In reply to Martin Roux (msg # 49):

Not having experience in war or combat, Natasha said nothing and listened.

"Agreed, Frank.  Everyone should know what we're getting into.  At least I hope we're about to get into killing Visitors and collaborators, as often as possible before they get us.  Maybe it'll make a difference and maybe it won't, but they won't get earth without a fight."

He adjusts his sunglasses (the only thing he had in common with the Visitors), which had slid out of place.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:26, Fri 26 Apr 2019.

“I’m not a soldier, but what I’m interested in is exposing what these Visitors are and what they want. Then maybe we wouldn’t just be a handful of people in a room,” Patricia said, some of the comments were making her distinctly uncomfortable. “I’m not naive, I see the effects of violence every day and I understand how something like that involves risk, probably casualties. I’m sure there will be fighting.”

“But if the goal here killing human beings, ‘as often as possible’  then you can count me out. I’m not a murderer,” her grey eyes turned briefly to the brash young man in his glasses, so casually planning his last stand. “Our governments aren’t exactly trusting, over three decades of cold war shows us that. But they all welcomed these visitors with open arms? I think finding out why there are collaborators is more valuable than killing them.”

"Just to be clear," replied Frank a little more calmly than he'd spoken before, "I'm not up for killing for killing's sake. I'm just making sure that everyone is aware that what we're talking about here is going to involve people getting hurt and some of them will be humans. Doesn't matter if you've never held a gun in your life before as there are several of us here that have and we can teach you how to shoot. That's not the hard bit. Being prepared to shoot at someone is the key thing."

He glanced around the room again, trying to get a gauge on people, before turning to the lady with the curly hair who had just been talking. "You've raised an important point," he said to her. "Exposing what these visitors are means having a plan to tell people. That means that once we've got something damning to tell people we need a plan of how to do that. That's pretty simple if you think about it. We're going to have to seize a TV studio at some point. Transmit a broadcast of whatever we've discovered and then run. That's several steps ahead though. First of all we've got to find out more about the visitors and we've got two ideas of how to do that so far. Breaking into one of their manufacturing facilities and taking a Visitor prisoner. Anyone got any other ideas?"

"Whatever the distance needed, we can't plan a single move without information.  Checking one of the factories, sure, it's certainly on the table.  But not everything has to be done with force.  If we can get people into places, if we can get ourselves into places without them knowing who we are, that puts us at an advantage.  If violence is the only solution, then we will cross that bridge when we need to.  I think we need to go slow.  Study them and their habits.  Gather some intelligence where we can, both from the them and those helping them."

Dean sat up and put one hand on the table. "So it sounds like we're all in." he looked to Taylor. "What's happens next Doc?" It was at it's heart an entreaty to action and plain speech. They all agreed that it might be dangerous, they all agreed that action was required and that they needed more information. They all agreed that the cause was just.

What he was looking for were essentially marching orders, a real plan of action or at least some realistic schedule for such a thing. Were they going to train? were they going to gather supplies or equipment? what would be their first objective? All of these he more or less implied with his question.

"I will freely admit the obvious...this is not exactly my area of expertise.  Nor am I expecting to be some grand leader here.  I really don't know what would be a logical starting point.  Observation?  Supply gathering?  I was hoping someone here might have a better handle on such an endeavor.  Those of you with military experience...?"

Roo shook his head. "My service was a long time ago, and I wasn't never nothin' but boots on the ground. I'm willing to do whatever this takes, but I know enough about operational planning to know that it ain't for amateurs. Saw enough of that in country."

He took his cap off and scratched his head. "To be frank I'm just a trucker. You need something moved, I can get it there. Other than that, all I have to offer is my dedication to the cause. We in this for real, I ain't never gonna let none of you down."
This message was last edited by the player at 16:00, Sun 28 Apr 2019.

"And a man who knows the roads is of value for certain.  You've been dealing with all their checkpoints routinely, yes?  Then you know how they operate.  You might even know the layout of a few.  What you need to get through.   These things can be very important.  Do you do many runs into the city or out of state?"

"Cross country, mostly. If we need something moved somewhere, I can probably find a legitimate delivery that will give me the papers I need to get there. The highway checkpoints are random and not too careful... there's just too much shipping and not enough manpower to lock it down."

While Dean did not react much outwardly, inwardly he had to admit that he was just a tad crestfallen. Some wild part of his imagination had envisioned some vast conspiracy, hidden groups operating in every state, passwords, cold war stuff.

He had fallen short of expecting the wall to open up into some white laboratory type area, or a big room with screens on the wall. Some "Q" like figure showering them in all sorts of cool gadgets, but he had thought that maybe there was more to it than this.

At the same time it was nice, and he could wrap his head around it. This was it, square 1, the ground floor. They had all taken a chance, and if the local smokeys had not kicked in the door to arrest them yet, he figured chances were pretty good things were on the up and up.

"Well, might as well start with stuff like that then. Like bein back in grade school" Dean agreed with an open palmed gesture to Roo. "Knowin where we're comin from will at least let us know what we're workin with."

And without any ceremony he raised the hand slightly. "I'm Dean, I live upstate a'ways. Grew up local mostly, never went to college, I work as a Hand for a few of the outfits up that way, turkey and cattle mostly, and I help out with the stock on a few of the touristy places. Might bring in a load of potatoes or turnips come season, but it's mostly odd jobs, mending fences, cuttin wood, things like that." he looked expectantly back to Roo.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:08, Sun 28 Apr 2019.

Roo nodded. "I'm Martin, but folks call me Roo on account of my last name. Roux, with an x, it's French. From a small town outside of the Big Easy, but left that when I turned eighteen to see the world on Uncle Sam's dime.

"Don't get too excited though, I ain't no special forces badass. Barely a soldier then, ain't one now. Only thing that stuck with me is brotherhood, so if you're in it with me I won't let you down."

"A man who knows his way around the areas up north, now that's pretty handy, especially if we need to hide out somewhere.  I'm assuming you know many of the locals?  Perhaps those that would be sympathetic to this?"

"But you were a soldier, which means you at least have some basic knowledge of things the rest of us might not.  And getting around the checkpoints is definitely something handy."

In reply to Dr. Ben Taylor (msg # 62):

"There are other ways of getting in, without actually being there. Electronically. I work in security, and paranoia of the V's can work in our favor. They are installing cameras everywhere, cameras that can be used can operated remotely. Thing is, all this networking stuff is relatively new, so is their security. I might just be able to find out some information, if I can get onto their networks. I even have one of these new mobile computers... though I can hardly lift it myself."

OOC: Technically a laptop, the first Compaq Laptops were huge!
This message was last edited by the player at 21:29, Sun 28 Apr 2019.

Dean nodded. "Might be a few around, and there's not many folks in those parts to start with. Lotta old back roads, overgrown fire lines, plenty of places to lie low for sure."

He listened to Natasha. "Well that's lucky, I doubt most people know about that stuff aside from the folks workin for IBM and whatnot. And we've got one right here. Whad' you say your name was?" he asked. She had not given it of course, but he tended to be polite.

"That is excellent news!  So far they've demonstrated that they can hijack our airwaves whenever they please so it would be a great asset to have someone who knows their way around such systems.  Surveillance too!"

"Exactly.  Perhaps a good location for a base of operations or something like that.  A hidden spot we can gather in safety."

"Yeah, I seen that movie War Games. Amazin' what kind of stuff they got computers to do. You think the V got 'em too? Or are their computers more like on Battlestar Galactica? All glowing orbs 'n colored lights?"

"Actually Roo...you may be onto something.  They give tours of those giant ships, don't they?  Sure, they don't show you the real nuts and bolts but it just might be worth a visit.  At least get a surface idea what we may be dealing with."

In reply to Dr. Ben Taylor (msg # 67):

"Yeah, I dunno. I have hear rumours that they actually look nothing like human, so their 'tours' might just be a way of getting our ID. Personally, I would prefer to get one alone with a piece of his gear and look over it myself. I am guessing it is way more advanced, but hey that might just mean more vulnerable, too, it they are linked better.

A lot of rumours, actually. Some say that the guys they kidnapped are being taken to camps somewhere. Some have suggested that they are being modified...any way we could track your missing friend?

Names Natasha. Thanks Ben."

“How do you know so much about them?  I’ve never heard any of these rumors you keep talking about.  Do you have a source?”

He awaits a reply from Natasha with arms folded.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:42, Mon 29 Apr 2019.

In reply to Kick Woods (msg # 69):

"Of course. Have you not heard of Robin Ramsey's "Lobster" magazine? Ok, that is still pretty new, but "Discover" magazine is much older, and some of the things printed in there are worth a read. More importantly, some of those scientists asking questions there have already disappeared, and for some reason I had a friend who tried to call one who was shut down pretty quick. Police said he was charges with some bullshit charge, like creating a public nuisance, or inciting anti-V hate or some such crap."

"Yeah National Enquirer says they're all Jesus clones."

When there was a lull in the conversation Frank filled it.

"I'm Frank. Did a couple of tours of 'Nam in the Infantry and finished as a Sergeant. Like Roo though I'm just a grunt, nothing special like the Green Berets or stuff like that. I'm an odd job man now so I make my own hours and can help out when needed. To start with I think that we need to gather intel. Information I mean. If we know of a manufacturing plant that we want to break into then we could start with a recon, a reconnaissance, of it. That could be Roo making a delivery or picking up a cargo, even if he's in the wrong place, some of us observing from nearby from a vehicle or hidden somehow, depending on the terrain. Stuff like that. But gathering information to start with sounds like the right approach to begin with."

He then glanced at Natasha. "If you want to get hold of some of their gear then that ties up with my suggestion. Not to start with but at some point we should look to grab a visitor to interrogate and Natasha can take their gear to pieces to see how it works. I'm most interested in their weapons personally but it might be best to grab one who isn't armed."

"All we got are ideas." Roux was sounding frustrated. "What we need is a plan. And to have a plan we need to have goals. And not nebulous 'get rid of the V and save my friends' bullshit, we need real, tangible, concrete, defined goals. And for that, we need someone, one person, who has the brains to figure out what steps we need to take to pull this off. Not all of us puttin' our foot in, just one person, a leader to give us a single, powerful direction.

"So who's it gonna be? Who has the drive and vision to turn this from a bunch of assholes throwing dreams around to an effective operation?"

The good doctor continued his calm repose.  His demeanor and body language remained unchanged...but it was there.  There was a look behind his eyes.  Panic.  Worry.  Probably most surgeons were good like that.  Hiding their real feelings inside but this wasn't surgery.  His gaze shifted about the room with an almost pleading look for someone to chime in.