Interview with the General - Part I [Tankiverse Fanfic]

[Hippin_in_Hawaii 639]

Interview with the General - Part 1

Fanfic in the Tankiverse by Hippin_in_Hawaii

 
I’m sitting on what is decidedly the most uncomfortable chair I’ve ever encountered. The room is small, featureless; the walls, grey. No windows, two doors, both steel, and both locked from outside. Five cameras that I can see, tucked above a steel mesh, along with the fluorescent lights. To reach this point took five months of paperwork, two separate background checks, two metal detectors, two full body searches, and an interview with the warden. I’m allowed in here with only a pad of paper, a pen, and a prison-issued guest jumpsuit. I’ll admit it; I am scared. I wish that someone else had gotten this assignment, this so-called honor. Why did they select me? Well, I mentioned the pad and pen, right? No electronics allowed. I have the distinction of being the only reporter on staff who actually knows shorthand.
 
One thing I can assure you, readers, is that any rumors you may have heard about this being a luxury resort, about the general spending his time in comfort at taxpayer expense, are completely untrue. It’s only the thought of the ridicule I’d surely face that keeps me from knocking on the door and asking to be released from this grim oubliette.
 
The general is escorted in, takes his seat across the table from me. The guards secure him to the furniture with manacles then leave without saying a word. And just like that, we’re alone.
 
His face is pleasant enough, almost babyish on a man his age. It’s weathered with deep laugh lines and eye crinkles. He’s shorter than I expected. There are scars on his hands and wrists. His hair is short, of course. If I didn’t know better, I’d think this man was a farmer, or a factory worker, not the most infamous war criminal of our time.
 
I realize that I’ve been staring; I don’t know for how long. I feel myself flush, see his bemused reaction. Ok, time to get started! I look down at my list of questions and bullet points.
 
World News Weekly: General, first off, thank you for seeing me.
 
General Fred: (no response)
 
WNW: Our readers are anxious to hear your side of the story. Perhaps there’s something you’d like to say in opening?
 
GF: (no response)
 
WNW: Ok, well, on with our questions, then, I suppose.
 
GF: How long did it take to set this up?
 
WNW: General?
 
GF: How long? From the time someone first successfully pitched this idea in your weekly staff meeting until now, how much time passed?
 
WNW: Roughly five months, sir.
 
GF: And was it an easy process?
 
WNW: No, sir, it was rather difficult to navigate. And pretty invasive.
 
GF: And in all that time, while going through all that inconvenience, your magazine couldn’t find someone who actually wanted the job?
 
WNW: Um, well, no, it wasn’t that…
 
GF: No offense, but you look like you expect me to leap across this table and eat you.
 
WNW: It’s true, sir, I am scared. And it’s true I didn’t want this job. Don’t. There were many who did, many who fought for the opportunity. But my editor decided I was the only one qualified.
 
GF: And what is it that makes you so qualified that you got sent here against your wishes?
 
WNW: I am proficient at shorthand.
 
GF: Shorthand? (laughing)
 
WNW: You see, sir, no electronics are allowed in… They fear someone will try…
 
GF: (laughing)
 
WNW: Sir, please…
 
GF: (laughing)
 
WNW: Ok, maybe it’s a little ridiculous…
 
GF: Ridiculous? Oh, I should say so! (laughing)
 
What was there to say? It was ridiculous. He was right; I didn’t want to be there, and had been chosen over people who were more invested in the story, who had more seniority than me, who were better reporters than I am, and who weren’t actually scared of the man, all because I possessed an antiquated skill.
 
WNW: Please stop laughing at me.
 
GF: (abruptly stops laughing) Oh, no, I’m not laughing at you. So far, you’ve done nothing laughable. But you have to admit that the circumstances are completely absurd. Which has been something of a theme for my life.
 
WNW: Really? How so?
 
GF: It just seems to me that most of the significant turning points in my life have been as a result of my reaction to an absurd setup. Which makes me think that, perhaps, this is another significant point I have yet to grasp. It certainly fits the absurdity criterium!
 
WNW: Can you give me a specific example of how an absurd event marked a turning point in your life?
 
GF: I suppose the first thing that comes to mind happened in the early days of the Liberation. We were on a goodwill tour of a recently liberated city when a woman opened fire on our tank.
 
WNW: That doesn’t sound particularly absurd.
 
GF: On the surface, no. But the details matter. Her clothing, the little she wore, was all leather. Stiletto heels, corset, collar, clearly an exotic dancer or a mistress. She stood in the middle of the street and shot us repeatedly with a pump-action shotgun.
 
WNW: And killing her was a turning point for you?
 
GF: Killing her? Who said anything about killing her? I tell you that a scantily clad vixen who posed absolutely no threat to me or my crew was blocking our path, and you decide that I’m the sort of person who would kill her?
 
WNW: I’m sorry, I just assumed…
 
GF: Now, you’re becoming laughable.
 
WNW: Sir?
 
GF: (no response)
 
WNW: I’ve offended you, and I’m sorry. Please, tell me, what did you do?
 
GF: Offended? Hardly. It takes a lot to offend me. But if we’re going to talk, your job is to listen, not to write the story the way you think it should go. If you’re not going to listen, then we needn’t bother continuing. Just write what you want to hear me say. It’s not as if anyone will know the difference.
 
WNW: Sir, now you’re offending me.
 
GF: Am I? That was easy.
 
WNW: Can we get back to the story, please, sir?
 
GF: I’m happy to sit here with you for as long as we can. This room is more spacious than my cell, and I don’t get out much. And I’m happy to talk with someone who will share my words. I don’t actually care if your intent is to demonize me; it may be I’m worthy of the label. But I won’t waste my time talking to someone who isn’t going to listen.
 
WNW: I assure you, sir, I am here to listen and to share your words. Nothing more. If I jump to conclusions, well, you must know that you’re presented in the media as a villain. If that’s not the case, I’m the first of many people you’ll need to re-educate.
 
GF: Well played! Oh, well played! Very well, I’ll continue on one condition. You give me your word that you will publish everything we say. No editing, no summation, just a verbatim transcript of this conversation
 
WNW: Everything?
 
GF: Every ****ing word.
 
WNW: We can’t use ‘****ing,’ sir. Nor ‘****’ nor ’****’ nor… well, the list is fairly extensive.
 
GF: (laughing) Ok, just put little stars where the dirty words should go! I don’t see the harm in that!
 
WNW: We have a deal, sir.
 
At this point, I extended my hand to shake, forgetting that the general was manacled to his chair.
 
GF: No worries. So, this woman has my tank held hostage. I’m unwilling to take action against someone who is clearly not a threat, but at the same time, I can’t just let her stand there and ruin my paint job all night long. I called the commander of the infantry force attached to my team, but I didn’t want to explain the situation over the radio. Since all communications are monitored by higher levels of command, it was possible that they would intervene and order me to neutralize the hostile. Even if that terrible order didn’t come, the situation would provide grounds for ridicule for years to come. So I told the commander to ‘surveil and assess.’
 
WNW: Who was the commander?
 
GF: It doesn’t matter.
 
WNW: Was it Georgina Olson?
 
GF: It doesn’t matter. Then the vixen managed to wound herself while shooting my tank. When the infantry arrived, they were able to calm her down, provide her with medical care, and return her to the club she owned. We then continued on our mission.
 
WNW: And that was the turning point?
 
GF: No, a few days later, I went back to visit the woman at her club. Ostensibly, I went to check on her health, but in reality, I wanted to understand her motivations. The conversation that we had… Well, I don’t think I understood it at the time, but that probably marked the beginnings of my doubts about Leadership’s goals. I didn’t realize it, but I think she did. She said, and I remember this clearly, ‘I think, though, from the looks in your eyes, that I might just have planted the seed of something terrible. Lord willing, I won’t live to see the fruit that bears.’
 
WNW: Who were you there with?
 
GF: Pardon?
 
WNW: You quoted her as saying ‘the looks in your eyes,’ plural. Who else’s eyes was she referring to?
 
GF: I misspoke.
 
WNW: You said you remembered it clearly.
 
GF: A mere slip of the tongue.
 
WNW: I see. She was quite a prophet.
 
GF: Yes, it turns out, she was.
 
[Editor’s Note] In order to honor our reporter’s agreement not to edit this interview, we will be distributing it over the next several issues.

 

Mahalo (thank you) for reading; I hope you enjoyed! This story is part of a series. Information on the series, and links to the other stories, can be found here.

Edited October 17, 2018 by Hippin_in_Hawaii

[KillerGnat 3,135]

Edits:

- you had put SIr instead of Sir in one instance; that's literally the only thing. You can't believe how much I love approving articles by people like you...  :lol:.

 

Approved!

 

Whewwwww, well done. Perfectly written honestly. Can't wait for the rest of it.  ^_^

[GrandExecutioner 1,403]

Nice job! This has to take one of the top spots out of all your little chapters.

[Nine 693]

Nice work!

[shafter9 156]

Is it just me, or are the events related by Ruby in their conversation rather disproportionate to the effect on Fred's life?

 

As she herself confessed in the other episode of yours, the occupation/"liberation" was not at all harsh as occupying liberations go. (Looking at you, USSR in Poland, 1945). She complains about possible property loss, supply chain disruption and currency change/inflation. This is a slight surprise to Fred, who was expecting a hero's welcome, but probably not enough to turn him into a perceived war criminal (or plant a seed of anything). At most it would have convinced him not to re-enlist or something. Am I missing something?  :mellow: 

[Hippin_in_Hawaii 639]

Is it just me, or are the events related by Ruby in their conversation rather disproportionate to the effect on Fred's life?

 

As she herself confessed in the other episode of yours, the occupation/"liberation" was not at all harsh as occupying liberations go. (Looking at you, USSR in Poland, 1945). She complains about possible property loss, supply chain disruption and currency change/inflation. This is a slight surprise to Fred, who was expecting a hero's welcome, but probably not enough to turn him into a perceived war criminal (or plant a seed of anything). At most it would have convinced him not to re-enlist or something. Am I missing something?  :mellow:

It's certainly lovely that someone is paying attention and wondering about things!

 

I can see three clear ways one could interpret this:

 

1. Do you shoot rifles often? I do. I love to reach out and touch things that are very far away. Now, I'm no marksman, but I can hold MOA out to 400 yards. Do you know the term? Minute Of Angle is 1/50th of one degree. Most hunting and sporting scopes have quarter-minute adjustments, which is to say, one click of the dial moves your point of impact 1/4 minute. More expensive scopes have 1/8th minute clicks. Imagine that... 1/8th of 1/50th is 1/400th of a degree. That's almost unimaginably small! Yet that is the difference between a bullseye and a complete miss at distances beyond my skill. Fred is identifying a tiny course correction in a voyage that spans years, if not decades, taking him from a trainee to general in charge of all armored forces. It HAS to be a tiny correction. If it were a larger, more dramatic event, he'd do as you said and simply quit.

 

2. Could Fred be an unreliable narrator? 

 

3. Maybe i just don't know what I'm doing!

Edited May 11, 2018 by Hippin_in_Hawaii

[shafter9 156]

But there are soldiers IRL who doubtless have seen all varieties of treatments towards occupied civilians. And they​ haven't changed into war criminals. 

 

"Fred is identifying a tiny course correction in a voyage that spans years, if not decades, taking him from a trainee to general in charge of all armored forces."

And Ruby saw all that in his eye? Is she literally a prophet? 

 

You have yet to reveal what qualifies him as a war criminal, or why the conversation contributed to it, so I suppose these problems could be cleared up in the future. So this conversation can wait, I guess.

 

This is just me, but the "seed-planting" speech is painfully obvious and unrealistic foreshadowing

 

[LOLKILLERTOTHEDEATH 1,921]

Amazing!

[Hippin_in_Hawaii 639]

But there are soldiers IRL who doubtless have seen all varieties of treatments towards occupied civilians. And they​ haven't changed into war criminals. 

Common-cloth people in common situations don't get stories written about them. they're background for the interesting deviations.

 

 

And Ruby saw all that in his eye? Is she literally a prophet? 

I'm actually thinking of doing a series on Ruby once I wrap up the Tanker Fred chronicles.

 

 

You have yet to reveal what qualifies him as a war criminal, or why the conversation contributed to it, so I suppose these problems could be cleared up in the future. So this conversation can wait, I guess.

Really? I thought I was pretty heavy-handed about that in 3-Bottle Coup. Well, fret not, more details will be forthcoming!