video + text + action

[mucked]

Who: Peggy Carter & YOU
Broadcast: Y, fleetwide.
Action: Aboard the Starstruck, if you like.
When: Today.

[ a video feed flickers to life, and fights for a moment to adequately focus on its subject. peggy carter sits in the kitchen aboard the starstruck, cup of tea and her elbow and half a biscuit in her hand. dabbing at crumbs, she sets her food aside and offers the network a bright smile. ]

That message -- the ominous one, in the bizarre language? It put me in mind of the sort of cryptograms and puzzles you might see in the Sunday paper. [ her expression is cheery enough, although she's not being wholly honest about her interest in such games. she won't be the one to say the words bletchley and park.] I loved them. Them, and crosswords. I thought maybe some of you might like them, too. [ ... ] We could do a few together. I'm not saying we all join a club, exactly, but back home they were always better solved in good company.

Let's start you off with one that's easy enough. But there's no shame in needing a hint, if needed. For what it's worth, the text I'm attaching is, in its deciphered form, English -- not yet certain how the augments' translation will handle it. We'll see.

BLSTKBC YLBSFKGISRX XL QIYT SL SFVBWIKAKJR STR QKBZ VX V XSRVZU EIFELXR — V ELKBS LB OTKYT STR XLIA QVU NKM KSX KBSRAARYSIVA RUR.

[ -- and then an afterthought: ]

...By chance, has anyone been brewing their own beer?

Comments

[mucked]

[ ...war?

a pertinent clarification still needed. but, before that: ] Dead?

[per_audacia_ad_astra]

[She nods, a little more somber but no less frank.] Desperate times, desperate measures, I guess you could say. They brought us back to fight.

[She brightens a moment later.] At least you have the benefit of figuring it all out without a patrol of Fallen on your heels!

[mucked]

[ she can't help her curiousity. ]

What are the Fallen?

[per_audacia_ad_astra]

Eliksni. Minions of the Darkness. They've overtaken Earth and parts of the Moon and Venus. They're like ... four-armed bug like aliens who live off an ether-rich environment. [The possibility of a discussion has her nearly vibrating with excitement.] They grow bigger and more powerful with more ether, so it's distributed on a caste system; canon fodder Dregs are like scrawny little things and then the Archons can get a couple stories high.

[mucked]

[ WELL all else aside... ]

So you are from Earth?

[per_audacia_ad_astra]

Yes. Old Russia Cosmodrome, specifically. At least, what was left of it. I don't know where I originated from, though.

Oh, and I've met a Canadian here! What about you, where are you from?

[mucked]

England. [ ... ] With a recent diversion to America. But I know Russia; I've been to Russia. Formidable place.

[per_audacia_ad_astra]

That, at least, hasn't changed. [Probably got even more formidible with the addition of the Fallen.]

I've heard of England and America, though.

[mucked]

Hard not to, I suppose. Neither nation is known for keeping to itself.

[ her smile is a little wolfish. ]

[per_audacia_ad_astra]

Mm, yes. Not much survived the Collapse but those names I've heard of.

[mucked]

Are their names all that's left of them, then?