"So what are they willing to give us?" An exhausted Donovan was speaking to Diana, who had her head buried beneath her arms on the table. Mercedes, sensing her stress, was making a futile attempt to lick her face.

"Don't know yet. I want to say a lot, but it will probably be a sort of lend-lease."

"Like a loan? Do they expect us to pay them back?" Donovan vaguely remembered the term from his studies of the old terrestrial wars.

"Montaug mentioned the Theocracy's desire to have us alleviate some of the burden related to their defense in the future, so it likely has to do with that. They want us to be a buffer state." She sounded ultimately dejected at this proposal. Essentially, they were going to be bodyguards.

"A buffer state? With only two people? Surely this is some form of long term investment right?"

"He arranged a meeting with us at some high class restaurant tomorrow. He said to bring your sword instructor."

"Why would he ask for Titanyana to come?"

"I don't know!" Diana finally raised her head, submitting to a barrage of affection from Mercedes. "I can't read his intentions at all! He could be looking to verify her integrity or just be showing some courtesy, or any number of things. I get he probably isn't planning anything malicious, but that only makes me more confused about it."

"You can't tell what he has to gain or lose by inviting her, do I have that right?"

"In essence, yes. I can't manage expectations, and it's a nightmare. I finally get what all my instructors meant when they told me I needed to maintain the initiative, the alternative is proving to be much worse than anticipated." She was forced to focus her attention on the aggressively concerned Mercedes, giving Donovan some time to think about their situation.

It wasn't great, but it was far better than some of the alternatives. The biggest area of concern is that they were losing some degree of control, something which had the potential to endanger their freedom of action down the line. The buffer state expectation was an excellent example.

It wouldn't be detrimental for them so long as their immediate interests aligned with the purpose and responsibilities of a proactive buffer state, in fact it would be quite beneficial for them considering their short term objectives. External subsidization of military infrastructure accompanied by a place to call home would help them tremendously in quickly getting to the less immediate concerns like establishing a market for exports and building up goodwill. However it was when those long term concerns were considered that the prospect of a buffer state became problematic.

Even if they weren't expected to surround the entirety of their territory, they would probably be influenced to form some sort of unreasonably elongated or otherwise decentralized border. Even before considering issues that would arise from distance in fields such as internal trade and bureaucratic management, having to deal with protecting a disproportionate 'length' in comparison to the area they controlled would mean tying up too much of their foreseeably limited personnel and resources in defending it.

It followed that they would be forced to be reliant in some way or another on the Theocracy for something they would need.

Of course they could always decide to renege on their deal with the Holifanians, refusing to proactively defend their borders after gaining enough power to make war with them a net loss, but that was inadvisable for a multitude of reasons. For one, the stain on their image diplomatically would be atrocious, but proactively tarnishing the good graces of the second most powerful faction they knew of was the worst part.

"Retreating from a battle isn't always a bad idea, Diana." Donovan, limited in his knowledge of diplomatic maneuvering, was trying to make a connection with proven military stratagems. "Of course that doesn't mean you should retreat from every battle, but when in a disadvantageous position it can be a good idea to buy yourself some breathing room and assess your situation and options. I say let this one slide without thinking about it too much and prepare for the next battle, as it stands we'll lose even if we try."

"Diplomats fight with words and influence, Donovan, not guns and blades."

"True, but they both fight. Have you considered you might be doing exactly as he wants you to? You seem awfully stressed over something that doesn't seem to warrant it." He put his hand on her shoulder from across the table in a bid to get his concern across. "Let's calm down and not think about it, okay? In fact, lets talk about something entirely unrelated to anything that has happened or will happen within a week, just to get our minds off of it."

"When did you become such the emotional bastion?" Diana sent a playfully accusing glance his way, her hands still deeply submerged in Mercedes' coat. "Fine, but I get to choose the topic. Why is it that you seem to be so much better than me at your job? I feel like I'm always barely managing while you just seem to cruise through."

"Well that's pretty simple isn't it? I haven't done a damn thing of importance since I woke up on the Oberlux! You can't really even count on me for assistance, so of course you're overworked. I'd be happy to help you, but I don't know if-"

"You know that wasn't what she was talking about Donovan." The tablet on the table spoke with ARC's voice. It didn't carry the same weight as the speakers in the Noah, but ARC insisted that it be able to speak with them regardless. "She implied that you outclassed her in your ability in your field in comparison to her own. I must say that I agree."

"Are you asking me why I'm good at combat?"

"I'm asking you why I'm failing in my duties, and what it is I need to improve." Diana was essentially admitting she was not up to the task she was given.

"A-uuuuh. I'm not sure if I should say what I think the reason is. I feel like it might destroy what little confidence you have left." Don didn't want to rock the boat.

"We are past the point where we can worry about that Donovan. If I'm making a mistake in any way, even on the fundamental, I need to know about it as soon as possible so that I can fix it!"

"Yeah, point taken. Still, how do I want to bring this up?" Don sank into thought for a moment. He didn't really know much about politics or negotiations, but he had a hunch that there was a flaw in the way she was trained, one that her mentors had no way of properly addressing. "Diana, how much serious practice with your field did you do back on Earth?"

"Ahm, maybe three or four hours of hard negotiation a day with the rest left to stuff like analyzing deals and negotiation tactics of the past. Is there something wrong with that?"

"Maybe. What were the stakes of your negotiations, if you don't mind my asking? Were you ever at risk of losing something? Were you ever denied the ability to use some tactic in practice?"

"It depended, I suppose, though I really don't know what you are referring to."

"If you don't know what I'm talking about then they clearly didn't place a heavy emphasis on them. To give and example for you to compare to, how do you think combat simulations were covered back home?"

"I imagine that you were given a selection of ships, an objective, and a starting location, maybe some specific restrictions on your actions too, but I wouldn't know what else you'd go through."

Don thought about her perceptions for a second. She was a fair margin off the mark, but from coming from an outsider without knowledge on space combat it was a reasonable set of expectations.

"I'll walk you through the gist of it, just so I don't miss anything. To start with, you are correct that we are first given an objective. Sometimes it is an offensive task, sometimes defensive, sometimes its a supporting role to a separate action, however a list of primary objectives are always first. Following that comes the process of determining secondary tasks, a list of targets to destroy, protect, or occupy that will help accomplish the primary tasks or increase the effect that accomplishing it might have. This list of secondary objectives is most often left up to the person in command of the simulation.

Once these objectives have been ratified and approved by the instructors acting as central command, the commander begins constructing a fleet. There are a varieties of ways this can be restricted to help simulate different wartime conditions, but usually a point system is combined with a fractional composition chart to cap the total combat strength of the ships as well as not allow too much of a single type for a mission.

Following this, we are given some freedom on our approach angle and relative velocity to the combat zone in order to fit our strategy, after which the engagement is carried out. There might be some misinformation in the intelligence that makes the parameters different than expected, but that isn't important. Given all of this, how do you think we are graded?"

"I'd imagine that your accomplished objectives and adaptability to changes in circumstance and unforeseen challenges."

"That's part of it, but one of the biggest factors is risk management, which is far harder than it sounds. Before we are even permitted to start tactical training courses, we are required to take a class that makes us clear about the cost of just about everything. We are intimately familiarized with the financial and industrial costs of vessels, ammunition, fuel, and personnel, as well as the associated upkeep. We are given numbers on crew complements, and the effects that the loss of even a single scout craft can have, only then are we given a small skirmish simulation. What do you think might be so special about this simulation?"

"Eh? Why would I know that?" Don just gave her a look expressing that he didn't expect her to. "Em, would it maybe have an enemy you can't beat?"

"Close, but the enemy can very easily be given you take an equal or greater number of ships than them. The trick with that situation is that no matter what the result is, you lose."

"What?! How is that fair? Who would even have you participate in an exercise like that?"

"Simple, to teach a lesson on risk management. If you take too many ships from your main force, they end up succumbing to enemy light strike forces. If you don't take enough, you either take too long to dispatch your enemies and your main fleet gets overrun, or the forces you are skirmishing with manage to defeat you and flank the main fleet. If you fight a delaying action against them with a sufficiently small number of ships that the main fleet can win, the enemy will shift their attention to one of your other primary defensive objectives, the retreating damaged warships from the main fleet.

However in spite of your eventual defeat, you can still pass, though a failure will not be held against you. So long as you fend off the enemy's force long enough for the damaged ships to make a fighting retreat with a small enough force that they aren't immediately routed by light attack ships, you have done what was asked of you. Unfortunately, this is also the point where most quit."

Diana was visibly confused.

"I suppose the proper way to describe it would be trauma. During this engagement, you can hear the communication between the ships you command, all of it. Some of it, I assume, was procedurally generated, but there are definitely recordings from actual people dying as vessels are destroyed. It really hammers home the fact that you, above all else, are in command of people, not inanimate objects. From that point forward, you enter combat simulations fully understanding that every time a ship is destroyed that many people are dying, often very painfully.

Even though nothing will really be lost when a ship goes down in the simulation, it teaches you to act as if there are real stakes in every subsequent simulation you plan for. Every time you intentionally sacrifice a ship to accomplish an objective, you do so with the understanding that it was probably the only way to do so without losing more. The stakes are made very real from that point on.

That leads me to question whether or not the training you received implemented similar stakes. Were your instructors doing everything in their ability to make sure you would eventually need to sacrifice something you could see as very real in order to accomplish your imaginary objective?"

Diana did not expect such an answer. She could immediately comprehend why such a thought process would be desirable to implement into a command structure, and subsequently why such experience with calculated loss formed him into the man he was.

"They weren't doing anything like that, no."