Chapter 348 Reporting In
Karl woke up early the next morning, thanks to his early bedtime and yesterday's activities burning off some excess energy. Dana was a warm ball in his arms, and the blankets on the smooth, slightly stretchy flooring of the fort were warm and comfortable, so he simply lay there a while, enjoying the downtime before he would inevitably be forced to get up and face the day.
His shift on the line was in the afternoon today, so he had morning exercise and a class with Morgana, who he noted still had Remi with her.
Or, at the very least, the Spirit Snake had not returned to her space last night.
He could feel her approaching just as the sun came up, and then the Spirit Snake was back in her space and ready for a long nap.
She had explored many places in the camp that she had never been to before yesterday, and she had met all sorts of people, and tried over a dozen different snacks that Morgana had prepared for her.
It was a good day, but she was still exhausted as she came home at the crack of dawn.
Karl thought about asking her what she had been up to all night, but Remi was already asleep on her altar, curled up in a protective ball around her lucky statue, with her head on the voodoo doll that Morgana had gifted her.
Karl carefully got out of bed, flipping the extra blankets over Dana so she didn't get cold, and then equipped his armour as he sensed someone approaching the fort on the ground.
[It's just the Morgana.] Rae informed him.
[Thanks. I'll go see her.]
Karl climbed down the ladder to find Morgana waiting patiently on the ground. "Alright, let's get going. I'm glad that Remi understood my message." She began.
"Wait, Remi likely understood, but she forgot and went to sleep as soon as she was home in her space. I have no idea what you've got planned this morning." Karl informed his Advisor.
"The extra fun stuff that everyone avoids like the plague. The Command Group wants you, Tank and the other pair to fill out a report on the battle yesterday morning. It's standard procedure for larger attacks, and nobody else could form a fully coherent report on what happened except you four." She explained.
"And we're doing this at the break of dawn, why?" Karl asked. Thê source of this content n/o/v/(el)bi((n))
"Alright, that is fine. That as well. You actually write incident reports quite well. Did you do a lot of these in the mines?" She asked.
"Yeah. I often got nominated to fill out everyone on the day shift's reports because I was good at using the words that the shift manager wanted to see, and I didn't know him, so I wasn't tempted to tell him off in the report." Karl agreed.
"So, your coworkers just turned in made up safety reports?" Morgana asked, appalled.
"Should we have just told them that the shaft went in the wrong direction, or a hammer was dropped and broke a worker's foot because half the shift was staggering drunk?
That wouldn't end well. So, yeah, we made up something nice and came up with a solution that didn't actually involve changing anything.
I learned how from my dad." Karl replied.
From behind them, there was a deep chuckle, and Karl turned to see two elderly Generals standing at the door of the tent. "Now I'm even more interested to see what is in that report, Commanders. I am General Stonewall, and this is General Jackson, of the War Department's Central Operations Group." The older man introduced himself, before tucking his cover into a pocket.
"To what do we owe the honour, Generals?" Karl asked.
General Stonewall shook his hand with a firm grip and then nodded to Morgana. "We are actually on a regularly scheduled line inspection, we just have good timing, it seems, as your segment is all that anyone can talk about today."
Karl nodded. "Two Royal Rank kills in one battle with zero permanent casualties, from what I heard. The soldiers who faced the main assault have a good reason to be proud of themselves."
General Stonewall nodded in agreement, and looked at the report on the table. "And where were you during this incident?"
"I went with the strike team to deal with the Royal Rank threat. Myself, a berserker and two warriors, all at the Commander Rank. The line extended forward at our backs to form a solid breach and isolate the far flank of the Hill Giant assault. All quite textbook, if I do say so myself." Karl explained.
Morgana handed the report over to General Jackson, who thumbed through it, paused, and then started over, reading it in much more detail.
"It's a shame that we didn't have video footage of the whole incident. This one sounds like it was quite the event. Especially this bit about creating a display of corpses to taunt the Hill Giants, and the way that both teams managed to duel their opponents successfully. That is an uncommon skill among the active Elites. The Royal Rank is a significant advantage over a Commander." General Jackson noted as he read, his face never losing its stern expression.
Karl nodded. "Working in large groups does have its advantages, especially in stacked buff abilities."