Mike Spears

Colonel Mike Spears watched the replay of the battle. It was horrible to watch the destruction of his home world. The sheer scale of destruction was impossible to imagine, but the computers simulating everything did a frightening real job of simulating it. Tens of millions of lives snuffed out, almost at the speed of light. The attack had been flawless, the destruction absolute. It was sobering to realize your world, your life could be ended within minutes, seconds even. Life, especially planetary life was so fragile on the cosmic scale.

A tall hawkish looking gentleman and a squat bulldog of a man appeared in the VR with Mike. While Colonel Spears wore a Marine uniform, the newcomers both wore fleet uniforms. Both the tall hawkish gentleman and Mike had too many medals and commendations glittering on their chest to be intimidated by the other. The third man had a decent amount of medals but refused to be intimidated.

“This is a wake up call,” the taller newcomer said.

“Aye,” Mike said looking at Colonel Austin Santiago. “Who ran the Opfor?”

Opfor was opposing forces.

“A colonel named Sonya Blackwell,” Colonel Santiago said. “With that simulation she has made a lot of enemies. Made everyone look like inadequate fools. I dare say she did an excellent job of kicking people in the teeth and showing them their glaring inadequacies.”

“To put it gently,” Mike said.

Santiago shrugged. Colonel Austin Santiago was with Republic Intelligence and Colonel Jason Estrada was for fleet what Mike Spears was for the Republic Marine Corps.

“It had to be done,” Santiago said. “I’m glad someone had the guts to do it rather than letting the UE’s do it for real. She pulled no punches and I’m impressed.”

“Was she right?” Mike asked.

Santiago nodded and spoke, “Can we afford to take the chance she isn’t?”

Mike nodded.

“That exercise was not supposed to be a game of ‘gotcha’,” the third man, a bulldog named Colonel Jason Estrada said. “The goal is to get Fleet and Marine elements to work together, to build coordination and morale. The UE would not dare to escalate it to this level of genocide.”

“I disagree,” Colonel Santiago said. “That is exactly how the UE would behave based on our calculations in Republic Intelligence. They have made so many promises to their people and they cannot possibly fulfill those promises. Their government if failing in so many ways. The government controls everything, it might mean well, but central planning means only one person is making all the decisions and those decisions inevitably have a cascade effect, one minor mistake or miscalculation leads to disaster. Plus all it takes is a little graft or corruption to cause things to spin out of control and the UE has plenty of graft and corruption, despite their propaganda to the contrary.”

“They aren’t idiots,” Estrada said. “They will know we can do the same thing to them.”

“Unless they think we are too moral,” Santiago said. “Or they believe that a first strike will accomplish their goals. As Blackwell said in her final speech, there is nothing left to oppose them. If that UE fleet comes in to rescue the survivors then they are really coming in to take hostages. If the UE’s threaten to kill millions of Republic civilians do you think any Fleet officers would continue resistance? Why?”

Estrada winced. It was cold blooded, but Santiago had a point. The Union of Enlightenment was not known for their kindness, tolerance or mercy, despite their excessive propaganda to the contrary.

“She did an excellent job of getting into the UE’s mind set,” Santiago said. “I have plenty of analysts who don’t get it and think the UE’s have the same goals and beliefs we do. Too many fools think because they are human they think like we do and want the same thing.”

“Does that mean you are going to drag her into your organization?” Mike asked. “Her career is probably ruined now that she has pissed in everyone’s cheerios and shaken them to the core. If this cold war turns hot her training simulation could become reality.”

“You think I don’t know that?” Santiago asked. “I want her working for me, but I’m not so sure I want her as an analyst pushing icons around a display, getting fat and making wild guesses to try and recapture her original moment of clarity.”

Another figure appeared in the VR. A hologram of a beautiful lady dressed in ancient greek style armor. The colonels stood a little straighter as they looked at her.

“Hello gentlemen,” the hologram said.

“Good evening ma’am,” they all replied.

Looking around she locked her gaze on Santiago.

“You are reviewing the exercise,” she stated. “Good. It has a lot of people angry and scared.”

“We were just discussing the Colonel who set it up,” Mike said. “What is your opinion Athena?”

Athena smiled.

“Colonel Blackwell is an excellent officer,” Athena said. “Very good at rocking the boat, which is one reason she makes an excellent deep space cruiser captain and an excellent combat commander.”

“Too bad she isn’t a Marine,” Mike said.

Athena nodded.

“Hey, you jarheads can’t have all the good people,” Santiago said.

Mike shrugged as he stared at the fires burning on simulated planet in front of him. He could see where New Rome was. It was nothing more than a firestorm now.

“This will also help with project No Filter,” Athena said. Both colonels nodded, neither had missed that.

“You should be ready to exploit it as you can,” Athena continued.

“Is any more information available?” Mike asked looking back at her. As a Marine he worked with Republic Intelligence but wasn’t privy to everything they had.

Athena shook her head.

“A few more probes have been discovered in nearby systems and eliminated. If they have seeded probes deeper in the Kuiper belts or Oort clouds though we have yet to find one,” Athena said.

“No sign they have returned, ma’am?” Mike asked.

“Not yet,” Athena said. “But then after a million years their technology could be unrecognizable to us now. They may not need to leave their homes to watch us. If they still exist.”

“If,” Santiago said.

Athena nodded.

“Any intelligent species that seeded those probes was looking at the long term,” Athena said. “That is too much effort to assume they are gone and recent findings confirm this. The remains of planet zeta-hotel-seventy-four confirm this.”

“Shouldn’t we be pushing to get those deep space cruiser captains back out into deep space?” Mike asked.

“The Senate has a problem with that. We can’t trust them with the details of project No Filter and they would rather have our deep space patrols in closer to home. They would much rather fund big fancy ships they can see and tour than big fancy ships they will not see again for many years,” Santiago said.

“Agreed,” Athena said.

“Still no senators we can bring in on the secret?” Mike asked.

Athena shook her head.

“Sorry,” she said. “The fewer that know the better. If word of this does get out there will be a lot of attention and then panic. Some positive may come of an initial panic but then people will lose interest because the threat is not readily apparent, and may not be apparent in their life times. My experience is that rarely do people care about a distant issue for more than a quarter of a generation.”

The three colonels scowled, each lost in their own thoughts as they stared at Athena.

“So what do we do about Colonel Blackwell?” Mike asked. “Do we recruit her into project No Filter?”

“I do not believe she is ready,” Athena said.

“I may have plans for her,” Santiago said. “She scared too many people with her attack. Her career is effectively ruined, at least in the short term. The military does not like being scared or forced to change their thinking, but I might be able to use her.”

“Operation Shadow Strike?” Mike asked.

Santiago smiled.

“I like the way you think,” Mike said. “She seems to have an excellent understanding of the UE’s.”

Athena nodded.

“Now, for a potential liaison with the others, we are going to need another Spears,” Athena said.

Mike scowled.

“They still insist on that? I might have a solution,” Mike said and glanced back at the burning world. “Maybe. Not entirely sure he is ready, but he would be perfect.”