“I think they’re here for exactly the reason John told us during first contact.  They need our resources to produce certain chemicals that are essential for them.  What they left out is the part about making us disappear if we don’t go along with the program.  But we should have expected this.  Look at earth’s history.  What happened when the Spaniards met the Mayans?”

He bites loudly into a chip, as if providing a demonstration.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:33, Mon 22 Apr 2019.

In reply to Kick Woods (msg # 25):

Natasha simply said nothing, waiting to hear something more concrete.

"When the Spaniards met the Mayans. When the Americans met the Sioux. When the Dutch met the Congo. Human history ain't nothin' but empires eatin' what smaller. But that ended when America met the VC. Biggest army in the world fightin' against pig farmers with Soviet surplus rifles, and we got our rear ends handed to us."

"Maybe humanity deserves this for the weight of our collective sins, but that don't mean we can't fight back. Even if it means fightin' our own people more n' the V. Because I'll say right now, there ain't no innocents. There ain't no neutral when survival is on the line. Only resistance and collaborators. And collaborators deserve what they get."

Orlando modded. He was in. “Start with them manufacturing plants I would say. See what they doing. We need to start stockpiling weapons, and explosives. Those will be the next to go.”

"Hey, slow it down, buddy." Roo held up a hand. "Don't talk  about nothin' that's gonna get you locked up until you're sure all the ears around are on the same page as you."

Trish didn’t speak. Her own question had been asked on the lips of the good looking country boy and she did have anything to add right then. While she had her own opinions about the motivations of the visitors, there had been enough questions thrown around. She just watched, intelligent grey assessing her compatriots. Where they trustworthy?

Kick is tempted to point out that America won all the battles in Vietnam and that Saigon didn’t fall until two years after we’d left, but he keeps this information to himself.  It has little to do with the matter at hand.

Roux would be tempted to point out in turn that he was there and Kick wasn't, because oh man, Kick would be so owned. So very owned. He'd need some ointment to recover from that burn for sure.

"And that, is precisely my point.  We may be small in numbers but history has shown that even small groups can achieve a lot."



"Precisely.  Knowledge, information, these are the hallmarks of any endeavor.  Before we can decide what needs to be done, we need to know what exactly is happening."

"And before that we need to know who is in. And who ain't."

In reply to Martin Roux (msg # 34):

"I have been in the business of gathering information for years. Especially what I could find about the V. Of course I am in..."

Orlando nodded. “I’d reckon anyone willing to risk arriving to a meeting like this is in, didn’t exactly scream “visitor appreciation group”. I know I’m in.”

He shuffled in his seat a bit and drank some water before adding “be nice to know why they are taking who selective people.”

"I'd like to know that too, I lost a friend." Was she in? Patricia felt her insides knot when it came to actually verbalise a decision. She barely knew anything about the people, except that they'd all gone to the meeting; same as her. That was something. It was always going to be dangerous. "It's probably a good time for anyone who isn't 'in' to leave though."

"Hell, I'm in too" Dean added with some resignation. In truth he had probably been committed ever since he decided to show up to such a thing, but with the others making their impromptu oath of allegiance, he felt obliged to state it as well.

It was this or just continue to do nothing, and with the way things were going, he knew he could not look himself in the mirror if he missed a chance like this.

“I’m in... for now.”  He licks the salty crumbs from his fingers.

"The V have it in good with our government - hell, at this point they probably pulling the strings. To Uncle Sam we gonna be criminal conspiracy at best, terrorists at worst. Justice and what's Right don't even gonna enter into it, criminal is whatever the V gonna say is criminal."

He regarded Kick. "We do this, every other person here got our life in their hands. And they gonna hold that power until the V is gone. So there ain't no 'out'. I ain't gonna trust nobody with my life, my freedom, unless they in this to the bitter end, death or victory."

Ben continues to hold his position, knuckles down supporting his weight upon the table.  He looks back and forth as each speaker joins in, his calm exterior holding as he absorbed the direction and mood of the assembled.

"It seems rather obvious to me that everyone here is here for the same thing.  We all want to do something.  If we do this...if we go ahead with anything...then as Martin has pointed out, our very lives are in each others' hands.  You need to ask yourself honestly if you can uphold that level of commitment.  I certainly would not begrudge someone not wanting to take on that level of responsibility.  If any of us are caught in the commitment of something deemed 'traitorous' or anything of the sort, we have a pretty good idea what our justice system will do but we have no idea what the Visitors are capable of.  Ask yourself if you're ready for this.  There's the door if you're not up to it.  Otherwise..."

He slowly begins to lower himself back down, his icy demeanor holding sway across his entire face.  Once more his hands fold in front of his face, fingers spread and stretched, points meeting in a loose triangle.

"...we have some plans to make."

In reply to Dr. Ben Taylor (msg # 41):

"All that is needed for evil to triumph is for good folk to do...nothing. I won't be condemning Peter by my inactivity."

Kick says nothing further, although he is clearly amused that his new comrades still imagine that they have a shot at survival, much less freedom.  As for himself, he doesn’t mind being a walking dead man.  Everybody dies some time.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:33, Fri 26 Apr 2019.

Frank had been stood quietly at the back, well mostly quietly as he had been munching his way through his pile of sandwiches, while listening to the discussion unfold. He didn't have the personal motivation of a missing friend or relative that several of these other people gathered here had but he recognised an invader when he saw one and it was clear that the Visitors were taking over his country and he wasn't about to sit around and do nothing about it. He'd seen brutality in Vietnam and had been stuck in a questionable war that the politicians had refused to let the soldiers win but he'd done his bit and he wasn't about to let America be taken over like this.

He had some questions though, questions for the Doc who was doing the recruiting initially but questions for everyone when it came down to it. "Doc, if you're talking about doing something active then I'm in," he started, "but I'm keen to know how far you're prepared to go? Are we talking about just breaking into one of the manufacturing plants that they've taken over to see what they're doing or are we talking about more than that?"

He took a gulp of his water before continuing. "I mean that breaking into a plant will give you a brief window of time to work stuff out before we need to get the hell out of there. We need to do a recee to figure out what their security is like but regardless of what we see we need to be in and our damn quick and that won't give you much of a window for much figuring out."

Pausing again he glanced around the other people in the room. "That's why I ask how far are you prepared to go. Sounds like we might well end up in a set to with their security and that's risky. Real risky. We could get ourselves some firearms but they'll probably respond in greater force than we can handle so I think that we need to flip the odds in favour of us. You want to understand them more, learn more about them. I get that and I want the same but the best way to do that is to grab one of them and interrogate him or her. Take them somewhere secure we've set up, strip them of all their gear and get the intel we want from them. That crosses several boundaries though that people might have so is that what you're talking about doing in the end? Just how motivated is everyone? People sound like they're prepared to fight but let's be clear about what that means. That probably means killing. And not just killing Visitors. There are people getting told what to do by Visitors and what are we going to do if we end up on the wrong side of one of them. Everyone should know what they're getting into."

It was clear that Frank had crossed that Rubicon, that boundary, and that he was happy to accept the consequences.

"Collaborators deserve what they get," was all Martin had to say.

"Agreed but some of them have been forced to collaborate," replied Frank with a nod. "Saw it a number of times in 'Nam. Villages forced by the VC to hide weapons and food for them but we still burned the villages and moved the occupants on to other places. Not their fault but they were caught in the middle of it. This is a war though."

"Life wasn't fair before the V came, it ain't gonna be fair now. Especially for the innocent, especially in war. Only people who say different don't know what they're talking about." He tilted the brim of his cap. "I'll tell you, though, straight up, I will sacrifice every last drop of my blood on the altar of human freedom to kick their butts back into space."
This message was last edited by the player at 17:11, Fri 26 Apr 2019.

Dean listened to both Frank and Roo. He was younger than them both by a fair margin, and likely significantly inexperienced as a result, and while he may have had the same kind of reservations as any person discussing dangerous politics in mixed company, at least he seemed clear eyed about it.

"I mean, I get that they aren't gonna leave us alone just because we ask'em nice." He began as he leaned back in his chair. "I'm no soldier, never been involved in anythin like that. I like to think I got what it takes, but I figure just about everybody likes to think that, and the truth is that not everybody's cut out for that kinda thing" he paused for a few moments, seeming to think over his words.

"But I've worked a few trades that might be handy. If it comes down to it, and we have to fight, what happens is gonna happen, but I would like to do my part." he said with more confidence.

"Only need two things, pal." Roo nodded. "Sacrifice and brotherhood. If you can offer that, we can change the world."