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[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

[taijiya]

They all had their own set of demonic abilities and were often used to run his errands or do his dirty work. Often they took joy in doing as much damage as possible; all five I've met have been sinister, though some more than others. As his creations, they've always seemed bound to him, somehow; even though one or two tried to change that.

[She pauses.]

Did you ever meet Kagura, while she was here?

[khajidont]

No, never. Was she one of the ones who tried changing things?

[taijiya]

I think so. She seemed to want it whenever we spoke, even tried to form sort of an alliance here with me. But at the last moment before she disappeared... she said she'd rather be back with Naraku. Because being his servant was better than facing his wrath.

[Sango drops silent for a moment. But what good are Kagura's haunting words? None, right now.]

It doesn't really matter. I guess my point is... If they're anything like Naraku's incarnations, bound to the UE... Well, even if some of them act against their will, we can try to help, but...

[khajidont]

That's awful.

[Naraku, you're an asshole.]

But they'll always be a part of them, I get it. Everyone deserves the chance to have a choice, though. Do you know if it was some sort of mind control thing he had going on?

[taijiya]

Yeah.

[Ready to join the club, Jaime?]

Kagura acted out of self-preservation, I believe. Those that didn't resist his will so much seemed to act out of... loyalty. But I suppose it's possible that in those cases, minds were altered. It's not as if he hadn't manipulated people in similar ways before, and it's not as if the UE is above that either.

[khajidont]

They're definitely not. Remember the aliens I told you about? They did the same thing to one guy.

You'd think that things this awful would be restricted to just the one universe, but they're everywhere.

[taijiya]

Well, there are more universes than awful things out there, apparently. There has to be some overlap.