OODA – Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act

[cannotrest]

WHO: Ashley Williams and TK-622
WHERE: Helix Station, Maurtia Falls
WHEN: After Shamtheon
WHAT: Belated evaluation review
WARNINGS: Probably talk of brainwashing and dodgy ethics

With a smile, Ashley sets down her pen (after getting roped into using her tech power to try and make contact during the Shimmer, she's been doing some of her Aegis duties pointedly analog). "Great! I think we've got a solid plan for the Swear-In - I'll start looking onto vendors later."

Her fellow Aegis agent hadn't contributed a lot and had mainly followed her lead, which seemed to reinforce some of what she'd seen in his file, but she felt it was important to involve him, partially so he could learn, and partially so she'd have someone to bounce ideas off of.

And yet, it's because it reinforced what she'd seen in his file that she chooses now to look seriously at him and say, "622 -" she selfishly wishes he'd gone by TK, it doesn't feel right calling someone a number, "this isn't anything to do with the Swear-In, but can we talk about your evaluation?"

Comments

[loyal_soldier]

Despite having spent six months on this planet, he still only half understood most of this stuff. But he'd wanted to volunteer. Do something that might help shift the locals towards a less hostile stance, and maybe recruit more people to Aegis. With no Empire here, joining up was his only option for a real, dedicated force that was organized enough to get things done.

So he wanted all this to work. It was vital that this worked. "Of course. What do you want to discuss?"

[cannotrest]

"Can you tell me more about your thoughts on civilians?" she asks. "It sounded like you have some..." In the end, all she can come up with is the wording Shepard had used on her so long ago; is this how Shepard had felt digging into her distrust of aliens? "Deeply held beliefs."

Yes, she has an overview from his evaluation, but she figures it's best to get it in his own words so she can respond to him on the fly.

[loyal_soldier]

"Yes ma'am," he replies. They are deeply held, as far as his limited self-examination has been able to tell him. He's very much aware of the tension between how other people believe things and how he does. Conditioning makes things his will and the will of the Empire hard to separate. Though honestly, he shouldn't try to. These are good principles to stick with.

"I don't begin to understand them, but they have roles to play in a functioning society, and they are uniquely vulnerable to attack because they aren't trained to defend themselves. They have to be protected by those who can."

[cannotrest]

Ashley mostly manages to hold back a grin at his lack of understanding of civilians - God knows she barely gets them sometimes, despite living more of her life as a (military-attached, admittedly) civilian than as a soldier. But she nods - so far, so good.

"There's the odd civilian who can defend themselves - my parents had me and my sisters all learn some kind of self defense, and I'm the only one who went military afterwards - but overall, good way of looking at it," she says. "And definitely what Aegis Force is here for.

"What do you think of people who attack civilians?"

[loyal_soldier]

Ah, right. Sometimes he forgot that high-scoring recruits had to come from somewhere. "Of course ma'am, it's just a matter of degrees." A civilian who defended themself against attack was a very fortunate civilian. A civilian who carried on to join the fight became a combatant, and that could be good or bad.

"They're cowards who can't take a real fight, so they resort to attacking soft targets. They're terrorists or criminals and need to be destroyed."