8 days later, November 9th, 2264. 08:00 CNS Fargo—Marine Planning Room
John was leaning back in his chair watching Jerad go over the briefing. One of the perks of being the boss was delegating work. Though that was a bit of a dick move on his part. They had precious little actionable intel on the pirate base. Most concerning was the layout of the base. They were flying blind here.
“We believe the base’s core layout is like this. At the heart of the mess of metal and ceramic alloys are an old Confederate battleship and an Alliance battlecruiser. We are aiming to breach the base here, here, and here,” Jerad pointed, “Once a beachhead has been secured, we will attempt to use a combination of sensor drones and attack their central computing core.”
“Hold on, we’re assaulting this, and the target isn’t pirates?” Lukas asked, “Why aren’t we going after them?”
John spoke up, “We don’t believe this faction has ever hit Confederate targets. As a result, we are not included to go after them. Though realistically this will likely cause them to do just that. Our target is that girl, well, my target is the girl. Your mission is to ensure the pirates don’t interfere and to do some intel gathering.”
“This part of a chess game you’re playing, sir?” Arianna asked.
John nodded.
“Well, the warrant officer did a good job of going over the technical aspects of the mission. The reasons for it were just lacking,” Vanessa said.
“The end goal here is to further destabilize Dr. Norman’s organization. If we are able to eliminate this girl it will cause him to lash out in certain predictable ways,” John said, “And to be frank it’s going to be necessary for him to lash out in order to gain the support of certain individuals.”
“I don’t quite follow the danger warning. She looks smaller than Ari,” David said.
Arianna looked at him, “I can knock you into next week you know.”
John stood up, “Jerad’s warning, it seems, didn’t get through to any of you. None of you are capable of hurting her. None.”
The room got deathly silent as John was pointing at the image.
“She is the second most deadly person in the known universe. None of you have ever fought against an individual with telepathic gifts. Much less one with cryokinetic capabilities. Now imagine having all that skill, power, and damage cranked past eleven. That’s her in a nutshell. She’s a fucking lunatic, she can turn you into a frozen popsicle with a thought. How do you fight that?”
“I still don’t see that, sir,” Lukas said, “So she can make things cold. Big deal.”
John shook his head, “When I say none of you can do anything to her, that is not me demeaning your abilities. You all are amongst the most talented marines I’ve had the pleasure of serving with. This is a mission where you are truly supporting one person.”
“Alpha-level abilities, sir?” Darryl said as he loudly exhaled.
John nodded.
“Holy shitballs. That’s not good.”
“What do you mean?” Derek asked.
“A few years back an old platoon mate was running an op and they got blitzed by this cat that could control fire. He lost three squad mates almost instantly. He survived by sheer dumb luck, and said it was the damndest thing he ever saw.”
John switched the image to display Lex.
“Lex Benning. They were twins, she has a bit more control over her abilities, but his raw potential was substantially more than hers. He was more demented than her though, so reaching that potential was never going to be possible for him.”
“Dude,” Darryl said, “That was him. Happened out on the Germanis system. Aren’t we going to fight both of them, sir?”
“No. I don’t suspect Lex will be of any assistance to his sister,” John grinned.
“He no longer with us, sir?” Darryl asked curiously.
“I made it a point to end that asshole,” John said as he pointed to himself.
The sergeants and a few of the more intelligent members of the platoon read between the lines immediately. They understood that if John could kill the brother, then he was uniquely suited to do the same to the sister. Unfortunately, not everyone understood the meaning.
Vanessa was not among the ones that didn’t get the message, but she asked curiously, “You said she was the second most dangerous, was he the first?”
“Prior to his untimely, but well deserved, end he was the third most dangerous man.”
“Who’s in that spot now?” Vanessa asked cautiously.
John laughed, “Any crewman hopped up on Red Bull with a ship’s weapon console at their control.”
The Marines laughed. Though it was curious to many in the room that he was placing a cryokinetic telepath ahead of a Naval warship in danger and destruction. But even more concerning for them was how Lex was behind her. Who was at the top of his list? The youngest Marine in the room was the one to ask the obvious question.
David looked up, “Who’s the most dangerous?”
John pointed at himself.
“Ok, should’ve assumed that. But I still don’t get why we don’t help assault. We have guns,” David was not listening to John at all.
“She can instantly freeze you into a flesh block of ice. That will instantly kill you. Should anyone bump into you then your remains will shatter into thousands of sharp, fleshy crystals. Now imagine those abilities if she was wearing a suit of power armor that amplifies her abilities. The pair didn’t have that before, but I can’t imagine they wouldn’t have developed one by now.”
“We’d be dead from hundreds of feet away without ever seeing our target,” Erica said, “Holy shit. Sir, how do you expect to fight against that?”
“How I am capable of fighting and not dying to said abilities I’m not at liberty to say. Suffice to say I have a combination of genetic and technological advantages that give me a fighting chance,” John paused for a moment, “The technological gifts won’t work for y’all. And even if they did, I doubt very much that it would matter much.”
Derek then spoke up, “Fall back and call out immediately if we spot her. How confident are you in your assumption of her wearing a suit of power armor?”
John shrugged, “Run with the presumption she has a suit of some sort. I would honestly be surprised if they haven’t developed something already.”
“Alright, everyone is dismissed,” Jerad said, “Squads one and two are to suit up and begin drilling. The rest of the squads are to use the aft part of the ship for room-to-room drills.”
The platoon began filing out. Jerad left with the marines to kickstart the drills. The sergeants remained behind to speak with John.
“Sir, I probably speak for everyone here. I don’t think our people believe the risks here,” Erica shrugged, “Sexist as it may be.”
“I’ll have to join the drills. I have a meeting in five minutes with fleet command so I’ll join when I can.”
“You don’t have to convince me any,” Darryl said, “I’ll try to beat that into my people’s heads.”
The sergeants saluted and left the room. John walked to the central terminal in the room and logged out of it. He then left the room and headed to his next destination.
09:02 CNS Fargo—John’s Room
John was late for this meeting by a couple of minutes. He hated being late, but his morning was busier than planned. But it was a bad look nonetheless because of who was attending this meeting. Admirals and Generals don’t appreciate junior officers wasting their time.
To add to his general misery, the next meeting was far less fun than his preparatory meeting with his platoon. In fact, this meeting was nothing short of painful. Especially in the modification of the orders. John was aghast at the changes and could hardly believe that the higher-ups were recommending, or even demanding, the change.
“Lisa Benning is to be captured alive Lieutenant, this is no longer a kill operation,” Admiral Kirk Johnson said pointedly.
John closed his eyes and took a deep breath, “Let me get this straight Admiral, you want us to capture the most dangerous cryokinetic telepath ever known? How do you propose we capture her?”
“That is for you to figure out Lieutenant,” Admiral Johnson spat out.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“Admiral, I think it would be difficult to achieve that,” Admiral Nelson said, “And that’s presuming she doesn’t have a suit of power armor modified to enhance her capabilities. I do believe his question is a fair one to ask. How do you expect the Lieutenant to capture her?”
Admiral Kacie Graham joined the conversation, “Capturing her will help our research and development of psychic weapons.”
“That’s providing justification for her capture,” General Mizrahi said, “That is not in any way helpful in how we should capture her.”
“I think you mean gaining access to her DNA to see if that can be weaponized,” John said sarcastically.
Admiral Graham’s face flashed over in anger briefly, “Lieutenant, we can assign another squad to capture her.”
“Oh, you can assign another platoon, but you’d be sending them to their death. What’s the over-under of deaths my platoon suffers in this mission? I know your bean counters have calculated it,” John shot back.
“Eight friendlies,” General Mizrahi said, “In case you were wondering.”
“How many platoons will it take to subdue her without me?”
Neither Kacie nor Kirk looked like they wanted to answer the question. In fact, no one in the meeting wanted to answer the question. Not even Fleet Admiral Benjamin Karlsson.
“I believe that point is conceded to you, Lieutenant Lief. What is the likelihood of capturing her?” Admiral Karlsson asked.
“Minimal, if not non-existent,” John took a deep breath, “If I am pulling punches and not going for the death blow it makes the fight substantially more difficult. It increases the danger to me significantly. I’m already risking my life, I volunteered for this mission after all. But this is increasing to a degree that doesn’t seem wise.”
“I do not how you would go about capturing her,” Admiral Graham said pompously, “But it is essential to our plans that she is captured and is unharmed.”
“Look, unharmed ain’t going to happen. Like at all. I’m going to have to fuck her up in order to do that,” John sighed loudly, “However, with everything being said, if I’m able to incapacitate her I will do that. Killing her would be easier and much more straightforward. Not to mention safer.”
“I fail to see how it would be safer,” Admiral Johnson said.
“How do you expect to control her when she wakes up? If you put her on a space station, she could flash-freeze everyone around her. None of you appreciate the risk you’re dealing with here. You are looking at what can we do with her genetics or what can we learn by weaponizing her abilities and failing to consider that the young woman may not want to cooperate with y’all.”
“We have telepaths ready to control her,” Admiral Graham spat back.
“There’s one person in the known universe that’s gotten past her mental blocks. One lonely soul. And even though they weren’t capable of shutting her down, she was momentarily stunned. Your telepaths are not only not strong enough but will die for their efforts.”
“We know what we’re doing Lieutenant,” Admiral Graham continued to pepper John with an acidic tone.
“No, you don’t. None of you have ever fought someone like that. None of you have ever risked your lives in a situation against them. It’s easy for those sitting on a crystal pedestal to order the lowers to do their bidding. Capturing, and not outright killing her is going to cost essential Confederate lives,” John pinched the brow of his nose then looked up, “I’ll need some hardware on the ship to help neuter her abilities. The legality of said devices is questionable on ships. But once she’s on the station those drugs aren’t going to be of much use.”
“Why is that?” Admiral Karlsson asked inquisitively.
“Telepaths build up a tolerance to them rapidly. If I were her, I’d be taking as much of the stuff as possible to help me build a tolerance to it. If she has done that then the drugs will work for minutes, maybe seconds.”
“Your pessimism regarding this situation is not helping things, Lieutenant. We know things you don’t,” Admiral Johnson said haughtily.
“I’ve fought her before Admiral. I’m not the one that doesn’t know things in this conversation,” John said with a fair amount of snark, “Mark my words ladies and gentlemen, I will make it my life’s work to ensure anyone that anyone who votes for this asinine change is brought to justice to account for the lives that will be thrown away wastefully to capture this woman,” John angrily eyed the council, “I’m moving for a procedural vote to formally change the operation’s parameters from a kill one to a capture one.”
The admirals and generals that gathered looked at one another cautiously. John was obviously against the change, but his opinion didn’t matter in this case. He was a subject matter expert, to whom several of the admirals was ignoring, on the cryokinetic. John’s role in the meeting was to simply share information. But he was allowed to call for a procedural vote. The benefit of doing this is that a paper trail would then be created.
Two votes for changing and two against were cast immediately. Fleet Admiral Karlsson abstained from the vote but didn’t seem inclined to vote for or against it. General Audrey Bjorndal and Admiral Flint Roberts voted for the change. The remaining votes came in and it passed by an almost three-to-one ratio.
“I’m voting for the change, but I want the mission parameters to reflect that if the death toll is too high for the capturing platoon to immediately change to a kill mission,” Admiral Roberts said.
“I will second that,” General Bjorndal said.
“The modification has passed, but I am concerned with the probability of success and if the gains from the mission are acceptable,” Admiral Karlsson said, “Lieutenant, kill the target if your platoon suffers too many casualties.”
John nodded though he disagreed with the change wholeheartedly. The communication ended. He slammed his fish into the table, a large dent was left. Several crewmen were startled when they heard ‘FUCK’ be yelled from his room.
15:00 Marine Platoon Boardroom
Erica and Derrick were watching how the current squad practice their room sweeps in power armor. Darryl was shaking his head, still annoyed that the rest of the marines didn’t believe the threat they were facing. John was in a foul mood and had beaten that knowledge into several squads.
“Room clean,” David said over the comms.
“This one is as well,” Lukas said from farther ahead in the corridor.
Vanessa was silent. As was Arianna. Neither David nor Lukas picked up on this until they got to their next rooms.
“Hey, why are the girls…” David said to Lukas.
Lukas turned and trotted down the hallway, “Checking.”
“I’ll follow closely behind you,” David said as he raised his gun and began covering their rear.
Lukas turned the corner and spotted Vanessa laying prone, and still on the ground. He was about to speed up when a figure dashed into sight and slid beneath his hulking mass. The figure slid into David’s left leg and knocked him off balance.
A moment later the figure was on its feet and had kicked David on his ass. That sends him falling down to the ground. Just as Lukas was able to turn around, he spied the figure leaning down and finishing David with a simulated knife attack to the neck.
Before Lukas was able to say or do anything the figure had grabbed his outstretched arm and yanked on it with enough force to cause him to stumble forward. The figure used that momentum to pick Lukas up and throw him down the hallway. He landed awkwardly and slid into the intersection's far wall.
The top of the Broadsword’s coffin laid flat against the floor. Lukas’s legs fell down to the ground causing him to roll down with his butt facing the figure. Before Lukas was able to do anything the figure had a knife square.
“You failed,” John said derisively, “The moment you lost contact with your squad you should have alerted the platoon and fallen back.”
David got up and angrily threw his helmet on the ground, “That was bullsh…”
He didn’t get a chance to finish the sentence. By the time he had finished the curse word his feet were off the ground and were being slammed hard into the floor. John pulled and twisted David’s left arm to submit him. No matter how much he tried his suit of power armor didn’t have the power to wrest itself from John’s grip.
“I’m wearing a simple combat suit without any armor plates, and I’ve rendered you helpless. Now imagine what I could do with mind magic fucking shit up?” John let go of his hand and pointed at the girls, “They both died without knowing what hit them. Did you not bother to check on the squad vitality readouts?”
Lukas had managed to roll over and began slowly working his way to his feet, “I didn’t have that brought up.”
John looked at the camera in the corridor and made a full-body gesture questioning what he had heard. He pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath. It was a challenge to keep his emotions in check. His desire to keep his platoon safe was being challenged by their stubbornness and disbelief of the danger posed by their target.
“Dave, we just got our asses kicked,” Vanessa said.
“He made all of us look like fucking ragdolls. I didn’t even see him attack us,” Arianna said.
“You got your ass kicked by the enemy. Lukas and David, when I say you had no hope of hurting the target, I fucking mean it. Squad monitors are to be displayed at all times and coms protocols will be upheld. Now you two get out of your suits and report to your sergeant for punishment duty. The girls get to avoid that, but you had damn well learned the lesson here.”
“I certainly have, sir!” Vanessa said as she saluted.
Arianna saluted and nodded. The girls then left. David and Lukas lingered, still processing what happened. Jerad then appeared.
“Sir, that’s the whole platoon.”
John sighed, “That’s twelve that failed to follow protocols and orders.”
“What do you want to do with the squads?”
“Reassign them. Tell Erica that she’s going to need to redo her squad plans.”
David stepped forward, “Sir, we can…”
John shot a death glance at David and pointed down the hall.
“We’re leaving, sir!” Lukas said as he grabbed David by the arm.
“The squads will not be optimized. They are used to working together. A change this late in the game…” Jerad let the comment hang.
“We have another week of drilling. It’ll have to do. I cannot have people in positions where they won’t follow orders.”
“Understood, sir. I’ll report back to the sergeants,” Jerad saluted and turned but stopped a few steps away, “Sir, are the casualty estimates accurate on this mission?”
John shook his head, “They insist on capturing her. If we come back with half the platoon, we’ll be lucky. And that’s if they follow the fucking orders.”
“Is this one of those times where you shouldn’t follow orders?”
John turned and stared down the opposite corridor, “I’m not sure I can afford to ignore this order.”
He cursed under his breath and slammed the wall with the side of his fist. John stared at the floor and shook his head. Nothing, short of disobeying orders seemed like it would reduce the number of casualties. And John knew that was assuming that the Mercantilist Union hadn’t weaponized Lisa’s suit of power armor.
“Chief, go talk to the sergeants. I don’t have it within me to be angry at them.”
“Understood, sir.”
John watched Jerad walk down the corridor. He was stuck between a rock and a hard place. In order to complete the mission, he had to accept the loss of many lives. That was simply not something John was willing to accept, not for Lisa. This mission was simply all risk and absolutely no reward. He took the long way back to his room.
He sat down at his desk and pulled up the operation’s plan. He sighed again as he continued to review the plan. It was unnecessarily complicated, if only it were a simple kill mission.
An incoming message got John’s mind off this depressing topic. He quickly pressed the button to accept the message. He smiled when he saw Alice’s image appear on the screen.
“That is a look of a man deep in thought,” Alice smiled as she waved to the camera, “What’s on your mind?”
“I have to follow through with orders that may result in a whole lot of deaths. I can just ignore them but then I can guarantee the end of my career.”
Alice looked concerned, “Losing people, or commanding people to their end is something that you will need to get used to.”
John nodded, “It’s not that. The orders make no sense, and we’re literally throwing lives away for no gain. There’s no controlling what we’re going after.”
“Is this one of those times you want permission to do something idiotic?” Alice grinned.
“I was kinda planning to ask for forgiveness in a few days instead of getting it ahead of time,” John smiled, “Didn’t want to stress you out.”
“Dear, you stress me out all the time. Do what you think is right, and please come home safely.”
“I don’t deserve you.”
Alice laughed, “No, you absolutely do not. I love you.”
“Love you too. Suppose I need to get working on a plan B.”
“Be careful John. I love you!”
The conversation between the couple was brief, but John’s mood had changed. The plan, as organized by the admiral was getting scrapped. John was in his element now writing and devising the new plan of attack. If God was willing, the number of casualties they’d suffer would drop dramatically. Though that came at the much-increased risk of personal harm to John. He grinned when he thought of that, he had some new toys to help offset some of the risks.