voidtreckernet | Video: Who Do You Trust

[She had been considering this post for a long spell. She's seen friends leave, in recent months. Entrapta's departure pressing most of all. There are others here with the knowledge she wishes to share - but they might not stay for long enough. She might not be either.]

[The image focuses on her, sitting on her bunk, legs crossed. She has a short easel next to her, with large white bristol boards on it.]

Greetings, fellow train residents. I am Guri. Some of you already know that, but this video is made for posterity, in case I am no longer present on the train. Hopefully, it will remain in data storage. Now, the following are people from my universe - and near-variants thereupon - whom you should not trust, engage with, or allow any chance to infiltrate normal life on the train.

[She pulls off the first card, and behind it are a series of carefully drawn versions of men and women in uniform - olive, grey, black, and white armor. These are the various uniforms of the Imperial military. Standing aside from it are two uniformed figures, one all in red, the other all in white.]

These are the various ranks of the military in the Galactic Empire. A totalitarian regime that was in my time bend on galactic domination. By and large, they preferred brute force and terrified submission to cleverness, but are likely to be well-armed and capable combatants. These two...[She indicated the red and white] are exceptions. The white uniform is that of an Imperial Grand Admiral. Only the best, brightest, and most ruthless achieved this rank. The red is a high official in the intelligence services, dangerous for broadly similar reasons. Especially do not trust anyone named Ysanne Isard.

[She moves the card, and the next...well. Any resident of her universe will recognize the two central figures - Darth Vader and the Emperor. Around them are various members of the Imperial Court.]

These are the high members of the Imperial Court, or at least the moment prominent. Here, however...is Darth Vader, chief enforcer of the Empire and extraordinarily dangerous. A fallen Jedi, or Force-wielder, his physical and mental powers are immense. Do not engage unless in a powerful, concentrated group. His master, the Emperor...was even more powerful, according to all known accounts. He may not be overwhelmed by a sheer show of strength, and in the case of encountering him, retreat and fortification upon the train is recommended.

[She moves to the next slide.]

This is a Hutt. Do not trust any Hutt.

[She moves on, to one of a green-skinned man.]

This last is Prince Xizor, my erstwhile master. Full disclosure: in case of his encounter, I will be terminating him or otherwise permanently incapacitating him on sight.

[One last slide, showing a wide range of figures, all of them bearing red lightsabers.]

These are various depictions of members of what is termed the Sith cult. They are dark force-wielders, generally very clever, and thoroughly murderous. They may not appear like this on the chart, but the red lightsabers are fairly consistent. They are duplicitous; even when overwhelmed, they cannot be trusted.

[She nods.]

This concludes my primer video. Thank you for your time and attention.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Huh.

There are a lot of things Alice is thinking about as she listens to all of this, but once it's over, the first thing that comes to mind that she can't help but ask is: ]

Are you worried they will show up here?

[She nods, slowly.]

Some of them could do incalculable damage. If I am here, and I know of at least two others from adjacent universes currently on board, then the odds are certainly too high to ignore.

Besides which, given the rate of departure, I may not be there to attempt their defeat.

[ Guri sure is right about that last part - though Alice really doesn't want to think about the other leaving, so she's mentally discarding that part for a moment. If she thinks about it too hard, she'll feel cruddy, so instead.. ]

I think one of them was here before.

[ A long time ago, but if Guri's drawings are accurate.. ]

That Darth Vader person. I have seen him around on the train before, during my earlier days here.

[ Tidus takes a moment to check something before he comes on to speak. ]

Not to rain on your game after you took the time to put this together, but - you wanna try leaving this on that video log? Those save. Don't know about these messages.

[ He makes a gesture to the screen. You know, ICP broadcast messages. ]

[ A raised eyebrow. She knew that Darth Vader was dangerous when he was briefly present... ]

A totalitarian empire. Such a horribly common thread for intelligent life.

It was not always so - but yes, an unfortunately common occurrence.

An excellent point. Perhaps I will work on something more thorough for guaranteed preservation. For the moment, even a small announcement is a start.

Hopefully only briefly. At full exercise, he is...incredibly lethal. Not least of which because he possesses a laser sword that can cut through all but some very specific alloys.

My own Earth has been in a long period of... mediocrity. The tyranny isn't so aggressive or severe, but that just makes people more complacent about it.

Mmm, this isn't the first time I've heard about the Empire and Jedis. And I heard about that Darth Vader guy being around too.

[ A loong, long time ago. ]

Wonder what the chance is we'll bump into any of them?

.. I am not quite sure, but.. I imagine it was brief.

[ Because she doesn't recall having seen him around a whole lot - but she will also readily admit that she is not exactly the most social of people, so it's entirely possible she just.. didn't pay too much attention to him and didn't realise he was still around.. ]

Though I don't recall having heard about him hurting anyone during his stay, curiously enough.

[That draws a nod.] Again, a familiar pattern.

[She considers that for a long moment.]

Given who and what he is - he doesn't need to. Flashy shows of harm are for those with something to prove...Vader never needed to do that.

Hopefully very small - but one doesn't know for sure.

A Jedi, on the other hand...it depends which one we get, I suppose.

Huh.

That 'Darth' guy looks a lot like a guy from our world. Mind-controlled by an evil Lunarian to be his servant, immense powers and all? Weird coincidence.

We've had a few on the train. But... is there anything to worry if we had a mission against them? They sound like the kind of people we'd be sent to help. Those Empire goons go after them, don't they?

[ Now that sort of statement just makes her frown. After all, there's a certain implication to it - and not one Alice likes. ]

Are you saying he might have been doing things secretly?

[ The last thing she wants is one of the passengers trying to take some sort of control over everyone else in the train.

Sure, he's gone, and so that threat is gone, but Alice still doesn't like the idea of an attempt at that potentially having been made all the same. ]

[She shakes her head.]

That was never his strong suit, though other Sith were adept at it, I'm given to understand. No, I mean he only killed when he felt it necessary - not out of ego.

A mission against...Jedi?

[She frowns at that.]

If they are of the fallen variety? Yes. Absolutely.

Terrible that such a thing would happen twice.

Well, I figured that's what this was all for, right? If we ever ended up in a mission against them. But the Empire sounds like a way bigger problem we'd face!

I imagine most of us only kill when we find it necessary.

[ (Don't worry, it's just a joke - it's why Alice says it so dryly.

Because it's easier to think about this and talk about it like this than truly contemplate the dangers of having some people on this very cramped train.) ]

But if he did kill someone back then, we would certainly have heard about it. It is not as if such a thing can happen secretly in a place like this.

But our guy was just our problem. Yours threatens a whole lot of worlds, doesn't he?

They all can. Very easily.

Oh, Jedi are reliable allies unless fallen - they tended to have very strong sense of morality and extensive codes to ensure their behavior. The Sith, on the other hand, are believers in violence often for the sake of it, and to constantly increase their own power.

And...yes, they would be. To give you a sense of the potential problem: the main fleet ship of the Empire was the Imperial-class Star Destroyer. Over a kilometer long, packed with weaponry, several squadrons of smaller fighters. At its peak, the Empire controlled twenty-five thousand of those vessels. That is merely one facet of what it is.

It is fracturing now, where I'm from but...it is still exceedingly dangerous.

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