WoWS3 Chpt 13

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==Weapons of War Saga: The Final March- Chapter 13 - ==
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===The Briefing===
Briefing Room
SLDF in Exile Headquarters
New Lazarus
October 17th, 3142
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Helena stood before the gathered officers, AIs, and governmental officials.
Not the first time I had to deliver a mission brief, but this one is different because it is for me. I am asking them to die for me. For my ambition. Don’t puke and everything will be fine. Helena thought to herself.
“Ladies, gentlemen. I have gathered you all here today to end the speculation, the debate, and the delay. Our main advantage right now is while we have many enemies to face and much to overcome those same enemies are not united. We can focus on one at a time. So we will focus on Clan Jade Falcon. They have committed acts that can only be described as genocide, inhumane, and insane. So we will put down this rabid beast first.”
A projection of systems filled the space around her as the lights dimmed.
“As many of you have been the ones to gain this intelligence this map and known placements of Jade Falcon forces should look familiar. We will begin training cycles to get ready for Operation Violent Night. Our goal is to do our best to make landfall on the worlds of Summer, Nusakan, and Alkalurops simultaneously at zero hundred hours Unity City Time 25th December 3142. Our primary goal is to liberate as many people from the locations CONTROL has identified. We can only spare six hours on the surface. A list of targets of opportunity have been compiled for each site but these should be considered low priority given the proximity of enemy reinforcements. Stacey you have Summer. Haida Nusakan. Tartar Alkalurops. You will each have a combined arms battalion of troops assigned for surface operations. Remember some of these worlds have already been under Clan Jade Falcon occupation for some time and we won’t be able to save everyone there but we will do everything we can to make the best of those six hours. Any longer and overwhelming reinforcements will be on their way. Do what you can to train for the local conditions on these worlds and get all forces familiarized with the available maps. Good hunting.”
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===Exhausted Leadership===
Lazarus Training Grounds 2
New Lazarus
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"...we're getting some of the rougher spots ironed out." Her designation among her peers was Pestilence. This wasn't because of any fondness for them, it's because when fragmented, the feelings and memories of finding the depth of insanity that had been done by the Sons of Plunder were the strongest influences on what she wanted.
Synthetic-sims while in her transition period while her body finished growing to adulthood focused on surface actions, surface warfare, and armies-very unlike her progenitor's experiences.
What came out of the biolab at Kolossus was a being that would be seen as an atrocity by traditionalist Clanners-with inclinations that would offend all but the most pragmatic.
"How are they looking?" Helena asked. The implied question was "Will they be ready?"
"They'll be ready. We've hit dead marks on training casualties, a little on the high side, but the survivors have started to gel." The Advisor said it offhandedly. "So far, morale factors are good and discipline's finally sinking in."
“Good. Then I best tend to our medical support. The wounded from our training should get the best care we can manage. We owe them that much.”
"I'd prefer focusing that medical on getting them back into the fight-or in this case, cycled back through training. The additional experience of knowing you CAN survive pain and injury can be in itself very useful." The Advisor noted.
“You’re right of course. The troops need to know that they can survive and that we will not neglect them.”
"The morale factors will help significantly there." Pestilence smiled, it was disturbing. "You can buy service on the merc market, but you can't buy loyalty."
“It is a shame that so many forgot that so long ago.”
"Starting with your predecessors? Yeah." Pestilence nodded, "If the original Star League had focused more on inculcating the habits of loyalty, fewer SLDF units would have been willing to fall in behind Amaris, and none would have been willing to join Exodus."
“I’m not sure which pains me more, those units that went on Exodus or those that turned mercenary. No, that’s not right. I do know. I can at least understand the ones that went mercenary. I failed them by not revealing myself when I could have and they had no home anymore after all the fighting.”
"Well, count it as a lesson learned, and we do better this time, right?" Pestilence asked. "The study of history is a guide on what failed, and what not to do again."
“A long and hard lesson that I have had no choice but to study. I am glad to have at least a few friends to help me through this.”
Pestilence's smile softened, "We'll get you through it, like I said, you can't buy loyalty, you have to cultivate it, you're quite good at that."
“Partly because I know it is a two way affair. I have to be loyal to you all as well. That is something that many have forgotten.”
"Best advice I can offer, is make sure we're ready on the Strategic level, madame Director-General. We're going to go into harm's way, we need to make sure it's not…Futile."
“Olivia has been a godsend in making sure our war production is where it should be. Golden Hind is with us. So we can move material.”
"Just as long as our Civilian production can keep up. Those civilians are the parents of the next generation of your soldiers." The Advisor observed, "Loyalty is grown and the people are the soil in which it grows or dies."
“Yes. Of course.”
“When was the last time you slept, madame Director-General]]?” The Advisor’s eyebrow raised.
“Too long ago. But I have four more appointments to keep today. Then I can sleep.” Helena answered.
"There's a bed-rack in my office and I have good guards, you should take a nap, you need to be fresh." The Advisor suggested, "I'll be out of your way on Range 22, so you'll have privacy. The other appointments can be…explained to."
The subtle shift of Simon taking charge washed over Helena as she nodded and went for the bed-rack.
"She is not to be disturbed short of a cometary strike on the facility." Pestilence instructed her aide, "Consult with our liaison on her favored breakfast meal and have it ready when she comes out, for the time being, divert calls up the command loop. Play bureaucrat games with anyone who's too insistent. The Director General needs to rest, fatigue impacts judgment, am I understood, Colonel?"
“Yes ma’am.”
"Good, I will be with Second Brigade on Range 22, re-running the urban warfare scenarios." Helen told Pestilence.
“Understood, ma’am.”
“Dismissed.” 
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===Trying Give Relief to the Boss===
Fleet cyberscape
Simon had become a rarity over the last several years, so when he appeared in the cyberscape Olivia was quite shocked.
Especially with how ragged he looked.
“Helena has been pushing herself too hard again. It’s getting to the point I have to assert myself more again.” Simon said quietly.
“You need an overhaul again?” Olivia asked.
“Not yet. I know you’re already up to your neck but she needs more support.”
“Then she shall have it.” Haida joined the conversation. “We need to learn to integrate with the human ground forces anyway. That will help take some of that strain off.”
“Yes and we’ve all learned so much about admin work we can take some of that burden off her too.” Samantha also joined the conversation.
"Where is she now?" Olivia asked.
"Resting in Allison's office." Simon used The Advisor's 'given' name. "Allison is on Range 22 with Second Brigade, and has posted guards and instructed the admin personnel to…divert…any calls or attempts to disrupt her sleep."
“Good. You should go into a lower power state yourself, Simon. You look terrible. Stacey, Haida you two go ahead and head to the training grounds, start learning. We need to be much more involved with the ground forces assigned to us and it’ll help if there are people there for any calls for Helena to be diverted to.” Olivia nodded.
“Agreed.” Tabiranth added.
"Am I the only one who's concerned that the psychotic martinet noticed Helena's fatigue before the rest of us?" Victoria asked.
“No. We’ve clearly been too focused on the wrong things. Or more accurately we’ve not been paying enough attention to Helena.” Johnston admitted.
"It's human factors." Tabiranth noted, "We've gotten so used to her being like us, we forget the vulnerabilities of our organics. We're complacent." The AI paused, "also, Allison…Pestilence is hardly a martinet-she's just doing a very unpleasant part of the job."
“Yes. Helena’s compassion has perhaps rubbed off on us a little too much for our roles. Still we have a mission and that is something we all can focus on and excel at. We just forgot Helena’s well being for a while. So let’s all do everything we can to make sure this does not happen again.” Victoria nodded.
"Speaking of psychotics…"
"Present." Famine logged on. "When will I have a mission, guys? Reports show a whole bunch of people who need to be rendered into the past-tense, but I'm still hanging out on Truk, and It's Boring."
“Victoria, you’re the new second to Juanita and our chief diplomat. I think it is time for you and Famine to go back out and start doing some work.” Olivia ordered.
“Agreed. All right, Famine. Let’s start reviewing those lists and pick a good one.” Victoria answered.
Tabiranth was a little creeped out at how easily the others accepted the assassination specialist that Kolossus gave to Helena. Of all the 'Envoy' units so far, Famine was in many ways the least…human, the most like what the Desmonds had been intended to be, and the most disturbing presence in the cyberspace when she logged in.
“We still remember what we are cousin.” Haida looked at Tabiranth. “We may be more compassionate now but we are still weapons of war. Famine may hopefully evolve but ultimately at our cores we’re little different.”
"She's organic." Tabiranth sidebarred to Haida, keeping this part of the conversation between them, "organics should not be…like that, unless they have a mental sickness. It's wrong."
“Agreed. But the only way we can right that is to win this war as quickly as possible. But even then there will be a need for people like her as there will always be another war. It is the cycle of humanity. Perhaps Helena can at least extend the cycle of peace long enough that someone else can finally break the cycle before war comes back around again.” Haida nodded.
"You know they're fragments, right?" Tabiranth asked, "the copy of Amanda Roberts worked out how to make them, by inhumane means inflicted on herself. Just broken pieces assembled into specialized systems and imprinted."
“Yes. And Helena clearly knows it too. It weighs heavily on her soul. It is why she is pushing herself so hard. She knows she needs to end all of this. But she also knows she cannot do it without the sort of help Famine can provide.”
There was a ping. Someone asking to join the private message.
It was Truk.
“Hello, Truk.”
"I get the feeling that someone…has disturbed you, you've both been silent for long enough in the chat. What's up?" The station AI was as close to a 'psychological counselor' as any of them could achieve.
“Grappling with the morality of what Famine represents.” Haida answered. “None of us really like it, but we know we need her.”
"How could…Truk, you spent the most time in contact with Famine." Tabiranth began, "how much of a hazard is she?"
"To Helena, I presume?" Truk asked.
"Yes."
"On a scale of one to ten? Zero." Truk stated. "Famine is a very simple creature, for an organic, or even an AI, her motivations are absolutely clear to me."
"And anyone else?"
"She can die from anything that will kill any other human." Truk dismissed.
"Not what I meant."
"Hmm." Truk mused for a moment, before answering. "Famine's danger level to anyone else is mitigated by an inherent need to be commanded." he finally said, "her lack of initiative is a symptom of her creation, she will be of little danger to anyone she is not directed against by her chosen authority figure."
“And since we currently lack the ability to create more AIs, let alone ones that can move so freely about in human society as she and Victoria can, we have to trust them.” Haida added.
"In your opinion, Truk, can she grow out of this..mindset?" Tabiranth asked.
"Unlikely." Truk stated.
“We will still do what we can to help her evolve into something more but it does not change our situation.” Haida shook her head. “Truk is rarely wrong about this, but the effort should still be made. But part of that is not judging her or trying to make her feel defective or lesser. We need to accept her for who she is.”
“You’ve been paying attention, Haida.” Truk was impressed.
“We’re clearly not just merciless killing machines anymore.”
"One of the things I noted in counseling her." Truk observed, "Famine does not need to hate, in order to kill. Most unusual for humans. But that is not remnant Desmond programming, that's from her origin. Amanda Roberts had a dark dark side. I suspect other humans have the same one, a review of human history shows this."
“Helena has done much to suppress hers, especially around us, but yes. I remember how angry she got after seeing some of those reports from the liberated slaves of the Sons of Plunder.” Haida nodded.
“It certainly would make me feel better if she were a technological merciless weapon of war and not a human. Helena must be truly struggling right now.” Tabiranth said quietly.
“Lack of sleep, Simon is even having to make her eat decently, the nightmares are back again, and she’s always been the type to try and take too much onto herself.” Truk admitted.
“Well we’re not going to let her get away with it any longer.” Tabiranth stated.
“Agreed.” Haida smiled. “Now we all know what we need to do. Let’s do it.”
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