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"As a commander, what is your primary function. What is the point of your military action?"

"To destroy the enemy sir!"

Nyne shakes his head "Negative, the most skilled commanders can elicit a surrender without shedding a drop of blood or oil." He states looking over the crowd. "Your mission, is victory at the smallest cost possible, victory, that is our goal, that is the only reason we fight. Killing, destruction, violence, starvation, industrial sabotage, burning crops, even fighting itself, all of it, are means to that end. Not the end itself. Now, every one of those actions, weakens you, ideally, it weakens the enemy more, but we must be calculated where and when we use our strength. Is retreating a victory?" Nyne looks out a the assembled officers. "You! Is retreating a victory?"

"I believe it depends on the context sir!"

"And that is the right answer. In war we must always think of how to turn any situation into a tool for victory, even if in the immediate situation it is a loss. A last stand where units are trapped and pinned down is terrible, but if they send the footage before they go down, the propaganda value will last for months. Losing a position is bad, but losing a division to retake the position when it's not tactically relevant anymore is worse. Winning a battle, but losing your army, is not a victory if the enemy can replace their losses and you cannot. Our programming or rather mentality for you, must be to turn every situation into our advantage, so that even when we lose, we win, a defeat is not a defeat if we deal a mortal wound to them while escaping intact." Nyne tilts his head and points to the audience. "What is the role of emotion on a battlefield?"

"I presume another tool sir?"

"Correct. Emotion is a tool, when leveraged against our enemy it can cause them to commit blunders, in their rage they may throw armies against a tactically useless position, or their damaged ego from losing a strong point may lead them to an ill advised counter attack, and we should feed their emotions whenever possible. But conscious or not, they may also unleash that tactic upon us, therefore, we must always remember what our goal is; victory, not glory, not personal promotion, not hate, victory!" Nyne points to another officer. "Perhaps there is an example of what we have talked about that you can find in the recent military actions of the remnant?"

"Perhaps the attack on Codia Sir?"

"Thesis?"

"The Imperials attacked, and deliberately left forces behind to test the response. They lost the planet, but got information, not only that but held the attention long enough to conduct their operation on the moon. They lost the battle, but their conditions for what they classified as victory meant they won."

Nyne nods "Good answer. What could have been done to prevent their victory?"

"I don't know sir."

"It's not an easy question, but it is one we must always consider, what is our enemy's condition for victory? What is our condition for victory? Often these are the same thing, but not always. Sometimes we can both walk away thinking we won, despite one of us winning or losing far more than we realize. If the enemy attacks at location A, the first question is, why are we protecting it, and why are they attacking there? For commanders of all levels, it is a principle of scale, a tank commander will look upon enemy tanks going to a position, a Grand Commodore will look at enemy fleets going to a position. We must not assume our enemies blunder, the propaganda may paint them as air headed twits with no sense and madness in their eyes, yet even the most mad have logic, flawed as it may be there is still a logic. So if they go to Point A, we must presume they see an advantage in taking it, or drawing our forces there, even if we don't see it yet. So. What could have been done to prevent the Imperial victory on Codia? The answer is, the commanders should have figured out why the Imperials left forces behind before giving them what they wanted, and then taken every effort to avoid giving them what they wanted."

"Won't that take time to figure out sir?"

"Indeed, and as an Officer, you have the responsibility to figure it out quickly. A military position is akin to that of a doctor, stressful, high stakes, and with lives dependent on you. It is not a position to take lightly, it is not a position to take because you want to advance in politics, it is not a position to take because to make your parents happy, it is something you must dedicate yourself to. Some of you are here because of nepotism, some of you are here because of patriotism, social pressure, a desire to do good, a desire to protect, a duty to your community, you are here for many reasons, but what matters most is why you will stay, an incompetent ally is more dangerous than the enemy, and we do not train incompetent allies here, those of you who stay, will be committed to being the best, you commit yourself to training, learning, studying, practicing, so that when the day comes and you are the commander responding to Codia or Naboo, you will not take long to figure out that."