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Honey Whisper
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>Say it straight.
>I know that the day might be lost but what we do today will affect future battles.
Teskel decides to take the honest approach, despite the risk. This will be delicate.
"I'm here to learn," he says. "I need to gather as much information as I can on how to beat these critters."
"Too late," she says. "The city's lost. Our staff's already pulling out. Fuck, I shouldn't even be telling you this but it doesn't matter. Once the neumono take the city, all the important rail lines and roads radiate out from here. We'll be fucked for logistics, and they can attack outwards in any direction they want. Meanwhile they're pouring in recruits from their giant fucking population and we've got nothing to stop them. Planet falls in like two months maybe, not counting idiots and fanatics holding out in the mountains."
"Then what, Mirak?" cuts Teskel, firmly. He knows adhilians put formal emphasis on the last name, human-style. "History ends?"
"What?" She hasn't thought about it. "I mean... I don't know. They take over and do whatever."
"They build up space infrastructure and keep spreading," says Teskel.
"Bummer," she says without inflection.
"This feels like the end of the world, but it's not the end of the war," he says. "Help us, and we'll win and take back this planet some day."
"Who's we?" she asks. "LICTO? Vilous? They don't give a shit."
"I can guarantee LICTO is shitting itself right now," he says. He avoids mentioning Vilous. Aliens think Antev's still their colony, but that hasn't been true in decades. "We have to show them how to win. I need your help."
"What, me?" she asks. "What the fuck is this?"
"Help me gather intelligence on the enemy. How they move, how they act, how they cooperate."
"We don't even know that! No one does! It's their empathy, we don't-"
"You know, but you don't know you know. You've got the information you need. You just don't know how to put it all together, yet. Get that data offworld, before anyone has a chance to sanitize it into a narrative about unstoppable space bunnies drowning everyone in numbers."
"Actually, that sounds about right-"
"Prove it," he says. "Bring us uncensored data and come with me to vouch for it."
She thinks about it.
"That's treason," she says.
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