CC9 stares at Dohr as he speaks, not that he has eyelids (and thus any choice as to whether to stare or not).  After a few seconds of silence once the Kel-Dor has spoken he grates one line in reply.

"Your statements have been noted."

With no body language to speak of it's hard to tell what kind of an impact Dohr's comments have made on the droid.  nonetheless he does not pursue the matter further and instead falls silent, presumably to await someone else's opinions on the matter (or further querying about his own opinions).

"I am with my fellow commander here. There is and always will be a difference in whether the mission is training with no injury possible or real, live-fire situation. Whether a scenario is realistic or not, there are a number of variables that can effect that. In practice, however, what has been said by Dohr stands to reason. We did lose by a narrow margin, but it was because the rules of the game were not exactly clear to begin with. As what comes to the performance of the team and my comment, you seem to take my words as an insult rather than a compliment. I believe, there is something lost in translation there - the team performed well, far better than I might have given you credit for based on our first encounter. Of course, my first judgement of the team was clouded by the lack of objectivity on my part, for which you must forgive me due to the circumstances back then."

Mika gives Flash a grin as he recalls the past mission.  "So, if I caught it right, the question was would Dohr have acted differently if it had been a live combat and he said that he would.  And with that, CC9's pronouncement would be that the exercise was a waste as far as data gathering goes.  Did I miss anything?"
This message was last edited by the player at 15:11, Thu 21 Aug 2014.

"Most people vary their actions when the danger of death becomes more real, yes.  I have considered ways to improve incentive to govern carefully in these kinds of scenarios but that can wait."

Cor addresses her next comment to Idaya.  "Again, you say the team performed better than you would have given them credit.  While a compliment I believe it is what you might call, in Basic, a 'back-handed compliment.'  But I did not state that your words caused offence, not to myself in any case, I am simply... puzzled as to what amount of credit you might have given the team."  Cor's voice is still mild, her expression calm.  "I do understand that there was an unfortunate... miscommunication on your initial encounter - and I feel the urge to express that it is mature of you to admit to clouded judgement regarding it - but I believed it resolved and I would not have thought it reflected on the team's combat ability.  In your first combat situation with the team you all managed to assault a pair of armed and manned heavy weapons emplacements without a single casualty, with minimal planning and minimal armaments.  I personally was very impressed."

Her hand appears briefly as it comes into holoframe, a gesture which waves the matter aside.  "Still, that is not a particularly important issue, simply something that puzzled me, as I suppose many things do.  Perhaps it is something to be pursued later but I doubt it.  The topic is what went right, what went wrong, and so on.  I have watched the recordings very carefully and while I am not physically present I believe I have a fairly good grasp of the way things... played out."  She chooses her words with the distinct and characteristic care of a person to whom Basic is not a first language.

"Firstly, there was a lack of information regarding the layout.  There is nothing to be done about that and far heavier and better equipped forces have been exterminated by a combination of insufficient intel and an enemy with superior landscape familiarity.  In truth the team was almost certainly going to take heavy losses no matter what the team or its leaders did."  She lifts one shoulder in a shrug.  "Nonetheless there are issues that came up and even I, untrained in any kind of military manoeuvres, could recognise.

"The lack of a lookout in the first moments of the scenario have been discussed.  I agree with that.  Two people at the windows with sniper rifles while a plan was being devised might have changed the scenario entirely.

"Another point was that I noticed command orders being issued only to be countermanded and belayed several times.  As I have said I am not a military person but it seems to me that too much of such activity makes it very hard to coordinate as a team.  In addition I noticed that several times, Idaya, you attempted to take indirect control of Dohr's team and order them about.  Again, perhaps this is only my perception; I suppose Dohr would need to comment on that matter directly.

"Weapon loadout was a problem; I have a suggestion to make there.  Nobody knows the skills of each member quite like that member.  Each of us knows which weapons we are skilled with and which we are not.  Anything larger than a pistol is going to give myself, for example, serious problems; indeed, I do not ever wield a weapon more deadly than an ion pistol, and that for very specific reasons.  Many of our number have military backgrounds but we are not a military outfit per se; the point of our organisation is to bring together experts in individual fields and to let them do their jobs in the ways they know they can best get them done."

Cor smiles briefly and nods her head toward the rest of the team.  "By their nature, the team is intelligent enough to decide - quickly - which available weapons match their skills.  If you are deciding loadouts then you must do that, inform people, make sure they have taken the weapons you have specified and then continue discussing the plan.  While that self-governing aspect perhaps runs counter to many military tactics I would suggest, regarding weapons, that a more efficient method would be to tell everyone to take two weapons - a main weapon and a sidearm - and to share power packs out, while the two leaders are still assembling a plan."

The Umbaran shifts in her seat slightly.  "It confused me that Hammer's assault team was directed through hostile territory under covering fire and then, when they were in place to provide covering fire themselves, another team did not join them.  That seemed an unusual diversion from the earlier stated plan but perhaps the military members of that team feel differently.  I have not consulted them."

She tilts her head.  "I hope that makes sense.  And please remember, I am merely suggesting, not dictating nor criticising."

CC9 swings his head about to look at Mika directly.  "Affirmative.  My calculation is that it was a waste of resources specifically for achieving the scenario's primary stated goal: to assess the leadership ability of Idaya and Veen under live-fire circumstances without actually putting the team in live-fire."  He then assumes his prior stance.  "The issue of resources and experience are separate; if the scenario gained the individual team members some benefit then that itself, the experience of the scenario, was certainly not a waste.  That is, however, not what the mission was for.  If the primary goal had been team-building, recreation or tactics practice then those things could have been achieved using the same resources in more effective ways to produce those effects."  He pauses briefly.  "It is a simple but perhaps fine distinction."

Flash laughed at Idaya's statement.  "This isn't regular military.  The 'rules' are never clear.  I'm betting the lack of clarity was deliberate on Seven's part."

Dohr waited until it was quiet again before responding to Cor. "I would rather not comment on the actions of my fellow commander during the exercise, Eleven. I feel that is something you and your team should do. And I should like to think this is not a competition between the two of us and even if it were, I feel it is not my place to assess the fellow contestant. And to be honest, I was concentrating more on the task at hand than the way Idaya was handling her assignment."

Dohr drained the last drops of his drink an continued: "And on the weapons distribution issue, I agree with you. It was a mistake to spend time in that. But we did wish to make sure the certain roles in the assault teams had the needed weapons. Yet that being said, mistakes were clearly made in that as well. Therefore leaving the whole sorting of weapons to the team would have been the wiser choice… But I would like to emphasize that by handling the distribution ourselves, we in no way meant to underrate anyone's skill or intelligence. And I hope it did not come out that way. I fear it was my military background talking. As an officer I have assessed the performance and skills of soldiers myself and in the army we could not afford to have everyone choose their weapons. But I did realize what you just said already during the game. It was indeed another error made."

"I am merely attempting to encourage on-topic conversation, Mr Veen, not create a 'competition' where, indeed, there was none."

Devons return was foreshadowed by the arrival of Sev, who glided into the room and beeped a cheery hello at the M4 projecting Cors hologram.  A few moments later, the shipjacker himself arrived and immediately headed for the food again.

"Ok, so." he said as he helped himself to munchies.
"I'll admit to having overheard some of what you guys were saying, so let me just make a few points: when I set this scenario up, I genuinely didnt care - and still dont - whether we won or lost.  Don't get me wrong, I'd have LIKED to have won, but thats not why we were here.  And the purpose wasn't to put the team through a life-and-death situation either - we did that back on Det Akari and came up aces.  I KNOW we can perform when the chips are down."

Turning round to face the group, Devon leaned against the edge of the food table and consulted his datapad.
"The whole purpose of today was to test out our two potential squad leaders without anyone actually getting killed."  he glanced up at Dohr and Idaya and said mildly "And thats why you're insistence on treating this as a game is a problem - it means we still have no data on how either of you will really operate when the real thing happens."

He paused for a moment to let that sink in.
"OK, so what good data HAVE we got?  You've already pointed out some of the mistakes you made and suggested corrections - lets hear the rest.  What do you think went well?   What went badly?  What mistakes were made?"

"Like Dohr said, our first mistake was to take time to make a plan without keeping an eye out for the enemy. The fault lies on me just as much - I should have set up a perimeter security and that would have saved us a lot of trouble if not the whole match. We also divided our forces, which worked and did not. I did my best to remedy that once we were on the enemy side of the field. As the reason, why I did not move the other team over once the first team had crossed over to the enemy side, the reason is, I could keep the repeater occupied long enough to have the other team to take it out. Had we run before that, we would have been shot down quicker than we could have made it at the halfway there.

I did choose to make a potential sacrifice at the stairwell, because if we did not move forward, they would have been able to hit us from any direction and we had a chance, we would break through and reach the top before they could catch us. It was not much, but it was more than we could have gained waiting."

Kyvarr looked at Devon evenly.  "I think the main problem Idaya would have is the same one I do.  We're both soldiers.  We're used to military procedures, chains of command, soldiers who are drilled to follow orders.  This group while highly skilled lacks that discipline and adherence to orders.  In fact, it seems to be one of your major strengths, you operate independently without direct orders.  While I find such a group intriguing, I have no doubt I will need time to adapt to it.  I imagine Idaya does to."

The Cathar wasn't sure if she should be suggesting a potential weakness in the Chiss who was currently her superior.  Still Kyvarr imagined that if she was having trouble getting use to this group's lack of military discipline, a career officer like Idaya must be too.

Heigren grinned.  "Well nobody performed as terribly as me.  I stood on a roof and had my head blown off with a single shot without even taking my pistol out of my belt.  I'm afraid I'm not a soldier.  My skills lie in other areas."

Devon nodded agreement with Idaya.
"Yeah - if we'd had a spotter whilst planning, it would have solved a lot of our problems - we'd have known we had a vermin problem in our building and could have moved to deal with them before we assaulted the enemy.  Although, that being said, you do realize that our assault was - despite casualties - so successful that they actually pulled their infiltrators back to defend their building?"

Turning his attention to Kyvarr, Devon continued.
"Yeah, we dont do a straight chain of command - if you're the expert on the spot, you call the shots.  That's why I gave you command of that assault back on Det Akari - you're better at that crap than I am."

"And as for you, Vyn" Devon turned to the Zeltron. "Yeah, you got 'killed' today and yeah we know you say you're a lover not a fighter - but I remember you leading a boarding team and taking the bridge of a ship where one boarding party had already failed... dont sell yourself short."

Turning to the group at large, Devon continued.
"I threw you in the deep end today: with a lot less intel and time to plan than we will hopefully have on real missions.  But we also have to be able to adapt fast to changing circumstances and improvise new tactics and plans as needed.  We did this on Det Akari and we won - we more than won... we tore through the enemy so fast they had no chance, no time to respond - they didn't live long enough to regret going up against us.  We ARE that good."
The shipjacker looked around the room.
"Some of you will remember what happened when we were in a crippled Barloz freigher, being chased by a Consular class cruiser.  We captured the damn cruiser."

Devon paused to let that sink in, he was sure Flash would be smirking at the memory too.  He chuckled.
"I'm sure the boss still has no idea how we got away with that.  Anyhow, that's what improvisation and good teamwork can accomplish.  I know our style of doing things takes some getting used to, but thats part of why we are running all these sims."

Flash did not look like he was smirking.  Though with a Duros it was hard to tell sometimes.  Their facial expressions didn't conform to what humans expected.  Instead he shuffled in his seat.

"We done yet?  Or are there more sims to do?"

Fiarr perked up a little at Devon's comment.  "Consular class?  I assume the one you're referring to was armed?  Bet you got a few credits for that one."

Dohr turned to Devon to respond to his question. ”I am glad you asked. It is in my opinion equally valuable to assess both mistakes and successes after a mission. Even though we lost, and we have already concluded that winning wasn’t the real goal in the game, I would say we did well all in all. Like CC9 nicely pointed out, the enemy was clearly less skilled in weapons handling. Otherwise our ATs probably would not have reached the other building at all. Also one their snipers made an amateur mistake and allowed himself to be lured away from cover. Fortunately for them though, the mission setup and the unfamiliar terrain evened out the game nicely.”

Dohr took a sip and continued. ”Even though mentioned your team’s way of working is not always following a hierarchical  top-down type of army mode of operation, your friends acted admirably well as subordinates. I personally received no complaints and no one refused an order even though there possibly was some ground for misunderstanding at times. Even Kimy, who was forced to run down ten floors, through the building and up again with no time to catch her breath, did so without hesitation. I would call that commitment. And to me it seems your team is always very committed to whatever you set out to accomplish. Without commitment, the game is lost before it even begins.”

Dohr stood up again and leaned on his cane, the one from the locker. He’d had it with him throughout the exercise, but no one had seen him use it, because he hadn’t. Although it didn’t register on his face, the crippled leg was causing him some pain right now, but it was nothing could not handle; nothing he wasn’t used to. It would pass in a second. ”As mentioned before, Kimy’s hacking was a brilliant move. It gave her sufficient time to take out the last attacker before he was able to punch in the code. And as you said, Rian, the ATs did really well. The Reds had to pull back their own assault team in order to stop your advance. I wish I could have been there to see you in action… Incidentally, is it possible for us to get the video material of the game as we leave?”

His own question made Dohr think for a second to get back on track. ”Where was I?… Ah yes. Communication. Communication was well handled. Enemy locations were quickly called in and there was no unnecessary chit chat on the line. So in my mind, despite of the few clear mistakes I personally made, we did well as a team.”

Mika gives Dohr a grin.  "I was too out of breath running up and down the stairs to complain."

Idaya gave Kyvarr a slight smile. "The sergeant indeed has the essence of what I tried to say. I am a former officer of a very carefully structured and very formal service. You can imagine, how it was if our parts were reversed and you, with some of you never having served in any kind of a military, were to join such a service", she said. "And I must commend you for how well you did, regardless of my doubts which you proved more than unfounded."

"Yeah, we did OK." Devon replied easily, which could mean anything.

The shipjacker let the debate flow back and forth for a few more minutes before deciding that they had covered all the ground that was worthwhile covering.  Plus Flash was practically squirming in his seat.
"Ok, lets call it a day.  Back here tomorrow morning, please, for something a little different - dogfighting."
Devon switched his datapad off, stood up and stretched elaborately.
"Go have fun or whatever." he told them.  "Me?  I'm off to - hopefully - see a man about a ship."

Heigren is up on his feet in a heartbeat.  "Well I'm off.  Got a few errands to run.  If anyone wants to see what fun this place has to offer, comm me and Ill be  all for it."

Dohr nodded to Devon and then Heigren as left. "I personally have no agenda right now, but the game has made me hungry. So should any of you like to join me, I know... well at least I did once know a very good restaurant downtown. I cannot recall if they served any Huttese specialties, should such things exist. But at least they had meals suited for my kind and many others with more demanding requirements."

"I would not mind some food, but I would not mind seeing the ship you are talking about either, Mr. Cloudrider. Perhaps, if we ate first and headed to see the ship, I could offer you my thoughts on it as a naval officer. Or just see the ship, if you prefer me not to get involved in the appraisal of the vessel." Idaya was doing her best to be courteous and most likely did well - after all, she was pretty enough by any human standards, despite the strange colour of her skin.

OOC:  It is now roughly 1800 Coruscanti time.  You need to report back to the sim centre at 0900 Coruscanti time.  Which means you have 15 hours to rest, play or do whatever.  Please note that Nar Shaddaa has much longer days then Coruscant so it's still bright outside and will be until you return to 'work' tomorrow.  So you can get up to anything you want.  Any shopping or recreational activities you want to do, go for it!

Devon and Heigren already have contacted me about their plans.  Devon, a quick skim through your datapad and you can find fifty restaraunts in walking distance, some you'd even consider eating at.  Everything from institutions so fancy you need to own a planet to even get in the door, to dives that serve rat cooked three different ways!

Enjoy.  Next day's sims apparently revolve around dogfighting so look forward to that!

Mika smiles, "I'm up for something good to eat, long as it's a proper sort of place.  No rat fur in the food, 'less you order it and yet some place hat's not all snooty."

Dohr bows to Mika. "I would really enjoy your company, Kimy. And you can be at ease, I would not take a friend to such a place should I happen to know one."