The Gathering Storm

by Chris Hechtl

  Dana sat up straighter, eyes wide in surprise as Admiral Irons' image formed on her desk in her holographic projector field. It started as a full-size image of him also behind his desk but then cut to a bust of him.

  “Mister President, sir,” she said, lunging to her feet and coming to attention.

  “At ease, Colonel,” the admiral said. She knew that the image was a simple representation of the admiral without vocal intonation or emotion, but it was still surprising to see him.

  “I'd like to offer my congratulations, Colonel; your people have done an outstanding job,” the admiral said.

  “Yes, sir. Thank you, but we didn't turn the tide until the cadre came. They were what broke the stalemate and took the starch out of the enemy's drawers,” she said.

  “I like that. Good one,” the admiral said with a nod. She could imagine him chuckling.

  “Thank you, sir, I try,” Dana said smoothly. “I'll pass your congratulations on to the troops. I know they'll appreciate it, sir.”

  “I know. I'll have a formal address to them and to the people of Destria in a day or so if I can keep on my schedule. No guarantees though,” the admiral said. “And I know there will be plenty of after-action reports to wade through and medals and decorations to hand out.”

  Dana grimaced but nodded. Her people deserved the accolades.

  “Not to mention the promotions,” the admiral said. “And I also know the troops will be far more interested in leave time and getting drunk.”

  “Which is normal. We're working on a safe zone here, sir. I don't think we're going to feel completely safe here for a while though,” Dana admitted.

  “I know. Now that combat is wrapped up there, I think Captain Church will be able to handle it from there. He's due in within forty-eight hours,” Admiral Irons said.

  “Yes, sir. I'm pretty confident we've got this sown up.”

  “Good. I'll discuss the situation with Colonel 1010111 and General Forth. By the way, the colonel is going to be promoted to brigadier later today,”' the admiral said. "Jersey will get his second star in a month or so."

  “Thank you, sir. I'll be sure to pass on my congratulations,” Dana said with a respectful nod. She'd read in her copy of the Military Times that Captain Yee had been promoted to the rank of major. Captain Church was most likely up for major soon. She'd heard a bit of the problems with the army had been due to some of the passive aggressive crap he'd pulled with Yee. Technically Church should have been shown the door, but apparently, he'd reformed.

  Hopefully, he wouldn't pull any of that crap when he was on Destria she thought.

  She'd also read that Rear Admirals White and Subert were up for their second stars. White deserved it; he was on the front lines. Subert though was something of a marionette. She wasn't certain he deserved it after the crap he'd pulled with the previous staff. But apparently, Admiral Irons wasn't ready to get rid of him for some reason.

  “Good. We need to keep your two branches working together smoothly. Once the captain arrives, you can start handing over the towns to him and to the locals. How are they?”

  “Surprisingly good, sir. They are stepping up now that the worst of the shooting is over. They are a resilient people.”

  “Good. Very good.”

  “Governor Debois sends his regards, sir. He had a list and on it are the delegations and senators. He'll work on getting the elections going in the spring after the first planting is complete he said.”

  “Understood. I'd like for them to come with your troops when the ships are unloaded, but if they aren't ready by then, we'll figure something else out.”

  “Yes, sir. Are we planning to leave most of our equipment behind?”

  “Some. You can work out the details with Captain Church, the governor, and General Forth.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Dana said. “I think we can fit most of our people on the two ships then. It will be crowded, but I think we can swing it.”

  “Good.”

  “I heard there are problems in Bek, sir? Are we going there or …?”

  “Already eager for another assignment, Colonel?” the admiral asked.

  “No, sir. Not until we've gone through a refit cycle. But, I am curious.”

  “It is a mess. Horatio is doing his best but he is only one man. I recently issued orders for him to cut off the head and get the matter sorted out. Hopefully, the matter is over … but something tells me it isn't.”

  “Damn.”

  “I know. No, your people won't be going there. I am not sure where yet. That is a matter for General Forth and the future. Perhaps with the Eastern Front, I don't know at this point.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “The prisoners … any problems with the locals?”

  “No, sir. A few have made noises about having them tried for war crimes. Most of the officers we've caught were not involved in that however. I know one officer, a Lieutenant Kinoshita, who was involved in some slave labor allegations. Lieutenant Liu is sorting fact from fiction or at least trying to do so now, sir.”

  “Ugly business that. Some do not like the idea of war crimes tribunals. I don't care what some soldiers say; if they went overboard, then the guilty should be punished.”

  Dana could hear the thunder and clash of anger in that simple statement. After seeing the death camps and hearing some of the horror stories, she heartily agreed. There was no excuse for it, no hiding behind following orders or any bull crap like that. An illegal unethical order throwing away one's humanity to another being had to be dealt with. They had to set an example. “Agreed, sir.”

  “I'm glad that is covered. If Governor Debois has an issue with ONI hanging onto anyone, let me know.”

  “Yes, sir.” Dana grimaced. “Sir, ONI also had a flag on a deceased Horathian female.”

  “A flag?”

  “Yes, sir. I don't know what it was about. The tag is classified. Lieutenant Liu has preserved the body for transport in a stasis pod. I thought the matter was resolved, but ONI wants the body. No one said where however.”

  “I'll ask Monty to look into it or Yorgi if he comes around first. Did you get anywhere with that private?”

  It was Dana's turn to grimace in distaste. “I've watched the videos and heard his account as well as the witness accounts. We've run him through the ringer, sir. According to the NCIS investigator, JAG attorney, and Lieutenant Liu he's not a Guild member, just a trigger-happy idiot who screwed up.”

  “Seriously screwed up,” the admiral said. “We're going to run him through it all over again when you get him back to Pyrax.”

  “Yes, sir. I'm expecting him to be court-martialed or dishonorably discharged at the least,” the colonel replied.

  “Agreed. Discharged at the very least, something like that … I know people can be on edge, but he wasn't even involved in the fighting.”

  “No, sir. No, he wasn't.”

  “And Jethro?”

  “He's in ICU. It was touch and go for a while, but they think he'll pull through now. He's a mess though. The medics believe it will take a long time to get him sorted out. The rest of the cadre refused to put him in stasis.”

  “They probably had their reasons,” Admiral Irons replied. “Good. Send me the full report when you've got it. The same from Bast and the others.”

  “Will do sir.”

  “Good. Antigua out.”

  :::{)(}:::

  Antigua

  Admiral Irons received the full report of the cadre's first combat OP with mixed feelings a few hours later. He was gratified to see that they'd pulled it off and the Death's Head platoon they'd been up against had been more or less obliterated. The cadre losses were rough though, and painful when he knew they were just starting out. But, they'd been up against some stiff competition in some very tight quarters where most of their advantages had been negated. To go in anyway was a mark for them. They'd gotten the job done despite the enemy having the home-ground advantage and numbers.

  What
bothered him the most was the report on Jethro. To come through all that and then … he shook his head in anger. To be shot by a trigger-happy ally, in the back after the mission was over …

  Friendly fire incidents were dark affairs. Everyone knew they could and did happen. But, it was one of those things, and something most people did their best not to think about until it happened. He growled and ordered a full investigation.

  One way or another, the trigger-happy idiot was out of the military. And he was going to wish he had never been born by the time ONI was through with him. If they found so much as a shred of evidence that he was linked to the Assassin's Guild, he would authorize them to take the son of a bitch apart. Enough was enough.

  :::{)(}:::

  “So, where are we?” Vice Admiral Yorgi Sienkov asked his deputy. Captain John Montgomery, the actual head of the Office of Naval Intelligence smiled at his boss.

  “We're still getting a steady stream of data in from Second Fleet. They are just hitting the highlights, and we're sending them our own from the data we've processed so far. Playing catch-up is a pain, but at least the times involved have been cut.”

  “But, only so much bandwidth can be used,” the admiral observed.

  “Exactly. So, again, the high points. Anything we need depth on has to wait for a compressed transmission or a courier. We've got petabytes of data still coming and going, plus samples and subjects.”

  “Understood.”

  “On the other sectors, nothing new from Tau, Sigma, or Pi. The plague on Syntia's World was a natural one by the way, no sign of enemy interaction.”

  “Well, that's a relief I suppose,” the admiral rumbled.

  “I assure you it is. It means the virus is responding to treatment and wasn't weaponized. And it's not a Xeno plague like what they unleashed on ET.”

  The admiral shivered and gave a choppy nod at that statement.

  “What about the other fronts?”

  “I'll get to domestic in a bit,” the captain replied, checking his notes. He received another nod but didn't see it as he was turning his gaze inward to the bullet point presentation on his HUD. “We've received fresh requests for more information on Nuevo Madrid. We don't know anything new, so I've asked for and gotten authorization to send in a follow-up ship with a dedicated ONI team to get the information we need.”

  “Ah.”

  “Yes, sir. Second Fleet sent a tin can in to verify there was no enemy force lurking there waiting to come out and pounce.”

  “But, that doesn't preclude someone in hyper or hiding.”

  “No, sir. They'll still need escorts for convoys and such. And B-95a3 will need a proper picket since it's a crossroads.”

  “Agreed. What else?”

  “We've got more news on Hidoshi's World. The enemy commander, a political colonel named Zin, is still MIA. We lost track of him. He most likely hasn't left the planet since there has been little if any traffic, most of it our own.”

  “But, you didn't discount the chance totally?”

  “No, sir,” the captain replied. “I can't rule anything out without hard evidence,” he replied.

  “Point. Continue.”

  “Protodon is settling down, and I've got a domestic report on that. There is little to report on the war effort there. The conflict has devolved into a terrorist level at this point.”

  “Understood. And Destria?”

  “Destria,” the captain's tone of voice cooled noticeably.

  “I take it that it turned again?”

  Monty shook himself and then shook his head. “No. Sorry sir, just remembering the mess with that kid.”

  “A PFC I think I remember from the report?” Yorgi prodded.

  “PFC Bob Ilumin, which is odd since given his name and the fact that he was pretty dim,” Monty growled. “Our people on Destria have confirmed his account. He was nervous, scared, and trigger-happy. His record in boot said the same thing. He was only recently promoted after spending two years as a private.”

  “Two years?”

  “According to his record, he needed a bit more seasoning. That's a direct quote,” the captain replied dryly.

  “Ah.”

  “I've got everyone digging into his life. By the time we're done, Fletcher will have the kid's life history down pat. He'll know everything up to and including when or if the kid popped his cheery, with whom, and how well it went.”

  Yorgi grimaced at that sordid detail. “I didn't need that image, thank you.”

  “Sorry. It fits though. We need to completely deconstruct the kid's life to see if he really is in the guild. Even then, with the covers they can assemble, we can't be too sure. They've gotten their people into entry level or higher positions and therefore past our screening before. They did it back in the old Federation days as well.”

  “I know, I read the report and I remember some of the crap in Bek,” the admiral replied.

  “In Bek?” Monty asked, clearly surprised by that tidbit.

  “They are like lice. They turn up everywhere you don't want them.”

  “Okay,” Monty drawled as he filed that dropped missive to his implant memory to explore later. There was nothing about them in the Bekian downloads.

  “But, so far nothing?”

  “No. We're still waiting on some of the interviews. We're also going to want to go over the kid. He's in stasis.” The admiral blinked. “Admiral Irons’ orders,” Monty amplified with a shrug. “He's under guard too.”

  “Oh.”

  “I don't see him as a Machiavellian assassin. Most want to blend in. Most do a damn good job, too good a job doing so.” He grimaced again. “And, granted, a friendly fire incident with a twit would be a great cover to kill the warrant off with. But, I think he's innocent of being an assassin. Stupid as a brick and trigger-happy yes—an assassin, no.”

  “It's unfortunate that things happened as they did. It put a damper on things,” the admiral murmured.

  “That it did. The cadre until is wrapping up things on Destria without the warrant before they ship back here to refit for their next deployment. We'll expect them back in six months or so. They might be diverted in Protodon to go to the front, but I doubt it at this point.”

  The admiral nodded. “Understood. I know mistakes happen but …”

  Monty's expression turned ugly. “This was a bit more than a mistake. You don't do that sort of thing,” Monty said with a shake of his head. “It's one thing to screw paperwork up. But, this …”

  Yorgi grimaced. He had a new flag lieutenant since Elvis had recently been promoted. The kid meant well but lords of space was he green! Green as a cucumber was the old saying his boss said. He was doing his best to cut him some slack as he learned the ropes, and fortunately, First Lieutenant Elvis Yaeger was still around to lend a helping hand when things got rough. But …

  “The kid made a mistake. Unfortunately, it happens in war. Do we really have to destroy him to make a point?” He shook his head. “I didn't think Admiral Irons was vindictive.”

  “Ordinarily no. But, when his friends are threatened, he turns into a different person,” Captain Montgomery replied. “Besides, it's not really up to us, sir.”

  “Friends,” the rear admiral echoed softly.

  “Yeah. I think I can count myself among that number, but just barely. Spirits of space know he's cut me enough slack as I learned my job. I know all about making mistakes and getting forgiveness for them.”

  Yorgi frowned and looked away.

  “Something on your mind?”

  “I'm just wondering how he is going to react if we get news … bad news from Bek,” Yorgi said quietly.

  Monty stilled. Slowly he turned to stare at the rear admiral. “Something we should know, sir?” he asked very carefully.

  “I don't know. I do know he ordered Horatio to stick his nose into something. To carry a message, really throw down a gauntlet there. I don't think it's going to go as well as the admiral hopes.” He frowned as he rea
lized who he was talking to and what about. “Not by a long shot,” he muttered as he looked away. After a moment, he shook himself. “Okay, so, back to the report. I think that covers the war front, I believe there is nothing new on the empire …?” he asked. Monty shook his head. “I didn't think so. So, domestic interests …?”

  Monty made a puttering sound of mock despair as he moved on to the next list. “Local, political, or abroad? We could be at this all week for this one report.”

  “Let's just hit the highlights and lowlights, shall we?” Yorgi replied with a shake of his head.

  “Sure.”

  :::{)(}:::

  Major Joshua Lyon stood at parade rest with the holographic avatar of Mars beside him. It was hard to hold a memorial, hard on everyone, but necessary. The dead deserved to be honored for their service. Those who had served with them deserved the closure.

  The entire unit had turned out at the new base for the ceremony despite the base's current state of construction. That included many of their supporting staff and dependents, as well as the dependents of the deceased who were in the star system. Facing them had been harsh; he'd rather face combat than look into the lost eyes of a child and tell them that their parent wouldn't be returning to hug them ever again.

  As cadre, many of the members were young and some had been unattached. They had siblings or friends there. It had taken a bit of work to get them clearance to the base. He'd tried to make getting the clearances as painless and unobtrusive to them as possible. The A.I. were on the lookout for trouble, but he was fairly certain there wouldn't be any.

  It was hard on everyone, even harder on a few who knew they'd have to go through it all over again when the bodies were returned for a proper burial. He shook his head mentally and did his best to put such thoughts aside.

  At least Warrant McClintock had survived. According to the report from Mars and the latest round of scuttlebutt, Jethro was recovering on the hospital ship. Admiral Irons had just signed off on what to do with the black panther earlier in the morning. He and Bast were destined to go to Kathy's World for a long convalescence and some long overdue leave with his family. For the major, it was a double-edged sword. He was temporarily losing his best DI and field commander, but it was only temporary. The other side was that the cat would be interacting with his family. According to what Jethro had told him, two of the four Neokittens were already cloaking despite their young age. That meant they were definitely cadre material. The other two cats could also make the jump easily. They still had a long way to go before they entered the service, but they were on the right path. Jethro would see to some of their education while he had the chance.