1 Week Later. Monday. 08:15 Armstrong Lecture Hall

The lecture had been a fun debrief of the last wargame. The team that John was on had effectively won the game. This was in no small part due to John’s blatant pirating and thieving. The fleet had taken losses, but they were very nearly at full strength.

“Cadet Lief, I’m sure you are well aware that acts of piracy are not allowed in warfare.”

“I am sir.”

“I am all ears.”

“Well, the raid on the border station wasn’t piracy. Theft would be a more accurate term. Plus, we had the ability to remove the current access and replace it with our own, and thus reinforce our fleet with the free ships.”

“I’ll accept that explanation for the three missions you did that,” their professors turned and then pulled up the two POW transfers, “What about this?”

The screen showed two cases where John’s squadron picked up or captured a hostile crew. In one case they came upon the remnants of a recent battle and picked up the survivors. On the other it was an attack John led which he stayed behind to pick up the escape pods.

“Well, in the first case I was planning on delivering the POWs back to their fleet. But then that fleet, who we were at war with, backstabbed us in a trade. I was just going to space them, but the rest of my fleet was incredibly against that course of action.”

“Your classmates were correct, spacing them would have been horrible to do. I’d still like to hear the justification for trading the POWs for two ships.”

“Article Twelve of the Confederate War Powers Act enables such actions in a limited but directed act towards an enemy power.”

The professor stared at John and sighed, “Cadet, are actually being serious?”

“Sub-paragraph six authorizes directed reprisals due to unexpected or unwarranted hostile acts. In short, it is their fault I went and looted their ship.”

“That is such horseshit,” one cadet said from the other side of the room.

“Says the guy that lost the ship. Wouldn’t have happened had you not dicked us over on that trade which we were doing in good faith.”

“Goddammit John,” Kristin said under her breath.

John remained unflappable. He was genuinely earnest in his belief that what he did was right. Granted it was highly questionable, but he did the right thing from his standpoint.

“Did you ask for approval from your superiors prior to going through with this cadet?” the professor leaned back on the railing and grinned.

“Of course not. Better to ask for forgiveness for dutifully following the law as written than to be told no and then do it anyway.”

“A very technical response cadet.”

“Being technically correct still means being correct.”

The professor allowed himself to chuckle at the brashness of the cadet. No military commander would allow that nonsense to happen under their watch, but they didn’t authorize it. The cadet was also right about asking for forgiveness later for “misinterpreting” things. A captured enemy vessel would be a boon either from an intelligence standpoint or simply reinforcing friendly forces. It was clear the cadet was playing with fire though.

“You aren’t wrong, but using both your experience in the field and awareness of fleet command structure how do you think this would go down in the real world?”

“Out of wartime? Pretty damn badly. Bad conduct discharge would be a best-case scenario. Being jailed wouldn’t be unreasonable for a short period of time.”

“Considering we were simulating a war, what about wartime,” The professor smiled as he asked.

“At a minimum, an action like that would cause me to be transferred to another fleet. I can presume at least three fleet admirals would want me out of their fleets. Two or three more I’d be barely tolerated. The rest would find ways to justify my actions. Though in every situation I’d be given crystal clear orders with no ‘wiggle room,’” John smiled as he used the air quotes, “for interpretation by yours truly.”

The professor smiled then looked out at the rest of the class, “Cadet Leif is right. His actions absolutely questionable, but not necessarily unlawful given the context of our wargame. Thanks to him, more specific orders will be used in the future so we can avoid some of these questionable situations, though thanks to his actions we’re discussing this now.”

The professor clicked a button and the screen behind him showed a list of several wartime actions from the past, “Each one of these a captain of a ship made an executive action. There weren’t any orders for or against the acts. All of you would do well to study the successes and failures and try to understand the situations where behaving like this, or like Cadet Lief, are in fact acceptable.”

This lecture was one of the more interesting ones for John. Not everything in the military is black and white, despite the heroic efforts they do to do just that. Captains need to weigh the pros and cons of all actions, even those that aren’t necessarily allowed.

Just as the bell rang for class to be over the professor hollered over the noise the cadets were making, “There’s a list of incidents that occurred in the wargames. Pick four of them and write up an after-action report as if you were the admiral reviewing them. This is due on Wednesday; we’ll debate the results Thursday and Friday. Have a good day.”

Kristin sighed as she grabbed her bag, “John, you are still an asshole.”

“But I’m an asshole who was right.”

“Ugh,” Kristin rolled her eyes as she stood up.

Patrice was smirking, “John, did you pirate from Falco’s fleet?”

“Nah, I ran the op that stole the unguarded ships from him. I went full pirate on Dexter.”

Patrice and Dick laughed as they walked out of the room. John didn’t know this, but their fleet attacked Dexter’s shortly afterward and delivered a near knockout blow to them. Kristin motioned for John to hurry up. He increased his pace a bit and caught up with her and headed to their next class.

17:15 Industrial Storage on Beltway Drive

John received an alert earlier in the day that someone was snooping around one of his locations. He decided to skip dinner and head to the location. Or rather, the building across the street. John was walking up to the fourth floor.

John crept down the hallway slowly towards an occupied unit facing a storage building across the street. He stopped before the door and listened. There were at least two people inside. John pulled out his tablet and pressed it against the electronic door lock.

A moment later it unlocked. John pulled out a foot-long mini camera that he plugged into the end of his tablet. He cracked the door open slowly and pushed the camera device into the small opening. It switched to thermal views and scanned the rooms. Only two heat sources were found, in another room out of the line of sight of this door.

John put the gear away in his pockets and entered the room without a sound. He crept towards the room. As he got closer, he could hear the agents, a man, and a woman, talk with one another.

“Four weeks we’ve been stuck here, Jen. How much longer are we going to be here for?”

Jen scoffed, “It hasn’t been that long Darryl. It was three weeks on Saturday.”

“He isn’t going to show up.”

“You don’t know that he’ll slip up.”

“Doubtful. He’s probably got shit stashed all over the place.”

“He reported only sixteen stashes. We’ve found twenty-three.”

Darryl sighed, “Twenty-two, one of the places was legit not his. Six were empty. I'm betting that this one is empty too.”

John leaned against the door frame, “Smart bet, there ain’t shit in there.”

Jen turned and drew her gun. John ripped it out of her grip and threw it in the room behind him. Darryl was caught off guard and fumbled around when drawing his weapon. John turned and grabbed the slide and pulled up. This wrenched the gun out of his hand. As quickly as he had disarmed Darryl, he dropped the magazine and pulled the slide to the rear.

“Settle down, if I wanted you dead, I wouldn’t be talking to you,” John shook his head as he tossed the gun to Darryl, “Come with me if you’re so bloody insistent on seeing what’s inside.”

Jen was pale as a ghost, she was made and exposed and swore the attacker had her dead to rights. Darryl was equally terrified. He was feeling incredibly uncomfortable and needed to either puke or take a piss. Or both.

He ran out of the room towards the bathroom without saying a thing, though his face painted a clear picture. Jen grumbled as she tried to regain her compose and walked out into the main room to retrieve her firearm. John walked towards the door to the hallway.

“Probably should take some defensive firearm classes,” John said casually, “Never draw a gun that far away from your body when an adversary is that close to you.”

“Oh gee, thanks. That helps me so much.”

John was interrupted by the sounds of puking in the bathroom, “Gross, well, I’m not wrong. That was sloppy shit. If you’re going to be onsite you need to be able to defend yourself.”

“You think other people would get the drop on us?”

“Yes,” John answered bluntly.

Ten minutes later Darryl exited the bathroom. He still looked a bit green around the gills. He walked over to John.

“So, what the fuck do you want?”

“I want to know why the hell y’all were snooping around here.”

“We have every…” Jen said but she was interrupted.

“I gave Intelligence the locations of the remaining stashes that had gear in them. I didn’t include any of the others I had used or still held because there was no naval gear in them. I’m sure you guys inspected the storage locker in Florida, right?”

The two agents looked at one another and nodded.

“What was in it?”

“A container with some clothes and pictures and two sets of golf clubs,” Darryl said with a sigh.

“And a motorcycle that wasn’t working,” Jen added.

“Fucking waste of ten grand that was. Way more wrong than just an engine on that piece of shit,” John opened the door and walked out into the hallway, “Follow me so you can do your bloody inspection. Unless you want to spend another three weeks doing fuck all in an industrial building.”

John led the two discombobulated agents out of their building and into the other building. To the shock and dismay of both agents, there was nothing in the building. He flipped the lights on so the agents could inspect the room more easily.

As the agents fanned out, they were surprised by how undisturbed things were. There weren’t even scratches or marks on the floor indicating there had been anything on the floor. Darryl looked closely at the floor as if he were trying to find a secret entrance.

“Use your scanner, there isn’t a false floor or secret room beneath it,” John said from the doorway.

John was tempted to leave and let them do whatever they wanted. He didn’t know these agents but ruining someone’s career was a relatively easy thing to do. John made sure his tablet was recording their interactions.

“Our records show you registered this site at the start of 2257,” Jen said.

“I was going to store my gear hear, but I opted to go with the other site, which I kept on the down-low from everyone.”

Darryl stood up and turned to face John, “That’s against the regs.”

“I didn’t follow them most of the time. Didn’t seem to matter either as long as I delivered.”

“Doesn’t change the fact that it was against the regs.”

John laughed, “Look, y’all started the process by kicking me to the curb, thinking that I was no longer beneficial. Your leadership is dead wrong about that.”

“Look, we’re just…” Jen started to speak before John cut her off again.

“Following orders. I get it. Have you seen enough to shut the case down?”

“Do you know how much stuff is unaccounted for?” Darryl asked.

“Let’s say there is anything, it’s certainly not enough to make a general inquiry of. All guns and credit chits assigned to me were returned. Less obviously what was used. And there were the secure containers and the gear inside of them too from the other site. I didn’t bother cataloging ammo.”

“We’re just being…” Jen was once more interrupted by John.

“Being thorough. End it, you aren’t going to be able to jam me up on anything. Close the case and sever ties with me and move on.”

“Stop interrupting me, I fucking hate that,” Jen said, “And you know what happens…”

John smiled as he interrupted her once more, “Other officers didn’t work in Intelligence. I know how y’all operate. You think I don’t have an insurance plan in place to make sure you lot play fairly?”

The two agents’ eyes both bulged. Naval Intelligence didn’t just break the law, they pissed all over it on a regular basis. It was, begrudgingly, necessary to remove certain bad actors from roles. Having an ex-agent that knows those details, or worse, was more than enough to send shivers down their spine.

John walked closer to them and stared into Darryl’s glasses and waved, “Yeah, I know you are recording this. Back the fuck off and play nicely. Then I will do the same. Keep up these games and I’ll throw down. None of you knows how hard I really can, and will, throw down.”

“We’re just doing our damned jobs,” Darryl said through clenched teeth.

“Y’all are safe, if I was going to kill you, I’d done it in the other building. Without your overlords watching by the way.”

Darryl put his hand to his ear, then sighed. He rummaged around his vest pockets and pulled out a small triangular device. He clicked on it and a holographic image appeared.

“Director LeCroix, so good to see you once again. Are we done playing these asinine games?”

The director looked pissed, “I don't appreciate the threat, John. These games wouldn’t be necessary if you weren’t so fast and loose with the rules.”

“Everything signed out to me has been recovered with the exception of my personal firearm and my prototype suit of power armor, right?”

“That’s correct.”

“And more money than was initially assigned to me was returned.”

“It was.”

“Then the way I see it you either divorce me properly, or you keep me signed up. Make your choice.”

Director LeCroix’s annoyance was palpable, “It isn’t that simple John, and you know it.”

“Actually, it is. If you want me to be a part of Naval Intelligence, then say so and treat me accordingly. If you don’t, then end this farcical investigation of me and move on. You won’t find any evidence of me doing anything illegal.”

“Don’t bullshit me, John, everyone knows you’re not clean.”

“I didn’t say I was clean Director. I said you’re not going to get any evidence of said actions,” John said with a big grin, "Plus, you know the cost of burning me all too well. None of you can avoid getting scorched either in the process."

“John, you’ve been a loose cannon for far too long. You overreach constantly, that you haven’t been burned through sheer happenstance and luck. But you’re not the same person as you were before. Your reckless attitude is going to get you killed.”

“Hasn’t yet though.”

“Your own actions caused your now diminished state. You’ve admitted that yourself.”

John shrugged, “That is true. But that wasn't an overreach, and I succeeded in ending a dire threat.”

“Agents, pack up and head out. This investigation is closed. John, I know how deeply kleptomania affects you. When your unreported stash is found, it will hurt you.”

“I wouldn’t waste your time trying to find it, it’s already been distributed back into storage. I don’t have much need for all that shit these days and have even less need of it in the future.”

“I’m sorry it came down to this John.”

John turned to leave and said under his breath, “Not as sorry as I am.”

19:35 Lounge

John walked into the lounge to see his friends trying, but ultimately failing to get any homework done. It appeared to be one of those days. There was a minor fight over the remote while Alice and Jessica were playing a game of cornhole.

“Hey, honey, where were you?” Alice said smiling after she airmailed a shot.

“Well, it was a bit of a mess. But basically, Intelligence didn’t think I was being entirely truthful when I handed them my inventory of gear to retrieve,” John shrugged.

Thomas snorted, “What possibly could have given them that idea?”

John smiled, “Right? Bunch of second-guessing assholes apparently.”

The entire room sighed and rolled their eyes at John.

“What?” John asked innocently.

Jessica threw her bean bag at John, “You know damn well why they did that. Stop trying to be innocent.”

“Wow, so rude! Let me rephrase it. I’m not sure why they would bother with checking out that location. Or staking it out and not entering it. I haven’t been to that part of the city ever as far as I’m aware.”

“Did you really give bag all your swag?” Kevin asked.

“Yeah, filtered it through the armory here. Once I got access to it that is. Made it really easy to smuggle gear back in.”

“Are you finally done?” Kristin asked.

“Yeah, the new director wasn’t a big fan of mine, but it was easy to look past the roughness because of the results. They don’t think I’m as sure a bet as I once was.”

Brian laughed, “Were they not paying attention to current events? You still stopped multiple assassination attempts and stopped the Alliance from initiating a war with us.”

John walked over to a chair and sat down in it, “No skin off my back. If I’m honest I’d rather not have to be two-faced in my loyalties. That kind of shit wears on someone’s soul over time.”

“Even more than killing someone?” Andern asked.

“I only killed people that needed a good killing or hostile enemy soldiers,” John shrugged, “Probably mostly done with the up close and personal kind now.”

“Yeah, nothing says I love you like plasma blast guns, railguns, and torpedoes,” Nathan laughed as he changed the channel.

Alice walked over and gave John an unexpected hug, “Welcome to your new reality.”

“Ugh, that is just sickeningly sweet,” Andern said sarcastically.

Kristin snapped back, “Jacob, stop being an asshole.”

“What? I’m right.”

John’s divorce from Naval Intelligence was already underway, so this result wasn’t a surprise. But despite that, it was still a shock to his system. Alice wasn’t wrong, John was walking into a new reality. Most importantly, he wasn’t walking into that reality alone. They were moving forward together.