Monday. 08:30 Gymnasium

John grunted as he stepped forward to put the weight bar back on the squat rack. Sweat was dripping off of him. Despite the pain, he was grinning from ear to ear. His strength was fully back. After he caught his breath he began to take the weights off the bar.

“Jesus, how much was that?” Andern shouted from the dumbbell station.

“Six hundred twenty.”

“Six hundred plus and doing reps. Fucking Martian,” Andern said under his breath to Alice and Kristin.

“He seems to be back,” Theresa said as she walked over to the group, “I’m all done for today.”

“His stamina isn’t quite back yet, the doctors say that’s a month or more away,” Alice said.

“Which means he’s ahead of all of us again, so it’s no big deal,” Nathan smirked, “All done too.”

“The meathead going for a run?” Kevin asked.

“Seeing as how he’s literally on the track and actively running I’d say yes,” Thomas said walking up to them.

Brian jogged up to them, “He said not to wait around, he’s going to, and I quote, ‘push it.’”

“Of course, he would say that,” Alice laughed, “Well I have two lectures to listen to. I may as well get them taken care of as soon as possible.”

“I have six, I really thought I’d be done before we docked,” Nathan said.

“Suckas, I’m all done,” Andern threw up horn signs and stuck his tongue out at everyone.

“Honey, you’re an idiot,” Kristin said punched his shoulder.

“I’m sweaty and need a shower,” Brian said.

That was the queue for the group to head to the locker room to clean up. Andern shouted at John their plans to head back. John simply waved back and kept running.

Lap after lap he ran on. Twenty minutes in his shirt and shorts were soaked through. But he never faltered in that run. John maintained a consistent pace for sixty-five straight minutes. He was bent over and breathing after crossing the finish line for the last time.

It wasn’t the fastest he had ever run, but it was significantly faster than anything he had run in the past three months.

“Ninety percent. So close,” John said under his breath as sweat was dripping off and pooling on the track surface.

“Not many complain about doing something only the top one percent of Olympic athletes can accomplish,” a gravelly sounding voice said.

John turned and was going to say something sarcastic but stopped and saluted, “General Mizrahi, apologies sir.”

“At ease son, take a seat, please. Watching you run made my memories of my younger self quite jealous.”

“If you don’t mind me asking sir, but what do you want from me? Supreme commanders of the Marine Corps don’t usually talk to Naval cadets.”

The general made a wicked grin, “It isn’t often that Naval Cadets push themselves to near-death killing operatives that have been a thorn in our side for some time.”

“Only got one of them, sir.”

“Better than any of my strike forces have in the past. Hindsight being twenty-twenty I wish we had boots on the ground with you.”

“I likely wouldn’t have to be pushing myself so damn much to get back to shape.”

“How are you physically?”

“Strength is back, stamina is close, but not fully back.”

“And mentally?”

“My memory is fine. As for the rest, it is what it is.”

“I can’t promise you anything, but when we track them down, I will try to have you on-site.”

“Thank you, sir. I appreciate that.”

“Now onto the business of that freighter.”

“The Marines didn’t misplace those weapons sir, they were all assigned to the Navy,” John said still trying to piece together why the general was here.

“I’ve already got this cleared by the commandant and Naval Intelligence. Take this and conduct your review as you see fit,” the general held out a dongle, “Everything we know you will know. You are only to debrief Director LeCroix and me.”

“When are you expecting a report?”

“Monthly updates and whenever you feel we need to hear anything. You uncovered just the tip of a massive conspiracy. I’m hoping you can dig into it the way you have a tendency to do so.”

“Aye aye, sir.”

10:00 Co-Ed Dorm

John leaned back in his chair and was staring at the ceiling. He pushed back his chair and was looking between the terminal's screen and their television. He had data, charts, graphs, manifests, and more displayed everywhere. There was no sense to be made from all of this.

John began mumbling to himself, “So that shipped from Alpha Centauri and then to Sol, then to Groombridge like the ship parts I found. But then this shipment originated on Groombridge, went to Sol, then to Alpha Centauri. What the fuck kind of shell game am I looking at?

John programmed into the terminal to display freight movements and played them back chronologically. The end image was a chaotic mess. Hundreds, more like thousands of threads, began forming. John swore under his breath.

He then filtered the records to display small arms and armor that were lost from the armory at the academy. What he saw still didn’t make any sense, but John figured this was the best starting point. He transferred the data to his tablet.

He then shut the television off and locked his account at the workstation. He stood up and walked into their bedroom. He grabbed a clean set of clothes and headed into the bathroom. He was out of the shower in a handful of minutes.

On his way out of the dorm, he walked by Kristin and Alice and walked over to them, “Hola, what are y’all up to?”

“Enjoying this lovely weather,” Alice said as she leaned back on the bench.

“I’m so enjoying feeling the ground,” Kristin said as she stared at the blue sky.

“Cool, have fun. I’m heading to the armory.”

“Are you going to brood there for hours on end?” Alice smirked.

“Nah, just going to cross-check a couple of things then head back for an early lunch.”

Alice looked at Kristin who nodded at her, “Well as long as you’re not going to be too long then we can join you.”

10:45 Academy Armory – Records Room

“So why are we here?” Alice asked.

“Wait, let me guess, it’s about that freighter,” Kristin laughed.

John looked over at the pair and tilted his head.

“I was joking by the way,” Kristin said with a hint of worry in her voice.

“You really did walk ass-backward into something didn’t you," Alice grinned as she spoke.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

John shrugged and transferred all the data to his tablet. He mumbled something the girls didn’t hear. When the transfer was done, he stood up.

“Let’s go down a level. Want to check one thing to confirm my sanity.”

The girls got up and followed him out of the room.

“I’m being serious, I really was joking,” Kristin said all worried.

Alice smirked, “I’m sure he was being serious too. So why you?”

John shrugged, “None of this makes any god damned sense.”

“Shipping small arms doesn’t seem too difficult,” Alice countered.

“Fair, but how do you steal a top-secret ship’s engines. I know how to steal engines of old decrepit ships, but not state-of-the-art ones.”

“So, like, how big is this really?” Kristin asked innocently.

John looked back at her and shook his head.

“Can’t say I liked that look,” Alice said.

“It’ll work out somehow, someway I suppose,” John mumbled as he opened the door.

They entered a room they were all too familiar with from the last school year. John walked over to the north wall and checked how the guns in use were stored. Then they walked into a storage room where new and used guns not in active rotation were stored.

“Stored exactly how they are supposed...” John muttered but stopped speaking when he saw a couple of shelves.

“A whole lot of gear here,” Kristin grabbed a loose magazine from the shelf to her right, “Hey, what if they were squirreling away things that were checked out but never checked back in.”

Alice picked up a pistol and locked the slide back, “This can’t have been checked back in yet.”

“Take a piece here or there over time. Nothing happens quickly but when you’re doing this at thousands of installations it adds up over time,” John said as he picked up a rifle, “Can you each walk down an aisle please and count the number of loose guns.”

The girls nodded and the trio began their quick inspection. Alice and Kristin counted out loud. John walked down at a brisk pace and kept track in his head. By the time he got to the end of the row, he swore at how many were not stored correctly. He walked to the wall and grabbed a scanner.

“Sixty-two here,” Alice said.

“Seventy-four down my aisle,” Kristin said as she twirled at the end of her aisle.

“Fifty-nine here.”

“And what are you doing?”

“Checking to see if these were scanned back in, or just left here randomly,” John scanned three pistols that were on the shelf then turned to the girls, “Fuck me, none of these were scanned back in.”

John walked over to the workstation and send a message to the Chief Armorer of the Academy. He responded instantly to John’s message and was in the storage room within five minutes.

“Cadet, how can I help you?”

“Master Chief, are all these guns scanned in?” John asked.

“Should be, why?”

John tossed the scanner to him, “Scan a couple of loose guns please.”

The Master Chief did as he was told, he got a perplexed look on his face. The look changed when the second and third guns didn’t have stored as their status. The look changed to anger when the next three guns all came back the same way.

“Well, I’m not crazy,” John shook his head when he looked at the girls, “You ever see anyone walk out of the storage room with a case of stuff?”

“Sure, happens all the time.”

“Is that scheduled ahead of time? Or does you get a random request for it?”

The Master Chief looked like he was thinking, “Gotta be scheduled. We had some guy from a special forces unit, I think that who he was from a long time ago. I declined because he kept showing up randomly, oftentimes without orders.”

“Is it the same guy that shows up these days?”

“I’d have to check.”

John walked over to him and handed the Master Chief a dongle, “Use this when you run the search. Just plug it in and search the man’s name from your computer. Toss it when you’re done with it. Thanks, and by the way way, this conversation never happened.”

They walked out of the storage room and headed into the main room. They were going to head out when John noticed some of the modules for his power armor weren’t stowed correctly. He walked over to the reliquary, with the girls following behind, and picked up the Zero-G Harness. He locked it in place on the hooks about it. John bent over and picked the psychic amplifier.

As John was setting it on the table Kristin thought she saw a faint blue light emanate from it when he picked it up. She looked and Alice, who appeared to see the same thing from Kristin’s viewpoint, but she didn’t say anything. Kristin walked over and touched it after John set it in place.

“It’s metal and composite-ceramite case. Smooth too I suppose,” John said.

“Touch it.”

“Ok,” John walked over and touched it, “Oooh look, smooth.”

“John, you’re being an ass,” Alice said clearly unimpressed from the exit.

John led Kristin to the door where Alice was. Kristin had lingering doubts though, she swore that something was up. But it didn’t light up the second time so what was up with that. No matter, she’d talked to Andern about it later.

11:45 Cafeteria

John sat down and looked at his tablet when it beeped. He gave off an evil-looking smile briefly before eating the breadstick in his other hand.

“That was moderately disturbing,” Nathan said as he sat down, “What are you scheming?”

“Nothing.”

“Yeah, that’s bullshit, we’ve been around you for two and a half years. We know that look,” Thomas said.

“Well, some of us not quite that long but, the rest of the statement is true,” Brian added.

“I’ll read you into it later if push comes to shove,” John said as he took a bite of pasta salad, “For now let me deal with the coming shitstorm.”

“What are we doing anything fun this afternoon?” Andern said.

“I have eight more lectures to listen to,” Kevin said, “But I’m not in any rush. Going to get four done today and wrap things up in the morning.”

“I have a psych paper to write for my final. I think I’m going to start since that one looks like he already has plans for this afternoon,” Alice said as she pointed at her husband.

“Yup, I’m gonna be busy.”

“I have two lectures, then I’m done. So going to get that done. Then I am going to enjoy the nice weather outside,” Theresa said.

“Good call, I’ll bring the cornhole stuff outside,” Andern said.

“I will take you on first since I’m all done and want to enjoy the weather,” Jessica said.

The group continued their conversation. John could tell everyone liked being back home. More than that though, they all liked the camaraderie.

“You know, as much as I liked being on the ship, I missed this. Just wasn’t the same,” John said.

“Hate to be the bearer of bad news but the likelihood of all of us serving on a big boomer is near nil,” Kevin said.

“Not near nil, it is nil. But John’s right, it would be fun,” Nathan said.

“You aren’t wrong, but I think it’d get really stressful after a while,” Jessica didn’t appear happy when she said that.

“I don’t know, I think it could work,” Kevin said, “It worked once already.”

“Nah, she’s right,” John said after finishing his sandwich, “In the short-term crew makeup like that works. Over the long-term problems always arise.”

“But how do they get away with nepotism?” Theresa, “We’ve all seen it.”

“Get enough stars on your shoulders it makes it hard for a junior officer to speak up,” Thomas said bluntly, “And too few voices above them to whip them back into shape.”

“Especially if you want a career,” added Kristin.

“Except John, he can tell admirals to fuck off apparently,” Andern said laughing.

“I can only do that if I have enough leverage on someone. Doing that without having them dead to rights on something is committing career suicide,” John said, “And I’d rather not end my career just yet.”

The group continued to chat until the top of the hour. There they split up. Some heading to the library. Others to the green space between the dorms. John was heading back to the armory.

13:15 Armory Storage Room

The storage room had an irritating hum and buzz sound near the ceiling. Which was annoying John to no end. But there he waited in his stealth suit. He was tapped into the security feeds. There was a man down the hall walking towards the armory.

Then the feed cut out. Even the backup footage was down. John smirked; something clearly was going to happen. It was far too early to determine if this was connected in any way to the big mess that he got to investigate. He waited in the rafters for them to come.

The door eventually opened, and three men walked in. That was unexpected, John only briefly noticed one in the feed before it cut off. John cursed to himself, had his powers still been available to him he’d have already known that. And he’d be able to accurately assess his targets. Now he had to do things the old-fashioned way. There was another grin across John’s face, maybe he could just dial the viciousness up a level or two to compensate.

The man in charge was tall and muscular, “We need to fill up two cases. One pistol and the other rifles. Get to work.”

“I’m on it boss, I’ll take the far wall,” the shortest one and last in the room said.

“Middle row is mine,” the other man with a babyface said.

John was able to get facial recognition from the two subordinates. They were a pair of E-2s, Seaman Second Class. They were attached to a marine division. The third man was still unidentified. John presumed a Senior Chief or Second Lieutenant; he was leaning towards the officer.

“Hey Lieutenant, why’d they need all this shit?” the short man asked.

“Hell, if I know. Orders are orders. If the captain says get this shit, you get it.”

“What captain are you working for these days? There’s like six on our bloody ship.”

“There’s nine onboard actually. Werth and Pierz are the two that make me do most of these gear runs. Fucking spec’ op boys burn through gear like mother fuckers,” the leader of the group said.

“Why so many high-ranking officers? Isn’t that a recipe for disaster?” the babyface man said.

“Capitol ship shave lots of them. Not all are in the chain of command. You might have a captain in medical or weapons. Or hell even ops. But they aren’t in the chain of command. I think they slot them in below full commanders in the command tree.”

“Weird. Well anyway, I’m half full over here.”

John smiled; he finally had the third man’s name. Second Lieutenant Jaris Alokan of the CNS Gargantuan. He graduated in 2254 with honors. He was initially assigned to Fifth Fleet but was transferred to Second Fleet when he was promoted to Third Lieutenant.

John also had the captains they were referencing. There were orders on paper too for a supply run at the academy. But what wasn’t clear was why the cameras cut out. The orders were absurdly vague and not well written. That led John to question how Jaris knew what to get. The obvious question is why a docked dreadnaught needed to get weapons from the Academy instead of a warehouse.

He began moving through the rafters slowly. The short one was directly below him. John reached in and tossed a tracker into the case when the man was grabbing a couple of pistols from the shelf. John watched the men finish their task and leave the room.

The security camera feed started back on when they were long gone. John jumped down onto the ground and sent several messages to Intelligence. He didn’t want them arrested just yet, but he did want them tracked. The captains were also to be investigated quietly. It was far too early for anyone to be tipped off.

John thought the whole situation stunk and wasn’t convinced the captains were the ones that actually gave the orders. It stood to reason that the orders were made by someone or something else. But his hunches had been wrong in the past, so for not he needed evidence to confirm things one way or the other.

He walked out of the storage room and over to where his power armor was stowed. He disengaged the stealth field and began stowing the gear. He changed into his clothes.

“If I hadn’t fucked up this would’ve been so much easier,” John sighed as he leaned against the wall.

He shook his head and jogged out of the room. He was going to hang out with his friends while he casually tracked the trio’s movements and the movements of the pistol case itself. John was hoping that at the bare minimum they’d be able to use that tracker to nail another freighter.