Recovered Barracks Transcript

Date: OT-3897

‍Location: Forward Ground Shelter, Letes-M6, within the Osiris Nebula‍

Classification: N/A

"Were you planetside when we burned through all the T?"

"Nah, was still in training, only brought on when they realized theyd needed more pilots."

"Man, It was surreal. They finished off their T right when we did. Entire battlefield went quiet.  Felt like I was walking through a memory garden back home, ‘cept instead of chorials, there were bots standing silent as stones. Only sound that broke through were a few Valiants crashing into the ground. Command tells us it’s temporary, that every available pilot will fill the gap, so we climb into the cockpits like it’s old Terra again. Hands on sticks, flesh back in the worn seats.”

“Yeah, then I was called in as part of the reinforcing group”

“We start again, and when your bot went down, you just climbed into the next one. The damaged ones were better, more handholds, easier to climb. The rest of the machines would have rusted for longer too, had the commander not arrived. Then all the machines hummed back to life, ours first, and then Armada’s. That’s how we knew they had a commander too.”

“Yeah I got here just before he did. I thought it was an orbital shot at first, ground shook something fierce and the debris from the pod breaking was practically shrapnel. After that, we didn’t matter the same way. Commanders controlled and coordinated so much at once. Grunts arranged into perfect grids, air and naval forces moved in sync, and artillery pinpointed exact targets.”

““NCS link. That’s what they told us. Neural Command Synchronization. Means the commander’s the only one driving. All those bots? Empty.””

“Yeah, I’ve seen it before. Or, I should say I saw someone try to. Watched a tech think he could shoulder the load for a second. He didn’t make a sound, helmet filled with blood, then nothing. Mind gone before his body hit the floor.”

“Power like that should answer to the Chain. The Code doesn’t tell us to bow to unproven Vreaks. No path should be above the Code. We’re told to defer to people who haven’t earned their place.”

“They don’t need to earn it, they were chosen. Chosen by the void.”

“Man I hope I’m never chosen, they say you return whole in body, but not in mind. They say you're different, like you left something behind in that vast darkness, and before the void lets you go, it seeps into that emptiness itself and sends you on your way.”

“You idiots have no idea what you’re saying. Not everyone survives the void, not everyone survives NCS, most die trying. That’s the trial.”

“Oh, we got a Voidie over here? You been hollowed out without telling us?”

“I’ve walked the memory gardens of family who were on Andromeda Gate. None of them died there, you know why? Because Tarpor drove Echoveil like a dagger straight into the heart of the Armada fortress there. He earned his Mandate with the destruction he left behind.” 

“Yeah, that’s not our Code” 

“But it is their Mandate. You think you’re special because you climbed into a Thug and melted through a few Pawns? Your burden is light, a Mantle easily picked up by another. A commander carries the entire weight of the battlefield and the lives behind it. Their death loses everything, entire armies collapse, a single soul carrying ten thousand lives, and that is why we follow them. Not because they’re above the Chain, because they’re a different type of link. ”

[Additional silence recorded for 8 seconds]

End Transcript

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