After the Oracle told Mark everything he wanted to know, Mark performed another brain scan on it to strip it of its memories, but leave intact its ship commanding capabilities.

He bagged up his new Oracle and waited for the remainder of the team to resurrect. He spent that remaining time going over the report that he’d need to file, getting everything in order and omitting the key details that would land him in hot water. As crew members were reborn, he’d brief them on where they were and give them sets of civilian clothing to put on while they waited. After the last of his crew dressed, they waited until the return crew arrived to transport them back.

They made a direct egress to the ship, and Mark told the entire crew to put on their dress uniforms and form up in the cargo bay area for inspection. He needed to set the record straight on some things. He also made a stop at the fabricator to begin creating some new medals and ribbons for his crew.

He went into his Captain’s chamber, put on the white noise disperser, and fired up the ship Captain’s hologram projector to make a call to Colonel Christopher Grovel, commander of the special investigations branch of the Interplanetary Investigations Office. The quantum tunneling packets were near instantaneous, but the encrypting and decrypting process took some time to make sure the handshake between the receiving and transmitting parties was secure. The white noise disperser sent noise through the walls so any eavesdropping devices wouldn’t be able to pick up on the words used in the conversation.

The Colonel’s face appeared in the holodeck. Col. Grohall looked like he had been carved from a granite statue. His harsh features made him look like a perpetually scowling gargoyle, but Mark knew that the Colonel was a teddy bear around his grandchildren. His hawkish nose, deep set eyes, and stern nose bridge and eyebrows made that fact hard to remember.

Mark gave a crisp military salute. “Sir, Captain Thomas, reporting. The debris fields have been cleared.”

The Colonel returned the salute and responded, “Keep sweeping and make sure no threats remain.”

The Challenge-Response Authentication Method, or CRAM, as the military had an acronym for everything, was used to determine the situation before further communication. Mark’s response meant that he wasn’t under duress or being surveilled while making his report, the Colonel’s did the same.

“At ease soldier,” the Colonel said. “Report.”

“Sir,” Mark began, “Transferring over the SITREP and AAR.” The SITREP is the situational report giving the Colonel the information about the ongoing investigation and the AAR is the After Actions Report, detailing their encounter with the pirate ships.

“Give me the highlights Captain,” the colonel responded.

“Sir, the investigation has uncovered that outer World planets are working with pirates to potentially declare independence from the current World government.”

“Anything we can use?”

“Negative on that sir, the means used were extrajudicial.” The Colonel’s disapproving glare hit Mark, making him feel like a naughty pupil getting called into the Principal’s office with his parents. “The intel wouldn’t help us at this stage of the investigation anyway,” Mark quickly explained, “The pirate ships use cell based organizations, each is sandboxed away from each other with no direct contact with the superiors above in the chain.”

Mark knew that this was the same command structure the Reapers employed, which could be to keep a strict chain of command or to keep each person hired from knowing anything about the overall structure of the Reapers organization.

“Positive confirmation of our suspicions is a step in the right direction,” Col. Grohall stated. “If you can provide legal means of proving this link, then we can escalate this operation to an officially sanctioned black operations task. As it stands, I cannot sequester any funds for an unauthorized black ops mission.”

An unofficial black operation didn’t have any paper trail at all and was intended to enable complete deniability. Making accusations that outerWorld planets were involved in treason, pirating, and conspiracy to commit treason would provoke an all-out war.

Escalating it to a sanctioned black operation meant that a special sealed vault would contain records of the deeds of each person. Only the person in charge of the operation would have access to those records, guarded by strict biometric protocols. Other commanders of other operations would have no access to them. Records could only be unsealed to a larger audience by going through the Senate Committee on Planetary Security, but it allowed things like fiscal support for the operation, the ability to commandeer crews and ships, and a whole host of other benefits. As it stood, Mark only had access to his official military pay, which was peanuts for this investigation, and anything he could secure on his own.

“Understood sir. Currently we have appropriate funding through extrajudicial means. I have requests not related to financial expenditures.”

“Understood Captain, proceed.”

“I would like to submit several medals for valorous action during combat, and a field promotion for Lieutenant Smith, promotion to the rank of Captain.”

The Colonel had a brief look of surprise, but then went over the AAR to see the specific citations.

“I can authorize all of these, but you’re getting one as well. Combat pilot badge, you took out a hostile ship with superior firepower without sustaining major damage to the ship, no small feat. The reasons for the commendations will be put under black ops secrecy, but they’ll all go through. Your mission is to get me actionable, legal grounds for a full-scale investigation. With luck, this will be a few bad actors. Worst case, this is a full scale insurrection.”

“Understood sir. We’re going to the Gebo planet as our next destination, once I’ve finished running missions here. I’ll need people to recruit whenever I get there. Preferably, people with military experience who were either honorably discharged, or were discharged for other than honorable, but not dishonorable reasons.” The military could let go of people for any variety of reasons. It was very rare that the military screwed up in that regard, since personnel were always at a premium and training is a very expensive endeavor, but a few people did end up getting the shaft for reasons beyond their control. Out.”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Very well, I’ll assemble a list. Keep me posted on further developments as they arise.”

With that, the Colonel gave a quick salute, which Mark returned, and the hologram shut off. A new notification appeared in his vision.

New Quest: Sanctioned Mission, insurrection

You have been given the official task of finding out whether or not outer federation planets are helping and protecting pirates. You must also find out why they are doing it, and bring back legal proof of their involvement. Rewards will be given out based upon performance at quest completion.

Mark dressed into his military dress blue uniform and went out to meet his garrison.

Everyone was dressed in their military best as well, and the squads sounded off to give their report to the XO. After roll call finished, she turned, told the Captain that everyone was accounted for, and waited for him to continue. He shouted out the command, “At Ease” to let everyone know to relax from attention.

“I know that these ceremonies can go on for a while too long, so I’ll try to be brief.” Mark began. “All of you, unknowingly, have signed up for a black ops mission. You were evaluated over the course of a six month period to determine your fitness for inclusion into this operation. Recent events have accelerated that time table. During combat, if there were a traitor on board this ship, we would have seen it. But review of the combat logs and footage shot showed everyone performing up to standard. Except for one person.”

He took a pause to look around at each person in the formation. “And that person was me. I failed to facilitate military growth and instruct units under my charge. I failed to put protocols in place to maintain operation security. I failed you as a leader. My failures resulted in unnecessary casualties and compromised a mission I never told any of you about. For that, I am sorry, and resolve to never let that lapse of leadership occur again. You have my word on that.”

“All of you will be given medals befitting your role in repelling a hostile force. Special recognition will be given to those who performed exemplary feats of leadership during a crisis. The first and most notable is Lieutenant Luciana Smith. Or as she’ll now be addressed, Captain Smith. For heroism, quick-thinking, and going above the call of duty, she has been given the rank of Captain, as well as the bronze medal of honor for distinction and the combat pilot badge. Captain, receive your new rank.”

The Lieutenant was clearly surprised, Mark not telling her the intention of their briefing, but she strode up to her position next to Mark. He took off her Lieutenant’s rank and pinned on her Captain’s rank, a set of double silver bars. He also added the ribbons for the bronze medal and combat pilot. She saluted him when he was done, and he saluted back. Then she resumed her post.

“Next are Staff Sergeant Emily Gułminski and Sergeant Grace Fugiel, both recognized for leading the assault against the hostile forces. All Marines will receive the combat badge, but these two will receive the bronze medal of honor in addition. Fall out of formation and receive your awards.”

The ceremony continued like that, medals given for valorous actions in combat, for the mandatory badges given for performing a combat operation, and other moral boosting measures to boost morale aboard the ship. Finally, he accepted his own award from the newly minted Captain Smith.

“Now, we have all learned just how dangerous this mission is. I cannot divulge any further details about it unless I know everyone on board this ship is one hundred percent ready for this mission. So, if you wish to leave this crew, you may fall out of the formation and form your own squad to the rear. There will be no judgment. I will personally write you a recommendation for whichever unit you wish to be stationed with and wish you well on your new adventure.”

He waited. No one moved. Eyes glanced around to see if anyone would fall out, but no one did.

“Very well. This is a top-secret black ops mission. For right now, we’re all each other has. In light of that fact, training and cross-training will be implemented regularly. Squad leaders will coordinate with Captain Smith for the training regimen for the day. No knowledge of this operation must leak outside of these walls.”

“Officially, the line is that we’re privateers, given orders to regain any goods acquired through illegal means. Unofficially, we’ve seen several reports that pirates in certain outer Worlds are operating with impunity. That might be coincidence, as Earth can’t patrol every far-flung system out there, but intelligence indicates that some of these federations are actively helping and encouraging pirating from Earth. To what end, we don’t know. Our job is to investigate this intelligence and see if it is credible, and if so, to bring back proof of it.”

“We can now hold double the crew we initially could, and we will be recruiting at our next destination. They will not be briefed about our unofficial mission until they pass security clearance. Operational Security procedures and Standard Operation Procedures will be followed at all times. Now that you’ve been briefed, any violation of these orders will bring punishment under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.”

Mark stood at attention. “Platoon! Attention!” he called out. The platoon snapped to attention. “Dismissed.” Another notification appeared in his vision.

Disadvantage Removed: Derelict Leader

You finally understand Leadership.

Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless-Service, Honor, Integrity, Personal Courage. Disadvantage removed so long as you continue to show the qualities of a professional military leader.