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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

voice --> private

[khajidont]

Yeah. Sorry to break the bad news. Um, if you've got any other questions about the clones, I've been trying to get as much info on them as I can... but if you've got a sec, I actually wanted to ask you a question, Mr. Summers. You've done this whole time traveling thing before, right?

[private]

[oldsoldiersneverdie]

Anything about them indicate personality or free will?

And yeah, I have. You don't have to call me Mr. Summers, though.

[private]

[khajidont]

All right. We'll handle the whole clone subject first. [A heavy exhale, because he is not as calm as he's trying to look in text.] I didn't see anything like that when I was out there, but one of the telepaths said that he could feel them suffering. Someone else said that he ran into the tanks they must have been held in, and that it looked like they broke out early, so that would be at least a little bit of free will for you.

[oldsoldiersneverdie]

Bright Lady help me, I wish I'd gotten some of the scientists on the way out, then. [There's barely-controlled anger there - he's not all onboard with cloning for very personal reasons, but no living thing deserves that. Except maybe Brood, and he's hoping like hell they aren't here]

Hopefully some of the drives we took have more information on the genetic experiments they were running.

What was your question?

[khajidont]

You took drives from them? [He perks up a little at that.] If you've got info, can you share it? I'm gonna see how much we can get together about the whole picture and then maybe we can do something about it.

[As for his own question... it's not a question that will have an easy answer, he's anticipating, so he gets right down to it.]

So, um... we're trying to make it so that the UE never happens. Endgame, I mean. That means a lot of these people - everyone in the UE and the Exiles, even the Initiative, they won't exist anymore? Is that that much different than killing them?

[oldsoldiersneverdie]

It's still being decrypted, but I'll let you know what I get.

And... the timestream always resists change. Which means in a world without the UE, all these people will likely still exist, but the paths their pasts and futures take will be different. It's not the same as ending a life.

[khajidont]

But they're still alive. Thank god.

[Crisis averted!]

But... all the clones the UE has made, it's over for them?

[oldsoldiersneverdie]

Probably. They were created to be tools, weapons - not people. Given the forced rate of growth, and that not all the genetics took properly, I doubt they've worked out the inherent genetic instabilities inherent in cloning.

[khajidont]

The UE doesn't seem to think of anyone as people. [His voice is quiet, unhappy, but he doesn't see a way of saving them either.]

You were there? With everyone who got kidnapped??

[oldsoldiersneverdie]

Yeah, I was. The scientists and guards were... normal humans, as far as I could tell, but they likely had been instructed not to interact with us as much as possible.

oops @ that extra question mark NOW HE LOOKS SUPER EMPHATIC

[khajidont]

Would you mind telling me what tests they were doing? Uh, full disclosure, I'm gonna be telling a bunch of other people too. I'm just putting together everything we know.

[oldsoldiersneverdie]

That's fine - we may as well compile what information we have.

It was mostly fairly basic medical testing - physical examination, vision-checking, some stress-tests. Blood draws, too, but I don't know what they ran on the samples.

[khajidont]

Bet you that someone else will know. A ton of people who were doing the rescuing went snooping around instead.

[Which is highly irresponsible... but also really, really useful.]

Thanks. I'll put that on the list.

[oldsoldiersneverdie]

Probably should've had people dedicated to intel-gathering. [no he does not have a ton of respect for people who went off-mission here, because a lot of lives were in the balance]

[khajidont]

We didn't think of that. Or... I didn't think of that. I guess everyone else did.

[If nothing else, he's good at following orders - provided he believes that the orders given are correct.]

We'll know for next time.

[oldsoldiersneverdie]

They didn't think of it early enough to plan for it. But thankfully this time there is a 'next time'.

[khajidont]

[There's little more than a murmured expression of assent on Jaime's end, the reply of we got lucky on the tip of his tongue before he remembers the cost.]