History would seem to demonstrate that when the hammer came down, the Jedi Order v1.0 could have maybe used some good deep bunkers and shield generators in addition to their mastery of the Force. :)

>What would you have them do? Pull her out of DSM based on a threat
>that is only presumed to exist because Sergeant Sagara is there?

Absolutely not. The Sterling family doesn't roll that way, even if sometimes it might be smart to do so. Kaname would react with indignation at the mere suggestion, as would her various and sundry relations.

>They don't even know who or what they're defending against.

That's kind of my point. Sosuke isn't actually from the government, like a "proper" soldier would be. (Well, okay. If TechCom is out of the Corporate Sector, he might be from what passes for the government out there.) This makes his claim that his reasons for being there are "classified" highly dubious. GOVERNMENTS can classify information. CORPORATIONS just have proprietary or privileged information. Those are two different beasts.

You'd think Kaname and her mom would make it a priority to find out why and in what capacity Sosuke is there. Kaname didn't even ask for the name of his CO and make an angry to call to them, or to whatever TechCom and Rhodos have that functions as a customer/client relations department.

Above and beyond Kaname, Miranda has the ability to get in touch with people who can do things like dial the private line of TechCom's CEO and say "Hi! One of your goons is stalking an underage girl out on Jerrado and refuses to disclose his reasons for being there or, indeed, who has paid him. Do you guys LIKE continuing to operate in the Galactic Alliance without the IPO and the WDF constantly looking over your shoulders? You know who Kaname Sterling's grandfather is, right?"

>Are you sure she didn't do that? Investigations aren't always quick,
>and the only thing they have to go on is that somebody might be after
>Kaname.

I'm not sure at all she hasn't done that. But as noted above, Miranda doesn't necessarily need to "investigate" in the classic sense. I know if my kid was potentially in trouble (disclaimer: I do not have a kid) and I had the juice, I wouldn't bother investigating if I could simply deploy the state to demand answers on my behalf.

It is of course possible this has already happened, of course, and that the answers Miranda got were of a nature where, after being assured that her little girl is being looked after reliably, she comes to conclusion that it's simply better not to tell her. Especially if the nature of being Whispered in UF is such that it's a bad idea to TELL someone they're one of the Whispered while still in the developmental stage.

But Kaname has been putting up with Sosuke for over a month now and, as I said, is weirdly blase about the whole thing. Could just be denial, of course. Or it could just be that she's young.

>No, if somebody's after Kaname, I'd wager it's somebody who found out
>about the database in her head. Even then, the question is, does that
>person want the database, or just want to destroy it?

I've been operating on the assumption that this is due to her being Whispered, yes.

-Merc
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