He found a group of five that had yet to split up. Lincoln swore under his breath — this might bet the last few that he’d be able to get as they were now out of space. Ten klicks down the road across a barren stretch of old highway was Lo’Rock, and Lincoln could see heavy raider airships disengaging from their tower berths to turn their noses his way.
“Messenger, we’re outta time, man. Lo’Rock is launching their airships to join the party.”
It wasn’t his fellow Jaeger who answered, but the D.A.C.S Thomas Jackson as it continued chugging through the air over Lincoln’s head, ponderously turning to the left as it brought its guns to bear.
“Fear not, Jaeger Emancipator,” the captain of the Jackson radioed down to him. “Just like the stone wall of our namesake, we’ll hold the line for you as you liberate our women.”
To punctuate the point, the Jackson opened with full broadsides, hurling out its volley of death toward the oncoming raider airships.
Another voice cut in as a pair of Devastators screamed though the air past the Jackson to give a faster raider airship a full spread of beamer cannon fire.
“Y’all having fun here and you didn’t even invite me to the party…,” Coleton Muller admonished him from the lead aircraft. “Shame on all y’all!”
Lincoln threw his head back and laughed. “Glad you’re here to back us up, Intruder,” he said. “Who’s your wing-man?”
“Eh, just some jerk that I picked up along the way,” Coleton said flippantly. “He happened to be in the area with his ride.”
As much as Lincoln wanted to press the issue, he didn’t; he had ladies to save. He ignored the air battle developing overhead and caught up to the fleeing group of raiders. Upraising his rifle, he caught one in the back with a snap shot, sending him screaming to the ground in pain. The seven remaining raiders scattered, putting the five women into various hiding spaces behind walls or underneath the sparse underbrush. Lincoln looked back and forth, not wanting to fire when he couldn’t see the captives.
Almost as if the captain of the airship could read his mind, the Jackson lit up the area with their massive searchlights all pointing down on his location. Now Lincoln could see them all. He shouldered his rifle and flicked both of his wrists downward, producing his small Jaeger blades from the tops of both gauntlets. Then, using his armor’s superior speed, he charged the two in front of him who happened to be standing close together, driving his electrified blades through their chests.
A third raider was nearby and Lincoln lunged for him, taking the man’s wrists off in a single swipe when he squared himself to fire his beamer. He went to his knees, howling in pain before Lincoln gave him a savage kick to the head. The other four started firing and Lincoln continued running around the big circle that they’d created, hacking and slashing until they were all dead on the ground, their blood mixing with the hot sand.
An explosion caused by a beam of light on the wall just over his head made him duck. He looked up to see one of the smaller raider airships, a Cutter-Class, had slipped through the barrage of cannon fire from the Jackson and the two Consortium Devastators. Lincoln stiffened as he stared down the two massive forward barrels of the Cutter while they charged for the next shot that’d kill him.
“Get up and run!” he shouted thorough his speakers, hoping it would get the women to scurry for safety. He fired flares behind him to signal for pickup while he pulled his beamer rifle out and started taking potshots at the Cutter.
The Cutter suddenly exploded, crashing to the ground in a fiery wreck. From behind it, the black Devastator flew through the trail of smoke that billowed upwards, doing a victory barrel roll in the process.
“Dude…,” Lincoln breathed with relief as he watched the airplane fly by. “I don’t know who you are, but you have my thanks.”
“Don’t worry about it,” the mysterious pilot radioed back amid a burst of static. “Just get those women back to the Michaelson estate and that’ll be thanks enough.
CHAPTER 18
While the James Longstreet and the Thomas Jackson held their newfound gains on the far side of the Mississippi Bay, their skimmer longboats flew the newly liberated women back to the Michaelson estate with the two Consortium Devastators escorting.
Lucy had heard the men talking about a ‘Butcher’s Bill’ of the dead, wounded, and missing. Twenty Dixie Marines and thirty-two airship crewmen died in the exchange over Red Fields with another hundred wounded. All to save her and seventeen other maids and noblewomen. Twelve of the captured women were still missing and presumed lost to the raiders until the Consortium could mount a Jaeger expedition into the Wastelands to track them down.
“Something on your mind, Miss?” the Marine sergeant asked her, looking at her with concern. He hadn’t left her side since Gabriel ordered him to protect her, and from his demeanor, he was taking that job as if God himself had come down and given him the task. The sergeant had even gone so far as to break out the emergency blankets for her and the other naked women still burdened with shackles and collars.
“Just… thinking… that’s all,” Lucy admitted. “All this for a handful of women who are barely second-class citizens.” She glanced at him. “Makes me wonder why.”
“Mmmmm….” The sergeant nodded his understanding. “We sons and daughters of Dixie are a strange lot, I’ll admit that. We promote the Lord’s word in the One Book as being the right and just thing to follow and then we do something stupid like put other people down to subpar levels. After the Confederacy fell and went back to being Americans, we thought we’d put the evils of slavery behind us. Then, ain’t life grand — America collapses under its own weight and here we are again, rehashing the old wounds until the Consortium steps in. Some say we’re not much better than the old Confederacy in that we just went back to the old ways. I think that we’re just a bit better off than before under either the Confederacy or the United States.”
“Oh? How so?” Lucy asked, unable to keep the skep-ticism out of her voice.
“Sure, we might treat women a bit unfairly at times, but that’s because we want to protect them in our own way. At the end of the day, we’re all still Dixie. We all fight and die to protect what’s ours and we’ll be damned if any filthy, godless raider is gonna come in and take our ladies for their own depraved purposes.” He shook his head. “Nosiree, not on our watch. We might not be perfect, but thus far we’ve outlasted the Confederacy and we’re well on our way to outlast America by avoiding the mistakes of our forefathers.”
“Hmmm…,” Lucy grunted, adding something else to think about on the flight back home.
***
Upon returning to the Michaelson estate and overseeing the offload of the liberated women, Gabriel found Lucas Wolverton standing watch over Overseer Anderson in a makeshift prison inside the gazebo in the back courtyard. Lucas looked hot and sweaty in his suit with his black hair matted in places as if he’d just completed one hell of a workout.
“Glad to see you back,” Lucas told him. “I just took over guard duty from your friend, Deacon. He tossed him in here on a citizen’s arrest, saying that you were investigating him and didn’t want him to, what was the words he used? Slither off like the snake he is? Anyway, Deacon is off checking on his staff and should be back any minute.”
“Thanks, I appreciate the help.” Gabriel took off his helmet, breathing in the fresh air, and nodded at him. “And thanks for calling in the air support from Atlanta. Intruder and his wingman were invaluable and saved Emancipator and five women’s lives.”
“All in a day’s work,” Lucas said and grinned. “So, what are we going to do about your boy here?” he asked, crossing his arms in thought, studying the overseer like a caged animal.
“I’d love to shoot him now and be done with it,” Gabriel spat. His left arm with the arm cannon twitched upward
“Ah, ah, ah…,” Lucas admonished him with a quick wag of his finger. “Legal proceedings,” he reminded him. “We might be Consortium, but e
ven we need evidence to execute in the field.”
Gabriel growled and glared at Anderson, who took a step back inside his ad hoc cell. “I have more than enough evidence to bury him,” he snapped. “Only problem is that I need to have a court convened and wait for legal proceedings like you say.”
Lucas gave him a half shrug. “You’re a Jaeger. You can always convene one out in the field if you have enough people to ensure due process.”
A light went off in Gabriel’s head. The accountant was right — he could convene a battlefield courtroom. He just needed enough people to do it. Gabriel wanted to smack himself upside the head for not thinking of it himself.
He keyed his radio. “Emancipator, where are ya?”
“Out front getting the last of the longboats off the ground so Intruder can land,” Lincoln responded. “Why?”
“Because I have an idea and I need all the people I can get, that’s why.”
***
A little bit later, with the help of Deacon and his staff, they had rounded up the remaining guests who had not been evacuated to the nearby hospital for treatment, or to see to their loved ones who’d been injured or captured. Now, they would sit as a witness gallery. Gabriel stood in the middle of a quick and dirty courtroom in the middle of the back courtyard with Overseer Anderson shackled to a chair where the accused dais would normally be. He caught sight of Lucy in the back and gave her a smile and a wink. She gave him a brave smile in return.
Anderson, for his part, looked around, confused, con-stantly demanding to know what was going on until Lucas walked over and shoved a rag into his mouth to shut him up. The protests continued, but were at least a bit muffled now.
“What is going on?” Lincoln asked. “Why are you setting things up like this?”
“Because I want this over and done with tonight.” Gabriel smiled cruelly toward Anderson and then said the words that everyone on the wrong side of the Consortium feared the most: “Court is now in session.”
CHAPTER 19
Anderson paled at the announcement and managed to spit out his cloth gag. “Y-You can’t convene court and be both the prosecutor, advocate, and the judge!” he protested.
“I can’t,” Gabriel said, still smiling. “But, he can.” He gestured toward Lincoln. “The honorable Jaeger Emancipator, presiding.”
“Aw, man, why’d you have to drag me into this?” Lincoln grumbled. He caught Gabriel’s sharp look and then rolled his eyes. “I can’t be the judge; I know too much about the case. Best I can do is be the prosecutor. You can still be advocate for your girl, and let him,” he nodded to Lucas, “be the judge. He’s a Consortium employee.”
“Can he even be a judge?” Anderson demanded. “I thought that you needed at least three Jaegers to convene a legal proceeding.”
“Where the hell is Intruder when you need him?” Gabriel asked, looking around.
“He was up flying combat air patrol until the longboats left,” Lucas answered. “He’ll be a bit while he finds a place to land as the space I cleared out wasn’t enough of a strip for him.”
When Anderson saw that the Jaegers traded an un-certain look, he smiled. “That accountant can’t be a judge, can he? Even if he could, he’d have to recuse himself because he’s too close to the case as well,” he crowed in triumph.
“Really?” Lucas chimed in with a curious cock of his head, his eyes narrowing. “What the hell does your case have to do with me?” A dawning look crossed his face. “Unless you were in league with Eddie Spence to help bring down the Carmichaels.”
When Anderson clamped his mouth shut and his eyes went wide, he gave himself away. He’d said too much!
In turn, Lucas’ eyes blazed with fury. “Court is now in session! The honorable Lucas Wolverton now presiding,” he announced.
“Umm…, unfortunately, Overseer Anderson is correct in this regard,” Gabriel said. He hated to admit it, but the law had to be followed. “According to the Consortium, you do have to be a Jaeger in order to be a battlefield judge. I’m… sorry, sir.” That was the truth because he wanted to be done with Anderson right then and there.
Lucas rolled his eyes and sighed. “Ah, fuck it. This time it’s worth it.” Lucas gave them a knowing smile. “Come’ere. Lemme show you something.” He motioned for them to come in close before reaching into his inner suit pocket and fetching out his credentials. He opened it for them to see his Consortium financial badge. He then flipped over a hidden panel to show something that no one expected — a cog-and-star Jaeger Badge with his true credentials. “These pro-ceedings are now, of course, classified,” he said in a low tone so that only they could hear him.
“Jaeger Shadow…,” Gabriel breathed.
“Sir!” Lincoln stiffened and started to salute along with Gabriel. “We didn’t know….”
Lucas frantically waved them down. “Don’t fucking salute me here, you morons,” he hissed in irritation. “There’s only a handful of people who know I’m really up here in the Theocracy instead of down in Elysium and I’d like to keep that number down.”
“Wait a second,” Lincoln chimed in. “So were you in….”
“That black Devastator-II over Red Field and Lo’Rock with Intruder that saved your bacon? Yeah, that was me,” Lucas said and nodded.
“Right… sorry,” Lincoln said. He looked at his two fellow Jaegers. “Soooo, about this field trial?”
“We just say that there’s a new regulation out or something so that we can keep the witnesses in the dark.” Lucas looked past them at everyone within relative earshot. “Get on with it, you two,” he ordered with a slightly louder voice
“You heard the man,” Lincoln announced, louder this time, walking over to his ad hoc place as prosecutor. “Court is now in session. I, as prosecutor, defer to the primary witness’ advocate for opening arguments.” He motioned to Gabriel.
“Wait! You’re telling me he can preside as judge now?” Anderson was aghast.
“New regs that the accountant just made us aware of,” Gabriel replied casually.
“Don’t I get an advocate as dictated by Consortium law?” Anderson now asked, trying to stall for time as he realized what was happening.
“Oh?” Gabriel interjected. “You mean like when you, Ladd, and Takacy railroaded Miss Spence into a rapid trial without any hope of getting an advocate herself? I know that Theocracy justice is swift and all, but normally an advocate is given to at least provide the semblance of law and order.”
“Isn’t there that Intruder chap here yet?” Anderson looked around for the Jaeger.
“Yeah,” Coleton said as he ran up to the crowd, sounding a bit winded. “Had to park my ride farther down the road than I expected.”
“Be my advocate!” Anderson demanded.
“Sorry, but I recuse myself on the grounds that I don’t represent assholes,” Coleton replied, flipping him off. “Besides, I participated in your investigation.”
Anderson looked around for support and found none among the condemning looks of the people assembled. Gabriel got right up into his face. “Over the past two months, I’ve gone over every single court case of Takacy’s that involved young women and in each instance, it was done so fast as to make sure that an advocate was not available for the accused, which pretty much guaranteed a conviction for them to a breeder farm… your breeder farm… because First Corinthians chapter fourteen, verse thirty-four is always cited at the beginning of the trials. Would you like to enlighten the court as to what that passage says?”
Anderson eyes darted from Gabriel to Lincoln and then over to Lucas. “Do I have to answer that?” he asked, looking from Lincoln, to Coleton, and then to Lucas.
“Yes,” Lincoln said evenly, crossing his big, burly arms, the servos in his armor squeaking in the process. He regarded Anderson with a stern look. “If the court orders it, that is,” he added with a side look to his boss.
Lucas nodded in solemn agreement. “The court so orders.”
Sighing with res
ignation, Anderson looked down to the ground. “Women are to be silent in the churches. They are not permitted to speak, but must be in submission as the law says.”
“Which,” Gabriel continued, “we all know that, in the Theocracy, courtrooms often double as a place of worship in which the presiding judge is the supreme God and ruler. And, so, it is generally accepted as the same status as a church since all their laws are based off the One Book. Therefore, women were unable to testify in their own defense without either an advocate there to speak for them or a male of their own household to grant them permission.” Gabriel turned to Lucas and smiled. “Would the court like to hazard a guess as to who was on hand every single time, whose name is on official records I might add, to take the women off into immediate custody?”
“I would guess that would be the accused here, correct?” Lucas now openly glared at Anderson.
“Give the man a cigar!” Gabriel laughed. “So, Overseer Anderson, do you deny the fact that you’ve been paid off by gold by Auctor Frost, and that steady payments of gold have been going from your breeder farm directly to Judge Takacy’s accounts down in Atlanta?”
Anderson’s head snapped up in abject terror. “Those records are confidential!” he protested.
“Ah, yes, to everyone but the Consortium, that is,” Coleton chimed in. “You see, your accounts were at the National Bank of Dixie, whose now late Director was recently implicated in illegal slavery practices along with Edward Spence the Third, recently executed for the same practices along with embezzlement and theft. We at the Consortium launched an all-out audit of all accounts in that bank and your name came up quite a bit in relation to payments made to Judge Takacy.”
“Which,” Lincoln now added, “went back to Anderson here in the form of young ladies for his breeder farm in which gentlemen of the Theocracy pay top coin for the privilege of having. You send what you don’t want out to the Wastes in the form of those fake-ass raids where the raiders pay you off by dropping the gold in their wake.” He shook his head in disgust. “Shit… paying for an inmate out of a breeder farm is a helluva lot cheaper than buying one at public auction. Especially here in the Theocracy where dowries and bride prices are over the roof. It drops the prices to rock bottom, which devalues pretty much everything in the local economy. While I’m willing to stipulate that dowries and bride prices need to drop, killing an economy is just fucked up.”
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