Snippet #2307585

Locke began to pace again, smirking at his team's reaction. His eyes were drawn away from his soldiers and to where he was walking.

"I'm glad I have soldiers that keep me in check," he said, his voice more toned down acknowledging their rather respectful response. "It is my responsibility as your leader to keep you prepared for everything we are presented with to overcome. But to answer your question, Anthony, I did not expect a sergeant to get drunk, two somewhat experienced soldiers to not prefer rifles, and I did in fact expect the best of soldiers. This is the Omega Division, in ancient Greek, Omega means end, the Omega Division is deployed only to end struggle, and to open a path for our allies who could not have done so themselves. That is exactly what we're doing in our invasion in five days, deploying to Khyranus to cause enough chaos for our allies to take new paths. To end this war, Anthony. There is no soldier in human history that I can think of that has ever been tasked with as much as we have been." He stopped for a moment, collecting his thoughts as his words sank into his teammates minds. He looked back up and began to speak again.

"Arthur," he said, trying to change the tone of things to a more informal manner, "I think you forget that we will be surrounded by countless divisions of the Statehood's infantry and tanks, with guaranteed air support on their homeland. I'd expect that every team leader and their soldiers are doubting whether or not they can pull through with this task, and whether the man next to him will be capable enough to keep him from getting stabbed in the side. But that's why we're here... to train, so I don't have to charge into battle asking myself that, whether I am enough, whether you are enough, because after these exercises we should know where we're at. Honestly, I don't care if you missed only one shot out of 110 before, what's happened in the past doesn't matter except that your abilities were qualified enough to get you here, the details don't matter; what matters is your abilities during training and after training for when you actually have to use them. I don't care if you hijacked a Kainist flagship and got away with it, I care if you can do it again," Locke lectured. His voice was less on edge and more dull; he didn't want to cause yet another rift in the team with Alex gone now, but he wanted them to understand how he, as their leader, would develop their abilities.

He asked everyone, "Is this all clear to you?"