Asari in Combat

Alright so this is an open question for any Asari who are or were huntresses/commandos/mercenaries etc at some point in your lives.

I know years aren't really judged the same in Asari concept of lifespan as they are for Quarians and other short-lived species but I have to ask. How do you guys cope with hundreds of years of killing assuming you stick at it that long?

I mean, most soldiers and special forces operatives government or private end up with some pretty fucking bad PTSD after a while no matter how strong your mental fortitude is, myself included. Hell, I've pretty much had to retire after the shit I saw in the Reaper War.

We're going to have that executive in here being snide about things, aren't we?

For what it's worth, since I'm, er, not exactly qualified to discuss extended lifespans, I guess the asari are tight-knit and have naturally strong support networks? They're a very social people, they never really face things alone? It sounds absolutely hellish to me, but I guess that's the way they like it. And I can see the benefit. For their mental health and stability, I mean.

Plus, being committed to the group or the community makes it easier to do that sort of thing in the first place, I guess. Facing threats to the community, etc. Asari are diplomats first, aren't they? They want everyone to be part of their group, in a loose way, at least. They're not naturally confrontational toward newcomers like some species. They want to incorporate everyone, like they're one huge clan (I'm shuddering just thinking about it). When they do fight, they're good at it, or so I've always heard. I guess that's because they can categorize those few people they can't negotiate with as external to their one big community and so they feel justified in responding with force.

Or something.

I put just over 60 years into a Mercenary lifestyle, with a few as a Commando before that.

I think that part of going with it has to do with being young, not needing a lot of reason behind what you're doing. Another part of it, for me, was that it played to my skills. I'm pretty good with a gun, and it's one of the only skills I've really shown in practice. Mentally, I found it pretty easy to distance myself from my morals when I was working...

After long enough, I guess that started to bother me - the distance between my thoughts and my actions. That, and I didn't want to be stuck in gunfights my whole life, even if I can be good at it.

Anymore it's just something that's happened. I was a fighter at one point, now I'm not. Life has been smoother away from it, though, and I have more fun with simple things. I don't feel traumatized, or any more hollow than what I see in other people, but I still remember it.
Just not in such a horrifying way, I guess. Even if it should be. Maybe the morality is still a little distant.

So it's more of an idea of separating yourself from your work and acknowledging that it is more of a footnote in a very long life? I might be reaching a bit past the meaning but I'm just trying to wrap my head around it.

That's how I see it, now. It sounds harsh, but it's easier the less you care. For me it was almost like a switch in my head. Holding a gun, with others firing around you, it can feel easy to shut off your conscience and power through until it's quiet again.

It happened, I'm fine knowing that it happened, but I don't want to go back to it. Long life or not. (I don't know. I've killed people. It happens pretty easily)
Eventually I realized that it wasn't fun, and all I was doing was taking money to shoot people for someone else. Why I put my own life on the line for that long and for that little of a reason is still a little baffling.

But it isn't changing. It was my job then, as good or bad as that may be or sound, but I'm done now. Switch flipped.

Interesting question. While I am not a huntress myself, my mate is. Maybe I can add to the discussion (or the confusion, take it for whatever my word is worth to you). What I do know is, PTSD exists and it is an issue for commandos as well, but from what I have learned, it manifests differently in asari than with – excuse the wording – shorter lived species.

There are very severe cases as well as those than can go through terrifying missions without showing the same symptoms. My mate says, it has to do with how any individual takes care of her mental hygiene. (asari mental hygiene is a subject on its own really. The accumulation of experiences over the centuries makes it necessary we deal with our emotions and memories differently than most other species. Some say we are better at sorting, archiving and processing, I think it is just a necessity that we developed those techniques, otherwise everyone would be insane before 500. Asari tend to be very mentally stable in average by disposition. How could we stand so many bad memories otherwise? I mean, it’s not hard to nurture the good memories but the amount of loss and grief any asari is going to experience during her normal life, even if she’s no huntress, is a multitude of that of shorter lived species. I am bonded to a human as well for example, I know she will pass away, I know that and am reminded of that every time I look at her. I had to work on this in meditation and melds as well to sort it out but as I said, we have ways for that).

Anyway, meditating is essential within in Guard; it strengthens the community and is distributing the emotional burden between everyone involved. It even is a part from the very beginning of huntress training. Mental health is directly connected to biotic abilities as well and only a healthy mind provides the best biotic control, that’s why good huntresses are also masters in mental techniques.

There’s also the Matriarch each Guard is attached to, she should provide help and guidance as well, and sometimes even meld therapy is a possibility. So this is definitely unique, a way to do things with a hurt mind that other species do not possess to that degree. Of course it only works when the huntress is not too damaged yet and is willing to do it.

I don’t want to say this is perfect, far from it, the retirement rate before 400 is very high, but this whole psychological preparation and debriefing aspect is something my mate is very serious about and she takes her time with it. I know she also has troubles from the war, phases of insomnia and such things, followed by phases with no troubles at all. The reaper war was special in many regards though, the hopeless prospect, the husks and banshees…

Saying that, it also depends on what you do as a commando I guess. There are a lot of different postings a commando can hold during her career; one may see more action in one phase, less in another. Most of the time of any military used to be (and hopefully will be again) training and keeping readiness anyway. Being a commando does not mean you are constantly out there in a meatgrinder – if there’s no godsquid attacks.

Those that drop out are taken care of by the community; we do also have institutions for severe cases or those that can’t be healed anymore, just like any other species I guess. Yes they exist and I think we do our best not to forget them.

How do krogan or drell manage? I could not even imagine having a drell-like memory! It actually freaks me out a little bit.

Vendetrix have mercy, as if I didn't worry about my granddaughter enough already.

She seems to have come through the Reaper War about as well as can be expected, but if thirty years of combat made me me, what will three hundred...or six hundred or nine hundred...do to her??

Asari, please continue, this is relevant to my interests. Seems to me I should tell her that at a certain point in her life she has to accept that her bit is done, hang up her guns and do something else.

...I'm teaching her to farm but I think I should maybe work a bit harder at helping her to find more "something else's".

I have been told asari puberty is over 40 years, so I would think that hundreds of years of combat wouldn't feel that long.

Still, I've been fighting since I was born, and I'm still not bored yet, you just need to party and relax once in a while.

Then again, I'm not an asari, so my opinion doesn't really matter in this thread.

Oh well you know what they say: speak of the devil and he will fabulously appear to snark on demand.

Or something like that. I'm paraphrasing.

But as it so happens Mr. Phraag you're right! I am here and I very much intend to be as snide as I damn well please. Not, about the things you might imagine actually. Still, if it makes you feel any better most of the people in the thread deserve it even so.

Things I've learned today: I have PTSD! Every one of my employees in Myrmidon has PTSD! The vast majority of the Hierarchy and all of the krogan have PTSD!

Did you know? The military literally pumps you full of PTSD the moment you sign your name on the dotted line. No, really I'm serious. It comes in a like ten gauge needle and everything. Just schik right in the arm. Stings like a bitch but by then you're too pumped full of steroids and testosterone (yes even you ladies, especially you ladies) ready to go out and rape, murder, and plunder.

Isn't being in the armed forces grand?

If you're wondering why I'm not dignifying what you said with an actual response it's because what you said was utterly fucking stupid and the whole thing it's predicated on is equally retarded (I know I shouldn't direct that word at the genuinely handicapped but, you know, God bless for trying now please stop). In the meantime I'm going to pick over the actually juicy bits of the thread.

Is that really still being legitimately kicked around the Republics? I mean you'd think that the asari of all people would be less mystic and holistic about a pretty goddamn well understood biological mechanism at this point. Rather than, for example, conflating correlation with causation. Oh sure by all means, depression and anxiety and PTSD can interfere with how a person uses their biotics. Also with how, say, effective they are with a firearm. Or at following orders. Or living their lives. Biotics are a muscle and to use them only requires focus and training.

I mean if you want proof just take a look at a pretty substantial portion of the Sisterhood. Aaaaaaand I

have a problem with this. I have a fairly substantial problem with this. This idea that "meld therapy" and meditation can be this magical panacea to cure all that lurks in the dark and nasty corners of a person's brain (and if it doesn't work why, clearly you didn't really want it or are just too far gone poor thing). Minds are complex. Even disorders that manifest very consistently in broad terms can be downright unique in how they apply to the individual. And to say that a few sessions with a Matriarch are more effective in effecting substantial change in a person's perceptions and brain chemistry than actual therapy is a bit...too good to be true frankly. Oh I won't dispute that Matriarchs and fellow huntresses can't be helpful in coping. But as a support network, not a silver bullet. And even then dealing with PTSD or anything of that breed is a long term thing; something that has to be managed and tended.

TMI. Way. Way. Too much information.

Or out at all considering how rare a Republic's deployment is.

...What? Don't you judge me I had to get in a dig somehow, I have a quota to fill.
...Seriously? That's the fallback plan? If sitting in quiet contemplation and getting your brains whisked by your CO's neural patterns doesn't do the trick the huntress just gets shoved off into a mental institution once they're deemed "too damaged". I mean cognitively I know there has to be a middle ground in there somewhere but still. Jesus Christ woman. Has it occurred at all to your vaunted community that maybe isolating and quarantining people with severe mental and emotional issues is not the best way to reintegrate them into a society?

...That is the long term goal right? Or do you just leave them there to sit in pleasant little gardens and stare quietly at the pond until they finally kick it?

Seriously bro, didn't you know? Asari are the bestest fighters in the galaxy cus they can just fuck away all the PTSDs and mental traumas and shit.

Nightmares about husks eating your buddy? Well shit, dude, just grab some nice blue ass and Embrace Eternity till it's all sunshine and moxxies and guilt free trigger humping.

Man, you humans are still so dumb. That's basic brain science, you feel?

Wow am I glad that I served in the Alliance.

I can't speak for Huntresses, or those who've seen combat generally for whatever reason, since I'm neither (although I've known a good deal of both), but it's a rare asari who isn't quite strongly influenced by the life phase she's in - Maiden, Matron, Matriarch, you know the deal. Even Huntresses, I know that much - regardless of the particular influences of the Huntress psyche (it's a very real and distinct subset of the asari in general, not just a matter of training and experience), when an asari reaches a certain age, or mass of accumulated experience and perspective, she will feel moved to settle down, turn her sights from dreaming about what's over the horizon (literally or intellectually) to building something that will last wherever she's chosen to be. That notion of 'hanging up your guns' (or whatever it is you've been doing with your Maiden years) is very deeply enshrined in all our cultures - and of course it's by no means exclusive, you yourself are raising it, so it's not like she'll have to live among other asari to be exposed to that possibility. So hopefully (in my usual meanderingly vague way) that's some comfort. (Of course it may be she doesn't feel the Huntress drive, or not strongly - most don't, and having to fight to defend yourself and your loved ones doesn't invariably 'make' a Huntress who'll stay on that path after the need for fighting has passed. It may be she'll have a harder time giving up farm life, no matter the day to day work it involves.)

It's not quite so linear as that - even when we get fixated on a particular interest or passion in our lives, we tend to gently move through all that interest's different facets. The impression I've formed second-hand of combat is that, on that level, it's not so very different to other pursuits for us. If it was the same experience year after year, yeah, but even beyond the accumulation of experience, rising in rank and taking on new responsibilities, that everyone else goes through, we're very strongly compelled to find interest in new experiences - I feel (and it's a popular view) it's a biological safeguard against the accumulation of repetitive experience enforcing itself upon us; left unchecked, it would become harder and harder for us to break out of whatever patterns we'd fallen into, so our brains tend to help us out by nudging us in new directions every now and then. And that goes for a Huntress (or other professional soldier) as much as anyone else - as well as the aforesaid changes in responsibilities and sisters in her units, she'll move between specialisations a lot more than other species do (more time to do so makes it easier, naturally), honing her skills all the while along the way. Those who stay on the path through to their Matron shift (and further to Matriarch) accumulate an incredible depth and breadth of experience - which I imagine is darned handy for them as they turn their focus to providing for and guiding the next generation of course, but at a fundamental level, it's also happened because it's a coping mechanism.

Can you actually think in something else than absolute terms? Or if you can't, at least accept that others don't.
All these measures helps you not to get to dark places, which is the desired thing. Taking care of someone before it's too late, do preperation so you are more resistant to the stress.... That's probabaly better than just care for those that developed severe PTSD already and the OP question was what asari cadres do to prevent it from happening.
There is no magic cure, neither for an asari nor anyone else.

You don't say! Actually, we have the same understanding. Could be a first.

...Really? Really darling, really? That'd be a touch easier to swallow if you didn't spend virtually the entirety of your post extolling the virtues of melding and meditation before mentioning that, you know, actual therapists are a thing in a modern military.

Aaaaactually scratch that. You acknowledged psych wards as being a thing, a place in which to deposit the Republic's damaged goods but never mentioned therapy from trained counselors instead of, you know, getting down and dirty with your commanding officer.
I am sorry. It must have just been my eyes glitching out but I could have sworn that you wrooooooooooo

oh my.

Wow.

I...legitimately do not have a response to that. I mean what do you even say to that? To someone going, with complete sincerity: "Who cares about the people who aren't saved by this miraculously effective form of treatment that only doesn't work if you're too far gone or unwilling?" Honestly? I wouldn't have pegged the asari as the military whose idea of psychological health involves more emotional repression than an all boys Catholic school. What this does is essentially reinforces the idea that the ideal marine, the ideal sailor is resistant and insulated to post traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression. It essentially criminalizes the idea of suffering, because if you fall, if you let it get to you, clearly you are the one who fucked up somehow. Which in turn, actively discourages people from seeking out help after the fact. Because, again, you're "damaged goods". And if you're deemed "too damaged" you'll be shipped off -beg pardon: strongly encouraged to ship yourself off- to a community sanitarium, after being humiliated in front of your friends, colleagues, and family and before being utterly forgotten about.

And before, and before, you start whinging on about me dealing in absolutes kindly take a look at what you wrote. And notice how it's all front loaded. All the emphasis is on prevention not treatment. Which is all kinds of fucked up considering that a. everyone has a different tipping point b. everyone deals with stress and trauma in different ways and c. (which you have utterly failed to acknowledge) which is the massive genetic component to a metric shitton of these disorders. Or does embracing eternity now weed out genetic predisposition?

Quite. Now all you have to do is convince me that the implementation of modern standards of fucking psychological health is an actual thing in the Republics military and I might even raise my opinion of you!

But no. Seriously. Who fucking does thi-

oooooooh. Right. Right right right. All apologies to Ms. Driana and anyone else I might have offended. Very sorry. Truly sorry.

I didn't realize we were still dealing with letters to Fornax. My bad.

Joining minds with an Asari is not an exclusively sexual act. It can be used to share thoughts and feelings, and understand each other better without any sexual or reproductive action.

So Sandman is it just me or do you have nothing better to do these days than burst into conversations that don't even involve your species and be a complete shithead?

Begone from this conversation; it does not involve humans and your toxic attitude is not welcome. Don't you have a company to run or something?

I figure this might as well be the best place to ask.

If I were, to say, annoy an asari commando considerably enough that she would want me dead what would be the best methods to take her down with minimal harm to my well-being? I am also a biotic (though I can't compete with an asari's skill with them) and probably can't compete with the centuries of experience. So something fairly clever would probably be the best bet in a fight.

I would also prefer something with minimal property damage. And without an essay. Just the basics please.

Not every Asari is a masterful biotic either. I'm honestly pretty low on the chart of biotic ability, myself... but most Commandos aren't.
In any straight-up fight, it's pretty random. It always depends on how able and determined each person is - the same as any other fight.





If you have specific questions, I can try to answer from my own experiences. They could different answers than a lot of Asari might give, though.

And interests usually come and go, but you never know when one won't. Maybe it's what she's born to do, and it'll never get to her?
And if she does give it up, it might not even happen in your lifetime... Hard to know. I guess nudging towards things that are "better" is all you can do sometimes.

Nooooooo but sharing minds, thoughts, and emotions is a pretty goddamn intimate thing to do. Especially with, and I will reiterate, your. Commanding. Officer. There is a reason that basically every military in existence generally disallows fraternization between enlisted, officers, and NCO's. Oh sure the turians might be more flexible about it but they a. have had literal millenia to develop military tradition and customs and b. I'm rather certain even the Hierarchy would frown somewhat substantially on the equivalent of a Captain bumping id's with a what amounts to a Private under their direct command.

Hahahahahahahahah. You worship war criminals woman. You've been exiled by your own species because your very existence is literally the definition of heinous. I just

oh my fucking god I think I'm crying. It's entirely inappropriate for this thread but dear lord.

How do people take you seriously? Can they even?

Depends, Citadel or Greater Terminus?

Either/or the quickest, cleanest, and easiest options (that everyone forgets about for some unfathomable reason) are damping mines or null bursts. Which are really just two basic applications of the same principle: that biotics rely upon sustained bio-electricity, fine neural coordination, and a degree of wetware to be utilized properly. EM waves (which what they are just the former's a mine and generally accompanied by an explosion, and the latters's an omnitool based combat app) will disrupt the nerve and muscle discharges, forcibly evict people from their focus-state, and trip the safeguards on the amps and other 'ware forcing hard resets across the board. Also guaranteed to royally dick with anything tech based they have.

The other major alternative is isotope laced munition weaves, usually polonium, for ammo, grenades, shells and the like. A little more difficult to handle but the effect is longer lasting and cumulative. Similar process to the first (the radioactivity produces a sort of white noise effect that essentially weakens and disperses biotic constructs and capabilities) but the major downside is that they're effectively banned in C-Space. Fair game in contested regions, neutral ground like Omega, and in some nations but otherwise you're shit out of luck if you're aiming for a legitimate job.

It can be, which is why it's a rarity. Some people can handle things better mentally than others, and help share the burden in difficult cases. Not always a leader, not for every case, and not always to be intimate, but to be open.

As for the second half of this, I can't speak to that. I am unfamiliar with many military protocols, but I know that the Asari Commando units themselves are their own thing, and do operate with their own differences, despite perceived oddities among even each other.