Human Edge

After the meeting, Snorri is with his Hussar. It had taken minimal damage before in the last engagement and the crew had done a good job. Working on it, fiddling with it though seems to be the thing to do with things on edge as they are.

Karlotta really went out of her way to search for Snorri, and decided to search for his mecha first. Bingo. Mechawarriors always had that thing on getting attached to machines. She approached the robot, looking up. "Hey, Tycho!" Karlotta calls over.

Snorri does a double take, eyes lingering on Karlotta before answering.

"Hey Roth. What can I do for you?"

"Ah. Just wanna talk." She replies with a smile. "You got me curious on that being trained by the Kurita thing, you know."

"Ahh. Got it." Snorri wipes his hands on a rag and pulls out a flask, taking a belt and offering it to the woman.

"Yeah, it's not exactly something I'm too proud of. I'm not going to say that I didn't have a choice...you always have a choice. But where I was, in the slummiest part of Rasalhague, those choices were pretty much grind out a life at the edge of starvation, become a street rat and try to claw your way up, or see if the Kuritans had any use of you. So yeah, I signed up"

"Ah, I see. Can't judge you, did the exact same thing. I mean, I had a little more choices, but yeah."

Not proud of it. Not a menace — though still a little one. She accepts the drink with another sip and hands it back. She had better, but was not complaining of free stuff.

"Got curious about it. At least you didn't seem to promise some years of service or something like that. Swearing to serve for a number of years you can't choose is such a trap. I look tenderly at those NAIS students."

"Heh... about that." Snorri shakes his head and places a hand on his Hussar.

"The thing is, I kinda did. Of course there was a bit of a small problem. My homeworld declared its independence in the Succession War and little old me who considered soldiering a job surrounded by people who called it a Holy Duty."

"Calls started coming down. Someone wanted to make examples. I was in an integrated unit, so I wasn't immediately snatched up when the first word of the show trials were starting. That was my cue to get the hell out. "

" How are you the same? "

On the mention of holy dutu, she cracked. Simply as that. "You know, I always had a seed of common sense on me and always thought that what they told on the Combine to the recruits was more talk than reality. Propaganda, you know the name."

"Then, because we were training on the same planet, we went to talk about the locals about the massacres and I went... Hell no, you know? Anyone who is half human wouldn't do something like that."

"They told us about the Ronin Wars as well. Had what you said. I didn't think it was real."

She had put her hand on her gun without realizing.

"Not that much in common. Just the had nowhere to go so I went to the military part."

Snorri edges closer at the sight of a gun.

"I don't know what you heard about. We were in the middle of a shooting war for most of my time. One we were losing, and lost, mind you. We didn't have time to go around kicking puppies for fun. "

" But the Ronin Wars... some of those people I came up with really bought into the Combine philosophy. Believed it so deeply because that was their own path out of the muck and shit. I was well out before the Ronin Wars, and I heard stories like you. But I believe them. They aren't too outlandish"

"At least you were decent enough not to get carried away. I felt pity before for the fanaticals. Like, sure, they were try-hard die-hard for the Combine, but they were still people. Could be fixed, you know. Maybe it's because I'm too optimistic. Then I realized that, like, no, no way it was feasible to unbrainwash so many people intent on dying. It's easier to just let them get what they seek." She sighs, looking away.