"Supposedly, Han shot first. I mean, my patient. Their name isn't actually Han, that's just a movie thing. I can't use their real name because of confidentiality, you know?" Howard defaults into his babble mode, which is one of his favorite retreats when he's talking about something that makes him nervous.

"But yeah, pretty much, we aren't allowed to know much. We don't know if we're on the right side of the war. We see glimpses of battles and the Ohm destroying stuff, but anything can be painted to make one side or the other look bad in a war. And we go on missions where we end up stabbing the people we're supposed to work with in the back as often as we don't."

He makes a stabbing gesture with one hand. "Not literally stabbing people in the back, but you get my drift."