[ text and video combo, jan 7th ]

[devotedtothecore]

[ bright and early, splayed on the network feed in somewhat old-timey poster fashion: ]

IMMEDIATE HELP WANTED

with the

Refurbishment and Construction

of

Shelters and Outposts

for purposes including but not limited to

Accommodation, Assembly, Defense, Medical Aid, Technical Support, Supply Reserves, Agriculture

and other prospective services to Transports and other associates.

All forms of assistance and input welcome and encouraged

including but not limited to technical aid, general labor, delivery and supply, security, liaison with third parties, and crew support.

Inquire in this post for further details.

----

[ video version ] (available within the same post, should one be preferred)

[ Have a rumpled-looking engineer eying the screen with a stony look, arms folded, leaning casually back in his chair. There's a worn topographical map of the Exsilium city-state area tacked up on the wall behind him, surrounded by sheets and sheets of blueprints and schematics, ranging from floor plans to wiring diagrams to the layout of the guts of a generator. ]

Good day. ...I'll make this as succinct as possible; we're setting up centralized Transport shelters, or outposts here on the ground, and we need as much help as we can get to get them fully equipped.

It matters not whether you have technical expertise, though whatever you have on that front would also be useful; if you've the time to spare, and would see some progress made in our being here, you're welcome to join in.

If you'd like to help but you're not sure how you can, speak to me.

[ He gestures one-handed at the map behind him; the main "city" area, or at least the area with relatively more locals resident, is a patch of highlighted orange running along the river Thames and other waterways. More and smaller patches dot the map, indicating villages and towns; though anyone who's done some thorough scouting of their own might find that not everything's there.

There's four locations circled, of which three are in green (one in the warehouse district of the city; another more on the outskirts, slightly removed from the orange patches; one more located in the highlands and far from orange altogether.) The fourth in red, with "N.I. - To Be Confirmed", is recognizable as the current site of the Transporter. ]

We've managed to stake claims, more or less, on at least three of these four sites; I'm going to give an overview of them and their coordinates, and what we might do with them, and how.

[ What follows is a briefing; essentially the contents of this post. It takes no longer than a few minutes, laid out as plainly and simply as he can, though he takes care to describe out loud what he's indicating by hand (being aware of at least one visually-impaired member among the Transports.) ]

....and that's about it, for now. If you've any questions or comments, feel free.

We're aiming to commence full construction by the 10th.

(( OOC: APOLOGIES FOR THE SLOWDOWN IN REPLIES I'll get to everyone's as soon as I can ))

Comments

[maddeninghatter]

They sent in a platoon of their soldiers — the "Masked," they're called. Were called, haha! Anyway, they marched in and installed a bunch of "chips" in everybody. Don't ask me what those are, all I could make out is that it was some way of eavesdropping.

[ A final crunch and that's the last of that lollipop. He keeps sucking on the stick, however. ]

It's all on your tablet, by the way. The whole history. Look, my point is — it's unlikely that the very first thing the UE will do is drop bombs, upon discovering us. They have no knowledge of the Transporter, nor Transports, and certainly no idea why somebody would use a spaceship to come here, rather than flee. The first thing they'll do, almost certainly, is gather information.

[devotedtothecore]

[ He remembers the Masked all too well (with a chill down the back of his spine, even now, in the doing so.) It's not difficult to hazard a guess as to the meaning of the other term, with the reading he's done of late, and the idea of installing something of the kind into people, as though they were no more than a machine...

...no. Not the time to let unease stack up, get in the way. Save it for an evening to sit down with the tablet and look back at the records.

Focus on the parts you can move right now. Everything else is secondary. ]

...in which case, the more conspicuous we are, the more might be discovered by those who come. On the other hand, they might not necessarily make us out to be more than outsiders from somewhere beyond this world; and neither as a collective that might act against them. It depends on what they find.

[ Eyes the plans lining the wall behind Break with a touch of chagrin, now, and runs a restless hand through his hair.

Wryly: ] It looks more and more as if this idea might not be the wisest course of action, then.

[maddeninghatter]

Ha! Ha! Ha! Of course they're going to find us.

[ He slaps Chrysos' shoulder in a terribly encouraging manner. ]

Of course they're going to bomb us, if they're anything like their erstwhile counterparts, that is. Sitting and hoping we won't be found is madness.

The thing to do is sort out what it is the United Earth is, and what it's capable of. Simultaneously, we've got to prepare to defend ourselves, whilst hiding in plain sight.

[devotedtothecore]

[ It's a dark sort of encouragement, but it is, oddly enough, reassuring. For as whimsical, aggravating, and sadistically harshly incisive as Xerxes Break can be, Chrysos finds himself drawing on this man's insight more often of late, particularly in assessing Situations such as those they face.

...he wonders sometimes if he should be more worried about this.

...

Rubbing at his temples. ] As to that, if you've any specific thoughts about what "hiding in plain sight" might entail...

[maddeninghatter]

I have, as a matter of fact.

[ Of the manifold things to be worried about at Exsilium, your choice of friends and advisors is..... is definitely on that list, Chrysos. ]

We are sitting on top of an art museum. We should open it to the public! It's old; but something you've never seen before is new. There will be a lot of interest, I'll wager. Indeed, people from surrounding villages might come to see it, and we can put them up at the hotel.

Amidst of this hubbub of activity, we can conceal whatever other business we wish to conduct, whilst at the same time generating legitimate income.

[devotedtothecore]

[ ........blinks, hand lowering from his forehead in a moment of silence, because that's. Actually not a halfway bad idea. ]

...running it as a museum...

[ Though have you seen the kind of thing they pass for art here, he's about to interject, except he remembers just in time who he's talking to. Damn it.

Okay. Serious consideration of this. ] Do you think they'd have the interest for it? Or the disposable income?