Turn 13.3: After-Action Report

Well, that was invigorating.

After a few minutes cleaning up, we sadly have to get back to the real world.

CC and Kaguya want a few minutes of girl talk while they clean up, so I excuse myself to address the troops.

I march proudly over to the hanger, moving to stand on a platform.

"BLACK KNIGHTS! ATTEN-SHUN!"

I love being able to do that. I switch on the amplifier function so everyone can hear me.

"Before we begin, a moment of silence for our lost comrades, and any civilians who died in the crossfire." I salute with a hand over my heart as I scan over the crowd. Hats are off, hands saluting, and some tears are being shed.

Shared sacrifice brings people together.

"Thank you. My loyal soldiers," I gesture with both palms open. "Though we were unable to suborn the JLF or capture Cornelia, today is nonetheless a victory! For today, we have struck fear into the hearts of the Witch of Britannia's army!"

I point, finger tracing along the line of Black Knights.

"All of you performed your duties to the level expected, despite the terrifying nature of your task. To which I say: Well done. I am proud of you all."

I begin clapping, watching as my soldiers join in.

"Indeed, we might even have triumphed today, had the JLF kept faith with us. For we went there under flag of truce to discuss bringing them under my banner, to fight by our side."

I gesture with a slicing motion. I might not be boiling with anger about this anymore, but I can still use this as a rallying cry for future battles. And, at the same time, ensure the JLF is no longer a risk among my troops.

"Instead, I, and Sub-Commander Ohgi, along with Kallen, our Red Queen and ace, were insulted to our faces! One of Tohdoh's own Holy Swords even had the temerity to brandish a gun at me!"

There's some murmuring from the crowd. Understandably so. The Four Holy Swords are well-known. I nod at Kallen, who elbows Ohgi as they both head to the front.

"It's true. Zero told them their methods wouldn't work, and that their cause was false because Japan is dead. Tohdoh himself saved Zero's life by stopping his own Sword from shooting him," Ohgi says with quiet conviction.

Ohgi sighs deeply, before gripping his fist tightly. Gods be damned, did I finally get through to him?

He looks up, his eyes solemn, "The truth is, Zero is right. We, the Japanese, brought this on ourselves by playing games with the Sakuradite. And we can't bring back old Japan."

Kallen steps up now, "But we don't have to! We can take the best of Britannia and make something new from it! Without hating people who are different! The JLF partially spurned Zero, just because he's Britannian! How many of you saw him fight on the front lines with me today?!"

That got people's attention. Time to remind them of my war maxim.

"If the king does not lead, how can he expect his subordinates to follow?" I say with all the regal authority I can muster.

I point skyward suddenly, "MAKE NO MISTAKE! We could have won today, had General Katase not turned on us and self-destructed their Narita base!"

I raise my other hand in an open palm, slowly sweeping the crowd.

"But we have still achieved victory despite that! We proved that there is indeed a force capable of fighting Britannia openly, THE ORDER OF THE BLACK KNIGHTS! 天下布武!" (Tenka Fubu!)

"天下布武!!!"

I nod, smiling under my mask. Now for the coup de grace.

"Command Staff will now join me for their debriefing. A full after-action report with tactical analysis on the battle and Katase's actions will be written up tonight and distributed thereafter. Everyone else? Tomorrow is free. Tamaki has provided catering and beer, so relax. We'll join you after a while. Ladies and gentlemen? Thank you for your service."

"ZERO万歳!ZERO万歳!" (Long live Zero!)

Excellent. No more of this 日本万歳 (Long live Japan) garbage. The Black Knights' first loyalty shall be to ME and our ideals.

'Vague, amorphous concept like "justice"?' I look forward to breaking the Holy Swords and their master, when they see how craven you really were, Katase.

I strut into the meeting room, grinning from ear to ear as I spin into my chair.

As everyone files in, I notice one absence.

I sigh as I light up a joint, only for CC to steal it and take a few puffs herself. "Someone grab Tamaki before he gets drunk, and remind him that he IS Command Staff," I say with exasperation.

He's not as dumb as he looks, but I think I may need to get him a personal assistant, just to keep him from being distracted.

Tamaki walks in after a minute, huge smile on his face, "What's up! Black Knights represent!"

I laugh and throw up a fist in solidarity. It's hard not to enjoy his good cheer at the moment.

"Well said. Let's get this done so we can get out there and relax. Business first, people."

Kaguya sits at the table, no trace of our earlier activities. Credit to CC, she did a good job cleaning up.

I configure the audio installed in the table to play back part of my frame's black box recordings.

"What I'm about to show you here does not leave this room. While the analysis of the battle will be damaging enough to the JLF, it's not anywhere nearly as damning as THIS."

The verbal onslaught between Katase and myself in our final conversation does not go without response, most of it non-verbal. Of course, one can always count on...

"THAT MOTHERFUCKER! THAT'S WHY YOU HAD ME RETREAT FROM CORNELIA?!" Kallen roars, bolting up out of her seat.

I smirk and nod, swiping back my joint from CC's greedy hands, earning me a glare.

Kallen grinds her teeth, "I should have shoved the Guren's claw up his fat ass and flash fried him!" she snarls.

Oh my god, I love this girl.

I cough to stifle a laugh at that as I point to the audio, as my curse plays and I bid farewell to Katase. After which I shut the audio off. No need to hear the rest.

"Well, we know how Q-1 feels. Anyone else have an opinion on the battle or related subjects?"

Tamaki stands up, looking oddly serious. Huh. Didn't expect him first.

"I may not understand the big picture of this shit and the politics that well, but that ain't my job. I'm just the morale and information guy. But..."

He spits off to the side, "FUCK THE JLF! We don't need those stuck-up pricks! Kallen here almost had Cornelia beat in a straight fight! That's more than even fucking Tohdoh ever did! Katase can kiss my Japanese ass!"

He salutes at me, eyes streaming angry tears, "That speech on the mountain? Man...that was the craziest thing I ever heard! You need a guy to go to hell with ya, I'm your buddy, Zero!"

Tamaki...I stand up and walk to him.

That's all it took, huh. Just talking to you honestly and trying to see what you could do.

I hold out my hand to him, as he gingerly takes it in his own.

"Tamaki Shin'ichiro, I shall not forget this. I shall strive to be worthy of the trust and loyalty you place in me," I pronounce solemnly, letting my regal bearing cone to fore.

I turn to the group, "Any objections to my crucifying Katase in my report for his incompetence and idiocy?"

Ohgi stands up, looking conflicted. Oh god, what now?

"Zero...was that true? Could you really have recreated Japan in six months to a year had your plan worked?"

I move to sit back down, taking a puff before responding.

"That was mostly a rough estimate, admittedly. It could be longer, I would have needed to take inventory of their hardware, spend time integrating them into our command structure, etc."

Including likely purging the ranks of potential problem-cases like those who would have agreed with Kusakabe, and other problematic convictions.

I lazily gesture with the joint, "I'm confident that, barring any internal strife, a possibility I cannot discount, we could almost certainly have seized Japan and begun offensives against the neighboring Areas within fourteen months at the most. Six months was the most optimistic prediction, which even I think was statistically unlikely."

I look at Ohgi's stunned face and consider what to say next. To know that we were so close and that jealousy and pride denied us...he's probably feeling quite blue.

I hand him the joint, "Here. Take a few and pass it back. I think you need this right now. This is hindu kush straight from Afghanistan. According to Tamaki, a gift from a fellow insurgent leader in the middle east."

He takes a hit, coughing his lungs out, dropping the joint on the ground as it rolls towards CC.

She rolls her eyes, muttering, "Amateurs," as she bends over to pick it up.

I can't resist. My hand is moving before I can think it's a bad idea.

The loud smack of my palm on her gorgeous ass causes everyone to turn towards us.

I shrug, "Whaaat? You know what I'm like."

Kallen facepalms, whispering under her breath so only I can hear her, "Oh god, why am I falling for this perverted idiot again?"

Tamaki takes the joint from CC, taking a puff. His eyes go wide at the taste, "Boss, you gotta get me a hookup with these guys! This shit is dank!"

I clear my throat, "*ahem* Moving on. Kaguya-chan, how soon do you think we'll be approached by remnants of the JLF?"

She grimaces, "I don't know how many are left after the battle. Probably a week or less, if I had to guess. What message shall I pass onto them if they attempt to get in touch with Kyoto?"

I put my head in my hand, smiling viciously, "That the JLF is dead and Kyoto will not waste their time on a corpse. If they want a cause, and a new country, the Black Knights will take them. We will, of course, be screening to ensure we get people who will, shall we say, 'get with the program'?"

"Zero, one thing's been bugging me," Kallen says, her face clearly unamused at CC getting spanked.

"What, pray tell?"

She leans forward, "Why did you not tell the JLF what your plan was? Why not tell them that you were planning to collapse part of the mountain for an avalanche?"

I knew she would catch that. Ohgi might have too, but he wouldn't think to ask publicly.

"Well, Q-1, tell me why you think I didn't say it. I'm curious about your deductive skills."

She blinks. Clearly nonplussed at the riposte.

"Well...I can't. I don't see any reason not to tell your own allies about a tra—!"

She pauses mid-sentence as something clicks into place in her train of thought.

"You sneaky bastard..." she whispers.

Kaguya smiles serenely, no doubt having already deciphered it.

CC, of course, is inscrutable with her casual smirk. But her eyes say she knows too.

I stand up and pace, "For those of you not following, the reasoning is simple: it's precisely because I did NOT, trust the JLF. That entire exchange was a test."

Most of the others haven't cracked it yet. Which isn't a big deal. This is a teaching moment, as they say.

I clear my throat and stop pacing.

"The test is simple. Does Katase, and by extension the JLF, trust me? If the answer is yes, then he will move his troops as instructed, or else ask why he needs to," I hold one hand up.

Holding up the other hand, I continue, "On the other hand, if he does NOT trust me, then he will take no actions. And thus suffer the consequences."

I shake my head in a disappointed fashion. Which I suppose I am. I guess I expected better from a general.

"In terms of our own actions? The fault for this operation lies upon my head for the intelligence gaffe of not realizing Cornelia had outmaneuvered us. And upon Katase for killing our momentum right when we were on the verge of winning," I say with an exasperated sigh.

You don't need to own up to every mistake, just a few occasionally. Obviously, I'm not going to tell them that I would have preferred to just sit back and let Cornelia finish the JLF off.

And by using Katase as a scapegoat, I can ensure that no blame is laid at my own feet. Granted, Jeremiah screwed up, too, but he's not the tactician and strategist. That's my job. And even I'm not egotistical enough to think I could have definitely caught this one in time. He at least got us a timely warning; I can hardly ask for more than that.

I cross my arms as I lean against the wall, "If there's an object lesson here? No battle plan ever survives first contact with the enemy."

I narrow my eyes as something occurs to me.

"However, consider this. I'm going to brag a little here, but given what I'm about to say, I'd like to believe I have a right to it. Having your momentum suddenly stopped in mid-battle is usually a death sentence for an army. Had a lesser commander than myself been in command today? We'd all likely be rotting corpses being picked over by carrion birds."

It really could have gone in a far more disastrous direction. Narita was a wake-up call that we're playing on a new level.

We won't have the luxury of being underestimated again.

"People, I'm not trying to be a buzz-kill and ruin everyone's evening. I'm your boss. It's part of my job, to keep the big picture in mind with proper perspective. And debriefings like this will ensure we avoid future mistakes and are better prepared for next time," I say, noticing that the mood has dampened a bit.

One problem with not getting the JLF, is it makes harder to get discipline and standardize procedures like this.

I walk over to a cabinet and pull out a decanter, filled with quality bourbon straight from Kentucky.

"That being said, eat, drink, and be merry. For tomorrow, we die."

I pour a taste out into a few of the cups, handing it to Ohgi, who passes it down the line.

"I regret I don't have more of this, but everyone will get a taste, rest assured."

I raise my cup, everyone else mimicking me.

"A toast. To our first great victory, and many more to come. And to those who fell today. 乾杯。" (Cheers)

"乾杯。"

As they solemnly sip the liquor, I take note of their faces. Some frightened, perhaps by the gravity of our situation. Some satisfied with a good day's work.

Of course, some of them like Kaguya just might not be used to drinking whiskey. She's currently coughing as CC pats her on the back.

Tamaki whistles, "Damn, that shit had a kick!" he says, looking at the little bit left in his glass. "What is it?"

"It's called whiskey. Think of it as a vague cousin to sake, only made from a different grain than rice. This particular kind is from the south of Britannia and called bourbon. Can I have some ice, please?" CC says, shaking her glass in my direction.

I sigh and pull out an ice bucket from the space under the cabinet, spooning two cubes into her glass.

She smacks my ass with her free hand, smirking.

"Good boy. Everyone is dismissed. Have a good evening," she lazily says, sipping her drink.

The group is largely nonplussed and wondering what to do.

"Meeting adjourned. You heard the lady. Go enjoy yourselves."

Annnnnnd Tamaki is already gone, door swaying from his exit.

I'm going to have a few drinks, mingle a bit, and then go home and sleep for 10 hours. The day after tomorrow? I'll see what Mr. Fenette knows, and hopefully finally meet Doctor Rakshata Chawla.