14 days later, December 14th, 2264. 05:15 CNS Fargo Brig
For the last two weeks, John spent all his time in the brig. When he grew tired of interrogating Lisa he would turn the shield opaque and shut her external communication devices off. All through that time John never once left the brig.
John laughed internally at how he used an empty cell to shower and use the bathroom. It wasn’t exactly its intended use but given the circumstances it was necessary. John wasn’t willing to leave Lisa alone. Not because he thought she needed the company, but if she were to break out, the damage she could do to the ship would be catastrophic.
“Christ, I cannot wait to get back to my bed,” John said as he was gearing up.
Lieutenant Alicia Baxter drank in John’s muscular form, “Yeah, they aren’t meant to be comfortable. Are you sure you want to take the heat for reducing her food intake?”
John nodded as he zipped up the compression suit, “It was my call. I’m not going to throw anyone else under the bus or let someone take a bullet for my decision.”
John then stepped to the side and waited for the reliquary to begin doing its magic. The Broadsword class power armor wasn’t exactly classified, but the military wasn’t keen on letting the civilians get a taste of the armor up close just yet. Thus, John was forced to use the standard power armor. He didn’t even know whose armor he was borrowing as the little device began bolting on the armor plates.
“Understood. I think this is a big fucking mistake though. Between us, that is,” Alicia said as she stared at the sleeping form of Lisa Benning.
“That makes two of us. But I’m here just in case she tries anything funny.”
“If I were you, I’d accidentally have a negligent discharge that accident blew that bitches head up, but that’s if I was handling this.”
John grinned, “Orders are orders.”
Alicia grunted and shook her head. She didn’t know John well, but she knew when a fellow officer was forced to follow an order they don’t believe in. The lack of conviction normally found in his voice was painfully obvious to hear.
Most of the Navy was already aware that if you gave John an inch, he’d take a mile. Commanding officers were effectively required to refrain from open-ended orders. ‘By any means necessary' was a terrifying thought to many admirals in the fleet when they thought about what he could or would do under such situations.
As the reliquary continued to armor John, he began to genuinely dislike this smaller variant of power armor. It absolutely dominated the bigger variant in terms of agility, but everything else it seemed to trail behind in. He almost felt naked in it when he could look down and actually see his boots.
Ten minutes later the helmet was handed to him. He gently set placed it over his head and pushed down on the top to engage its seal. Moments later Eve, his VI, transferred to the suit and began the final bootup of the suit.
“Suit is fully online, please note several modules you are used to fielding are not available at this time,” Eve said in her monotone voice.
“Understood,” John said to his VI before standing in front of Lisa’s cell, “Lieutenant, drop the shield.”
Alicia pressed a few buttons at her command console. The force shield keeping Lisa in dropped. John stepped inside her cell loudly. Lisa rolled over onto her side and looked up drowsily at the figure.
“Oh, time to leave this cell? How joyful an occasion,” Lisa said sarcastically before reaching out with her mind to find out who was in there, “Oh my, my head doesn’t hurt. That’s a change of pace. Hmm, what did you do?”
“Extend your hands,” John said forcefully ignoring her question entirely.
Lisa limply complied with the order and extended her hands. A pair of anti-psychic cuffs were placed around her wrists. John then attached a chain to the middle of the cuffs and dropped her ankle bindings to the floor.
“Spread your legs.”
“Oh, frisky are we? I’m not your wife you know.”
John grabbed her neck and began squeezing. Lisa’s eyes bulged a bit as he didn’t let her go. It was at that point that she realized his threats were far from empty.
John leaned down and said menacingly, “Push the subject and I snap your dainty fucking neck. Now spread them and stay still.”
Lisa coughed, nodded, and complied with the request. Her ankles were then bound together. Twelve people from the station entered the brig. Four security staff with cattle-prod-like devices stepped forward. Several Naval Intelligence officers were also present. Several psy-ops telepaths were on hand too.
Lisa watched their reaction in particular and noticed they felt those similar emotions she did when they looked at John. Though perhaps they lacked the utter hatred she had for him. The enigma of what he was these days was just as vexing for them as her. Her curiosity was getting the better of her, she hated this man but at the same time, she was desperately curious to understand what exactly he was these days.
One, in particular, stepped forward, “I will take things from here Lieutenant.”
John turned and spoke plainly, “She’s not in your custody until she arrives at her destination onboard the station. Until then you’re stuck with me.”
The agent was about to complain when John drew his battle rifle from his back. Arguing with John would be a waste of time and resources. John was, for all intents and purposes, an unmovable object. His will was not going to break, nor was he going to do anything other than follow his orders to the T. Not so ironic timing that he chose to follow orders as they were written instead of trying to discover some unwritten order.
A fifth security guard, presumably their boss then entered the room. He walked over to Lisa and grabbed the slack chain that went down to her ankle bracelets and pulled on it. They didn’t even bother to speak to her directly, when he did speak he wasn’t facing her direction.
“Follow me,” the security leader said as he tugged on the chain.
The Intelligence agents led the way followed by half the telepaths. The remaining half of the telepaths followed closely behind. The four security agents flanked Lisa. John walked behind the circus shaking his head. Alicia grinned as he walked by but breathed a sigh of relief. She was exceedingly happy that John was with her during her shifts during their trip back. Something about Lisa just made her skin crawl. But now at long last, she was no longer her responsibility.
05:40 St. Mary’s Station – Military Docking Ring
The gaggle of people filed out of the ship and onto the military ring of the station. John was alert as every tracking anything and everything. His gun was held firmly in his hands, he was the only one openly brandishing a firearm in the group.
“Lieutenant, we can handle…” one of the Naval Intelligence officers began saying before being cut off.
“I will be here until her custody is transferred to the station. Do not ask or suggest otherwise again,” John said gruffly.
The lead security guard pointed at a hallway, “We’ll be taking a right here.”
Lisa said nothing and continued to look ahead. Nothing seemed amiss, but John wasn’t feeling comfortable about this at all. That he couldn’t nail down specifically what was amiss was frustrating him. She seemed far too calm.
John frowned then spoke to Eve, “Do any of these personnel have ties to the Union?”
“Checking now, this will take several minutes.”
John nodded as he continued to follow behind the group. Several groups of Marines and Naval personnel noticed the security detail. Their reactions were lumped into one of two groups. The first stopped to stare and watch. The other group quickly moved to the opposite side of the hallway and continued about their business.
John smiled about that latter group. Some people just couldn’t be bothered to look at or deal with other people’s shit. How he wished he’d been one of those types of people. Instead, he was up to his elbows in this mess. A mess that he knew was going to blow up somehow.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
There was very little speaking being done amongst the group. The four security guards nearest her said nothing and were observing everything much like John. The Naval Intelligence officers whispered amongst themselves. The psy-ops officers were the most focused amongst the group. John was genuinely curious to see what kind of psychic battle was going on amongst them. Though in truth the battle would be one-sided given how doped up Lisa was on psychic blockers.
After several more turns and going up three levels Eve reported her findings back, “One of the psy-ops cousins through marriage are Mercantilist Union citizens. No records of transfer of messages or receipt of credits have been recorded.”
“Wonderful,” John said to himself dismissively.
Were there going to be any traitors? It sure didn’t seem that way. But it would be far from the first time that someone in the Navy abandoned the uniform.
What about Union agents onboard? They were in a secure section of the station. It’d be difficult to get where they were without causing a ruckus. But not impossible, the royal family was able to get into a secure section of the station without much difficulty.
The whole situation was nuts to John. If he had only been allowed to kill her. He wouldn’t be here and risking his life yet again. John grinned at the thought of her starting something. That would give him the justification he needed to put an end to this farce.
But here Lisa was in the middle of this gaggle of Naval personnel. She looked as if she didn’t have a care in the world. That she was in chains didn’t seem to bother her. Maybe John was thinking too deeply about things. Perhaps his pessimistic view overrode his ability to look at the situation objectively.
It was at that exact time when John thought he should take a more optimistic view of the universe that actions proved that his extreme skepticism was worth it. They were walking through an intersection in the hallway when they were attacked from both sides. The leader guiding Lisa, four of the six psy-ops psychics, three of the security guards, and half of the intelligence agents were gunned down in but a few heartbeats.
John dashed forward, bowling over Lisa as he began to open fire at one side. Then he spun and opened fire at the attackers down the other hallway. He was stuck in a crossfire, and while his battle rifle was a potent weapon, it had nothing on the firepower his bigger suit possessed.
There was also the difference in armor. John’s suit wasn’t nearly as durable as the larger one. His kinetic shielding array was almost maxed out with the small arms fire that he was absorbing. He didn’t want to test how well the armor plates and underlayment protected him from armor-piercing rounds.
He fell back still laying down a hellacious amount of firepower. But then the bolt suddenly locked to the rear and no farther rounds were sent on target. John quickly pressed the mag release button and violently twisted the gun to throw out the magazine out of the well. He drew his pistol and began firing until its slide was locked to the back.
He grabbed a replacement magazine from his hip and threw it in the rifle. Just as he did another group of hostiles came up from the stairs behind him. John spun and ran towards them, he picked off three of them before kicking one over the railing of the stairs.
“DIE YOU MOTHER FUCKER!” Lisa shouted as she attacked one of her escorts, “JOOOOOOOOOOOOHN.”
She cast off her restraints and a burst of cryokinetic energy flashed outward from her. But while the drugs weren’t as effective on Lisa as advertised, the burst of psychic energy didn’t seem to be as focused or potent as it normally was.
The last attacker from the stairs was firing a pistol at point-blank range. John grabbed the man’s gun and hand and squeezed hard. The gun and the man’s hand were mangled. With his other hand, he grabbed the man’s neck and squeezed as he climbed back up the stairs.
She first saw his helmet crest the floor. His eye lenses flashed a bit. Then the unexpected happened. A sickening crunch of bones was heard but then the newly dead man’s body was flung at her. She dodged it easily, but she failed to realize that the body was meant to be a distraction to her rescuers.
Those people did flinch and stared as the body was thrown. John immediately drew his gun and flipped the safety off and into burst fire mode. One three-round burst after another was fired. What remained of her supporters were either dead or too wounded to contribute any longer.
“I told you what would happen if you started any shit,” John said as he dropped the rifle to the ground.
“I’m going to enjoy gutting you,” Lisa spat.
John calmly loaded his pistol with a fresh magazine. He swapped hands with it and drew his combat blade from its sheath. Without batting an eyelash he dashed at Lisa.
“Let’s dance,” John said mockingly as he covered the distance between the pair shockingly fast.
Lisa grinned as she drew upon her cryokinetic powers and launched an icy attack against John. It lacked the precision she exhibited while wearing her unique suit of armor, but the raw power of it was at levels that John was accustomed to fighting against. But a strange thing happened when the attack washed over and around John.
The ice that touched his suit just ceased to be. It wasn’t an energetic reaction where an anti-hydrogen atom struck a hydrogen atom. The ice and energy stored within just ceased to be. But it wasn’t immediate. Ice did build up on the suit, but then it slowly disappeared.
Lisa dodged and rolled out and away from his attack, “What are you?”
“Your end,” John spun around trying to backhand her.
Lisa created a dense wall of ice that arrested his hand in its place. She frantically backed away from John and launched another flurry of psychic attacks. Ice was landing on his suit but nothing seemed to do anything to him.
John grinned as he ran through and shattered the icy wall Lisa had created. He aimed and fired the pistol at her. She was able to deflect the bullet but not enough to avoid being grazed by it. John went in for a killing blow but again she evaded his grasp by the slimmest of margins.
More gunfire could be heard down the hallway. John was getting annoyed smashing through these barriers. He couldn’t strike her. And his rifle was now broken into several pieces. ‘Don’t throw away your main gun you fucking idiot,’ John thought to himself. He was getting closer to his prey.
“They aren’t going to be of any help to you,” John growled, “But the clever plan of your Father’s to get you back. I can admit that.”
“Fuck you!” Lisa spat as she picked up a gun and began firing it at John.
Lisa’s focus on the gun and not on her moving back and keeping out of his reach caught up with her. John swiped with his left hand at her. She dropped the gun and tried to create a wall of ice to stop his arm. The wall was created but his hand struck her on her shoulder.
She dropped to a knee and clutched it. As she did, she cried out in pay, her clavicle and humerus were both shattered in multiple places. But that was the least of her concerns. The very specter of death looked down at her.
John wasted no time lording over his prey. He immediately picked her up by the head and slammed her against the wall. The knife was slowly pressed into her chest, missing her heart by millimeters.
Lisa cried out in pain as she spat out blood from her mouth, “You have no idea what you’re going to unleash.”
“It won’t matter, you’ll be incinerated and tossed in the station garbage long before anything happens. If only you could’ve used those powers of yours for the benefit of people.”
“I DID! You were too small to see the whole picture. We were doing what was right and best for humanity.”
John growled, “What gives you the right to determine what is best for humanity? Your organization is but a voice amongst the chorus. But worry not, I’ll make sure to piss on the ashes of your organization when all is said and done.”
Lisa looked like she was going to say something. John squeezed down on her head which caused her to scream out in pain. Then John began to pull up, the knife easily cut through her left side. John let go of the knife which was still stuck in her and grabbed her neck. He dropped her head and grabbed the knife again, then pulled at her right arm.
Blood leaked everywhere as muscle and sinew were torn and rent apart. Lisa was separated into two parts with little effort. Her body, sans her right arm, head, neck, and a few vertebrae fell to the ground with a limp thud. The rest of her was being gripped by his right hand.
“Eve, contact Dr. Norman on a public broad-beam channel. Use that terminal over there for video,” John said as he walked over to the terminal built into the wall.
He took his helmet off and waited. It was but a brief moment before Dr. Norman was connected. The doctor could see the resulting death behind John. In fact, the power armor John was wearing bore gashed, scratches and gouges from the fight. Lisa was nowhere to be found though.
Nothing was said at the start. John just stared at Dr. Norman in a barely contained rage, who himself looked more fidgety than normal. Gone was the cocky arrogance and know-it-all aura he espoused. It was the old doctor noticing friendly reinforcements arrive on the scene.
“Jesus fucking Christ, sir!” one of the security agents said as he saw the bloody mess John had left behind.
“What the fuck man,” one of the marines that aided in the counterattack said as he looked at the gory scene.
“You failed old man. Your plan to elevate our species failed. Your murderous ways are at an end. There is nowhere to hide, nowhere to run. I will be leading the attack on your wretched organization. Do be a good chap and fight till the end. I don’t want to hunt you down over several years as you jump from one backwater shithole to another.”
“Where is my daughter? You had orders to bring her in safely.”
“And safely I did, except you and she fucked up. You tried to get her back. That was a mistake.”
“WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?” Norman shouted in a rage.
John held her by her head to the camera.
Dr. Norman jumped up and almost fell backward over his chair, “You… you… monster!”
John then crushed her skull before casually tossing it aside, “Two down, doctor. You're next. Eve, kill it.”
John’s VI complied with his request. He turned and looked at the cavalry. There was an odd combination of revulsion, fear, and respect the men and women were giving him. He tried to slow his breathing down but his anger was preventing that.
“What’s the number?” John growled.
“There was a bombing in the retail district. One hundred and sixteen dead. Most are tourists but a few family members of station personnel were lost. Several hundred more were injured. They used that distraction to assault the secure wing because we rushed to aid and secure the bombing site,” one of the marines said.
“Another forty military personnel are dead, hundreds injured,” one of the station security personnel said, “And that’s excluding them.”
John looked down at his arm. Eve had interfaced with the station records. Alice was on duty at the time and was currently assisting at one of the hospitals onboard.
“Eve, what are the locations of Admiral Graham and Johnson?”
A moment later Eve’s voice rang out, “They are located in the primary boardroom of Marine command. General Mizrahi and Admiral Nelson are present there along with Fleet Admiral Karlsson.”
John said nothing as he ran off to that boardroom. His anger was uncontrollable. He didn’t know what he was going to do. Not that it mattered if he did know what he’d do. He had to destroy the trio that voted for this mission. A mission that was successful on paper led to this massacre. It was entirely avoidable, were it not for a dream to convert the deadly agent to their cause.
The more John thought about it the more his anger grew. This should not have come to pass. And he was going to make sure those that forced the adjusted parameters onto him felt responsible for the death and destruction today.