So I had originally decided to just freeze this fic until I was done with one of the bigger ones, but I figured that it was kind of pointless. I mean, this fic is already going to be relatively short, so why not finish it up sooner than later? Rest assured, I'll complete this fic in the coming weeks.

With the entirety of Yellow Comet under siege, the capital was not very far from the front line, no matter which direction you were headed. Still, it would be a good two hours before the recon unit Sonja was riding in reached the location of her father's personal army. This left her with plenty of time to think as she gazed out the window at Yellow Comet's beautiful landscape: Black Hole's destruction had yet to reach this far inland.

What would she say? Sonja knew better than anyone that her father was a stubborn man. Even though she, as the victim of Suzukai's assault, had every right to pardon him, it would be difficult to convince Kanbei to forgive the man for hurting his daughter. Truly, now that she knew who he was, Kanbei was far angrier with Suzukai than Sonja was herself. She more than deserved that bruise on her face, she knew.

She had made a mistake, of that there was no doubt. As the last member of its unit, Suzukai's crew should have been ordered to withdraw from the front lines. But Sonja had been so engaged in assaulting the second side of the Black Hole fortress that she had forgotten to order them back. Furthermore, she had moved her rockets forward prematurely. After the major threats had been dealt with, Sonja had to move her rockets out of the woods to get within range of the last mini-cannon. She had believed them to be safe, only to have an enemy neotank unit come out of the fog. Her only option had been to shield the rockets with the nearest available unit, Suzukai and his crew, so she could end the battle and prevent further casualties.

Sonja believed she had made the right move at that point. Had she not sacrificed that tank, the entire rocket unit would have been destroyed. The eleven men of that rocket unit aside, the battle would have been prolonged even further, and even more casualties would have been possible. That did not negate her folly though. Had she kept her rockets hidden until the area was completely clear, she would never have been forced to sacrifice her own men like some sort of pawn in a twisted game of chess.

Engaged in her own thoughts as she was, the trip to the front lines passed very quickly, and Sonja felt that she had hardly been on the road at all. The jeep that carried her slowed to a stop, and the driver turned to face her. "We've arrived at General Kanbei's forward operating base ma'am."

Sonja nodded her appreciation to the man. "Very well. You may return to your normal duties. I will find another means back to the capital when I am finished here."

"Yes ma'am."

Stepping out of the yellow jeep, Sonja was quickly met by a captain who had noticed her arrival. He greeted her with a bow, and a polite but confused expression. After all, word of the Emperor's daughter usually arrived before the girl herself did. "Greetings Commander. We had no idea you were coming..."

"I did not wish to telegraph my arrival. Is my father on base?"

"Yes ma'am, but he's in the middle of a meeting with his advisers now. General Kanbei specifically ordered to not be interrupted under any circumstances."

Sonja cocked an eyebrow at the soldier. "I believe an exception might be in order in my case, if a war meeting is going on. I am a tactician, in case you've forgotten."

Not one to argue with the Emperor's daughter, the captain bowed to her and turned on his heel. "I'll take you to him right away, ma'am."

As Sonja followed the man, she couldn't help but feel a little hypocritical calling herself a tactician. A real strategist would never have made the same mistake she had.

At his personal request, the field hospital had wrapped Ryu's face in bandages, hiding his fresh and recent scarring as he sat on the steps of the plastic structure. The field hospital was not entirely alone ten miles from the front lines: there was a number of tents, large and small, that housed equipment or men. Still, the field hospital was the only deployed structure, and therefore the only building with steps, so that was where Ryu was sitting, as he contemplated his future.

He had signed all of the necessary paperwork for his discharge from the military. If he was lucky, he would not be punished beyond a dishonorable discharge, though that depended on Emperor Kanbei. Having attacked his daughter, Ryu would be lucky if he left the military with his head.

And if he did get out of this mess alive, where would he go? His father had died years ago, and his mother was struggling to support herself. He knew that she would take him in if she came to her, but Ryu didn't want to increase the already heavy burden she carried. Still, how he was going to take care of himself was a problem as well. It would be difficult for a disfigured soldier who had been dishonorably discharged to find work...

A loud group of voices interrupted Ryu's thoughts, and he thought he recognized a certain voice in particular among them. Curious, Ryu rose to his feet to investigate, unsure of how he would feel if he ran into who he thought he would. He supposed it depended on how the man was acting.

Turning the corner of the field hospital, Ryu spotted a group wounded soldiers sitting on barrels and crates, in a circle around one Keima Kanzaki, ex-radio operator of the now scrapped Sakura.

"So you really took on an entire neotank unit alone!?"

"And you destroyed them all with one light tank, without your crew?! That's incredible!"

Keima, completely unscathed in any way, couldn't keep the pleased smirk from his face. "That's right. After our orders came in from HQ, the rest of my cowardly crew fled in terror. It was up to me to defend my comrades on the front, so I took command of the tank myself..."

At that moment, Ryu wanted nothing more than to slug Keima in the face. But after doing just that to the Emperor's daughter, the man was unwilling to get himself in more trouble by assaulting a soldier, whether he was a coward and a liar or not. Right now he could only deliver justice with his words.

"Fortunately for you Keima, one of your 'cowardly' crew-mates is here to set the record straight."

A look of fear crossed Keima's weaselly face as he recognized the voice. "R-Ryu, you're alive! I-I'm so glad..."

Ryu focused the most powerful glare he could on the man. "Oh, I'm alive all right. And I don't appreciate you defaming my comrades. Baek and Shen died following the orders from HQ: I survived, through sheer luck, or maybe a miracle, but you? You turned tail and ran at the first opportunity! Who are you to call the rest of us cowards?!"

Keima tried to think of something to save face in front of all the men here. "Now Ryu, I understand that you were injured on the field, but you're clearly delusional..."

"The only deluded person here is you Keima. It's impossible to operate a tank effectively with just one man. Against five neotanks, there's no way you'd be able to maneuver the tank and fire the gun at the same time. You'd have to stop to fire and reload, and then you'd get nailed. Besides, let's say you could somehow do both: against a neotank, a light tank like Sakura would have been useless anyway. You would have barely even scratched them. You've exaggerated an already unlikely story to a ridiculous level. How anyone could believe you at all is beyond me."

As Ryu laid out the facts, most of the men around Keima had to hide embarrassed faces. They had hardly given any thought to Keima's fantastical tale: anyone with half a brain would have known that a light tank with a single crew member would have stood no chance against one neotank, never mind five. Ashamed to have been so easily enraptured, these men quickly scattered, leaving Keima and Ryu alone, the latter not being very happy.

"Keima... as if ditching us wasn't bad enough, you have the gall to use our sacrifice for personal fame?"

The radio operator jabbed a finger at him. "Who are you to talk about sacrifice? You're still alive aren't you?!"

Ryu motioned at the bandages on his face. "I survived because I was lucky, not because I abandoned my comrades! Baek and Shen are dead, and I'll be scarred for the rest of my life! Yet here you are, capitalizing on it all you bastard!"

"Or maybe I was the only smart one! As you can see, I'm not dead or wounded, because I wasn't stupid enough to fight a pointless battle!"

Ryu was mere seconds away from assaulting Keima, but he heard his name called from behind before he could.

"Private Suzukai! You are to come with me immediately!"

Both men turned to face an army lieutenant, though Ryu was the only one to answer him. "Sir?"

"Your presence is required at General Kanbei's forward operating base. You must come immediately."

Ryu forgot about Keima entirely as a feeling of absolute dread overcame him. He apparently would not be so lucky as to escape the Emperor's attention.

"You want what?!"

The war meeting between Yellow Comet's Emperor and his advisers was over. Sonja's arrival had sped up the process considerably. She had already formulated a plan of attack to conquer the coastline missile silos and use them against Black Hole forces, while Kanbei blitzed the enemy from the sea. Now that a plan of action was set, Sonja was determined to accomplish what she had actually set out to do.

"I do not want Private First Class Ryugeki Suzukai to be court-martialed or otherwise punished in any way, shape, or form. That is all."

Needless to say, Kanbei was flabbergasted. "But daughter, are you not furious for the disrespect he has shown you? To lay a hand on one's commanding officer in such a way-"

"He had every right to do what he did. As a commanding officer, it is my job to keep my men out of unnecessary danger, and I failed him."

"There must be sacrifice in war Sonja. Every soldier must understand this."

The dark haired tactician folded her arms, regret etched on her face. "Father, I know better than anyone that you cannot go through a battle without casualties. But as a CO, my soldiers expect me to do everything I can to get them through it alive. I was the one making the plans and calling the shots. Private Suzukai's crew was killed because of my folly, and no one else. His comrades died because of me, and he nearly did as well. I have no right to be angry at him."

"Everyone makes mistakes daughter. That does not give a soldier the right to assault his commander."

Sonja couldn't help but sigh. She and her father had very different ideas when it came to war and sacrifice. "Father, I understand that there is honor in dying for your country. But if some of your men did not have to die, would it not be better? It was my mistake that cost Suzukai's crew their lives. Had I not been so hasty, they would all be alive right now, and mothers would not be mourning the loss of their sons, or children their fathers. I must accept full responsibility for my own mistakes: it is the only way I will grow stronger both as a person and a commander."

Kanbei stroked his chin in thought. "Though I still do not agree with your decision to negate this man's punishment, I must admit that your words are wise, my daughter. But if he is not to be court-martialed, what would you have me do? We cannot allow our men to think assaulting a CO is a light matter to be swept underneath the carpet."

"Well, he is one of my soldiers, is he not? Allow me to deal with him myself. If the task falls to anyone, it's me."

"I see. And what exactly do you plan to do?"

Sonja knit her brows in thought. "I'm not quite sure yet. I must make amends for my mistake, that is certain... but if I cannot convince him to trust me again, then I will have him transferred to another division. Still, I hope I can persuade him to continue serving in my own..."

"Sonja, these amends of yours... I hope you do not degrade yourself in front of this soldier for its sake."

"Certainly not father. Besides, to apologize to someone you have wronged is not degrading. This last battle against Black Hole has taught me that humility is a trait all commanders need in spades. We cannot afford to grow arrogant or vain. If I went too far down that path, I really would be quite similar to Lash... for that, I must thank Suzukai: his sacrifice, and that of his comrades, has shown me the error of my ways. I hate to admit it, but for too long I viewed each battle as a mere game of wits and strategy. I think... I think talking with a survivor of one of these battles, of one of the 'pawns' I made poor use of, will remind me that my mistakes cost more than I know."

Kanbei could not help but wonder how much his daughter was suffering under her calm facade. She was young, and though intelligent, she was an inexperienced commander who had participated in few battles. Kanbei knew how it felt to lose your comrades by your own folly, but had come to terms with it long ago. For Sonja, this struggle was fresh and new, and there was little her father could do but let her sort it out on her own.

The silence that encompassed the two of them was broken as a knock came at the door to the command room, followed by the voice of a soldier. "Commander? The soldier you requested from the field hospital has arrived."

Sonja turned towards the door so her voice would come out more clearly to the man on the other side. "Very well. Find a room in the barracks for him and tell him that he can do whatever he wishes so long as he stays on base. I will speak with him later."

"Yes ma'am."

As the soldier's footsteps receded, it occurred to Sonja that Suzukai might hit her again when she went to talk to him. If he did, she supposed she would admit that she deserved that one too.

Short chapters for a short fic. But at least now you've got something. My new plan is to update a small fic inbetween each big one, so that the small fics like this one can still get done, and the people who do like it aren't left without an update for months and months. I'll see you guys in about a week, give or take.

Oh, and I also edited the first half of the first chapter, so if you want to read that again, you know where to find it.