[open] show and tell: a ghostly presentation of the first podpopped crew's final confrontation

[encourage]

The two women had waited until a good number of people had gathered in the sensorium next to where the Tapestry was kept. Sakura glanced toward Howard, wanting a visual reassurance that he was there with a recording device. He was someone she could count on for the paranoid sensibilities that she sometimes put aside in favor of other practicalities. With everyone gathered, they turned toward each other, and the sensorium came alive.

Loud pops suddenly rang out through the air. Noises that were clearly gunshots. A panel set into the flesh of a wall nearby exploded and yet at the same time...it didn't.

Far off, there were yells and screams, orders being shouted, the sound of things exploding.

Over it all, there was a voice that rang through the hallway, firm and commanding, and yet frayed around the edges, desperate. It was a woman's voice. Occasionally it dipped too low for certain words or names to be heard.

"Give mwurmur covering fire! Fall back! Fall back! We're almost to the escape vessel!"

Several shadows shapes moved through the hall, shapes that looked vaguely humanoid, but then, just like the noises and the yelling voices, they disappeared without a trace.

Tthe world suddenly shifted again, like they were passing through panes of colored glass. Shapes shifted around them, half in tune with reality, half out. Words were blurred, especially names, as if something had tried to erase those names from existence itself so they'd be lost to time.

"Where's Zuko? Where is he?"

The same woman that had called out orders earlier said, "He's in the vents. He'll catch up. He might've even beaten us there."

At first they could only catch fleeting glimpses of sharp green eyes, and of a face with harsh features when they looked at her. Though they couldn't see it in the woman's features, they likely got the sense that she was lying, as if the story being woven around them had more truths to it than just the ones that could be seen and heard.

There was a voice that could be felt rather than heard that chimed in next: Reckon this my time to shine then. You lot go on ahead. I'll buy you some time.

Then there was a sound like a record scratching and suddenly the scene jumped ahead, and they saw the women firing at something down the hallway, others of various species around her firing weapons and shooting weapons at a blurry, unknown enemy.

A machine man that looked like his design specs had been based on a Cheetah lunged at one of the blurry shapes, fill with fury over a fallen friend nearby, another robot with its chest ripped open and its insides still sparking.

Electricity arced, there was a scream, and a girl that looked like she was made of silver dissolved into a liquid, metallic puddle on the floor.

A man threw a razor-sharp boomerang that sliced the heads off of the invading, blurry creatures, whatever they were, and yelled into a comm device, "Harper! Come in! What's our status on the escape pods, we're getting murdered out here!"

"Uuuuuh, not so good, boss!" came a high and panicked nasally voice over the comms, in a Bostonian accent. It could barely be heard over the crackle of gunfire and pulse blasts in the background "We're taking heavy fire down here and they have the Hub barricaded. Wash is hurt real bad, and something's blocking Will's ability to talk to machines. I know I'm a techie god-made-flesh and all but even I need water to make into wine--I need more time!"

"We don't have time, Harper, we're losing people up here!"

"I'm workin' I'm workin', but I have to lay it to ya' straight, Mercer," the man said, his voice unsteady and shaking, "I don't think we're gonna make it. That's not just the fatalist in me talking either. Our only chance is if you can get a team down through the access vents, we need someone to cover our a--EDEN! NOOOO! Get away from her!"

The explosions on the comm grew louder and were accompanied by screams. Then the comm went silent and only relayed static.

"Harper! Harper, can you read? Harper! Evac team, can anyone on the evac team read?" The man cursed and tossed another boomerang that exploded once it hit one of the machines that was walking through the hallway among the opposing troops. "Cybs, we've lost contact with the Evac team! The evac team's down! I repeat: the evac team's down!"

The record skipped again. There was a barricade up, a forcefield, but cracks were appearing all along it, glowing. It wouldn't last long.

There was an explosion behind it and a young man shot through the barricade with such speed that he slammed into a wall, now forced to stay solid. His hair was white, and he was wearing a strange black jumpsuit. He was hurt badly, glowing green blood oozing from multiple wounds.

"Daniel!" An older man with white hair was quickly at his side. He was injured too, his arm in a makeshift sling.

"Is he still breathing?!" asked the woman named Cybil, the same green-eyed woman from the earlier visions that had been leading this beleaguered group. She looked like she could barely walk now, and limped over to the older man and the fallen teenage boy.

Behind her lay the fallen. Most of them were still alive. Some were dead, but most were still alive. Barely. It was hard to tell yet if that was a good thing. A few were weeping, from the pain of their wounds, or because they were quietly grieving over their lost friends and loved ones. Some were weeping over losing something greater than any one of them.

"He's alive. He's still in his ghost form--he should heal faster that way," said the old man, who was patiently, if awkwardly, tending to the boy.

"You need to leave, Vlad."

The man named Vlad looked up, his gaze hard. "And what do you mean by that?"

"We're done," said Cybil. "We're finished. And don't even pretend for a second that we're not. You're a pragmatist."

"Comes with the territory of being a villain, I suppose," mused Vlad. "So does losing."

"Don't pretend for a second you're a villain, either. None of us are what we used to be before, not after everything we've been through."

"I am, as you said, a pragmatist, which means that I plan to cut and run anyway, to save my own skin," said Vlad. "So why tell me to?"

"We have no idea what they're going to do to us. They might kill us. They might brainwash us. Someone has to stay on the outside."

"If you think I'm going to manage to single-handedly rescue you all, or that I'll even try, you're more deluded than I thought."

"Not a chance," said Cybil. "I'm not an idiot. You're still you."

"Then what do you have in mind?"

"You can phase. You can hide. Because of that stunt you pulled where you tried to take over the ship, before you started playing by the rules, I know that you know where all Stacy's sensor blindspots are. You know how to mess with the AIs. You understand how the tech works." Cybil went on, "Do you remember what they told us about the Tapestry? Down on that planet? That we were the wrong group, the wrong ones. That someone was coming after. Someone from the same ship."

"That others would wake up after us."

"Exactly. And if they do wake up, maybe they'll have more luck than us. You can hide and help them as best as you can, to give them that chance."

"I won't do anything directly. I'm not risking my neck for anyone."

"You won't have to. Free the AIs--Cortana and Rommie can do what they can. Find ways to sneak them some answers."

"I could feed them clues through one of the AIs. Maybe question mark-question mark. Having an AI that's just responsible for intellectual exercises is near useless--I could make him into something else."

"Exactly. Maybe if they are the right ones that Tapestry thing can help them out, I don't know. All I know is they deserve at least a fighting chance. It's less than we had. Someone's got to see this through to the end."

"I don't think I'll get that far, Cybil."

"You can make sure anyone that comes after us at least gets a leg up."

"I can possibly help any new wakers at the start, Cybil, but I won't be able to keep doing it for long, especially once they get back in contact with them."

"Then the rest will be up to them. We just have to hope..."

"What about Stacy? It's all pointless if Stacy turns on them, too."

"That wasn't her fault. They made her do it just like they've been yanking us around since they came in contact with us. She didn't want to. She almost fought it off for us. Maybe if they're more subtle than we were about freeing her from their control, she'll be able to help them. She wanted to help us."

"I'll need a diversion to get away, when the shield's down. I'll barely be able to transform as is."

"We can give you that. We can give them that. The ones that come after us."

Vlad gently patted the teenage boy--Daniel's--hand and stood up. "Don't let them kill the boy, Cybil. Do you understand me? Whatever happens..."

"I can't make any promises. You know that."

"I promised his mother, before she..."

"I know, Vlad."

Vlad rubbed the bridge of his nose with his fingers. "Butter biscuits! I think I preferred the villainy to all this caring-about-my-enemy-like-he's-my-son selfless heroic teamwork nonsense. At least back then, when I inevitably lost, it was well-deserved and nothing but my own pride was hanging in the balance."

Two rings of light flashed over Vlad's body, changing him to a rather nasty-looking creature with green skin, red eyes, black hair, and a strange white suit.

Cybil stood up to face all the others.

"Everyone, listen up!" she called out in the same commanding voice she'd been using earlier. "We only have one chance at all to make sure that we didn't fight for nothing today. We have to make sure at least one of us gets away to give anyone else that wakes up after us an edge against them. Vlad's volunteered to do that. We have to make sure they never get a chance to stop him from slipping away."

There was only silence and hopelessness in response.

"I'm sorry that I couldn't get us through this like I promised. This is my fault. We pushed too hard and too fast, and that was on my orders. Open rebellion wasn't the way. I screwed up and I let you all down." She went on, "But I need to ask you to pick yourselves up one last time. I need you to follow one last order, and it's a very, very simple one."

All eyes were on her.

"Fight to the last."

There was no rallying cry. There were no cheers. There were only hopeless faces staring back at her.

But along with those despondent gazes, there were people wiping the tears from their faces, dragging themselves off the ground to shaky stances, helping the injured off to the side out of the way. There were hands balling into fists and tightening around the hilts of weapons.

The barricade started to fall apart, and then all hell broke loose. They fought, as ordered, and they were beaten, as expected. Amidst pulse fire and bullets and energy blasts, Vlad Masters phased and disappeared through the floor, completely unnoticed, as planned.

After the fighting died down, after the last body had fallen to the floor, stunned, a humanoid being stepped through the bodies, its segmented body probably somewhat familiar to anyone that had met the Daligig or seen footage of them. Its face was in shadow.

A young man's quiet laughter filled the emptiness of the room, and the Daligig stepped through the bodies to where Daniel Fenton lay on the floor, propped against the wall, where Vlad and Cybil had left him.

"You've all lost," hissed the Daligig. "All this death, all these lives wasted, for nothing. So little was expected of you, and you threw away the relative safety that was provided to you for nothing, for the sheer delusion of freedom. Why are you laughing?"

"You're the one that ordered the rebellion be put down, right? You're the one that did this to us? Do you even care?"

"Your actions could have destroyed the entire war effort. I have no regrets for choosing to stop you."

"That's what I thought. And that's why you're going to lose this war." The teenager took in a shaky breath to steady his nerves. "Anyway, I just wanted your attention. I needed to get you closer."

His glowing green eyes were bright with rage, and tears were streaming down his face, as he said, "This is for Sam."

Then he screamed a horrible ghostly scream that tore the faceless one's carapace apart like wet tissue paper and shredded the bodies of the soldiers around him.

One of the other soldiers in the room managed to shoot him with a stunner and then he was out like the others, rings of light passing up and down his body, leaving him back in his normal human form.

The fight was over.

And so was the vision. The grisly scene faded, the bodies on the floor disappearing one by one...

... leaving everyone standing in the sensorium's blank interface as the mental replay shut down.

[ ooc: Feel free to make your own threads and discuss as your characters are want to do! You are absolutely not required to respond to either Barbara or Sakura's question threads. That is optional! ]

Comments

Sub-Thread: Questioning the Ladies

[encourage]

Both women were ready for any questions directed their way in the aftermath of what had been shown. They simple waited for anyone so interested to speak up and address one or the both of them.

[tetsuwan_atom]

Atom watched the video in quiet silence, his body stiff. Small, buried in the fabric of his customary hoodie.

When the video ended, he remained where he'd been sitting, looking fixedly down at the floor. It was happening all over again.

[facepunching]

Soren narrowed his eyes, taking notes during the entire video. He showed no outward emotional reaction to the deaths taking place, save a cold, calculating sort of deliberation.

It was natural, of course, that they'd been used. That was the role of any side in a war. Use your soldiers to win the conflict with as little damage to yourselves as possible. Tell them only what they need to know to fight. Use propaganda if necessary, drive them to see their enemies as inhuman and undeserving of either sympathy or mercy.

The Daligig were to be commended for playing their hand as well as they had.

[theprophet]

Tarrant's eyes were hard -- but of course, he'd predicted this particular revelation.

Well. Their mistake, of course, had been in 'saving' the Hunter, hadn't it? "I wonder," he murmured, "How one might gain an audience with one of these Daligig."

He had no pesky moral compunctions about killing or torturing to get what he wanted. And right now, that was information.

[hadabrother]

Jake watched quietly. Same shit, different universe. And it looked like they had to pick up the pieces this time around.

[handpuppeeet]

Ankh was certainly no stranger to war or battle fields, and the bodies weren't what bothered him and bloodshed weren't what bothered him. Getting yanked around and having your own rebellion put down? That was a bit of a sore spot.

He gave a tick of his tongue and crossed his arms, looking off to the side in an attempt to cover his aggravation. "So the whole point of this stupid space ship is to gather a bunch of mindless cannon fodder for this war? Figures." He never had been a fan of authority.

[aboutthatevac]

Kerrigan folded her arms over her chest. Her reaction wasn't what you would expect. While she looked rather grim (she always did), her lips curved into a subtle smirk.

"Well, are we going to continue licking the Daligig's boots or are we finally going to do something about them?"

[catoutofwater]

Ranulf had seen more than his share of death in battle, but it didn't make the scene playing out before him any easier to watch. He forced himself to watch, though, waiting until it had finished before lowering his head and shutting his eyes with a sigh.

While many of the details were beyond him, the general gist of their situation here was rapidly becoming clearer. And if the Daligig were not to be trusted--which was the impression he'd gotten from some of his crewmates since day one--and if the previous crew had rebelled against them... well, he could see now why it was so important that they learn all they could about that previous crew. If it was their goal to someday fight their way free of the Daligig, they needed to know how to avoid sharing that same fate.

...They'd fought well.

[soulinherfists]

Allenby stared at the blank Sensorium walls as the projection ended.

Those bastards. Those complete bastards! She shook with rage and horror, unable to banish the images from her mind. To use people like that and then squash them out like vermin--the Daligig had a lot to answer for and she would put a stop to them, or her name wasn't Allenby Beardsley!

But she couldn't just go storming off to route them out of their top-secret bullshit on the ship and beat the daylights out of them. That would just end with laser holes through her skull, never mind the brig. She thought back to the discussion on the channels, with Simon and that kid Raz. No more waiting. No more putting up with Stacy. Even if she was sincere, which Allenby didn't believe for a second whatever the old crew members thought, there were a hell of a lot of things in her system to be expunged.

There wasn't any way she could fight for Earth--no way anyone could fight for their worlds under these circumstances. She wasn't going to let her friends get cut down the way those people had. But thinking that awoke a nasty thread of fear--they had been powerful too, amazing fighters. What if it just happened again?

...What if it did? Better that than bland slavery. She'd had way too much of that, and this was a thousand times worse than anything Neo-Sweden had ever done. Besides. They had a lot more than that handful of people right now. "We'll get them," she growled to herself, clenching a fist.

[futureisclear]

Ildraniath watched silently from the back of the room. Her face was impassive, but there was a torrent of thoughts in her mind. Would this finally push the crew towards fighting? Would they go against command and the council to do so? Could they be depended on to see it through to the bitter end?

But the fact that they were angered, shocked and dismayed was good. It meant they would be ready to act.

[curiousredsoul]

Celena watched from the side of the room, her expression less cheerful than usual given the events that had just been observed, events that she had subsequently recorded onto the knowledge crystal around her neck.

Her gaze moving from one to the next even as she thought on the situation at hand, looking from one to the next as she took in near each and every conversation and reaction. While anger, shock and dismay were understandable reactions, they could well lead to rash decisions, decisions that without the correct information could well doom them.

[not_the_philistine]

It's not the first time Goliath has been struck wordless in the sight of the dead. This time, unlike so many others, he is quiet as he observes the destruction, and determination - not horror - is written on his face.

Their war has become twofold - against the destruction of the Ohm, and the tyranny of the Daligig. Of course they will strive against both. Of course they will avenge the sacrifices of the crew that came before them, though it entail sacrifices of their own.

There is a curious peace in this - in knowing that his suspicions about the Daligig's ill intent were right, and in knowing that if he is to give his life in battle, at least he will not give it in ignorance.

A quiet resolve is kindled in his heart. He is done regretting the peace - and the freedom - which he may never know. For the sake of any of his clan, for the sake of any of this crew that may live to see it, he will return to war in earnest.