Adventure the Third

[philip_charming]

[Coming back to the cottage from the battle with the statue, Philip took care of his horse Samson, moving on autopilot... then just slumped in a chair even as the horse flopped onto a carpet nearby.

Just give him a minute, he'll reach for the bandages soon... Right now, he'll just sit and stare at his battered and aching hands.]

I helped today. I know I did. Lives were saved by my actions; mine, and those of others. But what do you say to the people that died anyway?

What do you do, when your best just isn't good enough?

Comments

[video]

[philip-charming.livejournal.com]

Casualties happen, yes. Any fighting force knows it can suffer losses in any clash.

But bystanders have no business paying the blood-price. [Philip's been to war before, he's led men in battle. But this is his first time for an attack on civilians.]

Re: [video]

[brodexastartes.livejournal.com]

Your point is well taken, but it was still inevitable. It was just too large, and too hard to stop. If we had known what it was going to do, perhaps we might have saved more people but.... as it was, the casualties happened. If we spend our time stewing and lost in regret we are neither honoring their memory nor helping our own cases.

[video]

[philip-charming.livejournal.com]

...True.

[His shoulders slumped; he knew there wasn't anything that could be done about the situation, that the random crowd assembled to fight did far better than anything that could be expected of them- but it wasn't until now that he could really accept it.

Still he raised his head and looked steadily back at the Space Marine.] But it's not enough just to continue, to pay lip service and fight on as before. It's important to learn from their loss as well, and try to keep such a thing from happening again.

[video]

[brodexastartes.livejournal.com]

And what precisely do you think you may have learned from this?

[video]

[philip-charming.livejournal.com]

Organization.

Whoever runs the guardsmen here wasn't prepared to handle matters when the statue came through; the main defense was a random gathering of people with no authority just coming together and attacking it as best they could, considerably limited teamwork and nothing in the way of overall strategy.

That thing had been getting more menacing for weeks on end, it had been moving about being ominous for days now- and while I spent the time preparing myself 'just in case,' imagine if we'd been ready and waiting when it broke through the township's protective spell?

We did all that we could, under the circumstances, and we did remarkably well. But it's possible that we might have managed still better.

[brodexastartes.livejournal.com]

Are you proposing a more thorough organization of military assets here?

[philip-charming.livejournal.com]

I am proposing that those of us with the will to fight keep in contact. We showed our mettle, facing the statue; if we keep a loose network together, we can be assembled and ready if if another threat like that beckons.

[Philip's not about to suggest forming a private army; that could well be seen as a threatening act by whatever powers keep this place running, and Philip's not yet convinced that's a good idea.

But an early warning militia? MUCH more innocent a notion!]

[brodexastartes.livejournal.com]

I agree. Let us undertake this immediately.

[philip-charming.livejournal.com]

That's two of us, then. Now we simply need to reach out to the rest of our group.