16514/The Enemy We Don't Know

The Enemy We Don't Know
Date of Scene:	07 December 2023
Location:	Entrance Hall - Fortress of Solitude
Synopsis:	Mother and daughter discuss the galactic threat from another timeline.
Cast of Characters:	Alura In-Ze, Kara Danvers

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Alura In-Ze has posed:
The room is filled with holograms. It's science Jim but not as Earth knows it. At the center of the room is a big holographic display of what appears to be someone's very fancy futuristic rifle. Except it's not - it's a very very big spaceship that looks like a big gun because - well, it is also a very big gun.

The technical read outs are about every tidbit of data Alura has been able to scrounge up on this spaceship so far. They've now encountered its like twice and that recurring frequency has her concerned.

Laying on a crystal table to the side is the carcass of a robot at least 14 feet tall if it were able to stand. It has holes in it and the crystals inside of its extremely dense armor are all smooshed up.

Alura has a concerned look on her face as she moves Kryptonian symbols about trying to construct simulations for how the spaceship's shielding works. There's even a 'tractor beam??!' note off to the side of where she's standing.

Kara Danvers has posed:
When one meets a living Singularity one must immediately go tell their Super Intelligent Mother everything about it. Oh, sure, Kara stops in Central Asia to help with a flash flood before making her way to the Fortress, but she does so with all the excitement of a stupid human child on a stupid Christian holliday morning. One where a fat man in red brings gifts.

They call it Christmas. She believes.

Such a strange holliday.

Kara wooshes into the area with her cape bellowing around her when she comes to a stop. Mud caking the side of her face and hair, costume, and cape where she'd been dipping into gross muddy waters to save Central Asians.

But also there's blackened scorch marks on the right flank of her costume.

"Jiju! Jiju!" She's beaming from ear to ear. Looking very much like a child whose been out playing in the dirt (because she has) as she rushes over to Alura. "I met a living Singular...e....tyyy..." Crystal blue eyes taking the form of the holographic ship, that is also a gun, and blinks several times. "Is that what I think it is?"

Alura In-Ze has posed:
Alura looks up at the rushed greeting from her daughter. Arms wrapped about, she twirls to kick out Kara's legs like she did when she was a little kid. That sentence died off quickly though and ended up focused on her own problem. "Yes," she says flatly.

"It's not the command ship of the Hegemony fleet though. I'm calling it a Gunship - for obvious reasons. The output of this one ship was enough to stress the shields of Kandor." Alura looks back to her daughters face to gauge her reaction.

"I've had a few run ins with them now. Once they learnt we existed they sent probes to various planets. They found Earth but Batman and I were able to stop the probe from reporting back what it found. I falsified a report. Then they found New Krypton."

She looks back at the technological descriptors she's put together. "They are a society singularly focused on war. Where Krypton was broadly interested in all sciences the Hegemony was focused only on sciences that made them more powerful."

Kara Danvers has posed:
Of KANDOR?!

Kara blinks several more times as the information is relayed to her. Feet settling upon the ground even as she's processing the information that was temporarily betrayed by her feet twirling about like she's nine again! The beaming smile gives way to a somber stare at the ship, with her hand brushing across her mud caked brow to comb back blonde hair that's got red clay clumps and a single stick jutting out at one weird angle.

"Uh..." A probe sent to Earth. For a species that has weapons that could, potentially, rival that of Kryptonians? She shakes her head trying to focus and leans over to regard some of the specifications that's been collected on the gunship. "How long will that keep them from finding Earth? .. How long until they send more than one to Kandor?" Blue eyes flick up to her Mother. Suddenly meeting a living Singularity isn't as big a deal as the hologram in front of her.

Alura In-Ze has posed:
Alura hasn't even dropped the big bomb on her daughter yet. She'll get to it. But seeing her analyse them as an alien threat is useful in its own right. "When they attacked my scout ship I was transporting our prisoners to New Krypton. Zod and his crew."

"They latched on to us with some kind of tractor beam. I've never seen anything like that before in action. It was holding on to our star drive. We jettisoned it and to get away I activated my experimental phantom drive. They couldn't track us."

"Then when they attacked New Krypton, I lead a team with Clark to bolster their defenses. It was a no win scenario - emboldened by the phantom drive result I rejigged the shields to phase the city in to the phantom zone so we could pretend their weapons blew up the city."

She raises an eyebrow to see how her daughter reacts to all of that, "...really it was based on Brainiac's portal to the phantom zone he made all those months ago. But it worked. The Hegemony backed off thinking we were destroyed."

She shakes her head, "I'm not sure if they will send more probes. There's a lot of planets out there. It could take them months, years, to decide to double back."

"Kara - I need to tell you about these people. They're Kryptonians from an alternate timeline. They're the Kryptonian Hegemony. How they got in to our timeline I've no idea but they're here now and they mean business. They're the evil universe goatee versions of our people."

Kara Danvers has posed:
Kara is moving her fingers over the consoles commands to bring up different views of the ship, what information has been acquired by New Krypton scans and the considerable abilities of her mother and cousin. Every so often glancing over at Alura with new piece of information provided, the frown she wears deepens exponentially to the details relayed. Because this is not good news.

This is not good news at all.

Her expression sours at the mention of Brainiac technology, but she nods all the same. It was a good call and she'd have trusted her mother even if she thought it weren't. "It wont fool them twice, though." Tone low, eyes cast downward with a growing frown on her mud caked face.

It is not until the last bit of information that she truly looks away from the hologram and the wealth of information it provides. "The Singularity I met. She said she can move in and out of the galaxy, timeline, and even different dimensions.. I don't know if that can be of use to us, but perhaps we could.. I don't know... scout their home dimension? See their technology upclose where we might not be expected and gain some kind of advantage in defending against it?"

Alura In-Ze has posed:
That inquisitive look on her daughters face as she takes in all the details. She knows the gears are turning in her head. "It might not. They are smart and advanced. But they are also cut off from their home. Logistically they are in trouble. I imagine they will try to start a new empire here."

"...A living singularity. What an odd concept. Fascinating. Though a trip to where they came from won't be necessary. I already know." She motions with her hand and up comes a hologram of Alura's twin sister - Astra.

"Your aunt made a timeship and went back in time to stop the destruction of Krypton. About half a year ago. It caused such a ripple in space time that the new timeline was dominated by the Kryptonian Hegemony. It was a nightmare. We managed to go back in time and stop Astra from making her change."

Alura paces a moment, "But that's the thing I don't quite understand. Their timeline should have ceased to exist immediately. Yet here they are. May be the collapse of a reality doesn't work the way I thought. Perhaps there's some kind of lag or delay - it would surely move faster than the speed of light though. Their fleet must have been moving at warp speed when the universe began to fade around them."

She motions punching a hole in the air, "Then, somehow, they punched through to our timeline before they were erased from existence completely." She shrugs to her daughter. "It's a theory. Not a great theory."

"So far they've demonstrated superior hacking, shielding, and weapons capabilities. They even have drone manufacturing on their ships. We've not encountered any of their soldiers personally -- yet -- but it's a good bet they're all as fast and strong as us. And lived a life of warfare."

Kara Danvers has posed:
Again Kara's listening, nodding where appropriate to indicate her understanding of what's being said. With her each new bit her jaw begins to tighten ever so slightly beneath the caked mud covered cheek, "Or they were already here and, superated from their dimension, were immune to the destruction." It's a theory and one they could go over for the rest of the night.

The exacts of time travel and dimensional warp gates being what it is.

She does not like anything of what she's head regarding this alternate versions of their people. "So they're a problem." Much like Zod, only a great deal more Kryptonians at their disposal. "Is there a way to reverse engineer some of their shield capabilities to bolster New krypton? Or Earth? We've seen what just a 'few' of our kind can do on Earth, we can't ever let the Hegemony get to this planet..."

Alura In-Ze has posed:
"Reed Richards came with us to New Krypton. He used his own shielding technology to protect one of the generator pylons. The sudden change in technology did put the Hegemony attack off briefly. They would never have encountered Earth based technology because in their timeline they attacked Earth in Humanities infancy. They were in a protracted war against the Amazonians. It was a stalemate."

"And Reed's technology is rare even by human standards. Some outside the Krypton thinking could aid in its defense. Reed said he had some ideas. I've given him access to use the gate to travel to New Krypton and work with their scientists."

Alura nods to Kara, "My thoughts exactly though. Even with all the incredible heroes on this planet it might not be enough to stop a fleet like the Hegemony's. In their timeline they had also defeated the Lanterns and destroyed Oa. They are even aware of magic and have defenses against it. We're behind on this one - in a big way. They only weakness so far is the lack of breadth in their technological prowess."

She pauses and motions to another hologram showing picostructural fractures in the robot. "...and this peculiarity. I'm positing it's damage from their transdimensional leap to our timeline. Either they are structurally broken at a subatomic level -or- we could use this to identify and track them. It's just a thought. One I haven't explored much yet."

Kara Danvers has posed:
Kara glances to the robot and nods, "Kind of like we did to track Zod's ship before, yeah." She murmurs and rubs at the caked on mud of her jaw. When she looks at her hand come away dirty, she makes her way to clean herself up. No longer finding the filthy aftermath of her work with the flash flood very amusing in light of this terrible new development.

"You mentioned Batman. I assume the Justice League is already prepping to defend against any potential attack.. along with Mr. Richards." Water splashes in her face, fingers combing back through the clumps of red clay. It leaves long clear lines through the dark smears on her face.

Blue eyes take in the ship, expression somewhere between concern and anger. A dangerous razors edge upon which the young Kryptonian hovers near constantly these days. "It would probably be best to notify the Lantern's and Amazons specifically, if they've already been their target in the past. They could look to establish their dominance now that they believe New Krypton has been destroyed. It's in our best interest to get ahead of them.. even if Magic is of new great effect against them, it certainly couldn't hurt to consult Zatanna as well... I can reach out to Raven. Caitlin would probably be immeasurably useful."

Scientist that she is, her mind is already moving to proactive strategies to defend their homes from this new, and dangerous, threat.

Alura In-Ze has posed:
Alura smiles as Kara starts making a shopping list of heroes and strategies against this threat. "You're at the tip of the spear with me Kara. You should start doing this follow up -- unfortunately we don't really know what we're up against. We have no idea who their commander is, how big their numbers are, how many ships they have, or what that capitol ship even looks like."

She motions to the gunship hologram, "This is all we know. They command portals from their command ship. It's how they get around so quickly. But their maps will be all out of date; in their timeline just about everything was conquered. Here they have to contend with species like the Kree who aren't going to lay down without a fight."

"Thankfully that gives us time to figure out what the scope of the threat is and how best to deal with them. All the while the Oans thought Krypton was the threat but it turned out to be our evil twins from another timeline. We have to prove to them that we can solve this problem. That their genocide of our people was not justified."

She turns to watch her daughter, "Hey- good save on the mud slide. You're a hero Kara and I've never been more proud of you."

Kara Danvers has posed:
The playful exterior that Kara wears like a cloak has all but disappeared in light of so much information. Her smile is replaced with something that borders, perhaps uncomfortably, close to one worn by Karen. The look in her eyes is one of concern... hiding a rage that could become volcanic if left unattended. Threats like this are precisely why she no longer wants to pretend to be human.

This is EXACTLY what she's always been afraid of.

The wrong Kryptonian shows up and nothing short of Superman and Supergirl could stand in their way.. neither of whom are BORN warriors. They're warriors of necessity and happenstance. Clark is a farmer... Kara is a scientist...

The Hegemony?

They were breed for this.

Her chin curls and she nods to her mother, "We can certainly attempt to solve this problem ourselves, but would it not be more prudent for us to go to the Oans in good faith? Explain that which has come to this dimension and show that, not only where they wrong in how they handled our people, they were wrong in how they judge those of us who remain? That our intentions are the defensive of the galaxy, hand in hand, with the Lantern Corps rather than an obstacle around which they move to defend it?"

Her hair, no wet, is combed back out of her face.

And a smile creeps slowly on her face hearing her mother's pride.

"Pride in me is pride in my upbringing... you taught what was right and showed me how to stand against what was wrong... fostered my inner fire to protect those who could not protect themselves.. and encourage me to be the Hope for which our house symbol is known. Whatever I am, I am because of you, jiju."

Alura In-Ze has posed:
Alura pats a hand over her heart and smiles at Kara. "And your father." She then glances back at all the holograms. With a swipe of her hand they all woosh down in to a single glyph to be examined again later.

"The Oans are in a state of chaos right now. After settling New Krypton and the attempt to destroy it there has been a fissure in the Lantern Corp. Information pertaining to the attempted genocide and actual genocide of our people as instructed by some of the Oans has become public knowledge."

"The need to police their own leaders has, apparently, never come up before. Some Lanterns are remaining steadfastly loyal to the Oans while others are demanding an overhaul and certain Oans to be charged with crimes against the galaxy."

She sighs, "So our information will only be heard by half of them. Still, it's a good idea. If you know any nice Lanterns now would be the time to call in a favour from them."

Kara Danvers has posed:
"And Ukr.." Kara agrees with a smile that still carries the sadness of that loss. No matter how long ago it may have been, it was only three years for her. That's hardly enough time to truly come to terms with him really being gone. Stasis being what it is, afterall.

Again her jaw tightens.

The knowledge of what the Oans did and what they still yet do.

She focuses instead on her mothers statement about friendly Lantern's, "I know one I trust. I'll reach out to him, see if there are any in the Corps that are loyal to him and implore upon him the need for solidarity in the fight to come." Because she knows, as they both likely know, this ends only one way:

A fight.

It always ends in a fight.

"Kyle will listen. He's a good man."

Alura In-Ze has posed:
Alura nods her head, "Good." She twists her lips. "They can track my ship, so it's grounded for now. If I can find a way to track -them- though we'll be able to go scout them out and see what's really going on. At least, for the moment, they won't be able to see us coming with my phantom drive."

"I don't need to remind you that they come from a universe where no body even thought 'gee may be we should stop using null energy weapons' or the like. When we do fight them it's going to be ... conclusive. We should therefore only fight them when we're sure we will win."

Kara Danvers has posed:
Kara doesn't like that.

No she doesn't like that at all...

Staring at the ground beneath her tall red boots, she adjusts her feet and nods. For a long while she's quiet, just considering. With blue eyes ticking back and forth one doesn't know her as well as her mother does to know exactly how hard her mind is working in the silence that presists around her for several long moments.

When she looks up, it's on a chuckle..

"You know, it's going to be pretty funny when they find out.."

Alura In-Ze has posed:
Alura raises an eyebrow as her daughter takes an odd cognitive leap. "...who?"

Kara Danvers has posed:
"The Hegemony. It's going to be funny when they find out." Kara says with a smile that isn't as warm as her usual.

Alura In-Ze has posed:
Alura smiles a little more at Kara's confidence. A positive outcome in their favour would be ideal of course. Outright war across the stars would not be good. "We may never see the looks on their faces when they realise they've been bested."

Realisticly they only have one sure weapon against the Hegemony. "...by science."