April 21st, 2263. 16:30 CNS Vigilant – John’s Quarters
One of the positives of serving on capital ships was the crew quarters. The lower-ranked enlisted crewmembers had six-room mini-suites. For lower ranked officers, such as the ensign quarters, were similar but were two- or three-room variants. Once you made third lieutenant then you get your own quarters. As you work through the ranks you get larger and larger accommodations.
John, through some quirk of paperwork, was given the equivalent of an O5’s room, a lieutenant colonel in the Marines, or full Commander in the Navy. Alice, naturally as she was all too aware of John’s penchant for upgrading things, did not believe anything John had said in his forceful defense. It was only after the third conversation where he protested his innocence did she concede that he may not have had anything to do with it.
In any case, John thoroughly enjoyed his larger room. There was a proper living room with an oversized viewscreen and an oddly comfortable couch. There were two desks with terminals to work from. A private bathroom was also present, though it was smaller than John would like. The bedroom was also smaller than he’d like but as he was the only one that would be sleeping there it also met his physical needs.
“How’s it going asshole?” Andern said with a grin.
“Evening, I think. Things…” John sighed as he paused, “Are not going well. Can’t get into particulars but it’s like we’re a day late and a dollar short on every damn thing we do.”
“I heard you were in our neck of the woods recently.”
“Yeah, we were in Delta Trianguli,” John shrugged, “For about twenty hours and then we headed off to our next destination.”
“Do you know when you’re going to be on leave next?”
“It’s been under four months since we’ve been home. We’re due to head home in the next three to five weeks.”
“Crap, Kristin and I are on leave for a couple of weeks starting next week and were planning on visiting you, but if you’re a month out.”
“Yeah, probably won’t work if y’all wanted to see me.”
“Man…” Andern said in his whining voice, “You’re going to say something about responsibility and duty.”
“More like orders but that works too,” John laughed.
“Hey, our station got a delivery of some new gear. Did you guys get any?”
“Depends, what did y’all get?”
“An upgraded reliquary. I’ve heard there’s a new version of power armor inside.”
All John did was grin.
“Ok shut up, what’s really in it?”
John continued to grin as he shook his head, “Not sure on the clearance needed on that, but it’s really fucking cool. When you see what is inside, you will know why.”
“Ah man, you’re no fun.”
“I know. But hey, I gotta run to work.”
“Alright man, stay safe out there.”
“I’ll do my best, you too man,” John grinned as he ended the communication.
17:00 CNS Vigilant – Company Planning Room
The planning room was not normally secure. Naval Intelligence decided otherwise and had turned it into its unofficial headquarters onboard the Vigilant. Every viewscreen was turned on and had numerous handwritten notes written for each bullet point.
John thought it curious that on a capital ship there wasn’t a Naval Intelligence department or wing. In any case, he leaned down to a retinal scan device by the door and waited for it to confirm his existence. Sure enough, it did and opened the door. Inside was Lieutenant Commander Deborah Murphy and her team were working, but they didn’t look as busy as they should.
“Lieutenant, you weren’t…” Deborah looked surprised to see the unexpected and unwanted visitor.
John ignored her and looked at the screen in front of him, “You are proposing an assault on the base in Alpha Fornacis. This intel is what, nine or ten months old?”
“Eleven actually, but it’s the best lead that we have,” one of the agents said defensively.
John tossed a data slate onto the table which slid down to the agents. He didn’t bother to look at them as he continued to read the notes they had made on the attack plan. A sigh could be heard before he turned to face them. Deborah was looking at the data slate and looked confused.
“Had I submitted a report of that quality during my stay in NI I would’ve gotten chewed out and told to rewrite that. That report, and the justification behind the attack, are garbage, ma’am. All of you need to indicate that this is a NI-suggested raid. You should also indicate the age of the intel in there.”
“And if I don’t?” Deborah smirked.
“Admiral Nelson and General Mizrahi are already aware of the potential boondoggle we are being led into here,” John smirked, “Were I in your shoes Commander, I’d ensure the quality of my work is elevated. And if I may speak freely ma’am, I’d suggest our failures to date are less on the Marines and Naval crew on this ship and more to do with quality and timely work that’s being done in this room.”
Deborah slammed her fist on the table, hitting a button that turned off the screens in the room. She looked furious. The rest of the NI agents in the room were taken aback by the angry outburst.
“Everyone else, get out,” Deborah spat out.
The other agents quickly left the room. Leaving only John and Deborah. She was glaring daggers at him. And she was about to speak before John jumped at the chance.
“Get over yourself, Commander. And yes, I can speak this bluntly to you. Since your NI you are outside the normal chain of command,” John yelled, “Do your fucking job. No one here has told you to do that because they are afraid of NI and what they could do. I’m not. The group on Titan is doing quality work,” John paused as he put both hands on the conference table and leaned down, “You and your team are not.”
“You don’t know a damn thing about the work we’re doing…”
“Wrong, Commander. I was a desk jockey for years. I know the kind of work that goes into doing a good job. This…” John gestured to the room again, “Is not it. Do your fucking job so I can do my job. My COs, presuming I’m correct, are speaking to the director right now about the piss poor work you and your team are doing. Have fun with that convo,” John turned to leave the room but paused at the door, “I don’t know if this job is over your head or you're just being lazy, if it’s the former you need to bounce and let someone come in and do the bloody job. Otherwise, get over yourself and do the damn work.”
John walked out of the room. He strode past the waiting agents and several Marine operations analysts. Everyone in the room heard John muttering ‘incompetent idiots’ as he left. The NI team quickly got back in their conference room, and none were seen until after the shift change had occurred.
03:25 CNS Vigilant – Marine Platoon Practice Zone
“Oh, for fucks sake,” John exclaimed as he threw his hands up.
Nathan was running too fast and burst through the temporary wall, ala the Kool-Aid man, and then tripped and fell to the ground. He slid several feet before awkwardly rolling himself over. He saw Erica in her armor looking down at him, but her helmet was on so he couldn’t see her scowling at him. He did see the annoyance in John’s features since he was observing the drills that morning.
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“Private Vaughn, you’re dropping out of boarding drills and going back to agility drills until you have this under control,” John said quietly.
The tone of his voice worried the Private. John was not afraid to raise his voice or yell at someone. But the quiet anger or disappointment in a COs voice could be dozens of times worse than being yelled at.
Erica helped Nathan to his feet and pointed to the agility drill course. She slapped a pauldron as he slowly walked over. John shook his head as he watched everyone.
“Sir, we need more time.”
John nodded, “Only you and I have been cleared to run the suit. And if I’m not wrong about the timing we’re going to be running a mission within the next couple of days.”
“I don’t think it would be appropriate if I were to be running this suit. Plus, I’m just barely able to make the suit work with the reaction times where they are at,” Erica said with a resound resignation to her voice.
John nodded, “Commander Haywood has indicated a patch that will be coming within the next two weeks. After this next mission, we’re going to be running the platoon hard to get them accustomed and qualified in this armor.”
“Understood, sir!” Erica saluted and got back to monitoring the squad.
John continued to monitor his platoon. Besides Erica, the most senior sergeant, the next most proficient Marine was the youngest and most green one. Private David Olson was almost a natural in new armor. So much so that John had already green-lit his inclusion into the elite squad within his platoon.
April 23rd, 2263. 07:55 CNS Fargo Marine Boardroom
John arrived at the conference room a few minutes early, as was his normal routine. ‘Better to be five minutes early than five minutes late,’ John smiled as he could hear his adopted father’s saying. That wasn’t going to help with today’s meeting though, it was destined to be an uninteresting affair.
That was thanks to the stale intel they were running with. That didn’t mean they shouldn’t be careful, John needed to drill that into his platoon. They were still to treat the site as if it were full of hostiles, even if the odds of that happening were nearly nonexistent.
Moments later the platoon filed into the room. The side view screen turned on displaying Colonel Perentz. The final two people that entered the room were the pilots of the entry craft. John smiled before clearing his throat.
“Good morning. Platoon 3 will be dropping to the surface to assault this facility,” John pointed to the view screen, “The insertion point will be one of two places. Local fighter crafter will be intercepting the site to see if any anti-air defenses are still active. The alpha site will be a hot insert on their doorstep. Meanwhile, the Beta site will keep the party bus out of harm’s way.”
John zoomed in half of the screen to show the two points. The other half of the screen began playing an animation that contained what each squad was going to do. Nine teams of five would assault the base from three different ingress points.
“Charlie group will gain entry here,” John pointed at the main hangar doors, “Presume anyone that we encounter as hostiles. If we can take prisoners, we will do so. Guys, if they are armed and not actively throwing the weapon away, they are to be shot on site. Everyone else gets taken to the ground and restrained.”
John paused for a moment, “Otherwise, we’re to do a room-to-room, full clean sweep of this facility. Once it’s clear the eggheads can come in. We’re dealing with ten-plus month-old intel. If anyone lives there, it’s not likely to be the hostiles we’re looking for. However, any hostile acts by a third party present in that facility will result in deadly force being used against them.”
The screen then split into three and showed the recommended route of clearing the facility by the three groups.
“Egress will be either the main hangar here or the residential exit on the north side. Keep coms open at all times. Questions?”
Corporal Lukas Meyer raised his hand, “Sir, why are we not using the new armor?”
“Only three of you have been cleared on it. None of you, aside from me, feel comfortable enough with the input lag to run the Broadswords. I am told an upgrade is coming in a couple of weeks though. That doesn’t exactly help us with today.”
“Sir, how confident are we that the locals haven’t taken up residence here?” Erica asked.
“There is one major settlement on Alpha Fornacis. A second one is in the planning stage on the largest island south of the central continent. One hundred and eight citizens were abducted, seemingly from this group, and never seen again. Another fifty-three went to the base and never came back. That place is bad juju to the locals,” John said as he leaned back against the wall.
“What kind of kit are we running for this op?” Nathan asked.
“Standard kits. Two breaching shotguns, a marksman, a sub-gunner, and a shield per squad. The Lieutenant is taking the breaching fist and twin plasma blast gun,” Jerad said as he pointed to a screen that showed their gear.
The marines looked at one another and quickly chatted within each squad. Not more than a minute later all of the squad leaders looked up and nodded. John smiled.
“Alright. Gear up, we’re going to be heading to the surface in forty-five,” John said as the Marines stood up.
“Oorah!” they said in unison.
As they were filling out Jerad stood up and walked over to John, “Sir, I’ll be managing the coms on Dagger 1. Also, Admiral Nelson wanted to have a word with you before we left.”
John turned to the screen on the far side of the wall, “Sir.”
“At ease, the General and I had a chat with your former boss. He wasn’t happy with your attitude even if he reluctantly accepted that it was warranted. This mission will not be cut short because of NI’s untimely use of intelligence.”
“About that, sir. Why the hell is the Commander the agent in charge of this? Calling her incompetent is being polite.”
“We’ve both told, not asked mind you, Director LeCroix that the quality of work will improve. For now, she is staying, but the team on Titan is sharing primary duties with her. They will be reviewing all work done by the team onboard this ship now before it’s released to us.”
John shook his head, “I don’t think that’s enough, but it’ll have to do. Who’s riding shotgun with us on this op?”
“No one.”
John’s surprise was not hidden in his features, “We’re going to an enemy base, and they are just gonna chill and play Nintendo?”
“Because the intel is so old it is not expected that we find any pertinent details. Your orders are to report back any useful finds.”
“Understood, sir.”
“Happy hunting out there, Lieutenant,” Admiral Nelson smiled as he ended the conversation.
“That was unexpected. NI gets pissy anytime we touch something,” Jerad said.
“Maybe that means we’ll be able to find something useful without them fucking it up.”
“Again,” Jerad grinned, “I remember what happened in the Cygni system.”
John slapped Jerad’s shoulder as he walked by him, “You can’t blame for that shitshow. That was entirely not my fault.”
Jerad nodded and grinned as the pair left the room. John continued to press his point as they walked into the platoon’s armory. The Chief Warrant Officer was able to get John in front of his reliquary and in a position to suit up, despite John’s insistence that Jerad agrees with him.
11:22 Alpha Fornacis – Antares Mountain Range
Dagger 1’s hull was still burning hot after its re-entry. Ceramite was a modern marvel, and while it was incredibly durable it had an annoying tendency to retain a fascinating amount of heat. Flying at hypersonic speeds just means the crew could flash fry food off the hull.
It, along with its sister dropship, screamed through the atmosphere. Three minutes ahead of them was a squadron of militia fighter jets from the main colony. They were mere minutes away from testing to see if the anti-aircraft systems of the hostile research center were still active.
John was not in any mood to test the mountain climbing capability of the tank that he was currently entombed in. He looked down and manipulated the digits on his breaching fist. The military wanted to use another name for it, but a model gaming company held the copyrights to the terminology and hadn’t played nicely with the military. He chuckled at the silliness of both the size of the over-armored fist and copyrights in general.
“Lieutenant, fighter jets breached the SAMs. No reaction,” the pilot called out through their coms.
“Alright, we’re going with Plan A. Drop us on their front lawn,” John grinned, “Marines, I want an expeditious egress from our transports so they can fall back to safety.”
“Understood,” Erica said, “Alright grunts, the timer’s going. T-Minus three minutes. On my mark. Mark!”
The Marines were goofing around and joking with one another and instantly got their game faces on. John appreciated working with these professionals. It was all fun and games back on the ship. Once they were sent into harm’s way though, it was go-time for everyone.
Dagger 1 then went into a steep dive. Were it not for their harnesses everyone in the cargo hold would be plastered to the ceiling. A pilot then came on the coms, fashionably late John thought.
“Hold onto your butts!”
Dagger 1 then abruptly leveled out and slowed to a near stop. They pulled nearly fifteen g’s in that maneuver. John grinned as the new sheath even absorbed some of the shock and force that was imparted on him. Not enough though because had that maneuver lasted much longer even John would’ve suffered from g-LOC.
“Fuck me,” John said, “Anyone pass out from that?”
“Hah, the old man did,” David shouted.
“Stow it, Olson,” Erica yelled, “Vanessa, how is Corporal Meyer?”
Vanessa tapped his helmet, then shoved his shoulder. That was followed by a very hard slam to the chest plate. A deep breath and gibberish followed.
“Gottverdammt,” Lukas exclaimed.
“We’re all good,” John said as he undid the harness and walked over to the side door.
The door opened. John looked out. Dagger 1 was about fifty feet from the ground. It was descending steadily. John quickly looked to see what the armor was rated for. To his delight, it was over a hundred feet. But given the terrain below him, he didn’t feel like turning into a ballistic projectile and then needing to get dug out by his platoon.
He jumped out when they were about five feet off the ground. Once again John was the first to get boots on the ground. The rest of the marines filed out of the transport. Two squads ran down the rear ramp. Two more each jumped out of the side doors.
Sergeant Daryl Anderson and two squads followed John quickly to the main entrance. One of the marines hit the button to open the door but nothing happened. To the surprise of no one nothing happened.
“Why do you always do that newbie?” Daryl said, “Not once has one of these doors been powered. Who’s got the portable power pack?”
John walked through the throng of marines and stepped in front of the door and shouted, “I CAST FIST!”