(Untitled)

[joiningyousoon]

TO: CENTRAL COMMAND
FROM: SKYMARSHALL URIK ANTARES, COMMANDING OFFICER: R.S.S. KONSTANTINOV

FIELD REPORT: THE WAR IN NOKGORKAAFTER SUSTAINED AERIAL AND ARTILLERY BOMBARDMENT, AIR SUPERIORITY HAS BEEN ATTAINED BY SKYFURNACE DETACHMENTS OVER THE CITY'S RECOGNIZED NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN HOSTILE DISTRICTS. AS ORDERED, THE FLEET HAS SUCCESSFULLY

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[theredstars]

The Skymarshall's face is unreadable as he watches the tactical protocol cycle through another set of probabilities.

"Central didn't listen," he says at last, as a flickering krawl opens fire a few centimeters from his boots. "We've been ordered to proceed with the ground assault."

He looks up, eyes finding first Maya's, then Alex's.

"It looks like the bastards are going to fight this children's crusade until all of Nokgorka is bled white."

[theredstars]

"What the hell is children's crusade supposed to mean, Uri?"

Alexandra doesn't want to be fighting this goddamned war, with these goddamned orders, in this goddamned rat-hole of a city, with a force of green recruits ready to piss their pants at the first sign of combat.

What this means is: Alexandra's ready for a fight.

Even more ready than usual, that is.

[theredstars]

"The 'Gorkas, Alexandra? They've salted the ranks with children." He grimaces.

"Fourteen, fifteen year-olds--some younger."

[theredstars]

"Well, I've never met a soldier that wasn't someone's child."

[theredstars]

"What the hell are you saying."

[theredstars]

"If the 'Gorkas want their independence," Alex snaps, "then they know the goddamned price. If all they've got is children to pay the reaper, then to hell with them. It's not on us."

At their feet, colored lights blink over the stylized city of the tactical protocol: krawls, skyfurnaces, paths of attack and resistance.

[theredstars]

"You're wrong," Urik says flatly, and comes to attention, his eyes fixed on the sickle moon hanging beyond the great windows of the briefing room. "It is on us. What's left of our nation hangs by a thread. Any wrong move could mean complete civil war. Our choices could be the difference betwe--"

[theredstars]

"Our choices?" Alexandra interrupts. "We choose?"

There's a tight, bitter frustration in her voice, and if she's arguing with a friend she's also shouting over her commanding officer, and she doesn't much care. It's Uri, anyway. He can take it.

And this kind of foolheaded illusion -- the illusion that they have any damned choice in any of this -- is nothing but trouble. Nothing but blindness.

"Since when, exactly? At what moment does a soldier take control? You've got no choice but to send in the assault tomorrow. And I've got no choice but to go."

[theredstars]

"Conduct, Alexandra," and Urik does not add the rest of lines memorized from an Academy text long since declared illegal-- A soldier cannot chose his superiors, his command, or his mission, but this last small amount of control remains: what his conduct shall be as he engages his enemies.

"We're not butchers," he insists tightly. "We do not execute children."

[theredstars]

"Urik, sir." Alexandra jerks a hand towards the wide window, and the snow-covered wreckage below. Her words are clipped. "Look down on that city. It's a slaughterhouse."

"Are you telling me that no children were killed when you passed on the order to burn it to the ground?"

[theredstars]

Urik stares stonily at her, arms locked behind his back.

[joiningyousoon]

Standing in front of the window, the bulk and lights of skyfurnaces behind her nearly blocking out the stars and the moon, Maya can't listen silently any longer.

"That's enough! Damn the both of you!" she barks furiously, her eyebrows lowered and her raised voice brooking no argument.

"Are we going to plan this assault, or is it also the Red Fleet who is employing children?"

Marcus was always better at mediating between these two.

[theredstars]

"Very well, then," Urik says, taking refuge in military formalities. He nods to Maya; the Sorceress-Major releases the tactical protocol and replaces it with a simple terrain map, the new protocol banded with colored indicators tracking the various elements of their battle group.

"First, the bad news. This map is of Bahamut before the bombings began. Our Infokasters haven't yet supplied us with any revised map protocols, so the effects of the bombings can't be taken into account. Alex, you'll lead the 131st armored column in from the north to the river." He indicates a streak of red angling in from the outer limits of the city. "Set up a bridgehead near the train station--hold there until we can reinforce your position with troops from the rear. The approach is narrow. You'll have to approach in single column formation, but our last recon shows no fortified enemy positions en route."

"Maya. You'll be coordinating the attack from up here."

[joiningyousoon]

"I wanted to talk to you about that," Maya says, watching the protocol (her protocol) with her fists on her hips.

She meets Urik's eyes, straightforward and frank. "It's a mistake not to send me down to street level with a command team."

[theredstars]

"Discussion over. You're a major now, Maya." The Skymarshall's face pulls into something approximating a grin as he looks back towards Alex. "The front lines are for hard-asses like your friend here."

[theredstars]

"Didn't know you cared, sir."

Her green eyes track Maya's half-hidden scowl, Urik's expression (the one she privately terms Command Face, Friendly Version), and the little red lines and arrows that mean the vectors of life and death tomorrow.

"And the good news is...?"