Officer Mindset Training

[Qora]

"Congratulations. You've all passed your aptitude exams and now you're all commissioned officers of Her Imperial Army. I'm going to be your instructor today on the value of the soul." Taking out out a brass holed coin, "For those of you that thing I mean this literally I am speaking in a more figurative sense. There's a reason we call this a soul and that's because the currency she deals in are in lives and we should not forget this. More on that later. I'm going to teach you a little war game and for this we're going to emulate the Imperial Army command structure. Which of you aspire to become a banner lord?" One hand is raised, "For this you're the Banner Lord. Pick your subordinates and so on until you go down to Legion Legate."

Several minutes pass

"Good. Now each of you gets a chest full of coins in accordance to your station. Your superior determines on where you spend these but you determine how you spend these. As for the Banner Lord, as your instructor, I will represent Qorsikan Command. All of the failures of your subordinates will look badly on you. For a visual aid if your Banner wastes too much money you will be forced into an early retirement." The instructor gestures towards a guillotine. "And to determine this every soul spent will be put into this coffin." The instructor then gesture towards a coffin on the side of the room. "When you're put into an early retirement a replacement will be found. This doesn't extend to only the Banner Lord. She may also place the blame on someone else and after an investigation we will either sustain or overrule the plea. She may also request an investigation to send any officer in her chain directly to retirement as well."

"Now, I will give you a mission and for every death that occurs under your command both directly and indirectly will have a single soul tossed in here." He tosses in the brass coin she is carrying into the coffin. "This includes civilian deaths as well. Whether they're Qorsikan, Alien, or Enemy. You are to minimize civilian deaths. She doesn't want a city claimed without anyone to live in it."

"There are, of course, ways to minimize this. Giving a warning to the civilians, having civilian give reports and broadcasts of the situation, and giving a full evacuation of the area being the most extreme. Their lives are most important. Their property are not." A man enters the room wearing a gilded robe.

"Should the civilians ever give you a threat of any kind you are to report it to your local Inquisitor," gesturing towards him. "Failure to do so will have any terrorist attacks be added to your coffin. As an example, you are given a threat which results in the loss of 500 souls." The instructor tosses a bag in the coffin. "If you instead report this it would only be comparable to the size of their organization. Terrorist organizations have the tendency to be small cells, as you shall see." The Inquisitor tosses five coins into the coffin and takes out the small bag.

"The Inquisitor doesn't wait on your every beck and call though and will lead an investigation on his own. You can easily tell the amount of unrest in your domain by watching how many deaths your local inquisitor reports."

"As we're 'fair' here there's two last things that you will need to know. On a monthly basis you'll be receiving reinforcements based on your posting, your political usefulness to Her Scion, and your ranking. They will be given to your Banner Lord who will distribute it as she sees fit. Secondly, all the souls spent will be converted into the next increment based on the base number of the species involved at the same time you will receive your reinforcements. Unfortunately, this also means you’ll also get a monthly report to see your spending habits. Those who are determined to spendthrift will be court-martialed."

"Lastly, for the variables. Qorsikans use base 20 as that is the traditional number of counting. Most aliens use base 10 as that apparently is the multiversal standard for counting. This means that a Silver Soul represents this many Brass.” The Instructor shows 100 brass coins on her desk. “Most of you will thankfully not have to wrack your brains converting this… nonsense… as you’re more than likely to be taking care of Qorsikan holdings. For comparison purposes this is what it looks like.” The Instructor adds another 400 stack of coins visibly separated. ”And may the gods save you if you’re defending a species that uses base 2.”

"The size of the Coffin you will be given to bury yourself in the wasteful loss of life will also be determined by the importance and the population of the front you are given. Some worlds are so depopulated that it is impossible to fill the coffin shown. It would thusly be made smaller to accommodate. Some worlds are so heavily populated that a 1% loss of life will not only fill the coffin but bury it as well."

"Do you understand the game's rules as presented?"

"Remember this above all. Your duty is to the protection of Her People."