trans_9 | Free but at what cost? (Some language warning)

That was unsettling.

The other crew hadn't mentioned anything about hating the Ohm -- not even Cargn, who'd seen them. Their strangely relaxed attitudes about the Ohm had seemed strange when he was podpopped, but he'd attributed that to the ship's mind rub. And that had been less disturbing than the suggestion that they should fight on the strength of their hate. They're not Jedi, he told himself, but it still alarmed him. The non-Jedi members of the Guard who fought to settle personal scores were always the ones who performed a sloppy job, who got their companions in trouble. And if everyone else felt the same way, there wouldn't be a way to end the fighting short of xenocide.

"That's a dangerous way to talk," he said cautiously. "It sets us up to fight them until one side is gone -- and it sounds like, even if we win, it will be one long, ugly war. And that sort of thinking doesn't give us room to find out why they're so angry or scared and stop the fighting."

Good thing she moved her hand back, because Dean jerked at that, almost like he was about to fight. Part of him liked contact, but the thing was, he wasn't used to it. Certainly not from strangers.

"Dude, I saw the sons of bitches cutting through everything on my world like butter. They don't care about anything except taking apart everything else. They're worse than any demon or angel. I couldn't give a damn if daddy didn't love them enough or they didn't get the toy they wanted for Christmas. They're going down."

He added, gesturing to Jubilee, "So she's right on pooling our resources and focusing on them. If we don't, we're screwed, and the universe is completely boned."

Jubilee ignored his physical reaction. She was used to it. She almost mocked the Jedi with quotes from the movies 'hatred leads to the dark side' and all that, but she could almost feel the disapproving look Logan would give her at that. She might not like the guy's belief, but that didn't give her the right to mock him for it.

"Well, wouldn't be the first time." Jubilee muttered. She rolled the bottle between her hands. "War is always long and ugly." she pointed out. "No matter what happens, it is. It's one of the few truths that stretch across cultures, across dimensions, and across time." right, alcohol made her philosophical, even if she wasn't anywhere close to drunk. "And I have to agree with Dean. I've been hated, and almost killed, just because of what I am. And frankly, I'm a little tired of being shit on by the universe, just because someone dislikes the color yellow or whatever." she shrugged. "And, the hatred is the reason you have friends. An outside conscience that keeps you from slipping over that edge. Mine have done it for me before, just like I've done it for them."

Well, that and Wolverine. That long ago talk in LA still lingered in the back of her mind every time she even approached that line.

He shook his head. “I know they’re supposed to be brutal, that all they want to do is destroy other life forms -- but that just makes it more important to find out why they’re angry and set up some sort of peace agreement. If they’re really that xenocidal, the only other alternative is dragging everyone on this ship into a fight to the last being that might not have to happen at all. I mean,” he looked both of them in the eye, “you hate the Ohm because the ship says they destroyed our homes. What’s their reason for hating us? Did the Daligig kill one of their hive queens or vape their original dimension? If you decide to go on the attack without knowing why they’re fighting, you’re just going to get a load of innocent people hurt. At least,” he said, with a tight, rueful smile, “that’s what we learned last time we ran into a bunch of hateful killer extragalactic invaders.”

Dean stared at him, "They're freaking monsters plain and simple, and need to be taken out. Peace agreements aren't going to work here."

He sighed and then added to them both, tapping the side of his head, "It ain't just the ship saying it. I asked for them back. What happened when she grabbed me. I saw them, and I watched them murder thousands of innocents."

Jubilee shook her head. "You sound like Ororo." She said.

Sitting forward, she braced her forearms on her upraised knees. "Peace has its place. God knows, I would let almost anyone live and let live as long as they allowed me the same courtesy." She explained. "And I haven't gotten my memories back, because I'm not sure that those nightmares on top of the ones I already have are a good idea." Jubilee knew, very well, what her powers could do if they got out of control. "Mainly because I don't want to accidentally blow something up." She admitted.

"But, I've known several different alien races that wanted to take over my world." Jubilee shrugged. "Usually, just because they could and decided it'd be a good idea. But the one thing I know? No matter what their reason, it all boils down to this: They don't care how many they kill, and the only thing they listen to is violence back. Do I want to stand shoulder to shoulder with you, with Dean, with any of the people on board and watch them fall in war? Absolutely not. It sickens me that it'll come to that." Jubilee sighed. "But I'm prepared to do it. Because I cannot, will not allow another child, another mother, another friend, another brother to watch their world destroyed."

She stopped. "Oh god I sound like Cyclops." She groaned and buried her face into her hands.

"That's what people thought about the Yuuzhan Vong once," he frowned. "They crashed moons into planets, tried to wipe out the Jedi, and chopped up any machine they ran into, but it turned out plenty of them just wanted to sit down and farm on a planet in the middle of nowhere. Your parsecage may vary." He turned back to the fair-haired man. "What did the ship show you?"

Dean snorted at Jubilee's comment, and added, "I asked for them back since the way things were back home... I had to know for sure. One way or another." Granted he just added to his nightmares, but same shit, different day by his reasoning. Least he still got a good dream once in a while.

He added, "She showed me what happened when they showed up, and started tearing everything and everyone apart. Even the demons we usually take down were nothing to them. Almost had me before I got grabbed, and there was some table before they knocked me out. Guess they stuck me in one of the pods after that."

She wanted to get drunk. Rip roaring, falling on her face drunk. But she wouldn't. She'd behave. Mostly.

"I can understand that." Jubilee picked up the empty bottle to have something for her hands to do. She rolled it back and forth. "I hate to ask, Dean, but... anything else you can remember?" Jubilee looked up at him. "Weapons, fighting styles, vehicles, anything? Small details are usually the most important."

"Cohesiveness?" Ben added. "I heard they're a hive mind, but no one seems to know how complete the queen's control is. And did they communicate with anyone?"

"No weapons, just razor sharp claws. Mostly just saw their Grunts. The Ground forces."

Dean gave an overview of the battle (http://community.livejournal.com/trans_9/347541.html?thread=26487445#t26487445) he witnessed, and what he got from Stacy, leaving out the part of seeing his brother protecting him and getting cut down.

Jubilee leaned her head back against the wheel well. Closing her eyes, she tried to imagine it. "They sound like some horrific cross between the Brood and Wolverine, when he was Death." She sighed, rubbing her eyes.

Which, didn't really give them much. "Ice was the most effective against the Brood, from what I remember. Better to ask him though." She murmured. "Wolverine... well, that was me, but somehow reasoning and reminding them of former feelings just doesn't seem the way to go." It made her want to go talk to Stacy and get her own memories.

"Ice never bothered any insectoids I met," he said, thinking of the Dark Nest and his own time almost-submersed in Gorog's hive mind. "It's more effective to disrupt their communications, or to take out the core of any collective consciousness." He rubbed his forearm absentmindedly. "Depending on the strength of that collective consciousness, you might be able to stop a whole invasion force just be seizing its command being."

"Think it's going to take more than just turning them into bug popsicles. She said they can take down any defense so far."

Dean nodded, "We need to a way to find who that is. Better yet, get to where they're from."

Jubilee opened her eyes. "Sorry, thinking out loud." She apologized.

"Any defense so far?" Jubilee frowned, rolling the empty bottle between her palms. "That means... hmm." She continued thinking for a moment. It made her wish for Scott. He was better at this stuff than she was. AND she wanted to put him through a wall.

"Disrupting communications is always a good step forward. If they can't talk, they tend to fall apart." Jubilee pointed out absently.

She looked up at Dean. "No one knows that right? I've been kinda lax about finding stuff out." She shrugged.

"Don't beat yourself up," Ben sighed, "I've been trying to find out anything I can, and all I've got is that one crew member's met the Ohm, that the crew made contact with the Daligig a while ago, and that the food is awful. I'm almost certain none of the crew knows what dimension the Ohm are from, let alone how to find one of their commanders."

"Yeah I was there when they made contact. Was just after I woke up, and Stacy had iced the rest of the zombies we hadn't taken out. The Dalgig didn't have a lot of info on them either."

Jubilee listened to the pair of them. She closed her eyes again. "I wish Kitty was here." She murmured. "She's so much better at this." Coordinating data was a fun Saturday night to Shadowcat.

"Do we know how many people have their memories?" She asked. She wondered if she could start working on a file to see if there were any details that seemed to be insignificant, but would help. "I mean," Jubilee sighed, rubbing a hand over her face. "Maybe there's something hidden there. I hate grasping at straws. So much better with the 'blowing things up' end of things."

"Master Kenobi's the only other one I've met," Ben said. "I wonder how many people would reply to some sort of questionnaire sent out over the omnicomm system -- 'do you remember the world ending, can you think of anything someone fresh out of the pods should know, what's your favorite color?'"

Dean shrugged at that, "Whoever's asked Stacy for them I guess. Probably not many."

Jubilee nodded. "Just was thinking. Everyone has their own point of view." She looked up at Dean. "You said you took down demons. The one demon I met, well, he's supposedly the father of one my best friends and was a total loser." She shrugged. "And you're a Jedi." She motioned at Ben.

"If we can get peeps with the memories to offer up what they saw, maybe there's something there." She shrugged. "Like I said, Scott and Kitty are so much better at this than me."

"Not everyone's meant for intelligence work," he shrugged. "Collecting memories is definitely the right idea, though." He tugged his omnicomm unit out of the utility belt he'd looped over his plantsuit and tapped the device on. "Anything else you're interested in finding out about our crew?"

He shook his head, "Not just demons, any supernatural fuglies that want to hurt people. I take them out. Me and my brother."

Dean remarked, "I'd say just focus on any memories of the Ohm."

"Huh." Jubilee said, thinking. "The worst I had to take on was Dracula." A pause. "Well, and I was there when Azazel pulled his crap." A shrug.

She looked up at Ben. "And I'd say he's right. We don't need to know anything else. We need intel on the Ohm. Start there, and if we need clarification, or whatever, we can go back and ask for it." She rolled her bottle between her hands.

"Though," she thought for a moment. "Technology level of the world might help too." She nodded to Dean. "I'm guessing that his was about the level of mine, but yours," a nod to Ben, "was more advanced. And we're going to have everything in between."

He nodded. "No interdimensional travel -- except one person-eating blob before I was born -- but we've used faster-than-light travel for thousands of years."

Ben typed in a short entry to his omnicomm, then sent it (http://community.livejournal.com/trans_channel/160281.html) out to the ship. "And done"

Free but at what cost? (Some language warning)

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