So like, why is, like, the candidate totally like dead?

[Anonymous]

Like, the Alaina chick? Who like killed her? Because, like, that totally like caused the lock down and, like, whoever did that is like totally a dick. The only reason I want to know is like to know like what the deal is? Because like wow guys, like killing candidates like totally sucks.

[Anonymous]

If you're annoyed about the lockdown, you are being petty and callous. I will take responsibility for Alaina's demise, though revealing the actual agents involved would be foolish to the extreme. If you must blame someone, blame me.

I see little reason to speak further on this point. Your disappointment has been noted.

[Anonymous]

Backing up Seraphim here.  If it was an unavoidable necessity, I couldn't care less.  But I'd only like to know whether the sacrifice was purposeful.  How did Elise wind up compromised enough to need to be taken down?  No one thought of amnesis?

Contact me via secure channel if you must.  I'm curious, and this is not the Sylph show, public face though you may be.

[Anonymous]

The original plan was to frame Elise (any candidate would have worked), then cover our tracks while the Seekers' attention was focused on her. By the time an internal investigation cleared her name, we'd be long gone.

As most readers of that thread are aware, there was a mistake about halfway through the operation. One of the Pilots involved in its execution failed to delete a process running on the ATC board, which in turn printed mission-critical information in the open. Marshal picked up on it immediately, and that's about where our communications went down. Nobody could talk through this forum, and I couldn't even access terminals. It was a shitshow, and when the dust settled, we found Elise dead.

The candidate can't have died of natural causes. As stressful as the typical Marshal interrogation tends to be, I suspect that she was killed by one of our own, someone who didn't know of her innocence and who was worried about their identity. Elise knew nothing, but the lockdown made it impossible to tell those involved. We disconnected from the real world. Seraphim, it's likely that if you'd been in that courtyard, you would have seen who killed Alaina. That is to say... you, in real life.

In real life, some Pilots will know who killed the candidate and some will not. Certain individuals were obviously confined to their rooms while others were free to roam. These are identifying characteristics and they will help the Seekers if linked to us.

In our world, the world of the VCN and little hidden portions of Network, we survive by virtue of our willingness to remain voices in the dark. We never link real life to alias, and I advise you abandon lines of questioning which could identify a particular Pilot as a traitor. If you know what happened, keep it to yourself. The lights went off, someone killed a candidate, and the lights came on again.

[Anonymous]

I hate to break it to you, but the Seekers are already aware of real Pilots' activity patterns that day.  And knowing which one of us did it won't really narrow down the field--but hey, can't be too careful.  My mistrust may be even more refined than yours, Sylph: I don't even trust Richards to do the predictable thing.  If Elise was useless, why not kill her?  Bad press for us, to say the least.  And that's the happier picture.  

Now, if it was one of us, whoever did it, you were dumb, panicked, callous, or all three.  That's life.  So when we're planning these things, let's be real clear about who's innocent and who's expendable.  You know what?  You're right to take the blame, Sylph.  Your plan, your consequence.  If you had been clear early on about Elise's role, this wouldn't have happened.  

Good enough for you, Seraphim?  I'm ready to move on.

[Anonymous]

I don't think that was okay at all! We are the good guys here! And killing some poor girl for hardly any reason is just wrong. I risk my life and joined this cause so that we could save these people. Make life better.

Not panic and slaugher them!

[Anonymous]

Guys...I know you're heated, but Sylph's explained that it was a mistake.  Unfortunately they happen.  It is a shame that it resulted in such a tragic end, but arguing over it is NOT going to help us at all.

We should stay together, accept our failures when they come (in this case her death) but recognize that these things happen.  We're not fighting on a virtual screen where everything ends happy and only the "bad guys" lose.  We're dealing with real lives.

Best I can say about this is we can learn from it.  Try not to make the same mistakes twice.

Don't get mad over something that happened out of our control.  It happened, remember her, move on.