OK, we need to do a more careful post mortem of this episode (sorry about the choice of words, but you know what I mean)

From: Ondré Debinski

To: ENA Novas

Subject: What we can learn from the Jo-burg affair

OK, we need to do a more careful post mortem of this episode (sorry about the choice of words, but you all know what I mean).

Some lessons for us and ENA in general.

Point one: SA made a grave mistake by asking for novas, any novas, to come and help them deal with the situation. They did not fully understand the differences in nova abilities and personality. To some extent this was likely due to the rushed nature of the whole situation and that SA did not have any nova knowledge of their own. The SSS was woefully unprepared and believed they knew enough to advice the government on what to do. Expect some heads to roll over there. But this lesson holds for us too. We will likely get unreasonable requests from European governments who do not understand much about novas. ENA can do a lot of good by informing them and keeping them updated – much work here for Nice and Stuttgart. Novas are not panaceas, novas cannot be used as standard military or intelligence or any other forces.

Point two: getting novas to needed locations is messy. SA did have a jet ready more or less by chance. Since we usually have to go by military plane, train or other more inconvenient methods transport is often a bottleneck. Right now the plane on loan from the UK Nova Task Force is one of the major expenses of ENA, and that is just a single plane. Flying tends to be frowned on in dense airspaces, and flying low is a good way of attracting attention (trust me, I know).

Point three: Cooperation didn’t seem to be a problem internally or externally this time. From the reports I got you all got along well with the SA authorities, formed good scanner teams (one scanner, one defender) and when the shit hit the fan converged on the problem efficiently and creatively (although some of the methods might be refined to cause less property damage – not that anybody cared in this case).

Point four: We need better communication even during bad conditions. Booster did a marvellous job with the radio system, but when nobody is equipped with a functional radio it doesn’t help. I have asked R&D to look into radio and phone systems for teams. They might not work well during nuclear fighting, but at least for a bit more everyday situations they could help coordination a lot.

Point five: Heroism is great, but most of you rushed into a nuclear blast area with no protection except bravery. Had not Mrs Mofetta been present and helpful, I suspect most of you would be dead now due to radiation poisoning. I guess the hair problems and stomach troubles you have had so far are a sufficient reminder of that.

Point six: The big disaster occurred when one team did not act as a team with the rest, and instead began to act on its own according to eccentric premises. The root cause was of course the psychological instability of Despairing Venus and Die Vampire, but there was no safeguard against it. In a safely designed system there has to be failures on several levels before things break down. We need to ensure that the psychological disruption (or other problem) of one part of the team does not propagate to the mission. More thought on planning is needed here.

Point seven: Once things got out of hand there was much improvisation. It is important to be able to invent in the field, but again do not take unnecessary risks. Major Ivalds’ jump into the fray was too risky, and nearly cost him his life.

Point eight: Make sure you have pickup points and phone numbers ready and memorized. The fact that Mr Doyle got left at the airport for *days* is downright embarrassing.

To sum up, this mission was a mess, but it did succeed. Given the information discovered later about the “stealthiness” of the boy when not using his powers, it is unlikely the teams would have found him easily. Ordinary police work might have worked, but the detonation made it both irrelevant and impossible to use (STF was not prepared to get into ground zero; you were). Once the boy was in the right hands he was brought to a safe holding place with a minimum of risk and hassle. I know many of you are shocked by the events, but consider this: had you not been there, millions would have been at risk and quite likely killed when the boy really blew. As it was, it was a tragedy, but you averted an even greater disaster.