Chronicles

Diaz:
You’re late.

Lee:
You’re a fool.

Diaz:
Late and petulant. Verbal insults have never been your forte, Charles.

Lee:
I’m not taking him with me. He’s a child.

Diaz:
He’s eighteen.

Lee:
Children are fools.

Diaz:
Then we all have something in common.

Lee:
I should be surprised at this idea. Throwing some kid into the heat of battle. But you’ve always been like this.

Diaz:
Idealistic?

Lee:
Aggressive.

Diaz:
I don’t disagree. But I feel rather slow to the fight, as of late.

Lee:
No one feels slower than me. Funny how so little can happen in twenty years.

Diaz:
So little? A fleet sized armada is little?

Lee:
It’s not enough.

Diaz:
That’s why we have Chase.

Lee:
No one will ever be enough.

Diaz:
Then what do you suggest we do? Find another galaxy to live in? No. There’s no avoiding it. They are coming.

Lee:
Are they? I doubt myself sometimes.

Diaz:
You doubt what you saw?

Lee:
No, I know what I saw. A fleet that puts everything the Citadels have ever fielded to shame. But that was twenty years ago. No one talks about the Atrox anymore, and I don’t blame them.

Diaz:
You’re giving Nexus too much credit.

Lee:
They took my report, chewed it up, and spat out the pieces. They made it so easy to believe the Atrox aren’t out there that I almost believed them myself.

Diaz:
We know they’re out there. The USF, our academies, we’ve been preparing for this fight regardless of whether our officers and cadets realize it.

Lee:
And what about Chase? Does he realize it?

Diaz:
He knows as much as most: seventy-one years ago we found an alien ship buried beneath the surface of Mars. Twenty years ago you encountered their fleet, and nobody has seen them since. That’s not enough now. I need him to feel this threat as deeply as you do, otherwise apathy poses a greater threat than the Atrox. It’s time for Chase to know from you directly.

Lee:
Why the Pathfinders? Why not put Chase in a command post immediately?

Diaz:
The Pathfinders are revered among cadets, especially here at Shi Yang. Your team is vitally important to USF operations, and he’ll learn more from you and your, to put it delicately, breadth of experiences, than he could from anyone else.

Lee:
You said you’re taking him out of his classes a year early. Does he need more training or not?

Diaz:
He needs you.

Lee:
He shouldn’t need anybody if he’s half as good as you say he is.

Diaz:
Respectfully, I disagree.

Lee:
Respectfully?

Diaz:
Show him what it means to lead. He knows the theory, he needs the practice. Who better than a Pathfinder? The only one who has encountered the enemy?

Lee:
There’s something you’re not telling me.

Diaz:
If I had a secret to keep, you would be the first to know.

Lee:
Yes, sir.

Diaz:
You need to speak with Chase about the Atrox. Tell him what you saw.

Lee:
I haven’t agreed to take him on.

Diaz:
You will. He needs you to do this, to help him become the leader we need him to be. You and I won’t live forever. Chase will be the one that keeps going.

Lee:
It’s a death sentence. He won’t be coming home some hero. He’ll be another kid killed in action.

Diaz:
It’s all a death sentence.

Lee:
Don’t. Don’t pretend like it’s easy. I saw the decimation of my fleet. I have an idea of humanity’s odds.

Diaz:
Then help him have a fighting chance.

Lee:
I-

Diaz:
Please, Charles. Take him on.

Lee:
I want to talk about the war.

Diaz:
You’re stubborn. Which one?

Lee:
The AI War.

Diaz:
I’m far too concerned with the one outside our doorstep to relive the horrors of the past.

Lee:
So you agree it was horrific?

Diaz:
War is horrific.

Lee:
You don’t want to talk about it.

Diaz:
I don’t.

Lee:
Well I do. Let’s pretend we come out of this thing on the other side. If we do, I want you to understand that we need to be whole.

Diaz:
Who?

Lee:
Humanity. Humanity needs to be whole. We can’t break again, where we win one war and then drown in its aftermath.

Diaz:
We didn’t drown after the AI War.

Lee:
Some of us did.

Diaz:
We were children then, you more so than me. We weren’t variants. We weren’t prepared. We didn’t have someone to guide us, the way Chase could have you. He won’t make our mistakes.

Lee:
Forget Chase, I’m talking about you. You command the whole of the USF Combined Fleet.

Diaz:
If you’re asking me to predict the outcome of a war that has yet to happen, I must leave you disappointed.

Lee:
I want you to promise me this time will be different. That you won’t leave anyone behind.

Diaz:
These kinds of things never change, Charles.

Lee:
Fine. I’ll change it. I’ll take on the kid.

Diaz:
Then we’ve reached an understanding.

Lee:
If I do this, I’m going to push him. Might break him.

Diaz:
Do what you must. Whatever it takes.

Lee:
And if he breaks?

Diaz:
...

Lee:
Understood. Whatever it takes.