Sohala April 24 Listening to the commanders callously enumerate the various ways they could kill off their own soldiers turned Prax's stomach. She could accept that these might be dire and uncertain times, but turning your own troops into once-use weapons was crossing a line she wasn't overly comfortable with. 'Even if they volunteered...' she stopped herself. She wouldn't lessen an individual's choice on this, for she had little grounds to stand on... Such thoughts reminded her of Jake, and then the rest of the recent events she had been able to ignore... In her suit, she shook her head to push aside the distractions. A suicide vest was what the description she heard when she refocused on the conversation boiled down to. "We order each man into one. Then if they fall, they take them with them," the older [[please insert the best race]] officer proudly declared. There were mixed sounds from the others, but with recent events, a sentiment of agreement appeared to be winning out. Incredulity was alive and well in her dissenting opinion, "You want to put us at risk of cascading deaths and sabotage? So you can potentially weaponize our losses?" Some part of her heard her commander say her name, but all she was consciously aware of was the reply, "Better us than them." At that, she pressed on, "Have we lost so much confidence in our strength of arms and skill that we must resort to such tactics? I say we-" The commanding voice of her superior boomed through the tent cutting her off, "[[Proper ranking]] Praxerina, that is enough!" As if sensing she was going to start speaking again he continued, "Wait outside, now. That is an order." There was a moment of hesitation in follow through, but she didn't argue further, following the order... Prax stewed in her own thoughts for over an hour as she followed the orders given to her. Her commander hadn't passed along a signal as expected, so there was little else to do. She had thought his actions merely symbolic, removing her as a possible distraction due to her status, but other possible realities were starting to weigh on her. With that in mind, when her commander finally exited, she held her tongue until given leave to speak; a status that came only after a minute of silent staring, "You may speak, if you can contain yourself." His words traveled solely through their comms, so no others could hear. Her self-righteous thoughts were dampened by that, not enough to keep her from speaking though, "You know I am right, sir." Apparently expecting this, his response was swift, "You have also grown willful in your absence, Prax." He didn't give her the chance to respond to his cutting words, "[[Insert name]] has lobbied for those methods often of late. You would have known that if you had been here." He paused, but she sensed a trap and kept quiet. "He will no doubt try to spin this loss as all the more reason to do so. And now you have called his honor into question and wounded his pride." His tone carried with it disappointment, "You may have years of experience from your time in there, but you still haven't learned the battlefield of politics. He will push all the harder now and we can't afford to alienate or be alienated from this alliance. For it to fracture now, would surely mean our defeat." She couldn't help herself, as the words came out, "Even if that means-" He cut her off, "Yes. This new threat doesn't allow for the luxury of your morals. We must defeat it or be defeated ourselves." Seeing this side of her commander was troubling to her. Had she really lost her grasp on the severity of the situation? She had trouble finding the right words. For all her time in the SIM, she had minimal experience fighting the infected. They had been... realization dawned on her as a mental image of a far-flung battlefield, viewed from an isometric perspective, played quickly... There was a long moment of hesitation as she put her thoughts in order. The fire of defiance had left her speech, replaced with thoughtful consideration, "What if there was another way?" When he didn't immediately shut her down, she continued, "You recall in my report when I said there were details I hadn't been able to verify yet? One of them is this..." She pushed a still from the battle recording, with split view active. "The one on the right." Her commander's words came slowly, with a hit of suspicion, "What of it?" Honestly, she wasn't sure if it could be done at all, but at the same time was willing to admit it wasn't a quick solution even if they could, "Could we make ones that would work here? They would be free from the risk of infection." OOC I think there are two command tents? One way back with Jake, the other at the front lines? I think that gets us where we wanted to go wrathgon.
Sohala April 24 Listening to the commanders callously enumerate the various ways they could kill off their own soldiers turned Prax's stomach. She could accept that these might be dire and uncertain times, but turning your own troops into once-use weapons was crossing a line she wasn't overly comfortable with. 'Even if they volunteered...' she stopped herself. She wouldn't lessen an individual's choice on this, for she had little grounds to stand on... Such thoughts reminded her of Jake, and then the rest of the recent events she had been able to ignore... In her suit, she shook her head to push aside the distractions. A suicide vest was what the description she heard when she refocused on the conversation boiled down to. "We order each man into one. Then if they fall, they take them with them," the older [[please insert the best race]] officer proudly declared. There were mixed sounds from the others, but with recent events, a sentiment of agreement appeared to be winning out. Incredulity was alive and well in her dissenting opinion, "You want to put us at risk of cascading deaths and sabotage? So you can potentially weaponize our losses?" Some part of her heard her commander say her name, but all she was consciously aware of was the reply, "Better us than them." At that, she pressed on, "Have we lost so much confidence in our strength of arms and skill that we must resort to such tactics? I say we-" The commanding voice of her superior boomed through the tent cutting her off, "[[Proper ranking]] Praxerina, that is enough!" As if sensing she was going to start speaking again he continued, "Wait outside, now. That is an order." There was a moment of hesitation in follow through, but she didn't argue further, following the order... Prax stewed in her own thoughts for over an hour as she followed the orders given to her. Her commander hadn't passed along a signal as expected, so there was little else to do. She had thought his actions merely symbolic, removing her as a possible distraction due to her status, but other possible realities were starting to weigh on her. With that in mind, when her commander finally exited, she held her tongue until given leave to speak; a status that came only after a minute of silent staring, "You may speak, if you can contain yourself." His words traveled solely through their comms, so no others could hear. Her self-righteous thoughts were dampened by that, not enough to keep her from speaking though, "You know I am right, sir." Apparently expecting this, his response was swift, "You have also grown willful in your absence, Prax." He didn't give her the chance to respond to his cutting words, "[[Insert name]] has lobbied for those methods often of late. You would have know that if you had been here." He paused, but she sensed a trap and kept quiet. "He will no doubt try to spin this loss as all the more reason to do so. And now you have called his honor into question and wounded his pride." His tone carried with it disappointment, "You may have years of experience from your time in there, but you still haven't learned the battlefield of politics. He will push all the harder now and we can't afford to alienate or be alienated from this alliance. For it to fracture now, would surely mean our defeat." She couldn't help herself, as the words came out, "Even if that means-" He cut her off, "Yes. This new threat doesn't allow for the luxury of your morals. We must defeat it or be defeated ourselves." Seeing this side of her commander was troubling to her. Had she really lost her grasp on the severity of the situation? She had trouble finding the right words. For all her time in the SIM, she had minimal experience fighting the infected. They had been... realization dawned on her as a mental image of a far-flung battlefield, viewed from an isometric perspective, played quickly... There was a long moment of hesitation as she put her thoughts in order. The fire of defiance had left her speech, replaced with thoughtful consideration, "What if there was another way?" When he didn't immediately shut her down, she continued, "You recall in my report when I said there were details I hadn't been able to verify yet? One of them is this..." She pushed a still from the battle recording, with split view active. "The one on the right." Her commander's words came slowly, with a hit of suspicion, "What of it?" Honestly, she wasn't sure if it could be done at all, but at the same time was willing to admit it wasn't a quick solution even if they could, "Could we make ones that would work here? They would be free from the risk of infection." OOC I think there are two command tents? One way back with Jake, the other at the front lines? I think that gets us where we wanted to go wrathgon.
