TO994M | day 2 | night | audio | private to BT612L, DI481O, JK002N, RE419S, TN811N, VL121R

[cactusy]

[For those who can see this message, congratulations, Shaw has seen your network activity and decided that your call sign is worth making a note of. She has a little mnemonic for your first three digits and everything!]

Heard from LO4 - Martin Blackwood. He talked to a guy over his walkie who's been here longer than us, but has access to a different radio network and is "forbidden" from contacting ours. The intel I got was kinda sketchy, but, uh-- actually, lemme just read it. "SU818C. Name Sol. On island before us. Can't talk much. Forbidden. Will stay in contact with Sol if alive tomorrow. Wants to help. On different network, but some access to us. Called something 'guardians'. Drones in Scripture, maybe. Cult, maybe. Power not supposed to be on".

[She pauses, clearing her throat.]

He had some kind of aversion to talking about it in full public view, so I'm not doing that, but LO4 said I could pass it on privately. Personally, I think it's pretty damn likely we're being monitored across private and public feeds, but this Sol could know something we don't, I guess.

Any of you got any clue what to do with this?

Comments

not here

[trialbyliar]

[He's not included in this message, but he's hanging out with two people who are and he is absolutely eavesdropping. Know that he is whining and making a fuss to them about being excluded while making note of all this information.]

not here

[cactusy]

[Troll less and you get included in the good stuff, Kokichi!!!!]

[meadqueen]

It could be that the boy I spoke with yesterday was right about this being some sort of trial by combat.

I’ve discovered human-caused damage at both settlements I've explored. If these people are compelled to harry whoever is abandoned here, we’ll need to be on our guard. I'm not sure I would trust a message from one of them reaching out.

[cactusy]

Not trying to cause paranoia here, but, uh... we should probably think critically about how much we trust each other, too.

[meadqueen]

A fair point, but I'm not sure whether any of us could survive alone.

[Actually, that reminds her of something]

When you awoke here, were any of your belongings missing?

[cactusy]

Nope. You?

not here

[salamanca]

[ His whining gets him a big wide grin, a lil' pat on the head and a cheery, "Awww, you're fine!" ]

not here

[salamanca]

[ how dare you imply anyone here might be anything less than 100% trustworthy, madam! ]

[meadqueen]

[There’s a long pause while she tries to decide whether to tell the truth or not]

Some of my clothing.

text

[salamanca]

Wow! Scripture, huh?

Call me cynical, but I am not sure how much trust I want to put in mysterious, faceless people who "want to help." But a lead is a lead.

Did Martin say who made first contact? Did "Sol" reach out to Martin first, or was Martin able to reach "Sol" while attempting to call for aid?

You know, I've been thinking a lot about the power situation myself.

text

[cactusy]

Sounded like the first to me, but I don't know for sure.

[cactusy]

Anything important?

RE419S | text

[aluminumandash]

You know cryptography?

[cactusy]

Only in theory. Not really part of my skillset. Why, SU818C mean something to you?

[meadqueen]

All of the outer layers. I can't say I miss the fur in this heat, but I'm feeling a bit exposed.

[aluminumandash]

Nah. Just trying to figure out a way to talk.

You like poetry?

[cactusy]

I didn't lose my jacket. How many outer layers?

[cactusy]

No. But I know some anyway.

[aluminumandash]

What you got memorized?

[cactusy]

Not too much, sorry. Some lines here and there of Whitman, Dickinson, Rumi, Frost. It's been a while.

Why, you an expert?

[hyakuoku]

There's no frequencies that reach outside this island. Believe me, I tried. So it's ten billion percent likely we're being monitored, but we'll just have to deal with it for now. Maybe we can figure out how to hack these things eventually and create our own encryptions, but they don't seem like cellphones or laptops so it might be trickier. Nothing we can do right this second, though.

You've noticed some of the callsigns spell things, right? So is S-U-8-1-8-C just some arrangement, or does it spell something that gives us a clue? That's not a leading question, by the way, it's a real one. Sub…what? But it could be something else.

That aside, power not supposed to be on. So there's a power source! If there's a power source, there's a way someone could theoretically access it, if we could find it. I wonder if that would allow us to control other things. The drones. This "unauthorised transport" I've heard of. Something else we haven't seen yet. If wherever Martin is is electronically locked, then we'd need to access that power source.

[ There's that thinking out loud thing again. ]

[meadqueen]

Three. A cloak, both tunics, and my mail shirt.

JK002N; voice

[metalicarus]

There's military codes we could use or cyphers we could decide on. Hard to do here if we're being monitored. Probably safe bet there's cameras in the trees and crap like that, but this is a good start.

I've dealt with crazy scientists and being the subject of 'experiments' kind of like this, if that's what this is. Knowing why they want us is the key, until then we adapt and find other ways to communicate.

[salamanca]

[ Also thinking out loud! Or thinking in text, anyway.

Also he is so so so not happy about the prospect of being recorded, but since there's nothing he can do about it, there's no point in flipping out about it. ]

Interesting. You're really smart, man.

Any chance "818" means something? Perhaps the numbers could add up to something special.

More than one way for a callsign to be significant, right?

text

[salamanca]

Interesting. I wonder why?

I tried to contact one of the other callsigns I've never seen or heard talking on these things. No response.

If they're not supposed to talk to us, that might be why. You think? Or maybe they're just shy.

I can see SU818C in the contact list right now. If you'd like, I'm willing to try to reach out. Don't know if they'll talk to anyone a second time, but hey! Worth a shot, right?