[...that's...mildly unsettling there, Logan, but he can at least work with it; Archer was largely the same way when he first arrived.]
There was a Major-General I knew once, by the name of Olivier Armstrong; she was the commanding officer in charge of a fortress on the northern border of Amestris, often said to be the only thing keeping our nation from being invaded by the army of a country called Drachma. Between the constant threat of war and the inhospitable nature of the terrain - often below-freezing temperatures, very prone to storms, up in the mountains a long way from the nearest patch of civilization in North City - the soldiers at that fortress were said to be the most formidable in the country; Armstrong herself was often called the Northern Wall of Briggs, implying that she was both the strongest soldier out of all of that elite force, and that she was the only thing standing between Amestris and Drachma - should the Northern Wall fall, so would the border and potentially the country. Obviously, she was held in very high regard; from my experiences with her, she deserved that respect many times over.
There came a time, at the onset of last spring, where she was removed from her post and brought to Central City, following the death of a high-ranking officer. At this point, a traitor to the country that had been planted inside her fortress notified Drachma that the Northern Wall of Briggs had, indeed, fallen - that it would be the perfect moment to attack, while the soldiers were lacking command and the general state of affairs was in disarray.
The Drachman army attacked Briggs; they were annihilated within minutes by the Amestrian army still stationed there.
What Drachma hadn't taken into account was the fact that Olivier Armstrong didn't teach her men to depend on her; she was fully aware that she may be killed in battle at any moment, or something may happen to remove her from Fort Briggs. Should that happen while her troops depended on her, the border would fall. Instead, she taught her men to work as a unit - to think for themselves and rely on each other, to adhere to "survival of the fittest" but not use that as an excuse to refuse to defend each other, and to be able to hold strong without requiring someone to hold their hand when faced with adversity. I didn't get along with her - I suppose you could say our personalities were a bit at odds with each other - but I'll acknowledge that she was a rather inspiring leader.
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There was a Major-General I knew once, by the name of Olivier Armstrong; she was the commanding officer in charge of a fortress on the northern border of Amestris, often said to be the only thing keeping our nation from being invaded by the army of a country called Drachma. Between the constant threat of war and the inhospitable nature of the terrain - often below-freezing temperatures, very prone to storms, up in the mountains a long way from the nearest patch of civilization in North City - the soldiers at that fortress were said to be the most formidable in the country; Armstrong herself was often called the Northern Wall of Briggs, implying that she was both the strongest soldier out of all of that elite force, and that she was the only thing standing between Amestris and Drachma - should the Northern Wall fall, so would the border and potentially the country. Obviously, she was held in very high regard; from my experiences with her, she deserved that respect many times over.
There came a time, at the onset of last spring, where she was removed from her post and brought to Central City, following the death of a high-ranking officer. At this point, a traitor to the country that had been planted inside her fortress notified Drachma that the Northern Wall of Briggs had, indeed, fallen - that it would be the perfect moment to attack, while the soldiers were lacking command and the general state of affairs was in disarray.
The Drachman army attacked Briggs; they were annihilated within minutes by the Amestrian army still stationed there.
What Drachma hadn't taken into account was the fact that Olivier Armstrong didn't teach her men to depend on her; she was fully aware that she may be killed in battle at any moment, or something may happen to remove her from Fort Briggs. Should that happen while her troops depended on her, the border would fall. Instead, she taught her men to work as a unit - to think for themselves and rely on each other, to adhere to "survival of the fittest" but not use that as an excuse to refuse to defend each other, and to be able to hold strong without requiring someone to hold their hand when faced with adversity. I didn't get along with her - I suppose you could say our personalities were a bit at odds with each other - but I'll acknowledge that she was a rather inspiring leader.
Do you understand why I'm telling you about this?