He should have been dead.

He remembered lying miles below Terra’s surface, the whole planet shuddering, Keith lying beside him, and blood on the white marble. He remembered, too, knowing that Tony and the humans had come together to save that world… To learn that their Terra – no, that the whole universe! – had been destroyed, just when he thought he’d led everyone somewhere they could live in peace…

What kind of beings were the Ohm, to destroy humanity’s cradle? To slaughter billions of beings on the verge of a new way of life, before they could restore beautiful Terra…? It had been one thing to face the human armies of the Superior Domination system. The Mu were humanity’s children; he could understand their sadness, their fear, their anger, everything that drove them to chase the Shangri-La to the ends of the galaxy. Would he ever be able to understand the Ohm? To reason with them? If they came to a negotiation table, would he want to reason with them, knowing what they’d done to his people and their promised land? To Terra.

He pressed his tear-streaked face to the great windows of the observation deck, gazing out into the shifting reds of the Bleed and projecting grief strongly enough for any psychic aboard to feel. Somewhere above humanity’s home, Physis was gone, and Tony, and all the Mu he’d brought across the galaxy. He should have been dead, but he was alive, and everyone who he’d wanted to enjoy the new world was gone.

“We can’t change the past,” he murmured to the vortex. Somewhere beyond the Bleed, there was an infinite number of shining blue worlds. Those Terras could still be saved. They would still be saved. “But we can shape the future.”

He turned from the glass and back to the ship. It was a solid vessel with a good crew. Unlike the fragile Mu, many of the people onboard were warriors: trained, hardy, used to rough conditions and the psychological strain of prolonged combat, and all of them had a reason to fight. He didn’t know them or all of their stories well now, but he’d learn to understand them, and try to guide them as Blue had guided him, once upon a time. He’d been on this journey before – pulling a small band of castaways across a sea of stars. They’d reached their goal then, and they would reach it now, because his last words to Keith were as true here as they had been on Terra:

When all else was gone, there was hope.

The rest of the crew assembled on the Observation Deck to meet the latest editions to their numbers. After the revelation that their worlds are gone, many of them are even more eager to see people they knew from home.

Several people are set up near the doors to provide the new people with omnicoms and comm rings. New crew-mates might see a tall man in green armor and snake girl among their number. There are also several authoritative-looking figures ready to introduce themselves.

There's a lot to tell the new people. It's going to be a lot to take in.

[ooc: Only new characters and Command Staff can start new threads for introductions, to limit the number of threads. Everyone else, just tag in and have your guys greet the newbies.]

[ooc: Newbie Helpers List | Instructions: Post your character with one post establishing them as being podpopped. Tag each other in groups of 2's, 3's, and 4's, to get some interaction to start with. If a thread doesn't already have 2 or 3 people tagged in, tag it with your character's podpop popping near the other people, rather than making a new subthread. If you would like to play out them talking to the AI, please send an email to the mods making the request--we do this only by request. Then move onto the big Newbie Meeting. Once your character has gotten the rundown from the old crew, you may start posting entrance posts and freely tagging.]


||Pod Release Protocols Initating|| Stacy's familiar voice sounds out to all the podmates through the ship.

In the Pod Caverns, there are the sounds of: Pop. Pop pop pop. Poppuhpoppoppop. KASCHUNKhiiiiiiiissssss.

There is condensation and mist spraying out from cracks in the pods, as the people inside slide out onto the floors, covered in slime.

--

( There was nothing... )