December 14th, 2264. 06:52 St. Mary’s Station – Marine Boardroom
John was a man on a mission, and he would not be denied. Not by the petite petty officer trying to tell him that he wasn’t expected, nor welcome. Nor by the marine guards that were present in the waiting room. Marines do love a good fight, but the look on John’s face, much less the bloodied and well-worn suit of power armor, would make for a pretty one-sided fight.
Still, they followed behind John, if for no other reason than to be a witness to any crime that may be committed. Beyond the likely unlawful use of military equipment that was going on. Neither of the guards wanted anything more to happen that morning.
John meandered through the maze of corridors until he could see the door to the boardroom. The poor petty officer continued her string of pleas but it fell on deaf ears. He was consumed by purpose. Even if that purpose was a potential career-ender.
A junior officer chewing out an admiral is never a wise thing to do. John simply didn’t give a damn anymore. It was, technically, after all, a bit hypocritical of him to do that as he played with the lives of military officers earlier in the year, but this was different. The risk versus reward calculus that went into this mission was asinine.
John strode up to the door, but it did not open. He tried a few tricks to get it opened that he learned while an intelligence operative but they didn’t work either. The petty officer was panting as she tried to explain to him.
“The admirals insisted on a closed-door meeting. You cannot…”
John sidestepped over and looked at the door. Then he slammed the door hard with his right fist, then left. Then both gripped onto the dents and began forcing the door out. John let out a roar of defiance as he forced the doors open. It was neither a quiet nor sleek and sexy entry into the room, but it did fit his more brutish persona.
Fifteen officers, none less the rank of the rear-admiral or one-star general were present. None, save two, looked that pleased to see him. Admirals Graham and Johnson were both incensed at his presence there. Fleet Admiral Karlsson though remained surprisingly neutral.
“I TOLD YOU THIS WOULD HAPPEN!” John shouted, “Five hundred dead. For her, except now she’s in pieces.”
John outstretched his hand which crushed Lisa’s skull. A small number of bone fragments, hair, blood, and brain tissue fell on the table.
“Was it worth it Admiral Johnson? Did we achieve what you had hoped for Admiral Graham?” John said mockingly, “How about you Fleet Admiral? Was she worth the lives you lost here today? You three approved this mess.”
“We were discussing that before you rudely, and unlawfully barged in here,” Fleet Admiral Karlsson said calmly, “We were discussing what kind of official response to make.”
John then pointed at the screen as his VI had co-opted control of it. He shook his head at the idiocy of their plan. In the past twenty minutes, he had successfully bum-rushed their security protocols and absorbed as much of their communications as possible.
“These two are taking the fall. Their actions directly caused that. You at least have the ability to play down your pro-vote as you were not keen on it. These two wanted this. And here we are,” John spat out.
Admiral Graham stood up, “What would you do? Leak this information. Make us the scapegoats. They chose to attack us.”
“The Mercantilist Government didn’t attack us you fucking twat,” John said, “Dr. Norman did. He had agents here. All of you are so goddamn blind to the threat he presents. He works with them because they give him shelter, he has no love for anyone or thing save his holy mission. And yes, if the military leadership doesn’t want to do the right thing, then I will act unilaterally.”
Fleet Admiral Karlsson stood up and looked out the viewport to the void, “I don’t think you will do that Lieutenant. For starters, you are going to be ordered to do no such thing. And secondly, we are still formulating a response.”
“I don’t give a damn what any of you think or say. You fucked up. You have one chance at making it right.”
Karlsson spun around and pointed at John, “You are not in power here.”
John then pointed at the screen. Account numbers began scrolling through the screen. Pictures and video clips followed. Virtually everyone in the room had dirt on them. Some are more egregious than others. But the point was made.
“You are grossly wrong about that. I may not have the rank. You can all burn me and throw me under the bus. Hell, according to Graham it was my fault that I didn’t keep a closer watch on her. Ironic that she forbade the use of the Broadswords in public,” John spat out, “You so much as look at me in the wrong way and I will make each and every one of you fucking burn for this. None of you save the Fleet Admiral, are aware of what I truly am capable of. Blood will fill the streets if you try anything with me, that is a promise.”
“You come barging in here and make threats and demand we do what you want? Who the hell are you?” Fleet Admiral Karlsson shouted.
John’s fist slammed down onto the gorgeous cherry table. As a chunk flew up in the air John swatted it away angrily. He walked forward on the broken table and looked down at the Fleet Admiral.
“I’m the only one with the balls to do what is right. I don’t give a damn what you try to do to me, but know that anything done to me in anger is going to be repaid back thousands of times over. I’m the only one here listening to my conscience. I’m the only one that truly understands the threat that we face. And I’m the only one that’s willing to risk my life to ensure that threat is snuffed out. Y’all are cowering in a room trying to determine who to blame so as to not accept any responsibility for these actions. Most of you are fit to wear those uniforms, you ought to be ashamed of yourselves.”
John turned and began walking over to the broken and still sparking door. He paused then turned around. He looked at the room once again.
“Do any of you even know what the right thing is anymore? You send young men like me on missions to die, but do you even know what you are sending us to fight for? You want this man, a man that has killed so many people to bring back a single girl. Yet here you are, planning and scheming what you could do with him if this mission is successful,” John looked down at the ground in disgust, “You want him doing the same work that we’re trying to end. You are going to get us embroiled in a war that we can’t possibly hope to win. There won’t be a narrative out there where we aren’t the bad guys. Make the right choice here, then do the military a favor and make another choice to let people who actually know what’s worth fighting for to step into your roles, only then will we have a chance to win and move forward. I’m disgusted by the actions this body is deciding.”
John turned and looked at the slack-jawed junior officers and enlisted crowding the door. He took a step forward. But they didn’t react.
He growled, “Get out of my way.”
John’s armor hummed as he walked away. His mind was still racing. The anger was still present. But he felt better for what he did, and said, to the leadership. He didn’t give a damn who was there, they needed to hear it. Maybe, just maybe, they listened. At the very least they were keenly aware that rank and protocol weren’t things they could hide behind, John’s threats were over-the-top but earnest and believable. Perhaps that was enough for them to do the right thing.
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19:45 St. Mary’s Station – Condo
John returned to the Fargo and had his suit cleaned and decontaminated. Once he got changed back into his fatigues he switched his tablet to silent, the sole exception to the silent rule he engaged was if Alice called, and headed home.
The thirty-minute walk took nearly ninety. He passed through at least a dozen checkpoints on the way. They were absolutely an annoyance, but with the terrorist attack, it wasn’t surprising to see this much security. If you didn’t live in a wing or couldn’t prove you had a relationship with someone there, you simply weren’t going to get past.
When John eventually got home he changed into some very casual gym attire. He grilled a cheeseburger for an early lunch. Once his meal was done, he began chain-smoking cigars and worked on several open bottles of bourbon and scotch. Thirteen hours later, not even good liquor and fantastic cigars could help him unwind.
John didn’t hear Alice come home. She noticed the used pots and pans sitting on the stove and could smell the faint hint of cigar smoke in the condo. When she got to the dining room she noticed ten bottles of whisky, in various states of emptiness, were spread across the dinner table. Alice couldn’t help but chuckle to herself. She picked up a clean glass and poured a drink for herself.
Alice then noticed John hadn’t sealed the door to the balcony. More shaking of the head was had before she walked out onto their balcony. John nearly jumped out of his seat when he noticed her.
“Rough day?” Alice smirked as she set her to drink down and hugged him before taking the drink and sitting down, “By the way, not to be that girl, but you need to press this button when you’re out here smoking to seal the door.”
Alice then smiled as she pressed the button, “Kitchen smells like an ashtray right now.”
“How are you doing?”
“Wish I could say I hadn’t seen anything like it, but…” Alice trailed off, “Of course, we’ve been in the thick of it haven’t we?”
John nodded, “Did you lose anyone you knew?”
“As far as I know everyone in my department is fine. Rumors are flying like crazy though.”
“What have you heard?” John took a drink before having a drag from his cigar.
“The first rumor was an Alliance attack, but then it switched to a Mercantilist Union-backed mercenary corporation that pulled the attack off,” Alice sighed, “They attacked the secure area, but they didn’t do the bomb though.”
John nodded again, “Dr. Norman got some Alliance ne’er-do-wells to do the bombing. Sure, we don’t have the intel just yet, but it was him.”
“How are you so certain?”
“Because I was escorting Lisa Benning to her new home here.”
Alice’s eyes bulged, “Holy fuck. That was what you were doing?”
“Should’ve just fucking iced her, but noooooo,” John sighed before taking another drink, “I had to follow orders for a change.”
“Are you allowed to tell me what happened?”
“I crushed her skull and told a room full of admirals and generals to fuck themselves.”
Alice almost lost her grip on her drink. She just stared at John. She didn’t know what was more shocking, that John had so brutally, and callously, killed an enemy or him possibly committing career suicide.
“She’s gone. Like forever gone?”
John grinned, “She ceases to exist.”
“OK, but telling off admirals is really bad. Like really really bad,” Alice chuckled before taking a drink.
“It had to be done. Not sure if it got through to them, or if it’ll change their plans for the future.”
Alice read between the lines and correctly presumed what they wanted, “Oh my goodness. They want him to work for us. Why?”
John shrugged, “They probably want him for weapon improvements. But his work is so dirty and unethical I am legitimately shocked that they are even planning on bringing him over to our side.”
“Let’s say you can do that, what would the Alliance say about all of it?”
John grunted, “Especially when malcontents in the Union send detailed records of his genetics work to the puritans in the Alliance government. Can guarantee a war will break out.”
“Can’t really say we’d be the good guys. We’d give up the moral high ground.”
John shook his head before taking a drag on his cigar, “Alice, there’s no high ground in the war. War is effectively immoral, but sometimes they are necessary to be fought for the greater good. This new galactic war would not be one of those things.”
“We have time to make sure that doesn’t start don’t we?”
“Sure do. But at what cost,” John stood up and looked out at the greenspace below, “But at what cost…”
“I’ll support any decision you make. If you have to work for my father that wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. Our financial future would be secure.”
John laughed, “Yeah about that. You remember all those credits I acquired?”
Alice rolled her eyes, “You mean the billions you pilfered? What happened to them?”
“Well, I thought my stashes were more well-hidden than they were. Eve caught a coded communique from NI that stated they had acquired a substantial amount of unmarked and untraceable credit chits.”
Alice started to laugh, “So how much of your illicit net worth was lost because you got sloppy.”
“Hey now, I didn’t get sloppy. I don’t think anyways. Pretty sure I wasn’t sloppy, just a victim of bad luck here.”
“Your obfuscating. How much did they take?”
“About seventy percent.”
“Of what you took when the fleets tried to fuck you? You still made out like a bandit.”
John shook his head, “No, they took seventy percent of what I had in unmarked chits. I’ve already moved over about ten percent to us since then. They won’t be able to get to the remaining amount, those are very secure.”
Alice started to laugh, “My oh my, whatever will we ever do sitting on the hundreds of millions that are in our name.”
“It’s closer to several billion but I mean, yeah.”
“Your investment account is not worth a billion,” Alice shook her head at John’s nonsense.
“It isn’t, but if you add our portfolios together and that other thirty percent then we are in the billions.”
“John, that other thirty percent is just going to burn you if you aren’t careful. You already pissed off fleet command and Naval Intelligence. You have a finite amount of allies.”
“On that note, Seventh Fleet wants nothing to do with me either. I’m too much of a maverick with the rules.”
Alice rolled her eyes, “How shocking. In all seriousness though John, and I say this as I support anything you choose to do, you do need to be more mindful. While you can account for other people’s movements well in advance, you do a pretty shitty job accounting for your outbursts nearly as well as you should.”
John sighed as he turned around and leaned on the railing facing Alice, “I know. You are right.”
Their holographic display on their end table turned on suddenly. John pointed at causing Alice to look down. She clicked on it to see what was happening. An important announcement was being made to the station’s inhabitants.
“We might want to watch this,” Alice said as she pressed the button to begin playback.
John took a big drag of his cigar and blew out the cigar smoke. He stared at the screen not knowing what to expect. He had hoped his outburst had reached some of their leaders. Though deep down John knew that wasn’t likely to happen.
“Good evening, this is Fleet Admiral Benjamin Karlsson. I, along with most of Fleet Command, was onboard St. Mary’s station when the recent terrorist attacks occurred. There were three distinct actions that were undertaken. Six hundred seventy-three of our comrades, friends, brothers, sisters, mothers, and fathers were lost. Hundreds more are injured and unfortunately, not all of them are expected to make it.”
“I want to commend the fast reaction times by station guests, personnel, and military personnel for their speedy actions. The loss of life and damage to the station was limited as much as they could be given the circumstances. The courage you all showed will not be forgotten anytime soon.”
“The first action was a bomb that was set off in the inner commercial ring, the most densely packed section of the base. Alliance ex-pats, supported by a disavowed group with ties to the Mercantilist Union, were the ones that openly admitted to, and independently confirmed to have carried out the attack. Only two members of their group remain alive, though one was deeply wounded as a result of the blast and is not expected to survive.”
“The second action was an attack on Naval Intelligence facilities on the station. This was the least successful of the attacks. Two agents, who had served with distinction, were lost in the attack. Their names will not be released at this time.”
John snorted, “I know the two they will claim to have lost. Fucking snakes.”
Alice gave him a look to shush him up.
“The third attack was a group of mercenaries attempting to take back a high-value target that we had captured in a recent operation. While the attack is fresh, the brief amount of hindsight that time has allowed us to accept that the mission to retrieve this target was in fact a mistake.”
“In fact, we believe all three attacks were coordinated by the same group. A response to our actions. I have asked for the resignations of several high-ranking officers after it was determined that insufficient due diligence was conducted for the negative aspects of completing this mission. As of ten minutes ago, I have received six resignations and by the dawn of tomorrow morning I expect to receive three more.”
“There will be a reshuffling of personnel from the fleets in the coming days. Daily life may be a bit out of the norm on the station for the next few days but we believe all the bad actors have been captured. Speedy trials will take place and the guilty will receive their just punishments.”
“Join me in praying for the speedy recovery of all those hurt as a result of these attacks. The military will be sending the news media onboard the station updates as developments are made in our investigations. We have begun reaching out to our diplomatic contacts with the Alliance and Mercantilist Union for answers and comments on these attacks. We are not at this point considering military actions, however, reserve the right to do so should we receive responses that are insufficient in explaining why these attacks happened. Admiral Karlsson, signing off.”