6 ☄ audio

[fifthreturned]

Hey, guys.

[Tranquility sounds tired, worn out, a little defeated.]

Thanks for coming for me. That's not how I would've wanted it to go down, but... well, I'm here now. And at least Delight started fighting for us again there at the end. Everything she did, as bad as some of it was, was to try to keep us safe in her own misguided way.

I'm gonna miss her.

Anyway, we're kind of in a crappy position now. The Null are almost certainly gonna track her essence, the parts that ended up here. So we've gotta move, but we're running out of options and time. They've killed one of us already, and they were going to kill me. We've gotta decide how we want to play this. Your lives are on the line here, too, just as much as ours. Maybe more.

Wherever we go, the Null are gonna find us sooner or later. It kinda comes down to whether we want to try to strike against them first, or whether we want to find a more defensive location and shore up, wait for them to come to us. We have a few different options in terms of locations, some of which we've been to before and some we haven't. Thanks to a bunch of you guys, I have a lot of information about where the Null forces are, which places will be less safe or more safe, so take that into consideration.

There's a file attached to this with the info I've collected from you, and from what we already knew. Take a look at it - or don't, I'm not the boss of you - and let us know where you want to go.

Poll #21535

This poll is closed.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 50

View Respondents

Where should we move to?

View Answers

the Null planet
10 (20.0%)

the jungle planet
31 (62.0%)

the ice planet
3 (6.0%)

the desert planet
1 (2.0%)

the island planet
5 (10.0%)

[Each character's phone will download the world information file as soon as they read Tranquility's post.]

Comments

video; private;

[nonscriptum]

[Nate didn't exactly anticipate having this conversation, seeing as he expected a quick back and forth with an otherwise busy god, but he can adjust. The response isn't out of the blue for someone like Poe, who he knows has valid and applicable experience, but Nate doesn't agree with the risks.

If it was just him, he'd strike first and duck out of the way - it's served him well before - but there are a lot more lives at stake than his own.]

You sure that's not just the Resistance fighter in you talking?

video; private; in perpetuity

[volitaunt]

[ That startles Poe, and it shows, because it always shows. He's no better at hiding his emotions after a year of trying than he was when he started out. ]

Isn't that what we are?

[nonscriptum]

[Nate looks at him in legitimate incredulity for a long moment. He isn't skilled at hiding his emotions, either.]

...no, we're not.

[The words come out surprised.]

Most of the people here aren't trained in guerrilla warfare, Poe. We can hold all the basic magic and self-defense lessons we want, but they won't change that fact.

[volitaunt]

[ Realization dawns with a slow, sinking feeling. Nate is right. The situation is similar, sure--limited numbers, limited resources, an overwhelming enemy. Some of these people have been here for years, living this way. But that doesn't make them fighters.

Even Riverview was populated by people more familiar with combat than not. It had an official Perimeter Guard, volunteer forces, weapons from the capital world. It was just military enough, just informal enough that he never questioned the continuity between his war and the defense of the city.

But he's not in Riverview any more. There's no actual boot camp here. No classes, no real training facilities. Even the Resistance, as slapdash as it is, had simulators and a blaster range.

What they are is a few people who know how to hold a gun, a few people who know how to use magic, and a lot of civilians.

They're starting from scratch. ]

Fuck.

[nonscriptum]

Yeah.

[If it's any consolation, Nate's tone is more sympathetic than righteously malicious.

It isn't fun having the rug torn out from under you - God knows it's happened to him enough - but the reality is that they're a city of civilians. Nate has more than fifteen years of experience dealing with danger, he was thrust into it when he was barely out of middle school, but a lot of these people are comparatively helpless.]

I'm not saying our recent attempts at helping people aren't good either, but we just- we don't have time. We don't have the resources. I've got a sniper rifle with twelve rounds in it, but they aren't going to help me much in an assault.

[volitaunt]

[ These people are going to get massacred.

Every vote to get close to the null is a vote to let more than half the population die.

But they can't exist like this forever. Eventually they'll make some kind of mistake, some kind of misstep, and just like on Starkiller, the enemy will follow them home.

He feels sick. ]

We need to start building defenses, shelters, real shelters people can retreat to if the fighting comes to us. A way to buy enough time to get the city out of the line of fire if it comes to an out and out fight. [ Quiet, bleak: ] We can't let these people die.

[ Death doesn't last here, maybe. But that's only because of the gods, and Delight proved all too clearly that gods don't last either. ]

[nonscriptum]

[The fear on Poe's face is clear. It's an emotion with which Nate can empathize because he gets it - he does - that things are way more dire than anyone wants to admit or acknowledge.]

We can't do any of that until we move. [Nate points out, not unkindly.] We won't know where we'll be until everybody's votes go in, though I'm hoping people will see sense and give us the locale with the most resources.

[volitaunt]

[ Poe presses his fingertips against his closed eyes until he sees starbursts, forcing the fear back and down, forcing himself to think.

How is he supposed to be a leader back home when he can't even keep his thoughts straight here?

He needs Finn to steady him, to even things out. That's as true now as it's been for the past year. ]

Anyone ever tell you being right and handsome is annoying as hell?

[nonscriptum]

[The circumstances suck but the statement has him leaning a little on the bashful side. He's been accused of both "Beautiful Mind shit" and good looks, but usually the sentiments don't come hand in hand.

Nate has the grace to laugh, rubbing at the back of his neck in mild self-consciousness.]

Can't say I've heard that one, no.

[volitaunt]

[ Nate you adorable bastard. In a different situation, with different people, different things to worry about, and not, y'know, a wife involved, Poe might actually hit on him. He hasn't considered doing that in... at least a year. Not since John Sheppard. Before John there was no time to even think about that kind of thing. It wouldn't have even crossed his mind.

Poe shakes his head. There's no point in thinking of it here, either. ]

Bullshit. [ HE DOESN'T BELIEEEVE YOU NATE. Okay he totally does, that reaction can't be anything but genuine, but that doesn't mean Poe won't give him a hard time about it. ] How about handsome and reckless? You've got to get that one.

[ Okay maybe he'll hit on Nate a little. Wrong time? Wrong place? Yeah well it's starting to seem like there'll never be a right time or place, sue him. ]

[nonscriptum]

[Nathan Drake, a man notorious for either mistakenly assuming someone is flirting with him when they're not, or not being able to tell when someone is actually hitting on him, accepts Poe's words with uncharacteristic humility. He spent the better part of their expedition getting harassed by a couple people for having nice hair but he usually doesn't get that kind of attention back home.

When he concedes it is with a crooked grin, more good-humored than they were at the start of this conversation.]

Okay, that one I have heard. Though it's usually preceded with "Nate, you're an idiot and you're gonna get us killed."

[God knows Sully has given him enough grief for his split-second decision making.]

But I, uh. Thanks. I think.