exsilium | → video

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→ video

[She looks tired, a little strung out, like she's sure most people do right now, but this is important, and it's important that people listen, which means she's using video, in the hopes it'll help make this message stick.

When she speaks, it's steady enough, though there's hints of worry and desperation in her tone, at times. Indications of how serious she's taking this, how hard it's hitting her.]

I know everything's a mess right now, but if you're seeing this, I need you to take the time to sit and listen, please, because I'm trying to help all of us and that won't work if everyone ignores me. Some of are probably going to hate me for this, but that's okay, as long as you keep listening while you hate me.

[a beat; a breath]

We're not abandoning the Exiles.

[This might seem a little on the fly, but she does have a rough idea of what she wants to say, and getting that across first took priority.]

And I don't mean that in a 'we're going to ignore the Initiative and stay to stop the bomb' kind of way, because, well. Let's say we stay, we've got some heavy hitters here, powerful people, so maybe we manage, in the short time we've got, to find a way to stop the bomb. We save us, we save the Exiles, everyone's happy.

[Her smile is sad, before slipping away, attention focusing more on the camera.]

Do you think the United Earth are just going to let that be the end of it? "Oh, our nuke failed, I guess we'll leave 'em alone"? Or do you think they're going to keep sending them until they wipe us out?

[You all know the answer.]

So we stop the first, maybe the second, hell, maybe even the third. Maybe they even run out of nukes, but they still won't stop, which means they'll likely start using regular bombs, and we've seen what that does to the city, or they send in the Masked. [another pause, this one to let the implications of that sink in.] There's about 500 of us, and we're good fighters, some of us work really well together, but there are five hundred thousand Exiles. Do you think we can protect them from wave after wave of Masked? Can we protect them inevitably? Can we protect the Hold, so that it doesn't get destroyed and we've lost our only any way of ever going home?

Because I hate to be the pessimist here, but I don't think we can.

[Sorry, team.

Steph sighs, running a hand through her hair before starting again.]

If we stay, if we stop the nuke, we're just inviting more trouble down on ourselves and the Exiles. Trouble that's going to keep us fighting twenty four-seven, trouble that won't leave us the time, energy or resources to fight this war the way we've doing since our arrival. We can't face the United Earth in an all out battle; we tried that, and a world was lost. If we stay, we're gonna lose the Exiles slowly, and we're gonna lose our own, and we're probably gonna lose them for good.

[There's no smiles now, not even sad ones, she just looks grim.]

We've been fighting this war using time travel, by going back and changing things to make the present a better place for everyone, and that's what we need to do now. That's why we need to pack up and go to the moon base, where we can keep fighting, no matter how much it feels like a retreat. We're not abandoning them, we're going to save them, they won't be gone forever, neither will Exsilium, but we have to do it the Initiative's way, not our own.

I know it's hard to put faith in the Initiative, all it seems like we do is react and run without winning any of our battles. But the reason we've even got a moon base to use is because of us. I'm sure those of us who were here remember that mission to the American Frontier? All it took was changing one election and now we've got a base on the moon that wasn't there before. And that's not all, the Initiative let me look over their files, and we've taking funding and supplies from the United Earth, weakening them, we've made their military less effective, and I know it might be hard to see the effects now, but we're playing a long game, here, and all those little changes will be what lets us win, in the end.

[She isn't sure if she believes all that, about the Initiative being effective, but she has to say it anyway, because she does believe they need to get everyone on the moon base to fix things.]

We've got better technology, better medicine, better health care and they've even improved the environment with the missions we've undertaken. We even have more information on the United Earth and it's AI than we did before, and none of you can tell me that isn't going to help us win this war. Information is everything.

[And she does believe that, at least.]

If you want more proof, I can share it, but I think I've gone on long enough. And I'm not gonna say this won't hurt, losing the Exiles, that we won't feel guilty, that it won't be hard living with limited resources on the moon, but if you really want to help us stop the United Earth, if you really want to save the Exiles, please take some time to think about this logically and strategically. All us Transports need to get to the moon base, and we need to keep working with the Initiative, because using the transporter and stopping the United Earth before they can become so strong is how can save everyone.

[She looks straight at the camera, falling silent for a moment to let that sink in.]

Please stay safe, everyone. If you're not too angry with me for this, know that I'm here to help with anything you need, and I hope I'll see you once we're settled up there.

Good luck.

[And the feed cuts.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

( Helena's crouched on a rooftop; her silhouette is probably what Steph is seeing, more than her face. )

Good work.

( She means that. She'll spare Stephanie a long speech, because she's never been good at those, or even at talking about feelings all that much. )