So now we see the previously behind the scenes part of what happened while Liu Xi and Danny planned their revolt, and why Earth was empty when Shen Rae and Lara arrived.

And here's the real spoilery part. It's an interesting coincidence, the way the Hooded Hood is behaving, because when I post my next part it'll look like his and Faite's plans are coinciding.

It's nice to see Yuki having fun though.

Lisa is suspicious of the Trading Alliance, eh? There may or may not be a reason for it.

For once when the Hooded Hood says there's another, there are many, many possibilities. Could be a person who's off-planet at the moment. Or an alien race Earth hasn't seen yet. Or the Elementalist who just escaped the Void Scholar, or the person with her.

Indeed.


Which they might; although I assume Faite's plans don't involve her taking advantage of the situation to lay down plot strands which lead to her inevitable mastery over all.


Isn't it? She definitely gets juiced by risk.


At the least Lisa's been around long enough to be susicious of a good thing.


Indeed.

That makes two ruses to protect Earth though doesn't it?



Faite has a far more mysterious plan. It may be helping the Hooded Hood, but then again it may be interfering with him. Of course if it's the latter he should be used to it by now, he's been playing this game of chess with her since forever.

Of course the Z'Sox have no idea what happened, have no one to blame, and will have no choice but to blame it on some huge cosmic accident they can't explain. Or maybe solar flares.



Yuki is far from crazy, she's not going to stand at ground zero of a nuclear attack and dare it to hit her. But she would climb aboard the missile and try and change it's navigation while it's in-flight.

What's funny though, is that Anna might do the same thing - she would be terrified doing it instead, but she knows she can, so she would if she had to.



The history I posted in this week's story is a clue. The Alliance wants to guarantee two things: Technical superiority (they believe it's the only thing preventing another massive galactic war), and security. If either or both are threatened, they may react with swift and terrible violence.

On that note, we'll see how they react to the discovery of salvaged Dimensional Dreadnaughts making the rounds.

Of course that's all in perspective, because even with all their technology it would have taken them months to wipe out every last Shee-Yar, while the Carnifex did it in a day.



I did notice though that the Hooded Hood tends to choose people who are less aware of what's going on under the surface. That's probably why he doesn't choose Lara, who seems to have some awareness of large-scale plans, or the Psychic Samurai, who might scare even the Hood a little since she sees through people so easily.

Then again, occasionally it might be fun for him to use actual truth and logic to get someone with a hightened sense like that to cooperate.

At least.

> > > And here's the real spoilery part. It's an interesting coincidence, the way the Hooded Hood is behaving, because when I post my next part it'll look like his and Faite's plans are coinciding. > > Which they might; although I assume Faite's plans don't involve her taking advantage of the situation to lay down plot strands which lead to her inevitable mastery over all. > Faite has a far more mysterious plan. It may be helping the Hooded Hood, but then again it may be interfering with him. Of course if it's the latter he should be used to it by now, he's been playing this game of chess with her since forever.

The Hood is certainly a games player.

> Of course the Z'Sox have no idea what happened, have no one to blame, and will have no choice but to blame it on some huge cosmic accident they can't explain. Or maybe solar flares.

Fortunately they're more assassins than warriors. In fact we're really missing a gung-ho Klingon style race in the PV.

> Yuki is far from crazy, she's not going to stand at ground zero of a nuclear attack and dare it to hit her. But she would climb aboard the missile and try and change it's navigation while it's in-flight.

I think that's why she's a risk junkie not a suicide junkie.

> What's funny though, is that Anna might do the same thing - she would be terrified doing it instead, but she knows she can, so she would if she had to.

Good distinction.

> > > Lisa is suspicious of the Trading Alliance, eh? There may or may not be a reason for it. > The history I posted in this week's story is a clue. The Alliance wants to guarantee two things: Technical superiority (they believe it's the only thing preventing another massive galactic war), and security. If either or both are threatened, they may react with swift and terrible violence. > On that note, we'll see how they react to the discovery of salvaged Dimensional Dreadnaughts making the rounds.

Proceed.

> Of course that's all in perspective, because even with all their technology it would have taken them months to wipe out every last Shee-Yar, while the Carnifex did it in a day.

I thought it might be helpful to bring some kind of completeness to the Carnifex/Shee-Yar investigation so you can take the story on past the confines of this round robin.

> I did notice though that the Hooded Hood tends to choose people who are less aware of what's going on under the surface. That's probably why he doesn't choose Lara, who seems to have some awareness of large-scale plans, or the Psychic Samurai, who might scare even the Hood a little since she sees through people so easily.

The Hood is happy using a range of tools, on whom he uses appropriate techniques.

> Then again, occasionally it might be fun for him to use actual truth and logic to get someone with a hightened sense like that to cooperate.

So far in this storyline he hasn't used his powers. If he did then the Carnifex could innoculate himself against them. He's just relied upon his manipulative skills.

Perhaps Faite enjoys the games just as much.



So you're implying they aren't too smart?



Yup.



It's a lot like having to climb a ladder when you're afraid of heights. If you must, you do it because you know you can.



Noted.



It would be kind of funny though, if the Hood is trying to put something delicately and Chiaki fires back by throwing what she figured is his real plan back at him. Of course the odd thing is she would do it to shock him, but without any malice whatsoever.



Sometimes that's best.