The next part in Roland's story.
The post - mission debrief after capturing The Leon with a speical visit and nothing goes wrong...
Well by CSS standards nothing went wrong.

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It was everything Roland expected. Major Kong was right in the hanger waiting for them and ordered them all to be in Illock’s muster hall within twenty minutes after their return. It was just enough time to return their arms and make notes of the dead. Though they were still adorned in their battle EVAs with burn marks, scratches and blood; the works still coated across them by the time they had to muster. Even those with just minor wounds were ordered to the line up, blood soaked bandages still wrapped to heads, arms and legs while wound foam hung out and dried in trickle down patterns on armoured plates. They looked like a well organised mess and under any other circumstance coming to a line up in such a state would be an immediate disciplinary... That never came, Kong was far too enthralled in their performance to care about much else; pumping his fist and pacing about so pleased in his clean uniform with a new medal already pinned to his chest.

“Amazing work marines, amazing fucking work” Kong beamed, his thin tail wagging side to side at a blurring speed. It was odd to see him so animated; dobermen were normally so stone faced, so the ear to ear grin was in a small way uncomfortable to see.
“What you’ve done today is spat in the face of our enemy, we’ve the Feds on the back foot across the line and as I speak now you can all take pride in the fact no Federal forces lay beyond the parallel...”

A feeling of momentary levity ran through the troops. Nothing grand; no cheers or smiles beyond an at attention stance but it was there. They pushed them back? Was this it? Would the war be over? Roland could feel her spirit lift a little amongst the stark feelings the battle left her with.
Kong finally stood to face them his face finally mellowing and his tail slowing. “Your actions today have been a grand service to the CSS; take pride in it, take pride in your comrades actions both those who survived and fell... What you all have done will go down in history, The Leon will stand in testament to that...” Kong seemed too proud, the symbolic display of taking The Leon was one thing, but the developing reality was another.

The reality was all so bitter sweet. The captured Leon was becoming at most a pyrrhic victory; the ship was of no useable state, everything was trashed and the whole operating system was locked and fragged when boarding techs tried to get it refreshed. It would be a five year repair including the refit to make it compatible with CSS munitions, weapons and systems. That wasn’t even the main issue. The biggest thing was the continued hostile presence.

Even after everything there were still people skulking in that ship; even after having it turned to a useless hunk of scrap they were still determined to hamper everything. The relief unit which came in after the marines was already reporting casualties; not a speedy slaughter but seemingly a horrifying drip drop.

Even the marines were worse for wear; all of the attacking squads had been reduced to varying degrees. Only E group got away with the least casualties which was quite surprising for the squad that moved between and shut down main batteries and weapon systems; they only lost two. Alternatively B group who was tasked to take the reactor... Well it wasn’t a group anymore, just a single Yersin the only survivor. Even at attention he was clearly shaking... He shouldn’t have been here he really should have been in psyc.


The door to the muster hall opened and everyone’s attention was drawn to the door. The ship lieutenant marched in with that austere stiffness. “Kaiser on deck!” The fox shouted stepping off to the side. Everyone went stiff presenting the customary salute; even the shivering rat mirrored the presentation, though he struggled to stay completely still.
Such a visit was completely predictable though what came in the room was not.

As far as current news went the Grand Admiral or Kaiser was a one Walter Kellogg, an old guard navy man who was living his heyday when Roland’s parents were young and she was non-existent. He was old, very old by the time Roland was starting in the CMC; pushing his late 80s maybe even going onto his 90s. Though from what was said despite his crumbling body his mind was never willing to give up the ghost. But something must have finally given, the figure coming into the room was not Kellogg, this figure was no old man, hell he wasn’t even a human.

A lupine, quite a surprising choice for a member of the admiralty; he was also surprisingly young likely above twenty but less than forty. A timber identifiable by the dark brown fur intermixed with layers of grey. He didn’t really hold himself like a Kaiser; his arms were at his sides, hanging loose rather than being tightly clamped at the back. He least seemed to wear the uniform right though it was clearly a fitted cut which was out of standard.
It finally clicked; he must have been as much of a surprise to admiralty as he was to everyone else. That read best with cape (cause of courses the highest rank in the navy needed a cape) it bulged out slightly due to his tail; if a cape was going to be made for a non – human a split would be put it in it.

“Kaiser? What happened to Kellogg?”Kong questioned, luckily he was asking the question everyone was thinking. The wolf finally made his way over with a solemn expression, “Grand Admiral Kellogg has passed” a new silence took the room and Kong only gave another salute. It shouldn’t have taken anyone by surprises, the man was practically ancient.
The wolf pulled back walking up the line as he looked about the marines, for as bad as his uniform had been fitted he did not let it break his stride and least for Roland it did not take away the air of authority he seemed to exude...Or maybe it was just that charismatic face, the strong build... Those magnetic eyes.
Not the time brain.

He finally came back around and stopped at the middling point at the front of the formation twisting to face them and nodding his head before finally addressing them.
His voice was strong but slick, the voice of one who appreciated his position but maybe did not enjoy the pomp. He was probably excited for the promotion and then got shown the uniform; that would probably be changed quick.
“I cannot express enough or award you all enough for what you have taken part in” a smile seemed to crack onto his face though he seemed to try hard to repress it. “The navy cannot thank you enough, the C.A.B. cannot thank you enough, with this victory and our push to the parallel the situation is...” he paused to think on his words, “~optimistic” a momentary smile cracked though but quickly reset, he seemed to start nodding his head to try and hide it.
“I can’t promise that you all may not be called upon again though hopefully not for anything as extreme as this. The Federals have no standing navy now and with their flag ship gone, I doubt they shall be able to rally a new fleet any time soon and most likely they’ll be begging for peace” he seemed to bite his tongue to repress another smile.

He must have been quiet happy and really how could he not be; the top of the food-chain (in a many a way), inheriting an optimistic campaign and all of that at a relatively young age. Like winning the lottery or if it was some kind of hell he was very good at hiding it.
“While I hope you troops will not take this as an insult I have taken the liberty to have all of you provided some ‘moral boosting’ drink; I assumed the majority of you would appreciate that to some poxy medal”
Kong’s ears flattened out to that, he seemed pretty proud of his new ‘poxy medal’.
“Though it would probably make the C.A.B. unhappy to not let you know you all have been awarded a customary ribbon to commemorate your capture of The Leon; to what it will look like I cannot say, though I pray for you all that is not anything too ~outlandish”.
With that the Kaiser seemed to nod his head to the marines, satisfied with his few words he finally gave a nod to Kong before proceeding to make his exit.

He did not get far, just a few steps on his way out Kong was beginning to address the marines once more, his attitude now more conservative if not a little down – cast.
“Yes, while the navy wants to thank you am sure you are all aware we are still at war” Kong seemed to take some slight pain in this, though weather that was to do some sympathetic feeling to what the troops would do next or that such a reassignment was going to be forcing him into the heat of battle. Even Roland could feel a pit in her throat as he went on.
“You marines shall be reorganized and redeployed to help an army unit on colony of Joplin... across the parallel”.
The Kaiser stopped; his tail seemed to stiffen with surprise as he turned back into the muster room “what” he spoke in a low growl, a tone far from the positive sound of before. Something had not been said to someone or the chain of command had skipped a notice somewhere.
“Who authorised this?” the Kaiser seemed to loom over Kong though even doing little more then that the doberman seemed clearly intimidated, he was quick to spurt out a response.
“It was ordered form C.A.B. backing up a plan from the Army” that did not satisfied him, though he turned away from Kong to face the lieutenant. The red fox went stiff, the Kaiser only stared him out waiting for him to spill what he knew.
“The army made the proposal and the C.A.B. agreed, they want a victory on Federal soil, make up for all the fighting along the border and at home, they hope it will win the people back” the fox spoke at a faster and faster pace as the Kaiser slowly came closer.
“I can fully understand that Lieutenant, but see there’s one thing I can’t wrap my head around; how does the army get their troops from here to there... Do they swim through space?” He cocked his head and waited on the fox to respond.

“No sir they - ” he did not get the chance to continued as the Kaiser interjected “no they don’t, they fly in our ships’ and who heads those ships... Who heads the navy?”
The fox just stood there nervously but the Kaiser did not press him to answer such a pointless question. “Why was I not given the say in this... Why was I not at least informed about this?”
The fox couldn’t stop his light vibration of fear, “the issue came while you were still being authorised... Thus under a push the C.A.B. look to Second Admiral Hahnemann for...”

“Fucking bastard!” the wolf barked, snatching his cap from his head. The troops only continued to watch in silent intrigue; navy drama was always interesting if not slightly concerning.
The Kaiser finally left but not before planting a dint in one of the wall panels in his frustration.
Such a perfectly chaotic way to top things off.

Kong slowly turned back to the marines the wind very much taken out of his sails on how to move on from that.
“Ah...Yes” Kong awkwardly muttered at first before coming back “as I was saying, your unit will be reorganized and deployed to Joplin in three days time; we are unable to give details at the moment the situation is still developing”
With that Kong once again looked about the troops, still stern expressions, though Kong was sure they were more interested in what had just happened... It was just time to let them all loose.
“With that you are all relieved for the next two days of transit but by arrival in Joplin’s system we will be at full combat readiness... All the best to you all” with that Kong gave one more nod of the head before dismissing himself, his posture shallowing as he mumbled some comments under his breath as he left. “Stupid wolf... poxy medal... poxy uniformed SOB”.

The troops just hung about. None of them seemed willing to leave maybe not certain on what to do next, maybe some of them still processing that after everything all they got was a ribbon and a reassignment to a new warzone... Just another day in CMC.
Someone finally spoke, a random amongst the herd “am getting out of this shitty armour”. The one human peeled away first and after that others began to trickle away. One after the other they exited the muster hall regardless what anyone wanted to do now there was only one thing they all had to do, get there EVAs back to the racks for repairs and clean – up.

The journey there was very similar to the atmosphere at the end of the meeting amongst the marines it was strangely solemn. Problematically it ran completely counter to the general feeling on Illock; the sailors were quite chipper about what had just happened, as far as they were concerned a great stride had been made and in a sense David had beaten the Goliath and the journey to Joplin would be no more than sifting through ashes.
Random passersby gave small comments and cheers to the marines, “nice work!” “You guys showed ehm!” “Will be in their capital in no time!” The pleasantries and calls came across as slightly tone death and while they might have meant well it was not being taken as such. Though luckily the marines did not kick up a fuss, they just wanted out of the rest of their gear and to finally have a warm meal...
Roland just wanted to curl up in her quarters but there was one thing she needed to do...