April 25th, 2263. 21:55 FMG Tomahawk
The captain of the FMG Tomahawk was hot under the collar. Unannounced inspections weren’t entirely unheard of. But for the Navy to conduct an inspection without the captain’s authorization, even if it was a formality, was highly insulting. To add insult to injury he was working some seriously slick and effective moves on a very attractive lady which now have gone all for naught.
As he stomped down the docking bay he started to yell before getting into the ship, “WHO IN THE FUCK DOES THE NAVY THINK THEY….”
The captain stopped dead in his tracks, eyes bulged, and very nearly shat himself. Towering over his first officer was a new kind of power armor he had never seen. The armor stood between seven and eight feet tall, towering over both the first officer and made another marine in standard power look diminutive. This giant of an individual appeared to be armored so heavily they were impervious to anything and everything the crew could throw at them. The individual’s right fist was bigger than most people’s torsos.
Making matters worse, the freighter captain looked at the helmet. A skull was painted into it. The red eye lenses glowed in the skull's eye socket. And then there was a combat knife, at a size he had never seen before, sheathed and secured to the giant’s breastplate. The armor, while incredibly clean and polished, carried with it an aura of death incarnate.
Caution, not anger, was now the name of the game for the Captain and as a result, his tone had taken a complete change, “I’m Captain O’Neil, why did the Navy not inform me of this inspection.”
“Captain, I’m Lieutenant Lief. Your first officer was on board, as he was the active officer in command, we didn’t need to contact you. We left the decision on contacting you to your crew. My team should be done within fifteen minutes.”
“Fifteen minutes?”
“Well, provided my Marines don’t start playing grab-ass. They aren’t exactly thrilled to be on duty,” John grinned inside his helmet, “It’s a long, complicated, and rather classified story.”
“Lieutenant, Naval doctrine does in fact demand…”
John interrupted the freighter captain, “When you’re traveling the void. Absolutely. That doctrine changes when you are docked at a station. The acting captain onboard the vessel is all that we need to notify of an inspection. And, as I’m sure you are keenly aware, when we announce an inspection, you may not deny the request.”
“Very well, but why are we being inspected, we…”
John once again interrupted the captain, “Because I was ordered to do an inspection. Thus, here I am.”
The captain of the freighter was talking to a brick wall. Of course, that was the point. John was actively trying to be as annoying and obtuse as humanly possible. He was watching the squads go through the different cargo pods of the vessel.
“Lieutenant,” Erica spoke into the team’s private coms, “Three of the five teams have finished their inspection. Mine will wrap up shortly.”
Three pairs of marines came back one by one to the main cargo pod John and the freighter’s officers were located. They saluted John then walked toward the cargo door and waited at attention. This only added to the general discomfort the captain of the ship was feeling.
On his one hand, the captain had a true specter of death that was effectively a walking tank. On the other hand, there were six marines in power armor, who alone could annihilate the crew easily too. They were standing at attention still as a statue. The mood in the room was terrifying to the captain.
Just then Erica and three other marines walked into the room. Erica walked towards John and stopped two steps away from him. The three marines under her stayed a step behind her.
“Lieutenant, the inspection has been completed,” Erica said through the suit’s external speakers, “The only thing out of the ordinary found was the shipment I forwarded to you that didn’t have an end destination.”
John looked at the invoice for the prefabricated structures. They were paid for by a company that they were aware of, monitoring, and on a date far earlier than expected. But no destination was officially on paper.
“Captain, as you are keenly aware, the public transit point can be hidden for your customers’ privacy. The official location as transmitted to the Navy may not be hidden,” John paused a moment while his VI scanned the freighter’s history, “Well, the good news is this is one of the first times you’ve done this. Please update the end location in the database by the top of the hour and you’ll have clearance to leave the station on time.”
The captain breathed a sigh of relief and stammered, “Tha… Tha… Thank you very much.”
“Let’s consider this a slap on the wrist. This will be an unofficial warning. Nothing will go on your record,” John grinned inside his helmet, “And with that, I am done here. Marines, move out.”
The nine marines turned and began filing out of the cargo pod. Erica waited for John and walked side by side with him. The group was silent until they walked into the docking ring.
“Marines, good work, and apologies for taking up some of your leave. There’s a tab open for a meal of your choice and four adult beverages at the Grunts and Sailors bar. It’s on the first level of the restaurant wing. Your dismissed.”
The marines cheered and jogged off towards the CNS Fargo’s berth. John took his helmet off as he turned to face his sergeant. He grinned when he began talking.
“Apologies for interrupting the uh… fun you were having. Open tab applies to you as well.”
Erica pulled off her helmet as she was blushing and shaking her head, “Your timing was fucking awful.”
“Ahh. The dreaded mid-coitus commanding officer call. I really am sorry. Were the transmitters installed?”
“They were. The others didn’t know what was going on.”
John sighed, “I don’t like handing off this cloak and dagger bullshit onto you all, but you did well. For now, this is between us. My report isn’t going to be conclusive.”
“Sir, I know this is old-hat to you, but is it wise to be playing games with NI?”
“The answer to that question is no, it is not. Not for me, and certainly not for you. But I can and will play games with them…” John paused to sigh, “To an extent. I don’t trust how they’ve handled this investigation to this point. We’ve wasted six months on bullshit. But the chess pieces are getting maneuvered into place. Good work in there and get cleaned up. Enjoy the remaining time off.”
The pair turned and headed for their ship. John especially wanted to get cleaned up. One of the drawbacks to his new class of power armor was that he sweat like crazy in it. And smelled worse than a well-used locker room. That was yet another suggestion to give Commandery Haywood to work on.
April 27th, 2263. 12:05 9-Balls and More Brewhouse
John was in usually good spirits. And annoying the single men in the bar. Though only one of the attractive women with him was single. The other patrons didn’t know that nothing was going on between him and the ladies with him.
“How the hell did we run into you way out here at the ass end of nowhere?” Jessica said laughing as she held her pool cue.
“Right? We were running some training ops with Sixth Fleet,” Kristin said after breaking the balls.
“Well, we ended up here because we lost some slipstream generators. While in slipspace. That was fun.”
“You were on a ship that got damaged again?” Jessica grinned as she lined up a shot.
“Whoever installed them did a piss poor job of installing them. We ship out tomorrow at 13:00.”
“How’s the thing going?” Kristin asked.
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John shook his head, “Poorly. I’m not sure if factionalism or rank incompetence is slowing things to a crawl. Can’t speak on much because, you know, classified.”
“But this is basically running special ops, isn’t it?” Jessica asked innocently, “That isn’t what you wanted to do though.”
“It isn’t, but it’s about the target. And about the person who asked me to sign up,” John said as he gently tapped his ball into the side pocket.
“Ahhh,” Kristin grinned, “That asshole again?”
John nodded.
“Where’s the remaining one?”
“Causing the pirates all sorts of angst and trouble in unclaimed space. For now, she’ll get pulled back the instant we hit a live station.”
Their conversation was interrupted briefly by a waitress, “Hey folks. Got you some reloads. Guinness for the giant, margaritas for the ladies.”
“Oooh, it’s strawberry,” cooed Kristin.
“Yummy. John, yours looks like motor oil,” Jessica frowned when looking at the freshly poured mug of Guinness.
“Yeah, ain’t it heavenly,” John took a drink despite knowing he should have waited for it to settle, “Mmmm, delicious. So, Jess, how’s the Singapore?”
“Honestly it kind of sucks,” Jess frowned, “It has modern rooms, but the R&R room was repurposed. It’s in the mess now. Which means every four hours or so it gets converted from the rec room to the mess.”
“How were the Oslo’s?” Kristin asked.
John grunted as he lined up his next shot, “Shitty in combat.”
Both girls gave John looks. He ignored them and took the shot, which he called a bank shot of the eight into the side pocket. John was smiling very proudly until he saw their faces.
“What?”
“Too soon,” Kristin frowned.
“Is it?”
“Yes, but you’re an oaf with no filter,” Jessica shook her head.
“That was a pretty good shot, wasn’t it?”
The girls both sighed.
“What?” John said as he took a drink.
“You really do need Alice to be near you,” Kristin laughed.
“On that, I will totally agree. Hey, speaking of, did y’all see that punch?”
Kristin giggled, “Oh my god, yes. That was epic.”
“Why’d you stop her though?” Jessica laughed, “Because the princess earned it.”
“Oh, she did. But any more than what she did would have made it difficult to justify her actions. Luckily the family isn’t bugging us anymore.”
“Yeah, about that,” Kristin eyed John suspiciously, “Alice said the family did something but wasn’t clear on the specifics.”
“You aren’t going to answer that honestly, are you?” Jessica asked, “Wait, do I want to know?”
“I am not and no you don’t.”
“Dammit, I’m sure it would’ve been interesting,” Kristin laughed as she took a drink.
“Or felonious,” Jessica interjected.
John laughed, “Definitely.”
The three continued to play pool and enjoy the good company. The drinks were cold and cheap too. Eventually, the girls decided to go shopping. And made John be the bag bitch until dinner. After dinner, the friends parted ways, in what would be a common refrain for them.
April 29th, 2263. 08:35 CNS Fargo – Main Cargo Hold
John shook his head, despite Erica and Derek’s insistence that it was big enough, at the size of the cargo hold. Erica wanted to test out Commander Haywood’s upgrades. So here they were, in an undersized cargo hold testing out the Broadside class power armor.
Despite his misgivings, John was in his suit. He had all but mastered the suit before the latest software update, which made moving in the suit much more natural. John could still feel a slight lag in it, but to be fair to the new suit he felt movement lag in the smaller power armor.
The Marines were able to maneuver in the suit much more adeptly now. Gone were the herky-jerky movements or tripping over their own feet. But it was still very much a learning process. And John was desperately worried that their make ship barricades would hold up and not do damage to the ship’s structure.
Erica then walked over to John, “That’s six of us now, including you that are certified in the armor now.”
Derek then walked over and looked up at the pair, “After today’s training I’d think you’d have three more certified by mid-morning tomorrow. Possibly wrap up the squad by day's end.”
“Commander Haywood wants a summary of how y’all are enjoying the upgrades?”
John gave a thumbs up.
“Perhaps something verbal, sir?”
“The lag is greatly reduced but not eliminated. But it’s at a level that most people aren’t going to notice or be bothered by it,” John paused, “Also do not recommend running field certification tests in a frigate’s primary cargo hold. I’m feeling both anxious and claustrophobic. Needs a better cooling system for the user too.”
Derek smiled and walked away to finish his report. John and Erica were both standing at a particularly sketchy point of the test run. Were a marine to lose their ability to arrest their momentum correctly they’d be slowed down by the pair instead of the boxes of supplies they had relocated. Or the wall and bulkhead behind them.
“Sir is this really necessary?” Erica asked.
“Yes, I would’ve preferred we wait. But I must agree that you were right to use this time to get our people certified,” John sighed, “Oh, and I want the whole damn platoon certified just in case.”
“That is the plan, sir.”
John grinned, “Sorry again, about interrupting you while on the station.”
“Ugh, don’t remind me. First good lay…” Erica’s eyes bulged out as she sheepishly turned to face her Lieutenant, “Never mind me.”
“I haven’t seen my wife in four months Sergeant. I get it.”
“Sir, do you think this mission is worth it? So far, it’s been…” Erica let the sentence hang.
“A royal shitshow?” John grunted, “That hasn’t entirely been of our doing. Our NI overlords shit the bed for us and blamed us for the shit sandwich we served them. Kinda circular don’t you think?”
“But is the mission worth it?”
“Sergeant, two or so years ago I was on a mission at a base that we're working on some cloning shit. The group we’re after is bereft of morals or ethics. It is absolutely a worthy mission.”
Erica spoke more quietly, “I know they can listen in on shit everywhere, but I can’t help but feel that the team on the Vigilant is actively trying to sabotage the mission.”
John nodded as he listened on.
“Is that why the ins…”
“Possibly,” John interrupted Erica, “Maybe nothing, maybe something. For now, we wait. I’ll own any downstream snafus caused by that.”
“Should we be more,” Erica shrugged, “sneaky, sir?”
“Yes and no. Take your cues from me while on missions in the future.”
“Understood, sir. I’ll make sure the others are aware.”
John turned to face Erica, “No. This is between us only. And if this goes sideways I’ll own it. I’m not going to bring anyone else down with me.”
“I understand,” Erica said quietly, “Lukas is now fully certified. Chalk up one more.”
“We’ll be able to run a full squad by the end of the day. Not too shabby,” John said as he looked at his wrist readout.
The two stood there silently as they observed the tests being conducted and the general movement training being completed. John, as he always did, began to multitask. He had tested a different way to connect the amplifier to his suit, increasing the theoretical power draw and output delivery.
Its acceptable way of connecting to the suit was woefully insufficient for John. Another thing he was preternaturally accustomed to doing, ignoring orders in this case, by crossing the red line of what he was allowed to modify with the suit earlier in the day, but thus far the hypothetical results appeared to be fantastic. Though a proper test couldn’t be done in such close quarters.
Derek then waved at John, clearly wanting him to chat with him. John slapped Erica’s pauldron as he stepped by her. His gate was purposeful but not in any rush to get to him.
“Lieutenant, the captain wants to speak to you. Something urgent. And he wants you on the bridge.”
“Sergeant, get one more blocker over there. You have the room; I’m needed on the bridge.”
10:15 CNS Fargo – Bridge
“Captain, reporting as ordered,” John said as he saluted from the entrance of the bridge.
“Requested, not ordered Lieutenant,” Lieutenant Erickson said with a dry sarcastic tone, “I have the pleasure of speaking to Governor Diego Maier, of Sissephin Prime. He has some information you want to hear.”
“Morning, sir. What’s going on?” John said as he leaned down against the railing above the captain’s chair.
“A research center, supposedly ordered by the Confed Science Academy, was installed in the hills south of our colony. Five people have gone missing in that general area. I sent one of our deputies and our chief of security there yesterday. Haven’t heard back from them.”
“Can you transmit everything you have on them to us over a secure channel?” John said as he stared down at his terminal, “Captain if we adjust course now, we can be there in twelve hours.”
“I’ve sent this information to the Central Government back home, but they haven’t responded to any of my queries.”
John nodded and said urgently, “Forward those to us as well.”
He scanned the shipping information they had and cross-checked it to see if any of the known companies had paid for or ordered a prefabricated science station. There was a hit. Who might actually be in it was anyone’s guess though.
“Helm, adjust course. Governor, I can’t promise you anything, but we will attempt to resolve this as quickly as possible,” Erickson said.
“Thank you so much. We will be forever in your debt.”
The call ended. John changed the main screen to a live satellite feed of the site. He circled the air defenses.
“Well. I have some suggestions, not sure how much you’re not going to like them,” John said.
“You want us to attack these weapon sights from orbit as you hot drop in.”
“Fantastic, I don’t have to explain it. Good,” John smiled as he walked down to the same level as Lieutenant Erickson, “We descend well beyond the horizon and fly below the radar. Satellites conveniently get turned off for ‘routine maintenance then you guys pull the trigger moments before we insert. Talons stay around to take out any shuttles.”
“If nothing else they will be shocked at the violence occurring outside and won’t be able to react as quickly.”
“Exactly. Also, we need to change our transponder to this,” John lightly pushed the helm officer aware from part of his terminal and then pointed at the screen, “Assuming our enemy is aware we are hunting them, it’d be best if a ship from Seventh Fleet, which has jurisdiction of this territory and isn’t involved in our mission, appears in the system.”
The captain and bridge crew stared at John. Then they looked at the screen which told them exactly how to spoof a Naval transponder. A device that was supposedly impossible to spoof or manipulate.
“Lieutenant…”
“Captain, secrecy is the name of the game. Throw me under the bus if you want. Tell your superiors that it was my idea to do this. I’m totally fine with taking the heat on this.”
The engineering liaison on the bridge then spoke up, “Say the words and it is changed, sir.”
“Do it,” Erickson said, “Lieutenant, let’s hope this pays off.”
John smiled as he left the bridge. The first order of business was to get the marines cleaned up, fed, and rested. He’d be up to draw up the plan of attack. He shook his head; it was time to calm down and breathe. It was time to work on the issue.
But it was hard not to be excited. This was a hot lead. The first one they had, and they walked ass-backward into it. John wasn’t going to pass up this opportunity. With any luck, this mission would result in a treasure trove of data and not only justify the operation but ensure that Fleet Command and Naval Intelligence demand to see it through to the end.