"No, no rush, Doctor. Take your time. Are there MPs down there?"
"The whole hospital security net is watching for Mr. Barnes, if that's what you mean."
"Good, thanks."
Jack disconnected and paged Military Police. A Major answered his call and explained, "We aren't sure where Barnes is right now. We've got an all points bulletin out on him--we'll catch him."
Jack felt pretty certain that Barnes would come for him, and he addressed the Major, "I want two men stationed at my hangar's south door tonight. Can that be arranged?"
"Just the south door?"
"Yeah."
"So be it, Lieutenant. Just remember, we like to take people through the justice system. If he comes there, be sure not to kill him."
Jack disconnected and called Kai, explaining things to him. Within a few hours Colonel Henderson paged Jack. He answered, "Yes, Colonel?"
"This situation with Barnes. You're to avoid him at all costs. Is that clear?"
"Crystal, Colonel."
"I have reason to believe he's going to come after you, Lieutenant. I'm sending MPs to put you under 24 hour guard."
"That's not necessary, Doctor. I can handle myself just fine. I've arranged for some of the Kilken to guard my house. They'll be sufficient."
"Look, Jack, he's broken down. Too much stress from the war. Even though he wasn't front line, he has seen a few battles. He's not thinking straight."
"Maybe you should have treated him sooner, Doctor," Jack said.
Henderson scowled. The first time Jack had ever seen an expression on her face other than fake bliss. "He didn't raise any of the warning flags that you did, Jack."
"Was that all, ma'am?"
"Yes, Lieutenant, you've had a chance to try those pills I prescribed."
"Yes, Colonel, they don't seem to do anything."
"That's fine. They shouldn't have noticeable side effects--it's a good thing that you're not feeling anything from them."
Jack was tired of talking to Henderson. He didn't like the woman. "Was that all?"
Henderson's face shifted back to its usual blissful expression, and she said, "That is all."
Jack took off from the practice field to go home and play with his kids and have dinner with Lexi. After dinner Jack said, "I have to go back to the office. I'm way behind on paperwork."
Lexi looked at him coldly. "Liar, you're going to find this crazy Barnes person and fight him. Aren't you?"
The Barnes incident had been on the news, apparently. "Perhaps, Lexi, likely I'll just be doing paperwork though. There are MPs stationed at the hangar tonight."
"You're an idiot. He could have a blast rifle."
"Those are secure," Jack said. "It would be reported, if one was missing."
Lexi nodded. "Kind of like the one that hangs over our mantle?"
There was a knock on the door. Jack said, "Now, who could that be?"
Jack opened the door, and Kai, Loc, and Che stood there, carrying old style projectile rifles. Jack thought to himself, they used to call them machine guns.
"Hi, Lieutenant, I'll be in the house," Kai said. "Loc and Che will stay stationed on the perimeter, hiding. If Barnes comes here, we'll take him down."
"Good, the MPs don't want him killed."
"We'll be careful. You watch yourself."
"I can take him. He might be big, but he's slow…"
Lexi threw a plate at Jack's head, and it missed, but it careened off the wall. "Let the police handle him!"
"He hurt my friends. He's going to pay."
Jack drove his hover tank to the north entrance to the hangar. The door was open, and the lights were on. Jack wondered if Captain Barnes waited inside for him. He hoped he did. Jack exited his tank and went through the doors. Young Private Hawk was painting on his suit. Jack called out, "You should go home, Private. It's late."
"Just a bit more, and I'm finished, commander."
"Did you train today?"
"Yeah, I had nine kills, was strange though being alone out there, no Sarah and her relentless 'advance' commands."
Most of Jack's crew considered six kills in one day a day to celebrate. Hawk averaged like eight, but Sarah always used him as a point man. Sarah and Rob averaged over ten kills a day. Their team had the best kill ratio of all Jack's teams. Jack said, "Well, wrap-up what you're doing and head home."
"Aye, commander."
Jack went to his desk and started doing paperwork, performance reviews, rank requests; all sorts of paperwork. After an hour or so one, of the banks of lights went off, the ones illuminating the suits. Jack assumed that meant Hawk had left. Good. Hawk hollered, "Goodnight, commander."
Jack hollered back, "Goodnight, Private Hawk."
Pouring himself a glass of Scotch, he proceeded to sip at it and wait. A solid hour went by when a shadow passed in front of the hangar door. Jack set down the glass. Barnes stood in the doorway, with his right hand held behind his back, presumably holding that metal pipe he'd used on Rob and Sarah.
"Come on in, Barnes. I hope you brought more than a metal pipe to use against me."
"Oh, I brought something alright, and I think you're going to like it."
"You just couldn't take losing to a woman could you?" Jack asked.
Barnes sneered and then raised his right hand from behind his leg and pointed something at Jack, another damn taser. Barnes pushed the fire button on it and metal spikes shot out of it into Jack's chest, sending tens of thousands of volts through his body. Jack crumpled to the ground, twitching and starting to foam at the mouth. Barnes said, "You might notice this one does bite a bit more then the last one you ran into. This one I modified myself…"
Jack's rage started to boil, and he tried to move his left hand to the wires to jerk them out of his chest. His arm wouldn't move…
"Put down the taser, Barnes."
Jack looked over, and it was Private Hawk. He was pointing his suit's emergency sidearm at Barnes. He laughed. "Those pistols don't arm until you hit a landing zone, moron."
Jack still twitched on the ground. His heart raced to the beat of the taser instead of his own. He did roll over on to his side, so he could see.
Hawk pointed the weapon over Barnes' head and pulled the trigger. The warm shriek of a blaster going off filled the air. Barnes dropped the taser and turned on Hawk. "Do you know how long you'll be in the stockade, if you shoot an officer?"
Jack tried to sit up. He started seeing white flashes, and he couldn't move.
Hawk said, "Don't come any closer!"
Barnes said, "Give me the weapon, Private."
"No."
Barnes took another step towards Hawk.
He aimed the pistol down and hit the trigger. A bolt of energy left the blaster and hit Barnes square on his right leg, burning a hole clear through. He collapsed on the ground. Hawk stood over him. "That was for team Hawk, you piece of shit."
Jack just lay there trying to breathe normally. Finally, he stood up and looked at Hawk, still pointing the pistol at Barnes. Jack said, "Give me the weapon, Private."
"Yes, sir."
Jack spoke loud. "Computer, Open South Doors."
Two military police entered the hangar when the doors opened, and Jack pointed at Barnes. "Gentlemen, you have your man."
They cuffed him and hauled him to their cruiser. Jack looked at Hawk. "Private, how is it that you have an armed sidearm?"
"I hacked the main computer, sir, so I could get the combat activation code for my suit."
"And you did that because?" Jack asked.
"I wanted to try the blaster for one. Two, if there were an invasion and the computer failed to activate my suit, it'd be useless."
Jack rubbed at his chest where the taser plugs were inserted. "You're likely to face charges for the computer hacking."
"It was really easy to do…"
"I don't know if that's going to matter."
* * *
Within a week the courts messaged Jack, Sarah, Rob,
and Hawk that they needed to attend Captain Barnes and Private Hawk's arraignments, scheduled back to back. Jack went to his treasure trove of medals and pinned each one to his front on the day of the hearing. They found themselves at the same court room where they reviewed Sarah.
They led Barnes in through a side door--he walked like a zombie and just stared straight ahead. Lawyers entered, one on Barnes' side, one on the right with Jack and the others.
The bailiff did his thing again, and five judges stepped out of their enclave, including Rear Admiral Barnes. The center judge glanced at the paperwork in front of him and then looked up and said, "Fleet vs. Captain Barnes."
The lawyer for Barnes spoke up, "Sirs, if I may, my client is in no condition to assist in his own defense, and psychiatric has recommended an immediate section six and incarceration on the civilian side."
Rear Admiral Barnes pushed himself away from his desk and simply left. The center judge said, "He's officially stripped of his rank, section six, and then the civilian courts will be just fine. Next case, Fleet vs. Private Hawk. Step forward, Private."
Hawk moved to the front and looked chestfallen.
"You freely admit to accessing the main computer illegally?" The left judge asked.
Hawk nodded.
"Do you have anything you want to say for yourself?" The center judge asked.
"It was really easy, sir. The main computer isn't secure. All I entered was God for a username and Jesus as a password, and I was in a root account."
The center judge pushed a button on his desk for a sound screen of white noise, and the five judges conferred for a bit. The center judge said, "Well, you also used the knowledge in a good way. We're going to drop the charges against you, Private Hawk. Have a good day on the field today."
Hawk smiled and turned to leave. Jack, Sarah, and Rob all stood up together, and the four of them left the courtroom. Rob said, "You live a charmed life, Hawk."
* * *
Over the next few weeks, training became routine for them. Jack and Wilson did their best to present new challenges to the troops. Jack received a fun email. They planned to test a new prototype of their armored suits, and Jack would have the first one for himself in a week. They would be faster, with better shields, better sensors and more firepower. From the outside they would be an exact replica of the older model, so the Lithor wouldn't realize they fought a new weapon.
Jack walked into the hangar on the day it arrived, and one of his Privates ran up to him, saluted, and said, "What happened to the paint on your suit, sir?"
People had been sneaking around the hangars painting stuff on Jack's suit for some time. Jack presumed it was people he had sniped on the playing field early on in the day: people he had sent back to the barracks with zero kills. Jack looked, sure enough his suit had a bright shine to it. He said, "Oh, maintenance must have done that…"
Jack looked it over, and it looked exactly like the suit he'd used the day before, minus a dozen generations of paint. He climbed into it and activated its armor, stepping away from its power station. He took off in a run towards the playing field. Jack set a quicker pace than usual, and the suit responded smoothly. Jack smiled--he should get a lot of kills today.
The computer knew to adjust Jack's shields and firepower appropriately. His sensors picked up other suits up to 150 meters away instead of 100. He stepped onto the playing field, and team Hawk showed first on his sensors. Jack owed team Hawk, as they often went out of their way to kill him. He gunned them down without remorse, sending them back to the hangar with an unprecedented zero kills.
A team of five showed on his sensors, and he lobbed grenades at them until they showed as dead. One of the lone wolf fighters showed on his sensors next, and Jack almost felt bad about killing one of the people without a team, but it's how they wanted to play supposedly. They'd be in groups for the upcoming battle. Jack cut him down with a short burst from his blaster.
Jack proceeded to jog his suit to city center. That's where the action would be. He cut down another team of five with grenades and his blaster.
He made it to city center and proceeded to snipe everybody that approached. His troops started to wise up, and he faced a team approaching him on his north and south. Jack gunned down the team on the north side first. The team on the south side made it into sensor range during that time, and they started firing on Jack. He turned and took out two of them before his computer chirped, "Suit destroyed. End of round. Thirty-seven kills."
Jack's suit reactivated, and he sprinted back to the hangar. He backed up to the power station, exited the suit, and then closed the armor. He could already see people with paint approaching, and he didn't want any to get on the inside. Sarah walked up with a can of black paint and simply dumped the whole thing on Jack's suit's shoulder. Jack asked, "Was that necessary?"
Sarah just turned her back on him and walked off.
Another Private ran up to Jack and saluted. Private Bailey if Jack recalled correctly. "When do we get ours, Lieutenant?"
"They didn't say."
* * *
Over the next ten days Jack's fighters got better at tracking him and killing him, good practice for them. When their suits arrived, glee filled the hangars. After they got to practice with the new weapons, they spent all evening in the hangar painting them.
Jack finished with his morning hover tank battle and ate lunch in the hangar. He was about to climb into his suit when one of his men shouted, "Admiral on deck!"
Jack moved in that direction, and indeed, the Fleet Forward Admiral and his second in command were walking into Jack's hangar. Jack stood at attention and saluted.
Steve Creech approached Jack, saluted, and said, "At ease, Lieutenant, this isn't an inspection."
Jack said, "At ease, men."
"To be honest I did come down to see the troops and watch your battle today, but it's not official at all."
"I'll let the men know."
"Are you using the airborne video recorders to monitor the battles?" Creech asked. "Can I watch specific teams?"
"We use three airborne recorders, sir. Our best team is the Hawks, if you want to watch in on a specific team."
"I'll do that. I also wanted to meet you, Lieutenant. I read that you hail from Artemis, born native to high gravity. Did you ever get high gravity sickness?"
"No, sir," Jack said as he shook his head. "Nobody in my family had a problem with high gravity sickness."
"We should put together a modified Corvette with nobody on board but you and let you fly circles around the Dreadnaughts."
"I like being a ground pounder. I think I like to watch them die."
"Fair enough, Lieutenant," Creech said. "How long until your battle starts today?"
"Ten minutes or so."
"Good. Can we watch from your terminal?"
"Yes, be my guest," Jack said.
"If you were wondering, we've got about four weeks left, I think, before the next mission. Have they informed you yet about the mission parameters?"
"We're hitting a fortified Lithor planet with the intent of bringing back captive Lithor as viral test subjects."
Creech did a little shrug thing. "Ok, that's actually more information than I was supposed to give you…"
Jack mimicked Creech's shrug exactly. "My sister is dating one of the designers of the virus."
"Oh, makes sense."
"I need to get suited up and get to the playing field," Jack said.
"Off you go, Lieutenant."
Creech moved the terminal, so he and Julie could see. Then he pulled up Hawk Team's camera view in one window and Jack's view in another. Everybody knew that Creech watched, and they played hard. Jack walked away with five kills. Hawk Team did extremely well, pleasing Creech. He had orders for Jack to pick a squad of five to be point in the next invasion. When Jack returned to the hangar, Steve told him the news.
"It has to be a team of five?" Jack asked.
"Yes, you can let Team Hawk pick two mo
re people if you want to use them. They're very good…"
"I'll see if they're game."
Steve stood up. "I believe that's all."
"Thanks for stopping by personally," Jack said.
"You're welcome."
Jack sent a page to Team Hawk telling them to report to him. Within a few minutes, they arrived at Jack's desk. Jack got right to the point.
"Are you interested in being pointmen in the next invasion?" He asked.
Sarah smiled. Rob sighed. Hawk's eyes lit up. It was kind of like watching a cartoon about three insane monkeys with no sound.
Jack waited.
Sarah said, "Yes."
Rob and Hawk nodded.
"You'll need to take on two more members to your team. Make sure they understand you're going to be point."
Sarah kept on smiling. "I've had a few people ask to join us, good people. One wanted to join because he figured we'd get point."
Jack said, "Also, I believe you'll get hazard pay. I do."
"Does this mean you're going to make me a Corporal?"
"I don't know. Hadn't thought that far ahead. I'll have to check with Wilson."
"When will you talk to Wilson?"
Jack laughed. "I'll call him today, Sarah."
"Thanks."
Jack said, "Dismissed," and team Hawk turned and left.
Jack rang Wilson's desk in the other hangar. Wilson looked tired when he answered the video phone. He smiled though, saying, "Jack."
"I spoke with Admiral Creech today. He told me to choose a team for point in the next invasion."
"Did you choose team Hawk? Their scores are the best."
"Yes. Their team captain wants to be made a Corporal."
"Sarah, yes? I have no problem with it. Send me the paperwork, and I'll run it past High Command."
"Thanks," Jack said.
"You've got four weeks left with the machines before we'll only be able to practice on the computer simulations. Make them count."
"I will."
* * *
Charlie and Rasputin joined team Hawk within a week. Rasputin being an oddity: he didn't really talk to anyone. He always played alone and held the top scores for a lone wolf. Charlie had seen less real combat than Rasputin but was more personable. Charlie had pale skin, like he avoided the sun. Rasputin's skin was dark as night, and he spoke in this deep voice you'd expect from a pop singer from ancient Earth 1950s or 60s.
R.A.E.C.E. Genesis Page 25