Only Human (Goddess of Victory NIKKE SI)

[Nomad-117]

===
Chapter 10 - One Foot in Front of the Other
===

Having spent some time wandering around the Ark's commercial district, Joe found himself filled with a… hollow ringing, but that was better than doing nothing, wasting his time just sitting around his quarters, right?

Eventually, he'd found himself at that first restaurant, the one he'd visited with…

He'd claimed a seat, been served, and, after a moment of staring at the menu, somehow not able to… focus on anything listed, for some reason. He just wound up ordering the same bowl of soup he'd had last time.

Ever since that day, it had been stuck in the back of his mind: how delicious that soup had been. How that first sip had blown his socks off, how he'd been longing for another serving since that day.

Lifting the steaming bowl to his lips, Joe braced himself for an explosion of flavour, and…

Blinked. Paused, and sat there in silence for a few moments. Somehow, the food was… almost flavourless, and at once, he realized how very hungry he wasn't. Despite having been on the surface, having been in the midst of a firefight, having hoofed it to and fro, having expended no small amount of energy… he just wasn't hungry.

Lowering the bowl, setting it on the tabletop of the outdoor eating space, as people went about their daily lives, in a metropolis that looked the part of the platonic ideal city, at least on the surface… Joe just stared blankly at his food, and quietly pondered the curiosity of how one of the most delicious things he'd ever tasted in his life, suddenly, had a flavour profile comparable to water.

Somehow, the "Commander's Discount" and well-wishes for his 'absent lady friend' he'd been offered after forcing the soup down so as to not waste food felt like a slap across the face, and the young man was quick to take his leave.

---

Joe had wandered about for some time after that, eventually finding himself making his way back to his room after artificial night had fallen. He'd thought little during his time outside, and was quick to settle down for the night, entering the room, bee-lining for the bed, and throwing himself onto it to sleep with little consideration for much else.

Having awoken the following morning, he'd rapidly realized that he'd made a mistake in not showering as soon as he'd gotten back from the field, and, better late than never, corrected that mistake.

Then… he sat down on his bed, and waited. About a half-hour into that, it occurred to him that he should see if he could put on any music using his computer or tablet, and quickly enough, he was streaming music over the Ark's internet. He'd just gone with the first thing on the list, and continued to sit, waiting for orders.

Two hours after that, he realized during a news break that he wasn't even absorbing any of the music he heard - he might as well have been listening to a desk fan.

Now laying flat on his back, staring up at the ceiling, Joe took a deep breath. What was he supposed to do? Ingrid had stated she would contact him… if she got things worked out quickly enough, at least.

So, he might well just wind up sitting around all day in his room, doing absolutely nothing.

…A report, he should file a report of what had happened and submit it. That was among his duties when he looked over them, and when he'd asked Ma- when he'd asked about them.

Rising to his feet, Joe fixated on the computer at his desk, focusing on it over anything else, and began the process of doing one of the duties expected of him.

He worked on that with a singular fixation above all else.

Having lost track of time, Joe wrote and submitted the report with clinical precision, as best as he could within the stated requirements.

Then, he stared at the computer screen.

…In silence, not thinking, considering much at all.

He just started clicking on shit, deciding to start digging into the computer's start menu and folders and such, if only to explore and better familiarize himself with it. What was he supposed to…

…Games launcher? Was there a video game service built into Ark work computers by default? Though, he supposed this was supposed to be his personal terminal in his own assigned quarters as well…

Better than just sitting around, waiting for orders that might not come, he supposed.

---

The following day, Joe rolled out of bed, wondered why he felt so shitty, then realized that he'd forgotten to eat yesterday. He still wasn't hungry, though. So… he bought a few packets of snacks from a vending machine not far from his quarters, and forced down a few baggies, then…

His device chirped to catch his attention. Ingrid had finally summoned him - not to the same Simulator Room he'd used previously… but to Elysion's corporate headquarters. He supposed that would make sense, all things considered.

So, having made his way to one of the three great corporate skyscrapers, Joe was quickly let in and led through the building into a section that was pretty heavily locked down. A good deal of well-armed and armoured Nikkes guarded the otherwise typically corporate halls with militaristic rigidity. Surprisingly, it felt a good deal more… well, more military than the Central Government's own headquarters. The guards there gave more of the impression of common mall cops, guys with handguns on their belts, but clearly not expecting much more than to potentially draw their batons, if even that.

Elysion's guard detail, on the other hand? Fully kitted-out soldiers, ready to throw down as if on an active battlefield at a moment's notice.

Suddenly, the state of the common Simulator Room made a good deal of sense. Maybe he'd actually learn something here, in contrast.

Ingrid gave Joe a severe once-over, immediately criticizing him once he was in her presence. "You've made no attempt to take proper care of yourself since we last spoke, clearly."

That gave the brunet pause. He… yeah, he hadn't been thinking about much at all, had he? He hadn't even washed his clothes, come to think of it. How… embarrassing? He wasn't entirely sure how he felt, and that was probably a problem in itself, considering what his job description entailed now.

Giving Joe a measuring look, she continued, "You're obviously stuck on thinking about Marian-"

She paused, taking in Joe's pointed non-reaction, the way his eyes almost glazed over for a moment after she mentioned the late Nikke's name.

"Correction: you are clearly not thinking about Marian. To the point of making it a problem."

When Joe's reaction was to just uncomfortably avert his gaze, Ingrid took that as a prompt to keep going.

"I'm not going to tell you that you shouldn't feel bad, that you shouldn't mourn her or that you need to just move on. What I will tell you, though, is that the world doesn't care, and will not hesitate to take advantage of your inability to adapt. You are a soldier now: learn to compartmentalize, at the very least, or you and the Nikkes under your command will rapidly pay the ultimate price for it."

"...You're right," Joe admitted. "I'll just get more girls killed, at this rate-"

"You are not responsible for Marian's death, Pholus," Ingrid interjected pointedly. "She was corrupted before she even left the Ark, and you went above and beyond in your attempt to rescue her. You did nothing wrong, and in fact, are an exemplar of what a good Commander should be; regardless of how little you may feel it right now."

That… didn't feel right. He should have done… something-

"Most Commanders would not have cared," Ingrid clearly saw through him, and pressed the point home as best she could. "In fact, Marian had just come from working with a previous Commander that got her entire squad killed, himself included. Recordings recovered from her and her squadmate's hardware showed that he was nothing more than the typical chaff pumped out of the Central Government's mills. He treated them like weapons, got annoyed when they fell around him, falling as a consequence of his all-too-common incompetence. Now, you?"

"You made her feel like a person. Treated her like a comrade, someone that mattered to you, as a companion, not a tool. Most Nikkes don't receive that luxury. So, again: mourn her, weep for her, but do not act as though you failed her. In just one mission, you've put most of your peers with entire careers to their names to shame in your consideration for the well-being of your comrades. Do not discount the importance of this fact."

…Yeah. No wonder, then, that she was so moved by how he'd treated her, if she'd just lost her entire squad to some asshole's malicious negligence and incompetence, treating her and her comrades like disposable tools. That, followed by… Well, his just treating her like a person, even having to be held back from swinging at anyone that tried to discriminate against her in front of him…

…Shit. Shit. He had no idea, he wasn't trying to make himself look like some kind of knight in shining armour that showed up immediately in the wake of something like that…

"Now," Ingrid continued. "The Raptures won't care that you haven't had enough time to pull yourself together, and if you can't operate under pressure, focus and keep your head in the game when everything seems to have gone wrong, then you're just going to be a burden on the Nikkes that will be depending on you to bring them home."

"...Yeah, you're right," Joe agreed. Softer folks might've accused Ingrid of being overly harsh and unreasonable - but if anything, she was applying an overly soft touch to him considering her apparent militaristic nature, even if she wasn't actually officially proper military. He was a soldier now, which meant he needed to get his shit together, and if nothing else, learn to operate effectively even when something horrible had just happened. So, as much as it fucking hurt to lose Marian as he had… "Ma'am, are we able to begin training now?"

Letting out an appraising hum, Ingrid nodded once. "Before that: we will address the matter of your squad. You had previously been assigned Silver Gun. However, with Marian's passing as the last surviving member, the group has been officially retired. Ergo: owing to their performance when operating under your command during the battle against the Blacksmith, Rapi and Anis of the team newly christened 'Counters' have been permanently assigned to you. However: note that Anis is not permitted to take part in these training exercises, owing to the fact that she is a Tetra Line Nikke. Company secrets, you know the drill."

Ah, yeah. Because not spreading tactical information among all members of Earth's last line of defence was clearly the way forward, yeah?

That was a sudden and unpleasant reminder that he was also technically stuck in the midst of a cyberpunk dystopia, considering the Ark was by all practical means, run by the big three megacorporations that developed and produced all of the hardware and software that kept the arcology running.

Grand. Corporate politics were barring one of the girls that he was supposed to be fighting alongside from partaking in practical training with him, and the other half of her two-woman unit.

"So… I'm going to be just training with Rapi, then?" Joe asked, grimacing openly as he lightly scratched at the back of his neck.

"Of course not. For the time being, Anis' role will be filled in by a mass-produced Soldier EG model Nikke armed with a grenade launcher of her own," Ingrid noted matter-of-factually. "Apply what you learn with her to Anis, and otherwise, adapt as best as you can. Besides that," she continued, giving him no chance to press the matter of Anis being excluded from these training sessions. "The Scouts will also be participating in these operations. Signal and Delta - the reconnaissance team that provided sniper support to you during your battle against the Blacksmith."

Ah, the sniper team themselves. Joe was wondering if he'd get the chance to meet and thank them after all. "I'm looking forward to meeting them."

Ingrid appraisingly hummed in response before moving on. "So, this is the team you'll be moving forward with for this training - unless the Scouts find themselves preoccupied with actual field work, that is. In which case, more mass-produced Nikkes will fill in for them. Familiarize yourself with them - we'll see about arranging to have the Scouts accompany Counters if there's enough synergy to justify it."

That… "...Ma'am," Joe started, now feeling as though he really needed to ask. "Why am I having multiple squads of Nikkes permanently assigned to my command, back-to-back, when standard operational procedure is to never have a Commander and squad work together for more than one mission?"

"Because you do not display the personality failings which necessitate such measures with typical Commanders in the first place," Ingrid very candidly replied. "Most Commanders drive the Nikkes under their command to insubordination in short order. As you might imagine, this plummets the already ruinously low survival rates of active squads practically into the negatives. If you are able to properly command a consistent team, competently, at that, then you will have turned out to be a truly massive boon to the Ark."

…

Jesus. Fucking. Christ. If that wasn't one of the largest indictments of the Ark's entire military structure and culture he'd heard yet…

"...I see," Joe nodded quietly, doing his damned best to keep his cool and focus. "Well then, shall we begin?"

Looking at the rookie Commander, Ingrid let out a single huff of approval before declaring, "Best to meet your team first, don't you think?"

"...Right," Joe sighed quietly. "One step at a time."

Time to meet the crew, such as it was.

Click to shrink...

Nice, I like it.

And that was actually pretty solid advice from our coperative Overlady. Who would have thought?

So, quick question, as someone who knows next to nothing about Nikke... is there a canon reason why the common Commander is so inept that the application of basic tactics turns Joe into the equivalent of Grand Admiral Thrawn?

 

[BakaSmurf]

So, quick question, as someone who knows next to nothing about Nikke... is there a canon reason why the common Commander is so inept that the application of basic tactics turns Joe into the equivalent of Grand Admiral Thrawn?

Click to shrink...

Very spoilery reasons, yes.

Spoiler: Major story and setting spoilers

Commanders and the Nikkes under their command are literal sacrificial pawns. They are only meant to be puffed up in front of media cameras for the sake of propaganda, then tossed into the grinder so the Nikkes can be harvested for parts and/or converted into Heretics (Rapture-aligned Nikkes) by the Raptures. Enikk, the Ark's central governing AI, has a deal struck with Chatterbox, an intelligent Rapture that finds sadistic pleasure in forcing Enikk to periodically make literal human sacrifices to him in exchange for Chatterbox not reporting the Ark's location to the rest of the Rapture forces.

Enikk is also directly responsible for Marian's corruption - she directly admits as much when she's asked by the canon Commander in the game proper, because she randomly picked Marian as that particular day's sacrifice. Bad luck of the draw for both her and the Commander, pretty much.

So, yeah. Commanders aren't meant to be effective. They are only meant to put on a show for the common Ark citizen, then die ignominiously on the front lines being fed to their prison wardens.

And before anyone goes full internet tough guy on Enikk for her decision like SB did: before Chatterbox gets clapped, it's either this arrangement while praying for a miracle to happen, or the complete extinction of the human race, full-stop. There is no choice to make, all things considered.

 

[Nomad-117]

Very spoilery reasons, yes.

Spoiler: Major story and setting spoilers

Commanders and the Nikkes under their command are literal sacrificial pawns. They are only meant to be puffed up in front of media cameras for the sake of propaganda, then tossed into the grinder so the Nikkes can be harvested for parts and/or converted into Heretics (Rapture-aligned Nikkes) by the Raptures. Enikk, the Ark's central governing AI, has a deal struck with Chatterbox, an intelligent Rapture that finds sadistic pleasure in forcing Enikk to periodically make literal human sacrifices to him in exchange for Chatterbox not reporting the Ark's location to the rest of the Rapture forces.

Enikk is also directly responsible for Marian's corruption - she directly admits as much when she's asked by the canon Commander in the game proper, because she randomly picked Marian as that particular day's sacrifice. Bad luck of the draw for both her and the Commander, pretty much.

So, yeah. Commanders aren't meant to be effective. They are only meant to put on a show for the common Ark citizen, then die ignominiously on the front lines being fed to their prison wardens.

And before anyone goes full internet tough guy on Enikk for her decision like SB did: before Chatterbox gets clapped, it's either this arrangement while praying for a miracle to happen, or the complete extinction of the human race, full-stop. There is no choice to make, all things considered.

Click to shrink...

I see.

Thank you for taking the time to reply.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 11 - An Inauspicious Start
===

"Commander," Rapi immediately and crisply saluted Joe, not missing a beat despite their previous meeting having supposedly been their last.

"Commander! I am a Soldier EG-model Nikke, at your command!" Rapi's salute was accompanied by one from a young woman wearing… full, proper, military combat BDU's - a Battle Dress Uniform. Like, she actually just looked like an actual soldier, in stark contrast to Rapi.

A helmet with mounted night vision goggles over a shark tooth half-mask, tactical glasses masking the colour of her eyes, a plate carrier vest, a sturdy white combat jacket, and combat pants with integrated knee pads. If not for the pink hair peeking out from her helmet, she'd be able to pass for a regular soldier from back home. She had a common-seeming assault rifle with an underbarrel grenade launcher.

"Commander," yet another young woman, this one brunette and brown-eyed, short hair with one side extending into a chic fringe, the other braided. Resting atop her forehead was a pair of sunglasses, and her stern face had no accentuation - beyond her eyelashes being outright majestic in their length.

Her bare arms displayed a wing-themed tattoo on her right shoulder. She wore little more than a black tank top under a coyote brown tactical vest, colour-matched to her… short shorts, which she paired with a combat belt. Simple gloves, a single kneepad, and simple boots combined with clean bandages wrapped on her otherwise bare left leg and right arm… She kind of… looked like a military cosplayer, honestly.

"I am Delta, I specialize in scouting and sniping duties utilizing semi-automatic rifles," she seemed to bluntly introduce herself, "orders?" This one had what looked like a designated marksman rifle slung over her shoulder - some sort of M110 derivative?

Lastly, was… "C-C-Commander!" The girl that sloppily saluted him was tiny. Adorable, really. She had platinum blonde bobbed hair, large magenta eyes framed in big circular glasses, and was dressed like… well, a schoolgirl. A schoolgirl with a camouflage skirt rather than plaid. The tactical vest and massive communications pack akin to a minifridge strapped to her back looked wildly out of place on her. Somehow more so than the compact MP5 hanging from her shoulder, even. "S-Signal! I- I'm looking forward to working with you! I mean I'm a comms specialist! Not that I'm not looking forward to meeting you but I just meant that I should also say what I do because Delta did and-"

"Signal," Ingrid pointedly cut the blonde off, causing a small 'eep' as Signal immediately clammed up.

To say that Joe's current team of Nikkes was… eclectic, would be an understatement. In appearance, if nothing else. Signal seemed to be a bit of an outlier in terms of professionalism, but Anis was just barred from participating in these Elysion-sponsored training sessions in particular…

"Well, do you have anything to say to your squad, Commander?" Ingrid leadingly asked.

Yeah, he probably should say something to the team he'd be commanding in fights, right?

There was a pause as he considered how… well, how he'd introduced himself to Marian.

…

With a snap of his heels, Joe shifted into a militaristic stance as he projected a professional air to the gathered group. "I will endeavour to serve as a competent Commander to you all - I urge you all to inform me if you ever feel as though I am making mistakes or otherwise stepping out of line. I will not improve if I am not offered a critique of my methods."

Ingrid and the Nikkes remained quiet, the CEO letting out an appraising hum, while eventually…

"Understood, Commander," Rapi replied matter-of-factually.

"Loud and clear, Commander," Delta added just as stiffly.

Somehow, he doubted that he was going to have a repeat of what happened with Marian with either of these two.

Signal and… the girl that hadn't actually given her name stayed quiet and at attention. Little else seemed set to happen, so…

"Ma'am," Joe shifted his attention to Ingrid. "Are we ready to begin?"

"I suppose so," Ingrid spun on her heel and moved for a control terminal, not unlike that in the common Simulator Room. "Everyone, let's get started."

---

Face in his hands, Joe took several bracing breaths to steady himself. The entire squad had reconvened after the training session. Joe had complained about Einkk's simulations being glorified shooting galleries… boy howdy, he had gotten a lot fucking more than that from Elysion.

This did wonders to demonstrate just how unprepared for all of this he actually was.

"So, Commander," Ingrid began, looming over the entire squad as she was. "Care to tell me what went wrong?"

"I failed to adequately direct the girls under my command," Joe said, "I was unclear in my orders, which led to miscommunications and improper application of combat assets, leading directly to a grossly failed operation."

"Yes," Ingrid replied. "And?"

That gave Joe no small amount of pause. And what? He'd screwed up exactly as he'd said, and-

"While I understand that you view Nikkes differently compared to the average Commander," Ingrid continued, giving Joe a firmly disapproving look as she did so. "Coddling those under your command is going to, nevertheless, result in dire consequences for yourself and those relying on your judgement to keep them alive. I would strongly advise that you reconsider your methods going forth, and not attempt to shoulder the blame for operational failures entirely on yourself when there is obvious evidence that mistakes occurred beyond your control."

That really caught Joe off-guard. Left him downright bamboozled, even. What the hell was this about him 'coddling' his squad? He'd messed up and failed to properly direct anyone. What-

With a heavy sigh, Ingrid sharply turned to the Nikkes standing at attention and called out, "Soldier EG! What mistakes did you make?" she demanded of the common soldier.

"Ma'am!" the pinkette almost jumped at being addressed. "I rushed ahead without orders, necessitating that Rapi break cover herself to provide me support, resulting in both of us getting overwhelmed, and…" she hesitated.

"And?" Ingrid made no attempt to mask her annoyance at the Nikke's lack of decisiveness.

"I-I froze up and didn't respond upon receiving orders to retreat, resulting in Rapi and I getting pinned down out in the open," The Nikke dubbed Soldier EG continued. "Severely injured and incapable of pulling back, I immediately endangered, and ultimately doomed the entire operation as my actions resulted in the only two front line combatants in the squad being killed in action."

"Correct," Ingrid forcefully declared before shifting her attention to Rapi. "And where did you screw-up, Rapi?"

"Ma'am," the black-on-red-bedecked strawberry blonde sharply replied. "Upon noticing Soldier EG breaking formation, I weighed the objectives we were expected to complete with the numbers we had, and immediately decided that any possible loss of manpower was unacceptable, and would only further damage our already excessively strained logistics. Thus, I miscalculated, and the deaths of both of the squad's front line combatants ensured the immediate and complete failure of the mission."

"Correct," Ingrid nodded, turning then to the team's sniper. "Delta, detail the extent of your failings."

"Ma'am," Delta started, "When Rapi and Soldier EG were severely damaged and pinned down, the Commander's apparent distress caused me to misjudge the situation as one of only two able-bodied Nikkes in the field, break formation, and leave my perch with intent to extract my squadmates to salvage the plan. All despite not being equipped for anything beyond designated marksmanship. Furthermore, I had failed to consider that the Commander's orders to fall back were directed at all members of the unit, including myself and Signal. Thus, I only senselessly managed to contribute to a near-total squad wipe."

"Correct," Ingrid nodded again, looking aside at a trembling Signal. "Only Cmdr. Pholus and Signal survived the encounter. The squad's Commanding Officer, who remained a relatively safe distance away from the combat zone and provided operational intelligence to all combat participants using a drone. And the Communications Specialist, who remained near Delta in her perch to provide close-range support in the case of a close-quarters encounter while ensuring comms remained secure and clear."

There was a pause in which the CEO looked about, taking in the faces of everyone present in the room before settling on the group's smallest member. "Signal, why didn't you follow Delta when she leapt to aid Rapi and Soldier EG, despite being her designated partner?"

Signal was trembling head-to-toe, looking about ready to cry, but she took a deep, bracing breath before responding as professionally as she could. "T-the Commander wouldn't have anyone to protect or help him if everyone went out there all at once, and everything went even more badly than it already had…"

"So you, at least, had your head on straight," Ingrid firmly declared approvingly. "A Nikke's duty is, first and foremost, to ensure the safety of her Commander. There is very little chance that Cmdr. Pholus would have survived an attempt to fall back to the extraction point on his own. Signal's decision to prioritize the Commander's safety is the only reason this mission wasn't a total squad kill. Even then, realistically, armed with little more than a submachine gun and having no means to procure additional arms, the odds of actually reaching the extraction point were very much against both of you."

…That… put a lot into perspective. From his point of view, Joe had just been a shitty Commander. Suddenly, it sounded like there was a cavalcade of bad decisions from pretty much everyone that caused the entire mission to become FUBAR'd in less than three bloody minutes.

The lesson was clear: Joe had to think beyond himself, and be capable of looking at things like squad performance and cohesion objectively. He may have been the Commander of this unit, but him having the best plan in the world wouldn't amount to jack fuck all if someone else went off half-cocked and caused the entire goddamned operation to go tits-up at the first sign of combat.

EG jumped the gun, then… for some reason, froze up upon being ordered to fall back. Rapi then misjudged the situation and did her best to save the other half of their front line forces to no avail, leaving them with no regular infantry at all. Then Delta had the same thought as Rapi, and tried to rush in much the same… despite being a sniper.

Signal had done nothing wrong, despite, at a glance, being the least professional-looking and presenting soldier in the squad. And even then, in a live combat scenario, she would likely not have been enough to get them both to safety…

…Which, for that matter, suddenly stuck out to him like a sore thumb…

"You suddenly seem a lot more thoughtful than you were a minute ago," Ingrid noted with an appraising tone, critically eyeing Joe with her arms crossed beneath her chest. "Do you have any thoughts to share with everyone, Commander?"

At that, Joe nodded, hand set on his well-groomed, if immediately somewhat dishevelled beard. "Yes, ma'am, I do."

"Then do tell," Ingrid encouraged him to continue.

"For starters, frankly speaking?" Joe began, deciding that it would be best to be blunt and establish what exactly he should actually expect out of the Ark's military forces going forth. "This entire operation was a disaster from the top-down."

"Oh? And just who are you pinning the blame for this failure on then, Commander?" Ingrid asked, her gaze sharpening as her entire form became taut in anticipation.

Joe answered honestly. "With all due respect, ma'am, as the one who organized it: you."

"Elaborate," Ingrid firmly commanded him without missing a beat, almost as though she'd been expecting that answer.

In turn, Joe proceeded to lay out his thoughts, such as they were. "Upon critically thinking about this entire arrangement - the criminally understaffed team composition, the lack of squad cohesion, the unacceptable absence of forward intelligence beyond the obvious presence of Raptures in the area, but no word on where to expect them relative to us or how many would be present, no word on the expectation of reinforcements or support, no time frame given for the urgency of the objective's completion… That was an abortion of an operation on every level, starting with us being deployed as we were, obviously under-equipped and under-prepared for… frankly, anything. Were that an actual live military operation, I'd hope that the bumbling fool that sent us out on that shitshow would wind up court-martialed at the very least."

The Nikkes were all staring at Joe wide-eyed as he went on, then pointedly didn't look anywhere in Ingrid's direction once he was finished.

Ingrid herself was dead silent as she just stared Joe down, expression utterly unreadable. When she did eventually speak up… "It's good to see that you are, in fact, capable of the critical thinking you failed to demonstrate in that simulation, if nothing else," she approvingly declared to the shock of everyone present. "You're correct: on every level, that was an absolute trainwreck of an operation, starting with you being deployed with no orders beyond clearing the area, with no intelligence to work off of, with a squad you have no actual experience with whatsoever, and minimal field experience on top of that. The military court would be having a field day with the aftermath of that entire shitshow, and someone would, indeed, be facing a court-martial by the end of the day for pointlessly sending four Nikkes and a Commander to their deaths, for no readily apparent reason at that, considering the area's apparent lack of tactical or strategic value."

"Frankly, Commander," the militaristic Corporate CEO continued. "I was fully expecting you to enter the simulation, use your drone to scout ahead while holding your Nikkes back, and determine what to expect from the Rapture forces. At which point, you would have ideally proceeded to order a full retreat on account of having been deployed into an unwinnable scenario that would result in nothing beyond the pointless loss of valuable military assets. Your chances of success, with the forces and equipment allotted to you, were zero percent under any and all possible scenarios. Anything less than an objective failure was a mathematical impossibility in any outcome wherein you engaged the Raptures present."

…Oh. Well… Shit. "...I really, really dropped the ball…" the displaced Canadian noted with a heavy grimace, gripping his forehead as a headache threatened to form in his grey matter.

"To say the absolute least," Ingrid frankly replied. "I expected better from you, Commander. Andersen made it very clear that he had every expectation that you wouldn't be like the common chaff, and wouldn't have just blindly followed orders any rational actor would have immediately and rightfully questioned. Though you failed that first test rather disastrously… I will grant you this one massive point in your favour: you never attempted to deflect the blame for the mission's failure into the Nikkes under your command. A rarity among your peers, to say the least."

That… was just upsetting for a whole host of reasons, though…

"Beyond that," Ingrid continued, "this has had the unintended effect of emphasizing the point I made to you earlier: the way you're handling your feelings on the outcome of your first mission to the surface is clearly a problem. You are intelligent: an idiot would never have managed to even come to the realisation about how criminally negligently planned-out that simulated operation actually was in the first place. But you are refusing to think. And just like I said would happen, the Nikkes under your command wound up paying the ultimate price for it. Dying pointless, unnecessary deaths, because you wanted to just blind yourself and act on pure, unthinking id as a demonstrably destructive coping mechanism, not only to yourself, but to those around you as well."

"I don't have to point out how this is a problem at this juncture, and it stops now, right here, where these Nikke's deaths were only simulated, as opposed to the real deal, where lethal mistakes can't be taken back. Do you understand, soldier?"

Ingrid had bulldozed whatever defences Joe had, unintentionally or not, set up, and laid bare the sheer depths of his failure to him in plain sight for all to see. Even as shame and self-loathing surged through his body… so too did an intense feeling of gratefulness. This was what he needed to hear. This point clearly needed to be made and hammered home mercilessly. He wasn't a civilian, he wasn't playing a game. He was a military Commander, regardless of how qualified for the position he felt he was, and his screw-ups could and would get people killed.

Marian… Marian's death wasn't his fault. In this scenario, had it been real? Rapi, Delta, and EG's would have been. And he'd have no fucking excuse whatsoever.

It hurt like hell to acknowledge, made his stomach churn and his eyes burn. But he had to face what had happened and see Marian's death for what it was: a horrific nightmare scenario neither he, nor anybody else could have ever possibly accounted for or avoided. Marian's death was not on him, but everything that followed absolutely was.

"...Understood, ma'am," Joe replied firmly, falling into attention and holding his back straight as he didn't allow his gaze to falter. He didn't have the option of being anything but brave now. The lives of Counters and the Scouts damn well depended on him keeping his shit together. He wouldn't fail them, full-stop. He would be better than he was in that simulation.

There was a beat as Ingrid considered the long-haired brunet, and she eventually let out an approving hum before she spoke up. "Good. Now that the most important lesson of the day has clearly been imparted upon you: we are breaking for the time being. In three days, we will reconvene here and continue the simulation under the assumption that your full retreat order had gone off with minimal damage to your frontline infantry, and you all escaped to formulate an actual plan of attack. During the interim, I expect you to review the data you gathered, consider your current forces and equipment, and relay to me, your acting Senior Commander, what you believe you will need in the way of assets and support to accomplish your operational objective, and how you intend to do it."

Firmly pointing at Joe initially, Ingrid then took the same finger and directed it to the Nikkes under his command. "Start with actually talking to the Nikkes you know you will be relying upon. If you aren't aware of what they are capable of, you will not know how to best organize and direct them, and every moment they spend in the field will be as grossly misallocated assets. I'm not expecting a miracle, but I am expecting you to at least have an idea of what your squad can do and how to direct them next session. Maybe then, you won't have soldiers acting impulsively and insubordinately when they are given no reason to trust in the judgement of their Commander."

…Yeah, he was so afraid of a repeat of what happened with his initial meeting with Marian, that he made a point to try avoiding talking to any of these girls… at all.

Ingrid seemed bullish at a glance, loud, brash, forceful… Yet clearly, she was incredibly emotionally and intellectually intelligent. Somehow, she was seemingly effortlessly yanking his head out of his ass and getting him to see how much of a fuckhead he was being, long before it was able to become a serious problem.

This was good. Ingrid had a good head on her shoulders, and was clearly not the soulless executive one might've expected from what was basically a Cyberpunk Corpo CEO.

Shit, it made Joe wonder how, exactly, things had gotten so bad as far as Commanders went when they had someone like her batting for humanity.

"Yes, ma'am," the Canadian simply replied. She'd given him no reason to not trust in her judgement so far, so he'd do so. Simple as.

"Then we'll call it here for now. You're all dismissed."

With that, not waiting for anything even resembling thanks, Ingrid spun on her heel and was off. Despite her apparent lack of an indoor voice, she really seemed to be the very picture of professionalism.

It was good that they had someone like her.

But, with that… Joe looked to the girls under his command, and taking a deep breath, he nodded once, clapped his hands, and asked, "What do you all think about going out to eat and getting that talk going over food, then?"

While Signal and EG seemed caught hopelessly off-guard by the suggestion, Rapi plainly replied with, "That is unnecessary, Commander. I already ate yesterday."

Wait, yesterday? What the fuck-

Delta, meanwhile, declared, "I always carry a supply of protein and carbohydrates on hand for the purposes of intaking nutrition without needing to impede upon my capacity to be productive," while suddenly holding several baggies of what looked to be beef jerky and no small amount of granola bars. "If we are in need of rations, then there is no need to expend resources on fast food: I have plenty to spare for the entire squad."

…Seriously, where was she keeping those? Her booty shorts were skin fucking tight, and he didn't see any spare pouches on her vest…

"...Pizza would be nice," Signal quietly interjected.

"I could go for cheesy breadsticks…" EG added on.

With a clap of his hands, Joe pointed with both index fingers to the hallway door, and set off with a declaration of "Pizza party it is! On me, ladies!"

A small unit of Goddesses of Victory inelegantly and hesitantly started off after their apparent headcase of a Commander, seemingly rewarding them for a complete clusterfuck of an initial training session together with a pizza party of all things. An inauspicious start to the newfound squad, to be sure.

Hopefully, things would only be uphill from there.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 12 - The Forest for the Trees
===

As everyone (sans Rapi and Delta) changed out of their combat load-outs for something more casual, Rapi had suggested contacting Anis and instructing her to meet up with the group at their initially agreed-upon restaurant. Joe had no reason to refuse, and so the bodacious blonde was waiting once they'd arrived at the pizza place.

"Well… seems like you all had a good time," Anis dryly declared, visibly aggravated from where she stood on the street just across from the pizza place.

Put out as the obscenely curvaceous girl seemed, it probably would have been a lot worse had she not been invited even to the after-training meetup in the first place.

"Myself and Signal were the only survivors of an operation that lasted only a few minutes," Joe flatly countered.

"...Oh," Anis' gaze drifted aside, pursing her lips as she suddenly seemed a lot less put out. "Well, uh, I guess I don't feel so bad about being left out of training all of a sudden…"

There was a pregnant pause, the girls seeming to either feel quite awkward on account of the topic of how hard they'd wiped in training - or being Rapi and Delta, both of whom seemed to just be kind of like that - reserved. Possibly to a fault, Joe mused, going off of his initial experiences with Rapi…

For several seconds, there was little other than the low din of city life and simulated naturalistic ambience meeting anyone's ears.

"So!" Anis spoke up again, evidently cottoning on to the fact that nobody else was going to. "Uh, pizza party… for… wait, why are we getting a pizza party when the first training mission was an utter failure? And when I wasn't even there to begin with?"

"Because this gathering is to give the squad the opportunity to start getting to know each other better and increase squad cohesion, not as a reward," Joe answered matter-of-factually. Perhaps just a bit robotically, given how tiring the day had already been.

There were a few moments of extended silence, wherein Anis stared at Joe for a few moments before averting her gaze and muttering to herself with a put-upon shrug, "Oh jeez, almost starting to feel like having a guy version of Rapi around-" she harshly paused, eyes widening as her gaze snapped back to Joe with rigidity in her form, some sudden, heretofore unseen clarity, and even anticipation finding purchase in her irises.

Joe didn't know what to make of that, beyond recognizing that he was suddenly being sized up… "Anyways," best to not dwell on it, probably. "Have you checked the place out?"

"Huh?" Anis immediately blinked in confusion. "For what?"

Joe, again, gave Anis a flat look before looking over his shoulder and calling back, "I'll check and make sure this place isn't run by discriminatory pricks. Be right back."

Joe did catch the look of dumbstruck surprise on the faces of… everyone sans Rapi. He wasn't too sure why - Marian made it clear that it was really easy to figure out what to look for, so it was doubtlessly something that came naturally to most Nikkes.

A glance was all it took for Joe to visibly confirm that the girls would likely not be welcome at this place, and so he shrugged, whipping out his tablet, he was already looking for the next nearest pizzeria.

"Hold on, you didn't even go in," Anis spoke up, looking more than a little perplexed and dubious. "How would you know Nikkes wouldn't be welcome if you didn't ask?"

Joe blinked, looking at Anis with naked perplexion… then to the other girls, all of whom looked confused, even Rapi's brow had slightly furrowed. Was… was knowledge of how to suss out discrimination against Nikkes not well known among them? "There were no seats capable of supporting a Nikke's weight I could see through the windows."

The girls all blinked in confusion at him themselves, glancing in the direction of the restaurant before looking back at him. "Y-you can tell that just based on the seats…?" Signal wondered aloud.

"It makes sense," Delta added matter-of-factually. "If there is nowhere for a Nikke to safely sit at a sit-down restaurant, Nikkes must not be welcome there. It adds up. The Commander has a practised eye for catching simple but easily overlooked details," she appraisingly declared, standing stiffly as she was - as though braced for something at all moments.

"That isn't common knowledge?" Joe asked, growing increasingly confused.

"Um, Commander," Soldier EG interjected, "most Nikkes just… don't bother trying to go to places like restaurants. It's usually… not worth the trouble. I actually figured you were gonna get us to wait at like, a park table and just bring us our orders from the nearest place…"

"He isn't wearing his Commander uniform for the Commander discount either…" Signal observed.

"I'm not giving my money to discriminatory ass-wipes," Joe immediately declared, crossing his arms in defiance of the notion. "Nor am I going to advertise that I happen to have the misfortune of being one of those on-average jumped-up brainlets."

Man, and here Joe just wanted to do his job and start figuring out how to make this squad actually work together - not verbally doompost about how much he hated his peers and colleagues for being a bunch of headpants-wearing heels with egos the size of Jupiter and the competence of the average politician to match.

Best to try getting that back on track. "Anyways," he pressed on, checking the map on his tablet again. "Next closest place is a few blocks down-"

"Commander," Rapi cut him off. "With all due respect, this is an incredibly inefficient way to accomplish the goal of facilitating communication. I would advise that we simply find a nearby sitting place, like a public bench and begin discussing squad dynamics."

"...I was actually just called in to fill in for Anis," Soldier EG pointed out, glancing about the rest of the increasingly perplexed group somewhat nervously, her messy pink hair framing her cutely average face as if to emphasize her sheepish expression. "I'm supposed to report back to my actual unit soon. Privaty was really intense, demanding that I make a list for everything I learned upon getting back to her for some reason… Actually, am I expected to come back for the next session too? Man, and here I thought this was gonna go over easy and quick…"

"Ah, Ingrid did mention that you were just filling in…" Joe mused for a moment. "This 'Privaty' is your actual Commander, I take it?"

Everyone looked at Joe like he'd grown a second head. EG spoke up first. "You… don't know who Privaty is?" Blatant dubiousness as the soldier who… still hadn't actually properly introduced herself yet shifted her weight where she stood.

"She's super famous though…" Signal noted, disbelief clear in her voice. "How have you not heard of Triangle?"

"Amnesia," Joe easily and bluntly replied, deciding that he was going to milk that excuse for all it was worth. It explained why he was so wildly ignorant of what was probably supposed to be common knowledge, if nothing else. "Check my records if you don't believe me, Anis apparently did."

Everyone turned to Anis, who suddenly looked rather put on the spot. "I- uh, didn't actually bother since I didn't think we'd ever see you again anyways…" the blonde chuckled sheepishly. "But you probably wouldn't be so confidently telling people to go do that if you actually didn't have amnesia…"

"...A mysterious Commander with amnesia, given an assignment of semi-permanent, eclectic Nikkes from all walks of life… It's just like one of my soap operas…!" Signal seemed immediately taken in by the notion. "I wonder if a rival Commander - a haughty, self-assured girl no less, fresh out of the academy, confident, beautiful but with a guarded heart and a thorny exterior - will enter the picture at some point too…? Maybe she gets caught up in an operation and stranded on the surface alone with just the handsome amnesiac main character and is forced to contend with her repressed feelings towards him as they need to protect and rely on each other and-" the tiny bespectacled girl mused to herself much louder than she probably thought she was, wonder filling her voice and stars sparkling in her eyes.

Joe, and evidently everyone else, chose to not hear that diatribe as he turned back to Soldier EG. "So, yeah, no, I've never heard of 'Triangle' or 'Privaty' before. So, again, your regular Commander, I suppose?"

EG reached up and scratched at her bare cheek, chuckling somewhat nervously. "Oh man, I feel like Privaty's gonna be super tilted about that… but, uh, she acts like it, I suppose. She's a member of Triangle, the Ark's elite counter-terrorism unit, and my proper squad, Replace, is another counter-terrorism unit that usually winds up under their command for obvious reasons. Though we wind up interacting a lot even outside of that as you might imagine. She was, uh, really… keen on hearing about this new squad once she found out about…" her gaze snapped momentarily to Rapi in particular, though EG didn't say anything aloud, and Rapi actually looked like she had to resist the urge to roll her eyes.

That… carried some implications. There was evidently some history there. A rivalry, of sorts? Rapi didn't really strike him as the type to play into something like that, but what the fuck did he know? He'd just met this girl, he didn't know what made her tick.

Anyways… really getting off-track. "Ahem, anyways, we should get a move on, if… she," Joe pointed at EG, "has other things she has to do soon. Don't want to get her in trouble." He tapped his tablet for emphasis. "Next place is a few blocks down. Let's go see if that place'll work, then hash shit out - unless everyone wants to give Ingrid cause to lose her temper with us all…"

Nobody protested with that point made, and the group rapidly made their way down the city streets, not quite managing to blend in with the likes of Delta and Rapi still being kitted out as they were.

---

Luckily, the handful of padded block metal benches in the new pizzeria signposted that Nikkes were welcome - and thus, the crew received no ire for committing the cardinal sin of wanting to sit down and pay to eat cheap food as though they were people or something. Joe had been expecting cheap, greasy stuff… but, no, it was surprisingly high-quality. Then he remembered that everything in the Ark was made from a synthetic super food substitute, and suddenly he was a lot less surprised that even their fast food didn't feel like it was gonna give him the runs in an hour's time.

Joe knew a few people back home that would proclaim that if cheap food didn't make you violently ill as quickly as it went down, then it was shit, but he really didn't understand that mindset himself. So the Canuck had no complaints about not needing to go through a half a stack of paper towels to suck up enough grease from atop the pizza to kill a small elephant.

Not that it would have mattered much, he supposed, given that the flavour of everything he ate still felt… muted, for some reason, but whatever.

So… everyone just seemed content with that. No drama, no bullshit, a group of Nikkes that were just allowed to eat as a group in peace.

Those that did properly eat, at least. Rapi… had ordered like, a small handful of plain breadsticks and wolfed them down with mechanical precision, seemingly more so out of obligation than anything else. She seemed to be… lacking in enthusiasm. Delta had just ordered a single slice of pepperoni alongside a cola at Signal's suggestion. She was… straightforward, not as emotionless as Rapi, but definitely cut from the same cloth given how she mostly seemed present and partaking in the social aspect of the meeting out of obligation.

Signal and EG just ate their pizza like normal girls, at least.

Anis, meanwhile, immediately started trying to convince Joe to let her eat from his plate and sample his choice of drink in addition to her own pile of slices and soft drink cans of all varieties. Unfortunately, he was a bit of a sucker for pretty girls, and Anis was a very pretty girl. Not to mention that he couldn't even really appreciate what he ate at the moment anyways.

Thus, Anis got her way and gleefully ate far more than her size and build would suggest would be manageable for her. He kept his musing about how that must be where all that jiggle came from to himself, as while he was stupid, he wasn't suicidal.

"So, I'd say we're off to a good start as newfound squaddies!" Anis declared as she placed an elbow on the table set in the middle of the group, resting a cheek in the palm of her hand. "Can't remember the last time I got to eat out like this without waiting to be chased out of the place… you're doing a lot better than our last Commander did, at least-"

"Anis," Rapi cut her off with a scolding tone.

"What? Come on, I'm trying to 'establish positive squad dynamics!'" the somewhat taller, but still quite short blonde protested.

Rapi was unconvinced. "Speaking ill of a deceased Commander is unnecessary and disrespectful-"

"Oh come on!" Anis rolled her eyes and allowed her hand to hit the table with a deceptively heavy 'thunk.' "Have you already forgotten how that dick alternated between declaring that 'weapons don't talk' and leering at my chest? So what if he's dead, I'm gonna talk about him with about as much respect as he deserves! Especially considering he almost got us both killed!"

Well, things seemed to put Joe squarely in Anis' good books, if nothing else, so that was a positive. Rapi didn't seem particularly impressed by him thus far, and while Signal, Delta and EG were less unenthusiastic, they were still not actually members of Counters, such as it was. So Joe considered it a success if at least half of his actual dedicated squad seemed to like him.

Rapi glowering at Anis as the larger of the two grew increasingly irate and defensive didn't seem to be the best course forward, however, so… "Alright, alright, alright, enough of that, we didn't come here to argue! We're supposed to be unfucking our squad cohesion and get ourselves capable of performing a successful operation in just a few days!" Joe declared, clapping his hands and making a chopping motion between Rapi and Anis. "So could we just focus on that, now?"

"The Commander is correct," Delta added. "We only have three days to better ourselves and become an effective fighting force. It would be wise for us to take the opportunity provided to us to begin the process of improving, rather than waste it bickering."

With a low hum, Anis leaned back in her seat and crossed her arms beneath her chest. Lips visibly locked shut, it seemed that the best way she could think to contribute to that was by… being quiet. Which… well, she wasn't allowed to participate in Elysion training in the first place, so… he could see why she'd feel that way, though it would be wildly non conducive to making her just as competent in the actual field as everyone else in the team.

So, with that in mind… "I would appreciate it if you did your best to contribute to the discussion regardless of your ability to participate in the actual training, Anis," Joe declared as he interlocked his fingers atop the restaurant table. "We want you able to at least be tactically on the same page as everyone once we're either in the field, or able to actually properly train with you."

Anis looked taken aback and sheepish, replying with a put-out "Rapi is the brains between us. I'm just here to blow stuff up. You should ask for her opinion, not mine."

Joe suppressed the long-suffering sigh that wanted to slip past his lips. Great, so he was going to have to play therapist on top of everything else, because Lord Al-fucking-mighty knew the Ark wasn't gonna do it for any of these girls. This wasn't the time or place for it though, best to just try keeping things rolling and put a pin in this matter to address it later.

"I would appreciate your input regardless, please and thank you, Anis," the rookie Commander said as he turned towards the rest of the group. "So, that being said, to start out…" he took a deep breath and presented his initial thoughts. "Strategically, we cannot win that encounter without significant support, and it would frankly, be best for us to just hard pull out and full retreat if we can't be provided the means to actually accomplish our assigned objective."

A few moments passed before Rapi spoke up first. "I must agree, Commander. Any effort towards capturing that objective is ultimately pointless - strategically, at least. However, I feel that I must point out that Ingrid seems more interested in gauging your personality and thought processes than actually determining or improving your raw tactical and strategic performance. She is, after all, deliberately forcing you into a situation which is unwinnable by design. Such a simulation isn't actually conducive to bettering your functional commanding abilities, and she would know that."

"I must agree with Rapi," Delta interjected. "I cannot speak for how the CEO thinks, but this is clearly not intended to be 'pure' training, such as it is. Not yet, at least."

"Yeah, this entire situation is… odd, to say the least," EG contributed to the discussion. "I've never heard of a true Commander being given a permanent subordinate squad before. Privaty is usually made the acting Field Commander of Replace, but she isn't a Commander. She doesn't direct forces combating the Raptures on the surface - she isn't qualified for that. Commanders just… don't get permanent, even semi-permanent squads like this. You're pretty obviously being tested in an unorthodox way right now. So… I dunno, I just think you might be missing the point a bit by focusing on how to win the operation."

There was a pause. Joe turned to Anis sitting beside him, and she looked rather put on the spot before she looked to Rapi in a bit of a panic and said, "What Rapi said."

…Can't expect everyone to be a thoughtful orator, Joe supposed.

Regardless, he turned to Signal, who… was visibly lost in her own head, muttering wistfully to herself with her hands set on her cheeks, evidently still caught up in that weird fantasy she'd been going on about a few minutes previously.

"Delta," he started, turning to the tiny girl's partner. "It would be pointless to try pulling her into this talk, wouldn't it?"

"Based on my previous experiences: yes, Commander," Delta matter-of-factly answered him.

"Well, then…" Joe hummed, considering the food for thought they'd all provided him. "Seems I have a lot to think about… Should we reconvene tomorrow after I give all of this some thought?"

"That may be for the best," Rapi declared.

Yeah, he was being tested: and not in the straightforward way one would expect out of a regular military - though, that really out to be expected, given that the Ark's Commander Corps and Elysion, well, weren't regular military in the first place.

Man. Somehow, Joe knew this was only going to be the start of the headaches he'd be dealing with as a Commander going forth.

What a bountiful start to what was bound to be a wondrously auspicious and not at all short-lived career.

 

[Nomad-117]

So, since Ingrid appears to be pretty cool and competent I dread to imagine what kind of people the other corporate overlords are. There is no way that more than one of them is decent. So I guess they are either crazy, evil, both, incompetent or whatever else that could make life difficult.

 

[palacesound]

So, since Ingrid appears to be pretty cool and competent I dread to imagine what kind of people the other corporate overlords are. There is no way that more than one of them is decent. So I guess they are either crazy, evil, both, incompetent or whatever else that could make life difficult.

Click to shrink...

Mustang is awesome.

Syuen needs correction.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 13 - A Peek Behind the Curtain
===

"So," Ingrid started as she approached Andersen's desk, planting a hand on her hip as she critically stared the Deputy Commander down. "I've done as you asked, set up this absurd little game for Commander Pholus, and even bent over backwards to upright him when he's clearly suffering acutely from depression negatively affecting his judgement… using the very same method you suggested, the exact wording, the same argument… It worked flawlessly. As though you knew exactly how to address these sorts of issues in him ahead of time, despite his ongoing status as an… unknown."

After a moment of contemplative silence, Andersen rose from his seat, ambling over to the window overlooking the city below. Arms crossed behind his back, he took a deep breath as Ingrid continued to attempt to bore holes into his skull with her gaze alone.

"Andersen," she pressed. "Pholus just appeared that day, injured, severely injured, with a wound profile in-line with what happens to a human when shot with an obsolete Nikke-grade firearm, and nothing even approximating an explanation of how, or where he received such an injury. Somehow, he had untraceable records indicating that he had graduated from the Commander's Academy just prior to that - which wasn't difficult at all to disprove quite readily. Yet, still, his obviously falsified records are being used to justify pressing him into service, even as he has been proven to have genuine retrograde amnesia. To say nothing of the fact he himself has been only led to believe that he is a licensed, and qualified Commander."

Brow furrowing, Ingrid continued.

"Enikk is not having him summoned to face trial despite the fact that she must know everything that I myself was able to sniff out, and in fact, there is no ongoing investigation into him or his background beyond what I have been attempting to conduct myself - Perilous Siege hasn't even given him a passing glance... He's being given an absurd amount of leeway and favouritism unseen and unheard of in the Commander Corps, which is saying something considering another Deputy Chief Commander's son is attending the Academy as we speak…"

The wavy-haired brunette stepped around the desk and approached Andersen, eyes becoming set like steel and lips drawn in a firm line as she continued.

"Then, with no small amount of poking and prying the right people, I find out that you directly and immediately intervened when he was on his deathbed in some capacity that saved his life. Despite there being nothing to indicate that you should have even been aware of his existence prior to you rushing to his side at the hospital… Though I can't determine how, you clearly had the presence of mind to cover your tracks well enough that what exactly you did is indeterminable… This is well and truly beyond anything even vaguely approximating a series of coincidences. Just who the hell is he, and how do you know him?"

Crossing her arms firmly, Ingrid continued.

"And give me a straight answer, Andersen. I'm not in the mood for being jerked around after a half a damned month of this dog-and-pony show. Doubly so when you've gone so far as to get me to grant him access to top-secret Elysion training facilities. Facilities not meant to be seen by anyone not under my direct command. And this is without even getting into the fact that he has been assigned direct and permanent command of Rapi, which you know damn well as much as I do is a Code Red security breach just waiting to happen! You're giving me answers if you want me to cooperate any further. Doubly so if this relates in any way to our long-term goals."

Andersen didn't say anything. Letting out a low sigh, he just about-faced, marched back to his desk, and crouched behind it. After a moment, it was clear that he was fiddling with some kind of lock - a safe, no doubt. It was opened, and the broad-shouldered brunet rose to his full height, staring forlornly at… a Polaroid - an ancient physical picture, the kind that was ejected from a comically obsolete instant camera. Ingrid could see that it was an old picture even from the back - yellowed, worn, even encased in a layer of protective film as it was. An uncharacteristic smile, melancholic, and longing found purchase on the Deputy Chief Commander's face as he continued to gaze upon it.

Then, after a few moments, he set it face-down on the desk, and slid it halfway across the surface, leaving it sitting there as he simply leaned back straight up, and waited, staring wordlessly at the CEO.

Ingrid looked between him and the obscured photo warily. This… was decidedly unlike him. But, she had demanded answers, and he responded by dropping this antiquated photo before her. So, she returned to her spot before his desk, and reached out to grab it-

"Ingrid," Andersen forcefully and pointedly said her name, causing her to halt mid-reach as she met his steely gaze. "This is a point of no return. Once you know, there is no going back."

There was a beat wherein Ingrid outright glared at Andersen, nostrils flaring before she forcefully drew the photo back into her hand, practically tearing it from the spot where he'd set it down. "Never question my commitment to our cause again, Andersen," she threateningly commanded him. "Whatever you think you can reveal that would shake my resolve or spook me, won't," she declared as she lifted the photo to her line-of-sight. "We will fix the Ark, no matter-"

Ingrid's teeth audibly snapped together as her eyes bulged out of their sockets in recognition. A concrete block dropped into her stomach, and at once, she was again taught the folly of underestimating Andersen.

"...What's the matter, Ingrid?" Andersen cheekily inquired. "You look as though you've seen a ghost. Or three."

Ingrid's teeth audibly ground against each other in response to that even as her gaze drifted upwards, and she glared at him over the edge of the photo.

Andersen at least had the decency to sheepishly grimace in reply. "I suppose that was rather uncouth of a joke to make given the context, wasn't it? My apologies. A degree of black humour has wound up being one of my many coping mechanisms over the years. Though, I usually keep it to myself…"

Ingrid returned her attention to the photo. A moment from the initial Rapture invasion many decades ago, taken in the midst of the innumerable battles to hold the line as the Ark was being constructed, prior to being sealed… a moment forever captured in time. Eight people were present in it. Three of whom… didn't belong. Shouldn't have belonged. "You…" Ingrid began as she took in the unmistakable presence of Andersen's own visage in the photo, processing the image as best she could.

"Yes," Andersen replied, as if fully reading and understanding her thought process at that moment.

"...And him," she added, also recognizing Pholus.

"Correct," Andersen affirmed.

"And… her..." Ingrid's eyes fell upon one of the six Nikkes present in the photo, blazing red hair catching the eye quite distinctively.

"That's right," Andersen adjusted his cuffs habitually, utterly unperturbed by these crashing revelations that had been dropped upon Ingrid's head.

Ingrid took a deep breath before continuing. "...Does she know…?"

"No, she has no idea," Andersen clarified. "Her memories of that time are gone. You know how it is with Nikkes. Loss of memories, by tragedy, or sentencing. Both are common enough in the Ark."

"...Yes, that explains her behaviour up to this point, doesn't it?" Ingrid growled as she dropped the photo back on the desk. "I hate you so much right now."

"Don't say I didn't warn you," Andersen shrugged, reaching over and scooping the photo back up, handling it far more delicately than Ingrid had.

"Oh go to Hell, you decrepit old bastard," Ingrid all but snarled as she set her hand back on her hip.

"I've already been there, young lady," Andersen cheekily shot back at the fully grown adult woman. "Or, rather… it may be more accurate to say that I never left," he remarked as he glanced aside, back out the window overlooking the corporate, fascist hellscape that was the Ark once more.

The CEO of Elysion took several long, steadying breaths. Once she felt sufficiently steadied, she pressed on. "So… I suppose that the official story the Central Government presents about the Goddess Squad and their last stand is…"

"Absolute hogwash, from top-to-bottom," the Deputy Chief Commander interjected as he returned to his seat, gaze drifting off into the aether. "For starters, 'the Legendary Commander' never went missing - not in the way they suggest, at least."

"You don't say," Ingrid's gaze was absolutely piercing Andersen with a terrible intensity he'd rarely seen from the woman. "How, exactly, did that go down, then?"

"You would be surprised by how easily someone can disappear when they want to… how easily someone else can be made to disappear, when someone high enough on the totem pole decides they're each better off forgotten. It would make it easier for them to… reemerge, from the falsified annals of history, unseen, unnoticed by those that would take issue with their return - at least, until it's too late for them to intercede and take control of the returning figures, as they are wont to do…"

"Oh, I'm sure the Central Government would have a field day if they were to discover just who popped back into existence a scant few weeks ago - and just who has been leading him along by the nose, no less," she critically declared, staring down Andersen. "But… he doesn't remember, does he?" she guessed.

"Though he was good at maintaining his cool when necessary, at least once he'd gotten his bearings, I would not describe him as a particularly gifted actor," Andersen mused almost nostalgically. "I saw no evidence in his eyes that he recognized me on any level. So, it seems that he does genuinely have amnesia, though the baseline of his personality seems to have remained intact, as according to reports of his behaviour towards Marian in particular…"

"Which is the reason you've been having me test him the way I have - to determine if we can actually rely on him as the figure you remember going forth," Ingrid surmised.

"That's right," Andersen nodded simply. "Blessing in disguise though his loss of memory may be… it can also be a terrible curse, if he can't be built back up into who he was. The man we need him to be."

"I fail to see how his not remembering who he is, or what he was capable of, is anything resembling a blessing," Ingrid pressed intensely.

"Considering how he wound up with the injury which landed him in the emergency room in the first place?" Andersen mused. "Saying he wouldn't be cooperative if he remembered too much would be an understatement, to say the least."

"...And how, exactly, did he wind up being shot with an outdated Nikke weapon, then?" Ingrid asked. "In fact, how is he still alive? How has he visibly not aged a day since the Ark was sealed? And how do you not look your age for that matter too!?"

"Questions and answers for another time," Andersen was quick to reply. "Given the labyrinthine rabbit hole it would rather rapidly lead us down."

Humming, the brunette understood that it was sometimes best to not try forcing certain issues when more pressing matters were at hand, and so moved onto the next immediately relevant point. "Matters of age aside... What about you?" Ingrid pointedly asked.

"Hm?" Andersen hummed in response, as though confused. "What about me?"

"Don't play dumb now, of all times!" Ingrid demanded as she slammed the palm of her hand onto the surface of his desk. "You're in that damned photo too! You're-!" She paused, leaning back and considering Andersen. "That actually begs an important question we should clear up right now… which one of you is the Legendary Commander, then? The mythical figure that emerged from the aether to take up command of the Goddess squad, and lead mankind to the safety and shelter of the Ark - establishing the Commander Corps in his wake?"

"Ah, that. Neither of us," Andersen matter-of-factually replied.

"...What?" Ingrid was immediately annoyed by how nonsensical that statement was in light of the photographic evidence he'd provided.

"Neither of us… and both of us. Technically speaking on both accounts, of course," Andersen unhelpfully 'elucidated.'

Ingrid just glowered furiously at the Deputy Chief Commander, eliciting a small, singular chuckle before he clarified: "While I understand your desire for answers on this matter… These details are a matter of the past not entirely relevant to our immediately present concerns - beyond the simple fact that Commander Pholus is here, now, and that we need to sort out our plans for him going forward. And more importantly… how we keep him from falling into the clutches of the Central Government."

"That is a very important point, yes," Ingrid agreed, lightly tapping her heel on the floor as she contemplated the matter. "They will take notice of him in time, especially if he proves to be as half as competent as the stories say. I may be powerful in my own right, Mustang is no pushover either, and you may have a good deal of influence as one of the Central Government's higher ranking officers, but we simply don't have the means to bulldoze the Central Government and Syuen as it is. If they decide they want him… they will take him, and whatever plan it is you have for him surely ends right then and there. Him obviously being 'sponsored' by me will at least keep Syuen from trying to dig her claws into him in the short term, not worth the risk of sparking a corporate cold war over some random greenhorn Commander I've taken a liking to for whatever reason, of course. But, in due time…"

"An acute observation, to say the least," Andersen nodded as he steepled his fingers together, hiding the lower half of his face as he continued to speak. "I do have an immediate plan, though. One which will, if it works, cause the Central Government to completely write him off as an incompetent buffoon unworthy of their attention, while removing him from their immediate sphere of influence as well. This will allow him to redevelop and grow freely even as he contributes meaningfully to the Ark's continued survival."

Ingrid just cocked her head at the Deputy Chief Commander, visibly intrigued and waiting for him to finish.

"There is an intact power plant on the surface, one which could be discreetly connected to the Ark and provide enough energy to keep it running for two months straight alone, even should the Ark's own internal reactors go down all at once. A great boon, considering how resource-strapped the Ark has been since… well, since it was sealed all those years ago."

"To say the least," Ingrid flatly agreed.

"So, we assign Pholus to capture that power plant in an official operation… something he cannot be reasonably expected to do with the forces available to him, and we disproportionally 'punish' him for his inevitable failure. He gets exiled to the Outpost nestled between the Ark and the surface, which the Central Government never bothered establishing surveillance in or around owing to its 'remoteness' - praise be for their relative incompetence in this instance - and never will given that it is just a large, open space with some old, dilapidated buildings inside of it."

"Far enough that the Central Government will consider him to be out of sight, and out of mind. Still close enough that a few minor relays would be all that would be necessary to give them internet access to the Ark proper, and thus reliable communication with us - hell, just running a physical line wouldn't even be particularly expensive. And being well within easy communications range means that he will also still be more than close enough to easily shuttle resources to him and assign him missions as necessary."

"A justified expense, given that he'll be a glorified guard dog at that point, so far as the Central Government will be concerned," Andersen nodded, pleased at Ingrid's wholly expected understanding of the plan. "The Outpost will once again become the first line of defence against Raptures simply wandering into the tunnels leading to the surface, on account of all the newfound activity there. Exile or no, he will need equipment to shore up defences. Food, water, construction material, weapons and ammo… As long as no Raptures slip past him, the Government will simply not care that he is provided what he needs to accomplish his duty where they don't have to see him. Once more: out of sight, out of mind."

"Why would they need to devote any thought to a shamed Commander if he isn't causing any more problems for them?" Ingrid resisted the urge to shake her head in disappointment. The Central Government never failed to surpass all expectations of them. "But will he be capable of being relied upon to be the Ark's first line of defence against the- Okay, yeah, I deserve that dubious look you're giving me right now," she cut herself off as Andersen's expression shifted to plainly convey how he felt about the question she was asking. "It hasn't quite sunk in yet: the idea that he's… well, the man that held the line against the apocalypse."

"One of many. Him, and the Goddesses of Victory," Andersen corrected her. "Never forget those women that he stood at the back of, and the numerous others that stood shoulder-to-shoulder with them as well. Back then, he'd have lunged for your throat if you'd done so in his presence."

"...Good man," was Ingrid's simple reply following an approving hum. Then, to Ingrid's great surprise, Andersen let out a low, strained, barely-repressed chuckle. She could see his cheeks rising past his knuckles, and at once, she was intrigued, given how wildly uncharacteristic this was of him. "What's that reaction? You have something you'd like to share with the rest of the class?"

"Just…" Andersen audibly had to pause to catch his breath. "I reminded myself of an exchange between myself and him, back then… A moment he proclaimed to be his greatest shame afterwards, but Dorothy, Scarlet, and Red Hood in particular would not let him forget. Red Hood held it over him as a failure, as she usually did. But the rest… Liliweiss and Rapunzel were kind enough to not tease him over it, at least. Snow White just snickered any time it came up, which somehow seemed to hurt him all the more than the rest." Andersen himself was struggling to not snicker, appropriately enough.

"...Are you going to share this 'greatest shame' with me, then?" Ingrid asked expectantly. She couldn't help but be curious, given who he was and the individuals involved. Least of all the mention of a Nikke named 'Red Hood,' for glaringly obvious reasons.

"Perhaps later," was Andersen's reply. Needless to say, the glower he received from Ingrid was difficult to miss. "Anticipation is oftentimes the key ingredient to bringing out the most of a wondrous punchline, Chief Executive Officer."

"Then this anticipatory delay had better produce pure gold after that kind of setup, Deputy Chief Commander," Ingrid lowly declared.

"Gold? No, hardly," Andersen shook his head. "Pure platinum, Ingrid. Pure platinum."

"...Well, at any rate," Ingrid was quick to move along to more present matters. "Your plan seems workable enough to me, save for one small issue: this relies upon the man who somehow both is and isn't the Legendary Commander screwing up instead of pulling a miracle out of his ass. How do you know he won't do the impossible and take the facility against all odds?"

"For starters? He's only human, and legend or no, it doesn't matter how skilled of a tactician one is when they only have a scant few soldiers to direct in their efforts. Doubly so if one of them happens to be a… particular… how do you so often describe her, again?"

"...Oh no," Ingrid immediately closed her eyes mournfully.

"Ah, yes," Andersen nodded, rubbing his thickly stubbled chin. "If one of them happens to be a particular 'useful idiot' you happen to have in your back pocket…"

"Forgive me, Commander Pholus, it's for your own good, I assure you…" Ingrid all but cried even as her tone barely shifted at all. "I'm sure you'll be able to wrangle-"

---

"Neon, firepower connoisseur and acolyte of BOOM! Reporting for duty, Commander! I see a lot of glorious and bedrock-shaking explosions in our shared future together!" a bespectacled, short, white-haired, green-eyed girl wearing a white and blue navel-exposing sailor fuku and beret over what looked to be a Japanese school-regulation one-piece swimsuit saluted Joe as he, Counters, the Scouts, and Soldier EG ambled across one of the grassy park fields between the pizzeria and the Central Government's main HQ. "Oh, and before I forget: don't tell anybody, but I'm secretly a spy working for Elysion! Be sure to keep it on the down-low, though! It would be bad if word got out that I was here as a secret agent of Ingrid's, right?"

Joe just stared at the diminutive girl, blinking once, and letting out a single, long-suffering sigh. He had no words, and couldn't even begin to formulate a response to what he hoped was a really bad joke.

"Okay, well, objective complete! Talk to you later, Commander!" The white-haired Nikke then proceeded to bound off in a seemingly random direction, giving nobody the chance to actually respond to her sudden, bizarre, and thoroughly disturbing introduction.

In the quiet that followed, it was, unsurprisingly, Anis that broke the silence, poet that she was, with a thoroughly expected declaration of: "Ayo, what the fuck!?"

 

[Alter-Red]

Eloquently said Anis.

 

[SixthRanger]

Eloquently said Anis.

Click to shrink...

She is best girl for a reason.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 14 - Treading into the Deep End
===

The day of the operation redux, Joe had decided that waiting for Soldier EG to… well, actually introduce herself was probably not going to produce results. Thus, he just approached her directly before deploying, as she was fiddling with her gear before everyone else caught up in the sterile white observation room of the Elysion simulators. "Alright, so what's your name?"

The pink-tressed Nikke's eyes went as wide as dinner plates, the girl staring blankly past her tinted ballistic glasses at the rookie Commander in response.

After a few moments of that, just being gawked at like he'd grown a second head, Joe let out a long, deep sigh and rubbed at his eyes before speaking again. "Lass… you never properly introduced yourself. You mentioned that you're a 'Soldier EG model,' and just left it at that. I don't know your name, so, if you don't mind…?" he motioned at her to proceed.

At that, she glanced around, almost nervously, visible discomfort and no small amount of anxiety tracing across her features - what he could see of her features, considering her shark-tooth mask, at least.

"...I'm just asking for your name," Joe noted dryly, struck dumb by the reaction he was getting to such a simple question. "Seriously, come on now."

"...I'm a mass-produced Nikke, Commander," she said anxiously. "Mass-produced Nikkes… don't get names."

Joe did not like that. "...You were completely organic at one point though, right?" he leadingly asked.

"...Yes?" the Nikke hesitantly answered.

"What was your name before you were augmented, then?" the Commander pressed.

Again, there was a pause before she eventually, and warily replied with a shrug. "I don't know, sir. It's common for Nikkes to lose their human memories when they're converted, and I'm a really common Nikke…"

Joe really did not like that. "Well, I'm not referring to you as 'Soldier EG' as though you're a nameless tool or something. You're a person, so, come up with a name, or I'll just give you one myself."

The pinkette stared wide-eyed at the bearded brunet, visibly taken aback and stupefied. Joe wasn't going to pretend that he didn't understand why. But, with that out of the way, it would be wise to address a few other points before they went back into the simulator room proper.

"That aside…," the rookie Commander pressed on, "back in the simulation, you charged ahead of Rapi without orders, then froze up when I ordered you to retreat. Why?"

"A-ah, um…" EG looked quite uncomfortable with the question, averting her gaze and rubbing at her elbow as she seemingly took a moment to gather herself. "I… was, kind of expecting you to just… behave like every other human Commander that's ever directed me in the simulators…"

In an instant, Joe understood. "'Charge ahead, don't dare retreat, you are expendable and will be expended?'" He rhetorically quoted what he imagined would be a common maxim chanted among Commanders to Nikkes.

"...Yeah, something like that," the pinkette replied grimly.

So, she was just genuinely caught like a deer in headlights when her Commander… told her to not suicide charge at the enemy lines.

"Well don't do that when you're under my command," Joe pointedly instructed her. "I don't care how other Commanders have instructed and directed you or anyone else up to this point: I ain't them, and in fact, they're all incompetent, mouth-breathing parasites that're worth less than the dried topsoil encrusted in the soles of my boots, considering their means and methods. You are a person, and I'll not tolerate any behaviour to the contrary."

After an extended dumbstruck silence, EG replied with a shaky, "U-understood, sir."

Hm. Actually, on that note too… "You don't need to treat me like a superior officer unless we're in public or around other military officers that'd raise a stink if you did otherwise. Just Joe is fine in private."

"...O-okay," EG was looking increasingly overwhelmed, evidently not quite having it in her to not talk to a superior officer casually - hardly something to grill her over, especially right at that moment.

"At any rate, we're coming up on the simulation - go ahead and finish prepping however you will, and I'll handle working out the strategic bullshit as best I can, alright? Looking forward to hearing what you come up with," he added in reference to her proper name, turning and leaving to talk to Ingrid about his conclusions in regards to the operation, such as it was.

The Nikke stared after him, and rapidly realized that Triangle was going to be stupidly interested in this weird-ass Commander. Then, her mind started going a mile a minute, and she immediately knew what she wanted to go by going forth…

---

"So, the Commander and I have finished speaking at great length about the plan going forward and this operation," Ingrid had ordered everyone to form up, and lo, Joe had done as instructed. Counters, the Scouts, and the lone member of Replace present seemed primed, if a little resigned given the severity of the oncoming objective.

Well, everyone but Neon, who seemed hopelessly confident in their upcoming success, despite how comedically stacked the odds were against them.

Ingrid continued matter-of-factually. "The operation, after extensive research and consideration of the resources and manpower available to be put into it, in addition to its actual strategic worth… has been called off entirely."

The girls all looked, understandably, blindsided. Neon actually started pouting as she cradled her shotgun, even. "The chance to show off my superior firepower…" the bespectacled Nikke grumbled, which somehow filled Joe with terrible degrees of dread.

Delta, meanwhile, was the first to properly speak up. "Permission to speak, ma'am?"

"Granted," Ingrid was quick to grant it.

"I do not understand. Was the point of this entire operation not to test our compatibility as a unit, and the Commander's ability to command? How does cancelling it serve either of those aspects?"

"No, those were not the point of the operation," Ingrid corrected the apparent misunderstanding plainly. "The point of this operation was to gauge the Commander's capacity for weighing the lives of the Nikkes under his command versus the apparent gains of operations he is placed at the head of. As noted, after extensive discussions with him, exchanging of intelligence and information on his actual objective and long-term goals… he has made it perfectly clear that the notion of throwing away the lives of even more Nikkes than he has been provided - to capture a plot of territory with little to no actual worth beyond sounding impressive on someone else's reports - is, to quote him directly: 'a callous disregard for the lives of the soldiers that would be wasted on absolute headpants bullshittery I will not be party to.'"

The gathered Nikkes all collectively blinked once, staring at Ingrid rather owlishly.

"To reiterate what I stated at the end of the previous training session," Ingrid noted matter-of-factually, crossing her arms under her chest as she regarded the women in formation. "This was something I manufactured in the typical vein of those idiotic, pointless, and ultimately wasteful objectives cooked up by the incompetents that come out of the Commander's Academy on a regular basis. 'This plot of land is the biggest on the map, it would look good if I was the Commander that recaptured it,' with no consideration for the fact that it's so large because it's an empty field of no actual strategic worth, or a massive pile of unusable ruins. A No Man's Land, basically."

"...Then," Soldier EG started, "the actual point of this entire thing was…"

Ingrid finished for the mass-produced Nikke. "To determine if the Commander valued the lives of individual Nikkes as much as his previous actions suggested, and to determine if he is actually as half as competent as he seemed to be, and if he had actual wisdom to back that raw competence up. He directed Rapi, her partner Anis, as well as Signal and Delta alone in the destruction of a Blacksmith during his debut operation on the surface. All to save the life of a singular Nikke, which would have succeeded, if not for extenuating circumstances well beyond his control."

The brunette CEO shifted her weight as she continued, even as Soldier EG and Neon's expressions each widened into open shock.

"So, that being said… Commander, this test, as it turns out, was actually pushed by a certain someone else that was deeply intrigued by your reported previous behaviour towards Marian. And I'm sure that he's going to be absolutely over the moon once word circulates to him about this development too, given how remarkably little manages to actually slip by him. Therefore: be prepared to be directly contacted in some capacity by Mustang, CEO of Tetra Line, in the near future."

Even Rapi looked a little taken aback by that declaration, on top of everything else. Needless to say, Joe was growing increasingly anxious with how many extremely high-ranking people were taking notice of him, for rather remarkably little reason to his eyes at that.

Ingrid was hardly privy to his internal thoughts, however, and so they did little to staunch her continued speech. "Now, to the rest of you: you are all well aware as my subordinates that our typical modus operandi still applies to this conversation as much as any other time, I presume," the question came across more as a command than anything, however. "What is said within the confines of Elysion's walls, stays within the confines of Elysion's walls. Watch your mouths; my Nikkes or not, I will not tolerate insubordination or treason. Got it?"

A chorus of "Yes ma'am!" rang out, to which Ingrid let out an appraising hum.

"Well then," Ingrid continued, turning to Joe. "Now that we're all done with that little game… I think it's time that we start running drills. Proper drills. Drills designed by me, for Elysion special forces."

Dread filled Joe's soul, somehow, the look in the CEO's eyes promising a great deal of pain to follow.

"You seem worried, even afraid, Commander," Ingrid observed as the Nikkes standing nearby all looked more than a little worried - save for Neon, who was still wearing a mildly vacant look of anticipation. And Rapi, who just looked very mildly resigned.

A smile, small, yet deep and telling found purchase on Ingrid's face as she continued.

"You should be."

---

That first test was very clearly not designed by Ingrid. Ingrid did not design unwinnable scenarios you were expected to talk your way out of walking into in the first place. No. Ingrid designed scenarios that were absolutely fucking savagely brutal and complex, but were winnable assuming one had the training and skill to think on their feet and overcome horrific adversity. She then grabbed you by the back of your pants and bodily flung you into them-

"I said brain on, you idiots!"

"Do you not know what a basic room-clearing drill is supposed to look like, you baboons!?"

"How many goddamned times do I need to explain to you the difference between a combat shotgun and a breaching shotgun, Neon!? And so help me God if I hear one more utterance of 'superior firepower-loaded shells' to 'justify' improper application of the weapon you use again-!"

She was also a very mean lady that was quick to talk shit (if surprisingly mild shit) when you fucked up.

Needless to say, Joe did not have the training to overcome Elysion's special forces training scenarios. He did, to everyone's great surprise, actually do better than anyone expected when she ran the crew through a counter-terrorism simulation, of all things, but… good Lord, he and his Nikkes did not manage to eke out a single victory. They… came close in one mission, but that was it. That did not feel good, to say the least.

"Well," Ingrid mused as she looked over at Joe and the Nikkes, all of whom were visibly run haggard. Save for Rapi. Rapi was just… serenely blank as ever. "You did remarkably better than expected."

The CEO could clearly tell that Joe was doing his damndest to not grimace, and with lidded eyes, continued.

"I ran you through the absolute toughest operations I have on hand. The type that we typically only put the likes of, well, Absolute, through," Ingrid asserted, gaze flicking to an utterly impassive and unwinded Rapi momentarily. "The fact that you actually handled yourself with any degree of grace at all for even one of them… I'm impressed. You have promise, and I foresee you going far with the proper training to get you up to the point of operational competence."

There was a moment of extended silence, punctuated by Joe weakly replying with: "Cool."

Ingrid merely huffed before motioning towards the exit. "I'd say we're done for the day. I'll message you the next time there's an opening to use our simulators - under less punishing conditions, in the interest of allowing you the possibility of actually learning, though. That is all. Dismissed."

With that, the Elysion CEO about-faced and left the group, all worn, utterly ragged and beaten down.

At that point, Joe was so tired himself, purely from the sheer mental overexertion of trying to command so many back-to-back, high-intensity missions, that it was all he could do to parrot Ingrid with a weak wheeze of "Dismissed."

Talking to the girls under his command, getting their take on things, that could wait until they weren't all dead from exhaustion.

For now, he was going to go lay down, and just try to recover from the virtual beating Ingrid had laid down upon him.

---

When his tablet buzzed, Joe blearily lifted his head from his mattress, reached over to the device on the nightstand, and looking at the alert…

[Très bien, mon ami! I have heard much about a certain rising star, I am so very eager to-]

Joe immediately set the device into critical alerts-only mode, placed it back down on the nightstand, and laid his weary head back to rest. He didn't know who the fuck was opening a text message to him in French, of all things, but he immediately knew that he wanted nothing to do with that on the same day Ingrid finished using him and his girls as a collective punching bag, and would respond tomorrow.

For now: rest. Fleeting and fretful as it would prove to be.

 

[palacesound]

All my homies love Mustang.

 

[Fragment of Serenity]

It doesn't matter how far up the ladder you are: no one gets to interrupt nap time.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 15 - One Step at a Time
===

The following morning, Joe rolled out of bed, rubbing the crust out of his eyes, not having quite recovered from the beating Ingrid had laid down upon him and the girls the night previous. Blearily reaching over to check his tablet out of habit, his eyes went wide when he saw just how many fucking notifications he had received. Then he recalled the weird half-French message he'd been sent the previous night while trying to fall asleep, and upon actually unlocking the mobile device…

A stone fell into Joe's chest. Mustang. Mustang, that was the name of the Tetra Line CEO. The one that Ingrid just informed him would likely be attempting to reach out to him.

Triple digits. Mustang, the CEO had just… started directly messaging him on blabla. And went on. And on. And on and on and on and on-

Joe took a breath, stopped scrolling, and returned to the beginning of the message history to actually read through it.

…

Why did he keep switching between English and French? Joe didn't understand half the shit that was being written. Context clues weren't even enough to glean half the shit this guy was saying.

What the hell was an 'iDoll' and why did the word keep coming up like machine gun fire?

…The question marks at the end of each paragraph suggested he was asking questions.

Uh…

Joe replied to the massive string of messages with a wary [Yes?]

An immediate declaration of [Magnifique!] was followed by [They shall arrive to meet in short order, mon ami!]

Wait, what, what had Joe just agreed to- wait, was he just sitting there waiting for a response- hold on, hold the phone- what-

The next message… vaguely instructed him to… uh…

…

After a moment, Joe sent a message to Rapi and Anis each. [Do you understand French?]

Following a brief delay, Rapi replied first. [I do not. Why?]

Anis' reply was… [Is this some sort of set-up to a really corny pick-up line?]

…Yeah, that sounded about right-

[Wait, are you getting messages from Mustang or something now too!?] Anis followed up.

…Oh. Well, uh.

[Yes?]

[WHO RAT YOUT HTOW ARE YOUG AO]

There was a long pause as Anis stopped typing after keyboard smashing, then suddenly, a new window opened up, revealing that Rapi had created and invited both himself and Anis into a squad group chat.

[Anis says that you've been contacted by CEO Mustang of Tetra Line,] Rapi was the one to break the ice. [I presume you require aid parsing his tendency to randomly alternate between English and French. You can download and install a translator extension which will automatically detect and localize written languages apart from your detected default language. Search 'blabla translate' under the add-ons drop-down context menu and it should be the first option - download the Tetra Line extension, not the Missilis version. The Missilis extension is known to be faulty and likely functionally data-mining malware.]

Anis interjected with a demand of, [Why are you being messaged by the boss now too!? Are we gonna get Missilis poking around our quarters at this rate next?!]

At that suggestion, Joe felt a mild sweat build upon the back of his neck. Reaching back and wiping his nape dry, he replied. [Ingrid only mentioned Mustang also being interested in me yesterday, she hasn't said anything about Missilis.]

[Well, at least there's that,] Anis declared. [Okay, install that translator app or whatever and get back to us! It was nerve wracking enough having just Elysion's attention as it was!]

[I'm on it, and thank you, Rapi,] Joe replied before doing as the little strawberry blonde suggested, making a point to open both extensions and check to make sure he was getting the Tetra Line version. With it active, he went back, checked Mustang's long-ass string of messages and…

…Well. Mustang sure seemed to… appreciate Joe's attitude towards Nikkes, it seemed. Like, god damn, he just kept going on about how so many Commanders treated his girls like disposable tools… culminating in declaring that he'd fully expect that Joe would go far with even more Tetra Line Nikkes under his command, and asking if he'd accept a number of iDolls being issued to him.

So… oh. He'd just been issued more Nikkes. That… Well, he wasn't going to complain about that. Unless the new girls turned out to be troublemakers, having more soldiers couldn't hurt. Depending on how much work they were given, it'd mean being able to rotate girls in and out of field service, for starters. A well-rested soldier was an effective soldier - at least that was Joe's thinking, not like his civvie ass knew actual military tactics and logistics and shit. He was just going with what felt logical.

At any rate, best to inform Rapi and Anis of the development. [So I apparently agreed to accept some new soldiers into the unit. 'iDolls,' Mustang referred to them as.]

[Oh, well, that's good, I guess?] Anis posted her reply quickly enough. [iDolls are mass-produced Nikkes. Good soldiers I hear and junk. I don't know why he's directly messaging you about that though?]

['Apparently?'] Rapi's response was a bit more… focused, on the other hand.

Somehow, Joe felt Rapi already judging him for his slip-up. Sweat began to bead upon his brow as he realized that, yeah, he didn't really have much of a defence considering he blindly replied to Mustang as he did. [I was still waking up when I checked my messages, and he really, really confused me on top of that.]

There was a bit of a pause before Anis messaged him directly, privately rather than in the group chat. [Uh, Commander, I get that you're new to all of this, but Rapi's like, really obviously not happy to hear you did that. She hasn't complained about you or like, seriously criticized you yet, and that's really rare for her. So like, I don't mean to be rude or demanding or anything, but could you just, like, stop and think before you do things from now on? She's just huffing and furrowing her brow a bit at her phone right now, but she seems to be bracing like she usually does whenever we get a new Commander now. Which she wasn't doing before.]

…Yeah, that was just, really inexcusably stupid. The consequences this time hardly seemed to be problematic, but, it was just that: this time. Joe realized he should admit as such and apologize for the fuck-up, posting in the group chat. [I was still basically half-asleep… That's really no excuse, though. It was just idiotic. I need to do better and not blindly agree to things or bull rush ahead without thought. That sort of behaviour will get people killed on the battlefield, and I need to curtail it now. I'll do my best to ensure that this is the only time I mess up like this.]

There was a pause before Rapi replied with a simple, [I see.]

That was, uh. Not… exactly encouraging-

Anis PM'd him a thumbs-up emoji, however. [Rapi untensed a lot after reading that, so don't worry, she's just really bad at showing like, positive emotions and stuff. This is her when she's happy, for sure!]

…Yeah, that actually tracked with how Rapi had behaved up to now. Very dry, very fastidious. It seemed like if she wasn't complaining, that was her version of positive reinforcement. Joe got that, he was like that a lot of the time too - when he wasn't going the extra mile to be personable, at least. Such as he was throughout his entire time here in the Ark.

Christ, acting like a real person all the time was draining.

But, uh, yeah. [Thank you, Anis,] Joe shot a reply back to the short-haired blonde, letting out a deep breath of relief. Anis sure seemed to be a godsend. He appreciated her presence a good deal already.

…It was immediately making Joe consider how fucked it was that Anis wasn't allowed to participate in their training sessions at the Elysion tower. It was immediately apparent that she was actually a genuinely important part of the team, given how she just bridged a problem that would have likely festered into something serious. Rapi didn't appreciate what she saw as a sign that Joe was actually just as bad as every other Commander, and he… yeah, he wouldn't have said anything beyond his explanation for why he did a stupid, and Rapi just… didn't actually vocalize her annoyance at the moment.

Yeah, that could have gotten bad had Anis not been present to head off the potential issue. Anis needed to be a part of serious training going forth. Team synergy was important.

Well, otherwise… [Is there anything we need to do today-] Joe had begun to type out a message, only to receive a high-priority alert, directly from Central Command. And… Oh. Another mission to the surface.

…Ah shit, another mission to the surface. Alright, fuck, time to get back to throwing themselves against the unending tide of hostile alien invaders… No rest for the wicked.

---

"So our mission is to go to the surface to investigate and reclaim a power station in a nearby coastal city," Rapi summarized the situation as Counters proper was gathered in one of the CG's many briefing rooms, such as it was.

"And for some reason, we're being rushed out before our Tetra Line reinforcements join up, and while the Scouts and EG are busy with something else," Anis remarked, dry as the Sahara and with brows flattened out into hard lines of utter aggravation. "Boy oh boy, it sure doesn't sound like they're trying to get us all killed or anything."

"Anis," Rapi interjected in a chastising tone when it seemed like the taller and more curvaceous blonde was winding up to complain more.

"What!? I'm not wrong!" Anis, however, shot right back.

"I mean," Joe piped up himself, "I asked to have the operation pushed back just long enough to at least let our new teammates arrive and reinforce us. I was, uh, really firmly denied and commanded to have my squad prepared for deployment within the hour…"

"What the hell!?" Anis cried out, flinging her arms up into the air in open indignation. "You see! What is that!? What could that possibly be if not an attempt to get us killed!?"

Visibly resisting the urge to roll her eyes, Rapi replied, "It could be evidence that the Central Government has simply deemed the power station to be of high importance, while also expecting minimal danger in capturing it. You are being absurdly reactionary given the circumstances and simplicity of the mission in question."

Blinking, Joe took a deep breath, and nodded his head. "Rapi's right. We all-"

"Oh, we, huh?" Anis sharply remarked on the attempt to be diplomatic about her being the one that was overreacting.

"-Need to step back and take a breath," Joe continued regardless. "Everything's going to be fine, we've been assigned a low-risk mission that the Central Government just wants done quickly. We'll get the job done fast, and be back in time for dinner. Simple as, right?"

"Easy-peasy!" Neon replied cheerily. "I mean, it'd be real nice to get to show off my firepower to some Raptures, but basically going for an extended team-building hike to the surface would be fine too!"

"I'd rather we not have to fight anything on this mission at all," Joe flatly replied to the white-haired girl's declaration.

"B-but, firepower!" Neon cried, despair washing over her features as she stared in open horror at Joe's desire to not have their lives be actively endangered.

Neon was, needless to say, something of an odd duck. She'd technically only been a member of the squad for a relatively short time now, but he'd only seen her pop up every so often, and she'd never give him a straight answer as to what it was she was doing. "Spy stuff," being her typical response before bounding off shamelessly.

Joe didn't know what to make of her. The 'spy' thing was clearly some kind of role play, though her apparent commitment to the bit made it difficult to get much of a read on her. She was, at least, cooperative in training - though her ideas for tactics and such were… interesting, to say the least. She was a weirdo, but she wasn't bad, per se.

The displaced Canadian wasn't entirely sure how Neon would fit into the squad, but she was an official member of Counters, so, best to make an effort to help her fit in. Even if Rapi already seemed exasperated by her, to an extent.

"Anyways," Joe continued on regardless. "Everyone, gear up. It sounds like this shouldn't amount to much more than a scouting mission. Let's be efficient and get this done quickly. Be prepared for a fight. Hope for the best, plan for the worst."

"Then I'll bring extra firepower!" Neon declared with a bright glint in her eyes. "What if we wind up needing to blow something up!? It would be a disaster if we needed extra firepower but didn't have it in our time of greatest need! Need of firepower!"

"...Yes, that is true," Joe admitted. "Don't overload yourself in any capacity, but bringing some explosives would be wise. I assume the Ark provides plastic explosives to its operatives? Stuff some in your bags and if we're lucky, we won't need it."

Neon just nodded firmly, visibly pleased and motivated by the affirmation that she'd be allowed to carry and potentially use high explosives. That, uh, seemed concerning, but… Ingrid wouldn't have assigned her to the squad if she wasn't reliable past the unorthodox exterior, right?

Yeah, right. Best to not worry too much and move it along.

"Rapi, I presume you'd already know well what would be wise to bring along in addition to the basics?" Joe asked the strawberry blonde.

"I'll bring along extra ammo," Rapi declared simply. "There's no need to complicate matters."

Fair.

"...This all still stinks to me, but… I'll bring extra food! Er, rations." Anis added with a grin and a thumbs-up. Yeah, hope they'd be back by the end of the day, plan for being stuck out there.

"I'll pack like, a tent, then," Joe nodded to Anis. "We shouldn't need it, but, just in case, yeah?"

"Sure, sure," Anis nodded as she adjusted her top - which Joe very much absolutely didn't notice in the least. "Alright, so… We all gonna go finish preparing before our suicide-"

"Anis," Rapi pointedly interjected, brow furrowing with genuine budding anger.

"-Mission?" Anis finished, averting her gaze with a roll of her eyes.

Okay, so… great, interpersonal problems that extended beyond just Joe rubbing Rapi the wrong way. He'd have to nip that in the bud sooner rather than later. "Yeah, everyone gather your stuff and we'll set out within the hour."

Everyone nodded, though as Anis and Neon made themselves scarce, Joe made a point to ask Rapi to stay behind to talk.

"What is it, Commander?" she asked, ruby red eyes locked firmly on the much larger brunet.

"...Is Anis always like this?" he inquired, wary of the possible directions the conversation could go.

"Yes," came Rapi's plain response.

…

Well. "Is that all you have to say on the matter?" Joe asked somewhat dubiously.

"What else is there to say?" Rapi wondered aloud, looking aside at nothing in particular. "I'm used to it, and she's made it obvious over time that she's never going to stop. There isn't any point in dwelling on it."

"Even though it obviously bothers you?" Joe asked, brows furrowing at the little woman's attempt to dismiss the issue. "Since we've met, you've attempted to chastise her several times when she starts on like that. It must have a demoralizing effect on you, having your partner constantly vocalize a lack of faith in your chances of surviving any given encounter." He recalled how she'd reacted to the commitment to… well, the rescue mission. It wasn't exactly encouraging, to say the least.

Now pointedly not looking at Joe, Rapi let out a deep sigh - a surprising amount of emotion seeping through despite her attempt to project an unflappable aura most times. "It is… frustrating, yes. But as I've said, it's just… a quirk of her's I've learned to deal with."

Joe stared at Rapi, frowning heavily at her resigned acceptance of her partner's apparent tendency to openly declare her belief that they were being deliberately marched to their deaths. "I'll talk to her after we're back from our mission. Even if we shouldn't expect any miracles… best to begin chipping at that issue sooner rather than later." Joe liked Anis, she seemed like a genuinely fun girl when she wasn't… in a certain mood. But boy howdy, could he tell her shittier tendencies were going to get old fast.

Rapi, at that point, did turn and look at Joe. Her expression was as unreadable as ever. She let out another sigh, though this one was far shallower than the last. "If you think that's for the best, Commander."

"I do," Joe asserted pointedly. "I need to do better as a Commander, and that means giving the Nikkes under my command the support they need. I'll talk to Anis, and hopefully, we'll have this issue sorted out sooner rather than later."

"...I see," Rapi warily replied, looking aside once more.

"I'm trying to help you too, Rapi. I hope that you'll help me too - which means sharing your opinions with me, letting me know when I'm screwing something or another up." Joe decided to lean into and emphasize his point. "I'm sure your previous Commanders were absolute ass hats that demanded silence and obedience from you. I'm not one of them. As far as I'm concerned, you, Anis, and any other Nikkes under my command are my partners. Partners communicate with each other. So talk to me, okay?"

Though she hesitated, Rapi did eventually reply. "Understood, Commander."

…Yeah, shouldn't expect miracles with Anis, shouldn't expect miracles with Rapi. "Alright. Let's get our duties done, Rapi."

With a nod, the black-bedecked beauty strutted off, not sparing Joe a second glance as she seemed to brush his attempt at extending an olive branch off.

Baby steps, though. Baby steps. They'd get to being a fully-functioning and respectable squad in time. Just… One step at a time.

 

[Fragment of Serenity]

...the fact that Anis is spot on, from a certain point of view, is just too damn funny.

She'll be holding it over Rapi for... well the next eternity.

Also, as someone who doesn't do well with communication in the morning, I fully support Joe's general 'the fuck are you trying to contact me before noon' feelings. Good man. Don't let those early birds get you down!

 

[SongNai145]

Just got into the game recently and found it sad the severe lack of serious writing in the fandom but so God damn happy to see your stuff. Can't wait to see the major story arcs and whether we'll see any things change for the better, especially if Joe just keeps licking out and building a harem of Nikkes who suddenly experience true equal rights and joy from him.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 16 - A Simple Job
===

With a gust of wind, the helicopter lifted off, and Counters was left standing amidst the ruined street of the coastal city. The path to the power station was simple. Straightforward, even. Little Rapture resistance was expected on their way to the objective. They weren't even expected to be out there for more than a few hours…

From Joe's perspective, it was strange, to say the least. Rapi was probably right, they were a small squad, and this mission was apparently expected to amount to a hike through the city and a flag planting operation. But… something didn't sit right with him, the urgency with which they were deployed made him wary - not that he could do much about it. He was ultimately a soldier, and had received legal orders from his superiors. It was simply up to him to fulfill his obligations.

"...A job's a job," Joe declared as Anis and Neon ambled up towards himself and Rapi. "Income is income. We're getting paid at the end of the day, so let's just hope this amounts to the Government paying us to look busy."

With an amused snort, Anis replied as she adjusted the straps of her backpack, stuffed with extra food. "Now that sounds like my sort of mission. I'm still mentally preparing for the worst, though."

"I made sure to pack extra firepower, in case we need to make a big BOOM at some point!" Neon declared with determination, pumping her fists as two of many plastic explosive packages dangling off of her shoulders bumped together.

"We should get moving, Commander," Rapi pointedly suggested, adjusting the strap of the rifle slung over her shoulder. "We aren't expected to encounter much in the way of Raptures out here, but we shouldn't waste time regardless. We don't want to drag our feet to the point that we find ourselves camping out overnight."

"Yeeeeaaaah, fun as the prospect of us all squeezing ourselves into that little tent the Commander brought along and using him and each other as pillows for the night seems…" Anis began, kind of trailing off with a mild goofy grin as her gaze seemed to lose focus towards the end of her sentence, "I'd rather we not have to risk fighting any Raptures at night."

Raptures were scary enough during the day as it was, so Joe was inclined to agree. "Yeah, let's get this over and done with, then," he declared as he withdrew his drone, deploying it into the air and setting it to automatically scan the area for hostiles. He pointedly didn't dwell upon the weird middle chunk of Anis' statement there.

"Um, Commander," Anis piped up, leaning over with a confused look on her face as Joe fiddled with his tablet. "Isn't scanning our surroundings what Shifty's for?"

"Yeah, that is what I'm here for," Shifty noted over comms with some snark. "Alva Particle concentration in the area isn't enough to disrupt the Ark's scanners, Commander. That drone of yours will also be a lot less efficient, not to mention that the Raptures might notice it and shoot it down if you're using it constantly unnecessarily. Hello, by the way," she added a little cattily.

Joe blinked. He'd… kind of forgotten about Shifty. She'd been their operator during the… rescue operation, right? "I wasn't informed we'd have an operator for this mission."

"Situations where you don't have an operator would be the exception, not the rule," Shifty noted matter-of-factly. "Barring Alva Particle disruption, I'll always be in contact with you and monitoring your situation. Not to say that you should take that as an excuse to slack off, the scanners are mostly reliable, but it's not uncommon for Raptures to slip through and show up in visual range before I'll notice them regardless."

"Meaning that we should operate under the assumption that Shifty's overwatch can and will drop out at any moment," Rapi elucidated, dry as she ever was. "We should remain on-guard and wholly aware of our surroundings at all times… such as being prepared to operate without her support by bringing along equipment that would allow us to substitute her methods with means and methods available on-hand."

That made sense to Joe, and he'd have brought the drone along even if he knew that Shifty would be supporting them regardless. "Better to have something and not need it, than need something and not have it," the rookie Commander nodded.

"Like extra firepower!" Neon interjected gleefully, which nobody really acknowledged.

At that, Rapi nodded at Joe in turn, her gaze remaining as impassive as ever. Which made Anis lightly nudging him in the side with an approving grin seem a bit odd.

"We should get moving, then," Rapi declared. "Orders, Commander?"

"Everyone be on guard, and let's get this over and done with," Joe gave his matter-of-fact command, gesturing down the street towards their target as he did so. "Triangle formation, Rapi at the tip of the spear, Anis and Neon flanking - I'll march in the centre of the triangle."

"Yes, Commander," Rapi agreed and spun on her heel, bringing her rifle up to a low-ready position as she started off, Joe following shortly behind her.

Anis and Neon shared a look, and started ambling along behind Joe themselves… far, far less professionally than Rapi did, but they maintained formation. Roughly, at least.

Said formation would place all the Nikkes around him, allowing them to more easily do their jobs of protecting him from all angles save those from the sky. Ideally, they'd have a more… comprehensive formation, but they'd been pushed out the door at a fraction of their whole squad's size. So, work with what you got.

---

Mercifully, they'd actually made it to the power station without issue. Shifty hadn't even really noticed anything, they just marched up and found themselves overlooking a big ol' power plant.

One which was… well… "It's running," Joe observed.

"Yes, that does seem to be the case…" Rapi affirmed his observation warily.

"How!?" Anis cried out, staring with furrowed brows at the not-so-distant power plant. "Who's operating it? Are there people surviving on the surface after all?"

"Maybe it's being run by Raptures!" Neon suggested, eyes full of wonder.

"Oh don't be stupid!" Anis snapped at the little white-haired nuggie. "Raptures are basically animals! Would you expect a dog to be able to figure out how to turn on a car?"

"Well, I saw a dog open a cupboard to get at a bag of treats at an animal shelter once…" Neon remarked, awed by the notion.

"That is so not the same thing!" Anis declared, looking at Neon as though she were stupid.

As the two continued with their bit, Rapi gave Joe a put-upon look, and the Rookie Commander shook his head, focusing on the job as it was, reaching up and setting a hand over his combination comms/ear protection. "Shifty, can you give us any information about this place, given the situation? By scanning the building, I mean."

"Unfortunately, no," the operator replied, her voice noticeably more static-filled than usual. "Alva Particle concentration is high enough there that I can't scan the power station or its immediate surroundings, and I sent a direct inquisition to command about it being operational. Only word is that it absolutely shouldn't be, and… orders for you to investigate it."

"Yeah, figures," Joe rolled his eyes. "What do we do if we find survivors running the place, then?"

"Well, if anything, they're most likely to be stranded Nikkes…" Shifty mused over the commlink.

"We're really not that far at all from the Ark though," Anis countered with no small amount of skepticism, "And we haven't encountered any Raptures out here either - why would any missing Nikkes just… camp in a power station, get it up and running and everything, instead of just, y'know, hoofin' it to a nearby elevator?"

"They could be injured!" Neon proclaimed. "What if their legs got all messed up, so that they can't really get around outside, but they could drag themselves around a building? What if that's why they turned it on? To try and signal to the Ark that they're here and need help?"

Anis' brow scrunched up and thought, the short-haired blonde visibly considering the possibility for a few moments. "Well, that… actually, makes some sense? I mean, if Shifty can't scan the place because of Alva Particles, that would also stop them from sending out an S.O.S. signal."

"You see? It's probably a squad of injured Nikkes trying to call for help!" Neon nodded firmly as she pointedly looked Joe's way. "We should hurry to help them, Commander!"

"Okay, first off, we don't know that," Joe countered as he looked over the exterior of the building with the binoculars he'd packed along with the rest of his gear, spotting basically nothing of note. "What we should do, if we're going to investigate the building as ordered, is approach covertly, gather as much intelligence as we can, and only go inside if we need to. Just assuming that the building we were sent to capture is being run by friendlies is a really good way to get someone killed."

"The Commander is right," Rapi agreed matter-of-factually. "This is still a reconnaissance and capture operation, and should be treated as such - doubly so considering the Ark's intelligence has no idea of who, or what could be operating the power station. We should assume that whatever is in there is, at minimum, non-friendly until we find evidence to the contrary."

"Fair enough…" Neon replied, looking more than a little put off by the assertion.

"...I've got a bad feeling about this," Anis proclaimed with a heavy grimace - the look Rapi gave Joe affirmed to him that Anis typically had a bad feeling about everything.

Wild, how he could kind of communicate with Rapi wordlessly already. Didn't a pair have to work together for a fair while before they picked up the ability to do something like that?

…Probably just a fluke, not worth worrying about.

"Alright, Shifty?" Joe inquired.

"Yes, Commander? I hear you loud and clear," she asserted through the layer of static slightly muffling her words.

"Can you find any information on this building, from before the invasion?" Joe asked simply enough. "Blueprints, tourism maps even. Something to give us an idea of what we'll be going into."

"Oh, absolutely, the Ark has all the architectural information on the surrounding cities archived for purposes just like this. Just give me a minute to pull up the relevant data, and I should be able to provide you with a map of the building proper…"

---

"...Come on, there has to be another sneaky way in…" Anis whined as Joe affixed a filtration mask to his face. It might've been a futile effort, but…

"This waste runoff pipe runs directly into the heart of the facility, is large enough to grant all four of us access while moving single-file, and has no records of having monitoring equipment installed in it," Rapi systematically noted, listing off all the reasons to enter the building via what was basically a sewage pipe. Granted, the building hadn't been inhabited by humans for something like a century, but still, what sane person would want to crawl through a sewer pipe, regardless of how old it was or wasn't?

All the while, Joe had stripped off the jacket Marian had gotten him, rolled it up, and secured it as tightly as he possibly could inside of the waterproof bag he'd packed along with the rest of his gear. He'd expected to maybe use it for documents of some kind, or like, USB sticks, not keeping his gifted coat free from centuries-old shit streaks…

"But…" Neon whined, staring at the grated pipe opening with dread in her eyes. "Poop…"

Rapi's brow furrowed heavily at that complaint. "What are you, six?"

"Brave words coming from the one wearing all-black!" Neon cried with a pout, stomping her foot on the ground rather childishly. "I'm wearing all white! It's gonna be super obvious if anything… streaks on me!"

"This is why y'all really should have dedicated field uniforms…" Joe remarked, thankful that he'd had the presence of mind to buy really shitty, low-quality shirts and pants for field work he'd feel no remorse over losing if they were damaged at any point. His work boots… would hopefully not soak up the stink and would just need a good hosing down and… disinfecting, once they got back.

"...You look like a plumber or something, Commander…" Anis remarked with a disapproving expression.

"I'd be looking like a spaceman in a HAZMAT suit if I knew we'd be crawling through ancient human sewage at the start of all this," Joe countered as he snapped disposable water-proof gloves over his hands. "If you're all lucky, you'll only have to toss your thigh-highs when we get back."

"I don't want to have to toss anything…" Neon whined, playing with the hem of her thigh socks, grimacing heavily.

"Alright," Joe interjected, now about as ready as he ever would be. "We'd best… get in there, get this over and done with."

"I'm gonna be so mad if it turns out we crawled through a sewer pipe only to find a bunch of stranded Nikkes on the other side…" Anis grumbled.

"You'd prefer we find Raptures, then?" Rapi asked, visibly unimpressed with Anis' complaints.

"Well that'd at least justify me needing to take off and throw away my clothes after!" Neon cried out with a huff, before her eyes went wide and snapped to Joe. "W-wait, but if I have to take off my clothes, and the Commander is right there…!" she noted with audible horror.

"You're wearing a one-piece swimsuit under your sailor fuku," Joe pointed out, himself particularly unimpressed at this point. "A swimsuit that covers more than the sailor get-up does on its own anyways, I'll note."

While Neon looked like she'd just had all the secrets of the universe revealed to her, Anis rubbed her head while shooting Joe a dubious look. "...This kind of sounds like an excuse to get Neon to strip in front of-"

At that, Rapi reached over, gripped the grating covering the drainage pipe, tore it off its hinges, and dropped it on the ground. "Get in the pipe, you idiots…" she instructed her fellow Nikkes, visibly done with the byplay Anis and Neon were generating.

"Yeesh, harsh…" Anis grumbled as she did as instructed under Rapi's withering gaze. Neon followed suit, whining under her breath all the while.

Rapi moved to climb in herself with a sigh. "It's best if you follow behind us, in case we encounter anything inside of the pipe, Commander."

"Yup, no problem," Joe didn't complain as he clambered in after Rapi, shimmying along and-

At once realising Rapi, along with Anis and Neon ahead of her, was crawling along on all fours in the low pipe. Which meant Joe was going to be staring at Rapi's rather notably exposed posterior the entire time,

…This actually made up for the stink his mask wasn't doing as much to block as he'd hoped it would.

Luckily, though he quickly figured that he wasn't going to be able to effectively crabwalk through the tunnel, it was actually dry - which made sense considering the entire surface had been abandoned for a century. So, at the very least, he wasn't getting ancient mystery sewer juice soaking through the knees of his pants.

A few minutes of crawling and no small amount of hemming and hawing from Anis and Neon later, and suddenly, Joe crawled face-first into Rapi's ass when the girls all came to an unexpected sharp stop.

"Wait a damned minute!" Anis cried back down the tunnel over her shoulder. "Why aren't we just sending the Commander's drone down here for us instead of crawling through the stink ourselves!?"

"Because the Commander's drone uses radio waves that would be blocked by all the layers of concrete and steel surrounding the pipe, you idiot!" Rapi called forth, scooching forward even as Joe pulled back and pointedly didn't make a comment about what just happened. No doubt she was annoyed because she wasn't expecting to get his face in her rear, and he didn't feel up to exacerbating whatever annoyance she was surely feeling.

"...Oh," Anis sheepishly replied before she began shuffling onwards again, while Neon… seemed to hesitate for a few moments.

"Neon, what's the holdup?" Joe asked through his muffling mask, already feeling his back beginning to protest from this entire exercise.

"Just taking the chance to set up a bomb down here, since according to my calculations based on the blueprints Shifty sent us, we should be just below a support pillar!" the white-haired girl declared.

"What!? Why!?" Joe, expectantly, called out, understandably alarmed.

"What do you mean 'why?'" It was Neon's turn to speak as though she was talking to an idiot. "The whole reason I brought all these explosives was in case we needed to blow stuff up in case of an emergency, and for all we know, the power station is being manned by a bunch of Raptures! What if we need to detonate the path behind us and collapse the building on top of a whole lot of them in the midst of a dramatic escape?"

"...She actually has a point, Commander," Rapi noted, seemingly loath to do so. "Worse comes to worst, having explosives rigged might save our lives - if it turns out to have been unnecessary, we can simply recover what Neon set up afterwards."

Joe could feel Neon preening from around Rapi, "Okay, fair enough. Just… don't overdo it," he advised the bespectacled girl.

In response, Neon loudly snorted. "As if! There's no such thing as 'overdoing' firepower!"

After a moment of silence, Rapi twisted about in place to give Joe a wary look. One he returned in full. It'd probably be fine.

Probably.

 

[SongNai145]

You have a real knack for writing everyone in character and making the dialogue flow. I didn't expect this expanded discussion of sorts on mission areas or story plot lines but it does fit really well.

Here's to hoping the next event doesn't give Joe more PTSD >.<

 

[Queen]

This was amazing as said above it flowed really well and organically it was a great read, also was loling out loud when I read him blowing neons mind as well as getting a face full of prime booty. Also was pleasantly surprised that you didn't just have them in canon line up with joe behind anis, and that remark of anis about the tent a sign of affection already blooming? Or just appreciation of beauty? We shall see

 

[Fragment of Serenity]

...she's planting explosives... in a tunnel... with all of them still in it.

If they make it out alive and in mostly one piece, I'll be legit impressed.

Hope that Joe's got some damn good hearing protection, cause that much gunfire in an enclosed space is a BAD thing for hearing.

 

[Queen]

...she's planting explosives... in a tunnel... with all of them still in it.

If they make it out alive and in mostly one piece, I'll be legit impressed.

Hope that Joe's got some damn good hearing protection, cause that much gunfire in an enclosed space is a BAD thing for hearing.

Click to shrink...

you make a fair point, hopefully he got himself some selective ear protection that let's him hear raptures and his Nikke's callouts but dampens gunfire noise's, cause going temp deaf seems like it'd be a killer in battle

 

[BakaSmurf]

Hope that Joe's got some damn good hearing protection, cause that much gunfire in an enclosed space is a BAD thing for hearing.

Click to shrink...

you make a fair point, hopefully he got himself some selective ear protection that let's him hear raptures and his Nikke's callouts but dampens gunfire noise's, cause going temp deaf seems like it'd be a killer in battle

Click to shrink...

To quote chapter 4:

"Don't forget to put in your ears," Marian reminded him, patting the breast pocket of his jacket lightly with her gloved hand. "You would be surprised how many first-time Commanders have to make their way back to base with permanent hearing damage because they forget."

Right. His 'ears.' Reaching into the pocket, Joe withdrew what might've been mistaken for wireless earbuds back home - ones with absurdly overblown nibs in particular. Electronic ear plugs - a technology that actually existed in his time, though these were advanced enough that he shouldn't need dedicated ear muffs on top of them. He still requested over-ear protection as a back-up option though, he was no fool. Keep them around his neck just in case, if nothing else.

Otherwise, they'd let safe sounds in, and block out or at least heavily dampen anything which might otherwise damage his eardrums. Put 'em in, do your damnedest to forget about the thick material physically jammed into and unpleasantly blocking your ear canals, and come back without crippling hearing damage.

They wouldn't be comfortable, but having blood erupt from his ears would probably be even more unpleasant.

Click to shrink...

 

[Fragment of Serenity]

To quote chapter 4:

Click to shrink...

I'm more concerned about the resultant pressure wave from a high explosive at such close quarters. Then again, if they do blow, lack of hearing will likely be the least of his problems...

 

[Queen]

To quote chapter 4:

Click to shrink...

ahh forgot about that thank you for the clarification info!

 

[Nomad-117]

Ah, Neon... I guess its only a matter of time before she and the Commander will re-enact the "Rico Kaboom" meme.

Since discovering this story I actually watched a bit of the Nikke storyline. Suffice to say that it looks like things will only continue to get more complicated from here on out.

Although I do wonder how things will differ from canon due to Joe's actions.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 17 - An Entirely Predictable Complication
===

Eventually, the group found themselves coming upon an opening in the side of the pipe which must have been a maintenance hatch - quickly, though quietly enough, everyone was out, stretching out whatever kinks they'd worked up and whispering to each other.

"We need to ensure that we don't alert whatever may be in the building with us, not before we actually know what we're dealing with," Rapi declared. "Commander, I'd advise against trying to scout ahead using your drone in the building proper - outside, when it can gain significant height, the whirr of its engine and propellers can't be realistically heard."

"While indoors, it's far more likely that someone, or something will hear it," Joe replied with a nod. "Best to not be… daft about this," he opted to just be blunt. "Everyone stay together, we'll take this one room at a time."

"But, wouldn't we like, cover more ground by splitting up?" Anis asked, brow furrowing.

"No, the Commander is right," Rapi asserted as she adjusted her grip on her rifle, scanning the dark little maintenance room they were huddled up in. "Alva Particle density is high enough in this area that we'll lose communications if we're just a few metres apart. And if we wind up in an encounter, splitting our already minimal numbers would be disastrous."

"Least of all considering I would be making up a whole-ass half of one of the teams," Joe noted dryly. "So no, we won't be splitting up. So, that being said… Rules of Engagement are Return Fire Only. If there are Raptures in here, we do not want to engage them unless we are damn well forced to. Keep low, keep quiet, and stay out of direct light if possible. We get any indication that there are more than we're actually equipped for, we fall back, retreat, and exfiltrate the mission area. We were sent here to occupy an empty building, not single-handedly clear a hostile fortress with three under-equipped Nikkes," the rookie Commander asserted, punctuating each point with a firm gesture of his hands.

"If we do have to return fire at some point," Neon started, leaning forward conspiratorially, "it would probably be smart to return maximum firepower, right?"

"You do not have permission to bring the entire building down around our ears!" Joe pointedly declared, gesticulating firmly towards a deeply put-out Neon. "In fact, no explosives indoors unless I give my express permission!"

There was a beat before Anis piped up with a heavy grimace. "Hey! Wait a minute! Then doesn't that make me basically useless here!? I've got nothing but explosives!" the short-haired blonde asserted, gesturing over herself and her grenade launcher.

"Then use anti-personnel rounds!" Joe suggested, "the kinds less likely to take down walls with every shot!"

"Anti-" Anis blinked and looked at Joe with genuine confusion. "What, do you mean the small grenades Rapi uses for her rifle's launcher? Those won't fit in my gun, I've tried before! The Big Three deliberately design their stuff to use different ammo sizes from each other and junk!"

Joe stared at Anis blankly, yet still wide-eyed. Had she just fucking suggested that the arms manufacturers of the Ark deliberately designed the arms they provided the military to not share ammunition? They were deliberately and entirely unnecessarily complicating logistics on top of everything else!?

"You… just… use your damned sidearm then! It'd be better than nothing!" Joe asserted, palming his own face as he did so.

"...My grenade launcher is the only gun I have," Anis warily replied.

Joe looked Anis up and down wordlessly, visibly confirming her… complete lack of any kind of sidearm, any back-up weapon that wasn't a set of hand-thrown grenades, before pinching the bridge of his brow. "...Why do you not even have a pistol on hand, Anis?"

"Because I'm a grenadier! Not a pistoleer!" Anis all but whined, looking like she wanted to stomp her high-heeled foot petulantly. "Besides, Neon and Rapi don't have pistols either!"

"Why would I lug around a useless little peashooter like that when I could carry extra firepower for my magnum-class shotgun!?" Neon demanded, sounding downright offended by the suggestion, as Joe only then noticed that, indeed, Neon didn't have any sort of back-up weapon on her - just her shotgun.

When Joe turned to Rapi, giving the strawberry blonde a downright pleading look, given that she'd consistently been the smart and competent one… Rapi, looking like just about the most put-upon woman in the world, reached across her chest, slipped her hand into the folds of her cropped leather jacket, and withdrew an ultra-compact handgun from a low-profile shoulder holster.

Joe was finding it increasingly difficult to not love this woman.

Meanwhile, Anis just went blank-faced, and averted her gaze.

"This entire time," Rapi mused, practically glowering at Anis as she returned her pistol to its hidden holster, "I'd assumed you'd had the presence of mind to carry a spare weapon under your jacket - especially given how large it is compared to mine…"

Indeed, Anis' jacket was so baggy that she could probably stuff a whole-ass assault rifle under there without anyone noticing.

"...I assumed you didn't have a pistol either…" Anis lamely said by way of her defence.

Neon just looked aghast. At Rapi. Probably for carrying a secondary weapon instead of more ammo for her rifle, given previously vocalized thoughts on the matter.

"You idiots…" Rapi just sighed, shaking her head in bitter resignation.

"-Well, hey! Just loan me your pistol!" Anis demanded, holding her hand out to Rapi. "You probably won't need it while we're here, and-"

"Do you even know what model it is? It's calibre? What the recoil impulse is like? How to control that impulse under pressure? What range I have it zeroed at? How to reload it with any degree of efficiency?" Rapi snapped back at Anis past heavily lidded brows.

Anis stared at Rapi like she'd grown a second head for a few moments before grumbling, "A pistol's a pistol, what difference does it make when you just point and shoot them all the same…?"

To Joe's rapidly mounting horror, it was becoming increasingly clear that he'd been deployed into the field with one professional soldier, and… like… two… third-world militiamen. Good Lord, he hoped and prayed that Anis and Neon didn't think that setting the rear sight to the highest number on an AK made the gun shoot harder…

"...Commander," Rapi began again, returning her pistol to its holster, rather than handing it off to her fellow that evidently didn't actually know how to operate it, "We should get moving. The sooner we know our ultimate objective, the better."

"Agreed," Joe pointedly nodded, "Rapi, take point. Neon, support Rapi and follow her instructions. Anis…" he turned, looked to the blonde, who gave him a flat look. "...You're on Commander guard duty."

"Should I bash a Rapture's head in with the butt of my gun if one rushes you?" Anis asked incredulously.

"That'd probably be more effective than me trying to punch one with my squishy human arms," Joe noted with all the enthusiasm of a beached whale.

"...Fair enough," Anis replied, hanging her launcher off of her shoulder and all but pouting as she waited for the group to get moving. Joe would be sure to get Anis the training to use something other than her launcher once they were done here.

At any rate, Rapi took the lead, and rapidly, the group moved out to determine what they were dealing with, such as it was.

---

"Well, shit," Anis quietly hissed, the squad huddling behind a pile of ancient wooden boxes - observing a number of Raptures going about the room ahead of them, working the machinery to operate the power plant, clearly knowing exactly what they were doing as they audibly skittered about on their many mechanical legs.

"I told you!" Neon asserted in turn, "I told you the place was being run by Raptures! I told you!"

"Be quiet, both of you!" Rapi hissed at the pair, glowering heavily over her shoulder at the pair for their lack of professionalism. She quickly refocused on Joe, however. "Commander, what's the plan?"

"Exactly what it was before," Joe replied quietly and warily, staring at the mechanized alien horrors ambling about, making note of the fact that he was already spotting evidence of more beyond what they could currently see. "We exfiltrate, report our findings, and if we come back, we do so with sufficient support."

"That's code for 'superior firepower!'" Neon whispered to Anis.

With a roll of her eyes, Anis replied with, "Yeah, kind of obvious, you know!"

Joe was rapidly coming to terms with the fact that Anis and Neon were… not the professionals that Rapi was. In fact, they were… kind of idiots. Neon more so than Anis, but Neon was also demonstrably better trained than Anis was, 'quirks' aside.

Shifting around to head back the way they'd come, Rapi began, "Let's-" before firmly stopping, reaching out, and grabbing Neon by the shoulder to stop her in her tracks. "Wait!" She hissed, the group continuing to maintain their hushed volume.

Looking back… there was now evidence of Rapture movement along the path they'd taken to find their way there. Meaning that making their way back to the tunnel was going to be a lot more fucking dangerous than just… making their way to the control room had been.

"Fuck," Joe was eloquent in his brevity.

"Commander…" Rapi glanced his way even as she scanned the room around them, her ruby gaze drifting about with mechanical precision. "The situation just got significantly more complicated."

"Well that sure is one way of saying that we just got totally screwed!" Anis whisper-shouted, clenching her teeth together as she grabbed at the shoulder strap holding her currently-useless launcher with a grimace. "What the hell are we supposed to do!? We've only got two guns since Rapi's being unreasonable about lending me her pistol, and there's… too damned many!"

"I say we apply superior firepower to the problem and blast our way out!" Neon eagerly suggested. "Starting with setting off all of those explosives I set up along the way!"

"Wait, you set up more than the one!?" Joe's eyes went wide - did they need to keep their eyes on Neon at all times like she was a child or something?

"Our objective is to capture the building, not level it," Rapi chastised the white-haired girl.

"Which is why I set up smaller explosives in the daisy-chain!" Neon shot back with a huff. "Y'know, the sorts that won't take the building down around them? I'm not an idiot, you know!"

Rapi was visibly wary at the suggestion, giving Joe the look the two had already started to develop together.

He got it, he really did. But… "...Surrounded on all sides, our only known escape suddenly blocked off, under-equipped and under-trained…" Joe mused on their situation. "I don't think we're in the kind of situation where we can disregard any opportunity to even the odds we have."

"...Yes, Commander," Rapi replied, maintaining her professionalism as she remained at-the-ready, scanning the way by which they'd come resolutely.

"-Okay then," Joe started with a nod, looking Neon's way as Anis continued to stand there, pouting at her apparent lack of utility given the situation. "The explosives are… daisy-chained? Meaning you could set them all off from here?"

"That and Alva Particle density has dropped a bit since we started going through the building," Neon noted, bringing the thumb and index finger of her left hand together to emphasize the following point. "Juuust enough to let me send the arming signal to the bombs if I wanted to!"

Meaning that long-distance comms were still out, so no just calling Shifty and asking for help… every little bit helped, though. "Okay, so-" he paused when he noticed how Neon's brow suddenly furrowed in thought. "-Neon?"

"Why'd the Raptures stop walking around?" Neon inquired from their spot of concealment, to which… the other three suddenly became keenly aware of the oppressive silence which had overtaken them at some point.

"...Commander-" Anis started, turning about to face Joe more directly, her breath caught in her throat as she spotted something he had failed to, something off to the side - and she lunged at him, firmly shoving him over with wide, panicked eyes.

The near-blinding streak of light that cut through the air between himself and Anis dazzled the displaced Canadian in the instants before he hit the ground, flat on his ass, he blinked and stared back up at the blonde… and the look of shock and agony on her face as she herself took in the sight of the stump where her arm used to be.

Followed by a second beam, this one cutting clean through the barrels still partially obscuring the young woman, cleaving through her upper torso like a hot knife through butter.

Joe watched as Anis' severed head fell. It let out a deep 'thud' as it hit the concrete floor they'd been standing upon, and rolled towards him, coming to a stop between his feet. Face-down, beret having landed a few feet away, her messy dirty blonde locks splayed out, doing nothing to hide the fact that a human head belonging to a girl that had been depending on him to keep her and her squadmates safe just came to a stop within arm's reach of him. What remained of her body fell backwards and hit the ground with a far meatier thumping thwack.

Visions of Marian's mutilated body came to mind at once, and Joe was, however briefly, entirely blind and deaf to the explosion of gunfire which erupted from the remaining Nikkes and the Raptures that had set up, and successfully pulled off an ambush on them.

Joe stared at Anis' disembodied head.

They weren't prepared for this.

He wasn't prepared for this.

 

[palacesound]

Damn, you really did it.

 

[Fragment of Serenity]

Well. That escalated quickly. One member down...

You know, I kinda want to have just Joe survive this... and then have him kind of calmly shoot both the morons who sent him on this mission dead. Because irony is a bitch like that and it would be extremely therapeutic.

At this point, the only surviving option is a rapid withdrawal, using what chokepoints they can to limit the number of Raptures that can push them and then blow the entire facility. But considering that you only have one Actual soldier... yeah, I'm not liking those odds.

Again: holy shit Anderson and Ingrid. When you manage to fuck up, you do it in a truly awe inspiring fashion. 'We need to keep him out of sight. Let's fucking send him to die. That'll work, right?' Real pair of tactical geniuses there.

 

[VATSTeen]

Again: holy shit Anderson and Ingrid. When you manage to fuck up, you do it in a truly awe inspiring fashion. 'We need to keep him out of sight. Let's fucking send him to die. That'll work, right?' Real pair of tactical geniuses there.

Click to shrink...

This was a sure fail from the start. It was meant to take Joe away from the main Ark and into the Outpost where he can act more autonomously without the higher ups coming down on him hard.

Like sure it's almost certain death, but it was this or suffer the same fate as Goddess squad.

 

[Fragment of Serenity]

This was a sure fail from the start. It was meant to take Joe away from the main Ark and into the Outpost where he can act more autonomously without the higher ups coming down on him hard.

Like sure it's almost certain death, but it was this or suffer the same fate as Goddess squad.

Click to shrink...

Dude, there's assured failure, and there is sending someone in to die. As of right now, without plot armor, that team is dead. The entire group of them. They lost a solid third of their firepower in the opening engagement and have nothing to show for it. They're now surrounded, down a fighter, the commanding officer is having a mental breakdown. Any other persons than the MC would be fucked 10 ways to Sunday.

'We didn't have another option'. Bullshit. Your main military force doesn't even use standardized ammunition. If the morons in charge can't even figure out the issue with that, then Joe would be perfectly safe doing recon runs until the cows come home. Why? Because anyone with a single braincell that fires once a decade would have noticed the obvious advantage of STANDARDIZING YOUR FUCKING AMMO.

The problem is that High Command is both a somehow all knowing group of evil overlords... and a group so utterly incompetent that they can't shit in a toilet without instructions. Mission command seems to think them the former, despite a rather impressive amount of evidence supporting the latter. And neither Ingrid or Anderson seem to have a braincell between them, given their decision making process up till this point.

Sure, let's toss the highly traumatized person back into combat without any sort of therapy and only Ingrid's rather horrific attempt at tough love driving him forwards. I'm sure that in no way could fail.

No, what Anderson and Ingrid did was fucking stupid and I honestly hope that Joe at least gets a shot at informing them of that.