07:00 Palace Main Hall

The gunfire had stopped. The crew was looking at one another, but no one was leaving their positions just yet. Some of the crew began checking themselves for any wounds. They were all coming down from an extended adrenalin rush.

Andern was the first one that broke from his position and crept over toward the wall nearest him, he kept his rifle leveled at the door but saw no movement. Kevin and Thomas crept from cover on the far side of the room and checked the opposite door as well.

“Clear!” Andern shouted.

“Clear!” Thomas shouted.

“Check each hostile, I want the living to be triaged, start arranging the dead,” Senior Chief Stroll said, “Keep your bloody helmets on just in case.”

Some of the crew stowed their weapons and began checking the bodies laying on the ground. Several crewmembers had suffered wounds. A few had suffered more serious wounds and called out for help. Theresa, Alice, and Kara rushed in to provide whatever assistance they could.

All of the crew relayed to Senior Chief Stroll their physical status. He smiled at seeing the final tally, it could have been so much worse. His thoughts were interrupted when the lieutenant walked up behind him.

“Did we suffer any casualties?” Lieutenant Page asked.

“No fatalities ma’am, several minor injuries, three people suffered broken bones or shrapnel related injuries. Wouldn’t expect more than a single missed shift on any of the injuries,” Theresa said, “All friendly casualties are in the south armory.”

“Oh, thank god. Now, where is Cadet Lief.”

“He and the twins were tearing through the palace. I think they are outside of it someplace now. Cameras are still messed up.” Nathan said.

“How did he know something was up?” Page asked as she began counting the enemy casualties.

“Years of training, picking fights, and being a paranoid jackass,” Alice said laughing.

“The bloody asshole is always right,” Kevin said as he pulled a dead body into position.

“I noticed that too, like he sniffs out those problems that sometimes aren’t his, gets up in whoever’s business and resolves it because he can,” Thomas said.

“Would be nice to know where he is so we can back him up,” Andern.

“THANK YOU! I do want that too,” Alice said.

“Theresa, find where the hell he is. Do whatever you have to,” Stroll said.

“Aye aye sir,” Theresa finished triaging an enemy combatant.

As Theresa stood up an enlisted crew member bent over and placed restraints on the man. She asked for Thomas and Kevin’s help. They had some systems to get back up and running and bypass. Plus more eyes on screens would help them track down where their friend was fighting the psychotic duo.

07:10 Garden Patio

Lex tried to block a punch, but he missed, and John sent him crashing through an ornate door onto the patio. Lisa slammed John into the ground with a massive ice chunk and ran over to her brother.

“Lex, are you hurt?”

Lex stood up and took a deep breath, “I’m going to make him bleed.”

The ice chunk exploded into thousands of ice splinters. The two looked back and began planning their next steps. They could feel the waves of psychic energy radiating off John. If Lex’s assumptions were correct only a small portion of his powers was actually being channeled through his suit.

John dashed through the broken door and fired his pistol at the pair. It caused Lisa to react defensively and block Lex’s line of sight. John grabbed his last grenade and threw it over the ice. The twins weren’t expecting this.

The grenade exploded feet away from Lex, peppering his suit with shrapnel and caused him to lose his balance. Lisa made the mistake of looking down and stepping toward her brother. The ice shield shattered as John plowed through it. She paused and looked back to see John winding up a two-handed slam.

It connected on the right half of her breastplate. To Lisa, it felt like she had been hit by a truck. The force of the impact sent her flying through a palace wall that was next to a window. She came to a stop some thirty-five feet inside one of the many dining and meeting rooms in the palace. The wind was knocked out of her.

John wasted no time and walked over and ripped a large bench from its anchors on the patio. Lex was getting up on his feet only to see John swinging the bench down at him. He sent out a massive flame that he was channeling in the hopes to burn through it. An action that worked, though the molten concrete and metal mix dripped down onto his armor.

Lex wasn’t expecting John’s counterattack to happen so quickly. In fact, everything John had done was happening at a pace that far exceeded either of their encounters. John had ripped another bench from its anchors and swung it horizontally at Lex. He knew he couldn’t block so he tried his best to squat down and guard.

The bench hit and flung lex into the same hole created by Lisa. He crashed through an ornate table and slammed into an ancient-looking cabinet. The plates held within were utterly destroyed. The tales they could talk about the wheeling and dealing of the royal family. But they were now destroyed by barbarians that had stormed the gates of the palace.

“I’m going to rip both of your fucking heads off,” John screamed as he was running through the hole in the wall.

Lisa was prepared and sent a massive chunk of ice and hit John square sending him flying back.

“Lex, we need to run now.”

“Agreed, he’s a fucking monster.”

“We may need to use it if we run into him again.”

“Agreed, no more pussy-footing around it. We’re going to use it next time we run into him.”

The twins ran out of the room and down a corridor. They were heading to someplace in the palace.

07:40 Palace Main Hall

“Coms are fully functional finally,” Kevin said, “Should have the cameras back online momentarily.”

“They are back for this floor and up. Can see them coming online elsewhere,” Thomas responded.

“Ok, let’s get the captain on coms and help him out,” Theresa said.

The cadets continued their work in the armory. Inside it was a flurry of work. Outside the work continued separating the survivors from the dead. Though it was slowing down as they were nearly done. Very few had survived, only eight had survived, through two had succumbed to their injuries in the last ten minutes.

Proper medical treatment wouldn’t be available for at least another forty-five minutes. The cadets contacted the nearest hospital only to find their systems were attacked and were struggling to bring them back online. But as it was the royal palace, they were sending personnel to help with the situation going on here.

“Why don’t I have a connection to the captain?” Theresa asked.

“Working on it, coms are working for palace staff, we aren’t hooked into it,” Kevin said as he was typing into the terminal, “yeah, think I got it.”

“Captain, do you read us?”

07:45 Garden Patio

John reached up and began pulling himself up onto the patio. His HUD showed several minor errors and two points of damage the suit had suffered. He could feel where one armor plat was jabbing into his side near his armpit. When he stood up on the patio he reached with his right arm and pulled the offending piece of armor and pulled it off.

“Copy that,” John said as he threw the piece of armor away casually, “Where the fuck are they?”

“We think we know where they are going, got a shortcut for you that should get you there ahead of them.”

“Can you do anything to slow them down?” John said as he jogged over to his battle rifle.

“Already on that sir.”

“Keep up the good work, keep me appraised of where they are. And get the radar and external sensors up. I want to know if any foreign craft shows up.”

John dropped the magazine and loaded the one Andern gave him. Those rounds would be far more effective against the twins than the standard full metal jacket rounds he had been using. John swung the gun to his back and locked it into place. He took off on a dead sprint into the depths of the palace.

7:55 Level 2, River Wing

“Fuck, these doors aren’t being locked by accident sister.”

“His crew got the security system functioning ahead of schedule,” Lisa said as she pointed at another locked door.

“Are there any other ways to our exit point?” Lex said frantically as he was blasting the door with a flame.

Lisa produced a large chunk of ice and slammed it into the door, “No, not to where we want to go.”

“Fine, plan on him being there ahead of us. No hesitation, use it on him immediately.”

Lisa grabbed a device from her waist and attached it to her left forearm. She turned it on and nodded to Lex. Whatever this device was it was going to be used against John. She began to run down the corridor, pointing Lex where they were going next.

Lex followed her running through the palace. He didn’t understand her reluctance, none of their training had even come close to properly preparing for John. They were fought to a standstill the first time. The second time he clearly had the upper hand on him and his sister. That they still drew breath was nothing short of a miracle.

Today though, they were fighting him in a suit that was made to enhance all of his abilities. Abilities it was painfully apparent that had grown in strength dramatically over the past year and a half. Dread was creeping into Lex; they couldn’t win a fair fight. He wasn’t convinced an unfair fight was even winnable.

As Lex lowered his shoulder and slammed into a door, he shook those thoughts off. They were going to leave. Then they were going to reevaluate their approach to taking him on. They couldn’t ignore him, but they needed a way to beat him into submission or making him think twice about taking them on.

“Sister, why the hell is he even here. He was not supposed to…”

Lisa cut him off, “Clearly his ship got to the princess before our ships did. This also explains why we heard nothing from them after their initial message.”

Lex started to laugh, “The galaxy must think it’s funny as hell to have our enemy cross paths with our target.”

“This is not a laughing matter brother.”

“Oh, but it is dear sister. The first father has ‘pirates’ to disable and kidnap the princess. Only to have him stop the attack. Then he brings her back just before we raid the palace. Father’s intelligence, or lack thereof, may well have damned us.”

Lisa stopped, grabbed Lex, and shoved him against the wall, “Never say that about father.”

Lex pushed his sister off of him, “I love him, but he is not perfect. He is but a man and a lesser man than the one chasing us I might add. He hasn’t been right about John once. And here we are again in mortal danger. Need I remind you I lost a fucking arm to him last time? Or the time we spent in the sensory deprivation tanks.”

Lisa paused and thought of their current plight along with the previous missions they were dispatched on, “Perhaps you’re right.”

“I do believe in what the Confederacy or Alliance espouse, but when we get out of here, we need to have a clear discussion with father regarding this man.”

“Very well brother but let’s redouble our efforts to get out of here.”

08:05 Palace Main Hall

“What is it Senior Chief Stroll?” Lieutenant Page asked.

“So according to the cadets, the leaders of the enemies are Mercantilist Union operatives of some sort.”

“What does that mean about this attack? Beyond the obvious of course.”

“Ma’am, I’ve scanned the dead. Haven’t found anyone that isn’t a Confederate citizen. The ones that are alive aren’t saying anything, but they look a little off.”

“Likely malcontents that went through some sort of conditioning.”

“We’d be doing them a service by putting them down, I’ve seen that look before. Without their leaders around…”

“You will not be murdering those we’ve arrested.”

“Just saying ma’am.”

Stroll heard one of his men holler at him for something. Page dismissed him and walked back to the armory.

“Cadet Thomas Jordan, where are you?” Page asked.

“Over here ma’am, how can I help you?”

“Can you do some research on telepathically wiped individuals and what their prognosis is?”

“Yes ma’am.”

Page walked to the back of the hall and began talking with the palace’s chief of security. Thomas got up from his station and walked back towards Theresa.

“I like that my man, taking the easy route.” Kevin laughed as he knew what his friend was planning.

“Theresa, I need to talk to John.”

Theresa nodded and stepped away from the terminal, “He’s all yours.”

“Captain, don’t suppose you can confirm we’ve got husks up here?”

John stopped and reached out with his mind. He looked at the surviving attackers. There was only one way to assure complete compliance to a telepath giving orders. Wiping an individual’s personality and slaving what remains to the whims of the controlling telepath was possible.

What caught John off-guard was the sloppiness of the wipes. There was also something else going on. Likely some form of technological control the twins used while in their troop’s presence. John got angry, not only did they mind wipe them, but they also performed some sort of brain surgery on them.

“Get me Stroll,” John ordered as he began running to intercept the twins.

“Will do, give me a minute.”

John ran through a corridor then forced an elevator door open, he jumped down two floors. Then he began running down another corridor. He was getting closer to his targets.

“Captain, what do you need?”

“You’ve seen husks before, haven’t you?”

“Aye, sir.”

“I would rather pull the trigger myself, but those that survived have already suffered personality death. Can you pull the trigger? This isn’t an order you have to follow Stroll.”

“Not my first rodeo sir. I’ve had to put down some in the past.”

“I’ll take the heat; you have witnesses that I’ve given you the order.”

The cadets paused. They were trying to comprehend the order their friend gave. Stroll had seen this technique several times in the past. They may be people, but they are blanks. There was no hope for recovery.

Stroll had his men prop up those that were taken alive. The six surviving attackers stared blankly ahead.

“Who has high explosive rounds in their sidearms?” Stroll asked.

“I do sir,” Petty Officer Amy Cooper said.

“Hand it to me.”

Amy handed the Senior Chief her pistol, “Here sir?”

“Everyone, turn around,” Stroll said.

They complied; some knew what was coming. Those that didn’t were slower to respond. Then six bangs went off. Followed by thumps from the bodies falling to the ground. Page heard the commotion and ran back to the center of the hall.

“What the hell Senior Chief? You were given a direct order.”

“You did ma’am, but it was countermanded by the Acting Captain of the ship we are assigned.”

“Are you seriously throwing a cadet under the bus?”

“Ma’am, Captain Lief ordered the Senior Chief to put to rest the surviving attackers,” Thomas said as he walked out of the armory when he heard the commotion.

Back at the terminal Kevin stood up and slammed on the coms button, “JOHN…”

08:00 Sub-Basement Two

“This place is a fucking maze down here,” John said to no one in particular, “Where in the fuck am I? This is the jankiest damned shortcut I’ve ever been on.”

John switched his HUD to display night vision instead of real light. It didn’t help much but he was able to make his way through the secret passageway. Eventually, after more fumbling with his footing than he cared to admit, he was able to get out of the secret passageway and back into the light.

Or in this case, a dimly lit and dank corridor that headed toward several elevators and stairways. At the main convergence point, there were two giant doors leading to a hangar. Outside, along the banks of the river, there was a landing pad for an orbital vehicle or helicopter.

“Hey, can anyone check the river pad, any ships there?”

“Negative Captain, but there is an unauthorized ship that is vectoring towards the palace,” Caleb said, "it stands to reason they could be coming here to pick up the twins."

“Let me guess, the militia is unable to intercept at this time because their systems are down.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time you heard the bad news, sir.”

John shook his head, “Have the militia launch fighters and have them hand fly the fucking things to the palace air space.”

“Will relay the message again, will say the Navy isn’t simply insisting they do this but ordering them to do so.”

“Strongly insist Caleb, we don’t have jurisdiction over terrestrial matters.”

“Roger.”

John continued to run down the corridor. It didn’t sit well with him sneaking around the palace. He wanted to be in the fight. John had to finish this nonsense with the twins once and for all.

08:18 Sub-Basement Two

“JOHN, DOOR ON YOUR RIGHT!” Kevin shouted into the coms.

John stopped, turned, and slammed himself into the door. The door buckled under the force exerted onto it. John arrested his momentum and stopped feet before a stunned Lex. The twins were stunned and caught completely unaware by the development. John responded by a spinning kicking that caught him on his left side.

Lex was sent crashing through the small room and slammed into the wall on the far side of the room. John pulled his knife from its sheath on his chest and went for a killing blow against Lisa.

Lisa reacted by using her arms to shield her head. At the same time, she began creating a layer of ice between her and John. But she was too late to prevent the knife from striking her. But when it did, she was caught entirely off guard.

The knife came down and struck Lisa’s right elbow, partially on the armor plate and combat suit underneath. But the knife wasn’t stopped, it sheared through both the armor plate and combat suit. Its progress stopped when the knife connected with bone.

Lisa screamed out in pain. She lashed out with her left arm, and at that point, she thought John was stepping back. While he had taken a step back it was to guard against a counterattack and to grab his pistol.

While that was happening, John had grabbed her right forearm and pulled it up and away from her body. While doing so he had the pistol pressed up against her wounded elbow. John pulled the trigger, and a single high-explosive round was fired. The round successfully did two things, destroy the pistol's slide and barrel, and severed Lisa’s right forearm from her body.

Lex saw this and summoned a ferocious attack of flames to drive John back. He was successful in not only causing John to leap out of the room but melting the concrete and ceramite that the wall behind the twins. He quickly ran over to his sister.

“I’m sorry, but this needs to be done,” Lex then cauterized the bloody wound.

Lisa screamed out in agony. But it got her back to her senses.

“We need to go now.”

“Obviously, the weapon sister, remember the weapon.”

Lisa created a massive wall of ice that expanded from the room to the hallway where John had temporarily retreated too. The twins ran through the hole in the wall and to the hangar doors. They were only a few hundred meters away from freedom and relative safety.