Originally Posted: Sep. 13th, 2006
Length/Rating: 100 words, PG, Gen
Pairing/Warnings: none
Summary: For the good of the many.

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They were expendable.

Marines weren’t scientists and they knew it. Even the best of the best were interchangeable; for them the final cut was who they were, not what they knew. Atlantis could afford antisocial geniuses, but marines were screened a dozen different ways for any flaw. And then, because someone was always thinking worse-case scenarios, they sat through medical testing, ATA trials, and were profiled by age and fitness, so that if they weren’t coming back the colony would be sustainable.

If scientists were Atlantis’s brains, then marines were the city’s heart.

And expendable meant different things in Atlantis.