Aegis attends classes. They're harder, but she doesn't have the game anymore, so she does her homework, and when her homework is done she flies. She is homesick for her critters, but she knows they're safe in her mother's storage space Earthside.
She takes the personal combat elective. She can learn everything intellectually: muscle memory, for her, is how she showers (and Nina hasn't even graduated yet, let alone to Tactical in particular: there are six females on the station and so far Aegis hasn't run into any of them except the one who teaches astrogation). Everything else is about knowing. All Howlett has to to is tell her where to put her arm or how to turn her leg and she can do it. But as it happens this is also the highest level personal combat class Tactical School offers, so when she can not only beat the best student but also do it with skill instead of mere speed, they can't promote her out of it. She sticks around anyway; Howlett knows a lot.
She continues to do her processing in non-English and lets the teachers figure out what they want to do about her psychology.
And once, when she has a sore shoulder from a misstep in personal combat and doesn't feel like flying and is all out of revisions to make to her military history essay, she tries a little hacking. She didn't get anywhere in Battle School, but maybe she can do something from another vantage point. They probably don't require such sophisticated authorizations when they're sending station to station; it'd hog bandwidth. And she has known-plaintext in the psych files.
It takes some fiddling. She's not a computer specialist. But she can pretend to the computer that she's very innocent, syncing a backup of the psych data. She's lost all but this version of a few files, won't it please spit back to her what she's missing.
Eventually it does spit at her, and she copies it to her mother's storage too before they can wipe it off her desk - if they catch her at this she'll delete it from there, too, but maybe they won't notice or they'll outright let her have her fun. She sets a little program to decrypting it while she attends physics and it's done by the time she finishes the problem set.
She looks at what they have on her. It's about what she expected: copies of all her notebooks, comments about the accurate predictions a computer model spat out when given them as data, hysterical flailing when she stopped writing English, and her essays, with a few sparse notes. They don't seem to find her worrying. They seem oddly encouraged by her willingness to injure the boys who were hurting Sue, back when she was littler, half her current age. Someone wrote she's not aggressive, but she's decisive, and the buggers struck first, she won't have any problem wiping them out of the sky.
And that's true. She's seen vid of what they did to China. Even if there were some misunderstanding behind everything and the buggers didn't intend to invite total war, they turned living things into soup, destroyed a hundred historical artifacts, killed millions of people - they were not making an effort to be compatible with humans. She will not have any problem wiping them out of the sky.
She looks at what they have on Sue.
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i spy with my little eye
Isabella Marie Swan ᗜ "Aegis"
autokinetic
What they have on Sue, mainly, is arguments.
He's aggressive, all right. But only sometimes. He's unpredictable, but as a certain recruiter points out, he is predictable when it counts. He is completely unaffected by failure, but he will put everything into succeeding, if there's something in it for him.
When his mutant power manifested, the memos really started flying. Here, says his champion, is the perfect commander. He can link his top subcommanders in battle. Look at the cognitive speedup side effects, the synergy, the unheard-of synchronized maneuvers. Look how focused he is.
The main doubts about him are that he is basically nondestructive. Cooperative, not competitive. He'll win, but he won't do any more than he has to in order to secure that victory. And his response when his friend was threatened? Passive. He bounced communications around until he got a teacher and chased his soldier off with tentative, empty threats. Some factions believe that is a sign of weakness.
His original recruiter maintains that they just haven't seen him under the right kind of pressure yet.
He's aggressive, all right. But only sometimes. He's unpredictable, but as a certain recruiter points out, he is predictable when it counts. He is completely unaffected by failure, but he will put everything into succeeding, if there's something in it for him.
When his mutant power manifested, the memos really started flying. Here, says his champion, is the perfect commander. He can link his top subcommanders in battle. Look at the cognitive speedup side effects, the synergy, the unheard-of synchronized maneuvers. Look how focused he is.
The main doubts about him are that he is basically nondestructive. Cooperative, not competitive. He'll win, but he won't do any more than he has to in order to secure that victory. And his response when his friend was threatened? Passive. He bounced communications around until he got a teacher and chased his soldier off with tentative, empty threats. Some factions believe that is a sign of weakness.
His original recruiter maintains that they just haven't seen him under the right kind of pressure yet.
Isabella Marie Swan ᗜ "Aegis"
autokinetic
Heh. Birdbirdbird?
Friendly, affectionate mind-nudge.
Isabella Marie Swan ᗜ "Aegis"
autokinetic
Got some psych files. Wanna see what everyone's arguing about, about you?
Sure, gimme the scoop, he laughs.
Isabella Marie Swan ᗜ "Aegis"
autokinetic
Do you want them to maybe know that you know or should I just push it?
Just push it, he decides.
Isabella Marie Swan ᗜ "Aegis"
autokinetic
She re-skims the documentation on Sue, sending as she goes.
He keeps up a running background commentary of his reactions - mostly amusement - but one thing makes him produce actual words:
Sign of weakness my ass.
Sign of weakness my ass.
Isabella Marie Swan ᗜ "Aegis"
autokinetic
You didn't need anything more to chase her off, agrees Aegis.
Sometimes I wish I'd chased her off sooner, so she would've hurt you less, he admits. But it worked out okay.
Isabella Marie Swan ᗜ "Aegis"
autokinetic
How would you have done it any faster? She was already gone by the time you got there.
If I'd pushed the right threat first. Or yelled so loud she got distracted from what she was doing. But I don't know if I could've even done that without breaking my own arm and pushing that at her, or something.
Isabella Marie Swan ᗜ "Aegis"
autokinetic
I'd say they just don't know how your power works, but there's so much documentation on it that it's hard to credit.
Maybe they were expecting me to threaten to kill her or something, he says. Whatever.
Isabella Marie Swan ᗜ "Aegis"
autokinetic
Then if she called it, you'd have either actually killed her and you'd have people arguing about whether you're stable, or you'd have not followed through and they'd be wondering if you just talk big. Pft, they're just so mixed up about you that there's no win-win.
They're already arguing about whether I'm stable, he says. The undertones imply that this is a source of pride.
Isabella Marie Swan ᗜ "Aegis"
autokinetic
Yeah, they'd just have more ammunition. But hey, you have at least one solid advocate. I have one of those too, although fewer people have been fighting with him. Not the same guy.
Nice to have friends, I guess, he says.
Isabella Marie Swan ᗜ "Aegis"
autokinetic
I dunno if friends is the right word. People who are in favor of us having military careers.
He laughs. Yeah. Those.
Isabella Marie Swan ᗜ "Aegis"
autokinetic
Yours keeps sounding like he wants to have you commanding - vast fleets. So if he gets his way you're looking at being an admiral. I'm probably gonna be somebody's XO or something.
Maybe you'll be mine, he says playfully.
Isabella Marie Swan ᗜ "Aegis"
autokinetic
I dunno if that'd make sense. I have to actively concentrate to link up. And if I did it when anybody in authority was watching they might get nervous about the exo. She's pushed all the psych data on Sue now, and closed up the file and started skimming files on other people she knows without pushing any of their contents.
True, he acknowledges. I'd miss you if you weren't, though.
Isabella Marie Swan ᗜ "Aegis"
autokinetic
Inconvenient combination of powers. But if I didn't have mine I would've flunked the physical screen and I'd be Earthside. Only maybe alive and not drooling from brain damage.
Sue does not want Aegis to die or get brain damage. He feels this so strongly he pushes it without words, as an unspoken certainty.
Isabella Marie Swan ᗜ "Aegis"
autokinetic
Thanks.
He pushes the physical feeling of a smile.
Isabella Marie Swan ᗜ "Aegis"
autokinetic
You're sure a multimedia presentation, she laughs. Heh. They want to eventually have Nina running a bootcamp for enlistees who weren't prodigies enough to get into Battle School. They think it'll suit her temperament. They note that she should be supervised.
Sue giggles, and sends it.
Isabella Marie Swan ᗜ "Aegis"
autokinetic
A lot of these files keep sounding like they're geared towards finding one person to do something. One commander. And backups, but it sounds like there's some one-person job they're sifting through Battle School to fill. The one guy's pushing for you, but there's other favorites too. I don't seem to be in the running. They think I'm - well, I'm inclined to summarize it as too nice, but they don't like the way I let my soldiers pick their toons apparently.
Kuso, says Sue. You're not too nice, you're terrifying.
He means it in the most admiring possible way.
He means it in the most admiring possible way.
Isabella Marie Swan ᗜ "Aegis"
autokinetic
How'm I terrifying? I'm nice to my critters, I'm nice to my soldiers, I helped everyone under my command with stuff when I could, people keep complaining about it in the comments, I'm 'soft' and 'this is why girls scarcely ever pass the test, how did this one make it through' and 'of her two violent confrontations one was defensive on a friend's behalf, one utterly passive with no move from her beyond pleading to end the engagement; she does not aggress, she does not strike preemptively, she is too nurturing to be a good soldier', recites Aegis, looking over her own files again.
She is a goddess of vicious precision, with the will to build an empire and the intelligence to make it work, physically the perfect soldier, tactically and strategically a good enough commander to back that up and take him down in the battleroom. She is not too nice because her niceness is part of what makes her so good at what she does. That dream of his was right; she's an angel, she's an empress, she's magic, she should rule the world.
Sue pushes something to this effect.
Sue pushes something to this effect.
Isabella Marie Swan ᗜ "Aegis"
autokinetic
Eeeee.
Pushing feelings is hard, she has to lean so much on the bird-bird-bird-ing to get even words past her wall, but she sends Thank you! I feel all warm and fuzzy. Anyway, no one complains about my performance as a commander, I only lost three and they don't think it was because I did anything dumb. They're just drawing a lot on non-game behavior too because they know a lot of kids see the game as, well. A game.
Pushing feelings is hard, she has to lean so much on the bird-bird-bird-ing to get even words past her wall, but she sends Thank you! I feel all warm and fuzzy. Anyway, no one complains about my performance as a commander, I only lost three and they don't think it was because I did anything dumb. They're just drawing a lot on non-game behavior too because they know a lot of kids see the game as, well. A game.
Well, their analysis is fucked, says Sue.
Isabella Marie Swan ᗜ "Aegis"
autokinetic
It'd be hilarious if they let us comment on each other's psych reports and argue with the shrinks and colonels and whatnot.
He snickers. Don't tempt me. Or, y'know, do.
Isabella Marie Swan ᗜ "Aegis"
autokinetic
You'll have to do your own hack. Mine just copied the stuff, didn't give me edit privileges. What would you write?
That any officer with his head so far up his shithole that he thinks being a girl makes you unfit for command should obviously be fired and replaced with somebody who can think with his brain instead of his balls, snorts Sue, over a mental image of a pair of terrified testicles fleeing from the shadow of her glory.
Isabella Marie Swan ᗜ "Aegis"
autokinetic
Aegis laughs, and has to work very hard to channel all of it into the link instead of laughing aloud.
Sue giggles back.
Isabella Marie Swan ᗜ "Aegis"
autokinetic
Aegis wonders if she got the psych profiles of kids who just barely didn't make it. And she did, and the gender ratio is closer to even, although not close, and the profiles are shorter. It looks like the early testers are being - well, at least in spitting distance of fair to girls. A decent fraction of the tests they like are objective measures, some of them are blinded, and girls do disqualify more.
Wonder why.
Isabella Marie Swan ᗜ "Aegis"
autokinetic
I'm not sure. I last talked to a girl who wasn't filtered by Battle School tests six years ago, and I don't know how much to trust books.
He snorts.
Isabella Marie Swan ᗜ "Aegis"
autokinetic
It makes me feel weird. Weird for a Battle School kid, weird for a girl. Not, like, bad-weird. I like being a girl and being good enough to launch. But I feel all distinctive.
Welcome to the club, Sue says cheerfully. Bet you I'm weirder.
Isabella Marie Swan ᗜ "Aegis"
autokinetic
Mmm... I think your weirdness is more colorful. If most people are flat gray, you're tie-dyed rainbow and I'm a black-and-white pattern with lots of little details that looks gray if you stand far enough away.
He laughs. Yeah, I'll take that.
Isabella Marie Swan ᗜ "Aegis"
autokinetic
She pokes around her pirated files.
Heh. I have stuff on the teachers. Just the Battle School ones, not the ones here.
Heh. I have stuff on the teachers. Just the Battle School ones, not the ones here.
Any dirt?
Isabella Marie Swan ᗜ "Aegis"
autokinetic
Nothing yet. They're very rigorous, but I don't think they let anyone they don't trust pretty well teach there. You want me to look up anybody in particular? Do you even remember any of the teachers who you saw maybe six times each, besides maybe your launch 'mom'?
I think his name started with a D, he says vaguely. I don't really care.
Isabella Marie Swan ᗜ "Aegis"
autokinetic
She snickers. She looks up her launch mom. He seems to be friends with her advocate; there are a few more notes about her in his file about his reaction to her and what it means about him. She never thought he was being particularly partial, but maybe he's just a good actor. Whatcha doing?
Hanging out with Howlett. He hasn't said a word in half an hour.
Isabella Marie Swan ᗜ "Aegis"
autokinetic
That doesn't sound very interesting.
You'd be surprised.
Isabella Marie Swan ᗜ "Aegis"
autokinetic
What's interesting about it, then?
Maybe 'interesting' is strictly speaking the wrong word. It's not boring, though. Sue sits and thinks and giggles to himself occasionally; Howlett sits and does nothing much. Once in a while they look at each other. It's definitely not like spending time with anyone else would be.
Isabella Marie Swan ᗜ "Aegis"
autokinetic
This school really needs a games room, says Aegis.
Sue laughs.
Isabella Marie Swan ᗜ "Aegis"
autokinetic
Seriously, they go from filling our lives with all kinds of games to expecting us to do nothing but classwork, all day, every day. There's not even a simulator for tactics problems, you have to do them with the least gamelike models they could possibly program.
It's weird, he agrees. I don't mind much, though.
Isabella Marie Swan ᗜ "Aegis"
autokinetic
Why would you mind? You can do exciting things like sitting in silence with the personal combat teacher. Your life is a barrel of laughs.
She's done with the psych files for now. She closes them and does some of that tactics homework. There's extra credit offered for coming up with good answers that aren't the ones in the teacher's edition of the textbook, and she usually gets these without trying very hard.
She's done with the psych files for now. She closes them and does some of that tactics homework. There's extra credit offered for coming up with good answers that aren't the ones in the teacher's edition of the textbook, and she usually gets these without trying very hard.
Yup, says Sue, deliberately unironic.