audio

[lyingheart]

[ Annie manages to sound fairly calm through all of this, only allowing her irritation and amalgamation of unhappy emotions show through in the words she chooses to emphasize, smattered throughout her report-like announcement. ]

Loki, you can considering this a love letter for the information age, following up on when you were asking people here to deal in sharing and caring. United States Military, you're welcome to listen in, but all this information is on file with you already, so you may find it lackluster.

Any helpful technologically capable people out there might help me out and work on encrypting conversations below here for the sake of freedom of discussion.

I don't like talking on these, and I'm not good at it, so pay attention. I've included two attachments to this broadcast, and none of the dramatic bullshit we've seen on national television lately. This is all information I've been given by Lieutenant Ananke. Any questions in specific to those contents within should be directed to her, through her contact line programmed onto your device. Or stop by in person. I don't care.

The first is a list of imPorts and native heroes who went missing following events in 2008. Some are reported dead, others only as missing. These names should be familiar to anyone who attended the swearing in last month, where we were witnessing the opening of the memorial graveyard. Not all of these names are there. Not all families wanted a memorial. Not everyone thinks these people are truly gone, or truly dead.

The second is a series of video recordings of a handful of these people. I'm hoping that you can help me identify everyone in attendance - some recordings are labeled with names. They match up to descriptions on file. It also means we have a few more faces to put with names. I've guessed that the young blond man we see in the last two videos is Liam Lawson, a younger native hero. I believe the woman he isn't with, the one sitting down, may be Eleni Wang, who hasn't been heard from since going underground in 2008. I'm not positive, so here's the floor, open for discussion.

Further, myself and several others have been pursuing investigations into the Hornets, localized to the city of Nonah. It's not all swift moving, but I hope that each person will be sharing information on what they learn as they learn anything. I'm presently investigating one of the former students at Phillip North's gym, but if that provides information, I won't know for a while yet. Liam Lawson is also being investigated by another of those who expressed interest, and I'd recommend he share that information, even if it's a dead end, with the imPorts when he has a chance.

[ If there's anything to report, Wally. ]

I don't care how much or little you trust the government. I don't care how often you want to piss into the wind. There's too much shit going on for me to care about bickering over those details, between Russia sitting on ships staring down Alaska up North, to puzzles pointing toward concerns further South and outside this nation, to the fact that Lunatic, one of our own, has been murdering people, and tried to incinerate a seventeen year old civilian earlier today for having been involved in a drunk driving incident that ended another's life.

Cut to the chase. What else is happening that we should know about? Enlighten me.

[ Attachment A: HFILE1.PDF ]
[ Attachment B: Video Files ]

[ OOC Note: Any references within this post to Kara Strydottir should read as Kara Lindholm instead, as that is how her name appears on network. My apologies for any confusion! Please use Kara Lindholm for any references in this post and related comment threads. ]

Comments

[lyingheart]

If you can, then please do. It's beyond my capabilities, no matter what some idiots might think.

These are people involved in the history of this world, and what heroes and imPorts are in this world. They're also as much a part of the war we're facing now as before, only they might have more insight into what was going on beforehand than we do. We're what, at most, nine, ten months in this place? They have years, and in most cases native knowledge, of what's happened here.

How long do you think this war will stay cold? Forty more years?

[forcowardice]

I'll work something up and give you basic instructions on how to use it. Very, very basic directions.

I. Hmm. I don't know. I don't want any part of it.

[lyingheart]

Thank you.

Neither do I. If we get stranded here for too long, I don't think it will be a matter of want.

[forcowardice]

You don't think it's possible to just hide somewhere and not be part of it?

[lyingheart]

No. With the way things are, I think we can be dragged in for doing something like that. Inaction is as much a choice as action. People take about as kindly to either one.

[forcowardice]

Interesting perspective. Would you stay and fight, then?

[lyingheart]

I'd prefer to figure things out that don't require being told to duck and cover if I can't find an appropriate bomb shelter. The way they talk about fighting this war isn't the way we talk about fighting back where I'm from. Weapons on the level of destruction that nuclear bombs can cause, with those long lasting effects... how do you fight that? I don't know. I barely understand what nuclear means.

[forcowardice]

I can educate you, if you really wanted.

But-- honestly, if I had my way, I'd find a place to hide. To keep away from all of this stupidity. I just came out a four million year long war, and I'm not eager to get caught up in that again. Especially if it's got nothing to do with me.

That's assuming there'd be anywhere to go. Probably not.

[lyingheart]

If you feel like explaining, I'll listen. Comprehension is a little slower than that.

I don't think there is... tracking or not tracking, if anyone can hack the nanites that we're all carrying around, to a point, we're never off grid.

[forcowardice]

That's no problem. Do you have explosives where you're from?

...Well, I'll just. Have to keep that in mind.

[lyingheart]

Cannons. Less so in the forms of explosives here... dynamite for some mining.

We don't always have the option of running away.

[forcowardice]

All right. So imagine that a nuclear is like an explosive. It's like a very large piece of dynamite. When it's dropped on a location, it lets out an enormous explosion. So big that it can wipe out a big city, becoming so hot that things like trees just boil away immediately. There's nothing left. Then, there's this nuclear energy left over the area, which could cause what's known as radiation sickness and poisoning. Probably death.

It's worse than that, but basically if there was a nuclear war, most of us probably wouldn't stand a chance. Not unless we had some protection. [Or if he could find a way to turn back into a Cybertronian.]

...I know. And sometimes it comes back to bite you.

[lyingheart]

Yes... I'm aware of that sort of technical overview. The radiation left over sounds like the worst. People can rebuild from one bomb, or many. There's no easy defense against the radiation, or reclaiming land back from something like that. How many decades does it take for it to be safe again?

Yes. It does.

[forcowardice]

Depends on how bad the nuclear explosion is. If you wanna wait for the radiation to be gone entirely, it'd be longer than your lifespan easily. For it to be safe... with some work, it could be a couple of decades.

You sound like you know the feeling.

[lyingheart]

Those aren't comfortable answers.

And you might say I do.

[forcowardice]

...I'm sorry. I just wanted to be forthcoming with you.

I won't ask if you aren't comfortable sharing. But I ran away once too. It didn't turn out that well.

[lyingheart]

Don't apologize. It's a reality, and you didn't hold back. I appreciate that.

Ah... I didn't make it far. There's not much to share.

[forcowardice]

Sure. Here's Fulcrum, bringing in the optimistic view of things. Heh. Well, let's just hope things won't turn out that way.

Mm. That's fair. Same for me, more or less. I got away for two weeks until I was arrested. Kinda had it coming, I suppose.

[lyingheart]

Leaving optimism to the optimists is best.

Ah... arrested for what, if you don't mind that I'm asking?

[forcowardice]

Fair enough, 'cuz it sure isn't me.

For running. I was convicted of cowardice. My military's pretty uptight.

[lyingheart]

Sounds almost like being accused of desertion. So was it?

[forcowardice]

I-- look, I'm not a fighter. I'd never been in battle before. I'm a technician and I studied environments. When the opposing forces came, I... I ran.

I know how it sounds. But when I looked around and asked myself are these the people that I would die for, the answer was no.

[lyingheart]

I'm not here to judge you. I'm not interested in things like that. Understanding the context your running was framed in was all I was looking to do, and now I do. You're an environmental technician, not a soldier. That's fine. I can't understand a people who expects that everyone can be suited to the actions soldiers take. Enough soldiers aren't even suited for what they do.

[forcowardice]

That makes sense. Thank you for understanding, Annie.

Too bad you weren't my commanding officer at the time. Would have saved me a lot of grief. [To put it lightly.]

[lyingheart]

And likely given you others. Any military short sighted enough to put me in command of others is doomed.

[ she's a lone wolf. she will not, and does not, properly compensate for others. she is a terrible choice for anyone to be in command - she works far better under people than she does over them, so to speak. ]