Chapter 239: The Evaluation

Chapter 239: The Evaluation

The instructor led Section Four through two corridors before stopping in a hall lined with smaller rooms. Each door had a number beside it, and several trainees from earlier groups were sitting along the wall while officers moved between the rooms.

The instructor checked his relay and began assigning rooms.

"Daniel, room four. Claire, room seven. Ethan, room nine."

Daniel looked at the others before heading off. "Let’s compare notes afterward. I want to know what they focused on with each of us."

Claire adjusted the strap on her bag. "Just remember the important parts."

"I can do that."

Ethan glanced toward room nine. "We’ll see."

Daniel shook his head and walked toward room four. Claire and Ethan followed the instructors waiting for them.

The instructor checked his relay again.

"Noah, room twelve. They’re ready for you."

Noah walked farther down the hall until he reached the marked door. His name and mission code appeared on the panel beside it. He opened the door and stepped inside.

Two instructors sat behind a table. A senior officer stood beside a wall display showing the timeline of Noah’s deployment on Planet X-317.

The officer pointed toward the empty chair.

"Have a seat. We’ll start with the result, then go over your decisions."

Noah sat across from them.

The officer touched the display, and a failure mark appeared beside Noah’s independent objective.

"You accepted outside support before completing the objective, so the challenge is recorded as a failure. You knew that when you made the request?"

"I did. I didn’t think keeping the challenge going was worth losing more goblins."

The officer nodded. "All right. We’ll leave the result there and look at why you made the call."

He changed the display. The failure mark remained in one corner while the mission timeline filled the rest of the screen.

One of the instructors leaned back slightly.

"You still had rifle units, machine guns, RPG teams, tanks, and artillery. Your officers still had control of their units. Why did you decide the mission was no longer going to work?"

Noah looked at the highlighted section of the timeline.

"The goblins could still fight. I just didn’t think the plan would get us to the objective."

The instructor nodded toward the display. "What changed?"

"The armored Astragoths started appearing more often. The ordinary ones were dangerous, but the goblins could handle them with rifles and machine guns. The armored ones needed much more fire to kill, and if they got close, the goblins couldn’t match their strength."

The second instructor looked up from his relay. "Your heavier weapons were still killing them."

"They were. RPGs, tanks, and artillery could stop them."

"Then where did the problem start?"

"We needed too much of the force every time several armored Astragoths appeared. One was manageable. When several came together, more RPG teams and heavier weapons had to focus on them. We could stop them, but every time that happened, fewer units were available to keep advancing."

The senior officer folded his arms. "So you were holding them back, but you weren’t getting closer to the objective."

"That’s right."

"When did you realize that?"

"Later than I should have."

The instructor on the left glanced up from his notes. "What were you missing?"

"The first Astragoths gave me the wrong standard. The goblins handled them well enough, so when stronger ones appeared, I treated them like exceptions. I thought we could keep adjusting whenever one showed up."

"And when more of them started appearing?"

"I should have changed the plan. Instead, I kept adding more firepower to each fight."

The instructor leaned forward. "Why?"

"Because it kept working. RPGs worked. Tanks worked. Artillery worked. As long as we could kill what was in front of us, I kept thinking we could recover."

The senior officer pointed toward a later section of the timeline.

"You were looking at each fight separately."

Noah nodded.

"You could win those fights, but winning them wasn’t moving your force forward."

"I should have recognized that earlier."

The officer sat down across from him.

"Did the challenge affect your decision?"

"Yes. I knew asking for support would end it. I didn’t want to give it up the first time things got harder. I wanted to be sure the goblins couldn’t recover."

The officer rested his forearms on the table. "That part is reasonable. We don’t expect you to call for help the first time the enemy surprises you."

One of the instructors looked toward Noah. "The problem is that you kept waiting after you had enough information."

Noah looked at him.

"More armored Astragoths were showing up. Your progress had slowed. Your casualties were increasing. You didn’t need several more fights to tell you the same thing."

"I kept waiting for the answer to become obvious."

The senior officer nodded. "And that cost you time and soldiers."

Noah accepted that. "I should have called for help earlier."

The officer looked at him. "If the same thing happens again, when do you stop?"

"I stop once I don’t think the plan can finish the objective. I wouldn’t wait until the force is nearly unable to continue."

The officer nodded. "That’s better."

The instructor on the right entered a note into his relay.

"We’re not telling you to quit when a mission becomes difficult. We’re telling you not to keep following a plan after you know it isn’t working."

"I understand."

The senior officer changed the display. The timeline moved forward to Darian Vale’s arrival.

"Now the withdrawal. You started pulling the goblins out once Vale’s mammoths took over."

"The mammoths were better suited to the Astragoths we were fighting. They could meet them directly. My goblins had already taken casualties, and the challenge was over. Keeping them there would only cause more losses."

The instructor on the right looked at the mission log.

"You still kept part of the force behind."

"The wounded went through the portal first. After that, we recovered equipment that could be moved quickly. The rifle squads followed. The machine-gun crews stayed until the rest were moving."

"Why leave them until last?"

"If Astragoths reached the area before everyone cleared the portal, the machine guns could keep them back while the others withdrew."

The instructor checked the timeline. "And the last crew left once the mammoths had control."

"Yes. There was nothing left for them to cover after that."

The instructor on the left reviewed the report and nodded.

"The withdrawal was handled well."

The senior officer looked at Noah.

"You also stopped giving input once Vale took over."

"His mammoths knew what they were doing. They weren’t my soldiers, and Darian didn’t need me trying to direct them."

The officer nodded. "That was the right decision. Some commanders keep involving themselves after control has already passed to someone else."

Noah replied, "I’d already accepted the failure when I asked for help. Staying there wouldn’t have changed anything."

The officer returned the display to the earlier part of the mission.

"There’s one thing I want you to remember. Your first assessment of the Astragoths wasn’t wrong."

Noah looked toward him.

"The first groups you fought were exactly as manageable as you thought. The mistake came later."

"When I kept treating them as the standard."

"Right. One unusually strong enemy can be an exception. Once several start appearing, you have to assume the enemy can field more of them."

Noah nodded. "I should have changed the plan once the armored ones stopped being rare."

The instructor on the left leaned forward.

"If we send you to another planet tomorrow and you meet a species you’ve never seen before, what do you do differently?"

"I wouldn’t judge the whole species from the first group we fight."

The instructor shook his head slightly. "What would you actually tell your scouts?"

Noah thought before answering.

"I’d tell them to report the strongest individuals they see, not just the average enemy. If something takes much more effort to stop, I want to know how many there are, where they were seen, and whether more are following."

The instructor nodded. "And what do you do with those reports?"

"I keep the heavier weapons and specialized units available until I know what else the enemy can send. I wouldn’t commit them early based on the first few fights."

The senior officer looked at Noah.

"If stronger enemies start appearing in larger numbers?"

"I change the plan."

"And if your force can still fight but isn’t advancing?"

"I ask for support before the casualties get worse."

The officer studied him for a moment. "Even if it means failing another challenge?"

"Yes. If I stay only because I don’t want a failure on my record, then I’m making the wrong decision."

The officer nodded once.

"Good."

He brought up the final evaluation.

The independent challenge remained marked as a failure. Beside it were separate sections covering Noah’s command performance.

The officer turned the display slightly so Noah could read it.

"Your command performance is rated positively. That doesn’t erase the failed objective, and it doesn’t mean the whole mission was handled well."

Noah read through the summary.

The report noted that the goblin force remained organized throughout the mission. His officers continued carrying out orders, and the units stayed under control even as stronger Astragoths appeared. His request for support came later than it should have, but once he made that decision, the withdrawal was handled properly.

The main criticism was listed separately. Noah had taken too long to change his assessment after stronger Astragoths became common.

The officer tapped that section.

"This is what you need to work on. You understood the first groups you fought. The problem was that you kept expecting the later groups to be the same."

Noah nodded. "Once the scouts and officers start reporting the same stronger type again and again, I need to act on it."

"That’s it."

The instructor on the left leaned back.

"You recovered because your force was organized when you changed direction. Your officers were still following orders, and your units were still functioning. That gave you time to pull everyone out."

The senior officer added, "Keep that discipline. Just make the decision sooner next time."

"I will."

The officer cleared the display.

"You’ll face unfamiliar species again. The first enemy you meet might be weak compared with the rest of its species. It might be average. You might even meet one of the strongest first. One encounter doesn’t tell you enough."

Noah nodded. "Then I keep collecting reports before I decide what the enemy can do."

"And if those reports contradict your first impression, you change your plan."

"I understand."

The officer looked toward the two instructors. Both checked their relays and had nothing else to add.

"That’s everything from us."

Noah shifted forward slightly. "I have one question before I go. When do the next lessons start?"

"After the evaluations are finished. Your section will get the schedule through the usual channel."

"All right. That’s all I needed."

The officer gestured toward the door. "Then you’re free to go."

Noah stood and thanked them before leaving the room.

Several doors were still closed when he stepped back into the corridor. The panels beside Daniel’s, Claire’s, and Ethan’s rooms showed that their evaluations were still in progress, so Noah walked toward the waiting area at the end of the hall and took an empty seat.

The evaluation had given him one mistake to correct. He had judged the first Astragoths correctly, but he kept treating the armored ones as exceptions after several groups had already appeared.

The next time he fought an unfamiliar species, he would tell his scouts and officers to report the strongest enemies they encountered, how many they saw, and what weapons were needed to kill them. If the same stronger type kept appearing, Noah would change his plan before more goblins were killed trying to push forward.

For now, he waited for Daniel, Claire, and Ethan to finish their evaluations.