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[getoffmyearth]

Ok, so, now that we've stopped talking about crime and punishment and whether or not to establish Parliament or Congress or whatever's in vogue on Earth these days and settled in on Earth, I think it's time to bring up the elephant in the room. You know, that there's still a war thing going on, and all.

Now I don't know who's brought this stuff up before, and frankly I haven't heard a whole lot of talk about it since (possibly because everybody was getting worked up over the space base equivalent of teenagers stealing their parents' car, but we're past that, right?) So if I'm repeating something that's been said before, feel free to point it out and point me in the right direction.

Here are our big problems, as I see them:

- we are totally outgunned
- no seriously, we seem to be totally outgunned even with these nifty customizable weapons
- and outnumbered
- we're lacking the resources and infrastructure that could help us catch up
- they're on home turf
- we lack a sizable amount context, familiarity with terrain and history, and the sort of common purpose or experience you get by living on the same planet or in the same universe as someone, simply by being strangers

And I could waste a lot of time going on about how this whole situation we find ourselves in seems like the largest ad hoc plan pulled out of somebody's ass I have ever seen, but it's not going to do us any good right now. You can ask me for my notes on that later.

Now, fixing the past to save the future sounds like a really nice plan. Except I can tell you first hand that that's the sort of meddling that leaves you with giant rips in the fabric of space and time. I don't care if you're the "one who knows"; if we disturb too much and tear open the universe, we're going to have a lot bigger problems than United Earth. You don't want to know what's waiting on the other side. I didn't want to know, but I do, so I'm telling you: you don't want to know. We should keep this at the barest minimum possible. Or, since we're desperate, at least try not to set off cataclysmic events that make everything worse. And, look, trying to fix the past is just setting yourself up for heartbreak. We've got a lot of problems right here in the present.

So, here's what I've got:

- Anybody who's up for it who knows anything about engineering, once all the settling in is done, should get to cannibalizing whatever we can get our hands on and start at least trying to improve the technology we've got on hand. If you don't want to do weapons, at least we should get some kind of fortifications, transportation, defense systems. Try to raid the past as little as possible; everybody's seen Back to the Future, don't steal from terrorists unless you know it's not going to come back to bite you, etc.
- We're outnumbered, so if we're going to do anything, we're talking guerilla warfare. Cut off their supply lines- or, better yet, steal them for ourselves. Somehow we need to find people on the inside if we can. I don't know how to go about doing that, but a lot of you have been here a lot longer than me. Maybe you'll have some ideas.
- We should consider how to get some spies planted if we can't locate anyone already inside to be a mole.
- DEFINITELY SHUT DOWN THE CLONING. Ethical considerations aside, at least shut down their facilities as best as we can't so they can't make any more than they've already made.
- We need to know how far they've expanded. There's a base on the moon, and there's some indication that they've maybe left some watching devices out there. We need to know how far out they've gone and try to set up our own. Nobody needs any nasty surprises coming from space.
- It would be great if anybody with combat or fighting experience could get together and start working out teams, but I'm not going to push my luck here.

Obviously, this is volunteer-only. Forcing anybody who doesn't want to do it and doesn't want to be out there is going to hurt more than it helps. But I can't just sit here doing nothing, and anybody who wants to throw in, I'm more than glad to do whatever I can to help whatever else anybody wants to get off the ground too.

Oh, belated introduction, for those who don't know: I'm Peter Quill, the Star-Lord, leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy.





PRIVATE: Rocket Raccoon, Gamora, Adam Warlock

So who's up for a trip to deep space? Or at least, deeper than the moon.

Comments

[alittlesweptup]

What we should be doing is focusing our efforts on making targeted strikes - be it literally attacking them or hitting them from a more metaphorical point of levering their economy, government etc. Look, I get it: messing about with time is dangerous, but if we play here in the current timeline the UE will wipe us out. It's simple as that. Sir Starlord himself up there just pointed out that we're outgunned. Mix that in with the fact that a large percentage of the Exiles aren't openly hostile to the UE-- well you can bet your ass the UE has spies on the ground here. Our best bet is to stay as low and as quiet here as we can. This is NOT a front line we can hold (for christ's sake, the half the reason Exsilium was nuked was because we showed our bums to the UE in the present timeline)

We haven't got resources to engineer shit. There are no supply lines here - not when the UE controls 98% of the bloody planet. Spies aren't a bad idea, but moles are unrealistic given the UE's crowd control method of choice is pumping the population full of narcotics

My suggestion? In addition to running missions in the past, we send an emissary or something to the shoddy excuse of an Initiative that they've got here now. They've been operating in the shadows or whatever you'd like to call it and if anyone has inroads to the UE, it's them. If nothing else, they're part of this time line. We have the benefit of knowing the consequences of past mistakes, but they're the ones with experience and the historical knowledge of this universe as it stands now

Also? Maybe figure out what our end goal actually is with this nonsense so we can work towards it. At what point are things fixed enough? When the UE isn't controlled by a robot? By breaking up their global monopoly? Putting the Initiative in charge of the planet so they can crush people under their heel for a change? Without an actual goal in mind, we're all just scrabbling at straws hoping we eventually magically pull the right one that comes with a happy 'and all was well' epilogue attached to it

textjaaaaaaaaaaaaaack

[speakveryclearly]

Saul Goodman In His Capacity As Director Of The Department Initiative-Transport Relations Has Identified "New Initiative" Personnel And Is In The Progress Of Orchestrating A Tete-A-Tete
Feel Free To Contact With Any Concerns You Would Like Considered In Said Conference

I Would Like To Second The Sentiment That Identification By The United Earth Is The Main Problem
As We Already Know They Have The Firepower To Wipe Us Off The Map
Its In This Environment That The People Of This World Came To Conclude Undetectable Interference With The Past Was Their Only Safe Course Of Action
This Principle Concurs With The Lessons Transports Have Learned Over The Past Year

October 3312 Opened With Bombing After Which They Believed We Were All Dead
United Earth Became Aware Of Our Past Presence After A Mission Though And Punished Us With Monsters That Had To Be Retroactively Removed
January 3313 Alerted Them To Continued Transport Presence And We Had To All At Once Embark On Mission To Hide
The Missions Of February March And April Lack Any Such Signs And Are Largely Successful
In May Acquiescence To Transports Requests Of Return To Their Homeworlds Only Results In The United Earth Discovering And Destroying Said Homeworld
In June The Attacks On Exsilium Increase Featuring Chemical And Medical Warfare
They Spend The Next Two Months Preparing For An Elaborate September Abduction
And When We Successfully Undid That Through Present Action Alone
It Suggested The Course Of Absolute Annihilation
Always A Possible Outcome Just Inconvenient Enough To Avoid Until Then

Barring The Revelation That Multiple Recent Or Previously Reticent Transports Are Deities
If We Fight In The Present
We Will All Die
The People Of Exsilium Will All Die
And Eventually Every Single Person In All Our Homeworlds Will Die
In My Opinion No Time Travel Induced Cataclysm Can Approach That Pluricide

[alittlesweptup]

Oh great. I'm glad to see that Saul "play leader until push comes to shove" Goodman is going to be the face of the transports to these people. My faith in our odds of not dying a horrific, radioactive death have been assuaged

[unmasking]

Soooo that's not good? Did we vote on this guy and I missed the elections? He kind of sounds like a guy who missed the great power, great responsibility speech and you didn't even say much.

[speakveryclearly]

He Is Far From Irresponsible He Has Organized Half A Dozen Dedicated Greeters Every Month Without Fail
And Played A Key Role In The Distribution Of Information On Mass Missions To Transports Back When Those Were A Frequent And Mandatory Procedure
His Leadership Style Involves A Judicious Amount Of Pushes And Shoves And Other Jostling Motions And I Will Hear Every Criticism Of Him That Involves Concrete Proposals For Points In Time To Interfere Or Realistic Plans Of Present Day Action Meaning Plausible For Less Than Three Hundred People To Execute
The Department Has Thus Far Refrained From Producing Such Directives Primarily Due To The Appalling Lack Of Initiative Taken By The Transport Community
Given That Our AI Has Produced Dozens Of Options Only A Handful Thus Far Executed

[unmasking]

Well, I'm new, so the lack of initiative by the people led by the Initiative isn't really my fault.

But I'd rather someone who won't run away, I guess.

[5055034455]

Hi there. Saul Goodman, at your service.

To answer your earlier question, no, no one voted for me. Medusa and I started the DITR months ago — when she went home, I took over. So here we are.

Our original purpose was to act as buffer between the Initiative and the Transports so that a less antagonistic relationship might form and the "help us to help you" thing might be easier. I like to think that was working a little, but then a whole lot of stuff went down and the Department didn't have the personnel resources to deal with it effectively — there are 14 of us at present out of 300+ Transports and there were even fewer when the United Earth destroyed another Transport's world.

Then again, our initial job was just to relay information between the Initiative and the Transports. That's not really the case anymore; we now employ greeters to welcome the newbies every month, and since the previous "liaison" position is somewhat obsolete it's my hope that we can, with cooperation from everyone else, start to aid in the coordination of missions.

But the key word there is "cooperation."

I'm not a leader in the way you might be thinking thanks to the way Mr. Cutter presented me — I've made no attempts to govern anyone, nor would I with the lack of a legal system in place. That could be called a dictatorship, and I ain't about that life.

[alittlesweptup]

Except that's bullshit and if you don't know that, then you're more dense than I would've believed

DITR is the only thing like a source of authority anymore and, god help them, but people trust you to be looking out for their best interests. The fact that you don't seem to realize this or the fact that you and your people have now become literally the only source of would-be official information, the only kind of committee or council with any weight behind it (even if it's simply perceived weight), suggests to me you bloody well aren't prepared for that kind of authority and you sure as shit shouldn't be representing out interests to the Initiative as it exists now. Whoever speaks to them is going to be responsible for being the voice of the transports to these people and I don't know about everyone else, but I at least would prefer that person or persons to be someone the group as a whole (or anyone willing to shut up long enough to vote on something for once in their lives) decided was capable of handling that responsibility

Your track record in tense situations isn't exactly road worthy to begin with; I'd rather not have you running what, by necessity, must now be a kind of council of war

[5055034455]

Then perhaps I need to clarify, for everyone, what it is the Department is meant to be doing. We're not a war council. No one on our staff is qualified for that.

As for the Initiative as it exists now, I'm still gathering information. No moves have been made yet by me or anyone else under my employ.

Would you rather go storming in there half-cocked and make demands of them instead? Maybe you want to try holding them hostage? If we're going to talk track records, Charlie, why don't we discuss yours?

[alittlesweptup]

Only no one I work with personally is saying that I'm in the process of 'organizing a tete-a-tete' with our new partners. I'm not presenting myself as anything but what I am and I sure as hell don't have any delusions that people are going to want to send me in to be their number one diplomat of choice

The difference is that they expect that of you. And the difference is that despite that expectation, your apparent reaction to trouble is to fade into the background leaving people to run about like chickens with their heads lopped from their shoulders

If you don't consider DITR a council of war, then stop playing at it. Because I can guarantee this is going to mean trouble. Arranging to meet with the new Initiative? Developing allies for this fight - one in which we're suddenly the people with all the resources and all the power, but no information save for what the AI can give us. Organizing missions? That's parallel to tactical planning and the oversight of battle (to use simplistic terms). Unless of course you'd prefer to handle only the organization of transports running off to buy their mates gifts for the holidays etc in which case: fine, have at it. Can't stop anyone from running those, however frivolous a waste of time, energy and resources it is, so I suppose we might as well have someone enforcing structure on them

Just because you keep insisting otherwise doesn't mean DITR doesn't have some leverage over the people here and as a result, some kind of responsibility to them. And I can't really think you believe anything less. Otherwise why bother to present yourself as the leader of an organization with no power? Why bother using DITR as a means of officiating your own personal opinions on community issues? Either you accept that DITR has more power and responsibility than you're willing to admit and you learn to handle it appropriately, or stop using it as your elevated soapbox

[5055034455]

Then by all means, go ahead and suggest a war council. Get the people fit for that job on it. We'll happily work alongside whomever you choose! When I said "coordinating missions," I didn't mean actually planning them. You jump to conclusions too quickly.

Also, I'd like to know what this "fading into the background" is you're talking about. I and the rest of the Department helped handle what you and your ladyfriend screwed up during the mutiny; just ask Ros. We were all at her disposal. As for what happened after the mutiny, I was asked to stay out of it due to personal involvement. As for what's going on right now, I said this to Kanaya and I'll say it to you: I'm working with what I have, and what I have is my staff and my experiences with the previous Initiative. You know what I don't have? Cooperation from anyone else. Support. There's no singular Transport voice — I have no interest in being the person to provide that voice. The Department is not intended to be that voice. We're a fraction of the Transport population, and whatever sway we had thanks to the old Initiative is gone now. I'm trying to assess where we stand with the new Initiative, that's all. There may be tetes involved, but neither Kanaya nor I said I would be going in with intentions for establishing any kind of relationship.

I know I and the rest of us have a responsibility to everyone, but it's not the one you're assuming I think I have.

[unmasking]

That sounds a lot less heavy than what was being described, but otherwise, I'm gonna back off because I clearly don't know what's going on.

Just remember that with great power comes great responsibility.

In case you end up with either of those.

[5055034455]

Sorry about the misunderstanding. Charlie and I don't get along because I didn't handle it well when he took the entire moonbase hostage.

[WOMP WOMP.]

But that's good advice. Thank you.

[unmasking]

Yeah, I didn't like when he thought that was a logical course of action, either. Then again, the follow up on it hasn't been great.

And you're welcome.

[5055034455]

I think part of that problem has to do with the fact that we're all scattered now. Also, Roslyn's been spread way too thin, and all this talk of government and uprising etc. etc. definitely hasn't been helping. Suggestions are good, but when they're not followed with action... that's a problem.

But it's an even bigger problem when they're followed with action that hasn't been agreed upon by a majority.

Which is difficult to do when it seems like getting anyone to agree to anything is impossible.

so

yeah

[unmasking]

Yeah, that's what I'd call informed.

The issue with the missions is that I'm afraid we're eventually going to hit the point where butterfly wings stop flapping, if you get my drift. We'll be making changes, but they won't matter. Honestly, I'm surprised they haven't caught on to what we're doing yet. I'm also a little worried about us all being down here at all, but I think getting off the moonbase is good. You know, live with who you want, less more of the illusion of control, etc.

But I think figuring out an end goal is good. I like "no more cross world invasions and UE being stopped in its tracks," but there's still the issue with how messed up this world is. It might be a plan that requires dramatically time travelling at once and sticking with that point, instead of ... little bits of time traveling for a bigger goal. Just a thought.

1/2

[alittlesweptup]

You're not the only one surprised - though this isn't the first time the UE has come off looking duller than an unsharpened pencil. For god's sake, we stole a bloody spaceship from them and it took them months to return fire (never mind the bit where apparently no one thought about the possibility that we might use said spaceship to escape the nuclear blast). Part of it has to do with time travel - we change something, they can't remember it -, but not all of it. And I can't imagine there aren't spies who have told the UE about the Initiative's plans

That said, missions are what we have. I know it's not a sure thing - I've read The Time Machine -, but it's the one solid resource we have. It's shitty, but I haven't got an alternative method to offer. I just know if we mess about in the current timeline, the UE will eventually try to wipe us out again

It's a thought. Though I haven't any idea how possible that is, as I get the impression that the people in this timeline can't use the transporter like we can. I'd have to talk to Lowell to confirm though. But if that's the case we wouldn't be fixing anything; we'd just be stranded in the past somewhere

2/2, private

[alittlesweptup]

[A few minutes later, a secondary message comes in - locked exclusively to Peter.]

I can agree with ending the UE's world hopping. The only thing is the UE is using similar tech to the transporter to do their world hopping and while it makes sense to me to sabotage that tech/make sure it isn't invented or whatever as a means to make sure they can't ever do what they've done here, logically that would mean we'd be stuck here. All of us.

private

[unmasking]

[Peter read everything, but that last bit kind of gets him. Being stuck here means being alive, but he isn't going to say that. Still, he doesn't even contemplate answering in public anymore, lest anything about his responses, even in text, displaying any amount of his current state of thought.

That state of thought, of course, being a rather fragile one.]

I don't want anyone stuck here, that's for sure. Not unless they really want to be. [He hopes Charlie doesn't ask about that, or doesn't say "why would anyone want that" or something, but then, he can ignore it. Then again, Charlie's sharp enough to notice that he ignored it, so then it becomes circular. But he can't just not say something, so he hopes for the best.]

But I have a hard time understanding why we can't just stop the technology from being finally invented, hit the thing right before it's released, steal the tech, and then ... invent it later, under our own control. And then there's the whole "Did the UE come up with it first or did we?" Was that somewhere in all the information I read? Because I forgot already. But more importantly, I don't see why we can't just invent it ourselves. I understand my world's science behind it, and I can't imagine it's too different. Combine that with a couple other people, we could have complete control over it, and it would be eradicating one threat.

Though I can see the problem with that, too. Some people might see that threat being gone as an excuse to just ditch this world. I'm not a fan of that, either. I'm here to save the people of this world, even if I've gotta do it all myself. ... Though thankfully, that doesn't seem to be the case.

private;

[alittlesweptup]

[There's a reason he locked it - not just because the idea seems dangerous and untenable for all the people who want to get home, but because Charlie is... look, if worst came to worst, he can survive wherever the hell he needs to. He's not worried about what comes after, he's just worried about getting killed in the during.]

Honestly? That's the best plan I've heard all day. Might want to get people on missions that are focused on lifting or learning the tech so we have something to go by. So far as I know, no one's got any damned idea who put the transporter together first. My guess is a combination of the UE and Exiles before the UE became what it is today. No idea if you know this or not, but the old Initiative used to be run by ousted higher ups of the old UE

But if nothing else, learning the tech (both in terms of how to operate the thing and how to put it back together if we pull it apart) wouldn't be amiss. If nothing else it'd mean that someone other than Lowell and Vennett knew how to work it which-- look, there's nothing keep them from blipping out of existence. At this rate we'd be screwed if they did

private;

[unmasking]

I remember those letters that were put up. I have a couple of them on file. How often do members of the Initiative just up and vanish? What's keeping them from vanishing already? Figuring out the pattern there would be a good one. I don't think it's wrong to trust them and work with them, but I do think we need to figure out what means we have to keeping things stable. (Not to be a thorn in your side, but this should've been the plan before we got civil war going among the transports. But I don't think it's too late.)

But let's figure out missions to find out when the tech was created. Prepare everything around that. Have the information and then trace it, see how it works. I didn't know about those UE guys going rogue (they went rogue, right?), but I think it'd be a very good idea to avoid that piece of information never changing. Unless it has changed. (Seriously. Time travel.)

Do you think those guys would be up for this plan? I'm still a fan of one cohesive strike that's the red button that shuts everything down, and we're sure it does. Less lives thrown into the abyss that way. And maybe we can get some people to turn their bill settings to paperless, too.

Re: private;

[alittlesweptup]

I haven't the faintest clue what's keeping them around now and honestly, I don't think either Lowell or Vennett really know either. It's all hit or miss from the sound of it, but my bet would be on them disappearing sooner rather than later given the current state of the Initiative. I also don't really know how much they do or don't know about the tech itself; I get the impression they just know how to work it, not so much how it was made or who patented the damned thing, but maybe between the pair of them and the AI there's answers to be found

Regardless, I think they'd probably be good for any plan that doesn't involve mucking about in the current time line. As for how much here is the same as it was before: god only knows. We need to get together a proper group with actual experience or skills in diplomacy to go talk to the Initiative as it exists here to get a proper history lesson. People who won't make a hash of it

private;

[unmasking]

So not Big Peter here.

Or me.

Or you.

But it sounds like a good idea. That'd be the first step. Then we can look into dealing with the tech—that is, if it seems like a viable solution. Right now, we're sitting ducks and all the power's been out for a while. So it's dark, too.

[alittlesweptup]

Sounds like it's about time to take another bloody poll and hope people actually pull through on it

[unmasking]

Bad history with that, too?