The top-level after-action review meeting included all primary and secondary commanding officers of major military units and support departments. The XOs and COs of the other ships were there by hologram. All told, it made for a crowded room, even though they were in the largest of the executive-level conference rooms on the Finalizer. It was important that they all be together for this.
"We may as well get started," Hux said with a small smile. "I doubt Ren will be joining us." That was an absence he didn't mind.
"After yesterday?" Major Vannd said. She went on carefully, "Is there anything we should be doing in regard to that?" It was a diplomatic way of asking if Hux wanted action taken.
"No," Hux said. "Leader Snoke is aware and I am sure he will take it up with Ren in whatever capacity he so desires." He'd woke up to find the knot on his forehead just as present as before, with headache, lingering nausea, nose tender, and eye well on the way to blacking. He could have prevented all that with proper medical care the evening before. Instead, he'd spent it gaining less visible minor injuries and a precious measure of inner peace. Despite the pain, he was in a good mood. He wouldn't have time to treat himself properly until after this meeting.
"Is Lord Ren … well?" Peavey asked.
"I-" Hux wondered what Snoke might do to Ren for the incident. Ren had, after all, struck him first. Even if one exempted the death of Phimitt, Ren had started the confrontation as far as such things were judged in the culture and law of the First Order. Striking a non-subordinate was not allowed and excused just about anything Hux did in immediate retaliation. "Do you have reason to believe he is not?"
Peavey's gaze swept over the rest of Hux's face. "I was on the bridge with you, sir. You have … additional injuries."
"These are not to Ren's credit."
"Is our security adequate?" Peavey glanced over to Captain Opan, who was in charge of internal security and presumably, keeping the upper ranks safe from assault.
"Yes, it is." Hux wondered why Peavey was so concerned about such superficial damage. He considered mentioning that he'd gone boxing with Phasma, but that would immediately lead to problems for her. Inflicting repeated head trauma on a general, even by accident, was literally criminally negligent given the rank involved. "I suppose my command staff does need an explanation. Leader Snoke expressed his feelings to me concerning the stabbing of his apprentice." Now there was no crime at all.
"Snoke has agents here?" Peavey shot another glance at Opan, who was stone-faced as he usually was in public, then at Kaplan, who was the next most likely to know about an unexpected docking.
"Of course he does," Hux said. "I'm here." Peavey blinked at him and pulled his head back. So did many others at the table. Hux had never been quite so direct about Snoke's role in his life. "And as you can see," he gestured at his face, "his enforcers need not be present for him to have an effect. Snoke is anywhere he wishes to turn his attention to. There is no ship or planet outside his reach so far as I know. Something you would all be wise to keep in mind."
There was a beat of silence before Hux went on, "To business. It would seem we have won through on ISR-458. There will remain at least a week of negotiations to be followed by months of diplomatic work that we will probably not be involved in. The main part is done: making it clear to the population that submission to Order is mandatory. Our first goal in this staff meeting is a high-level summary of events, to be followed by a department-by-department review of what was done well, what was not, and what will be done to improve performance in future.
"None of us have had the time to do a thorough review. However, it is important to acknowledge our immediate impressions. Each department will do a deeper analysis and we'll meet back in a week to discuss those findings. Now, to begin," Hux pressed a button and rose. The queued presentation lit the air over the table with a holographic display of the planet and their ships as they had been arrayed on their first day here. "I will walk us through a very compressed version of the last four days, for the benefit of those departments not privileged with an overall view."
He clicked off the battle review. "Overall – what went well: the rescue of the Finalizer. Our defense against the fusillade was flawless. From what I've seen, not a single department stumbled. If they had, most of us would not be here. When the warheads hit, all of us were holding our breath to see if the damage was limited enough that our systems could reboot in time, or if gravity would do us in like the Ravager at Jakku. That would have been a truly humiliating way to go," he told them. "Shot down by primitives chucking rocket-powered spears at us."
Hux straightened. "Which brings me to what we did wrong: we took an aggressive approach when our designs would have just as easily been achieved with a conservative one. We were under no time pressure here, so why did we over-reach ourselves?"
There was some shifting around the table, but no one said anything, not familiar enough with him as a commander to know if the question was rhetorical or real. Hux leaned forward, both hands on the table. "I know it was Ren's plan, but we had input on the execution of it. None of us cautioned him about over-extending ourselves, myself included. I ask again, what prevented us from doing our duty? I don't believe it was a lack of courage."
No one answered. Hux sat back down. "Think on your answer to that, then. It very nearly got us killed. I will hold my comments about what we can do to improve, overall, until the various departments have spoken." He turned to Peavey. "Captain. Lead off on ship operations." Peavey nodded and stood.
At the end, Hux reclaimed the floor. "Last night, I was boxing with Captain Phasma. We did drills for form and accuracy before moving on to speed. She told me there was no point in doing something quickly if I was doing it incorrectly – I'd only be wrong faster that way.
"I said earlier our greatest flaw was in taking the wrong approach. It opened us to an attack we were barely able to defend against, because none of us imagined the enemy had enough nuclear weapons to destroy their own planet a hundred times over. That's a preposterous degree of weaponry and that's coming from me." He laughed disdainfully a few times before moving on.
"I wanted to hear everyone's suggestions by department – and they were good, you have my full support on those – but none of them address the overarching problem. We don't have good information on our enemies. We need to be certain we're conducting our efforts correctly or else we're just moving faster toward the wrong result. I propose we develop an outward-facing intelligence organization to bring us this information.
"Captain Opan, Major Birnham - Let's meet separately to review how this would impact your departments. There will be some reorganization among your personnel and a shift in focus."
Hux looked around the room. "Is there anyone else here who has information or background that might assist in improving our ability to gather accurate information on our targets?" Major Vannd shifted in her seat enough that she attracted attention, but she just pressed her lips together in silence. Nonetheless, Hux knew she had a lot of contacts outside the Order. Part of her job was to manage a procurement network.
Captain Rosall of the Harbinger said, "I would like to have some input on such a thing, if it will be a resource available to me in future. I have some background I can share offline."
"Of course." Hux looked in Vannd's direction briefly. "These will be offline discussions, not for airing here and now. Anyone who wishes can contact me privately. We'll get something set up. I know this has been a long meeting coming at the end of several days of doubled shifts. Unless someone has pressing further business, we'll adjourn."
Hux looked around the table slowly, eyes lingering on each person in turn, noting their expressions. Most were tired and preoccupied – he ignored them. A few were watching the rest alertly in case someone said anything – they were worth watching. A smaller number looked like they had things to say but weren't willing to – he would follow up later with those. "Very well. Tomorrow we will start the departmental reviews. We are adjourned."
A/N: In my authorial opinion, the biggest 'what we did wrong' of the conquest of ISR-458 is consistent underestimation of the enemy. The First Order demonstrates this again over D'Qar and during the space section of the Battle of Crait. Since I know they're still making this mistake in the future, I can't really have them realizing the error two years beforehand. The basic problem of arrogance looks a lot like a lack of good information.
The Earth's current, ridiculous level of armament is analogous to building a hundred Starkillers so they can all shoot the same planet at once. Even Armitage Hux thinks that's overkill.