2022-11-08: We played the blame game first
- Cutscene: We played the blame game first
- Cast: Yuliana Dispersal, The Nega Force -- Wen Yuan, Parminder Chaudhri, Cascade Wattana
- Where: Colombo, Sri Lanka
- Date: 2022-11-08
- Summary: Yuliana debriefs with her team after Operation Spitbreak.
"You're all whole?" Yuliana issues the Nega Force, in their meeting room. This isn't the first time she's asked.
"Fine, fine," Parminder assures her, leaning back in his chair. He folds his arms. "When we picked up ZAFT's comms, we cleared out fast... Command wasn't so lucky, so they say." And it's clear from his tone that he doesn't consider the question closed.
"War's heating up," Yuliana frowns, deeply, drumming her fingers on the table. "I don't want you on local command stations any more, Letda -- with hot targets like those, we'll be taking you home in pieces sooner or later. Lettu!" She barks, orienting on the pink-haired woman beside her. "I'm refitting your Savage to co-pilot."
"Captain," Wen Yuan, her first lieutenant, frowns. "My Arm Slave is cyborg spec. If we were to put him with anyone --"
"The Canary's explosions are much more mid-range than you are, Lettu," Yuliana explains, gesturing with an open palm. "You're a sniper, so I'm putting Letda to work spotting for you. Do you object?" She looks back to Parminder, raising a brow.
"So long as I don't have to drive the damn thing," Parminder shrugs.
"And how is he supposed to cope with the forces?" Wen demands, voice growing sharper. "I don't even remember what normal bodies can--!"
Yuliana holds up a hand; Wen goes silent. "Lettu, have a little faith in my qualifications," she tells her, tone even. "We'll fit him with shock absorbers. He'll be fine..."
"So you say," Cascade mutters, all clustered at the other end of the table.
"Don't interrupt a superior officer!" Yuliana snaps, to them, with far less patience.
"I'm just saying," Cascade scowls, "it's weird how we were at JOSH-A when our forces were at Panama. What's the deal with that, Captain?"
"Base of operations, Kadet," Yuliana says, terse. "And we had to follow up with a Britannian soldier stationed there. Except --"
"Oh, yeah, he's dead," Parminder cuts in, when Yuliana looks to him. "Don't worry, Captain, I'm already locating a new hook."
Somehow, Yuliana is much less upset with him interrupting. "Good work. Now," she turns her attention back to Cascade, "we keep plenty of operational secrets, Kadet, but few from each other. Regardless of your -- issues with your posting, I expect you to have the minimum amount of faith required to trust we weren't setting you up." She closes her eyes, and takes a deep breath, green gaze cutting deep when she looks across her team. "You got your retreat orders as soon as I knew. I hate ZAFT as much as any reasonable officer, but..." She trails off, fingers drumming against her arm.
"They pulled our asses out of the fire," Parminder remarks, dour. "Not even I figured that thing was a factor. If they'd obscured their retreat, we'd probably be dead."
"There's no 'probably' about it," Wen grouses. "It doesn't make sense, either! If they're employing psychological tactics, it's really haphazard... like, we're all thinking the same thing, right?" She looks amongst them all, and she, at least, includes Cascade in her silent question.
"I'd say Britannia are as awful as we are," Cascade shrugs, "but this is really more REA style, isn't it?"
"We're ideological opposites," Yuliana points out, "but not necessarily operational opposites. And Britannia has plenty of reason to disrupt the status quo. They've always been... less delicate than us in their ambitions."
Wen sighs, rocking back in her chair. "Aaah... this sucks! Sure, it wasn't perfect, but we had a good thing going here..!! What's the big deal with all these super-obvious moves?!" Back forward she flumps, chin landing on the heel on her hand, and her strange red eyes are troubled.
"Yeah," Yuliana frowns, and her tone is low and serious. "However you cut it -- if you're blaming Britannia, or if you're blaming ZAFT -- showy actions like these are going to get a lot of normal civilians roasted. People like us can't keep a lid on it, either."
"Something, something, exciting times," Parminder waves a hand. Wen turns to him, sharply, and raises a finger to her lips.
"Shh!!"
They raise no official warnings about their suspicions, but Yuliana gets to work refitting Wen's Arm Slave as soon as she can.