driftfleet | Captain's Log 11 - Calling All Captains

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Captain's Log 11 - Calling All Captains

Who: Kirk + Fellow Captains and First Mates
Broadcast: Yes
Action: Yes; On the Marsiva
When: After this post

[ Broadcast ]
Given the recent events, I think it is prudent that all current captains and their first mates meet. It has been some time since we've had one, to my knowledge, and I believe it to be in our better interests to discuss the change in circumstances.

I'll secure a space that can fit us all, and let you know where and when soon.

[ Action ]
_{[ Kirk had secured a space that was both relatively private and large enough to fit all of the captains and first mates. At least being on the Marsiva meant that everything here was more or less neutral ground, even if it didn't feel like the safest place to meet per say. But putting this off until they got off it didn't feel right either, so best to make the most of it.

Hopefully all the captains would come, and their first mates, and they could try to make sense of the most recent events. Because someone had to, right? ]}

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I think your view on augments is limited," Nami says. "Many of the ones I've seen happen seem keyed to generate drama around them. Or comedy. Either are audience draws. People have been made grievously sick, people have turned into walking advertisements for the Atroma. Suddenly turning into kids seems popular. They're all disturbing, granted, but that's because we're finding them disturbing. We are not the target audience. It's easy to find these things entertaining when you're not directly involved.

"Aside from that--" And she frowns. "There are two other problems with that. I mean, it's really, really tempting to spit in their face no matter how we can. But you'd have to get the entirety of the Fleet to agree to sit and do nothing, and that just isn't achievable. Even if it were, you couldn't sustain it. We're not built that way.

"And even after all that, if we somehow managed to achieve such a massive dip in ratings, I'm not confident that would result in any favourable outcome to us. If we were useless to the Atroma as a way to get ratings, what's to say they won't just switch us off, or jettison us out into space? Wipe the board, get a new group more willing to comply?"

Playing the long game is their only real option.

Kitty was trying to take in the passive resistance idea. It has some merits. Of course it does. Tyrion came up with it. Nami has a point that executing it would be hard. It might be one thing if they were captains of crews that trained for this and signed up with them, but they aren't. They're just people who took charge or were randomly assigned it. That doesn't mean it's impossible, but it won't be easy and what if the Atroma run them into a fleet of raiders? Are they really going to do nothing while they're under attack? Or they could just set off the augments as mentioned. It always comes back to that.

"So, we've crossed out doing something and doing nothing. We're really on a roll." The sarcasm is strong, but she doesn't mean it harshly. It's just a hard situation. She spent so much time in the prison she was in before waiting and gathering info and trying to cultivate a team and none of it ever got them anywhere. Maybe it would have been more emotionally satisfying and better for morale to just try and blow something up. They might have at least learned something useful from it. But she'd be risking a lot of lives on that bet.

"What we are sure of is that we don't know nearly enough," Kirk reminded everyone, giving Kitty a look over the sarcasm but otherwise letting it slide. Not constructive, but he understood the frustration. He felt it too, this sense of powerlessness, and no way to form a real plan. They could do something, but there were just to many outcomes that didn't work out for them.

"I know it seems frustrating, but I suggest we continue as we have. We continue playing their game, even though I feel like we don't have much choice. We watch. We listen. We remember as much as we can. Eventually, Atroma will make a mistake. We will find something they didn't mean for us to find, and we can use it."

He sighed, because he already knew how a couple of people would feel about that, his gaze flickering to Signy briefly.

"Patience is as much a part of a battle as the actual strike. When we do strike, we need it to count. We might get only one chance, so we need a more than solid chance it will work. We cannot and should not count on the ability to make a second attempt. To Nami's point, that means meeting up more often, and I would suggest on planet when we can."

A little bit further from Atroma's reach, though they were still there, hovering, watching. But perhaps less so. And maybe, maybe one day a planet will be able to jam Atroma's signals somehow.

"I realize this isn't a solution, not right now, but it can lead to one. And I think that needs to be our focus, since I don't see us coming up with the solution with the information we have today."

Signy wasn't happy about this at all, because it wasn't doing anything. It wasn't even doing nothing as a deliberate tactic (which had seemed a poor one to her battle-formed mind but was at least a tactic).

"We certainly won't get a second chance if we never take a first one. How long have some of you been here, and how likely do you think you are to spot a weakness now when you haven't before?"

"I've never seen an opening, or all that much of a weakness in all the time I've been here, and I've been stuck here since near the start."

Which is frustrating. Sokka has gathered so much intel, so many starmaps, carefully made paper copies of everything he's found, every sliver of information, none of which have lead to anything, at all. He frowns.

"...The closest thing I ever saw to them having anything like a weakspot was when they Interceptors knocked our ships into a nebula. We lost power, had to try and get them back online, but while we were offline, it seemed Atroma couldn't get control. They effectively lost us for a while." he pauses. "...Of course, that could have all been scripted, it's impossible to tell."

"I'll be at three years in about four months. I was here day one of cycle twelve." He's not proud of how long he has been here. Just stating a fact. "And yeah, what Sokka said, pretty much that's the only time I've seen Atroma act like they weren't in control was during that time we were knocked into the nebula. During that time there were moments where it seemed like we came back online when they weren't expecting it. They had to scramble to make it seem like they meant to start talking to us again.

Could it have been scripted?" Vash shrugs as it very well could have been. "But it's the only thing we've gotten so far."

Nami shifts in her chair, about to say something, before she suddenly stops and looks unsure, settling down in her seat again.

She has plenty to say about the Interceptors. She just doesn't think here is a good place for it. First meeting elsewhere, then.

"If we take a wait-and-see plan that's been going on in some form for almost three and a half years how long are we ready to wait?" Just posing it, but that reminder is making her reconsider. Maybe it was better to just try something even if they could theoretically already expect a counter.

"Maybe we're wrong about some of their abilities. Maybe we need to be testing our boundaries to find their weaknesses even if there could be consequences."

"That's not a bad plan," Kirk conceded. "But if we're going to do that, we should build up. If we go to hard, to fast, those consequences could be pretty damn severe. And we should check in with each other when we're going to 'test' something that might come with a bigger risk. The last thing we need is the Fleet taken off guard - or better yet we need them ready in case what we do leads to an unexpected opening."

"Check in with each other to what degree? We can't be relying on unanimous agreement to do anything, and we don't have much of a system of command here." Which is certainly a problem.

Sigh.

"This might all be better ironed out somewhere that's not Atroma Central," Nami says quietly.

"I agree with Nami on this one." Personally he would like this kind of talk off of all the ships.

Just nodding her agreement to that. She doesn't think they have much chance hiding their intentions, but they need to try their best, right?

"Why?" Mallory asks. "Why does it matter if they know that we're trying to come up with a strategy against them? We don't have one yet, regardless of where we discuss it." She would assume they can listen in no matter where they are, which means coming up with a better strategy, one that can survive that, or working entirely alone. "I'm suggesting that we talk to each other less."

Are you serious right now? Vash takes a moment and then speaks calmly in a tone he's really hopeful does not come out as condescending. His intention is to be helpful.

"Well, for most strategies to work past the idea of: we want to come up with a strategy! It's important for the other side to not know what you're planning. As if the other side knows what you're planning and they have more resources, powers, control, and abilities? Then they can stop you. Easily. Before you can even put a plan into action usually."

Vash is a bit flabbergasted. He can't tell if she was being serious about why it was a terrible idea to discuss plans where the group you're fighting against can hear.

"For example, have you ever played poker before? Or-or any competitive card game before? If you have, would you really want to play where you show the other players what cards you have? Of course not! They would instantly know if you have good cards and would wait until you don't before they try to steal all your money and you lose. This is the same thing except instead of playing for fun or money we're playing with people's lives so that makes it even more important that we're careful."

Vash is starting to worry that Mallory may end up getting people killed. Of course there is a chance that recklessness may lead to enough of a surprise to help them, but at what cost will that come?

"The only thing this group may have is numbers so if we talk to each other less and each go around doing our own things then we'll be disorganized and may lose the only advantage we may have."

Signy doesn't roll her eyes, but it's a near thing. In general she's not comfortable with these people, and she doesn't think like them. That doesn't need to be a disadvantage. This meeting here hasn't shown any sign of helping, though, and she doesn't think more meetings -- even if they can somehow speak freely at them, which she doubts will ever be safe -- are the answer.

"You're proposing that we start a game of bridge, partner up and figure out how to engage in planning specifics without anyone catching on to what we're talking about. Poker's the better option.

"The only way we have a chance is if we make this less organized and more guerrilla in nature." And she fully intends to have a chance with it. They don't have the numbers on the Atroma, that much seems pretty obvious. "Coordinating all of us into some sort of combined attack doesn't make sense, regardless of the specific strategy you think you can come up with at some golden point in the future."

As much as Kirk didn't want to agree with Signy, she did have a choice. Guerrilla warfare could be effective, but in this situation? He wasn't sure. It could and it could not. He would be agreeable to the tactic if he knew everyone here had space battle experience like he and Signy did, but that just wasn't so. Many only knew how to do what they did on the ships because of the implants - or so he was given the impression of, considering many people here had never been on a space ship before.

But he did know that them falling into an all out battle between themselves would only serve Atroma's purposes, not their own.

He stood sharply from his chair to get everyone's attention, glancing around the table.

"I think we're all agreeing we won't get much more done today in this discussion," he said. "For now, I suggest we return to our crews and think about their specific strengths, and when we meet again we can more fully understand what we are working with. Preferably, yes, when we make planetfall. If you find any other information, I urge you to share it as safely and securely as you can."

He glanced around the group.

"Agreed and adjourned?"

Is it just her or did it get tense in here?

She can appreciate Signy's spirit, but Kitty comes from a background of teamwork and she believes in the power of that. She also worries that this mission is more important than the people the mission is for to Signy. But she did shift this meeting ultimately. It feels like they are on the verge of doing more than waiting even though the next plan is literally waiting. At least there's a clock on it unless the Atroma decide not to let them go to planets anymore to prevent it.

She is about to speak up when Kirk takes over. Ending things here is probably the best route anyway.

"Agreed. See you all around. Maybe in our dreams."

Signy doesn't look pleased, and while part of that is her usual state, there's certainly an element that came from this conversation, the fact that it felt completely useless to her. But there's no way to force others into seeing things her way, and it's clear she doesn't have the province to do so even if she could.

"Agreed," she says, and stands herself. It's clear to her this whole exercise has been a waste of time.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Captain's Log 11 - Calling All Captains

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