Stargazers

Codex 006: Project Centurion

::: Project Centurion :::

From the notes of Project Head Major Gerald A. Galahad,

It doesn't matter what the politicians or the historians say, Project Centurion was a success. When the project was first founded, it was not designed to build the most moral soldiers but the most deadly and the most efficient, and in that effort, we have had a success five times over. Even as we came speeding towards doom, it was only through those successes that we were able to avert a civil war which might have destroyed our entire way of life.

Lt. Steven Lancelot, the face of this entire debacle, is by all accounts the best soldier I have ever seen. He is deadly efficient and lethally skilled. Every mission given to him is completed without question and without remorse. His is a mind which understands the weight and responsibility of the military, and his only flaw is perhaps that he is too cold or too critical. In this case, however, he was a weapon pointed only at the wrong person. It is not his failure but the failure of those who used him so selfishly.

Lt. Jameson Arthur and Lt. Osceola Guinevere, much like Lancelot before them, are exemplary soldiers with perhaps more conventionally forward moral compasses, and it was their skill and teamwork which undid the plotting and planning of the politician fools who created this problem to begin with. While not as technically skilled as Lancelot, they have shown skills far surpassing other soldiers and nearly equaling his. These results are, of course, entirely in-line with what we have found across all five soldiers.

In this way, the project was a success, and Lancelot the greatest success of them all. It is politics which is trying to bury it through exposure. Lt. Lancelot is made into a monster by some and a tragedy by others. The death of Cpt. Gareth, promoted posthumously, is manna to the media, and Arthur and Guinevere are the heroes that they need to sell the story they've written.

Which is the problem with this world. Project Centurion was made to address a threat. It is being called a failure, a shadow operation, but all of the paperwork was public from the start. No one looked because no one cared. What little attention it drew was satirical—an army to fight space invaders who weren't invading. The problem is that it worked, however you look at it, and we now have five supremely dangerous weapons without a target to aim at.

We did, however, have political dissidents and politicians with interest. When Rep. Wagner of Asgard formally proposed succession the galaxy went cold. The Republic scrambled for an appropriate response in the light and scrambled for a dagger in the dark. Ours was the sharpest dagger, and so they drew it unlawfully. Lancelot did his job. The others did their duty, and the two opposing forces came to a head with lethal force. They fought. They killed. They destroyed the skyline in the resulting chaos, and now they are being assigned mantles black and white, respectively, as the citizenry decide their worth and purpose.

Lancelot is a good soldier. A great soldier. He is the best soldier. The quality of his humanity is tertiary. Arthur and Guinevere are perhaps better people, but that is not relevant in the military. Good people do not always make quality soldiers, and of the three, I've made my recommendation clear.

It doesn't matter. I should burn this after writing it. The witch hunt has begun, and my career is on the line. This will be the last I write of it, the last I speak of it. After today, Project Centurion will be a strange black mark in a number of otherwise impeccable records. We will rebuild. By all accounts, we will benefit from it, except for Lancelot. Look at Percival, who has already turned it into a boon.

I fear, though, that the galaxy isn't ready for what will come next.