Image credit: fleet: Jack Gallofree & ((face, found here, unsure of the original))
Episode 4. Battlestations! The high-security war ends by diplomatic means without shots fired, less than ten minutes to undock to the first battle. Ships of the wing and our Rookies with them deploy to Triglavian-infested Pochven. Kathy has ideas on how to make ship armor hardeners more efficient, but finds that on a combat ship, few people have the inclination to listen to the new gal. Maryam, Kimi, and Neylan see their first real battle, at a structure defense in Skarkon. Kimi talks about her clan’s belief that every human-made tool has part of the spirit of whoever made it and whoever uses it, and how that feeling is enhanced by the proximity of death.
“When you’re on the Sam-El-Dee, and you know missiles are already flying outside and there’s incoming fire, and the damned thing gets stuck, and you are busy trying to find a way to hack it to unstuck itself, and the loader Chief’s breathing down your neck, you’ll end up pleading and cursing it like it was another human being, and when it’s all over and the damned thing is still there and you sit with it and are, like, so we survived but no thanks to you, buddy, it’s like… yea, machines grow on you, and you can develop a relationship like that with a tractor on a farm once you’ve worked with it a decade, maybe. But one battle like that and Sammy has stolen a part of your spirit forever.”
“SAMLD. Semi-automated missile loader drone. Each has a human keeper, because let me tell you, that ‘semi’ is some rose-tinted optimism if I ever saw it.”