A new mission with high stakes

It was two weeks later and you were sitting before a panel who had been assigned to review your conduct. As you predicted the enemy had gotten away and hadn't been seen since. The IAA had brought Suzuki out of her retirement to not only disavow the actions but to lead a task **** to hunt down those who had supposedly acted on her behalf. The ESF was working closely with them on that hunt and you had anticipated that to be your next assignment. Instead, you were now sitting across from four other Generals who were deciding your fate.

There had always been talk that it was a mistake to promote you. You knew as well as anyone that it had been a publicity stunt championed by a politician who had wanted to make a big name to attach herself to. Your success since then had greatly bolstered her career before the corruption scandal had brought it down. Now that you didn't have that protection anymore the whispers against you had gotten louder. The youngest of the women across from you was thirty years your senior with one of them being eighty years older. General Brook Olivia obviously didn't look it but those years of experience added weight to her words.

"General Catherine. Upon review of your conduct, we have managed to find no fault. In retrospect, we can see that you should have brought breaching charges along with you but that was not a course of action permitted to you. The element size that you used was appropriate for what you knew. Obviously, you had no way of knowing this was a trap meant to specifically ensnare you. The massive amount of resources used were baffling. We don't believe that General Suzuki actually had anything to do with it. We believe this was meant to push an agenda using your fame to raise its profile. We are not yet sure of its final aim."

That statement surprised you. You had thought you were going up in front of a kangaroo court that existed to publicly defame you in response to the embarrassment the ESF had suffered from the incident. She wasn't finished speaking however and you waited for a shoe to drop. "This incident, however, has provided us with a unique opportunity. It has given us the ability to **** you from service in disgrace." There it was. You were shocked that she was admitting this. It made no sense, this was a recorded session, you could take that statement all the way to your representative. Just as you were about to protest one of the others raised her hand for silence.

"Let me explain." General Hillary pressed a button and the image of a world you didn't recognize sprang up. "This is Avalon. Home to the Queendom of Avalon. The ruler, Queen Genevieve, has decided to step down. There are 24 princesses vying for the throne. The one who will win it is the one that goes out and gathers the most slaves in warfare while retaining her vaginal virginity. As part of it, they must gather soldiers and ships on their own to lead their 'Crusade'. Avalon is an important member of the Centauri Alliance. The Federation government wants them to think well of us. That's where you come in." She shifted the image to a series of profile pictures, obviously showing the candidates. "We can't send soldiers to support a candidate directly. We're trying to keep this as a proxy war rather than a real one. Unfortunately one of our favored candidates doesn't have an experienced ground commander. She spent more time building her fleet, her ground forces are severely undertrained and worse she has nobody to lead them."

"So, what's the stagecraft behind this? I can't imagine anything Kim being involved with being dull." You asked, addressing one of the ones who hadn't spoken yet. General Kim "Stardust" was an old friend. You had been surprised to see her on the board against you and now you suspected she had been a moderating voice in your favor. When you'd first been promoted she had taken you under her wing and taught you not only how to be a real general but how to keep up the celebrity. She was legendary for her showmanship, her nickname, however, came from when she violated orders to get clear and instead evacuated an entire planet just hours before a supernova fried it. She was the only living recipient of both the Federation Star of Valor and the Colonial Medal of Honor, on account of it having been a UCA world she'd saved. She took this as her cue to speak up.

"Oh you're going to love it, we'll have a quiet ceremony to kick you out that'll get leaked to the press. You're going to go home and wallow in despair getting drunk for a full week. Then Princess Victoria, your candidate, is going to come swooping in, give you a spiel about redemption and a worthy cause to fight for. The press will lap it up of course and you'll quickly become the favored underdog in the whole struggle. Then when you win the Federation will realize the error it made in casting you aside and ask you to come home." Kim said, tapping a button to make virtual confetti shoot out. Why the heck was that button there? You wanted to ask but you had a much more critical question.

"What if I don't win? Like you said I'll be an underdog. I won't have a trained army, any number of things can go wrong." You asked

"Your orders are to win. Its up to you how you execute them." General Brook said. It was obviously the end of the matter. The implication was obvious. Either come back victorious or don't come back at all.