“You don’t have to do this, sir,” Toby said later that morning. “Just take a minute and think, please.”

“I have thought about it,” Jon replied. “It’s the only way. Now do you have it or not?”

“Yes, sir,” Toby said as he reluctantly handed Jon a grenade. “A one second booby-trap fuse has been installed as per your instructions… Sir, please don’t do this. We need you.”

“I can be replaced. This chance cannot. We only have a few hours, at most, before she finds out that Crimson is gone. Once she realizes that we won’t get a shot at her.”

“Then I’ll do it,” Toby replied.

“No, Tob, my days of sending someone else to their death are over. Besides, I’m probably the only one who can get close enough to her to pull this off,” Jon said as he opened a compartment in his bionic arm’s bicep. “Now give me a hand with this.”

“Yes, sir,” Toby unhappily said as he inserted the grenade, wedging the spoon against the inside of the hidden compartment, and pulled the pin.

“Thanks, old friend,” Jon said as he closed the compartment, securing the grenade. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out a data crystal.

“Could you give this to Skippy for me?” Jon asked calmly.

“Of course, sir…. Sir, I’m begging you to reconsider.”

“No. This is the best move. Cut off the head and the serpent dies. This is bigger than we are, Toby. Millions of lives, and the very Republic, hang in the balance.”

“What happened to us storming the place in power armor? We have the suits, fully loaded and ready to go.”

“We have no time, there too much chance for her to escape, and there too many people in the crossfire. I get close and lob this puppy her way and it’s over. All of this can be over and with just one casualty. This is the best move. If you stop thinking about this emotionally and look at it from a tactical perspective you will agree.”

“It doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

“No, it doesn’t. I’m not especially keen on this either,” Jon chuckled. “Scan me. Make sure that the shielding works.”

“It does, sir. Your arm looks perfectly normal.”

“Great. Well, no sense in keeping the reaper waiting,” Jon said with a smile.

“Walk with the Creators, sir.”

Toby watched helplessly as Jon walked down the hallway and out of sight.

***

I’m going to die, Jon thought as he casually walked through the embassy. No. Don’t think about that. Focus on the plan. Walk into her office, say hello, then lob the grenade up and towards her. It will be over in literally a second.

He hoped he looked a lot more nonchalant than he felt. He was minutes away from his death. He marched into probable death plenty. That was manageable. He even walked into certain death once or twice. That was pretty white-knuckle but again, manageable.

This, this was definite death. No way around it. He was about to get up close and personal with a frag. Dead. He was dead. He was having real trouble with the concept.

He smiled pleasantly to one of his staff and wished them a good morning back. It was funny. He was never going to see them again.

He thought about Skippy. It would have been nice to see her before the end, just one last time. He hoped she would understand.

As his doom approached ever closer he started trying to figure a way out of it. Maybe he could just open the door, toss it in, and run. Every single wall in the embassy was bullet-proof. The place was built like a fort. No, that wouldn’t work. She always had a couple of people stationed right outside her office.

He would be gunned down before he could take a step. He could shoot one of them, maybe both of them, but Dawn… Christ… He would have a real problem putting a red-tip into her. It wouldn’t matter anyway. Her people would boil up like he kicked a hornet’s nest.

He wouldn’t make it out. All he would do would be to lessen his chances of killing her.

Christ, he was scared. He clenched his jaw and thought about all of the people under his command that he sent into harm’s way. Some of them he knew damn well weren’t coming back from the missions he assigned. It was war. Sacrifices had to be made.

Now, it was his turn.

Courage, Jon, he thought to himself. I have to look like nothing’s wrong.

He had to stop and duck into a vacant room. He closed his eyes and bumped the back of his head against the wall for a few seconds. Christ, he was terrified. Death was moments away.

Ok. Let’s do this.

He walked into her part of the embassy. It was like there was an imaginary line separating their territories these days. No, it was no longer imaginary. The decor changed immediately. Clean, almost spartan walls and furniture gave way to lacquer and warm, rich colors.

It looks like a cheap brothel, he thought with amusement.

Her office was close now. He would smile at Dawn, make a little small talk, then walk into her office. He thought of Dawn and smiled. She would be free. She would need a shitload of counseling but once the queen bitch was gone there was a chance she would actually get it.

Suddenly doors on both sides of the hallway opened and a dozen of her people came out wielding stun pistols with heavy anti-armor gauss rifles slung across their backs. He heard the doors open behind him and footsteps. He didn’t bother looking back.

Fuck.

“Good morning, ambassador,” a well dressed “young” woman said in a pleasant tone of voice. “How are you this fine morning?”

“Oh, I’m doing quite well,” Jon replied with a smile. She already knows. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. There were far too many for him to shoot but he put he unsnapped his holster just the same.

“I would think you would be at least a little tired, considering the busy night just you had,” the woman chuckled. “Congrats on killing Chen, by the way. Pretty good moves for an old man.”

“Why thank you. I was rather proud of it myself,” Jon grinned. “I see you are leaving nothing to chance this time. All of you for little old me? I’m flattered.”

“Don’t be,” she smiled. “We didn’t know how many guests we would be receiving this morning or how you would be ‘attired’.” She drew herself up and then said in an official manner, “Jon Wintersmith, by order of the Republic you are under arrest for the abduction of Margret Crimson, the murder of Chen Wei, the misappropriation of military hardware, conspiracy to assassinate the Deputy Ambassador Patricia Hu, conspiracy to attack the Terran Embassy, and last but not least multiple counts of espionage. In case you didn’t know, those last three are treason,” she grinned. “You are going to hang.”

Jon scowled. How did they know about the armor? Did they turn one of “his” people and Crimson didn’t know about it or was this whole thing a setup? If he got out of this he was going to have a nice long chat with that ginger bitch.

He glanced behind him. There were another eight people. He quickly surveyed the area and smiled inside. There was an open doorway to the right between both groups. He started slowly backing up in that direction.

“Look,” he said nervously, “This is all a big misunderstanding! If I can just talk to Patricia we can work all of this out. I’ll even give up Crimson! She can have her! Please...” he said in a slightly frightened tone as he continued to slowly back towards the doorway..This is almost all of the people she has left. It was hard not to smile. Perfect...

“It’s too late for that, Jon,” the woman smiled. Don’t worry, you can explain it all to all to the Tribunal, not that it matters.”

“Oh?” Jon said as he backed away from her moving closer to the doorway. It was so close. “I’m surprised you would let me live that long.”

“Even though you just killed a man I’ve loved for a hundred and fifty years I am under strict orders not to kill you,” she purred. “I am, however, free to break every bone in your fucking body.”

Patricia’s people started to advance slowly from both the front and the rear.

“Hold position. He’s mine!,” the woman spat as she discarded her weapons and walked towards him. “I’m going to ruin you! You will go to the gallows in a wheelchair! Your last meal will be through a fucking tube!”

“Good luck with that, bitch!” Jon exclaimed as he lunged towards the open doorway.

The woman just laughed as she gave chase. She would be on him before he could even get off a single sho-

The compartment in Jon’s arm snapped open and he tossed the grenade up and behind him as he dove through the doorway at a shallow angle landing on the floor alongside one of the walls.

“SHI-” she started to scream as she tried to dodge the undodgeable.

BOOM

Jon, temporarily deafened by the blast, rolled onto his back drawing his sidearm. Nobody followed. He quickly lept to his feet and charged out of the room.

It was carnage, wonderful beautiful carnage. The grenade detonated while still in the air, shredding the entire area. Nobody had been unscathed. Some were still moving. His eyes widened. Some of them, as mangled as they were, were getting back up!

None of them, however, were capable of dodging bullets anymore. He opened fire.

He emptied his magazine and slapped another one home and continued to fire, making sure to put a red-tip into each and every one of them whether they were still moving or not.

Then he ran towards Patricia’s office.

***

The hallways were mostly empty. No surprise since the bulk of her people were dead or dying behind him. The few innocent staffers who had the horrible luck to be stuck back here were either hiding or just standing looking at him in complete shock.

He had no time. He had to get to her before she could bolt.

One of her people lunged out of a doorway pistol drawn. Jon rolled as their blaster bolt passed harmlessly above him and he put two in their belly. They immediately collapsed and started to scream as the nanites started to do their job.

One more down. He was back on his feet and sprinting. She can’t have that many people left. Fuck. He lost count.

Dawn! What was he going to do about her? He flinched as he realized exactly what he was going to do about her. Sacrifices had to be made.

A man jumped an impossible distance from behind a corner with a dao in his hands. Jon turned and fired. The guy spun in the air, somehow dodging the round. Jon had no time to be amazed. His mechanical right arm moved much faster than humanly possible and he blocked the blade with his forearm. He was knocked to his knees by the force of the blow but his arm remained intact and he managed to put a slug in the guy’s belly on the way down.

That was one more of them screaming and crying blood.

He charged into the lobby connected to Patricia’s office and quickly scanned the room.

It was empty. The door to Patricia’s office was open.

Nobody was there.

“FUCK!” He screamed. He grabbed his communicator and called the security office.

“There has been an attempt on the Deputy Ambassador’s life! A bomb has been detonated in her area! The Deputy Ambassador’s whereabouts are unknown. I’m in her office now! It appears that a firefight has taken place! First priority is locating her! Find her! Let me know the second we know her location and status! We also need to evacuate all civilian personnel. We know that one bomb was detonated, there may be others.”

“Sir...” the security officer said hesitantly. “Concerning the Deputy Ambassador...”

“What?” Jon asked with a scowl already guessing what was coming next.

“She just drove off…”

Shit, Jon thought. She had escaped.

“Um...” the officer continued. “She also… She also said that it was you who was trying to kill her.”

“Why would I do something like that?”

“Would you like a list, sir?”

Jon couldn’t help but laugh.

“Officially, I am denying the accusation,” he said trying to get the humor out of his voice, “Officially I was in the rear of the embassy with the intent of discussing official business when the incident occurred… Officially speaking...”

“Yes, sir. We were also officially informed by the Deputy Ambassador of a warrant for your arrest and ordered to apprehend you… officially...”

“Well, I am officially ordering you to disregard that and instead focus your efforts on evacuating and protecting the non-combatants and searching the building for possible additional explosive devices that may or may not be there. Once this crisis has past, should this wild accusation turn out to be true I officially agree to surrender. Right now I have an embassy to run!”

“Well that’s officially good enough for me, sir,” the security officer replied with the faintest hint of humor in his voice.

Jon started sprinting towards the front lobby.

“Toby!” he yelled into his communicator.

“Sir?” Toby replied in complete astonishment.

“Shit went sideways and I called an audible. I’m alive. Bitch got away. We need to get gone! Grab some guns, ammo, rations, and whatever else you can grab and throw it into one of the vans.”

“Yes, sir! What about our men?”

“One of them was turned, Tob. They knew about the power armor.”

“What?!”

“Yeah, sucks but we can’t trust any of them right now. Tell them… Fuck… Just grab the supplies. I’ll figure out what to tell them.”

“Yes, sir. Toby out.”

***

Chaos reigned in the front of the embassy. People were running, yelling, some were scrambling for weapons, others were making a dash for the exits.

Jon was not happy. This is a total clusterfuck! Why the hell do we even bother with drills? he thought. If he ever got out of this mess there was going to be some serious training in this place’s future.

He made it to the lobby as the noncombatants were finally making their way to the designated safe areas. He ran into his office and pulled up the communication logs. Yep, there it was. Shortly after Crimson “defected” there was a long hyperspace communication between Patricia and the Head of Republic Intelligence and the Secretary of State. Not long afterwards a warrant for his arrest was issued.

That bitch in the hall did not lie, Jon winced. Every fucking thing she said was listed right there in black and white. His credentials still worked. He deleted the warrant.

Might as well add tampering with official documents to the list, Jon smirked.

He then typed out a message to his people. He decided to level with them. He told them all exactly what happened including the warrant for his arrest and that Patricia somehow knew about the power armor. He stopped short of saying someone turned. I mean, it was remotely possible that someone had been followed, right?

If he said someone had turned they would likely start killing each other.

He then opened up a new document and started to type.

To whom it may concern,

I, Ambassador Jon Wintersmith stand accused of many serious crimes, some of which I am actually guilty.

I am not, however, a traitor. Everything I have done has been with the best interests of the Republic at heart. I have uncovered a conspiracy within the highest levels of this government orchestrated by none other than Patricia Hu, a person whose history speaks for itself.

Last night, one of her senior operatives, a “Bloodlord” defected with information that clearly implicated the Deputy Director and many others in a conspiracy to undermine the very fabric of the Republic.

When it was realized that I was in possession of this information, I was quickly discredited and accused of numerous crimes including kidnapping, murder, and treason. Of these charges I am guilty of only two, murder and “misappropriation of military hardware”. I freely admit that. I have killed a number of her people with absolutely no remorse. I also covertly obtained military grade weapons and hardware in preparation to lawfully apprehend Ms. Hu when I had sufficient evidence to do so. I was pretty sure she and her people weren’t going to come quietly.

I take full responsibility for my actions. There were those who followed my orders. My status as Ambassador gave me the authority to make the orders that they lawfully followed. The responsibility lies with me and me alone.

Even though I will now be hunted as a murderer and traitor I still stand with the Republic and will fight for it with my dying breath.

I am declaring war, not on the Republic but for it. I declare war on those who wish to tear down this Republic, a Republic that so many of us have fought and died for. I have buried too many good men and women to allow their sacrifice to be in vain.

For those who conspire against the Republic know this. There will be no peace for you. There will be no security. There will be no hope. And, most of all, there will be no victory. I will hunt you down, all of you, and I will never stop until all of you have been brought to justice.

You who are part of this conspiracy sat in your comfy little offices and pushed paper and made speeches while the galaxy burned and think you know war. I lived it, for years. I know war. I am war.

And I’m coming for you.

Attached is some rather disturbing information that has come to light including scans of Patricia Hu and her associates as well as other documentation that supports my claims and any other information that I have. It will likely be discredited and suppressed but read it and remember it. Scan your superiors and your officials. Question what you are told in the future. Do not allow yourselves to be misled. They will only succeed if we let them. They aren’t the Republic. You are. They don’t decide its fate. You do.

Long live the Republic! O Fortuna, velut luna!

Colonel Jon Wintersmith, loyal servant of the Republic and former Ambassador to the Federation

“That should do it,” Jon said with a little smile.

***

Jon trotted into the communications room. He breathed a sigh of relief. Lisette Vincent was the officer in charge. She was beyond solid.

“Sir?” she asked in a dubious tone as she held an AK at the ready. She wasn’t pointing it at him but she wasn’t not pointing it at him either.

She knows, Jon realized.

“Hell of a morning, huh,” Jon said pulling out the crystal.

“Don’t care about out there,” she replied eyeing him suspiciously. “Odd thing just happened in here though. Seems that a certain rather significant document has mysteriously disappeared.”

“Oh I’m sure they will send another if it’s important,” Jon smiled as he offered her the data crystal. “I would like you to send this to the Republic government, all of it. Hell, make it a press release as well. Fuck, if you can send it to every single person in the Republic do that too.”

Lisette didn’t move.

“Vincent, please… You know me,” Jon pled. “Trust me.”

Lisette peered deeply into his eyes for a second.

“Oooookay...” Lisette said finally lowering the rifle and taking the crystal. “Sir, exactly what the flying fuck is going on.”

“It’s all on the crystal,” Jon replied. “Read it if you want. I have shit I need to do.”

“I imagine so,” Lisette replied. “Whatever it is, get a move on.”

Jon just smiled and ran from the room.

“I’m getting too old for this bullshit,” Lisette muttered as Jon left. She looked at the crystal dubiously. Whatever was on it is what just sent the Colonel right over the treason committing, mass-murdering edge.

It was a huge steaming pile of not her problem. She probably shouldn’t even send it. In fact, she definitely shouldn’t send it. Just touching that damned thing was putting her in grave danger of getting involved in something way beyond her paygrade.

“Fuck it,” she muttered as she loaded it into the communications terminal, opened it, and started to read. Her eyes widened in shock as she rapidly started opening attachments and examining the contents

“Everybody out! Now!” she yelled.

“Ma’am?”

“You heard me! All of you leave! Now!”

“That’s against-”

The technician fell silent as Lisette stood and leveled her AK at the man’s head.

“I’m doing you a huge favor right now,” Lisette said in a frightenly calm voice. “Leave and be able to say that you were driven out at gunpoint or stay and go to jail, your choice.”

“What the fuck is on that crystal?” another tech asked as she grabbed her coffee mug and headed for the door.

“I’ll CC you,” Lisette replied as she slammed the door and triggered the security lockdown. A loud siren rang out as a fifty centimeter thick armored plate slid down and back sealing the only entrance to the space. Loud THUNKS could be heard as heavy armored rods shot into the plate from the walls and floor locking it into position. Breakers slammed open and closed as the room switched from building power to a small dedicated fusion reactor in a compartment behind one of the walls and then a roaring sound started as a compact life support system came online. She was now completely sealed in and nobody could get her out of there or pull the plug.

Lisette grinned. She had always wanted to do that! She then started to blast “O Fortuna” over the building’s PA system. She always wanted to do that too! Maybe she would treat these kids to some proper “old people” heavy metal later. Why the fuck not?

Lisette activated the hyperspace transmitter and started rapidly typing. She had emergency rations, water, and it was going to take some very heavy equipment to cut her out of there. Until they managed to drag her, kicking and screaming, away from her equipment she was transmitting that file at full bandwidth to every single hyperspatial relay that she could hit.

And with the equipment in that room, she could hit all of them.

***

Toby and his team were busily shoveling weapons and ammo into one of the cargo vans when Jon jogged up. Jon frowned.

Almost all of his team was there. He had hoped to avoid this. How does he tell people who fought alongside him for years that he couldn’t trust them and he was leaving them behind?

Sacrifices had to be made. He was starting to really hate that thought.

“So, what’s the plan?” Ariana asked as she helped Toby load the van.

“Well,” Jon replied grimly. “As you know we were likely betrayed and I don’t know by who.”

“Only one of us ain’t here,” Ariana replied.

“Yeah, where’s Glenn?” a lean olive-skinned man with grey streaks in his hair asked suspiciously.

“Glenn, you there?” Jon said into his communicator.

There was no response.

“Glenn! Come in!”

“You killed her!” Glenn sobbed and then broke down into tears over the communicator. “You fucking killed her! Why sir? Why?” He started wailing like a lost child.

“That motherfucker!” Ariana snarled. “You stabbed us in the back over a piece of ass?!?!” She yelled over Jon’s shoulder.

“No, Ariana,” Jon sighed sadly. “He’s been poisoned. They have this shit that will scramble your brain, make you like this. You get hit with that and it’s over.”

“Listen to me Glenn,” Jon said calmly and firmly. “You’ve been drugged. We are going to get you some help. It’s going to be ok.”

“It will never be ok!” Glenn screamed. “You killed her! She… She was my everything and you killed her! I’ll… I’LL KILL YOU!! You… you...” he trailed off into agonized wailing again.

Jon cut off the communication and called the security office.

“You still here?” a voice replied. “I can’t pretend to not see you forever! Get that van loaded and get the fuck out of here!”

“About to go,” Jon replied. “Glenn Dawes is-”

“A traitorous piece of shit!” the voice replied cutting him off. “Right now he’s over at your crime scene crying like a little bitch over a piece of shredded cunt. Nice work by the way, sir.”

“Those monsters have this for lack of a better word love poison. They hit you with it and it fucks your mind hard. Something to do with neurotransmitters or something. Glenn isn’t a traitor. He’s a victim. Get him stunned and get him help.”

“Yes, sir.”

“And tell him… Tell him that it isn’t his fault. Tell him that I understand and I still consider him one of us,” Jon said sadly.

“I will, sir,” the voice replied. “Sir, This thing I received something from Vincent, is this… Is this true?”

“Every fucking word.”

“What… what do we do?”

“That’s something that everyone is going to have to decide for themselves,” Jon replied. “But I will tell you what I’m going to do,” he paused and looked over at the group assembled around him, “what we are going to do.”

“What’s that, sir?”

“We are going to war!”

“Give them hell, sir.” The communication ended.

“Ok, marines!” Jon barked. “Toss your electronics and mount up!”

“Sir!” Everybody shouted as they discarded their communicators and tablets and got into the van.

“What about the van itself?” Ariana asked as they started to pull out of the garage.

“What do you think I am, a noob?” Toby chuckled as he pulled down the drive. “Still going to ditch it first chance we get though.”

The guards saluted as they opened the gates and the van rolled past and disappeared into the Capital City streets.