03 | Text

[khajidont]

[This is Jaime's first post to the network as Blue Beetle, and the name displayed on the tablet has changed accordingly. For any hackers out there, it can't be linked back to him as he's not actually using his tablet; he's posting directly from his armour.]

Hey. Blue Beetle here.

I know that after all this, the last thing we're thinking about is the UE's soldiers, but something's been bugging me. Everyone who was on the distraction team with me, you must have noticed the new soldiers, right? They didn't have anything like them on Elmer's world, and I'm pretty sure that war was an all-hands-on-deck sort of deal.

The normal soldiers were really well equipped as it was, but these ones must have been metas. They were stronger, and faster. It was so busy on the field that I don't know whether or not I was seeing ones with different powers or if they all had the same skillset going on, but the ones I noticed could fly and had elemental powers.

And they were small. Like children.

[Which is deeply off-putting.]

I'm not sure what their deal is, but consider this a heads-up for what the UE's got in store, and the kind of technology we might find on them. For some reason, I don't think an army full of tiny meta-soldiers is something they just managed to find one day. If any of you ran into them too, I think it'd be good if we could get some sort of list of how much they can actually do.

Oh yeah, one last thing. Since we don't exactly have space suits around here yet, if there's any maintenance that needs to be done outside the base, let me know. I'm guessing we don't have a whole lot of people who can breathe out there, and my suit's built for space travel.

Comments

[everydayraphael]

[Well, he's read most of the responses. A good deal of them anyway. Child soldiers that were lab-created is something that's not completely out of the world, since his time has that technology and has done it with animals at least, but it's still a little mind boggling to think about.

While he's looking up info about peaceful historical times for Blaine, why not. What Raphael wouldn't give for a library. As it stands, if the UE rose as a real power in... the 3100's, was it, then no one'd oppose them on anything. Or a bit earlier than that. There'd still be a lot to search through.]

I've read most of what's been said so far and, well, do we have any idea of when they could've started having the tech for the cloning?Even vaguely?

[khajidont]

I haven't even started to research it yet. But... maybe? It should be in the Initiative's databases. And if this world is anything like mine, they would have been able to start by the 2000s at least.

[everydayraphael]

It's the same in mine, even if it's just on animals. I've already been looking into more peaceful times to get supplies from, so I wouldn't mind asking around about any new tech. Things like that are usually celebrated back home.

[khajidont]

Oh yeah? If you could tell me anything you find out, that would be great. I'll check when I go on my supply runs too.

text; soo late

[falla]

If I'm not mistaken, their interest in Transports has been there for almost as long as we have been around. And this wasn't the first time one of us was taken.

[ "One of us." Well damn. ]

The next time we face the UE we might as well fight against a lot of eerily familiar faces.

text; nobody is late everyone is JUST ON TIME

[khajidont]

Really? What was the first time?

sob sorry for the delay!!! rides in late w/starbucks

[overclocking]

[ Chrono reads the post, tight-lipped, and skims the first few responses—most of them rehashing terrible truths he already knows, and it doesn't take long for him to realize he can't stomach reading this information more than once.

He actually turns his tablet off after skimming a few threads; paces the room before returning and typing a response, feeling strangely obligated. ]

How much have you been told about 'Project Chimera'?

it's all good!

[khajidont]

Nothing. Except for that it's related somehow. Do you know anything about it?

> private, also

[overclocking]

I guess, technically, I was part of it. [ Unsettling to type it like that, incredibly so, but hopes it lends him some credibility regardless. ]

It's conjecture at this point, but I'm almost entirely sure I'm right; it's what they're calling the project that produced those soldiers—'chimeras'—using the samples they took from the kidnapped Transports.

private

[khajidont]

So that's what they're called.

You were one of the people who got kidnapped then? Do you have any other info about it?

private

[overclocking]

Yeah. Everything I know is what I saw or heard, so I don't know how 'official' anything is.

We broke into one of the labs and ran into a scientist working on the project. She said they were holding her to an unreasonable deadline, and there was no way she'd be able to get it done on time. She addressed me directly about my file when we were caught, [ leaves out Oz for now, uncertain how he'd feel having his name attached to this ] so I know for a fact that she was studying whatever information she'd taken from us. She had stacks of papers and a computer terminal, too, so I'm sure the UE has records of all of it.

She sounded really doubtful that they could complete this project on time, though. And couldn't make heads or tails of some of our powers... I'm wondering how stable those soldiers actually are.

We didn't get much time to see.

private

[khajidont]

She was willing to talk to you guys about all that? How come? I thought they would just try to tranq you or something.

private

[overclocking]

Well...

Half of that was her ranting to herself, while we were hiding in an air duct.

And the other half was her ranting at us after we fell out of the air duct.

private

[khajidont]

Ooh, supervillain monologues. Very handy.

private

[overclocking]

She didn't seem too super villain-y... I felt kind of bad for her, actually. It sort of sounded like she hated the UE.

Or I guess she could have just hated everyone...

Either way, if you needed help putting together that list, I can write down everything I remember.

private

[khajidont]

Huh. We don't know a lot about the people on the UE's side, do we?

Anyway. That would be great. Anything you've got will be useful.

[vocalizer]

[ He wasn't here for Elmer's world, and isn't exactly sure what that all means, but... ]

So then they really are new? No one's seen anything like them before that fight?

[khajidont]

That's right. Nobody's seen them, because they didn't exist until now.

[vocalizer]

So then there really isn't a lot to know about them right now...

And it was hard enough to get in and save the people that the UE had kidnapped, so I guess we can't just easily sneak back in and find out what's going on with these kids either.

[khajidont]

Not really. Our best bet is to look into what everyone knows as a group and move on from there. There's not really any point in running in there blind.

[vocalizer]

If we all just found out about then though, that's basically what we're doing anyway. I know I can't actually offer up much information on them.

[khajidont]

Other people can, though. We can still learn about what powers they could and couldn't get, and what tests the UE did on them. Stuff like that.

I'm not actually so great at the whole science thing, but we've got tons of scientists here. Maybe they can tell us something.

[vocalizer]

Were there powers that they weren't able to get?

[ That hadn't occurred to him. He'd just assumed they could get anything they wanted. ]

I hope you're right about that.

[khajidont]

It's looking that way. I'm going to talk to everyone else who was there and we can get a list of the ones we know they've got for sure going. Maybe we can cross-compare them with the people who got kidnapped.

[SCIENCE!!!!]

They had clones without powers before this too. We can look into those guys. I'm gonna need to write this down somewhere.

[vocalizer]

You don't think they'll be able to grab anything off of people they didn't kidnapped, do you?

[ Someone may be genuinely worried about what would happen if the UE got ahold of their powers... ]

Even if we're stuck on the moon now there's got to be some scrap paper around that you can use to keep notes. If not then I guess there's always going on a mission to pick up a notebook. Even if that sounds like a waste of a mission.