Chapter XIV: Lessons learned.
1630hrs, 23 July 2013, "Top Secret" Medical Facility, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan.
"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." Winston Churchill
"That could have gone better," Akamatsu said to the SAILOR team. They were back in the big conference room, along with Dr. Kobayashi and General Ishimura.
"Let me see you try better," SAILOR Mars snarled back.
"Okay you two," Kobayashi said. There was powerpoint up on the projector screen, displaying the results of the test. "Let's get back to the statistics. The SAILOR team successfully engaged and defeated twenty terrorists. That's the good part. The bad part is…well, let me break it up into a couple of parts."
Everyone looked at each other. This wasn't going to end well, and they knew it.
"First off, splitting the group was a good idea, and it was good that SAILOR Mars and SAILOR Moon were at the position they were in, otherwise there would have been significantly more causalities than were incurred."
"And what were those numbers?" General Ishimura asked.
"Let's see." Kobayashi brought up a slide. "Ah yes. There were thirty-five dead, excluding the terrorists. Twenty were Japanese nationals, ten US Military or DoD employees, and five tourists or local civilians. There were seventy wounded, forty Japanese nationals, twenty US Military or DoD employees, and ten tourists or local civilians."
"Ouch," Akamatsu commented. "That would have been really bad in real life."
"Glad it didn't," Mars shot back. Everything that came out of Akamatsu's mouth was somehow demeaning to the SAILOR team.
"Anyway," Kobayashi continued on. "The problem wasn't with splitting the team up. The problem was the inadequate weapons that were employed with the team."
"But there really wasn't anything we could do about it," Serena complained. "You said yourself that it would be very difficult to change weaponry in the middle of an operation."
"That is true Serena, however, I confess that was done on purpose."
"Why?" Amy asked, frustrated. The image of 9mm rounds bouncing off of the body armor still lingered in her head.
Kobayashi sighed. "It was to see two things, one, to test your ability to adapt to the situation. You did that pretty well. Second though, was to demonstrate the need to bring better weapons to fit the situation. Raye's MP7 was able to penetrate the body armor, right?"
Raye nodded eagerly.
"And Lita, you noticed that one of the terrorists was still hurt by your pistol?"
"Yeah," she said. "But he still got back up. And I had to keep reloading."
"So, you're saying that the Glock I was carrying is completely useless?" Amy said. "I can't use it anymore?"
"Not at all," Ishimura said. "The thing is, your loadout would have been more than adequate for some local thugs or untrained backwoods militia. These terrorists were well prepared and armed with powerful, if dated weaponry."
"We would have been more conspicuous with heavier weaponry," Serena said. "Even if we used the FiveseveN pistols that use the same ammo as Raye's MP7, we still would have been outmatched." "Wearing body armor would have even noticeable," Amy said. "But concealment was completely negated because we started a firefight in crowded areas."
"That brings me to my second point," Kobayashi continued. "A massive firefight in two hotel complexes and in a street between you and the terrorists ended up not going well. And most likely, it would have resulted in strained relations between the United States and Japan. We had information that they needed to know about and we didn't tell them."
"So…this entire exercise was pointless," Mina said.
"Not exactly. We have friends in the world, and if we don't tell people if something is going on, then we can't use their help. But we don't need to tell our friends everything that goes on, now do we? You and Amy actually started to do this, but you continued in anyway."
Mina looked confused at Kobayashi's statement. "We…what did we do?"
"We talked to the police officer on the way up to the hotel," Amy said. "We kind of sort of told him that there might be a terrorist attack in the area, but we didn't give any sign of urgency."
"Exactly. You had a badge, yes? You could have manipulated the situation to have a large police presence in the area, deterring the attack. And you could have been gone by the time they figured out that you were not a police officer. Serena actually almost did that, but the 911 call got cut off."
"So," Mina said. "Manipulating people is just as good, even better than sometimes, bullets or bombs."
"Precisely," Ishimura said. "I heard from the PM that you're pretty good at that."
Mina blushed. "I guess I am…but I didn't know how to do it in this situation."
Kobayashi smiled. "That's why we train."
The debriefing continued for another hour or so, then they dismissed for dinner. The girls went down the cafeteria and General Ishimura and Dr. Kobayashi stayed in the conference room (Akamatsu got kicked out and ate in his office…).
"That was quite a day," Mina said over a bowl of curry and tonkatsu.
"I really didn't expect all of that to happen," Amy said. She went with some korekke and Hamburg steak.
"It was like I was actually in combat," Raye said. "It was very exciting."
"What do think will happen now?" Lita wondered. "We did kind of fuck it up, massively."
"That test was designed to be a failure," Serena said suddenly. "Fits his name appropriately."
"Well, yeah," Amy replied. "He even admitted it. Our weapons loadout was crap, we were outnumbered four to one, with an opponent with better weapons, more firepower, better armor and the willingness to kill. That's not even going into the PR fallout that would have resulted in us being captured in an ally nation with firearms and especially after using those guns to kill a whole bunch of people."
"What do we do now?" Mina asked.
"We have to show them that we can do it," Serena said firmly. "We've come too far now. I'm not going to let some VR test ruin my day."
"Agreed," Lita said.
"That makes sense to me," Raye replied. She got out a bottle of Mirin Ichiban.
"Where did you get that?" Serena asked her. "I kind of want some!"
"I bullied Akamatsu into giving some." She pulled out four more bottles from underneath the table. "It's a lot better than tea, that's for sure."
"Damn!" Lita exclaimed. "Give me that."
Raye passed around the bottles of beer. "Okay everyone. Kanpai!" Even Amy gingerly accepted the bottle, wondering what it tasted like.
"Kanpai!" was the response.
"What did you think, General?" Kobayashi said, pouring some sake out of a fancy bottle.
"Like I said before, I was very impressed," Ishimura replied. "Kanpai!"
They both drained their glasses.
"I appreciate the sentiment, General, but…"
Ishimura heard the hesitation in his voice. "But what?"
Kobayashi put down his glass. "Some of my people have complained about the Nakanishi Group is interfering with our operations."
"How?"
"A couple of weeks ago, one of Yamada's PAs came in and harassed one of my nurses. I understand that things might not work here the way they want them to work, but General,"
He leaned forward. "I will not let this program be taken over by a corporation."
Ishimura sighed. "Kobayashi, there are things that are way beyond my control. Nakanishi is one of them. You know about them and the PM?"
"Yes."
"It was they who came up with 'part' of the idea for this team," Ishimura said. He picked up his chopsticks and clasped on some salmon. "They helped, along with me and some others to put this entire project together."
Kobayashi picked up the sake bottle again and poured some more in the glasses. "Shit. I am working for a corporation now. Thought I'd never have to in my life, but there are some things that you just can't get away from."
"I'm sorry Kobayashi, but that's the way things are." Ishimura picked up some rice. "At least the Prime Minister shares some of your concerns. I talked to him yesterday and he's think about maybe scaling the program back a little."
"A little?" Kobayashi asked. "Why now?"
"I have no idea. Maybe Nakanishi is getting too involved in this program. Or maybe he's getting cold feet since he might have to face a vote of confidence soon."
"Great." Kobayashi sat back in his chair and looked at the ceiling. "Whatever though. It's alright," he said. "Despite what I think, or what the PM thinks, or what Nakanishi thinks, everything is working out pretty well in the face of everything that could have gone wrong."
"Exactly. I'll drink to that." They both raised their glasses.
"Same."
General Ishimura left that night, slightly tipsy, after being shown out by Dr. Kobayashi and the other "Ks".
He relaxed in his limousine, just wanting for the long journey back to Tokyo to get over with.
Brrrrimmmm.
"Dammit." It was his mobile phone. He had turned it off for the entire duration of the day and had only powered it on when he had got into the car. He checked the voicemail.
"You have fifteen new voice messages."
"Great."
After wading through fourteen requests for information, requests for raises, requests for this, that, and the other, he got to the last message.
"Ishimura," it began. It was Ichigo Yamada, Mr. CEO himself.
"This isn't going to end well," he said to himself.
"Ishimura, I have heard from my personal assistant that the project is continuing ahead very well. I need that project up to speed, regardless of what the PM thinks or does in the next couple of days."
Does in the next couple of days? What is he on about? This is most certainly not good.
"In addition, make sure that all personnel are on deck with this project. I do not need any more…doubters. You know who I am talking about."
"Kobayashi," he said to himself.
"Replace people if you need to, but I need this thing out of the door in a couple of months or else my company goes on a downward slide, and we don't want that to happen, General. Especially to that nice retirement package that's all tied up in Nakanishi Group stock."
"Dammit."
"So, do what you have to do. I want results…General. Have a nice day."
The voicemail ended.
Ishimura sighed. "Looks like I have some more work to do," he said to himself. He dialed the PM's office.
"General, this better be good," the PM said somewhat groggily. He had gone to bed early, but his personal mobile went off just as he was nodding off.
"Who is it?" asked his wife.
"Just a moment. Sorry honey, I have to take this." The PM got out of bed and walked to his office.
"Sir, I just got a phone call from…a source," Ishimura went on. "It regards the SAILOR program."
God, not this again, the PM thought. "What about it?"
"I have heard that you might…do something drastic," Ishimura said.
"You presume too much," the PM replied. "I plan on to scale back the operations that SAILOR will engage on. It will be a domestic only program only. Saves us money and the political embarrassment if something goes horribly wrong."
Which completely defeats the purpose of SAILOR, Ishimura thought.
"Prime Minister, that's not an option," he protested. "I saw the progress that the SAILOR team is making. I give it a month before they're ready for deployment for real world operations."
The PM rolled his eyes. "General, I know about those fancy VR simulators that are being tested. Those don't count."
"Then sir, practice ranges, kill houses, live fire ranges and the other sites that we use must be completely inadequate," the General retorted.
"Dammit, Ishimura, what do you want?" The Prime Minister was getting really irritated. People from the Nakanishi Group had been calling, day and night. He felt like one of the many salarymen that they employed, harangued and besieged with requests for this, that and the other.
"Prime Minister," Ishimura said. "Reconsider your option to restrict the SAILOR group to domestic operations. That would not be in the best interest of Japan."
"Goddammit!" Hasegawa snarled into the phone. "And if I press forward, I might lose the position I fought so hard to get!"
"Sir," the General said. "You didn't get there without some significant help."
Shoot. He's right.
"Fine. Fine. I'll not restrict the operations but if anything…" the PM gripped the phone very tightly. "If anything goes wrong, I will pin this on you and the Nakanishi Group. This has nothing to do with me now."
"But the SAILOR group reports directly to you," Ishimura pointed out.
"I don't care!" Hasegawa snapped. "This has given me nothing but ulcers and migraines in the last couple of months!"
He paused for a second, then continued on.
"Just keep this under wraps, and everything will be fine. For now at least."
"Thank you Prime Minister," Ishimura replied. He hung up.
"You're welcome."
The PM stared down at the phone for a minute. He suddenly threw it across the room, and into a vase.
"Honey!" His wife came running down the hallway, but the security force was already in the room.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," he said to them. They had guns drawn, but they put them away once they saw what had happened. It wasn't an uncommon occurrence in the PM's residence, it being a stressful job and all.
"Sorry," he said to his wife. "I was just…some work, that's all."
She sighed. "It's always about work. Ever since we lost Yuna…"
"Don't," the PM said. He sat down in his chair and dismissed the security people. "Please, just don't."
"There was nothing you could do," his wife said to him. "You were campaigning and then the tsunami happened…"
"I could have done something," Hasegawa replied. He reached inside his desk but his wife stopped him.
"Miko, please, just this once," the PM said to his wife.
"No, we can't go back there. You know how it was when you were addicted."
He sighed. Of course, the PM's wife was more right than he was. "Alright, you got me." He closed the drawer he was reaching in. "Let's go back to bed. I have a very long day tomorrow."