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If you are not willing to put the time in to train some one properly then you should not have suggested yourself as a mentor.

You may go and help the Initiative as you see fit, if you think their cause is worth the risks you will be taking for it.
But, have you ever considered that playing soldier in long ago wars might serve to make United Earth stronger instead? We do not know what caused this war between them so we have no way of knowing which side will benefit from the actions taken in the past. You and any who would take this suggestion may do more harm than good.

As teachers may teach a child to read while professors teach a man to mold logic, there are stages of specialty.

Regardless, you make an adequate point. There is no telling what the effects may be. Though, it stands to point that given the current run of this iteration of our timeline that inaction is fatal. Whether or not your ideals are right, cowering behind the concept of unknown, unconfirmed repercussions is the mark of someone who is already defeated. Such a thing is the perspective of a prisoner.

I'll allow you your mindset. However, to those such men and women who operate with brave souls, I'll lend my assistance. Those who cannot stand up to such things--I'll recommend them to someone else.

And your specialty is folly?
Simply taking action for the sake of doing is not a mark of bravery. Some times it is far more difficult to wait for the right moment to act than it is to rush in.

[A feeling he is dealing with very acutely right now, what with his fellow Rebels having been captured.]

You are a soldier you must understand the need to know what it is you wish to gain from a battle before getting involved in one? There has to be a clear goal.

A clear goal...? You would think it was so simple. Most times, when someone rallies soldiers, it's behind a banner alone. Other times, they find luck in a principle to fight for. Other times, it's simply money and the weight it takes in the hand holding it.

'Waiting' is a rather meaningless thing, given the Transporter. The Initiative had waited too long. The United Earth had waited only somewhat less. 'Strategy' and cunning have been left alone for the sake of brute force. If such a thing determines the field, then I am peerless.

Perhaps you are more used to simply following orders? You do not wish to consider the deeper implications of what you suggest.

Your method is too reckless... too aimless... Sure if you beat your fists against the wall for long enough it will weaken and fall, but why bother when it would be far simpler to climb it? Strategy and cunning are nessacary to avoid unnecessary battle. With those one might win the war without even a single shot being fired.

If you wish to do something to help why not try gathering supplies for this Moonbase instead of heading off to war with the inexperienced. The supplies would be more useful.

[Lancelot paused, frowning inward. While he still didn't agree with Giovanni, his measure to mention supplies cause the entirety of his attention.]

...Gathering? Not immediately. Rather, I've been under the impression that it would be better to create a means of creating supplies. Through war, there are occasionally lands left aside and abandoned.

Lands in the past that do not belong to this age. It would be better to find land that could be used in this time.
You have heard that they are trying to create the means to support everyone on the moonbase by growing food here? If you asked those involved I am sure they could direct you to what items they might need to succeed in that.

The world beneath us has little to no room for cultivation. The ground is poison--it may as well be a coating of salt.

It would be better to create the necessary supplies in a time of thriving vegetation and transport it, instead. That as well--crops take up an abundance of space. With the United Earth's surveillance equipment, it would make it much easier to spot crops from the skies.

I was speaking of the hydroponics lab in the agricultural wing. They are attempting to grow plants on the moon, in water alone. It makes more sense to have our supplies closer to where we actually are than stealing from time as you suggest.
Besides who would you get to run these time farms? The native people, transports? Here we already have people working on the problem they just need the supplies to complete it.

I'm aware of it. However, given the repairs needed to retake the previously lost wings of the base and the size of our group, I believe it would be more beneficial to take a less personal look at things.

It would take little to control farms in the past. I imagine it may be as simple as creating puppets to control them, wouldn't it?

[There is just nothing in any of these plans he likes the sound of. Now it was the word puppet that set him on edge. He hoped this man was not speaking of slavery.]

What do you mean by 'puppet'?
And even if you did manage it what would prevent United Earth from destroying those farms as we have destroyed their plans by journeying to the past?

I'm no business-man, so please excuse my lack of knowledge in this regard. I'll only introduce what it is I have experienced of such a thing.

In my old Kingdom, I remember crops and farmlands being bought by the king--particularly to stabilize them. I would be referring to the one who formally keeps their name on the 'deed' as a puppet, while we would both be funding the farms and collecting from them.

I am sure you mean well, but we have no funds to maintain large farms and have we not messed with history enough as it is? You would alter the course of people's lives in the past just so we could maintain ourselves here. This is unacceptable to me. We need to rely on our own abilities in the here and now, and not conscript more people to join this war. Gather supplies from the past, maybe, but the people should be left in peace.

Gathering supplies would be much the same of this concept. Regardless, so much as shifting a vase in another era could have dire consequences. From the standpoint of a man experienced in war, consider--

If we maintain one supply of food, another catastrophe such as the undead plague would uproot this base and leave those dependent on food to die in the ensuing struggle. On top of those things, the ones maintaining the supply could vanish. Simply collecting supplies from the past in small groups will not suffice, either. The ones doing the gathering could vanish as well.

People of this universe do not seem to vanish as we do. Regardless of your views of imposition upon others, in the span of a war, the people you fight to defend will be inconvenienced immensely. A soldier will thrust himself before a blade turned on a civilian, but in return, the civilian must ensure that such soldier does not starve.

I am very new to this concept of time travel. If simply shifting a vase could change future events then maybe we should not be gathering supplies from the past either. It will make it more difficult for us, si, but we should find a way to make do.

I am only a banker, not a soldier.

[And well, an assassin, but he's not like to admit that on an open network like this. ]

If the people chose to support our cause then I would feel better about it, but the way you were speaking it sounded more like a conquest. And Kings... I have no use of them. I would have the people free to make their own paths in life. I would not support a system of serfdom run by puppet Kings. I hope you were not suggesting one.

When one wages a war against a monarch, one has to behave quite a bit like one. [Of course, he was stealing from the rulebooks of Camelot's enemies, but they weren't ineffective ideas in play--simply bordering on moral standards Lancelot barely clung to.]

I have no interest in controlling a king. I simply know measures which allow one to fight a King effectively.

When one weighs the moral consequences of their actions, they tend to think on an immediate scale. Will taking this man's life cause unending grief for his wife? His mother? His children? In reality, you should weigh him in terms of your goals.

Will ending this man's life weaken the King? Will taking his grain impact the King's soldiers? An unwilling war is our 'modus operandi' as a whole, but... there are none here who can shoulder the weight of decisions with such consequences. It must be taught to these soldiers, since they refuse to rally under a single banner--that clinging to morality is something only a hero can do. If they're to win, they would do more harm than good attempting to be such heroes.

I agree in that some times dangerous men must be killed in order for conflicts to be won, but disagree in most else.

You are far too quick to risk others lives. Have you no conscious about the things you suggest at all? A death must be weighed against what would be gained and what would be lost. A blade should be used only when there is no other option. It should always be a terrible thing when a man dies, because all life in precious. The people have no duty to serve you just because you are a soldier and they are not.
You claim these are the thoughts only a hero would have, as if that is a terrible thing. Should we not all strive to be better than we are, to consider these harsh realities carefully before bumbling in and sacrificing lives?

Moreover, this is not a conventional war. We can not fight it as one. There is no one King to defeat. You can not rely on castling or setting up supply chains in the past. The reason why the Initiative only runs limited missions, I assume, is that the United Earth would set out to destroy any kind of permanent base in the past and we can not defend the past and the present at the same time. We do not have a large enough number.
It makes far more sense to me to do limited surgical strikes... much as the Initiative has been. With no warning when and where we will be the United Earth has less opportunity to strike back and therefore fewer people would be placed in danger.

You are reckless and arrogant. Your methods would serve only to escalate the situation.
We are up against an idea and a set order that has been in place for generations. The United Earth exists only because the people within it tolerant it. If they were shown what their government was doing would they stand for it or would they find their voice and decide to join us? I think their sense of compassion, that notion you dismiss, would see them join us and there would be little need for your immoral soldiers.

What naive thinking-- as if read from a storybook.

I will rescind my beliefs, then. If these people require heroic men too distracted by relying on fairy-tale ideals to win, then I will be useless to them. If and when such confrontations require killers suited for war, then I will respond. For the moment, I need only consider where it is we are in terms of victories and losses to see how morality has shown who the better men are-- how the Initiative's methods have gained them anything.

I will always find men such as yourself to be admirable, but as I've grown into adulthood, my experiences have taught me better. If you find compassionate men and women in the United Earth, then you'll have found something even more rare than myself.

If you think idealism is naive. I hold that there is always hope for a better tomorrow. In time people will come to understand this and treat each other with respect and kindness.

I also never said the Initiative was moral, I said only that their manner of attack and retreat was better suited to our number. I take issue with their methods as well. I see no reason why people should be kidnapped from time and brought here to serve as soldiers in their war.

[As for the rest Giovanni shook his head. ]

Sadly men like you are not rare. It is very easy to become jaded and see brutality as the only way. I have met many such men in my time.

[Killed many such men even. ]

It is regrettable we can find no way to agree on this.

Men of my mentality are not rare. Men of my talents, fortunately, come to this world very rarely.

However, I do not view such things with regret. In my age, such idealism was a thing of beauty. In my times, I've fallen to darkness and cannot agree with them anymore. I may be one such reason why I believe those ideals cannot come to fruition.

Unfortunately this is something we can agree on.

[This said with a measure of regret but their ideas were polar opposite. It was possible it might even set them against one another in the future, if Berserker ever chose to act on his plans. ]

However, I must pity you. If you're correct and I am at fault, the world will be all the better a place.

If I am correct and you're at fault, then none should be the victor.

There is no need for pity. I am well aware what I seek might be difficult or even impossible to attain, but I am still willing to fight for it all the same.

Quite the romantic, then. I've not met men such as yourself in years.

I wonder where you have been looking. I am not unique in this belief.

[It is a feeling many of his assassin friends hold as well. ]

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