drop a claim like that and not elaborate!

[a_gaggle_of_ghosties]

I spent much of my life enslaved. I came from nothing- less than nothing, in the eyes of the Empire- but happened to have a particular gift with the Force. By Imperial decree, that meant I was to be trained as Sith or executed immediately.

[There's a slight shrug of his shoulders at that- potentially easy enough to overlook, but something about wearing the bones of ferocious beasts all over your armor meant it was considerably easier to spot.]

Obviously, I chose the option that only involved the mere likelihood of my demise, not its certainty. And so I was brought to the Academy, put at the disposal of a certain Overseer, and ended the sole surviving acolyte under his...care. Not for lack of trying on his part- aside from sending me on tasks he deemed impossible, or likely to see me torn apart by wild beasts, he also arranged for two of my fellow acolytes to murder me. It didn't work.

[Another small shrug. It's not really his fault he killed like a quarter of his classmates, they were the ones who tried murdering him first. So obviously it doesn't count!]

In a few short years I'd survived the attentions of two masters, acquired my own fleet, took over a cult, killed no less than three darths- two of them being the masters mentioned previously, executed my former Overseer, earned my place on the Dark Council and the authority to command the whole of the Sith Empire, saved the galaxy from the Dread Masters, put down a coup launched by a power-hungry Darth in the middle of an active warzone, fixed a planet literally tearing itself apart, put down another lunatic trying to destroy half the galaxy, and presently command a force large enough- and powerful enough- to rival the two powers that control the known galaxy.

Which, prior to finding myself here, was being put to use waging war on an Empire from outside the known galaxy and ruled by the wretched offspring of the single greatest threat to all life in the universe. Power-mad brats who just happen to command a fleet with more warships than there are stars in the night sky. And no, that is not dramatic license. If you were to count every imPort to ever arrive on this world, there would be fewer of them than there are capital ships in the Eternal Empire's standard expeditionary force. We've long since given up trying to count how many ships make up the rest of their navy.

[Juuuuust gonna take a moment to calm down, regain composure, and stop clenching his fists hard enough that one has to worry if those pointed metal claws at the ends of his gauntlets weren't going to be drawing blood soon.]

It's been an eventful decade. Even more so when you consider I was only awake for half of it. If I'm being honest, this primitive mudball has proven to be something of a much-needed vacation. Even with its annoying anomalies.

[redcosmedic]

[ Well. Okay. Give him a minute because that wasn't the kind of tale he was expecting. He's not appalled by any stretch, just... taken aback. ]

If someone hasn't offered you a book deal, I'd recommend it.

voice;

[bifroster]

[This was not one of the stories she had heard before, but given its content, she understands why he would not want to tell this one.]

There's a lot of people like that back on earth. One of the most famous examples on my version of it would be Captain America. No one expected a sickly kid who grew up in the Great Depression to make such an impact on the world, but he did. Just like Florence Nightingale, who became a war nurse even though her caste expected her to just marry well and produce children.

Or Annie Jump Cannon, who was nearly deaf most of her career, but still helped lay the foundations that modern astronomy relies upon.

Re: voice;

[redcosmedic]

[ Ironically, Jane has a better chance of hearing these kinds of stories than most; she'd need only ask. In any case, she provides three intriguingly varied examples for him to inquire about. ]

[ knowingly: ] Do I sense that the third is a personal favourite?

voice;

[bifroster]

Mmm, maybe. There's a number of astronomers that are on my list. But she is amazing. She came from a time where it wasn't acceptable for women to be in the sciences, she didn't let her disability stop her, and she was one of the most brilliant minds before computers were invented. She nearly did everything by hand.

Re: voice;

[redcosmedic]

Mm, good for her. It's not easy throwing yourself into an institution that was built from the ground up for and by those who're different than you.