"For someone who hasn't seen me fight personally, you sure do take a lot of interest in my hand to hand skills, Jane."
I was smiling as I said this, the quip meant in jest. Over the years, a fair few number of recruits had attempt to incite me to fights, sometimes to prove a point, sometimes to make me take my shirt off for a friend. It'd sound like bragging to anyone else, but I'd worked hard to retain my fitness, even after I stopped actively serving in the marine corps.
"I did send a request to Admirality about joining in some sort of advisory role. They haven't gotten around to responding yet."
I was still not sure why I did that. I had my fair share of battle experience, but they had far better minds amongst their advisors. In hindsight, it seemed like I'd inflated my own importance, but what was done was done. Their silence to my comms made their stance clear enough.
"Discipline is an interesting beast, Jane. Some people will follow it out of respect for their superiors, or for ideals. Some will do it because it's practical, that they'll end up horribly dead without it. And some will only do it when a a Commanding officer beats the crap out of them, verbally or otherwise..."
I smiled, enjoying this particular tangent.
"Take away those factors, and discipline falters. I'm guessing there's a lack of trash talking Admirals in the Navy now, huh? Wish we still had Defmir..."
