Volume 2 - Intermission 84.2 - Grand Viewing Gala I
| Remedial Field Reporting — Session 1 Transcript Instructor: Staff Sergeant Colm Evard, Scout Corps, 16 years active service Attendees: 23 Marines, various Roles and Squads Evard: "Alright. Settle down, everyone. Find a seat, stop standing around like you're waiting for someone to tell you this is a mistake. It's not a mistake. You're all here on purpose and for very good reasons." [Silence. Approximately eleven seconds.] "Nobody? Not one of you?" "We did really well and this is a surprise party…?" somebody offered carefully, earning a few chuckles. "No. Not even close," Evard replied coldly. "I'll just show you instead." [Display system activating.] "During the Tauron 6 engagement, your Company Leader put out an urgent request for field identification—specifically, what was firing from the UHF's own lines into the Stellar Republic formations and causing mass casualty. “A Battlefield-changing result, frankly. “But Command needed to know what was producing it, because when something causes that level of damage and nobody in the chain can account for it, that is a problem regardless of which direction the bodies are falling." [Pause.] "You were all in positions to observe. You all filed verbal reports. I had an AI reconstruct what you described. What I'm about to show you is what the AI built. Based on your reports. Which you filed on the Battlefield. Under your own names. In direct response to your Company Leader’s request. In the Battlefield-wide Command Channel. "Private Wachter—quoting directly: 'Friendly unit, appeared to be carrying some kind of rotating multi-barrel energy weapon, possibly experimental, very large, maybe gatling-type, hard to tell from distance, was causing significant damage to enemy formations.' “The AI built this:" [Stifled laughter, one audible groan.] "A four-hundred-kg Ultra-Heavy in custom experimental armour carrying a gatling laser roughly the size of a ground vehicle. Based directly on your report. “Corporal Nessa—'a friendly shooter, must be very tall for the angles they’re hitting, unusual weapon profile, some kind of long rifle with gatling function but different, glowing components, might be an energy lance or something, possibly modified or prototype equipment, was hitting targets at extreme range.' “The AI gave us a two-and-a-half meter tall juggernaut carrying what it labelled 'unidentified gatling energy lance, extreme range capability.' [Quieter laughter now.] "I have sixteen more of these. “A Marine with twin heavy ordnance launchers because someone said 'big guns, both hands, firing fast.' “One the AI labelled 'classification indeterminate, possible Ace-class, recommend immediate command escalation,' because someone said 'automatic aiming at several dozen targets, really hard to track.' “Your CO needed a straight answer and got twenty-three descriptions of twenty-three different weapons systems, four of which he was forced to escalate to senior Command for potential System-abuse flagging." [Display changes.] "This is what was actually there." [Silence.] "Recruit Thea McKay. Scout-Sniper. Alpha Squad. Light-type armour—Spectre-class. Standard Laser-variant Gram. “That's it. “No prototype equipment. No gatling laser. A basic-ass Gram. In light armour. “The two-star Crysium MVP half your reports described as a probable Ace-class asset in experimental heavy armour." [A voice, quietly: "...She's tiny."] "She is, in fact, not very large. Correct. And yet, here we are, regardless." [Pause.] "Listen, Marines: The words 'I don't know' are not a failure. They are information. 'Friendly combatant, light armour, standard rifle pattern, producing disproportionate results, could not confirm further details' is worth ten times more to your CO than 'possible experimental Ace-class heavy weapons platform, classification unknown.' “One tells your CO what you saw. The other tells your CO what you hallucinated—and will get people killed. "Now… Open to page one, let’s get started." [Shortened Excerpt from “Transcript — Tauron 6: Remedial Field Reporting, Session 1”, UHF MC Internal Training Records, PFC 943]
|