maskormenace | Permavid

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Most of you have probably heard from news reports and the kidnapped imPorts that they are being held on a space shuttle.

[He snorts in a very inelegant manner.]

Bullshit.

It's a diversion; a common and long-used war tactic that I am very familiar with.

I believe it to be a trap to draw imPorts away from the US so that the Russians stand a better chance of attack. At the very least, it is an attempt to pull resources from where they are most needed.

[He shifts a few pieces of paper off-screen and continues.]

From my understanding of the current level of technology on this world, such a thing would take an enormous amount of resources. At least fifty people have been taken; they will, of course, need several guards as well. That requires a hell of a lot of food, water, and oxygen over several days. The Russians can't have their confiscated weapons dying on them, after all. [So, so dry.] I find it difficult to believe that a shuttle of the required size would escape attention for too long, or that the Russians would be willing to spend that much money when they can hold hostages elsewhere.

Where everyone is actually being held, or how they were taken in the first place, we unfortunately don't have enough information for yet.

[He's purposely leaving it open for others to add anything else they know.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

EXACTLY.

We're peeing in a bucket. There's no way in hell the Russians have figured out gravity in space or got this many of us launched without pinging somebody's radar. You don't put a Spruce Goose into the atmosphere without someone noticing.

We have multiple guards and they change out.

And you failed to account, not just for human resources but for the fuel weight as well.

Ah, I did forget the fuel weight. Good point.

Is there anything else you've noticed that's odd?

Metal walls, poor living conditions, plenty of gravity. It's difficult to detect a pattern among those taken.

They've tried to commit to the game of 'you're in space' because they're feeding us crappy space food. They've given us oxygen masks (for what purpose? just to sell the space shit some more?) and I swear I felt a rumble or something last night. I don't know if we're being moved. I don't detect movement, but it could just be very smooth hover tech. Earlier I think a guard might've been a little wet or something. Is it raining/snowing out there? do they need a boat?

Wait wait. Are WE on a boat?

If you believe yourselves to be in space, you'll be less violent for fear of damaging your cell too badly and dying.

A boat would be more likely. How big is the room you are being held in?

Exactly. They've basically warned us as much, something about not liking what's out there or something.

Barely big enough for 50 bodies to coexist + the bathroom area, though we're kind of...not given much privacy. --There are kids here. It's really not fair and I'm not usually one to think of others first, but there are like...pre-teen kids and this is inhumane.

Consider maybe that we're on a boat, or you need access via a boat. Does that really limit our search parameters? There's rivers everywhere, right? And they have a couple of seas, and the entire arctic circle area and there's some seas/bays/etc along the Pacific... God, I can't even think geography. Russia's just a giant fucking blob in my head.

But consider spaces you might put a cargo ship. That's not a bad hypothesis for the time being.

[Hah, inhumane. It's still jarring to hear human-centric language like that, but he hides it well.]

Not by much, but it does. I will pass this on to the others. Do you wish to remain anonymous?

Do I wish to uh...well, no. [Newt is all about stardom and credit for his ideas. It might bite him in the ass later, either with their captors or Hermann, but god, he can't resist.] No, you can tell them it was me.

Alright. I thought you may have set this to private for a reason.

Was there anything else that might help?

I did. I.
Fuck.
Just, yeah, leave my name off.

I'll see what I can think of.

[PRIVATE TO KANG AND QUBIT]

Alright, so following up on the locked down post idea I left Hermann with. Please to be sharing with the crowd if you want. I've made it visible to Qubit since I'm sharing ideas with him and IDK but I think he probably has a better grasp of subs than you or me.

I like the sub theory more than a boat. Definitely DEFINITELY easier to hide us if we're just hidden under water than if we're in a big boat that's not doing anything. We must have surfaced, maybe resupplied. That might be why the guard was wet and might be why we felt movement. Sinking is easier than rising, right?

Hit up history buffs from Earth:
WWI - the Germans had uboats. Did the Russian's have subs? Where did they put them?
WWII - definitely had subs.
Cold War - didn't they even get a sub to San Fran? I swear there were conspiracy theories or something. DEFINITELY HAD SUBS. definitely had bases.

Bases. Russian geography. Bodies or regions of water that you could submerge a submarine deep enough to hide it from whatever the Americans might use to spy (planes? satellites?) without scraping the bottom. Somewhere to park, either by just sinking low enough, hiding under ice (Arctic???), or places with hills/mountains on the coast in which to hide a complex if we think we're docked in a base.

It's possible we're in a sub in open water just sitting at the bottom, or it's possible we're in a sub that's docked in a base. I don't think we're moving much. I don't think we've been removed from the vessel we're in, because there wasn't THAT much movement.

Okay, okay. Just a plan of action because I need one. Find us a manual for a sub. Dumb it down. Figure out what we need to learn to make it rise and move if we get control of it, just in case we're right and just in case we're in the middle of nothing. Figure out how many people we need to run it, not because I plan on thinning our numbers, but because we need people on board with this. I think we should copy to Miles on this. I don't know how subs and spaceships compare, but we'll have to see.

Or find us a manual to know how to run the instruments to detect where we are if we can't find our comms so we can give you gps. Give us sonar power. Anything. How to fire a missile if that would be detectable by the Americans.

Ideas?

or no ideas. That's risky. I'm throwing stuff at you though because I'm tired of doing nothing and I'm going to start having a meltdown if I can't keep busy with something okay? So I'm going to talk at you two even if you don't talk back because I don't want our captors to know what you're doing but I can't do nothing. I said that already.

but I can't.

I will try to find as much of this information as possible. It may benefit imPorts best, in the long run, if the hostages were to escape on their own and denounce the Russians' claim of property.

Oh. And did I mention Lackey, our cute AI babysitter/ gatekeeper?

[ he's not actually looking at the video now, as he is focused on the computer screen so Agito can continue his internet sleuthing. But Akito is clearly paying attention to what's being said. ]

Have there been any similarities between the kidnapped imPorts apart from their imPort status?

None that I am aware of. It seems to be a fairly random mix.

I'll keep looking for a connection.

Okay you've got some good points but consider this:

First, it is still possible that they're up there, even if it's kind of unlikely.

Second, if they aren't up there, it would still put a potential rescue force in a unique position to land just about anywhere on Earth once we figure out where they actually are. The ultimate high ground advantage, as it were.

I've been informed that the room they are in has constant gravity, as well, and that a guard was noticed with wet clothing. This person thinks they may be on a cargo ship with hovertech, or in a place that requires a boat for access. Russia does have seas and quite a bit of coastline. It would also explain the rumbling several of them felt below them.

...that is an idea. I'm not sure if it would be worth it yet, though.

Do we have any imPorts capable of space travel without a shuttle?

[Because of course they must have someone that can fly fast enough to escape the atmosphere and/or can survive the vacuum of space. They've got just about everything else.]

None that I've met, at least. And Washington would probably have a thing or two to say about landing an American space shuttle in Russia...

I should really try to rebuild that aerospike when I've got the time. It might be useful if something like this happens again.

We do want to avoid nuclear war as much as possible.

I would think it's more the former than the latter but yes, I agree.

[Another non-human. Dooku raises an eyebrow, but stays focused on the strategic considerations under discussion.]

I think you are right. This war has been in the making for many decades. The Soviet Union would not initiate this conflict only to seize some of our number. There must be more to their agenda. We can surely expect more attacks, and a trap awaiting any attempt at rescue.

The important question is what the next stroke will be, along with wherewhen it shall fall.

It would be all too easy to monitor Cape Canaveral and shoot down any shuttles that attempt to leave the atmosphere. Most imPorts would revive within days [depending on how much of them was left, that is.], but it'd be enough time to stage an attack.

There is something else that bothers me. Why would they not take all of us at once? Something must be preventing them from doing so, and if we can discover how it was done, we can possibly find their exact location.

A cunning ploy. Perhaps some of us should scout the area around that base for possible ambushers- just to be sure.

It is possible that whatever means they have for abducting us lacks the power to seize our entire community at once. And if that is the case, then we must move swiftly- before they are prepared to take another fifty.

Any attack of that nature would likely be long-distance missiles or sabotage.

Or, they lack the ability to depower or block the nanite signal of a larger group.

There is little we can do about missiles, but sabotage requires a saboteur. And saboteurs can be captured. Every trap can be made to rebound upon its maker.

It is worth further consideration, as long as we have so little useful information. If you were going to sabotage one of these shuttles, how might you go about it?

I do not know enough about space technology to say. My expertise lies in building and bridge construction.

That is somewhat surprising to hear. From what you have said so far, I would have placed you as more of a tactician than an engineer.

[He smiles with some pride.]

I was both, actually. Before I became the Lord-Governor of my kind's nation, I was the commander of the First Dragonarmy Engineering Regiment.

[A leader on a national level, then. The impressed note in Dooku's voice is only partially feigned.]

A soldier as well, then. You bear an impressive resume, my Lord. It is fortunate we have skills like yours on hand in the midst of this crisis.

For many long years.

If you feel a title is necessary, I prefer Governor. I very quickly found that titles from our homes do not hold much weight on this world, and I have never felt the need to unnecessarily flaunt my status.

Governor it shall be, then. And for my part, I will continue to introduce myself as 'Count.' Even if our titles are not recognized by the natives of this world, the skills and experience they represent still hold value- now more than ever. Let us hope that this crisis allows us to show those around us that our status is deserved.

I agree. I believe they might be underwater. Any space-faring shuttle could withstand those pressures and manage propulsion easily.

Yes, that is a definite possibility.

Miles said the guard was complaining about how salty the water was.

[In Russian. It's nice to be space Russians sometimes.]

We are on the right track, then.

Russians usually have a flair for the dramatic, so they might be in space after all.

Would they really be willing to go to all that trouble, though?

You're asking if the country that just declared war would do something just to fuck with us?

I'm pretty sure they would.

[Now, she doesn't know if they're really in space, but somehow she wouldn't put it past Russia.]

All that food and water, all of the fuel needed for a shuttle of that size to break the atmosphere... no army would be that wasteful just to fuck with someone.

[Not even Ariakas would have okayed something like this, and he made some very bad decisions. Kang's pretty certain he's right, but if the Russians really did take the hostages to space, they're complete fucking idiots.]

I'm not saying they actually did it, but I wouldn't completely put it past them.

[She's just got to track one of the people taken and things should be fine.]

You have a point. We're the closest thing to a missile defense system the US has, as far as I'm aware. [They'd have publicized the hell out of it if they did. Or even if they didn't. Star Wars, anyone?] Luring us out of the country could be a prelude to a nuclear strike. It'd be unimaginably foolish, yes, but declaring war - and more importantly, drawing our attention - was a foolish move in the first place. I'm not sure I should put anything past them.

You make compelling and solid points. It is an all too common strategy, used most often by the group that has the most to fear. Perhaps it is unfortunate to call them confiscated weapons, but it is certainly the truth. There is little other reason for them to take such a large number of us unless they intended to find a way to use what they have stolen. If the do not already have a way

My race was created to be a weapon, and we managed to break free to live our own lives as any other people on our world. I'll be damned if I ever allow anyone, especially humans, to use me as such again.

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Later, after the sub idea has time to sink in

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permavid too bc busy!!

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that was supposed to be 'where or when'....

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