The Marines were not messing around anymore. The government they were bound to serve had messed with one of them, breaking many laws in the process. They stuck together at all times, and refused to disarm for anything. The captain of the Void Hammer tried to raise a fuss, but the General of the Marines was not hearing it and levied sanctions against the other branches of the military and the Empire itself.

While such actions could cost them all their careers, nobody in the opposition was inclined to do anything. The movie length video had gotten leaked to the public with evidence of what happened afterwards. The public, over fifty percent, had seen the second time Private Costan made himself felt on the battlefield and were appalled at how he was treated. Another ten to twenty percent knew about the full details and his "first impression" on the Greq Navy alongside the movie and surgery.

Then there was the eight percent who knew about the blood rain incident and Murder Mountain. The Eight Percent was forming a counter culture against the meer five percent of the population that still backed Yidas. The Yidas insurrectionists were losing support from the population due to performing terrorism and killing people, while the Eight Percent was forming assistance groups and outreach programs. Everything was a mess, ongoing external war, ongoing internal conflicts, and a ruler that couldn't follow the law.

Even the businesses were in on one side or the other. Most of the companies that handled production and labor were working with the Eight Percent from top down, even the workers. The more electronically focused companies that spent too much time on their data pads supported the insurgency. Law enforcement was doing nothing about it and the criminals were getting pardons.

As soon as Costan was breathing on his own, the medical team requested evacuation. The request was denied, because Costan was still not walking around. One of the medical staff, an anesthesiologist, tried to stick a Marine with a syringe of something or another and was promptly beaten and summarily executed for attacking a superior officer.

Ground Commander Grimcar, brother of Grimclaw, was unhappy at the attack. He was also unhappy that the point blank shot got blood on his uniform. "Grimclaw, why do we only see one another at times like this?"

"Ask the gods, because I do not know."

The medical staff were Navy, but knew the chain of command and it's rules. The dead doctor on the floor was only an E04 Specialist and attacked a Marine Colonel, serving to piss the Marines off further. The situation worsened as Costan regained part of his motor functions.

He was still bound to the bed, but the doctors were still scared shitless. One doctor then helpfully pointed out a few critical details to get the others to calm down. "He was medically paralyzed for four months, so he will need therapy to do anything on his own. He was also brain dead for a month, so he may have no idea about how to even talk. No reason to be afraid of the guy we are here to help."

This got the doctor some uneasy stares from everyone, even the Marines. To everyone's pleasant surprise, Costan didn't kill anyone when he finished coming around, but he didn't talk either, somehow that was worse. It was like when an angry parent says, "I'm not going to yell, but you will be punished for this."

Then the Commander spoke up. "Alright, we are ordered to go to one of the Greq colonies and repay the fish faced bastards in kind. Trouble is that it is not actually a colony, it's a military training planet that they call a colony for legal reasons. Normally we wouldn't be able to touch a colony due to our interspecies agreements that were hashed out back when we cracked ftl communication, but they attacked one of ours. So it's on."

In truth, the other species didn't approve of attacking anything ever. They had agreed to a charter that would set boundaries and rules in case war or skirmishes broke out in the future. The Greq accused the destroyed colony of being a secret military installation. Nobody was backing the accusation or standing against it, aside from the Greq and the Nekogians. The Samaritans were getting fed up watching the sharade.

Costan pointed out that the training colony was a double trap. Grimcar was officially interested as to what he meant. Costan explained that if they attacked that place, the enemy would be able to lie about them on top of whatever underhanded crap that they had planned. He even pointed out that they were probably planning on villainizing their entire species.

Colonel Grimcar, the highest ranking Marine on board and ground Commander, was tempted to ignore the colony as Costan recommended. They were ordered to attack it, and he couldn't just disobey an order. He asked for ideas from, the barely standing, Costan.

"Well, we could have navigation misshapes and target the wrong world by accident. I hear that the Greq home system is very similar to the colony system. But that's just speculation, we can't accidentally on purpose after all."

Grimclaw was impressed, he thought that Costan would have been reduced to an idiot after the brain damage. The Marines were dismissed, and went off to do whatever. Costan found a cane and limp-shuffled to the bridge. The Navy guard thought that, while he wasn't supposed to be allowed on the bridge, there wasn't much harm that he could do unarmed and in that shape. Costan hated not having full control over himself, of all the craziness that he endured, it was worthy of declaring war on the gods.

If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

The captain found it novel that Costan was already going so far when he just got back on his feet. He expected at least a month or two of physical therapy before he came to the bridge and tried to reverse commandeer the ship. Naval article seventeen, sub section C was an interesting one, nobody expected the actual owner of a commandeered vessel to actually show up on the bridge of said vessel and invoke their ownership of it, but it was an article before ships had engines.

Costan knew that he could invoke article seventeen sub section C, but was going to try just giving them a basic reaming and see if they would understand how it will be.

"Private Costan, I expected you would come here. I did not expect it to be so soon. I trust you are here to try and invoke Article Seventeen. While it is your right to do so, and the Empire has given you plenty of reasons to go rogue, I ask you to think on it before doing anything rash."

"Captain, you're a moron. I'm not getting this shit storm blamed on me. I am going to make a few adjustments to the flight plan and approach angle, that's all."

"What shit storm? Tell me, Marine."

"Oh, just the fact that you are flying into a trap set by the Greq. If we don't lose people, we will lose time and face because they will make us out to be monsters that invaded them. I'm just going to make some adjustments so we lose less."

"And what adjustments would those be?"

"For one, the shields and auxiliary systems have there own power plants, so run them at all times, unless docking or taking on shuttles. For two, we are going to overshoot the target system by a large margin and double back. This will cause a few errors in our own navigation systems, but will also throw off errant energy signatures and give us some stealth coming in."

"How will a course change do that?"

"Because we won't be putting our shields down for the slip, and we will be doing a micro stop to blast their sensors."

"What's a micro stop and how are we blasting anything?" The captain was truly lost.

Costan stared at the captain. "Did you not learn anything about the Void Hammer before they made you it's captain?"

"Hmmm"

"Indeed, the only reason I do NOT invoke Article Seventeen is because I will not be blamed for your stupidity. A micro stop is a full stop in slip space with a partial mergence with reality. All those aboard may consider this, and everything else I say, to be Code Black and non-repeatable under penalty of full expungement."

"Fair enough, all of your life is either broadcast to the public or super secret to the point where people get disappeared." The captain was not happy, because he realized that he hadn't been fully briefed on the vessel. They had told him to treat it like the any other destroyer class ship. Considering the amount of unused consoles on the bridge, the Void Hammer probably had a lot more versatility than he thought. It was made worse by the fact that nobody knew where the manuals were.

Costan made his way to a console station and explained what it was and how it worked to some random sailor, and ordered him to get to it. The sailor wanted to object, but just looked back and forth between Costan and the Captain. It was compounded when Costan opened the hidden compartment under the station and pulled out an emergency vacuum suit, a laser pistol case, and the manual.

"Every station aboard this ship is equipped with a manual of usage and diagnostics, a vac suit, and a gun. The fact that you didn't know that is... There are no words for the level of stupidity. If all the stations are properly crewed this ship can break stars and planets. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that you haven't awoken the artificial intelligence core or main power plant yet. I suggest we do so and get everyone up to snuff before we get in the shit."

Costan took a breath before continuing over to the very large, very empty main power control station and sitting down. There were murmurs about how he was banned from techy stuff, but nobody said anything to Costan about that. He grabbed the big red lever on worked it up and down, with an odd ratcheting sound coming from the console, five times before pushing a red button that gave a loud clunk sound as the primary contactor was closed.

The ship started to humm and the lights that hadn't been on came on. Costan gradually flipped switches and pressed buttons. Things started to work that nobody else knew that the ship had, and an AI avatar appeared on the bridge. The hologram greeted Costan as the owner of the ship, giving it's personalized name, the ship name, and current specifics. Then it asked if he wanted to put the vessel in training mode so that the new captain and crew could get up to speed.

"Yes, I don't want these greenies to accidentally destroy a star or kill us all with the self destruct."

"Yes, Costan."

"Furthermore, the Empire has commandeered this vessel for military service, so make sure everything is within exacting specifications. Do not give them enough leeway to mess anything up, because that is what they will do when possible. While you and I are technically draftees, the Empire has given me more than enough reason to file Eminent Abjunction against the whole damned lot, so don't take their bullshit."

The hologram quickly changed from a Talon Corporation uniform to a Navy uniform before replying. "Understood Sir, anything else I may do for you?"

Costan paused and thought about it.

"Yes, remind them that the Void Hammer has a kitchen and disable the dispensers, they will do things the right way. Lock anyone with ties to Yidas or her insurrection out of all systems, brig them if possible. I'm taking the dignitaries quarters as mine, and force them to read the manuals if necessary while I recover."

"It is so, and shall it be done."

The next two weeks were uneventful on the Void Hammer, aside from three quarters of the Navy sailors being confined to quarters until such time as a proper prison could be found. A large portion of the remaining crew were busy keeping the prisoners fed and clean. It was hilarious when Colonel Grimcar had to explain that the Void Hammer was under Marine command due to the AI deeming them insurrectionists, and not any action of the Marines. He smoothed it over by pointing out that they would still complete the mission without the Navy captain and it was all Navy Command's fault for enlisting terrorists and cutting the call.

The high brass wouldn't be happy with it, but they could eat shit. As planned, they executed the full stop measures, emitting massive blasts of energy that fried all but the most shielded of electronics. The only reason the Void Hammer was still functional was because it was all shielded, even the individual toilets were hardened and shielded. You could survive two days in any bathroom if it got separated from the ship.

They technically assaulted the place they were supposed to, even though it was more like a non-lethal drive by with rubber bullets, flashbangs, and an EMP. They went on to have navigation errors and fully committed to attack what appeared to be the correct system after trying to double back.