tushanshu | 006; video;

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006; video;

[Shepard looks a little less military-formal and a little more plain old contemplative today. This post is less about making an announcement or speech, perhaps, and more about making connections.]

I don't suppose many others here find the turtle diving sort of... comforting. Being underwater reminds me of space. There's no day-night cycle when you're in the black. It's really disconcerting at first, but after a while, you learn to sleep when your body needs to, rather than when the clock tells you it's night.

I was only just starting to get used to being on Earth again, when I was brought here. I hadn't been back in years.

[She sort of squints vaguely into the distance for a moment, like she's lost in a memory, her brow furrowed. Then she snaps back to herself and addresses the screen with a bit more of her usual professionalism.]

To the newcomers, I'm Commander Jane Shepard - Alliance Navy. [A brief hesitation, as she almost says formerly, but she's not willing to deal with that just yet.]

If anyone needs something to do, and you have medical or defense experience, let me know. I've got some teams working on emergency preparedness plans, and we could always use more help.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I'm beginning to think no one in this place has every had what we'd call a normal life.

Were you an astronaut then?

Astro - Oh! No. We haven't used that word in a long time, where I'm from. I'm a marine. [She smiles a little - the term is kinda quaint, she hasn't heard it since history class.]

[He raises an eyebrow, amused] A space marine? Your world must be really advanced if astronauts are simply considered marines.

[She laughs at the phrase - it's not one she's ever heard, she just thinks it's kind of cute.] I like it. All soldiers are trained for all environments. I suppose it'd be possible for a war to break out on Earth - it's not like the United North American States get along all that well with the Chinese People's Federation, but yeah, at this point it's safe to say most issues needing soldiers take place... not on Earth.

[Kal raises an eyebrow at the names of the countries. It's not hard to guess which ones she's referring to, but he wonders if she comes from a different kind of earth altogether or that's just the way her earth's future evolved.]

And I thought the level technology here was frustratingly low, you must be going crazy.

I can make do with less technology. It's being grounded that's driving me stir-crazy.

Rao, tell me about it. The first week here I literally went unconscious trying to break the barrier, I wanted to get out- or simply get some breathing space so badly. I'm not used to this.

I was grounded before I showed up here, but at least back home - there was the possibility I'd get my ship back.

Were you? [He grins, looking amused. He knows he should pry but.. ] Dare I ask what you need to do to deserve that?

[Her face closes off at that, and she shakes her head.] Something terrible, but necessary.

[He makes a face, actually looking guilty] I'm sorry, I shouldn't have pried.

[She waves it off.] Part of the job. If I couldn't justify my actions, I'd know I'd made a bad decision.

Doesn't make it any easier to deal with when a lot of innocent people die, though.

Dealing with something like that never is. I'm sorry to hear you had to make such a hard decision.

Yeah, well. It's war. Somebody has to, I suppose.

I'm still sorry, war is never easy on anyone. Is it a interplanetary war...?

Bigger than that. We're fighting something much bigger, much older, than any of us. It's not even organic.

[He was with you until 'not organic'. The he thinks of Brainiac.]

Are you fighting some kind of machine?

Very big, very old machines, yeah.

[More like mecha-cthulhu.]

[A hum] I've dealt with things like that, but we had the league to help me out... or simply a couple metas put together. Humans having to face it on their own sounds terrifying.

[Nope he doesn't realize how condescending he sounds, sorry.]

[Her face just kind of falls into an "EXCUSE U" expression at that.]

Okay, first of all, humanity isn't alone, and even if we were, we've proven ourselves pretty damn capable of handling things. We've done in thirty years what it's taken other species centuries to accomplish. We gave pause to the strongest military in the galaxy when we nearly beat them - and that was before we even knew anything about them.

[She purses her lips slightly, and shakes her head.] Sorry. I just don't appreciate species superiority rhetoric. We all have strengths and weaknesses, and we're always better off working together.

[Raising both hands in a surrendering stance.] Uhm, sorry? I didn't mean it that way. I know humans can handle it, it's just-

When metahumans began rising on the streets people were afraid of them. Afraid of us. It was a hard pill to digest. So suddenly dealing with a war, an invasion like that if they had no prior knowledge must have been even harder.

Trust me, I've been on both ends of it, many times. [As though to demonstrate, she balls her hand in a fist, taking a moment to gather dark energy around it, as though preparing to send a shockwave. The blue glow builds, then dissipates as she slowly releases it.

Then she shrugs.] Half the aliens I meet are either racist themselves or assume all humans are racist. Half the humans I meet are mistrustful of aliens, or terrified of biotics, or both. We're all afraid of what we don't understand. And sometimes there are things bigger, older, and meaner than anything any of us can imagine.

[A grin as he nods, agreeing with her wholeheartedly. He'd tell her about being raised by humans so he knew first-hand not all of the humans were that afraid but he knows better than to risk his secret identity.] Truth.

So alien species got together to fight this menace in your world?

[She'll never get the secret identity schtick, despite having numerous classified and off-the-books missions under her belt, but she gives a shrug all the same, a sigh in her voice.]

It's complicated. Kind of tough to undo centuries-old prejudices. It's all politics. I'm afraid by the time most people realize what's really at stake - it'll be too late to stop a lot of the death and destruction.

I feel like that's kind of a universal thing, though. At least, the politicians here don't seem to be much better.

Politicians seem to have a bad name everywhere, but the last president of the United States back at home openly tried to kill me and almost killed my best friend so I have to admit I might be a bit biased.

How do politics and that... ancient forces you're fighting get tangled up though, if you don't mind me asking?

006; video;

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video; Jor-El's suite

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video; Jor-El's suite

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video; Jor-El's suite

video; Jor-El's suite

video; Jor-El's suite

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