Celebration

[abugslife]

1. The battle against the Decepticons and the AEP, which doubled as the field test of Bitles, was a full success. Everybody, well done.

With the death of general Onuris, the AEP command has been thrown into disarray, and it will take a longer time until another of their leaders launches an attack. His bigotous pride lad many Gebians to their death, with himself at the end. He got what he deserved.

Three AEP generals remain: Khaldun, Sagira, and Nekhbet. And, of course, high commander Teremun above all of them...

[Hetepheres trails off during that last part. Some people might know why that is.]

2. [The Gebians are celebrating their victory by watching a movie! The ordinary ones are sitting on several sofas and chairs, passing bowls of popcorn (with weird condiments added) around and chirping to each other. Hetepheres herself is sitting on a throne-like chair, almost unmoving. She has her own popcorn bowl.

The movie itself, playing on a large screen, might be very familiar to some people.]

I presume it is not normal for Earthlings to hold a grill party in the middle of a war zone, is it?

Comments

[ugyuuya]

Well we've definitely gotten the psychological care aspect of troop health improved greatly since the conflict that this movie is set in. Also this movie is based off of a book that was originally about ivory trade in Africa so the craziness is played up intentionally. Not that people didn't do insane things to try to get out of that conflict. "Fragging" superiors or just flat deserting.

[Yuuya waits for a minute before speaking.]

Though I could totally see VG or someone like him stealing a superior's surfboard to screw with him.

[abugslife]

VG must enjoy doing extra latrine cleaning duty.

How often does it happen these days? Shooting a superior in the head?

[ugyuuya]

People have always broken and gone off in combat. Modern combat doctrine and equipment help mitigate that risk by allowing panicked or stressed personnel to be rotated out or have their offensive capabilities restricted. There have been cases where pilots TSFs have had their weapons locked when they panic and lose fire discipline so friendly fire is much less of a risk.

That's not to say that mercy kills aren't done in certain cases, Lt. Takamura had to do one for a technician who was captured by soldier class BETA before we could reach her position in Russia to secure her escape. Vincent said we lost a hell of a tech when he went but it spared him a lot of pain. Yui was kind of stressed out for a while after that but she seems to be doing better now.

[abugslife]

What do the BETA do with Earthlings they kidnap?

[ugyuuya]

cases of kidnapping are rare, typically humans are messily broken and devoured in a battle zone. Tank class have the highest kill numbers of any other BETA strain and I've heard of swarms ripping pilots into 5 or more pieces before devouring them.

I count myself lucky that I haven't been involved in that kind of battle during my service.

[abugslife]

It is strange to hear tht cases of kidnapping happen at all, considering the BETA's nature as an all-devouring swarm.

What happens if they kidnap someone?