001; video

[razorback]

[a kid comes into frame, he's wearing cargo pants and looks 100% geared up for war]

So, where do I get my class schedule?

Uh. And if I had a gun with me before showing up, is it still around? I'd like it back.

[he's always facing the camera as he speaks, someone observant might notice he's not nearly as calm as he's trying to look]

Comments

[mindoirsurvivor]

Would you believe giant robotic bugs?

Giant, in this case, being somewhere between one hundred and sixty meters long and somewhere over two kilometers.

[razorback]

That sounds like something that'd make a great explosion.

[mindoirsurvivor]

You're damn right it does.

[razorback]

Do people ever get out of here?

[mindoirsurvivor]

Not on purpose.

[razorback]

How does that work?

[mindoirsurvivor]

People vanish. The government always knows when. They're not dead; because sometimes they come back. But they don't remember having been here before.

That's all we know.

[razorback]

Is there a pattern?

[mindoirsurvivor]

Not exactly. Newcomers are more likely to vanish than people who have been here a long time, but it still happens. A year and a half ago, someone said young women were the likeliest candidates to vanish, but that looks like it was a fluke.

Loners. People who can't adjust and don't fit in. They're more likely to go, too -- but that might just be us trying to make sense of who disappeared, rather than a real pattern.

The truth is, it could be anyone, at any time. Usually somewhere between five and ten people a month; just a little less than the rate of new arrivals.

[razorback]

Might be worth trying to keep tabs. Maybe you haven't caught the pattern because there's more than one criteria.

[mindoirsurvivor]

Trust me, kid. Police department's been looking for a pattern for ages; and they're not the only ones.

[razorback]

Man, don't tell me you're police. I was starting to like you.

[mindoirsurvivor]

I was the police. Now I'm just another civilian. More or less.

[razorback]

That's better. Police are kinda useless.

[mindoirsurvivor]

Did I mention I was the Chief?

[razorback]

Did you quit before or after people started blowing up buildings?

[mindoirsurvivor]

Actually, I was fired. Long story. Short version is... about the same time.

[razorback]

... please tell me you were the one blowing up buildings.

[mindoirsurvivor]

No can do, I'm afraid. Spent too long being called a terrorist for that to sound like any fun.

Blown up a few space stations in my time, though.

[razorback]

You still get cool points for that.

[mindoirsurvivor]

I'm not saying I didn't enjoy it, but it sounds like you've done enough real fighting to know better.

[razorback]

Not on space stations. We fight on Earth shooting at aliens, I'm never in charge of blowing stuff up.

[mindoirsurvivor]

If I ever get to be a pirate captain again, I'll be sure to make you a powder monkey.

Batarian slavers took Mindoir when I was sixteen. Killed most of us, enslaved... everyone else. When the Alliance touched down, they couldn't punch through the batarian lines, so the only person... only people who got rescued were the ones who came out of hiding and snuck or fought their way to the Alliance.

On a station or on the ground, there's not much cool about it. It's just something the people who've got the skills need to get done.

[razorback]

And if they don't have any skills, they have to get them. We only have a handful of former military, the rest of us had to learn as we went along.

I guess you were lucky that someone was trying to rescue you.

[mindoirsurvivor]

Hell, I'm not sure they knew I existed. Batarians and humans have been killing each other over border planets since we first ran into one another. Survivors or no, the Navy would have been there to push them back.

Good thing, too. Nobody pushes my species around.