Non-Combatant

"Non-combatant" observer

Protected observer status whose scare quotes the AI adds after Baroness Victory kills a bomber.

Story so far

Baroness Victory's system tag reads "This is a 'non-combatant' observer," and Carl's eyes go straight to the quotation marks — which were not there before. The AI added them the moment she buried an axe in Herman the Fleet's skull, a wry annotation on a supposedly neutral party committing a very effective act of violence.

Victory defends the killing as legal, insisting the bomb itself was not a legal attack but an unlawful assassination by Sensation Entertainment, Incorporated, and adds that she can only do so much for her warlords — implying her non-combatant status genuinely does constrain her most of the time.

Role

System status marking observers as off-limits, tacitly undercut by the AI's punctuation.

Relationships

Baroness Victory — Observer whose status the AI mockingly requalifies.

The AI — Added the scare quotes to her title.

Adjutant — The role that carries the non-combatant label.

Sources — 2 recorded facts, by chapter

Chapter 8

NPC status marking that supposedly exempts an indentured worker from having to fight crawlers.

Chapter 18

Protected observer status whose scare quotes the AI adds after Baroness Victory kills a bomber.