They're in the Army. Unless they've got generals stars hidden somewhere, they don't get to make those decisions anymore. And even Garza (horrible example that she is) is on a short leash, as she answers to the Senate. They may be a corrupt pack of lazy cowards, but they're still the ones in charge. The authority that everyone from private to general swears to follow, and the laws they swear to uphold. If one has a problem with the orders coming down they can a) find legitimate workarounds b) leave the military if their conscience is on the same level of a pampered civilian and c) shut up and get on the bounce. In short, if one can't make themselves carry out the mission, or carry out legal orders, than one shouldn't be in the military to begin with, because idealism gets left at the boot camp entrance. And finally, who the hell gave Mitka (or any other Havor trooper PC) the pull to make that call? In lieu of orders soldiers are to either hold and keep doing what they're doing, pass it up the command chain, or kill something. Not suddenly decide they have a better idea. As I said with my last critical review, Earthmama is a good author, and I'll keep reading. Just be aware that by now I'm hoping for what most others would consider a horrible ending.

Humph. So Mitka's short sighted idealism (if you can call treason that) won out over her loyalty (if she even understands the term) in the end after all. And Aric is such a lovesick moron that he went right along with her. Too bad. Hopefully Dorne has the stones to actually step up to her uniform and get the ball rolling on the required firing squad, but I doubt it. "We're doing good for the Republic, we swear!" Uh-huh. Tell it to the judge, traitor scum.

Reading that being said by an Imperial Chihuahua (read: Chiss) is rather amusing.

Bright: I am loving Vierce. The reasoning behind Havoc's treason is somehow more infuriating than the treason itself. They're special forces. Once a soldier puts that patch on his uniform, he immediately gets put on the "disavowed" list. It's the nature of the whole military branch. They get the toughest, most impossible missions because the brass know they can pull it off...even if it ends up being a suicide mission. With my Troopers I've really, really wanted the ability to completely tear loose on Fuse and the one you capture on Coruscant, asking what makes them think they're so special compared to every other soldier in the Republic.

Ten to one says most of the Dark Council took pictures.

*feels Kira's force* *gets slapped*

Hrm. Does Ainsley realize that she's just pushed Mitka in between a rock and a hard place? Aaron too, for that matter? The Star Cabal is a behind the scenes, very black and often outright criminal organization of unknown resources that seeks to control the Republic and Empire from the inside without the consent of said powers leadership or citizenry. Two of Ainsley's children are Military, and therefore flat out oath bound to not only report the location of that station, but the identities of everyone one it. If need be, they're required to take everyone there out. If they're both willing to be upstanding Republic Officers, that is. Wouldn't be the first time family ties made otherwise good soldiers embrace treason.

She already is. At the end of the war with the Vong Jaina is the First Sword of the Jedi Order. That means that even Luke thinks she's better with both lightsaber and overall tactics than he is. Hell, Jaina invented the tactics used to even the playing field against the Vong both in space and in personal combat. Traviss ignored that, and made her some ignorant princess that had to be told how to fly a starfighter and use a comlink, despite being a higher scoring Ace than her uncle Luke and having a spot in Rogue Squadron.

A thousand time this. I'm by no means a master swordsman, but I am a dammed good sword and board fighter in my SCA company. I've yet to meet a Florentine fighter that can hold up to proper offensive shield fighting.

I was hoping to see Pierce get his *** handed to him by Aric, but this was good too. Shiloh had much more reason to want Pierce dead, after all. Aric would have had more professional contempt while smacking about an Imp SF trooper well past his prime.

If the story followed what happens in real life at all, both the Player Character and Jorgen/Dorne would have their careers destroyed and be stripped of command, and quite possibly be booted from the Army, for having a romantic relationship at all. Jorgen is a subordinate officer so fraternizing with him would be a career killer. Dorne is even worse, being enlisted and under the Trooper's command, since then theres the specter of the possibility that the Trooper was abusing his command authority to get in her pants. In Dorne's case, she might be able escape getting a dishonorable discharge, but only if she were willing to throw the Trooper under the bus to saver her own ***. Even worse still is that it's Wartime. So there will be very little chance that anyone would escape unscathed. At best, both the Trooper and the LI would be separated and sent to different units after getting busted. Units far enough apart that interaction would be impossible outside of scheduled leave time. Oh, and both could kiss any hope of advancement or promotion goodbye. The surviving Havoc officer wouldn't even miss out on the *hitstorm, as he or she would have no ground to stand on to plead ignorance. They might retain command of Havoc after the Trooper and his/her LI are hammered, but it's not likely. Dorne could probably field a case that as enlisted personnel, she was nervous about outing a command officer she was assigned to. Doing so would probably save her career and keep her on as Havoc's new CO. Jorgen would be screwed over hard, as this situation would be the second time an egregious violation of Military Law happened on his watch. Even if he remained part of the Army, he'd be branded both incompetent and a troublemaker and his career would effectively be over. TLDR: Romancing Elara or Jorgen is fun and cute, but were it to happen in a real military unit it would destroy Havoc Squad completely. Best not to measure it next to real life.

I chose Jorgen. Firstly, he's the most experienced soldier in the entire squad, including the PC. Secondly, he was thrown under the bus to save Garza from scrutiny, and that just doesn't fly with me. Thirdly, I trusted him with the lives of everyone else. That third point is the most important. My Commando was romancing him, but that had bearing on the decision whatsoever. The best qualifier for a second in command slot is "If I die, who do I trust in the hot seat?" Elara's a fine soldier and a highly skilled officer, but she's never held a command position. Jorgen's been the man on the spot when it hits the fan, and the only reason he's not the CO of Havoc is because of politics. The choice was a sinple on for me. Elara makes a dammed fine #3, by the way. In the Bastion it was my Medic Commando and Jorgen on the sharp end, leaving Elara to handle the rest of the squad and the reinforcements, and she didn't even get flustered having to direct and cover the rear of three separate assaults on a fortified position at the same time. She's command material, and if the story were dynamic enough for me to do so, I'd tell Garza exactly that. Jorgen just has the edge in experience.

So an unsupported crew of jumped up street toughs was able to take on a reinforced army platoon led by a full squad of top end SF operators, kill the line infantry, disable the SF squad, and capture one of them, with the only casualty being the leaders "sullied honor" (Skadge doesn't count), despite this SF squad being able to smash whole companies in the field without aid, wiped out their Imperial equivalent early on, laughs at fighting Stih, and tasked with taking out the Empires equivalent to the Pentagon? "kay.

I find dual wielding annoying. I don't see it as flashy or neat, I see it as trying too hard. I hate that my Sentinel must dual wield to use her abilities, when I prefer single-saber fighting.

Better hope Traviss never gets wind of it, otherwise she'll spew out another bit of pathetic fanfiction killing Jaina off with a character she should have walked all over in under three pages "because she thinks Jaina is a bad jedi."** ***implying the hack that should have never been allowed to learn how to read or write likes any jedi characters at all.

My thoughts? I think that if this series draws any influence on Jaina's character from anything Karen Traviss got within ten feet of, it will suck. I think that if this isn't the first step in completely retconning that moronic hack's fapfiction out of existence in the Star Wars EU, that it will suck.

Technically speaking, under current international laws, being a mercenary is a War Crime in and of itself. As a non-uniformed, foreign combatant that abuses the protection afforded to civilians to attack military targets, greatly endangering said noncombatants. For the record, mercenaries (AKA: "defense contractors") are scum, and generally spat upon in real life by any soldier of any nationality worth his or her salt. They're only glamorous in fiction.

She's talking about Vette, and the whole thing could be considered a trap, since while she is small Vette is by no means pathetic. Hell, by the end, the only people on the whole dammed ship that could take her on is the Sith Warrior him/her self and maybe Pierce. In short, treat her well, she knows where you sleep.

Done. Sorry. /sheepish

I have to say, this is the main reason I love my Trooper far more than my Jedi. Troopers don't have a moral crutch or some sort of supernatural cheat code working for them. It'll all human fallibility, all the time. And they have to deal with it good or ill. More, they don't have the comfort of the Smuggler's sarcasm to cover up just how much their missions are costing them. They don't have the chance to make themselves believe their own BS, because once they're done making the Hard Calls on one mission, another one is chambered and locked. Really, the Trooper storyline isn't as emotionally crushing as it could be, or as I wish it would be. There's so much idealism in the Jedi stories and snarky fun in the Smuggler's epic that I really do wish that the Republic side had the Trooper to kick the player in the gut with "and this is what war really is." ...sorry. I'm slowly writing my own offering, and I've bee to get myself in the right mood and mindset.

AHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! I love what happens to Jasea, both whats she's done to herself and what happens to her. Talk about just deserts! Gods, I loathe DS Jasea. She's such a maniacal tryhard that I can totally see her "passions" leading her into being a sickening mockery of what she could have been. "Darth Desperate" indeed. I may dislike you intensely Pierce, but I'll give you props on that one. All things considered, becoming vine cat fodder was probably a mercy for Jasea, because I doubt Ardyth would be very impressed with Jasea assaulting her husband over him telling the brutal truth. Dantooine. Uh-oh.

What I'm really, really hoping for is for one of the saner members of the BH crew...wait. Mako is the only sane one. Okay. What I'd love to see is Mako telling Ava just how insane taking Havoc Squad on really is. Especially if theres some hilarity involving her taking her Miralukan friend by both shoulders and talking slowly, telling her to ignore Torian and his Mano Pride just this once.. And maybe kicking Skadge in the stones to shut him up, but I wish for that in every BH story.

*snip* fragging imageshack is't working right.

Irrian, my Sith Warrior, is actually light 4. Really, a "light side sith" would be a nightmare for the Republic, because he's an enemy that not only the military can respect, but the Jedi as well. My Irrian has not one DS point on him, and not because I'm being knee-jerk on alignment, but because the LS options are the long-sighted and level-headed options on the Imperial side. A dark mongering sith may be more individually powerful than Irrian, but he has far and away more resources and allies to call upon, and even if struck down, Irrian has a legion of people that will rise to see justice done. Name me a sith that has that. Choke on this, epmeror: Kel'eth Ur was right. At the end of the day, a LS SW ends up being stern, but compassionate. An amazing warrior and strategist, but merciful and respectful to his or her enemies. And enemy (and make no mistake, he is your enemy) that one can and must throw their all against, because he will be doing the same to you...but one that you know you can surrender to and know that not only will you be shown mercy, but that there is no shame in doing so. A Light Side Sith [Warrior] is really everything a true Knight should aspire be. Even more so, in my opinion, than the Jedi Knight.

Finally got my account working again, so I can at last respond here. I am really liking your story, Earthmama. I have it bookmarked, actually. Of all I've read, theres a few things that really stick out for me. One is that Ardyth really needs to die. The second is the pure cackling glee I had when I realized she was too much of a narcissistic, bullying, cowardly adult child (AKA: a standard sith) to face Mitka herself. I seriously laughed out loud when she hired Ava and her crew to take Mitka on rather than "prove her strength" and do it herself. Finally, the moment of dread when Ava took that contract. Because really, if one takes a look at things, getting on the bad side of one of the galaxy's top military outfits should rate pretty high on a mercenary's list of Things Not To Do. Good as any merc may be, they're a small crew, with great personal resources taking on a military industrial complex, and in this case, it's top SF arm. Bad Things happen to mercs that make that mistake, and I really hope Ava catches on fast to just what meat grinder she agreed to throw herself into. It's like *********** off Imperial Intelligence or Republic SIS. One does not idly mess with organizations that can rub someone out with the same exertion it takes to crush an ant or eat a morning cracker. Anyway, I look forward to more.