The beast knights in the outer districts were, by all early reports, a significant improvement over the human soldier complement they had replaced or supplemented. Not because they were more aggressive — she had been specific about that in the reassignment orders, had written the deployment guidelines herself, had been precise about what she wanted the perimeter presence to look like and how she wanted them interfacing with the populations in the districts they were covering. What they were was more capable, and capability was visible. People in the outer districts noticed the difference. Early dispatches from the district administrators — she had insisted on weekly reports, which was apparently unprecedented and which the district administrators had found alarming and then, once they understood she actually read the reports, quietly relieved — suggested that incidents of certain kinds were already declining.
She read all the reports.
She read everything.
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