Mark “Coop” Cooper
Location: Stewart-Benning Training Center, Earth, United Commonwealth of Colonies
“It’s a wheel. This is not rocket science!” The MSG fumed on the already sweltering parade field. Coop didn’t know why they couldn’t do this in a nice air-conditioned hangar. Deep down he knew why. The MSG hated him and wanted their final day together to be a living hell.
“Cooper!” The MSG was on him like a fly on fresh shit. “Your military bearing is absolute shit. Why the powers that be want you to be the face of our Commonwealth is beyond me. You must have kissed the ass of someone high and mighty.”
This was a perfect chance to criticize or elude to sexual relations with the MSG’s mother, but Coop could see the light at the end of the tunnel. He just needed to get there as painlessly as possible. The second he graduated those black stripes would become official and the MSG could suck it.
“Move,” the MSG came over to push Coop out of the way. The little man couldn’t have budged Coop if he didn’t want to move, but Coop took a step away so the MSG could demonstrate.
Part of their graduation ceremony was marching around the parade field for spectators. It was all part of showing the flag, especially now after the defeat of the Windsor’s at Harper’s Junction. The PR machine was running at full speed, and they were just one of the cogs.
“Like this,” The MSG stood in Coop’s position at the far side of the squad, farthest from the squad leader. Normally, this position didn’t mean much, but for the formation to make a big wheel at the edges of the parade ground, it was the linchpin. “The Commonwealth issued you a brain, so use it.” The MSG executed the turn perfectly. Coop saw a number of his classmates stumble through it, but the MSG didn’t chew them out for it. This was all to make Coop look bad one last time.
They had another hour of this to suffer through, but that was it. The recruiting corps was a stickler about schedules, especially when it came to training, so all he had to do was endure. Once they were done they had a surprise inspection that wasn’t much of a surprise, and then were done for the day. All the NCOs were going out for drinks. Eve was going too, which was a little upsetting. He wanted to spend as much time with her as possible before they transferred up to the Proving Grounds.
The squadron assignments had been finalized before their weekend familiarization was concluded, and despite all his wishing, wheeling-and-dealing, and even praying, CMDR Snow had not put them together in the same squadron. Eve was in the 7th while Coop was in the 3rd. To make matters worse. The 7th through 10th squadrons were only doing half their training on Earth. They’d do their final phases on Mars where they would be headquartered for deployment. Coop had asked the perfectly logical question of why a battalion commander would want his forces split like that, but he got told to sit down and shut up about things above his paygrade. All of this meant that he had far less time with Eve than he thought, and he wanted to make every second of it count.
He was thinking of how he could just stumble upon the NCOs at the bar they were going to, and act like it was a total coincidence, when the MSG zeroed in on him again. “Cooper, Wildflower is at sick call for heat stroke. You’re going to take over his CQ duty tonight.”
CQ was short for charge of quarters, which meant Coop was being assigned to guard the entrance to the barracks that night. Like everyone else, Coop had filled his time on the roster, mostly on weekends thanks to the MSG’s ire.
The thought must have made the way through the MSG’s head because fear flared in his eyes. “What are you looking at Cooper? Focus on your drill and ceremony,” the man’s voice cracked, and that did it for Coop. The MSG was nothing more than a recruiter. His ribbons showed he hadn’t seen much, if any, combat, and he’d never been injured.
He kept his cool through all the nagging Camilla threw his way. Unlike Bill, who’d been assigned to 2nd Squadron, Camilla was going to be accompanying Coop into 3rd. That was a small bit of good news among all the bad. He found her hilarious.
“Hey, at least when I’m drunk and have my latest victim coming back to the barracks for a little fun you can clear me through,” she joked as she followed the rest of the enlisted personnel out the front door. Coop just waved them goodbye as the door’s hissed shut behind them.
This wasn’t the old training barracks used for new recruits. These were more modern, which meant sealed against the bad air that was everywhere on Earth. It was nowhere as bad as back in the PHA, but the infantry wasn’t about to put thousands of their investments in danger because of some CO2.
What it also allowed Coop to do was keep an eye on the monitor in front of him. CQ had long ago tapped it into the local networks so you could watch holo-shows and movies. It was against regs to make that network tap but no one cared. Everyone had been on the all-night watches before and knew how nice it was to have something to watch other than the door.
Coop was just settling into some comedy about a rich family who suddenly became poor, when the door hissed open. Coop glanced up and then jumped to his feet. “Barracks, atten-tion!” He called out to the emptiness. No one was there to comply with the order, but he had to do it anyway.
ADM Berg stood just inside the doorway and scrutinized everything. Coop continued to stand there at the position of attention.
“At ease,” she waved him off, and that was when he noticed there was nothing but static on the holo. She was jamming it somehow.
“Hello, Mr. Cooper. Congratulations are in order,” she stepped over to one of the chairs in the common room across from his CQ desk and gestured for him to join her.
“Congratulations?” Good coked an eyebrow. “It’s not like recruiting is hard.”
“I wouldn’t underestimate the pressure recruiters go through on the job,” she replied, “but that’s not what I’m talking about. Being a freshly minted Warrant Officer in a military wehre there are only a handful in existence is going to be a feather in your cap.”
“You wanted all of this to happen,” he started as his mind pieced everything together. “You wanted for me to join the recruiting class as cover for the cavalry gig. That’s why you signed off on it. Do you want me to fail so you can rub it in Eve’s face? Or do you want me to be better so I’m worthy of her?”
“Please, Mr. Cooper, the world doesn’t revolve around you,” she replied as she waved away his questions. “I want you in the new cavalry squadrons for my own selfish motivations.” Her statement took Coop by surprised, but he knew it shouldn’t. After all, she was the Chief of Naval Intelligence.
“Garrett is playing this whole ACR project close to his vest. Of course battalion and regimental staff will have S2s, but he’s been granted full authority to choose those soldiers. His putting his people into place to limit my reach. He wants the Commonwealth’s shiny new toy to answer to him and him alone.”
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“Don’t we answer to the Prime Minister?” All Coop’s question got was a laugh.
“This is military politics. Don’t worry about it Warrant Officer,” she used his new rank, but it didn’t help his growing anxiety about how he’d been manipulated into this situation. “Your job is going to be to keep your eyes and ears open for me. I want to know the dealings of this new regiment. I want to know its successes and failures. I want to know your missions, what Garrett has you doing, and more importantly, how much influence Gold has on all of this. I know he was at the Proving Grounds with you for your introduction to the new tech, so every time he comes around I want a report on what he’s doing. I don’t trust that man.”
Coop wholeheartedly agreed with her on the last part. Gold was playing his own game. Even a former Rat could see that.
“What if I say no?” Coop couldn’t just do what she said. That wasn’t his style.
“Then I’ll give NCIS those damning records of your involvement with the people who committed the assassinations on New Savannah.” The casualness she used to speak about destroying his life was all the motivation he needed.
“I’m never going to live that down am I?” He asked, defeated.
“No,” her response was blunt and honest, “but you can do some good to make up for it.”
Seeing that she’d won, she got back to her feet. “You’re going to need to work extra hard to earn everyone’s trust. Having me sign off on your packet has already raised eyebrows. Use your charm and wit to win them over.” She headed for the door. She stopped right before she hit to panel to leave. “I suggest you get back in touch with Lieutenant Commander Gold and offer your congratulations. It might be a good fact finding opportunity for you and a chance to get in close with the most powerful man in the Commonwealth. After all, Benjamin does owe you his life.”
Thirty seconds later the static on the holo resolved back into the comedy show and it was like nothing had ever happened, which he was sure that was what the security logs would show. All this cloak and dagger stuff was already giving him a headache. He was a hammer. A blunt instrument. People pointed him at something and he destroyed it. He was not subtle, and had a feeling this wasn’t going to end well. Still, he pulled up the MILNET contact info and shot a message off to the LCDR. He didn’t know what he was congratulating the man for, but it seemed like the best course of action to do what the ADM said.
He hit send and waited to see what he’d got himself into.
Benjamin Gold
Location: New York City, Earth, United Commonwealth of Colonies
Ben took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He was used to keeping his emotions in check and his face neutral. He called it his command face. Even when he was scared shitless he couldn’t let it show for the sake of his men, or in his most recent case, his single female crewman. Although he and PO3 Lee had escaped from the Windsor patrols by the hair on their chinny-chin-chin, he hadn’t seen her since they took away Argo.
The last few months for one of the heirs to the Gold Empire had been a rollercoaster. He’d followed his orders to the letter at Harper’s Junction and provided the Fleet with critical intelligence that was used to defeat the Windsor’s and throw them out of the system. Even though his mission had been a success, the business at New Lancashire was a shadow over his career. RADM Nelson was being true to his word and making Ben’s life a living hell. The RADM was not generally favored with the high command of the fleet, but he had enough friends in the right places to make Ben bleed. He’d done that by taking Argo from him. Ben had fulfilled his command time aboard the gunboat, but that didn’t make losing her any easier. He’d done a lot on that ship, and he wasn’t soon going to forget it.
The plan had been all along to get his command time in and then enter the Diplomatic Corps. He had experience interacting with the Windsor’s before their betrayal, and he was one of the few people in the Commonwealth to be to one of the Hegemony’s systems. He didn’t have diplomatic duties, but he’d watched, learned, and had a solid letter of recommendation from the Minister about the crucial role he played at the time.
Of course, all of that meant nothing if you didn’t have friends in the right places. His application to the school for diplomats was rejected, and he was assigned a underwhelming position as an assistant operations department head about a battleship in the First Fleet. At the moment his new duty station, CWS Jack Frost, was undergoing a refit for the more modern technology, so his time was spent filling out paperwork, training his section in VR, and then filling out more paperwork. It was incredibly boring and tedious work, and with his career so far off the tracks from what he wanted, he considered hanging up his CMUs. He’d nearly served out his contract between his time in the Reserves and Active Duty, and if he wanted to, Jack Frost would be his last assignment.
Jacobi had been looking out the window at the impressive skyline. He gave his hand a quick squeeze, a small smile, and turned her attention back to the view. He could tell she was nervous, and he didn’t blame her, he was a bit nervous himself. To reassure himself, he rubbed his thumb across the band of precious metal and stone on her left ring finger.
For one of the richest families in existence, the ring was fairly plain. The band was white gold with an infusion of nanites to ensure it lasted far longer than they did, and looked better than when it was made. The stone itself wasn’t perfect, but that was what made it real in Ben’s eyes. Technology could make a flawless diamond in seconds. All it needed was a piece of carbon, heat, and pressure. Ben wanted something real. Something that had taken form of millions of years in the heart of a planet. The stone itself was still top of the line: colorless, excellent cut, flawless up to 10x magnification, and three carats in total weight. He could have given her the diamond the size of her fist, but he wanted to pay for it out of his military pay, and wanted it to be reasonable. Something she could wear each and every day to remind her of him. A ten-plus carat stone wasn’t conducive to the life she wanted to live.
Those lives had changed together in the last month. He’d proposed, not at some fancy restaurant with the ring buried in some luxuriously-decadent piece of chocolate cake, but while on a three day pass at a hot dog vendor. All that mattered was the smile on her face and that she said yes.
Her tour of duty in the infantry was up, and she was on her way out. She was staying in the reserves, so she could keep all the enhancements to infantry gave her, but other than that her time in uniform was over. The next part of her life was just beginning. She’d been accepted to work in R&D for a Gold Technologies center on Earth and was taking advantage of their education’s benefit’s package. She would go to school to get her advanced degrees while working. She would owe time with the company for the investment they were putting in, but soon her last name was going to be Gold, so Ben was sure they would jump through hoops for his soon to be bride.
His family was waiting in one of those towers looking down over everything, and they knew nothing about any of this. He would be introducing Jacobi to them for the first time with the caveat that they were engaged and to be married in only a handful of months. He would need to provide interference against his mother and half-sister who would both want to throw the grandest wedding of the season despite Jacobi just wanting something small and intimate. He’d have to fend off his father and half-brother who would skillfully interrogate her to see if she was just trying to get into the family’s pocketbooks or if she really cared about Ben. The only one he wasn’t worried about was Hope. He’d even sent her a message before leaving orbit that they were coming and were engaged. She hadn’t responded, but Ben knew his full-blooded sister wouldn’t violate his privacy by telling them.
He could practically hear the doubts his father and brother would try and sow during the meeting.
Ben did remember Sarah and how she’d used him and his family’s influence to gain a command. He had no idea where she was, but he also knew Jacobi was nothing like her. They’d fought together. Bled together, and thought each other dead. During her confinement, the interrogators told her the ship that had brought her team to Harper’s Junction had been destroyed while trying to flee. Likewise, Ben knew she’d been captured and likely killed.
You truly know you love something, whether you knew it or not, when you learn it had been permanently taken from you. They’d shared those moments of sadness, fear, and longing with each other when they returned, and from there only one logical path remained. He’d bought the ring the next day, and now hear they were.
Ben shook his head to clear the memories as the air-car finally broke from the metropolis’ eternal traffic jam and climbed toward the penthouse apartments of the rich and famous. Jacobi’s grip tightened with every meter they climbed until Ben felt circulation being cut off.
“Don’t worry. They’re nothing compared to Windsor’s.” The comment was a little too soon, and he saw the hurt flicker in her eyes before she wiped it away with a small smile.
“Is it too much to ask that they like me?” she wondered more to herself than him.
The last time Ben had been here he’d been about to set off on a great adventure to the stars. Now, the same thing could be said of another adventure. With only last break he steeled himself as Curtis, his father’s faithful bodyguard, opened the door for him.
“Welcome back, Mr. Gold,” his eyes took in Jacobi with the calculated sureness born of his days as a SEAL. “Miss Wentworth.”
That he knew her name wasn’t a good sign, but there was no use turning back now. Ben took her hand, helped her out of the vehicle, and walked ahead to get the door for her.