Victory over Hawaii; August 31st

'Destroyed Enemies: 1 Nimitz class aircraft carrier, 1 Ticonderoga guided missile cruiser, 5 Arleigh Burke class destroyers, rewarded: 1,500,000 credits, 4,150,000xp. Please view the shop to use your credits.'

'You have gained 4,150,000xp, 15,224,827/20,000,000 xp needed for your next promotion.'

I leaned back in my chair, putting my pen down. So the battle was over? The Hawaiians had given up… for some reason I didn't feel happy about it. I felt numb. I sighed, shuffling the documents and quickly reading over them. Logistics reports and requests, casualty lists… I frowned and put the documents down. I stood and walked from my office. My workload had been unusually light these past few days… no more than a dozen or so documents to look over.

I walked down to the floor below and to Colonel Tanya's office. The door was propped open, the Colonel, once a supply platoon commander now overseeing the logistics of the whole army. I wondered if it was the right idea to promote my original officers so much? They were holding out well, but perhaps it was too much too quickly?

"Colonel, how are supplies holding up?" I asked, leaning against the door.

"Ah…" Tanya leapt to her feet, shocked to see me.

"Ah, I made the reports this morning to Colonel Ivanov at the 08 brief sir." she stammered.

"That's not what I asked Tanya…" I glanced around the office, a veritable swamp of paperwork.

"Ammunition expenditure is coming back down with the slow down at San Francisco… were shorter on 122mm high explosive than expected, but its within tolerable ranges for the normal resupply to cover General." she answered.

I nodded, looking around the office again. "Get yourself some help dealing with these reports… my officers shouldn't be doing all the work themselves." I nodded and left. Walking over to Ivanov's office and knocking on the door. A muffled enter greeted me.

I walked into the office, sitting on the chair in the corner of the room as Ivanov read through a report. "What's the report about?"

"It's from the Admiral… looks like Task force 3 was virtually annihilated… the fleet will likely be clogging the San Diego shipyard for months with repairs…"

"Let him know he sank one of the carriers, and that the Americans turned back…" I said with a small smile.

Ivanov looked up with surprise. "The Americans conceded the field?"

I nodded and Ivanov leaned back with a smile. "Well, that's one threat dealt with… hopefully our 'ambassador' can strike up some kind of peace with Honolulu again."

"Peace… that would be nice." I muttered softly.

"Sir, why don't you take the rest of the day off?" Ivanov suggested.

"You think you can handle everything?" I asked. Ivanov nodded, gesturing for me to leave.

I glanced at the clock… just past three in the afternoon… yeah… that sounded nice. "Alright, let me know if a new situation develops Ivanov." the Colonel stood and saluted as I left. I made my way downstairs, a slight jump to my steps as I left the headquarters. I nodded to the guard as I got in my car and started it, driving home.

It was a short drive. I parked in the driveway and headed inside. The house was quiet… Veria must have gone for groceries, she'd mentioned something about that yesterday… I headed for the bedroom, changing into a non military uniform for the first time in what felt like forever. A gray shirt and sweatpants. I grabbed a beer from the fridge and plopped my ass on the couch and turned on the tv…

I flipped to the news channel, sighing a bit… it wasn't like there was much on tv. Most stations were playing movies anyway. I watched for a while as the reporters covered the expansion of operation forge, showcasing the new industries the Premier's directive was going to prioritize. I chuckled to myself and switched to another channel.

This one showed the Iowa, as well as a large crowd gathered around as the Premier took to the stage. "Ladies and Gentlemen… thank you for coming out on this hot day."

"Earlier soviet naval forces engaged the United States navy on the open seas, fighting a bloody battle to protect us, and driving off the Hawaiians at great cost." the Premier announced, proceeding to read through the reports of the battle, a long list of names began to scroll across the bottom of the screen… the list of those confirmed dead.

"We will not bow to this act of tyranny! That is why I am Announcing today our intentions to stand strong! To send a message to our enemies! Operation Rising Star will see us restart the long neglected military industries of California. The battleship here behind me will be restored to active service. The pride of the Soviet Union!"

I turned the tv off. I chucked the remote onto the coffee table and finished my beer. Stupid politicians. The fuck would I need a battleship for? Whatever… As long as he figures out how to fund it without reducing my budget I could care less.

The door opened. "Oh, you're home early!"

I got up and smiled at the cute little lady carrying groceries. I took a few bags from her, planting a small kiss on her forehead, "I wanted to see you." I chuckled as I helped her put everything away.

'Quest issued! Use a random gacha spin, reward 5,000 credits'

"What is it? Some notification again?" Veria asked, glancing up from the table.

"Yeah… it wants me to use that gambling shop…" I grumbled.

"Oh, I wanna try it!" I stared at my wife. I sighed and shook my head.

"You can't even see the notification." She shrugged.

"Can't be too hard, it's about here right?" She started sweeping her hand about a foot under the notification. I rolled my eyes and flipped through the screens till I arrived at the one I'd need to use.

So the reward was basically just a free spin? Whatever… Veria seemed excited about 'helping' me with one of these quests. I gently held her hand, guiding her hand to the 'gacha spin' button.

"I want it to be a ship!" She squealed with excitement as a wheel appeared, thousands of microscopic slivers that represented hundreds of options started to blur as the wheel spun.

"Can I name it? I wanna name it." She practically vibrated with excitement. She couldn't even see the wheel spin yet she was acting like it was the second most exciting thing since i'd proposed back at Disney world's animal kingdom.

"What is it? What did I get?" She pestered me as the wheel still spun. I waited patiently, the wheel slowed, ticking to a crawl.

'Gacha spin reward; Minsk class aviation cruiser (CATOBAR) with flight group (12 MiG-23MLN, 8 KO-45, 8 KA-27) reward chance: 0.0000003%'

"What is it?" Veria tugged at my arm excitedly.

"It's a ship…" I murmured quietly as I pulled up the small picture. The ship was basically a Kiev modified with a larger rear elevator and a single catapult and some arrestor wires.

"Yes!" She pumped her fist.

"I'm going to name it Querido amor." She smiled brightly. I just sighed, grabbing my keys.

"Let's show you what you rolled."