Chaos Tactics (The Reckless Chronicles Book 1)

by Trent Falls

  “No.” John smirked, looking down from Dan and shaking his head for a moment. “There’s no Misses Carn. Been close a few times but never sealed the deal. I got out of the Earth Alliance Marshall’s Service about ten years ago.”

  “You were an EA Marshall?” Dan suddenly seemed interested.

  “For about seven years. The job didn’t leave much in the way for a social life.” John tried to get back on track. “After I got back I just… never found a woman I clicked with.”

  “Julie said you were in the war?” Dan asked.

  “Yeah, for eight years before that. EEF Marine.” John explained.

  “That must have been…. tough.” Dan couldn’t think of anything adequate to say.

  John thought on his words for a moment. Yeah, it had been tough. “It was what it was.” John noted plainly. “I’m an adjunct professor now over at PBSC. World History of the 20th Century. Maybe if you decide to save some money at FAU and decide to take a few classes there I might see you.”

  “That’d be pretty cool.” Dan smirked.

  John took a breath. Clearly this was a bit awkward for both of them.

  Julie walked out of her room. She had heard them talking and wanted to keep her uncle from saying anything uncomfortable to Dan. She was beautiful even in her simple casual garb. Julie had decided on black leggings that ended below her knees mid-calf and a light blue button-up shirt dress. She wore short black sandals with small jade accents that wrapped up to her ankle. Her straight blonde hair flowed with her as she walked, making her seem lighter than air. She looked so much like Wendy when she was young, John thought.

  “Hi.” Julie greeted her boyfriend warmly.

  Dan stood up to meet his girl. The smile on his face said it all. He moved to kiss her lightly on the lips. Julie, being somewhat modest, turned her face slightly so that Dan would kiss her on the cheek. She didn’t want to create a spectacle for her uncle.

  John stood up with Julie near.

  “How are you guys getting along?” Julie smiled at them both.

  “Great, great!” Dan replied, making a nervous hand gesture at John.

  “You kids heading out already?” John asked.

  “Yeah, we need to pick up Kaitlyn and her date.” Julie answered.

  “When do you think you’ll be home?” John asked.

  Julie smirked at John. “I don’t know. About midnight. Maybe later.”

  “I’m just asking, sweetie.” John grinned back at her.

  “Don’t wait up, please.” Julie urged him.

  “Where else am I going to go?” John held his grin, shrugging his shoulders.

  Julie exhaled. She gave her uncle a kiss on the cheek. “Love you! I’ll be alright.”

  “Love you too! You have fun.” John said genuinely. It was said a tone of voice that Julie was only beginning to hear hints of. Though he loved her like a daughter, his tone noted that he was treating her as an adult. He couldn’t tell her what to do any longer.

  “What are you going to do?” Julie asked John.

  “Eh, I’ll probably hang out here. Watch the baseball game.” John answered.

  Julie looked at him for a moment. She wanted to tell him he should get out of the house. To go out and have fun. It was a conversation they had before. She instead leaned forward and gave him another kiss on the cheek.

  “You have fun.” Julie said sincerely, looking directly at him.

  “Yeah.” John nodded. “You too.”

  “Let’s go.” She noted to Dan.

  Dan, somewhat eagerly, followed Julie out the door.

  “Bye, see ya!” Julie said finally back at John, waving to him before shutting the door behind her.

  The apartment fell quiet as the door closed. John, once again, found himself alone in the house.

  New Australia was a coastal city on the southern continent of Proxima Centauri Five; or Proxi Five as the locals called it. The city was so named as it was on the southern major continent of the planet and resembled the layout and climate of the city of Sydney, Australia on Earth. Indeed, many of the colonists in the city viewed themselves in much the same manner as early Australian colonists to New South Whales; as prisoners. A number of early colonists had been lower-middle class to poor Earthlings who found themselves priced out of their home planet. In much the same way as early American and Australian settlers, the colonists had traveled to that new world, and others, with the hopes of a better life. They had been told they would own land and that they would be a master of their own destiny.

  What they found was that they were, more often than not, indentured servants to the companies that had booked them passage to the new world. There were company towns, like there had been in the United States in the 1800 during the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution, only with a corporate presence like that of the early twenty first century. Company logos were everywhere!

  Early colonization had been a mess when it came to the law. Corporations that had invested billions of credits offworld tended to hire their own security forces. In the beginning, there was no law unless there was a military EEF presence. When the seedier elements like graft, drugs, gambling, and prostitution weren’t around, the company’s rules were. Workers were strictly watched and governed. Curfews were imposed, not for the sake of maintaining the peace but to maintain productivity. Outside of the typical personal conflicts that tend to arise in any collection of humans, the battle between vice and hard-fisted commerce grew to a precipice. Workers tried to organize in the absence of real government, but those movements were quashed by the company barons of the colonies. At the same time, crime organized into a real threat, in many cases forming their own formidable private armies. And there were MANY old war vets who were out of work and too good at their tradecraft to remain unemployed.

  The war had served to bring these conflicting factions together for a time. Their common goal of survival was enough to keep the peace. The war had turned everything on its ear, though, and when it ended everyone was eager to rush in to take advantage of the openings it left for “business”.

  It was at this turbulent time that the Earth Alliance instituted the EA Marshal Service. Earth Alliance law, an extension of Earth International Law, would prevail. The EA issued a proclamation in 2120 that each colony would be governed by a locally elected board of between seven to twenty seven representatives, depending on colony planet size and population, and led by a Prime Minister elected from within that group. The EA Marshal Service, an extension of the EEF military, was created to insure compliance throughout all EA colony worlds and, eventually, assume all law enforcement duties for those colonies.

  Adam Rhodes was the current Chief Marshal of New Australia. It was a job he occupied for the last ten years since assuming it from his former boss John Carn, the previous Chief Marshal of New Australia.

  Rhodes had been a New York cop. While he had an English name, he was of Arabian and Italian ancestry. Despite living on Proxi Five for twelve years, he still had hints of a New York accent. He was a bit like Clint Eastwood in his cowboy appearance, only with tanned leathery skin and with a bit of Serpico thrown in. Adam loved the hell out of his job. He was able to dress casually, as he did that day with jeans, utility boots, and a blue short-sleeve tactical vest over a white t-shirt. He was a renewed bachelor, having divorced his wife four years earlier. He drove through Main Street of New Australia at mid afternoon in his yellow all-terrain utility vehicle, which looked like a cross between a jeep and an emergency vehicle. Rhodes had just left his girlfriend’s house and was on his way to the station.

  New Australia was a modern city for the most part. Certainly, it was a bit smaller in area than the metropolis cities of a Tokyo or New York City, but it was a decent size considering the three million people living there. There were a number of buildings around the bay, most about four or five stories. Further in at the heart of the city, there were many massive structures, including a few giant skyscrapers. The main spaceport, as big as any por
t capable of landing highliners, was across the bay on the north peninsula of the harbor. Gigantic flat white vessels came in from over the ocean in the east to land over hundreds of square yards of open tarmac available to each freighter. Twelve highliners were already parked on the field of New Australia Spaceport. Smaller civilian transports and air ships buzzed around the perimeter of the busy port.

  The Marshal’s Office was on the edge of town. Adam didn’t like this and wanted the council to move his office to the center of town. The office had originally been build at the edge of the city to allow the Marshall easy access the wilds outside the city. In the past, it was far more common for Marshals to travel the planet. In recent years, most of them did their work in the city, as that’s where most human civilization was confined. New settlements were often maintained by company security until they could establish themselves, and thus have a permanent Marshal assigned. The city had since overtaken the Marshal Station, with several new buildings around his headquarters.

  The Marshal’s Office was essentially an enclosed compound. Ten foot concrete walls surrounded the main courtyard, which was little more than compacted sand with a few green patches of grass. A long building resembling a motel stood at the far end of the yard beyond a short lawn. The main building was a three story white stone structure set in the center of the compound. Long ribbon windows were set into the sides of the building, with steel operable louvers set horizontally with the windows. The louvers could be closed in the event of an emergency and were armored well enough to withstand a grenade blast and high-power sustained machine gun fire. Two other smaller support buildings, a workshop and a concrete storage shed, were set behind the main building to the left of Adam’s view. An antennae farm stood between the main building and the motel-like living quarters. Among the cluster of antennae was a 5 meter parabolic dish pointed up to the western sky. The dish was one of the Marshal’s Office links home.

  Adam parked in the unpaved lot in front of his police building and got out of his utility vehicle. The old suspension squeaked as he alighted. The white limestone sand and pebbles crunched under his boots as he walked towards the front entry of the main building. A flat-bed utility vehicle resembling Adam’s was parked at the far end of the building. The main entry was a pair of tall wood doors about eight feet in height. The seams of a blast door ran around the front perimeter of the wood doors. The blast door was hidden inside the left return wall next to the door and could slide shut over the main doors in an emergency. During Adam’s time as Chief Marshal, they had never been shut.

  The main access sat inside a porch enclosed with walls about the width of the doors themselves. The interior corridor beyond was much the same. It was another security feature, one that would keep a mob of attackers bottlenecked at the limited entries, all of which had similar narrow openings. The corridor on the other side was about ten feet, leading to a main information desk. The air conditioning inside was instantly welcome to Adam’s skin, as it was very hot outside.

  An older Deputy Marshal in a standard navy blue uniform was behind the desk, toiling away at form menus on his computer screen.

  “Hey Max.” Adam noted indirectly to the older deputy. He looked over the duty roster on a portable tabled PC on Max’s desk. “How’s it going?”

  “Good sir.” Max replied, his eyes still fixed on his computer monitor. “Just cross-referencing the incident reports from last night.”

  “Yeah? Anything good?” Adam asked.

  “No. Lots of domestic violence reports and drunk and disorderlies.” Max noted.

  “Holiday weekend.” Adam noted. Proxi Five observed their own version of Memorial Day, occurring about when the American colonists were accustomed to it falling on the calendar. “How’s our guests?”

  “Same as yesterday, sir.” Max answered. “Mrs. Dekker wants to get home to Earth and the Marine wants to get back to Kappa Ceti Three.”

  “Is that ESF agent still coming in today?” Adam asked.

  Max’s eyes left his monitor to look at his younger boss. “I checked this morning. His transport is still on time and should land about 5 PM our time.”

  “Good. Thanks Max.” Adam grinned at the deputy marshal, moving away from the desk. “I’m going to check up on our guests.” Adam said aloud over his shoulder as he walked away down the hall.

  “Yes sir.” Max replied back in acknowledgement.

  Adam walked down the white hallway, past two stainless elevator doors on his left towards another exit to the outside. He emerged from the side of the building, walking out onto the short struggling green lawn. A maintenance worker and his assistant were working on cleaning of the big parabolic dish.

  “Hey, Marshal!” the lead maintenance guy waved.

  “Hey, Carl!” Adam waved back.

  Adam’s tactical boots crunched over another small patch of gravel before walking up on the colonnade concrete floor slab of the porch that ran along the front of the motel-like building. He walked up to the first door and keyed the door chime button.

  After a few seconds a female voice answered. “Yes?”

  “Misses Dekker. Marshal Rhodes here. May I come in?” Adam spoke back into the com.

  There was a clack from the release of the doors electric latch. The door looked like a normal swinging door, but it was reinforced bullet resistant steel. On the other side, there was a small kitchenette set into the wall on the left and a sink with an enclosed toilet on the right. Beyond was a fairly decent sized suite. Indeed, the interior looked much like a hotel suite. The room, and the six like it in the small building, were living accommodations for the Marshals. Not many were used regularly, as the Marshals tended to live off the grounds of the station. The rooms were more often used by Marshals and staff who might rather stay at the station after a long shift or in the event of an emergency.

  Mary Dekker sat in a chair at the far end of the room beyond the bed. The bed didn’t look like it had been slept in. Adam imagined Mrs. Dekker might have stayed in the chair nearly every night since arriving at New Australia three days earlier. Adam knew the suite well; it was reserved for his use being the largest of the six rooms.

  “How are we doing today, Mrs. Dekker?” Adam asked graciously, walking over to sit on the couch across from her.

  Mary Dekker seemed composed yet had a fairly blank expression on her face. “Better.” She replied plainly. “When will I be able to go back to Earth, Marshall?”

  “There’s an ESF Agent arriving early this evening. She’s going to conduct one final debrief with you, me, and Sergeant Peterson. That shouldn’t take too long. Maybe an hour or two. After that, the ESF Agent will accompany you back to Earth on the finest passage we can book out of New Australia.”

  “Thank you, Marshall. I appreciate all of this.” Mary Dekker replied evenly. “Is there any word on my husband yet?”

  “Nothing yet, Mrs. Dekker. I’m sorry.” Adam replied with a smooth calm.

  Mary Dekker let out a wavering breath. Adam looked around the room, eying the flat reflective black top of the coffee table between them.

  “Have you gotten anything to eat this morning, Mrs. Dekker?” Adam asked.

  “They… uh, brought me some fruit and cereal, thanks.” She forced herself to reply. She stared at Adam for a good while in silence. “Did they verify what happened on out ranch?” she was hesitant to continue. “They’re all dead aren’t they?”

  Adam stared at her blankly for a moment in thought. “Yes, they verified it. Everyone was accounted for except your husband.”

  Mary winced, then broke down in tears. Adam got up and rubbed her shoulder. He reached over to the counter and got Mary a box of tissues. The box had already been opened and used. After a few minutes, Mary collected herself with a few final sniffles.

  “It was the Xen, Marshal.” Mary said with certainty. “We had a small army at that compound and the Xen wiped them out in no time at all.” Mary sniffled again. “This is a violation of the treaty. We’ll be at
war again… soon.”

  Adam sat back down. He kept his worn brown eyes on Mary for a moment. “Maybe. For now let’s wait for the ESF Agent. I’m sure they’ll find your husband. And you’ll be back home… with family.”

  “Those people on Kappa Ceti Three were family, Marshall.” Mary observed.

  Adam allowed Mary’s words to hang in the air for a while. He didn’t know how to respond to her. She was right. The people on that planet were like her family. The skeptic in Adam didn’t believe the Earth Alliance would go back to armed conflict with the Xen. Despite all that had happened to Mary Dekker and the people on her ranch, Adam hoped war would be averted. Over fifteen million people died in the war. Hopefully, the events on Kappa Ceti Three were all a mistake. Hopefully, war would be averted. No one had the stomach for it and peacetime business was just too good.

  “I’m sorry, Mrs. Dekker.” Adam said, standing up. “I’ll leave you be. Please, if you need anything just contact us on the com.”

  Mary nodded slowly. “Yes. Yes, of course Marshall. Thank you.”

  Adam flashed her a quick smile in response, then turned to leave the room. He tried to leave as quietly as possible, leaving Mary to whatever peace she could hold on to.

  Chapter 7

  The crowd went wild. A roar of applause and cheering shook the Palm Beach Arena as Intergy finished their opening number, a churning rock opus called “Got You.”

  Julie clapped and yelled aloud. Her screaming jubilant voice mixed with the over 18,000 in attendance. It was hot, even in the enclosed arena. People were practically body-to-body. Dan, both to get close to Julie and conserve space, held Julie from behind.

  The Palm Beach Arena was fairly large, able to seat up to 25,000 if necessary. Intergy’s show had a five piece standard band, electronic musicians, and a few orchestral instruments flanking their sides. They were one of the largest acts in the nation. Their lighting and sound rig was massive. Colored spots flashed across the audience focusing back on the stage.