The gift

[srwu_mods]

[1]
Unity Group's finance-related problems have eased over time. Nowadays they are pretty much gone and situation is back to how it was before.

But now, you get a reminder why the problems started in the first place.


"Holy crap! It's like Christmas came early!"

Loni's here. And so is his new unit. In the hangars, equipped with twin beam katanas, stands a stark white unit. The top of the line one of a kind prototype - the BrightSaber.

[2]
What about the old FightSaber? It's still being used, as a matter of fact someone is taking it through a training course right now. It jumps from cover to cover swiftly, shooting down target drones with gravity blasts while avoiding their counter fire.

Once the course is over, the time and score displayed are impressive. Browsing the results database would show that despite the unit being underequipped compared to its loadout from before, it scored higher than Loni ever did. But he's not the pilot this time.


"Yes, that's acceptable. I can work with this."

Ilinka is.


"Nice, Ilinka. This is a much better ride than a crappy old Gespenst. Now you won't need rescuing all the time anymore!"


"..."

By the way, Desta's nowhere around. Maybe the third of the Gavin party is not in mood for Christmas spirit.

Comments

[actuallyselfish]

"Luck, natural talent, super-prototypes, and you!" Dido replies, a bit more loudly. "They'd have been dead in ten days without you!"

She exhales a ragged breath. "I...I'm sorry, Ilinka: I shouldn't be so harsh. But..."

She composes herself. "Have you ever heard of the Dunning-Kruger Effect? It's a cognitive bias the psych-techs discovered a while back. It's where screw-ups falsely think they're hot stuff, because they're not skilled enough to realize how incompetent they are. No basis for comparison, you see? And because of that, they never try to learn or self-improve."

She meets Ilinka's eyes. "There's also awesome, skill people who falsely think they're incompetent . They're discouraged because they know enough to realize how far they have to go, how much more they have to learn. Sound familiar?"

[srwu_mods]

"..."

"..."

The period of quiet is long and awkward. But finally:

"I see."

"I'll have to think about what you just told me."

[actuallyselfish]

Dido exhales softly. "Thank you, Ilinka. I didn't mean to be a downer; I really do believe that with better teamwork skills, you and your friends will be able to overcome anything."

She turns to go, then hesitates. "Say, Ilinka? That super-soldier program that Loni and Desta rescued you from...you guys burned it to the ground, right?"

[srwu_mods]

"... As well as we could."

[actuallyselfish]

Dido gives a thumbs up. "Righteous."