Taxor_the_First
Well-Known Member
Nuremberg, Part 2
“...I wanted to reassure you that you did not make the wrong choice,” Atka continued, much to Lester’s surprise. “Not many people could make an objective judgement in that sort of situation. You did.”
The soldier blinked. “I…” He stopped, then restarted. “I knew what the others would want. But it was a decision based on emotion, not logic. If nothing else, I had to provide a counter argument.”
“It was a circumstance in which no real victory could be had. Most people make no choice at all in a situation like that,” Atka noted. “I understand that it wasn’t easy though. I figured…” The Inuit woman sighed. “I figured you could use someone who understood. I imagine your comrades haven’t been able to swallow the outcome.”
So not commendation or condemnation, but consolation? “Most of them, yes,” Lester admitted. “Samara is more accepting than the others. But Samuel, Holly, Bonnie…” He sighed. “They give me my space, but I’m not sure if it’s so I can have some alone time or if it’s because they can’t stand to be around me after…”
“The way I see it, someone shouldn’t blame the executioner for being ordered to put someone to death. If they didn’t do it another person would have. You spared those people experimentation of the like I have seen firsthand or a bullet in the back of the head… neither is an enviable fate,” Atka reminded him. “I don’t disagree that it’s not something to be proud of, but neither should you be lynched for it.”
“I appreciate that, Commander. When it comes to deciding who to save…” Lester hesitated. “... I had to look at it logically,” he said, though it was unclear whether he was talking to her or himself. “Ten is greater than zero.”
“And for the compromise that was the best you could do to placate your team.”
Lester chuckled ruefully. “Arthur’s suggestion, though I know he did not like making it. He did it mostly to stop us wasting time and arguing, I could see that much. I could also see that I wouldn’t be able to convince Samuel to back down without accepting that compromise.” He shook his head. “He can be… remarkably stubborn at times.”
***
“We should have taken all children,” Samuel said hotly. “How many lives did we cut short by leaving them there?”
“The compromise was the best option we had,” Arthur replied. “If I had let you two continue arguing, we would have run out of time and we would have left with no survivors at all. I could tell Lester was not about to back down.”
The Russian scowled. “Alright, that’s enough,” Bonnie interrupted. “You can strangle each other later. I thought this was supposed to be a friendly visit.”
“There’s nothing that can be done about it now anyway,” Christine pointed out sadly. “What’s done is done.”
Samuel grunted. “Yeah. Doesn’t mean I can’t be pissed about it.”
“Not in here you can’t,” Bonnie said sternly. “You’ll give me heart problems if you keep this up.”
“And again, I can only heal myself. Not her,” Yakone reminded the others.
“Your powers are really damn convenient for you and useless for everyone else, aren’t they?” Stacie muttered.
“Excuse me, who is the one getting shot the most?”
“Ideally none of you if I’m around,” Christine interjected.
“Having a Reflection must be pretty interesting,” Bonnie said, shifting in her bed. “And useful. I can think of a number of times I would have loved a ghost boxer or something.”
“You’ve got us,” Samuel reminded her, folding his arms.
The Grenadier shrugged. “No offense, but you’re less cool. I can go to any Resistance cell and find a group of idiots with a lot of luck, I can’t find people with Reflections quite so easily. Plus, there’s the intimidation factor.”
“Pavise is purely defensive,” Christine contradicted. “I’d much prefer circumstances where I didn’t have to use him, but… by the same token I haven’t had a chance yet.”
“That just means your team is effective enough to not need a fallback,” Samara stated. “And it means you’ll still have it when you do. An unused trump card is the best kind.”
Stacie laid a hand on Christine’s shoulder. “Remember what we talked about. You aren’t responsible for all of us. Though I’ll admit if I hadn’t gotten a field operation by now I’d probably be a little stir-crazy myself.”
“That’s rich coming from you,” Heinrich noted with a shake of his head.
Stacie’s eyebrow twitched, and Yakone held up her hands. “Don’t anger the cyborg… haven’t you seen any movie ever? That ends poorly, don’t do it,” the Ranger advised.
“According to old movies, so do alien invasions,” Bonnie commented dryly. “And we’ve yet to kick their bony asses off the planet.”
“Only if you’re a heretic that hasn’t watched Independence Day,” Yakone muttered.
Arthur frowned. “Isn’t that some old American holiday?” he asked, his expression genuinely confused.
“Correct, yet also incorrect,” the Inuit-Caucasian replied. “It is also a movie about kicking aliens off the planet on the holiday.”
“Ah. You will have to forgive me, audio-visual technology was limited in the cell I came from,” the Chinese Ranger explained. “Most technology was, in fact. That’s why I learned to use a blade, since guns were in short supply.”
“That’s what we assume the case is with our Ranger,” Heinrich remarked. “She’s an expert with a katana, but not really comfortable with firearms.”
I suppose that’s the conclusion you’d come to if you didn’t know she was an ancient vampire… thing, Yakone thought to herself.
“A katana?” Arthur frowned. “I attempted to use one once. Found it required more finesse than I was used to. Stuck with a machete, though I prefer a more traditionally shaped sword. Now we’ve got laser bonesaws.”
“Is that why you had trouble with that Mogul?” Bonnie asked. “Not used to the shape?”
“No, no. The Mogul was psionic, I couldn’t read it’s mind for once. Had to rely on my sword and nothing else. Not used to that.”
“So you cheat?”
Arthur chuckled. “I prefer to refer to it as ‘using what is at my disposal’.”
“Amen to that,” Yakone agreed. “Since when does our enemy play fair?”
“They gave up any semblance of ‘playing fair’ when they started using those goo monsters as infiltrators,” Samara stated. “Probably before that, honestly, but those things…”
Bonnie shuddered. “I haven’t seen one myself, thank whatever god exists. Don’t think I could take seeing a human being stretch out like that. Even hearing the reports was unnerving enough.”
“Do we know if they can actually pass for human after more than a cursory glance?” Samara asked, seeming genuinely curious. “Question any infiltrator enough and you’ll eventually find holes in their story. Can those monsters even speak?”
Yakone shrugged. “I don’t know. I mostly remember making first contact from when they actually started morphing. I was too busy preventing myself from becoming sliced and diced to puke at the time, but hell…”
“Makes you wonder what else they have up their sleeves,” Samuel muttered. “However many sleeves that is. Elders have four arms, right?”
“Four… as far as we know,” Yakone replied enigmatically.
“They could be floating centipedes under those bathrobes for all we know,” Bonnie said. “Suppose we’ll find out one day. When we finally get to kill one.” She glanced at Samuel. “What’s that look for? You look like you’re about to strangle someone.”
The Russian shook his head. “We’ll get there,” he said tersely. Just maybe not in time for me.
***
“Yes, about Yokolov…” Atka folded her hands under her chin. “I wanted to ask you how he’d been doing. It’s my understanding he was in the care of the old Overseer… I imagine his capture hasn’t gone over well with Samuel.”
“That’s his reason for being here,” Lester said. “I will admit he is a capable combatant, so I’m not really complaining, but I worry about what will happen should news reach us we are too late to save his father, or if we encounter a situation related to him in the field. With Samuel being as determined as he is…”
“Well, I’m certainly not considering him to lead your squad,” the Commander responded flatly. “Brydon has been the choice so far for seniority’s sake, but I’m wondering if you would be a better choice for the future.”
“Me?” The Specialist seemed genuinely surprised at the concept. “I… I’m flattered, Commander, but I’m not sure I have the authority to direct anyone. Not in their minds, anyway. Certainly not right now, after I... “ He swallowed. “... after I killed so many innocents. Tactically correct or not, it’s still ethically ambiguous at best.”
“That is the obstacle at hand.” Atka nodded, leaning back in her chair. “If you can find a way to overcome it, however, I believe you have what it takes to take charge. You’re objective, and you keep focused on the greater good.”
Playing the devil’s advocate gets me the label of ‘objective’ and ‘focused on the greater good’, Lester thought with a slight twitch of his mouth. “The group will… need some time to cool off. Once that ends, however, I could try my hand at getting them to listen to me.”
“Understood.” Atka’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Just remember though… be careful not to let your objectiveness become callousness. Justify atrocities with the greater good and you’re no better than our enemy.” No better than Desmond.
“The day I begin to enjoy consigning hundreds to their death, I’ll let you know. May as well join ADVENT at that point.” He scowled. “Which I would never stoop to.”
“Good to hear.” Atka got up from her desk, and extended a hand. “General warnings aside, it was nice to speak with you, Lester.”
“It was nice to speak with you too, Commander.” Lester met the handshake with a firm grasp. “I appreciate your being an understanding mind. It’s a welcome change from… ah, you get the idea.”
“...I wanted to reassure you that you did not make the wrong choice,” Atka continued, much to Lester’s surprise. “Not many people could make an objective judgement in that sort of situation. You did.”
The soldier blinked. “I…” He stopped, then restarted. “I knew what the others would want. But it was a decision based on emotion, not logic. If nothing else, I had to provide a counter argument.”
“It was a circumstance in which no real victory could be had. Most people make no choice at all in a situation like that,” Atka noted. “I understand that it wasn’t easy though. I figured…” The Inuit woman sighed. “I figured you could use someone who understood. I imagine your comrades haven’t been able to swallow the outcome.”
So not commendation or condemnation, but consolation? “Most of them, yes,” Lester admitted. “Samara is more accepting than the others. But Samuel, Holly, Bonnie…” He sighed. “They give me my space, but I’m not sure if it’s so I can have some alone time or if it’s because they can’t stand to be around me after…”
“The way I see it, someone shouldn’t blame the executioner for being ordered to put someone to death. If they didn’t do it another person would have. You spared those people experimentation of the like I have seen firsthand or a bullet in the back of the head… neither is an enviable fate,” Atka reminded him. “I don’t disagree that it’s not something to be proud of, but neither should you be lynched for it.”
“I appreciate that, Commander. When it comes to deciding who to save…” Lester hesitated. “... I had to look at it logically,” he said, though it was unclear whether he was talking to her or himself. “Ten is greater than zero.”
“And for the compromise that was the best you could do to placate your team.”
Lester chuckled ruefully. “Arthur’s suggestion, though I know he did not like making it. He did it mostly to stop us wasting time and arguing, I could see that much. I could also see that I wouldn’t be able to convince Samuel to back down without accepting that compromise.” He shook his head. “He can be… remarkably stubborn at times.”
***
“We should have taken all children,” Samuel said hotly. “How many lives did we cut short by leaving them there?”
“The compromise was the best option we had,” Arthur replied. “If I had let you two continue arguing, we would have run out of time and we would have left with no survivors at all. I could tell Lester was not about to back down.”
The Russian scowled. “Alright, that’s enough,” Bonnie interrupted. “You can strangle each other later. I thought this was supposed to be a friendly visit.”
“There’s nothing that can be done about it now anyway,” Christine pointed out sadly. “What’s done is done.”
Samuel grunted. “Yeah. Doesn’t mean I can’t be pissed about it.”
“Not in here you can’t,” Bonnie said sternly. “You’ll give me heart problems if you keep this up.”
“And again, I can only heal myself. Not her,” Yakone reminded the others.
“Your powers are really damn convenient for you and useless for everyone else, aren’t they?” Stacie muttered.
“Excuse me, who is the one getting shot the most?”
“Ideally none of you if I’m around,” Christine interjected.
“Having a Reflection must be pretty interesting,” Bonnie said, shifting in her bed. “And useful. I can think of a number of times I would have loved a ghost boxer or something.”
“You’ve got us,” Samuel reminded her, folding his arms.
The Grenadier shrugged. “No offense, but you’re less cool. I can go to any Resistance cell and find a group of idiots with a lot of luck, I can’t find people with Reflections quite so easily. Plus, there’s the intimidation factor.”
“Pavise is purely defensive,” Christine contradicted. “I’d much prefer circumstances where I didn’t have to use him, but… by the same token I haven’t had a chance yet.”
“That just means your team is effective enough to not need a fallback,” Samara stated. “And it means you’ll still have it when you do. An unused trump card is the best kind.”
Stacie laid a hand on Christine’s shoulder. “Remember what we talked about. You aren’t responsible for all of us. Though I’ll admit if I hadn’t gotten a field operation by now I’d probably be a little stir-crazy myself.”
“That’s rich coming from you,” Heinrich noted with a shake of his head.
Stacie’s eyebrow twitched, and Yakone held up her hands. “Don’t anger the cyborg… haven’t you seen any movie ever? That ends poorly, don’t do it,” the Ranger advised.
“According to old movies, so do alien invasions,” Bonnie commented dryly. “And we’ve yet to kick their bony asses off the planet.”
“Only if you’re a heretic that hasn’t watched Independence Day,” Yakone muttered.
Arthur frowned. “Isn’t that some old American holiday?” he asked, his expression genuinely confused.
“Correct, yet also incorrect,” the Inuit-Caucasian replied. “It is also a movie about kicking aliens off the planet on the holiday.”
“Ah. You will have to forgive me, audio-visual technology was limited in the cell I came from,” the Chinese Ranger explained. “Most technology was, in fact. That’s why I learned to use a blade, since guns were in short supply.”
“That’s what we assume the case is with our Ranger,” Heinrich remarked. “She’s an expert with a katana, but not really comfortable with firearms.”
I suppose that’s the conclusion you’d come to if you didn’t know she was an ancient vampire… thing, Yakone thought to herself.
“A katana?” Arthur frowned. “I attempted to use one once. Found it required more finesse than I was used to. Stuck with a machete, though I prefer a more traditionally shaped sword. Now we’ve got laser bonesaws.”
“Is that why you had trouble with that Mogul?” Bonnie asked. “Not used to the shape?”
“No, no. The Mogul was psionic, I couldn’t read it’s mind for once. Had to rely on my sword and nothing else. Not used to that.”
“So you cheat?”
Arthur chuckled. “I prefer to refer to it as ‘using what is at my disposal’.”
“Amen to that,” Yakone agreed. “Since when does our enemy play fair?”
“They gave up any semblance of ‘playing fair’ when they started using those goo monsters as infiltrators,” Samara stated. “Probably before that, honestly, but those things…”
Bonnie shuddered. “I haven’t seen one myself, thank whatever god exists. Don’t think I could take seeing a human being stretch out like that. Even hearing the reports was unnerving enough.”
“Do we know if they can actually pass for human after more than a cursory glance?” Samara asked, seeming genuinely curious. “Question any infiltrator enough and you’ll eventually find holes in their story. Can those monsters even speak?”
Yakone shrugged. “I don’t know. I mostly remember making first contact from when they actually started morphing. I was too busy preventing myself from becoming sliced and diced to puke at the time, but hell…”
“Makes you wonder what else they have up their sleeves,” Samuel muttered. “However many sleeves that is. Elders have four arms, right?”
“Four… as far as we know,” Yakone replied enigmatically.
“They could be floating centipedes under those bathrobes for all we know,” Bonnie said. “Suppose we’ll find out one day. When we finally get to kill one.” She glanced at Samuel. “What’s that look for? You look like you’re about to strangle someone.”
The Russian shook his head. “We’ll get there,” he said tersely. Just maybe not in time for me.
***
“Yes, about Yokolov…” Atka folded her hands under her chin. “I wanted to ask you how he’d been doing. It’s my understanding he was in the care of the old Overseer… I imagine his capture hasn’t gone over well with Samuel.”
“That’s his reason for being here,” Lester said. “I will admit he is a capable combatant, so I’m not really complaining, but I worry about what will happen should news reach us we are too late to save his father, or if we encounter a situation related to him in the field. With Samuel being as determined as he is…”
“Well, I’m certainly not considering him to lead your squad,” the Commander responded flatly. “Brydon has been the choice so far for seniority’s sake, but I’m wondering if you would be a better choice for the future.”
“Me?” The Specialist seemed genuinely surprised at the concept. “I… I’m flattered, Commander, but I’m not sure I have the authority to direct anyone. Not in their minds, anyway. Certainly not right now, after I... “ He swallowed. “... after I killed so many innocents. Tactically correct or not, it’s still ethically ambiguous at best.”
“That is the obstacle at hand.” Atka nodded, leaning back in her chair. “If you can find a way to overcome it, however, I believe you have what it takes to take charge. You’re objective, and you keep focused on the greater good.”
Playing the devil’s advocate gets me the label of ‘objective’ and ‘focused on the greater good’, Lester thought with a slight twitch of his mouth. “The group will… need some time to cool off. Once that ends, however, I could try my hand at getting them to listen to me.”
“Understood.” Atka’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Just remember though… be careful not to let your objectiveness become callousness. Justify atrocities with the greater good and you’re no better than our enemy.” No better than Desmond.
“The day I begin to enjoy consigning hundreds to their death, I’ll let you know. May as well join ADVENT at that point.” He scowled. “Which I would never stoop to.”
“Good to hear.” Atka got up from her desk, and extended a hand. “General warnings aside, it was nice to speak with you, Lester.”
“It was nice to speak with you too, Commander.” Lester met the handshake with a firm grasp. “I appreciate your being an understanding mind. It’s a welcome change from… ah, you get the idea.”
