3 Days Later. 08:00 Fireteam Alpha Boardroom

John’s morning started poorly. He was sore and stayed up too late working on homework. It was going to be a hellishly long day of planning and work. On the plus side, his fleet had effectively wiped all nearby opponents.

The boardroom in the barracks was much less impressive and majestic than the one in the command center. John had been talking for the last ten minutes, delving into exquisite detail, about their plan of attack. His plan had been reviewed numerous times by his detractors onboard. Some changes were made, risk aversion was high amongst all of the officers on board.

“Finally, if you see this person, fall back immediately. You must not engage. Radio me and I will deal with this threat.”

“Uhm, sir, she doesn’t look like much of a threat,” Corporal Diaz said.

“Folks,” John sat down on the corner of the terminal, “Cryokinetics is not something that is talked about much. She has the ability to freeze you solid or impale you with ice shards that she can create out of the water vapor in the air. She is far and away the strongest I’ve ever faced.”

“So, we shoot her. Problem solved,” Bennet responded.

“She can freeze your guns, so they don’t work. Guys, maybe I’m not being clear enough. She is beyond an alpha-level telekinetic. There is only one person in this room that has any hope of killing her,” John was pointing at himself.

“Look I’m sure…”

“This is an order, and it is to be followed to the letter. You are to fall back immediately and radio me if anyone encounters her. Do you read me?”

The marines all responded in the affirmative. John then moved on to the next order at hand which was inspecting their armors and running diagnostics. They would do that the rest of the morning until breaking for chow. Then they would run drills until they turned in for the day. The marines and John then broke and headed over to their squad’s armory.

John sat down in front of his reliquary and plugged a cable into a data slate. He began running the different diagnostics. Not surprisingly issues were uncovered in his bespoke armor. There was a minor amount of grumbling as he began fixing the issues.

“Sir, what class of armor is that? Never seen that before,” Bennet asked from three lockers down.”

“It’s a bespoke one. Naval Intelligence was funding it. Now I’m stuck footing the bill myself,” John muttered as he was fixing a sensor on the inside of the chest plate.”

“I dig the helmet sir,” lance corporal Reid said.

“Sir, what’s the worst fight you got yourself involved in?” Sergeant Aakre asked.

“Uhm. Good question. Probably the one on Manchester,” John sighed, “The bitch I told y’all about and her brother attacked the royal palace with a bunch of mind hijacked people their outfit kidnapped and ran tests on.”

“How did it go down, sir?” Reid asked.

“Well, the grunts were reasonably easy to gun down. Between the palace guards, my classmates, and I were able to incapacitate them. I ran after the twins and did a number to the palace. I damn near killed myself in the process of killing her brother. Almost got her but I passed out as she boarded her shuttle. Burnt my mind out in the process.”

“Burnt your mind? That doesn’t make a bit of sense,” Bennet said.

“Woah, yeah it does to me,” Apollo said from the other side of the room, “You were a telepath?”

“Keyword there: was.”

“I still don’t get it,” Bennet looked confused.

“Bennet, imagine you losing the ability to think or remember things. Like part of his brain was literally destroyed and doesn’t work anymore.”

Apollo laughed, “Bad example. We all know he can’t think for shit.”

The marines howled in laughter at the jab. Insults began being lobbed at everyone in good fun. Aakre looked over at John, clearly wanting them to focus on their task. John nodded, which set the sergeant in motion as he hollered at the group to get them working once more.

John’s grin turned to a frown when that also came back with a couple of issues to fix. The battle rifle at least checked out. But the string of hits he was taking came when one of the drum magazines properly jammed itself. John was able to get the rounds out of it but ruined the poor magazine in the process. One of the lockers on the far side of the room received a small dent when he threw it in anger.

The enlisted Marines were trying, and utterly failing, at not laughing at John’s frustrated reaction. Most issues were relatively easy to work out. The squad and John were able to wrap up the diagnostic work. They were now working on getting the right modules and equipment set up for the upcoming battle.

John logged into the terminal and began making some setup changes to his armor. A camera and hi-gain antenna was mounted onto the back expansion ports. He added an unconventional order to the onboard VI. When the amplifier was powered up the video would no longer be transmitted but be fully encrypted for John’s use only. Additionally, most conditions would also be encrypted and not transmitted to the war room for this operation.

About the time he finished working on that it was time to take a break and have chow. Most marine officers, or at least the ones his squad had reported to, had lunch with the other officers. John changed that by having chow with the squad. Aakre joined him and the two talked shop over a fried chicken sandwich and baked greens.

16:15 Hangar 2B

John stood apart in the hangar from his fireteam in his blue power armor. He was talking with Captain Ward and grading his team with her on their exit from the shuttle. Captain Ward was surprised with how meticulous and hard John was in grading their first movements out of the shuttle.

“It could be better. We’re so slow getting down the ramp,” John said as he watched the team go through the drill.

“It’s within the regs though,” Ward insisted.

“That’s not good enough for this op,” John said as he looked at a holographic, “Regs allow using the side doors too, right?”

“Yes, but they aren’t used often.”

“Look, the proposed drop-off point and the backup point have plenty of space,” John said pointing it out to the disapproving captain, “Sergeant Aakre, switch things up. One heavy weapon up front, I’ll be in the other slot. Want four people, two each aside, heading out the side doors.”

Aakre barked the orders to his team then responded to John, “Understood. We’re running in one.”

Ward looked at John disapprovingly, but she withheld any judgment for the moment. The fireteam got into the shuttle then waited until Aakre triggered the green light for them to run another exit drill. The sergeant hit the button on the wall next to the rear door.

The lights went green, and the ramp slammed down. The rear doors slid open at the same time. The squad poured out of the shuttle. John smiled as he noticed the time. Captain Ward nodded, agreeing that this was the way to disembark.

John walked over to his troops, “Alright great work. The plan is being updated, but we need to exit the shuttle that way. The TL:DR for that modification is quite simply we need boots and guns on the ground as quickly as possible.”

“Are you sure you want to be upfront, sir? Normally we have officers follow in the rear,” Bennet asked.

“I’m going in with a wrist-mounted twin blast gun and breaching shield. If I die right away, then op is going to end in a massive clusterfuck.”

Several marines banged on things near them. Speaking casually about his own death triggered some superstitious feelings in the Marines. John noticed something and banged lightly on the shuttle.

“Alright, time to get out of this stuff and cleaned up. Get chow, study up for the next phase and then get some rest. Going to be a busy few days before the action happens.”

19:00 Temporary Officers Quarters 8-13C

John was sitting at his desk working on three different assignments at once. This wasn’t a highly productive method of getting work done, but it was what John had settled on. Though one of the three was nearly done.

He moved his fleet one more time, though it wasn’t likely to find any more enemies to fight. He had sent his e-war ships out to the neighboring systems to scan for any hostiles, but nothing had been spotted in the last two days. John was disappointed, but he was a merciless bastard in this wargame.

John had fought twenty-two battles in total. Six of which weren’t a full fleet on his opponents’ side. Virtually every ship had suffered some damage and burned through nearly three times their initial munitions. Scavenging helped on both ends there. He had lost one hundred and five ships total, with only eight being cruisers. Thirty-five were lost with all hands. The remainder of the ships were able to escape with minimal casualties and deaths.

Twenty minutes later he was putting the finishing touches on a paper when an incoming transmission began blinking on his screen. John saved his work and then switched over to that screen. He smiled when he saw Alice on the other end.

“Hey, honey. How are you?”

“Oh fine, just a bit lonely. There was a blizzard here yesterday. Andern was whining about the snow.”

“I should be home next week. That’s rich coming from the guy that grew up in North Dakota. Typical Andern though I suppose,” John chuckled.

“Are you ready?”

“Training for it now. A little bit different than the ops I ran. Lots of meetings, planning, and training for it.”

“Sounds smarter than the way you do it,” Alice was smiling.

“Yeah, hard to argue that point. I’ll be smart and stay safe.”

“Do that please!” Alice smiled then touched the screen with her hand, “Love you, time for me to get some rest.”

“Love you too, don’t work too hard tomorrow.”

4 Days Later, Draconis System. 06:35 Shuttle Tallyho

John’s armor had been repainted to match the dull grey to match the rest of his squad. The fireteam painted their helms to match his skull paint on their helms. John was holding the breaching shield, which had an inbuilt shotgun at the center of the shield. Mounted on his right wristed was a twin blast gun, with cords that ran to a microreactor that was attached to John’s back. The blast gun fired a twin burst of plasma, which at the infantry level was guaranteed to ruin people’s day.

“Fighters began their attack runs on the target. ETA two minutes to drop,” the shuttle pilot said, “Shuttles from the city are en route, estimate reinforcements in five minutes.”

Sergeant Aakre was looking at a screen from the rear of the shuttle, “Fleet is in orbit, additional troops departed, thirty minutes for the hammer to fall.”

John opened the channel, “We trained for this, keep your heads cool and remember the plan. If you see this woman, “he shared the image to everyone, “You must disengage and call for backup. It’s damn near time to kick ass.”

The copilot brought John and Sergeant Aakre into a private channel unexpectedly, “DZ is a hot fucking mess. Loads of troops are pouring out of the base. Flanking fire is holding them back but the alternate DZs are going to make this a hell of a slog.”

“Show me the live feed,” John said.

The copilot shared the surveillance drone's live-action feed. Sergeant Aakre shook his head, in his mind the op had already gone sideways hard. John looked at it then smiled.

“Patch me into the fighters now.”

“Done.”

“Fighter aircraft, begin sweeps on the south side of the facility near the grass slopes. We need to draw them away from the DZ.”

“Understood, locking in new attack runs,” the commander of the drones and fighter jets said.

“Commander Onyx, drop us in over here but after those drones finish their gun run. Share that with the other shuttle. We will create a beachhead. Then we’ll hold the line until the other shuttles get here,” John ordered.

“Understood. Punching it now.”

The Marines could feel the shuttle speed up. The other shuttles acknowledge the change in plans. The drones and fighter jets had done exactly what they had hoped and drew the enemy forces away from their new drop zone.

“Sir, it’s not…” Sergeant Aakre was about to say as the shuttle slowed down.

John hit the ramp button and jumped off the descending ramp, some fifty or sixty feet above the platform. A small jump jet at the rear of his power armor fired to slow his descent slightly. In the air, he fired the blast gun twice. Two streams of super-hot, and deadly, plasma hissed through the air at their targets. The first shot nearly sliced one enemy in two and the other blasted a basketball-sized hole in the chest of another hostile. Both were dead before they and John hit the platform floor.

John went into motion immediately when he slammed onto the platform and ran to the railing and forced the shield onto the ground and knelt behind it. He fired off blasts as quickly as he could. His fire was deadly accurate with multiple blasts taking out two or more soldiers on the grassy slope near the facility. When the shuttle got to a proper safe distance above the platform the rest of the squad jumped into action.

“Burst fire, we need to conserve ammo,” John hollered into the coms.

The door to John’s right opened and three hostiles wearing power armor appeared. John’s right hand shot toward the closest enemy before any of the marines had registered the new hostiles. The twin plasma blast was thwarted by EM shielding, but from the heavy flickering, it appeared whatever shielding the enemy had it was now inoperable.

John pulled back from the edge of the platform and fired another burst at the same target. The chest plate was dripping molten ceramite from where the plasma struck it. John brought his shield to the front and ate the enemy’s return fire. He fired the slugs from the shotgun built into his shield. The first enemy in power armor fell down face forward. The slugs pierced the damaged breastplate and chest cavity of the enemy. The bullet shattered into hundreds of sharp pieces of shrapnel when they struck the backplate and tenderized the poor bastard in the suit.

The second shuttle showed up and immediately opened fire on the third suit. They had quickly overwhelmed their shields and armor. They fell over backward, dead before they hit the ground.

Meanwhile, John bolted toward the middle enemy and engaged his small jump jet as he brought up the shield. He crashed into the enemy and pushed them back towards the closed door. He slammed the enemy into the door so hard it was bent inward.

The enemy wasn’t dead but appeared momentarily dazed. John dropped his shield and grabbed the enemy’s leg. He stepped back and began to spin the man around. As he twisted around, he let go of the man's leg with just enough velocity and angle to clear the rear railing. The man’s arms and legs flailed as he free-fell to his death off the sheer cliff face of the mountain to the rear of the facility.

“Remaining shuttles will be here in thirty,” Aakre said, “Hostiles outside the base are eliminated. Fighters are rotating back to the city to rearm and refuel.”

“Any casualties on our side? What’s our ammo situation look like?”

“Foothold has been created. The ammo’s looking better but we can restock when friendlies get here. Everyone is ok, but a few of us took a few rounds,” Sergeant Dixon of the Alpha team said.

Aakre walked next to John, “Sir, Ward’s going to have a field day with you.”

John grinned and nodded at his sergeant’s astute statement. He picked up his shield and began looking at the door. A tech from the Alpha squad ran over to the side and began working to open it. A couple of members of the Alpha squad were talking on an open channel.

“He THREW a guy off a mountain.”

“Like a fucking ragdoll. That was fucking hardcore.”

“Wonder what that asshole was thinking?”

“Why me?” the grunts began laughing at the macabre joke.

John grunted as he walked back to the squads, “Ok folks, shits started out sideways. Focus, we’re back to plan. Alpha squad, you’re going to the computer core. Retrieve everything that you can there. Bravo team you’re with me. Delta is going to hold this point for us. Charlie will be looking for any physical intel they can get or things we identify for extraction.”

“Lieutenant, that shuttle,” Dixon walked next to John and pointed at the incoming shuttle, “Has our reserve troops. They are going to go with part of Delta squad to eliminate the remaining hostiles that our air assets couldn’t kill.”

Just then another voice Joined their com channel, “Lieutenant, this is Captain Miera. Ground reinforcements are delayed by forty-five minutes due to the unexpected chop which caused a lengthy diversion away from the DZ. Fresh fighter and drone aircraft will be reinforcing the existing ones momentarily. The combined air force flying above will maintain air superiority.”

“Copy that, Captain. The marines are going to begin the assault on the facility momentarily. Charlie squad almost has our enhanced communication asset setup,” John said as he looked at a few men working on the platform, one motioned an estimated timeframe, “The war room back on the Vigilant will receive enhanced feed information in two minutes.”

“Happy hunting.”

The shuttle landed to the west of the platform on a relatively flat area next to three other shuttles. Twenty-five marines poured out the back. Each had a shoulder mountain weapon in addition to their battle rifle and wrist-mounted weapons. Five members of the Delta team split off from the group to join the new boots on the ground.

The new troops split into two groups and ran to the south side of the facility. There they would employ a brutal and systemic attack against the troops of the facility that were outside. They would ensure that every last hostile would be put down like a rabid dog.

John walked rested his shield against a crate that had somehow managed to not be destroyed and walked over to the dead body of one of the hostiles that a pair of marines was poking. Being curious about what they were fighting was fine, but their actions were bordering on disturbing. Whatever John was about to say escaped him when he saw the face of the trooper.

One of the marines turned to see who walked up to them and immediately shoved the other marine to stop what he was doing. The other turned and began looking back and forth between John and the corpse. Anger and incomprehension were written all over his face.

At the same time, Corporal Bennet was moving a corpse and shouted when its helmet fell off, “Fucking hell. Lieutenant, why is your face on this one?”

Several other marines then looked at the dead hostiles in the area and they all saw the same thing. Every last one of them had John’s face. In fact, a quick eyeball or comparison of a memory they had of him outside of the suit had John being roughly that tall. The soldiers were far less muscular though.

John put his helmet on and let out a rage-filled command to the marines, “Helmets on.”

He could only see red. He wanted to tear this facility apart bolt by bolt. The lives of those within the facility were forfeit. John picked up his shield as he walked over to it, then he began running at the door and fired the jump jet at maximum power. He slammed into the center of the twin doors and a thunderous ceramite clang rang out that could be heard well down the mountain.

The door caved in from the force a raged filled John imparted upon it. Stunning the assembled men and women. John scanned the room quickly for any hostiles but thankfully there weren’t any. He took a couple of deep breaths to try and collect himself and bring himself off the ledge. But given the recent discovery, that was proving far more difficult than it normally was.