Disclosure
Whiskey Golf
Being of Editing & Technical Assistance
- Location
- Chained to my desk
[X] Disclose.
"I had good reason," you say slowly. "Good reason that I would rather not say."
"What th-"
"Kanda." With a deceptively soft word, Fleet Admiral Yonatan Chew stills Shiki. "Don't interrupt again."
"...yes, Sir."
"Continue, Akasha."
"Sir." You draw a deep breath, hesitating. Part of you wants to try and obfuscate, to keep as many cards to your chest as you can-
And then you look at your mentor. He sits there calmly, meeting your gaze, watchful, patient, and he nods imperceptibly to you. You hear his voice in your mind: Once you commit, go all in. Don't hold anything back. Youchiong means you chiong kau kau .
"Task Force Soyeon wasn't in Egon just for a training cruise," you admit. "I was there with a hidden agenda. I was using elements of my fleet to conduct a fact-finding mission in the Egon System, following the verbal orders of Her Majesty Empress Meigyoku."
That quiet bombshell gets their attention. Kanda leans forward, his eyes intent. Chew nods once, eyebrows raised. "Well," he comments, "I don't think you saw that coming, Kanda." His expression turns sardonic. "See? Unofficial Vicereine. Continue, please."
"Her Majesty had seen indications that untoward actions might be happening in the Egon system, and dispatched me to investigate the matter. I chose to take a heavy task force out of my concerns over the opposition that I might encounter there. I would submit that this decision was partly justified by the piracy suppression mission that Rear Admiral Vickers performed."
"If you keep showing up to fights with overwhelming firepower, you'll never become a blooded admiral, Akasha," opines your mentor.
"I'm not really interested in that, Sir, I just want to finish fights as quickly as I can," you say seriously. "If I put myself or my people into a position where heroics are necessary, something has gone very wrong." Out of the corner of your eye, you can see Kanda nodding in spite of himself.
"I will, of course, need confirmation of this," Fleet Admiral Chew continues seriously. "As much as I'm inclined to take your word for it, I can't and I won't. I'd appreciate it if you could persuade Her Majesty to meet with the three of us about this matter. Discreetly."
"Of course, Sir," you agree. You meet Shiki's gaze. "I trust this satisfies your concerns, Admiral?"
"Satisfies my concerns," he repeats dumbly. "Satisfies my concerns?" He leans forward agitatedly, his eyes blazing. "Are you for real?!" And then he slumps back into his seat, burying his face in his hands, like a puppet whose strings have been cut. "You have no idea what you've done, do you."
"Enlighten me, please, Admiral," you ask, putting steel into your voice, and Kanda looks at you bleakly.
"Do you not realise how closely you came to kicking off a war? Egon is disputed territory. You took a goddamn heavy taskforce into a system equidistant between Sumeragi and Fenghuang. Didn't you see the projection? To anybody outside this room it looks like you took an invasion fleet to cap that system for a staging point to invade Sumeragi!"
"Imperial Navy ships have the right to travel freely throughout the Empire-"
"You took a fucking invasion fleet to an invasion staging point, do you not know Sumeragi and Hoou are itching for a fight-"
"13th Fleet's mandate is to conduct presence patrols within the Empire, the Egon system is part of the Empire-"
"Didn't you hear what I just said, did you suddenly go deaf-"
"Enough, both of you," orders Yonatan. His expression is stern and disappointed. "What nonsense is this? You're both adults, you're both flag officers, fucking act like it can or not? You two are my students, your conduct reflects on me. Both of you control your shit, can or not?"
"Yes, Sir," you say, gritting your teeth; Shiki follows suit. Fleet Admiral Chew shakes his head.
"Let's get this all straight. Her Majesty gets it into her head that there is hanky panky in Egon and sends you to investigate. Akasha decides to jump a heavy task force into the system. This tilts Kanda, who sends a recce squadron to investigate, and eventually your ships and his ships run into each other, and start dickwaving. And that brings us here. And this could all have been avoided if you two had acted like adults and just talked to each other. Like, whiskey tango foxtrot, over, the both of you." It's his turn to bury his face in his hands, emitting a tired, long suffering sigh. "Why la my two best students sosohai ? Why?"
That's laying it a little thick, you think.
"Well. Akasha: I know you won't pull a stunt like this again, because you don't have a fleet anymore, and I expect you will behave more judiciously when you get a fleet again. Kanda: how did you find out about Akasha jumping her TF into Egon?"
Shiki hesitates. "I have ISR assets. That's all I'm prepared to say."
Your mentor gives him a raised eyebrow. "And does Sumeragi or Fenghuang have the same ISR as you?"
"I have to act as though they do-"
"Dei I'm asking same intel Sumeragi got or not, don't gimme your grandfather story!"
"...I don't have any indications that they do," he admits reluctantly, and Fleet Admiral Chew sighs.
"I told you already, you need to control your paranoia, Shiki." He sighs again, and leans back in his chair. "Alright. So, as it stands, the only people who know what happened in Egon are the three of us, and your respective forces. Sumeragi is likely ignorant of all of this drama. We can fix this.
"Both of you did dumb things that were arguably within your rights to do as Commanders of Numbered Fleets. Yui: don't use an invasion warfleet for a fact-finding mission. Shiki: don't run around half-cocked when no one is trying to play you out. It is nobody's interest for all this to become more official. We're gonna end up with both of you losing face, getting censured, and I don't want to imagine the political blowback onto Her Majesty. So, let me tell you what we are going to do: Shiki, Yui, you two are going to apologise to each other, sincerely, like friends and fellow naval officers, and we are going to forget this little tiff ever happened."
"You're going to sweep this under the carpet," says Shiki accusingly.
"I mean, if you wanna lose face and sabo yourself and Yui, you go right ahead, Candy," shrugs Uncle Johnny, but you can sense the annoyance below his calm facade. "You want to sign extra? Can, I give you twenty four extra! You want Admiral's Mast? Come,lagi better, I order a JAG investigation and I relieve the both of you. You wanna lose your command because loss of confidence isit?"
"No, Sir, my apologies, I spoke hastily."
"Sir, I'm a reservist, I don't have a command," you say.
"Yui. you please don't sohai, I am 3IC of the Navy, I can reactivate you to give you twenty four extra also."
Both you and Shiki wince. Neither of you are strangers to the Navy's concept of assigning extra duties as punishment. Twenty four weeks of extra is a dismaying thought, on top of the indignity of an Admiral serving as the weekend duty officer.
Fleet Admiral Chew, meanwhile, is just getting started. "You know ah, your mistake is you think I care if I lose face. Sure I lose face, but eh, I don't really give a fuck anymore. I got two years and a wakeup and then I'm out and I don't have to deal with all this stupid. Hell, if your dramatiao me so hard I kena fire , also can! Siao , I don't have to deal with all these sohai cibai anymore! Very good, I like! Do some more, do some more! Eh just now you got a lot to say? Talk some more, talk some more lah! Don't shy-shy!"
"Er, no, we're good, Sir," you say. Shiki silently reaches over and removes the datacard from his tablet. He stares at it determinedly for a few moments, and then crushes it in his hand. The sound of snapping plastic and metal fills the room.
As well as Shiki's yelp of pain.
"Candy, please," your mentor sighs. "You wanna show off and impress girl that's your business, but don't make a mess of my office. I thought I taught you better than that."
You sigh mentally, and move closer to Shiki. "Here, let me see that," you tell him, taking his hand and examining the injury. He's managed to tear his hand and it seems there might be bits of datacard in the wound. You reach into your pocket and remove a handkerchief, and do your best to mop up the blood and brush broken bits of datacard onto the floor.
"Oi, my carpet," remarks the Skipper flatly, as he brings a mug. "You better appreciate this Candy, I'm using Nectar Dore to disinfect your wound," he adds, as he pours a shot of whiskey onto the wound. "My driver was a medic, have him take a look at that hand. Yui, what are you doing?"
"Just a little housekeeping," you say mildly. You clean out most of the bits of datacard from Shiki's hand, and use your handkerchief to staunch the bleeding. "No need to trouble your driver, Sir, I can take care of this."
"If you say so," says your mentor, and you roll your eyes at his exaggeratedly dubious tone. "Candy, you don't have anything more to say?"
"I'm fine," Shiki says, wincing. He looks at you, his expression gratefully conflicted. "Thank you, Yui. You didn't have to."
"Think nothing of it. We're still friends, aren't we?"
"...yes, we are."
"Hold that thought," orders the Skipper. He returns to his desk and stabs the intercom call button.
"Commander Fleet Operations' office, Captain Ri-Sumeragi speaking."
"Ri-Sumeragi, I need you to bring the first aid kit to my office, at your earliest convenience, please."
"Understood, Fleet Admiral. On the way."
"Thank you, Captain."
A momentary frown passes Shiki's face; it's gone by the time the Skipper returns to his chair, as the door opens, and Ri-Sumeragi enters, first aid kit in hand. Her expression doesn't shift a millimeter as she takes in the scene. "Sir," she nods to Fleet Admiral Chew. "Admiral Kanda, do you require my assistance?"
"No, thank you," replies Shiki, and you detect an undercurrent of tenseness in his voice. Ri-Sumeragi shares a brief look with your mentor, nods, deposits the first aid kit on the table, and makes her exit. You take the first aid kit and begin treating Shiki's hand.
"I'm gonna piggyback off that for a moment," interrupts Uncle Johnny, his tone serious yet gentle. "All this pain could have been avoided if you two just had talked to each other. Why couldn't you pick up the phone and talk to each other? Yui, all you had to do was drop Candy a back channel: 'Hey Candy I'm bringing a task force into your AO to do factfinding for a sensitive mission.' Candy, you could have just dropped her a line: 'Hey Yui you took a heavy task force into my AO, is there something going down I need to know about?' Was that really so hard?"
"I've never needed to ask permission to bring my fleet anywhere," you argue. "I don't see why it's suddenly become an issue."
"Hello, usually you will make a big show about moving a giant fleet around! This time you snuck your force into Egon!" shouts Shiki, clenching his fists. He yelps as you stab the disinfectant-soaked cotton ball a little too hard into his wound. You give him a flat look as you bandage up his cut.
"I'm woman enough to accept that I made an error of judgement, and I'll own that. But I have to wonder if your aggressiveness in pursuing this matter isn't a smokescreen for something else. I was conducting a mission personally appointed to me by Her Majesty, what's your excuse, Shiki?
Shiki glares at you, but then he sighs and just covers his face with his free hand. You sigh yourself.
"Don't start again. Be that as it may, you two need to get to the root of this problem," interjects your mentor. "Yui, Candy, you've been friends for years, you're both my students. Something is very wrong when neither of you can talk to each other. If you can't trust each other, who can you trust? I don't want to hear about OPSEC and need to know, those are excuses. You two need to think about your relationship and why it is that you're both behaving like this. I want you two to look deeper into the root cause of this mess. For your own self-interest, if nothing else, We all have enough enemies in the world, we don't need to also turn our friends into enemies, okay? Okay?"
"Yes, Sir," you both answer. Uncle Johnny sighs tiredly and shakes his head. Shiki stands and reaches into his pocket, removing a second datacard, and hands it over to the Third Star Lord, who accepts it with a pointedly raised eyebrow.
"My report as follows: On the 22nd of May, Buntoku 1, Task Force Soyeon of the 13th Fleet arrived in the Egon system at the request of Commander 4th Fleet to participate in joint fleet exercises with authorised security provider Veritas Security Solutions and with Task Force Thales/M of the 4th Fleet. Following the exercises, a joint piracy suppression mission was executed by elements of Task Force Soyeon, Task Force Thales/M, and Veritas Security Services. Operations concluded on the 5th of June, Buntoku 1. A pirate base was raided and captured, a number of pirate vessels were destroyed, several pirate assets were seized and prisoners were taken. Interrogation and investigation results pending. Fleet maneuver AARs enclosed."
Kanda winces for a moment, cradling his injured hand, before breathing slowly again. "End report." He turns to you, and gingerly extends his hand. You stand, and likewise take his hand.
"I'm sorry," you preempt him. "I'm sorry for worrying you. I should have been more considerate."
Shiki's expression softens in return. "I'm sorry too," he says. "I shouldn't have gone off on you like that, I was just…. well. It doesn't matter anymore." His hesitant smile is a mirror of your own, and you feel a rush of affection in your heart. This is what true friendship really means.
Fleet Admiral Chew just shakes his head. "Yui, send me TF Soyeon's original AARs, then you both prepare the official AARs for filing. Alright, I think that concludes our business. You're both dismissed. Don't make headache for me in the future, can or not?"
"Yes Sir."
"Go and deal with yourselves. Yui, I'll expect that meeting with Her Majesty to take place this week, at your earliest convenience. Send Ri-Sumeragi in as you head out."
"Yes Sir."
You count the meeting as a win. True, you weren't fully vindicated in the Third Star Lord's eyes, and he did rebuke you, but you can deal with a little wounded pride, if it means you don't need to fall on your sword to protect Konnie and Ahri. Thank the Divine Founder for Her small blessings.
As you return to the Palace, you consider your plans for the week. Shiki will be remaining in the Capital for the next few days, which gives you your timeframe to arrange for that meeting with Ahri. You wonder if you should seize that opportunity to probe Shiki further about 4th Fleet. While you made the decision not to investigate 4th Fleet, you still feel a niggling sense that perhaps something isn't quite right in Comberth Harbour… but do you really want to wake a dog that's just gone to sleep?
Will you probe Shiki about 4th Fleet's posture and irregularities?
[ ] No, Don't Probe Shiki
[ ] Yes, Probe Shiki Gently
[ ] Yes, Probe Shiki Aggressively
"On the whole, I think you came out ahead, Ma'am," says Daniel thoughtfully. "Any official sanction and attention could have made our future moves more difficult."
"I'm definitely filing this in the Learning Experience column," you say ruefully. "It's a reminder to be more discreet, that not everything will go our way. Still, I can live with this result. How's your planning for the investigation?"
"I've finalised my team and I have a budget ready," he says, handing you a folder. "Major Nakahara came through: the IRG provided an intel team to assist us, the same team that was involved with the Egon mission, along with some specialist augmentees, led by Major Kazusa Ueda. I'm pretty sure she's got some Rabid Foxes in her intel team: if you look at her org chart, her team's organised like a microscopic NSW Task Unit."
"Is that something to be concerned about?"
"Yes and no," he replies. "There's a lot of crossover between spec ops and intel - I know a former operator who went over to NavInt after he was downgraded from injury. Operators will be quite useful for close target reconnaissance and site security, and for on the ground intelligence gathering and surveillance. On the other hand, the fact that special forces are coming along could be a sign that the IRG suspects things are going to get rough, and we'll need a team of operators to shoot the way out for us. Or maybe they're a package deal with the intel section, I really can't say for sure."
There's also the third possibility, that those operators are there to give fangs to the IRG's eyes and ears on your people. You both don't say anything, but you know Daniel's thinking about it, just as you are.
"Well, I suppose we'll have to be careful, and take things as they come," you say, and Daniel nods his agreement. You take a few moments to go through the folder, while Daniel waits patiently. "Everything seems in order," you note. "I note that you've prepared three seperate funding requests, for three seperate investigation durations."
"Yes ma'am," affirms Daniel. "In an ideal world I'd stay there until the investigation is completed, but it's not an ideal world, and we don't know how long the investigation will take. Every month I'm investigating is a month I'm unavailable to you, and I want to balance between taking enough time to investigate and taking myself off the board for a wild goose chase."
"Thank you, Daniel, I appreciate your thoughtfulness."
It's quite true: the whole reason you took on Daniel as your equerry was so that he'd run your private intelligence team and be an extra set of eyes for you. Sending him off to do a private investigation defeats that reason. But your bed's been made, so you'll just have to sleep in it, and fix it in the future. One problem at a time.
How long should Daniel spend on investigating SA-Caledfwlch?
[ ] 3 months
[ ] 6 months
[ ] 9 Months
"I had good reason," you say slowly. "Good reason that I would rather not say."
"What th-"
"Kanda." With a deceptively soft word, Fleet Admiral Yonatan Chew stills Shiki. "Don't interrupt again."
"...yes, Sir."
"Continue, Akasha."
"Sir." You draw a deep breath, hesitating. Part of you wants to try and obfuscate, to keep as many cards to your chest as you can-
And then you look at your mentor. He sits there calmly, meeting your gaze, watchful, patient, and he nods imperceptibly to you. You hear his voice in your mind: Once you commit, go all in. Don't hold anything back. You
"Task Force Soyeon wasn't in Egon just for a training cruise," you admit. "I was there with a hidden agenda. I was using elements of my fleet to conduct a fact-finding mission in the Egon System, following the verbal orders of Her Majesty Empress Meigyoku."
That quiet bombshell gets their attention. Kanda leans forward, his eyes intent. Chew nods once, eyebrows raised. "Well," he comments, "I don't think you saw that coming, Kanda." His expression turns sardonic. "See? Unofficial Vicereine. Continue, please."
"Her Majesty had seen indications that untoward actions might be happening in the Egon system, and dispatched me to investigate the matter. I chose to take a heavy task force out of my concerns over the opposition that I might encounter there. I would submit that this decision was partly justified by the piracy suppression mission that Rear Admiral Vickers performed."
"If you keep showing up to fights with overwhelming firepower, you'll never become a blooded admiral, Akasha," opines your mentor.
"I'm not really interested in that, Sir, I just want to finish fights as quickly as I can," you say seriously. "If I put myself or my people into a position where heroics are necessary, something has gone very wrong." Out of the corner of your eye, you can see Kanda nodding in spite of himself.
"I will, of course, need confirmation of this," Fleet Admiral Chew continues seriously. "As much as I'm inclined to take your word for it, I can't and I won't. I'd appreciate it if you could persuade Her Majesty to meet with the three of us about this matter. Discreetly."
"Of course, Sir," you agree. You meet Shiki's gaze. "I trust this satisfies your concerns, Admiral?"
"Satisfies my concerns," he repeats dumbly. "Satisfies my concerns?" He leans forward agitatedly, his eyes blazing. "Are you for real?!" And then he slumps back into his seat, burying his face in his hands, like a puppet whose strings have been cut. "You have no idea what you've done, do you."
"Enlighten me, please, Admiral," you ask, putting steel into your voice, and Kanda looks at you bleakly.
"Do you not realise how closely you came to kicking off a war? Egon is disputed territory. You took a goddamn heavy taskforce into a system equidistant between Sumeragi and Fenghuang. Didn't you see the projection? To anybody outside this room it looks like you took an invasion fleet to cap that system for a staging point to invade Sumeragi!"
"Imperial Navy ships have the right to travel freely throughout the Empire-"
"You took a fucking invasion fleet to an invasion staging point, do you not know Sumeragi and Hoou are itching for a fight-"
"13th Fleet's mandate is to conduct presence patrols within the Empire, the Egon system is part of the Empire-"
"Didn't you hear what I just said, did you suddenly go deaf-"
"Enough, both of you," orders Yonatan. His expression is stern and disappointed. "What nonsense is this? You're both adults, you're both flag officers, fucking act like it can or not? You two are my students, your conduct reflects on me. Both of you control your shit, can or not?"
"Yes, Sir," you say, gritting your teeth; Shiki follows suit. Fleet Admiral Chew shakes his head.
"Let's get this all straight. Her Majesty gets it into her head that there is hanky panky in Egon and sends you to investigate. Akasha decides to jump a heavy task force into the system. This tilts Kanda, who sends a recce squadron to investigate, and eventually your ships and his ships run into each other, and start dickwaving. And that brings us here. And this could all have been avoided if you two had acted like adults and just talked to each other. Like, whiskey tango foxtrot, over, the both of you." It's his turn to bury his face in his hands, emitting a tired, long suffering sigh. "Why la my two best students so
That's laying it a little thick, you think.
"Well. Akasha: I know you won't pull a stunt like this again, because you don't have a fleet anymore, and I expect you will behave more judiciously when you get a fleet again. Kanda: how did you find out about Akasha jumping her TF into Egon?"
Shiki hesitates. "I have ISR assets. That's all I'm prepared to say."
Your mentor gives him a raised eyebrow. "And does Sumeragi or Fenghuang have the same ISR as you?"
"I have to act as though they do-"
"Dei I'm asking same intel Sumeragi got or not, don't gimme your grandfather story!"
"...I don't have any indications that they do," he admits reluctantly, and Fleet Admiral Chew sighs.
"I told you already, you need to control your paranoia, Shiki." He sighs again, and leans back in his chair. "Alright. So, as it stands, the only people who know what happened in Egon are the three of us, and your respective forces. Sumeragi is likely ignorant of all of this drama. We can fix this.
"Both of you did dumb things that were arguably within your rights to do as Commanders of Numbered Fleets. Yui: don't use an invasion warfleet for a fact-finding mission. Shiki: don't run around half-cocked when no one is trying to play you out. It is nobody's interest for all this to become more official. We're gonna end up with both of you losing face, getting censured, and I don't want to imagine the political blowback onto Her Majesty. So, let me tell you what we are going to do: Shiki, Yui, you two are going to apologise to each other, sincerely, like friends and fellow naval officers, and we are going to forget this little tiff ever happened."
"You're going to sweep this under the carpet," says Shiki accusingly.
"I mean, if you wanna lose face and sabo yourself and Yui, you go right ahead, Candy," shrugs Uncle Johnny, but you can sense the annoyance below his calm facade. "You want to sign extra? Can, I give you twenty four extra! You want Admiral's Mast? Come,
"No, Sir, my apologies, I spoke hastily."
"Sir, I'm a reservist, I don't have a command," you say.
"Yui. you please don't sohai, I am 3IC of the Navy, I can reactivate you to give you twenty four extra also."
Both you and Shiki wince. Neither of you are strangers to the Navy's concept of assigning extra duties as punishment. Twenty four weeks of extra is a dismaying thought, on top of the indignity of an Admiral serving as the weekend duty officer.
Fleet Admiral Chew, meanwhile, is just getting started. "You know ah, your mistake is you think I care if I lose face. Sure I lose face, but eh, I don't really give a fuck anymore. I got two years and a wakeup and then I'm out and I don't have to deal with all this stupid. Hell, if your drama
"Er, no, we're good, Sir," you say. Shiki silently reaches over and removes the datacard from his tablet. He stares at it determinedly for a few moments, and then crushes it in his hand. The sound of snapping plastic and metal fills the room.
As well as Shiki's yelp of pain.
"Candy, please," your mentor sighs. "You wanna show off and impress girl that's your business, but don't make a mess of my office. I thought I taught you better than that."
You sigh mentally, and move closer to Shiki. "Here, let me see that," you tell him, taking his hand and examining the injury. He's managed to tear his hand and it seems there might be bits of datacard in the wound. You reach into your pocket and remove a handkerchief, and do your best to mop up the blood and brush broken bits of datacard onto the floor.
"Oi, my carpet," remarks the Skipper flatly, as he brings a mug. "You better appreciate this Candy, I'm using Nectar Dore to disinfect your wound," he adds, as he pours a shot of whiskey onto the wound. "My driver was a medic, have him take a look at that hand. Yui, what are you doing?"
"Just a little housekeeping," you say mildly. You clean out most of the bits of datacard from Shiki's hand, and use your handkerchief to staunch the bleeding. "No need to trouble your driver, Sir, I can take care of this."
"If you say so," says your mentor, and you roll your eyes at his exaggeratedly dubious tone. "Candy, you don't have anything more to say?"
"I'm fine," Shiki says, wincing. He looks at you, his expression gratefully conflicted. "Thank you, Yui. You didn't have to."
"Think nothing of it. We're still friends, aren't we?"
"...yes, we are."
"Hold that thought," orders the Skipper. He returns to his desk and stabs the intercom call button.
"Commander Fleet Operations' office, Captain Ri-Sumeragi speaking."
"Ri-Sumeragi, I need you to bring the first aid kit to my office, at your earliest convenience, please."
"Understood, Fleet Admiral. On the way."
"Thank you, Captain."
A momentary frown passes Shiki's face; it's gone by the time the Skipper returns to his chair, as the door opens, and Ri-Sumeragi enters, first aid kit in hand. Her expression doesn't shift a millimeter as she takes in the scene. "Sir," she nods to Fleet Admiral Chew. "Admiral Kanda, do you require my assistance?"
"No, thank you," replies Shiki, and you detect an undercurrent of tenseness in his voice. Ri-Sumeragi shares a brief look with your mentor, nods, deposits the first aid kit on the table, and makes her exit. You take the first aid kit and begin treating Shiki's hand.
"I'm gonna piggyback off that for a moment," interrupts Uncle Johnny, his tone serious yet gentle. "All this pain could have been avoided if you two just had talked to each other. Why couldn't you pick up the phone and talk to each other? Yui, all you had to do was drop Candy a back channel: 'Hey Candy I'm bringing a task force into your AO to do factfinding for a sensitive mission.' Candy, you could have just dropped her a line: 'Hey Yui you took a heavy task force into my AO, is there something going down I need to know about?' Was that really so hard?"
"I've never needed to ask permission to bring my fleet anywhere," you argue. "I don't see why it's suddenly become an issue."
"Hello, usually you will make a big show about moving a giant fleet around! This time you snuck your force into Egon!" shouts Shiki, clenching his fists. He yelps as you stab the disinfectant-soaked cotton ball a little too hard into his wound. You give him a flat look as you bandage up his cut.
"I'm woman enough to accept that I made an error of judgement, and I'll own that. But I have to wonder if your aggressiveness in pursuing this matter isn't a smokescreen for something else. I was conducting a mission personally appointed to me by Her Majesty, what's your excuse, Shiki?
Shiki glares at you, but then he sighs and just covers his face with his free hand. You sigh yourself.
"Don't start again. Be that as it may, you two need to get to the root of this problem," interjects your mentor. "Yui, Candy, you've been friends for years, you're both my students. Something is very wrong when neither of you can talk to each other. If you can't trust each other, who can you trust? I don't want to hear about OPSEC and need to know, those are excuses. You two need to think about your relationship and why it is that you're both behaving like this. I want you two to look deeper into the root cause of this mess. For your own self-interest, if nothing else, We all have enough enemies in the world, we don't need to also turn our friends into enemies, okay? Okay?"
"Yes, Sir," you both answer. Uncle Johnny sighs tiredly and shakes his head. Shiki stands and reaches into his pocket, removing a second datacard, and hands it over to the Third Star Lord, who accepts it with a pointedly raised eyebrow.
"My report as follows: On the 22nd of May, Buntoku 1, Task Force Soyeon of the 13th Fleet arrived in the Egon system at the request of Commander 4th Fleet to participate in joint fleet exercises with authorised security provider Veritas Security Solutions and with Task Force Thales/M of the 4th Fleet. Following the exercises, a joint piracy suppression mission was executed by elements of Task Force Soyeon, Task Force Thales/M, and Veritas Security Services. Operations concluded on the 5th of June, Buntoku 1. A pirate base was raided and captured, a number of pirate vessels were destroyed, several pirate assets were seized and prisoners were taken. Interrogation and investigation results pending. Fleet maneuver AARs enclosed."
Kanda winces for a moment, cradling his injured hand, before breathing slowly again. "End report." He turns to you, and gingerly extends his hand. You stand, and likewise take his hand.
"I'm sorry," you preempt him. "I'm sorry for worrying you. I should have been more considerate."
Shiki's expression softens in return. "I'm sorry too," he says. "I shouldn't have gone off on you like that, I was just…. well. It doesn't matter anymore." His hesitant smile is a mirror of your own, and you feel a rush of affection in your heart. This is what true friendship really means.
Fleet Admiral Chew just shakes his head. "Yui, send me TF Soyeon's original AARs, then you both prepare the official AARs for filing. Alright, I think that concludes our business. You're both dismissed. Don't make headache for me in the future, can or not?"
"Yes Sir."
"Go and deal with yourselves. Yui, I'll expect that meeting with Her Majesty to take place this week, at your earliest convenience. Send Ri-Sumeragi in as you head out."
"Yes Sir."
- 女王之天命 -
You count the meeting as a win. True, you weren't fully vindicated in the Third Star Lord's eyes, and he did rebuke you, but you can deal with a little wounded pride, if it means you don't need to fall on your sword to protect Konnie and Ahri. Thank the Divine Founder for Her small blessings.
As you return to the Palace, you consider your plans for the week. Shiki will be remaining in the Capital for the next few days, which gives you your timeframe to arrange for that meeting with Ahri. You wonder if you should seize that opportunity to probe Shiki further about 4th Fleet. While you made the decision not to investigate 4th Fleet, you still feel a niggling sense that perhaps something isn't quite right in Comberth Harbour… but do you really want to wake a dog that's just gone to sleep?
Will you probe Shiki about 4th Fleet's posture and irregularities?
[ ] No, Don't Probe Shiki
[ ] Yes, Probe Shiki Gently
[ ] Yes, Probe Shiki Aggressively
- 女王之天命 -
"On the whole, I think you came out ahead, Ma'am," says Daniel thoughtfully. "Any official sanction and attention could have made our future moves more difficult."
"I'm definitely filing this in the Learning Experience column," you say ruefully. "It's a reminder to be more discreet, that not everything will go our way. Still, I can live with this result. How's your planning for the investigation?"
"I've finalised my team and I have a budget ready," he says, handing you a folder. "Major Nakahara came through: the IRG provided an intel team to assist us, the same team that was involved with the Egon mission, along with some specialist augmentees, led by Major Kazusa Ueda. I'm pretty sure she's got some Rabid Foxes in her intel team: if you look at her org chart, her team's organised like a microscopic NSW Task Unit."
"Is that something to be concerned about?"
"Yes and no," he replies. "There's a lot of crossover between spec ops and intel - I know a former operator who went over to NavInt after he was downgraded from injury. Operators will be quite useful for close target reconnaissance and site security, and for on the ground intelligence gathering and surveillance. On the other hand, the fact that special forces are coming along could be a sign that the IRG suspects things are going to get rough, and we'll need a team of operators to shoot the way out for us. Or maybe they're a package deal with the intel section, I really can't say for sure."
There's also the third possibility, that those operators are there to give fangs to the IRG's eyes and ears on your people. You both don't say anything, but you know Daniel's thinking about it, just as you are.
"Well, I suppose we'll have to be careful, and take things as they come," you say, and Daniel nods his agreement. You take a few moments to go through the folder, while Daniel waits patiently. "Everything seems in order," you note. "I note that you've prepared three seperate funding requests, for three seperate investigation durations."
"Yes ma'am," affirms Daniel. "In an ideal world I'd stay there until the investigation is completed, but it's not an ideal world, and we don't know how long the investigation will take. Every month I'm investigating is a month I'm unavailable to you, and I want to balance between taking enough time to investigate and taking myself off the board for a wild goose chase."
"Thank you, Daniel, I appreciate your thoughtfulness."
It's quite true: the whole reason you took on Daniel as your equerry was so that he'd run your private intelligence team and be an extra set of eyes for you. Sending him off to do a private investigation defeats that reason. But your bed's been made, so you'll just have to sleep in it, and fix it in the future. One problem at a time.
How long should Daniel spend on investigating SA-Caledfwlch?
[ ] 3 months
[ ] 6 months
[ ] 9 Months
