Chapter LXXXI: Aftermath, Part II

0900hrs, 26 December 2013, Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States.

"A day will come when they will weep and pray for your souls." General Kuribayashi, Letters from Iwo Jima.

"Someday, this war is gonna end…" Colonel Kilgore, Apocalypse Now.

The President sat in her bunker, head in her hands. It was over, but at what price?

"Ma'am."

Elizabeth ignored the voice for a second and kept looking down. She had not killed anyone personally, but her hands were stained with blood, just as much as those Delta Force operators or even…even the SAILOR team.

"Ma'am."

POTUS finally stopped ignoring the voice and looked up. COS Ramirez was standing at the door to the conference room, holding his tablet computer and generally looking very concerned.

"Yeah, Jorge. What is it?" POTUS wiped the sleepiness and the emotions she was feeling aside.

The COS tapped a couple icons on his tablet computer, then pressed the Bluetooth receiver on his right ear to receive an incoming call.

"They've got the SAILOR team."

That made the President sit up. "Really now? How many bodies did they pull up?" Again, Ramirez looked at his tablet computer for details. The President impatiently tapped her nails on the wooden table and looked around the room. It really wasn't anything special, with a couple pictures of some obscure technocrats adorning the walls.

"Three dead…" the COS finally replied.

"Wait, what?!" POTUS exclaimed. "There's five of them!"

"Maybe they couldn't find the bodies," the COS noted. "You know, they could have been vaporized in an explosion or something like that."

"Oh…oh." The sleep deprivation was really getting to her. "Wait, but we saw the entire fucking thing go down! " she snapped at him. "We saw the entire battle on the live feed!"

The COS shrugged. "Overlord also mentioned something about a SAS team operating in that area and…"

"WHAT!" The President's outburst startled everyone walking outside the conference room for a second, before they all went back to their business. How many other things were going wrong?! She was going to have to have a word with the UK Prime Minister.

"That's what he reported, and…"

"You idiot, they've got two of the bodies then!" POTUS got up from her chair and started pacing around the conference room.

"Well, more like one, I'm sure," the COS said.

"Why the sudden confidence?" President Hamilton had a feeling like she wasn't going like what was going to come up next.

"We have one of the SAILOR team members…alive."

There was a long, long silence.

"What." That "what" from POTUS was much more different than the one earlier on in the conversation.

"Yes ma'am, she's aboard the Carl Vinson right now, undergoing medical treatment."

The helicopters flew Mina and the team of Marines back to the USS Carl Vinson, where she carried the body of Amy all the way across the flight deck (much to the nonchalance of everyone; bodies had been coming through the last six hours and she wasn't any different). After she had gotten inside though, they took Amy's body away, setting it on a body bag. Mina offered no resistance to the security personnel who took Amy's body away and led her to sickbay, where she was looked over by one of the doctors. The interior of the Carl Vinson was a blur, with rows upon rows of bulkheads, doors, various compartments for the workings of one of the biggest ships in the world, and one of ten in the world. After what had seemed like an hour of winding through the convoluted mess of the Carl Vinson, they happened upon the even greater mess of sickbay.

Inside sickbay, wounded marines and sailors filled the space inside and spilled out into the halls. Blood occasionally spilled onto the floor, only to be somewhat cleaned up by exhausted medical technicians. Every now and then, a patient being operated on would scream out, his or her yells echoing throughout the hallways. Finally, the medical staff was overworked already to the breaking point, but they continued on nonetheless, despite the carnage around them. It was their job, after all.

"Hey, Dr. Ruiz!" A medical assistant called out to a doctor who was attending to a lightly wounded sailor, pulled from the wreckage of the USS Rentz.

"Yeah, I'm coming!" Dr. Tina Ruiz had been called up to her Navy Reserve job about a month ago, much to the chagrin of her family. She wouldn't be staying for Christmas or New Years', but then again, serving in the military did come with its hazards.

There were a couple of officers, one with the rank of captain, standing guard around a very frail and tired looking blonde girl near the entrance to sickbay.

"Captain…Pike?" Ruiz squinted at the man's nametag on his blue uniform.

"Captain Ruiz, we need you to do a medical check on this girl here." He gestured toward the girl. "I know you're busy, but this is very important."

"Alright, alright…I'll give her a look." Ruiz looked for a free chair or medical bed, and fortunately found a chair not being used by anyone at the moment.

"Sit down here," Ruiz gestured. Mina complied, sitting down in the chair.

Reminds me of when they brought me to the medical facility, Mina bitterly thought, taking her back those days six months ago. Being there sounded a lot better than the situation she found herself in now.
Ruiz finished her examination, even if it was somewhat abbreviated. "She looks fine. She's exhausted and has a mild case of dehydration, but I think that she'll make a full recovery…"

Captain Pike cut her off. "Good. She was never here."

"Wait…what?" The security officers took the blonde girl away before Ruiz could get in another word. She looked so defeated, Ruiz noted. Maybe she was one of the Nakanishi people. She didn't have much time to think about that before another call for help from one of the medical assistants thrust her back into the drama at hand.

"Ms. Mina…"

"It's Mina Aino." It was like these guys didn't know where to put her. She was in the brig of the Carl Vinson now, and that was pleasantly less crowded than the sickbay, though it still had its drawbacks. The walls were gray, the table was gray, the chair was gray…they must have went all out in decorating this place, Mina noted to herself. The only thing that wasn't gray was her hair and the water bottle in front of her, which had been already drained once they had given it to her. The interrogation brought her back to reality.

"Well, Mina," the interrogating officer said to her suspiciously. His nametag said "Paulson," and he didn't look like he was Navy; another glance at his uniform said "US Army." What was an Army guy doing here?

Paulson paused for a second, awkwardly looking at his tablet computer for the inquiries they had done on her earlier. "We can't find any trace of you…anywhere."

Mina blinked at him before responding to his statement. "I'm not working with the Nakanishi Group, if that's what you're asking me."

Paulson simply shook his head at Mina. "Well, I find that hard to believe, since you don't have any identifying marks on your uniform of a foreign nation, and especially of Japan. In fact, we can't even find you listed as a Japanese citizen, period. So that would make you an unlawful combatant, considering the fact that you were found with weapons and explosives."

Great, now they think I'm a terrorist or some stupid shit like that, Mina thought unhappy.

"Can't you ask the captain of the Murasame?" she protested. "He knows of our mission here."

Paulson was silent for a second, then took off his wireframe glasses.

"Mina, the Murasame was destroyed earlier today by a missile attack. They sacrificed themselves to protect this very ship. The crew made it out, but the captain and his XO were killed in that attack."

Mina looked down at the ground, thinking of the poor captain they had kicked out of his own wardroom. The only chance at all for her to have her story corroborated at the moment was gone.

With Mina and Artemis out of the picture, the American President betraying them, and the Japanese PM having erased any mention of the program, she was completely and utterly alone. She didn't even have the benefit of citizenship…she was now a stateless citizen. A woman without a home.

"So why don't you tell me what you really doing on that island, and why you were screaming out over the radio, okay?"

Mina told him the entirety of it. Everything, from the beginning. The Japanese PM forming the group. Their missions for the "benefit" of the country. Her and Amy figuring out that the Nakanishi Group was behind everything. Them meeting the President. Singlehandedly dismantling the Nakanishi Group and tracking them down to this island. Assaulting the island in the night, without any support whatsoever, neutralizing the nuclear threat, killing Beryl and Kunzite…all of it. What little good it did for her.

"So, Mina," Captain Paulson said to her. "I'm at a complete loss, to be honest, about your story. You expect me to believe that you're part of a special operations team that went around the world, carrying out acts of sabotage and assassinations for the Nakanishi Group, found out what they were actually doing, then turned on them, enlisting the help of the President herself and finally coming here to sort this entire mess here."

Mina nodded wearily at her interrogator.

"Yes sir. That's the truth." Mina knew that the guy didn't believe her for a second. It was too ridiculous to believe.

"I don't believe you for a second," Captain Paulson said to her.

"Well, that's all I have for you, Captain," Mina shot back, trying her best not to have a complete meltdown in front of him.

A knock on the door interrupted the interrogation, much to the Captain's annoyance.

"Come in," Paulson said.

An intelligence specialist (Navy) opened the door up, with a satellite phone in hand.

"Captain, phone call."

Captain Paulson glared at the poor intelligence specialist, but it was probably important if he was interrupted in the middle of this interrogation. He got up from the chair he was sitting in and walked toward the door, taking the phone from the specialist.

"Captain Paulson speaking," he said, shooing the poor specialist away and closing the cell door behind him.

"This is General Williams."

That took him off guard for a second. What did CINCUSSOC want with him? "Ah…yes, sir," Paulson said hesitatingly into the receiver. "What do you need, sir?"

"You've got that woman we asked to be detained, correct?"

"Yes, I've been interrogating her for the last half hour or so," he said back to the General.
"Good. I don't think you're going to get much out of her at the moment, so we're going to take her back to the states."

That puzzled Paulson for a second.

"Why do you say that…?"

"Son, the only thing I can say about her is that she's taken down several of my teams today, and that was after shooting her way through the Nakanishi PMC on that island."

"By herself?" Now Mina's story was starting to make more sense, no matter how farfetched it may have seemed to Paulson at the beginning.

"What do you think?" there was a pause as Overlord let the Captain figure that one out. Combined with the facts he had from her and Overlord's cryptic answer, Paulson had a vague idea now what was going on. And Overlord wanted it to stay that way.

"Oh…okay. I think."

"Anyway, get her onto a plane for the States," Overlord said. "We'll handle it from there."

"Will do, General."

Overlord hung up the phone and sat back in his chair. It had certainly been a long day, and he wanted to get back to base. A shower, shave and a nice glass of whisky (Suntory or JW Blue…choices, choices) would round off this extraordinary day. But first, he had to call the President.

"Thanks General," POTUS said on the phone. "Okay. That's at least somewhat figured out then."

"What is?" COS Ramirez asked her, looking up from his tablet computer.

"What we're going to do with the surviving member of the team. I know her. She's the one that saved my life." Guiltily, she thought back to that day, the explosions…the dead people littering the White House and Congress…too many good statesmen died on that day. "I don't want to think about this issue now. Just…we'll figure it all out later."

The COS nodded, then brought up another topic.

"Madame President, there's another issue that might concern you."

Great. Yet another thing that needs my attention, she grumbled to herself. "And that would be?"

"Your orders being disobeyed."

POTUS breathed in sharply. The COS was right. She couldn't let that one slide.

"Get me Admiral Thompson."

"Right away."

"Admiral Thompson, what do I do about the NAVCENT commander?" POTUS asked her over the video conference call. The JCS looked like shit; Admiral Thompson's uniform was a bit rumpled and there was a coffee stain on it as well. From what it seemed like, the other members in the background looked exactly the same as her. POTUS noticed the Commandant of the Marine Corps swearing quite profusely…it was understandable though. His beloved Corps had borne most of the damage today, aside from the Navy.

Thompson didn't have much for the President other than the obvious. "I suggest that we relieve him of his command and have him report back here for a courts martial."

"That sounds like a good idea," POTUS said back to the admiral. "Except, if he gets a courts martial, people are going to start wondering what was going on behind the scenes, especially for a man who's just bested the Nakanishi Group. Best if we just let him resign."

Not what I would have done, Thompson thought to herself, but whatever. "Understood Madame President. Should I call him?"

"No, I'll tell the bastard myself. Jorge, get the call set up."

It took a little bit for the call to get through. POTUS sat back in her chair and took a long swig of coffee; she had been up for a long time now, with the hours blending together into one incoherent mess.

"Madame President, what can I do for you?" COMUSNAVCENT said in a pleasant tone. He knew what was coming.

POTUS was going to keep this one short and sweet. "Admiral, you are relieved of your command," she spat into the receiver. "You are to come to Colorado Springs immediately for a debriefing. Do I make myself fucking clear on this one?"

"Yes, Madame…"

POTUS cut him off as he was halfway in replying.

"Must be atmospheric interference," the COS sarcastically commented.

"Yes, it must be," the President replied, just as sarcastically.

"Looks like this is the last time you'll probably hear from me," COMUSNAVCENT said to his J-2. That entire incident was obviously not transmitted over the loudspeakers, but everyone in the CIC knew what was going down.

"Certainly seems that way." The J-2 snapped a crisp salute. "It's been an honor, sir."

Everyone in the CIC followed the J-2's example, standing up from their chairs and offering salutes to the man. COMUSNAVCENT returned the gesture, saluting the captain of the USS Carl Vinson before heading out. Sure, he had made some mistakes…okay, a lot of mistakes today. No one could have predicted the amount of firepower that island had, or the resistance from those UGVs, or the sudden appearance of the UAVs and UCAVs. That could have easily been forgiven. But since he had disobeyed a direct order from the Commander in Chief…his head was going to roll on this one.

Already on the flight deck, a P-3 Orion had been made ready for him. Orders from the Commander in Chief were probably best carried out immediately, and it had helped that the Orion had just come back from a recon patrol, its crew tired, but still ready to go. COMUSNAVCENT boarded the plane; as he did so, he took one last look at the mighty carrier behind him, symbolizing the power of the United States of America.

He would most certainly miss the Navy.

"Well, I would like to stay and chat, but it seems like you're going back to the United States," Paulson said, coming back into the room.
Mina had her head down on the table, napping for a second. She snapped her head up upon hearing him say that. "Wait…what?"

"Orders are orders. And since we have absolutely nothing on you concerning your status as an agent of the Japanese or US government, under the Geneva Convention you are an unprivileged combatant. We get to do basically what we feel is necessary with you."

Bullshit, Mina thought to herself. Glad to see all those years in Afghanistan and Iraq taught you to disregard international agreements or at least twist them to fit your own needs.

"This way, please." Captain Paulson gestured toward the door, to show her out to her fate.

Mina would have loved to smash some heads in now, but she was just too tired. There was no way she was going to get out of this one.

She glumly walked out of the cell, head turned downward, shoulders slumped with tiredness, broken and dispirited.

"Ma'am, your family is here to see you," the COS said. The situation having been determined safe, the First Family had been flown from their safehouse to Colorado, where they would meet with the President. Jorge disappeared for a second, then returned with her family in tow.

"Mom!" Emma and Jamie scurried into the conference room, followed closely by the First Gentleman.

"Did you get the bad guys, Mom?" Jamie asked her.

"Yes," POTUS said back, slowly. "We got the good guys."

"The good guys?" Jamie looked at her, confused.

"I meant the bad guys, yeah, sorry about that," Elizabeth said to her daughter, smiling weakly. "It's been a long day."

The President would have to sort all that shit about the battle later today, with a press conference, more meetings with the Joint Chiefs, the NSC, what was left of the Armed Forces Committee…but for now, she would enjoy the time she had with her children and spouse.

"Care for some whisky?"

Jamie glared at her mom and dad, obviously disapproving of his suggestion. "Dad! It's only nine in the morning!" she scolded.

The First Gentleman chuckled at his daughter's concern, but continued to address his wife. "It's five o'clock somewhere, hon. You are entitled to at least one drink."

POTUS thought that over for a second.

"Oh hell. Jack, pour me a double."

That made the First Gentleman smile a mile wide. "That's the spirit." He poured her the drink from a suitcase full of booze that he had managed to get in here, and passed out the glasses to everyone (even to the kids). Emma looked suspiciously at the glass, while Jamie was extremely excited to have her first drink.

The First Gentleman raised his glass, along with his daughters to the President. "Cheers."

For the first time in weeks it seemed, the President broke out into a big smile.

On yet another ship, the Harry Truman, the bodies of Lita and Serena were undergoing the same treatment that Amy and Raye had undergone, mainly being put on ice and shipped back to the United States and the UK for "testing." They would get no burial rights, no elaborate funeral, no sobbing family members to say nice things at their eulogy. They had already gotten those when they "first" died, so there wouldn't be any of that now for them.

Within twelve hours, their remains were already back in the United States.