Court-martial

[Yaoquizque]

Without any sign of worry Tetsuo rose from his seat and slightly bowed to the court. With a calm and smooth voice he then started to speak.
"There is something I wanted to say. Just as I confessed, I have given Rebel forces a way to reach Nansei, however, not all of my crew were aware of this."

Lowering slightly his eyes, he eventually carried on.
"Those that say they are not guilty are not lying. Only a couple of crews knew about the operation, and supported it. The rest were deceived by me, thus I ask you to free them from charges against them."
"That is a separate matter, which will be judged separately and in more detail. No judgement will be given on them in this gathering. You will be the one who might be receiving a penalty here... So tell us about your part... How exactly did you help the rebels? How long have you been in coordination with them? What else did you help them with?"

He started to bombard him with questions, also turning to the rear admiral in case he'd have something. Taking more confident look Tetsuo eventually answered while looking straight at the Admiral.
"My aid started since the incident in Tau systems. One of my old reports state that I have been shot down in Tau 37 system by a rebel, and had to drift in space for a couple of days. Originally, it was I who was lucky to capture a said rebel and, instead of bringing him to the prison, decided to interrogate him myself. Hearing him out answered many of my doubts, thus I decided to support them and let that rebel return to his group. This and Nansei operation were the only times when I support the rebels."

He took a short pause to catch a breath, and then continued.
"As for your first question, my role on Nansei operation was only delivering them to Kusari. For that I hired a freelancer who brought them in Kyushu on a freighter, under look of workers. Then on Kyushu planet I handed them uniforms and IDs to pass into military docks and then on Hiuchi. Under a sight of the crews they made it on Nansei."
Mochizuki listened to him quietly, eventually nodding when Shimizu was done. "Arigatou, you may sit down if you don't have anything to add."

Bowing in a gratitude Tetsuo calmly sat on his place, putting his hands on a handholds and looking straight.
"Ishikawa Hideaki-san, the reports suggest that you were in the charge of this operation..." finally asserted Mochizuki after a moment of silence.
"And the video footage shows that you incapacitated the hangar supervisor and got wounded in the process... You've caused damage to the station, naval equipment and vessels, injured naval and security personnel, and threw the defence of Kyushu into confusion. Which would potentially allow our many enemies to take advantage of the case. Within the light of Taiyouji, Nakamura, and Shimizu-san's backgrounds, do you want to say anything about this matter? Was it worth it?"

Ishikawa rose slowly. "What you say is true and I take full responsibility for these actions."

His face didn't show how nervous he was, he knew that he wouldn't get out of this easily. But he was prepared to take the punishment.
"When I decided to steal those chimaeras, our group was crippled and without much chance of continued survival. Any decent strike-force sent by the Admiral Nagata could have wiped us out instantly. I wanted to secure scout vessels for us, so we could be warned and flee at least.

I didn't intend to severely hurt anybody and it was planned to cause as little damage as possible. How well that worked? Well, judge for yourself. It was a desperate action by desperate people. But I ask that you place the whole blame for it on me. And punish me accordingly."
"You should know by now, Ishikawa-san, that in the navy, nobody gets punished separately. The mistake of one will usually get everyone involved killed, or even worse, the ones who are not involved as well... That is the responsibility of command; knowing that you'll bind the fate of those who choose to follow you with yours."

He then added in thoughts, "We'll still consider your request... Who's got anything to say in this matter before I close it for good? There's one more matter to learn about briefly, before concluding the court."

With nobody raising a voice, Kumagaya nodded at Otojiro to continue.
Mochizuki, satisfied by how swiftly this matter was resolved, checked through the papers in front of him.
"Akaishi Hikairi-san. Please stand up..."

"A little earlier before the separation of Sakamoto's forces from the Navy, you were in charge of a task force charged with the defence of Honshu system against possible threats..."

"We can already guess the reasons of your defection, probably the same reasons than everyone else. But I have to stress, your defection gravely endangered the integrity of Honshu system's defences, and Kusari suffered greatly because of it... Do you have anything to say about this?"

Akashi looked up from an invisible point he marked on the table near him. Looking straight to MochiZuki's eyes with an odd calm look "Hai, Mochizuki-sama. When I was requested to meet Sakamoto-sama before this whole mayhem happened, the urgency made me believe that war was coming, and that a rather large force present would allow us to repel or lead a surprise attack.
After the scheme of things were revealed, most of the Honshu 77th fleet, including battlecruiser KDS-Honshu's.First remained in Kyushu, pin-pointed stocked with basic living supplies. Only the 3rd, 5th and 8th squadrons were with me when we were charged by the alien and his followers and we suffered severe damage.

However, the decision to follow Sakamoto-sama along with my soldiers were mine and mine only. I believed that the rest of the force that remained in Kyushu could have been used in the future against Nagata, however they ran low on fuel and any significant act would have made most of the ships ran dry on it, so they were only used as a base to stage low-scale operations."

Akashi sat down, still looking calmly on Mochizuki in a manner that made him feel unease.
Moshizuki listened to him silently, without showing any emotion what so ever. Once Akaishi was done and when he sat down, he looked over to the papers in front of him, the rear admiral next to him and the rest of the jury then sighed.

Coughing once, "The jury will have a 10 minutes discussion, deciding the penalties now... Please leave the court until you're called back."

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