[LP CYOA] Epic

[Azira]

Ohwell, late to the party so I can hardly complain.

 

[treave]

Stardust to Stardust

31.09.4033

Your ships begin exploding the moment you exit the wormhole.

The defences at Carneus Beta are far stronger than you had given them credit for; the system was flooded with fortifications. Sector Armada Alpha, Delta and Epsilon were in position to respond almost immediately upon your arrival, almost right on top of them.

Within seconds, the space between your forces and theirs has been filled with so much ordnance that attempting any manoeuvres would be pointless. The battle turns into a slugfest, each side launching as much deadly projectiles as they can at each other while hunkering behind their shields.

“They were probably on high alert already,” says Adrahasis. “Between the fortresses and the fleets, we are pretty much equal in firepower, but the drones tip the balance heavily towards them.” The Legions switch to missile salvos to destroy the nearly endless amount of drones attempting to swarm them. With a brilliant flash, a million explosions light up the viewscreen but do nothing to stem the League’s attacks.

“Prioritize the nearest fortresses to your location,” you order. “Focus your attacks.”

Although the system was packed with space fortresses, they were not concentrated in just one spot. The ones that were on the far side of the battlefield could probably be ignored safely. In order to provide space for your cruisers and CFs to operate – this is where you would have an advantage over the League – you would have to disable the drones, most of which were launching from the fortresses that served as their local command center. It was something you had picked up from the initial battle at Bainur.

The fleet begins turning most of its fire away from the Star League armadas, instead focusing on the fortresses. The shields and walls of the space fortresses can withstand a fair amount of battering before collapsing; in the time that it takes to destroy twenty of the nearest fortresses, you lose more than forty thousand ships. It is a fair trade-off, however, as millions of drones deactivate, suddenly bereft of their orders.

Adrahasis seizes upon this chance immediately. The cruisers break away from the main fleet while the battleships continue the onslaught. A good portion of Adrahasis’s cruisers become cloaked as they move. The battle spreads outwards as the Star League’s armadas move to counter his move, their formations stretching. As the enemy formation thins, so does their barrage. This is just what you and Adrahasis have planned for.

“Admiral Grimrock, the CFs have permission to launch.” You give the order. The CFs sortie, finally able to operate in an environment optimum to their potential.

You watch as Epsilon rushes forward to intercept and prevent the frames from getting too close, the sole fleet in the Star League’s possession that is familiar with CF tactics. Though your pilots had been itching to go head to head with them again, their frames outnumber yours by nearly three to one. The Epsilon CF squads are competent enough; they know how to utilize their superior numbers and team up on their enemy. However, in terms of experience, the Federation pilots have the edge, and in terms of skill…

Living up to their name, Camna’s Cyclones throws the Epsilon formation into chaos in no time at all. They move together as a well-trained unit yet display enough spontaneity and unpredictability to throw off their opponents. In the aftermath of their whirlwind of destruction, the rest of the Federation CFs rush in to capitalize on Camna’s charge. The numerical advantage is quickly reduced to two to one. By then, a fair number of CFs have broken through Epsilon’s blockade, heading towards the vulnerable capital ships.

Fading into existence as they drop their cloak, Adrahasis’s cruisers come to their support, providing covering fire to prevent the enemy drones from overwhelming the oncoming CFs. Many are forced to stray too close to the armadas’ line of fire and are lost, reduced to lifeless, sterilized hulks of metal, but they do their job nonetheless.

The Federation frames penetrate the last cordon of safety that the Sector Armadas have, led by Camna’s Cyclones, and begin wreaking havoc on the capital ships. Their priority targets, however, are the known flagships of the Council.

You do not have enough firepower to take the entire system, to destroy every last ship and fortress. The best you could hope for would be a decapitating strike, in hopes that if you kill enough of the Council, the League would surrender.

The CF losses begin to rise; you hope that they will be able to hold out. The League has been forced into a defensive position in the battle at this moment, but if the CF gambit fails, they will be able to reorganize. Once they do, your defeat would be assured. Still, you can do nothing but watch the battle play out.

The League fleet movements begin to falter. Their chain of command is being interrupted successfully. Finally, you hear a report from Colonel Camna. “Last priority target has been eliminated. Engaging targets of opportunity.”

As if on cue, the Sector Armadas flinch and begin breaking formation.

“We did it, Grand Marshal!” shouts Adrahasis gleefully. He is right. You’ve did it… but at great cost. Less than a hundred thousand of your four hundred thousand strong Galactic Core Invasion Force remains. The enemy armadas are severely damaged but not destroyed, though the fortresses of Carneus Beta itself have been reduced by half. Still, with care, you can take the system with minimal future losses and use it as a base to recuperate and repair. Your battle is not over yet; you are sure you have defeated some of the Council members aboard their ships in Alpha armada, but there would have been other Councillors who might be returning to this system from their failed attempt at negotiating with you. If you could consolidate your strength here, they would be in for a surprise.

At least, that is what you had planned.

A tingling grows in the center of your skull.

You can identify the source of it.

The enemy superweapon and fortress, Vajra Shula. It had remained dormant all this while.

You don’t think it’s going to fire, though. You look at Sekhenun, who nods back at you, confirming your worst fears. “They’re planning to overload it and open a rift. At this level of energy, we’ll be seeing half the system consumed by that rift. Its location would prevent us from reaching Carneus Alpha.”

“That’s bad news indeed,” you say. “What are our options?”

Sekhenun scratches her small head. “Tough ones. Make a break for Carneus Alpha, fighting past the fortress and hope that it doesn’t blow up when we’re near it or we don’t get destroyed by the defense systems at Alpha. Head towards the nearest slipspace point which takes us to Oran Iota. We might bump into Beta and Gamma there, and any remaining Council members. You know what the third option is. As always, I do not recommend it.”

“Oh, of course.” you laugh.

***

A. Head for Carneus Alpha – if the rift explodes, the only way you can get there will be by using the Sword of Ean’s black hole generators; the only functional ones left to you. You will have to gamble on not being shot down by the defense systems, or being able to evade them.

B. Head for Oran Iota – it is the safe place to be right now. You can always decide what to do later, and if you do bump into Beta and Gamma it is the perfect opportunity to finish the job.

C. Charge into Vajra Shula, hoping that you can get to the Vajra piece within before the rift explodes. You can sense that this is the same piece that you once wielded; it shouldn’t be hard to re-establish control over it. If you fail, however, you’ll probably be thrown into the void again.

 

[Azira]

Ohoh. You just had to give us the MAXIMUM FUCK option, eh?

Alright. Cannot resist.

C

 

[treave]

Who knows, perhaps this C will synergize with Senya's C choice and create an explosion of uncontainable MAXIMUM FUCK that breaks the walls of space and time and makes the impossible possible.

At any rate, you probably won't be accosted by any spheres this time around.

 

[Esquilax]

You don’t think it’s going to fire, though. You look at Sekhenun, who nods back at you, confirming your worst fears. “They’re planning to overload it and open a rift. At this level of energy, we’ll be seeing half the system consumed by that rift. Its location would prevent us from reaching Carneus Alpha.”

Does Sekhenun have any idea when Vajra Shula is due to overload? Would A entail fighting through the planet-busting turret blockade with our remaining forces in hopes of reaching the gateway before the superweapon blows up? This thing seems like a ticking time bomb, and if we held off on coming here for longer, we would have been really fucked, I think.

In any case, I'm against heading to Oran Iota, as that would be taking a step backwards - we either break through Carneus Alpha somehow, or we break through Vajra Shula. If I were Beta/Gamma, I would simply avoid engaging our forces with the enemy until the overload causes a rift to be formed, denying the enemy victory.

For Senya's choice, it's really tough. But I think that it's important not to think of things in terms of picking the best option, but in terms of picking the least worst option.

“The Council gave them to you, I expect.” That would be the logical conclusion.

“Ah, but they almost didn’t. Cooper here –“ the old man snaps his fingers, and a man gagged and tied is dragged out by two other men in suits. I recognize the face of the gagged man – it is the Master that spoke to me before. “- was trying to betray us. Weren’t you, Cooper?”
...
The dagger is pressed against Cooper’s throat, point first. “I know who you are working with, Cooper. Do you take me for a fool?” The old man speaks so quietly that I have to strain my ears to pick up his voice. Cooper’s protestations grow frantic as he screams unintelligible words from behind the gag. Leaning close to Cooper’s ear, the old man whispers a single word that causes the bound man to freeze.

Cooper's been helping us this whole time. As mentioned before, he was probably guiding Mere's voices towards helping Ean. Shame what happened to him, he sounds like a bro, a Master version of Sekhenun. Then he arranged the peace talks with Ean, but when Ean didn't show up, Cooper's cover was blown. After that, it was a simple matter of delivering our physical bodies to where Dio would be able to put them into this world.

He turns to me suddenly, his prune-like face spread in a wide grin. “So, Senya, it looks like ghosts can die here after all. Would you like to be next?”
...
Nothing. I cannot sense anything outside what I currently feel. I cannot even call upon my powers.
...
With my help, its former custodians have embarked on a mission to find a way out of this hell it has trapped them in. What began as an experiment out of boredom and curiosity would now be the sword by which we can strike back at the Great Idea. They need someone truly alive and living, like us – truly human - to shake their perception of their reality and show them what they really need to do.

This is a very curious turn of phrase. For all intents and purposes, Cooper is as flesh and blood as any human we've seen - why would he be a ghost? It stands to reason that since we are every bit as mundane as he is in this form, we'll die just as he would if our current form is killed.

“Oh? Really? That’s too bad then. I only need one of you. Having both would be too dangerous.” He twirls the blood-stained dagger in the air, very nimbly for such an old man, and points it at me hilt first. I glance quickly at Stella, then at Rory and the other man. They seem slightly perturbed at their comrade’s death, but I can’t be sure. The old man cackles. “If you’re concerned about whether Cooper’s unceremonious demise has affected their resolve, don’t worry. What do you think, Mikey?”

“It was necessary,” muttered the last man. “Cooper was being erratic. He was compromising us all.”

As we suspected, the Masters are hardly a monolithic entity. Some of them are all-in with Dio, Cooper attempted to undermine him, and we have Stella and Rory as reluctant allies. If push came to shove though and we came at him with the dagger, they'd probably still back Dio. They want to avert the Ghostpocalypse, and they don't see any alternative aside from Dio to get that done. He's really got us by the balls.

“Unfortunate, isn’t it? Now, Senya, I planned to kill you, then use the girl to open the door. But if you’re willing to cooperate, I’ll let you kill her. Then you can help me.” The old man smiles, waving the dagger’s hilt.

“That is rather unnecessarily cruel of you, isn’t it?” I frown. “Why not kill her yourself? Or better yet, why not let me convince her so that we can help you together?”

He just laughs. “If I had to kill one of you myself, it would be you. She would be more malleable to my needs.”

“Kill me then. Why offer me the choice?”

“Why, indeed, I wonder…” The old man’s voice trails off, his eyes pinned on me. “To be truthful, perhaps I’m getting old and sentimental, but you remind me of my younger self. Perhaps I want to give you a chance. It won’t be the first time you’ve killed, right? And I can tell it won’t be the first time you’ve killed someone close to you.”

I think that Dio views Rei, not Senya as the greater danger; this is because she possesses creation powers. @treave, would it be possible for Rei to somehow resurrect Senya with her abilities if he's permakilled? The other thing that perplexes me is why Dio is going to such great lengths to have Senya be a "willing" participant in all of this. Why all the theatrics? I guess an alternative hypothesis here could be that Dio is a master of reverse psychology and killing ourselves is what he actually wants us to do so that he can manipulate Rei more easily.

Flopped to B for Senya, though I could flop to anything at this point.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

CC - Voting Double Maximum FUUUUUUU - BTW, @treave, what ever happened to Jean number 2?

 

[Baltika9]

Hey, if we kill Dio, technically the mind-pact is fulfilled.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Forgot all about the mind pact...

 

[Baltika9]

EAN CHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGE!

Is Ean going to be fired like a cannonball for this one, @treave? Honest question.

 

[Bloodshifter]

EAN DO THE IMPOSSIBLE AND SHATTER THE HEAVENS
C

 

[Kipeci]

I can't decide, BC or CC? I think Dio is long overdue for a stabbing, but there's no way he hasn't prepared for this.

eh

BC

 

[Esquilax]

I can't decide, BC or CC? I think Dio is long overdue for a stabbing, but there's no way he hasn't prepared for this.

I think it's fair to say that Dio's prepared for anything that we could do. He knows that we'll either kill ourselves, kill Rei, or try and desperately go after him. The thing that's fucking with me though is why does he need our permission?

“So, Senya, it looks like ghosts can die here after all. Would you like to be next?”
...
“Sorry. There’s something off about this place. My form has been stable for the past… hour or so, I think, and I can’t get myself to dematerialize. You were out for quite some time.”
...
This means that other people might not be able to see her, even though she can interact with me. “It’s a bit different for me,” I say. “I wasn’t in a physical form before I came here, but now…” I look at my hands. No powers. No tentacles. It is not my body. The old man needed to use a gadget to disable this body. This implied that their powers – or at least, his – were limited to a certain extent when it came to manipulating me, at least while I am here. They did not kill me outright when I refused to cooperate; either they knew of the possible reset, which would free me from their grasp, or they could not, or would not, planning on using me again. Either way, that doesn’t really change matters.

It’s likely that when they pulled my consciousness through the door, they captured and stored it in this vessel. The form is identical to my real body, so my consciousness would naturally gravitate towards it, similar to how Kyrie’s doppleganger had begun to turn into a vessel for her. This, then, is a physical body that I am inhabiting. They have probably built in failsafes, like the gadget the old man used, but are unable to directly dominate my mind. Theoretically, if I killed this body now I should be able to free my consciousness and allow it to escape back to my real body, but then again it might not happen, or it might trigger a reset on the spot. It is a rather risky option, but I keep it in mind.
...
I sacrifice Rei. Rei has the chance of being invulnerable to anything he does, if her regeneration still holds true in this place, and I am likely the only person who can possibly kill her. However, if I choose to do anything else he will kill me. And I have no doubt that the old man is confident he can manipulate Rei better.

What do you bros make of Kyrie materializing here? Is that just a side effect of being in the Master's original dimension? As for Rei's regeneration, you think it holds true here? Remember, the body that we are inhabiting right now isn't our body, so it doesn't have our powers. It just happens to be a similar vessel that our consciousness gravitated to. So I am inclined to think that Rei can regenerate, being that this is her actual body.

We may be cutting her throat, but we are not in our original body, so I don't think that we have the power to truly end her in this vessel that we inhabit. Since both Rei and Senya are terminals of the Observer, their powers are tied to the Observer, not the Master's dimenson. I think we could still bring Rei back if we kill her. Fucking Dio, making us play along so that we can beat him.

Oh, I'd also like to point out that this definitely isn't a test of morals. Just because Dio would never in a million years sacrifice himself to save someone else, doesn't mean that he's very good at knowing how to manipulate that impulse. That being said, his downfall was underestimating Sekhenun's loyalty to Ean after 3,000 years.

I think Vajra Shula needs a immortal present to fire, and without the guy we killed they can't fire anymore (the remaining ones don't have a connection to Vajra, I think).

Their intention isn't to fire Vajra at us, it's to create a rift to block us from advancing further. We arrived earlier than they had anticipated, allowing us to get here before they could deny us passage beyond Carneus Beta.

B won't work. This is the work of Dio trying to fuck with things to prevent us from advancing. Let's say we end up facing Beta and Gamma, then we end up defeating them at Oran Iota. At this point, the pearly gates open because we won and the turrets won't fire on us. However, we're still fucked, because at this point Carneus Beta will have overloaded and opened up a huge rift, and the only way to get to the turret system, is - you guessed it - through the rift now at Carneus Beta.

A is risky too, yes. But the upside is that we'd avoid a potential rift, and we'd still have our ~100,000 strong fleet to help us. Remember in the previous chapter when we had the chance to go on a stealth mission to navigate past the automated defense system? The difference here is that we'd have an army with us. Whether that's enough, I don't know. But I do know that on the other side there's a gateway that would lead us to the Masters.

If we obtain the Vajra piece, we still don't have access to their realm, unfortunately. That being said, the fortress was the last place we know that Senya was... but that was weeks ago.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

A is risky too, yes. But the upside is that we'd avoid a potential rift, and we'd still have our ~100,000 strong fleet to help us. Remember in the previous chapter when we had the chance to go on a stealth mission to navigate past the automated defense system? The difference here is that we'd have an army with us. Whether that's enough, I don't know. But I do know that on the other side there's a gateway that would lead us to the Masters.

If we obtain the Vajra piece, we still don't have access to their realm, unfortunately. That being said, the fortress was the last place we know that Senya was... but that was weeks ago.

The text on A is not clear as to whether our fleet would be with us or not, but even assuming they would be there, they'd be little to no use against those planet destroying armaments. Maybe as meat shields to buy the sword of Ean time to make it to the gate, but little else. As to your reference to the stealth mission, that mission was ONLY an option if we DIDN'T drag a bomb with the mass of a gas giant and a giant space armada along with us.

Also, remember that that varja piece has been heavily modified. We make be able to open a rift with it now. Even if not, if we get it, there is a chance that we could find the masters dimension once inside the void and help Senya, or if we're lucky enough to reach it in time, simply use it to help destroy the remaining league fleets. Heck, maybe Sek can hack the master tech enough to do something else with it. I just think it's a better option than rushing to our death.

 

[Esquilax]

Also, remember that that varja piece has been heavily modified. We make bbe able to open a rift with it now. Even if not, if we get it, there is a chance that we could find the masters dimension once inside the void and help Senya, or if we're lucky enough to reach it in time, simply use it to help destroy the remaining league fleets. Heck, maybe Sek can hack the master tech enough to do something else with it. I just think it's a better option than rushing to our death.

You might have a point. If they're planning on overloading it with enough energy to create a rift, then perhaps we can direct where that rift leads...

However, to change the subject, I really think we should reconsider A for Senya. I really do think that we should consider the possibility that this is Dio's plot to kill Senya, and we could be falling right into it. Consider that he needs us to be a willing participant. Right now, we are in control of Senya's consciousness, but not his body and his powers. I know I'm speculating, but given our lack of regeneration, I believe that Dio knows that if we willingly cut our own throats, we end up permakilling ourselves. It would be our consciousness destroying our body. If Dio killed us himself, it would probably cause a reload, but if we did it to ourselves, then it might not.

However, if we kill Rei, Dio has the upper hand, but I believe there's still hope. She possesses regeneration that we don't.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

However, if we kill Rei, Dio has the upper hand, but I believe there's still hope. She possesses regeneration that we don't.

No, if we kill Rei, we'll either really be killing her, or we'll provoke a reset. Dio won't settle for leaving her half dead, but regenerating. He's a far too old and experienced killer for that.

I sacrifice Rei. Rei has the chance of being invulnerable to anything he does, if her regeneration still holds true in this place, and I am likely the only person who can possibly kill her. However, if I choose to do anything else he will kill me. And I have no doubt that the old man is confident he can manipulate Rei better.

The only way to beat him is not to play his game. He needs our consent for this somehow. Maybe he's afraid to directly attack a piece of the great idea here. Maybe he can't. The only way out is to call his bluff.

 

[ScubaV]

I vote the for the ending the Codex deserves, whether or not it is also the one it needs.

Maximum

CC

 

[treave]

You don't know when exactly the rift blows, but you can probably get there fairly quickly by riding a missile.

Rei might be able to restore Senya from death. Assuming Dio hasn't thought of that and found a ready excuse. There's another important factor here that everyone has missed and no one has brought up, I dare say the most important hint, but I'm not sure if I should point out the location of this.

Jean is piloting alongside the other Camna, alive. Also, going to Oran doesn't prevent you from using the Sword of Ean to jump into Carneus Alpha afterwards, just that you'd have to do it with just that ship. I think I did mention it was still working?

 

[Kayerts]

(reading) Hopping through the gateway seemed obviously dumb, and the Ean orders have been iffy. But I probably wouldn't have figured out that Mere was working with a rebel faction within the council, either, based on what we knew at the time, so I can't be too hard on my bros.

Anyway, this quote seems highly significant, inasmuch as it's Dio's whole reason for doing what he's doing:

What began as an experiment out of boredom and curiosity would now be the sword by which we can strike back at the Great Idea. They need someone truly alive and living, like us – truly human - to shake their perception of their reality and show them what they really need to do.

Seems like the Custodians had created our universe as a toy, prior to the catastrophe. The catastrophe scaled back their powers to human levels, at which point they were unable to address the problems caused by the imperfection of Iae. However, they could still wield godlike power over our universe, so they developed a plan: use the simulation world to see if beings with merely human power levels could emerge into something capable contesting Iae. For that, they were willing to run numerous iterations of their simulation--our universe--over billions of years, to see if any such humans might emerge. That's why our world looks so much like theirs: they want their simulation to be as close to their own circumstances as possible. So that they can emulate the steps taken without significant differences emerging.

So, getting back to the choice before us. Dio seems to have rather imperfect knowledge of Senya. He asks Senya if he's killed before, he asks if we've met the Unseen, etc. etc.--he doesn't know much about Senya, save for what an astute judge of character could infer. So he is probably watching us closely, to see how we might have become what we have become. Then there's this:

When I was young I dreamt of making a better world. Putting myself in your shoes, I can understand your frustration. It’s your show now. I want to let you save the world instead. Do what I can’t do.

Ascribing ingenuousness to Dio is dumb, but I think he's at least close to telling the truth here, and I certainly believe at least that he is very earnest in his desire to learn how to defeat Iae. I don't believe him when he says he's offering us this choice because of what a bro Senya is; I think he needs to know how we'll react.

I suspect that his grand plan here is to perform a ritual similar to the one that Rei and Senya underwent to make them what they are today--open a door to Iae, allowing access, and then . . . do something to it. Kill it, replace it, whatever. Rei and Senya are important because they underwent that process and survived. Dio needs to know, what sort of person is Senya, that he could survive?

If we believe that terminals of the Observer still can't die, then this choice is mostly significant for what it tells Dio about Senya. That's a big "if"--Iae did say that he'd be keeping an eye on us, after all, so it's quite possible we can die for real here. But I think the best choice here is probably the one that tells Dio something unacceptable--that the sort of person who can get access to Iae is unwilling to sacrifice his loved ones for selfish goals. That what's needed isn't just a matter of knowledge or power, but a certain moral and psychological makeup that is utterly alien to Dio.

Senya B, Ean C

 

[Tigranes]

Senya B.

 

[Baltika9]

You know, I wonder what this scene would look like if we played as the Madman instead of Dio, and made him the supreme antagonist. I bet it would've been hilarious.

Still really conflicted between B and C.

 

[Tigranes]

Senya B.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

You know, I wonder what this scene would look like if we played as the Madman instead of Dio, and made him the supreme antagonist. I bet it would've been hilarious.

Spoiler

We'd have lost like a bitch and Dio would still be the supreme antagonist. Codex gonna Codex and Dio gonna Dio, after all...

Rei might be able to restore Senya from death. Assuming Dio hasn't thought of that and found a ready excuse. There's another important factor here that everyone has missed and no one has brought up, I dare say the most important hint, but I'm not sure if I should point out the location of this.

Are you talking about the “I know who you are working with, Cooper. Do you take me for a fool?” line? I don't know what to make of that. Who is it that would have the power to oppose Dio? The Observer? The Devourer? The white goo?

Or maybe the fact that Kyrie has been visible to us for so long. Dio said ghosts can die here. Did he mean Kyrie?
If that's not the hint, you should probably point it out. Our character's INT far outstrips our own unfortunately...

 

[treave]

No, that's not it. None of those are what I was referring to. It's directly related to the choice at hand (kill Rei or not), and its in a previous update.

Dio started off petty and cautious. You guys gave him balls, too much of it, and so that's why we're here today.

 

[Esquilax]

I have no idea what we're supposed to be looking for. I mean, of course it's related to whether to kill Rei or not, the entire update is about that! It fucking sucks that C is a lock to win, as it will accomplish nothing. It just means that we get disabled and he does whatever it is he wanted to do anyways. I wish we had a bit longer to mentally masturbate think things through.

Are you talking about the “I know who you are working with, Cooper. Do you take me for a fool?” line? I don't know what to make of that. Who is it that would have the power to oppose Dio? The Observer? The Devourer? The white goo?

Cooper has been guiding Mere. We know this through piecing it all together via meta-gaming; Cooper had the Masters convinced that Senya wasn't really a threat, meanwhile he aided us through Mere by guiding her voices. First she defected and revealed Vajra Shula, then she found her way to Ean. I looked at our previous rendezvous with Cooper at Chapter 6 for potential hints:

“It is strange that Rei doesn’t seem to really know about all this.”

“I don’t think she would. She seems to treat her powers as a blessing, something not to be questioned.” I reply.

“Well, she is able to perceive things beyond the sight of mortals, but she doesn’t seem to be able to consciously identify information and the records like you do. It’s almost as if… No matter. Anyway, they treated this child-“ Sekhenun pointed to herself. “-as the Messenger, correct?”
...
“I thought you guys were big on the idea of nice chairs and tea,” I say. “This is a rather sparse reception.”

The old man peers at me with eyes clouded by age and snorts. “Cooper, right? He likes that sort of presentation.
...
"I am good at obtaining things that do not exist." says the gentleman, taking another sip from his cup. "Like you."

"Are you proposing that you are insane?" I grin, before taking a sip myself. "What, then, is drinking your tea?"

"An exceptionally lively illusion. You should not exist, whether in your reality or ours. We have not allowed for it."

"Should not is no 'does not'. If you're convinced I do not exist, why take the trouble to invite me to tea, then?"

"The work you have done with the calculator that we gifted to your reality was... interesting. Interesting enough that the moment you used it to open that portal it grabbed my attention. Then, I grabbed you. Imagine my surprise when I ran the checks on your identity." He raises both of his immaculately shaped eyebrows to articulate the sheer surprise he felt. It comes off as quite insincere.

"You mean, you found out that I do not exist?"

"Yes, exactly that. I have never seen anything like you."

Then we had our brief conversation with the Observer and the interaction with the Masters:

“Everything exists only because I observe it. I know everything that I observe. What I do not know cannot exist. You are a human, a resident of Earth-2661650, born in the four thousandth year of your local calendar. I have observed everything about that, yet I did not observe myself. Why is that?”

“I am curious by nature,” replies the omniscient being. “It is rare for anything to approach me, besides the Custodians. By the way, they have noticed your intrusion.” I can hear a hint of derision in the Observer’s tone, something I did not expect given our conversation thus far. It did not appear to hold these ‘custodians’ in high esteem. “They think you can be of use.” With that, it is gone, its attentions seemingly turned elsewhere. Seemingly, because I sense that it will be keeping a watch on my end of things from now on.
...
“How did it get here? What did it do?” shouts a figure angrily. Its voice appears to be muffled, coming from a very far distance.

“It appears to have meddled with the records,” complains another nondescript figure. “But it’s not like we can check the exact changes made.”

I am leaning towards Rei being more difficult to predict than Senya. Since her powers of creation are unconscious, whereas ours are conscious, I think that this is something that's more difficult to account for if I'm Dio. Based on that, Rei seems to be the more problematic one to keep in line. Therefore, Senya should take one for the team here.

 

[Baltika9]

Going for Senya B: sometimes you have to literally sacrifice yourself now to win later. Rei is our sis, any lies Dio spins, I hope Kyrie (who seems to be invisible) and Ean will undo. She can revive us later, and if not her, then tree-Ean.
We should really reconsider C in favor of B, while there's time.