Brinus is running his first live fire drill with Simmie, who is running his fourth. He commanded one hundred twenty cadets, with Simmie as his second in command. They are currently in one of many of the navy’s proving grounds on a three-day excursion. There were no problems until day two, when they hit the fortress.
In the meantime, the federation is paying the syndicates to disrupt training operations for officers and enlisted personnel. One such method is to pay for syndicate assassins to snipe out officer cadets during live-fire exercises.
The Navy Proving Grounds at Caltor Prime 0630 Hours Intergalactic Time
In the early morning sunrise, the hills of the rolling grasslands on foggy low mountains were pristine and unspoiled. Beams of light poked through the fog as it swirled over the hills like smoke swirling from a chimney in a wood fireplace. The air was crisp with morning mist and had a particular bite in the frosty air. Everyone could see their breath as Brinus looked through his binoculars to gauge the situation.
Brinus wore a white Dura plastic breastplate, leg plates, arm plates, and shoulder, elbow, and knee pads. He had a Helmet with a comms device and a flash pistol by his side. He also had a pair of black infantry gloves and black boots. The other men wore camo dura plastic armor and black combat boots.
Two police droids with dummy guns guarded the fortress. It had sandbags with repeater stun guns, manned by security droids every one hundred meters. It was nestled next to a river and had a bunker.
Brinus looked through the binoculars and saw two police droids four thousand meters ahead. They were on a wall protecting the target. It was the Federation Flag.
Simmie came up to Brinus and pointed at the hill above the fortress.
He pointed at a mirror flash. “You see that scope flash? There is a sniper in the hills.” Simmie pointed again at a reflection of a mirror in the grassy hills above the fortress.
Brinus saw a sniper dressed in a bad gilly suit and a spotter dressed in fingerless gloves, a cameo shirt, and cameo pants. “Yeah, I see them. I don’t think they’re ours.” Brinus looked through his binoculars a second time and saw the sniper in inferred view.
Simmie knew he had to protect his boyfriend. He said, “You want me to take them out?”
Brinus growled and grabbed Simmie’s leg. He snarled, “Those snipers are not with us or part of the exercise! Let command deal with them! That’s an order!”
Brinus knew he would have to call in the unauthorized snipers, and then a professional strike team would take them out. The exercise was over at this point.
Simmie stood and said, “I will take them out now.” His priority was Brinus’s safety, not the mission. As soon as the snipers appeared, any desire to finish the exercise went out the window.
Brinus attempted to knock Simmie down. He yelled, “Sim, no, I gave you an order! You’ll be killed if you go out there!” Brinus grabbed Simmie, but he was too late. He didn’t care about the mission; he only cared about Simmie.
Simmie into the field. Brinus ran after Simmie. At this moment, the months of military training, the months of discipline, and the months of basic training went out of the window. He only cared about Simmie.
From Simmie’s point of view, his priority was to protect Brinus. Despite almost two years of military training and discipline, he prioritized Brinus. At this moment, he only cared about Brinus and not the mission.
The other men were shocked into silence as Brinus ran after Simmie, screaming at him to get down. Then, a sniper shot rang. Despite the blaster bolt moving at the speed of light, Brinus could see the bolt approach Simmie. On pure adrenaline, he ran into the front of the bolt and took a chest full of plasma. The impact was a fifty-caliber blast, so it obliterated his armor and incinerated his thermal underwear shirt. It left a large cut on his chest but no burns. His arm had a piece of armor sticking out of it.
He then jumped on Simmie and covered him from a second sniper shot. The sniper threw a grenade and ran, but it failed to explode. Brinus then conjured a blue plasma shield, and Brinus slapped Simmie hard enough across the face to leave a handprint.
Brinus yelled at Simmie at the top of his voice, “I fucking told you not to run out into the field!” Brinus then kissed Simmie and hugged him. Simmie kissed him and hugged him back.
One hour Later, on The Victory,
Brinus stood at attention in the captain’s office. Captain Plato, the commandant of the naval academy, and Commander Theodore sat in a row. Brinus was in his uniform with his chest wrapped in compression bandages and his right arm in a sling wrapped in gauze bandages. He had just gotten out of the emergency room at the VA hospital. After a couple of seconds of silence, the captain spoke. “And that is your full accounting of the evened?”
“Yes, sir. I give my statement for the official record.”
Finally, the captain spoke after ten seconds of awkward silence. “Were you aware you had magic before joining the Navy?”
Brinus decided to lie in order to save face. “Yes, sir.”
Commander Theodore asked, tilting his head and crossing his arms, “Why did you not tell anyone?”
“I was ordered not to by the magi, sir.”
The Commandant said, “Were you aware of the risk of uncontrollable magic use during the live fire simulation?”
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“No, sir.”
The Commandant leaned back into his chair and sighed, and he said, “I am issuing standing orders that you and Simmie are not to be paired together in the future for battle simulations or live fire simulations. You two will only be allowed in psychiatric examinations. I am also going to ask the magi’s permission for use of their fire temple; the sooner we can start training you in magic, the better.”
Commander Theodore spoke. “Is there anything you wish to add to the after-action report? You have permission to speak freely.”
“Sir, Simmie is my first serious relationship I have had since Harper. I want to marry him someday. I think it would be best if we didn’t go into combat together in the future because he would be a distraction.”
The three officers looked at each other, and then Captain Plato spoke. “Agreed, you and Simmie will work separate shifts from now on. Dismissed Midshipman Helios.”
“Sirs.” Brinus saluted and left.
Commander Theodore turned to Captain Plato. "Did he just lie to us about knowing he had magic?"
"Yes, commander, he did. I bet he didn't know he had magic at all and is scared. This hearing finishes our business."
Everyone came up from their seats and left.
The Orin Syndicate in Klatax
Klatax was a city with 20 million people. Single-family housing and 200-person apartment buildings with first-floor shops were the primary buildings. The buildings were rusty, and most shop fronts had broken windows. There were a lot of homeless people everywhere pushing carts with trash. The city streets smelled like urine and feces.
They were in a syndicate hideout in an abandoned shop front.
The sniper from the proving ground stood before Captain Long Ho.
“You’re talking nonsense.” Said Captain Long Ho with his arms crossed and a scowl on his face. “All magic is controlled by the magi. There is no way Brinus would have magic. If you lie again, I will string you up by your thumbs in my BDSM setup and whip you until you bleed.”
The sniper shook his head and said, “I am not lying. My spotter can back my statements. The kid conjured a shield of blue plasma and took a fifty cal shot to the chest and back. I think he ran faster than light speed, but I can’t be sure. Oh and I believe he disabled my grenade but again I can’t be sure.”
Long Ho looked stunned. He regained composure after a few minutes. “Tell me, how does someone leave the syndicate?”
“In a body bag or due to disability.”
Long Ho looked at the sniper and then said. “Exactly. If we can’t kill Brinus, then I will kill his boyfriend and make an example.”
Several men and women laughed. The idea of killing the boyfriend of a fire mage was comical at best.
Long Ho looked around the room and then said, “What?”
The sniper crossed his arms and laughed. “You really feel that way about your only son?”
“He is not my son after he left the syndicate.”
The sniper rolled his eyes and snapped his fingers. “You drove him away and into the hands of the navy. It was you who insisted the syndicate kill Harper. The syndicate was willing to tolerate Brinus’s sexuality even if they didn’t like it.”
Long Ho laughed and then and then crossed his arms. “Is Magament blaming me for the Brinus problem?”
The sniper rolled his eyes and made a hand motion to shut Long Ho up. “I think we have had enough of this discussion. Management made it clear what would happen if you continued down this route. Good luck finding someone willing to hurt a fire mage like that. No one will do that for you. Oh, management told me to tell you something.”
The sniper pulled out his pistol and shot Long Ho between the eyes. Hemoaned and started shaking, so the sniper shot him again in the chest.
He then leaned over the body and said. “You’re fired.” They shot him again over his heart.
The Sniper looked at Long Ho’s crew. “Who is the first mate? A petite woman answered, “Me.”
“Management wants to see you to set up your new command. I have been told the matter with Brinus is closed since he is a fire mage.”
Brinus’s Quarters.
Thirty minutes after the meeting, Brinus was at his quarters in a pair of black boxes and a white T-shirt. After he crawled into bed, Brinus woke Simmie up.
Simmie stirred. “Hey!”
“It looks like we’re being separated.”
Simmie handed Brinus a note. “A courier came by thirty minutes ago. They dropped this off.”
Brinus opened the envelope, which said, You got what you wanted. The syndicate considers the matter closed. Oh, and Long Ho was farther, and he was fired. You don’t need to worry about Long Ho anymore. Good luck to you.
Brinus took his cigarette lighter and burned the letter. No, the matter is not settled. They tried to kill him for leaving the syndicate and his second boyfriend, just like they killed Harper. One day, he would get even with the syndicate. He was a now duke and would be learning magic. He had power, both magical and political.
Simmie put an arm around Brinus’s chest and kissed his ear. “I know what you’re thinking, Brinus. You don’t need to go after the Orin syndicate right now. You’ll get yourself killed.” He looked at Brinus with a severe look.
“Oh no, I ain’t gonna get rid of the syndicate now. One day they will wish they didn’t fuck me over so completely, but for now, I need to stay low.”
Plator 2, Four Days Later:
The sniper sat in a bar in a neutral world Three days later. Every table had an ashtray with cigarette butts in it, and the bar was smokey with tarken tea smoke—stools and tables all throughout the barroom with at most 20 people in the bar. Every one of them was smoking. The bar was mostly empty and quiet as it was noon on this planet. The sniper had a cigarette in his mouth and was reading a news pad.
A Federation intelligence officer sat across from the sniper. They put a bag of coins on the table. “Did you do it?”
The sniper shrugged. “The two officer cadets you wanted targeted are still alive. Turns out the target has magic.”
“Doesn’t matter. We disrupted another live fire excise. That is what is important.”
The sniper took a drag from his cigarette and blew smoke into the officer’s face. “Give me my payment.”
The agent pushed the coinsack towards the sniper. “That money is in Confederate credits.”
“Seems pointless to disrupt training. Killing cadets, I can understand. But what was achieved?”
The officer shrugged. “We stopped a training exercise.”
The sniper took another drag from his cigarette and then blew more smoke into the officer’s face. He said, “And then what? How did it impact the war?”
The officer leaned back and crossed his ankles under the table. “It isn’t about impact overall. It was about disruption despite the failure of this operation. Since we started, we have killed over six hundred midshipmen and four thousand cadets. Take your money and be thankful.”
The sniper took another drag from his cigarette and blew more smoke from Federation officers. He grabbed the coin purse and left. The officer looked shocked that someone would ask questions. However, they did wonder what the overall goal was of these disruption operations. After all, the sniper was proper. What was achieved? The two love birds would likely be separated. The proving ground would probably have security improved. They would likely notice the pattern.
The Federation intelligence officer called his boss, Commander Pattaban.
Pattaban sneered. “Did you pay the sniper?”
“Yes, sir. Sir, Permission to speak freely.”
He nodded.
“Why are we targeting cadets and midshipmen? It doesn’t seem to be doing anything.”
He slammed his hands down offscreen and yelled, “Don’t question orders!!! Do as you’re told!!!”
“Yes, sir. Sorry, sir.”
The intelligence officer hung up his TirQuarter. Pattaban was looking at a report saying that a group of Confederate cadets had just refused a lawful order to go to a training drill. Ten cadets were kicked out of the Enemy Navy, and the others were disciplined. Moral was beginning to fall, so it was working.