20:23, July 23rd, 2014 - Somewhere in Alameda County, Apex Alliance Headquarters

"Commander, I'm just saying we've incurred some heavy losses lately," Clayton Harven tried his best to choose his words carefully. "This is the third... incident... in as many months. If this keeps up, eventually morale is going to collapse."

Clayton knew this wasn't true. After all, it hadn't just been the past three months. It had been happening regularly for years and years. Since before he could remember. And yet somehow, morale never seemed to suffer for it. Of course, that wasn't to say that morale was abnormally high, or that it was exceptionally low. Morale just... was. Even in the wake of impressive success, or in the face of deeply painful loss, no one on the roster seemed to care much about such events. They had enthusiasm for the work, at points even passion - But Clayton wasn't so ignorant as to believe they held pride in their institution. They truly seemed to have no concern for anything but carrying on, fulfilling expectation, and of course, fighting the enemy.

"So recruit more," Remmington's voice cut through Clayton's thoughts abruptly. "Are you, or are you not, the Captain of this organization?"

( Story Continues... Content Warning for Suicide Mention, Cruelty, Language )