CHAPTER 14 - PURIFICATION

DATE POINT: MARCH 23rd, 7 A.U. (AFTER UNIFICATION)

LOCATION: SOL SYSTEM, ABOARD UTRN INDOMITABLE WILL

COMMANDER RICARDO ALVAREZ

Commander Alvarez saluted Henry as he walked through the doorway into the CIC. Henry looked much more rested, which was good. The man had been running nonstop for days now, snatching scarce hours of rest as he could. It had felt good to be able to let him sleep while he sorted out the messier bits. Best to keep the Captain’s hands as clean as possible, after all. Henry needed to continue to shine as a beacon of hard work and stability for the silent majority of the crew that still believed in the mission.

“Ah, Alvarez! Glad to see you. I just rel ieved Paul, I can take the CIC for B shift so you can continue your work. Maybe get some well-earned shut eye yourself afterwards? Eh?” Henry asked, ribbing him with a friendly smirk. “Unless you have something to report?”

“As a matter of fact, I do. We have identified your would-be assassin. His name is Edward Greene, he rated extremely high on callous and unemotional traits in his personality test assessment, but ultimately kept to himself and said very little that was concerning in session. Looks like they gave him the green light for duty based on a lack of juvenile delinquency records, but those records are also back in Nevada. Since they are in an abandoned part of the country, we really don’t have reliable records for Mr. Greene’s early years.”

Alvarez paused for a breath, Henry seemed engaged and nodded along, so he continued.

“Normally when we screened out antisocial candidates early, but to do so we relied upon a review of their teenage years into early adulthood. Looks like that is how the system failed to catch Ed, there are probably others that slipped through like he did, but that doesn’t mean they will choose the path of disloyalty. Most of the crew has made it a point to vocally rally around your leadership in the past eight hours. I am sure you have seen it. The risk of active mutiny is effectively over.” Alvarez said. He checked for eye contact and then spoke.

“We do have one remaining problem, however.”

“Of course, there is. I was waiting for the other shoe to drop.” Henry laughed. “Go on, I promise not to interrupt again.”

Alvarez looked at Henry for a moment then shook his head and continued. “We have a little problem of a stolen breacher and a suspected ringleader of the mutiny having no identified remains and being actively MIA as we speak.”

Henry closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. “Can someone even wield one of those things without a Paladin suit? Fuck me, please tell me he doesn’t also have one of those too, does he? No, it would reject his IFF without clearance. IFF… Breachers are classed as crew serviced weapons and have a tracker in them. Bingo, that is how we find him.” Henry said confidently.

“Right, and that is why this find is so very concerning.” Alvarez pulled a small device from a pocket on his BDU’s and handed it over to Henry. “This is the tracker from the missing breacher, expertly removed. I am told that is no easy feat with the available space to work in. We have to assume he has the technical expertise to be capable of modifying the weapon for use in perhaps an ambush or a weapons emplacement.”

“Right, this is the same guy that broke apart a cell phone to make a monitoring device and rigged a way in and out of my room that left us all stumped for weeks. The same guy that thought pranking us with a fake ghost would get us to turn the ship around! The guy is clearly as dangerous as he is delusional. When we kick down his door, I want our guys loaded for bear, arm them with whatever they need.”

“Aye captain, it would be my pleasure. We are combing the maintenance passageways of the ship as we speak with orders to disengage and report back to plan the assault. It is only a matter of time until we find where he his hiding and can smoke him out.” Alvarez said confidently, Henry seemed on board, too.

“Who are you sending in on the assault team?” Henry asked.

Alvarez smiled, “Three of the very best. Don’t you worry about that. I’ll let them know that they have the green light to arm up as they see fit. These guys were with me back on the Michigan-II, when we first started doing launch tube boarding insertions. Our welded together rigs always had something failing or another, and they couldn't pack nearly the punch that the remaining enemy ships could, but we could still take em if we had enough numbers and a good ambush on our side. Trust me, if anyone knows how to make an impossible assault work, its them.”

“I only ever got to worth with the second wave tech coming from Luna and eventually Ganymede. You all had to fight for almost four years out there like that with little more than heavily modified submarines. My hats off to you, honestly.”

Alvarez laughed, “It was no pleasure cruise on the Caribbean, that’s for sure. Those early ships had no room, not like these new ones do. The inside was cramped, and everything welded on the outside was all launch tubes and armor. They got the job done, though. The Michigan had a combined launch tube capacity to fire off nearly four hundred missiles, though we converted more than a few to allow for boarding craft to be loaded on instead. She was a formidable beast, that’s for sure.”

“Bottom line, you are sending in people that fought the giants on their own ships and seized them by force, surviving to tell the tale. Our little saboteur doesn’t stand a chance. By the way, what's his name? I never asked.”

“Fireman Apprentice Andrew Reese. He appears to be another one from an abandoned part of the country that slipped through the cracks with no history to speak of, just the federal records. There are some notes of defiant behavior against authority figures, but they were minor, more footnotes in performance review files than anything.” Alvarez replied.

“Not much to go off of, and the interrogations, they pin it on these two? Any more names come up?” Henry asked.

“None unaccounted for. He is about to get his due, it is just a matter of time. My men are suited up and ready the moment we locate where Andrew is hiding.” Alvarez said, excited as well at the prospect of the end of the hunt.

REPORT OF SEARCH TEAM CASUALTIES ON DECK THREE FROM AN IED. ANDREW SPOTTED FLEEING. AREA LOCKDOWN ORDERED, WE HAVE HIM TRAPPED. PERMISSION TO ENGAGE? – LANCE

”We found him.” Alvarez smiled, showing his fangs.

“I trust you will take care of it. Unless there was something else?” Henry spoke, looking him straight in the eyes.

“No sir, you have the CIC. Ill take care of it.” Alvarez said with confidence.

“Good, and get some rest, Alvarez. You deserve it.”

“Aye, Captain.”

PERMISSION GRANTED, ROE SHOOT TO KILL. KEEP IT CLEAN. NO MORE CASUALTIES. - CDR. ALVAREZ MUSIC TO MY EARS, BOSS. HE’LL NEVER KNOW WHAT HIT HIM. MOVING IN TO ENGAGE NOW. – LANCE

Perfect, Lance had it covered. He felt lighter now, sleep seemed possible, inviting actually for once. It had been more than 24 hours… Lance would have support ready to move in at a moment’s notice behind him and would reach out with any problems. He was also more than professional enough to clean things up when they were done.

By the time Commander Alvarez had completed this whole line of reasoning, he had completed the walk to his room.

Sleep sounds pretty darn good right now, he thought, before he put his palm to the scanner, moved through the open door, collapsed on the bed in his BDU’s, and was asleep within moments. A feat only possible due to his rock solid faith in Lance would make quick work of this obstacle, like he had so many others before him.

MEANWHILE…

DATE POINT: MARCH 23rd, 7 A.U. (AFTER UNIFICATION)

LOCATION: SOL SYSTEM, ABOARD UTRN INDOMITABLE WILL

LIEUTENANT-COMMANDER LANCE BLACKFORD

MUSIC TO MY EARS, BOSS. HE’LL NEVER KNOW WHAT HIT HIM. MOVING IN TO ENGAGE NOW. – LANCE

“Alright boys, command just gave us the green light! We're moving in.” Lance said, happy to have some actual action, even if it was flushing out some vermin.

“ROE?” Lucas asked as he turned his helmeted head to look over towards Lance.

“Shoot to kill, he's a confirmed mutineer and by all accounts may be the first mutineer himself. His life is forfeit; Alvarez has asked us personally to make sure there are no more casualties. I guess the Captain is breathing down his neck or something.”

“Good. Bastard deserves what’s coming to him.” Lucas said, simply, turning back towards their destination as they moved through the maintenance tunnel, hunching over slightly to fit in his bulky suit.

“We'll put a stop to this, won’t we, darling?” Victor added, patting his breacher on the side of its receiver.

“I swear, you and that damn gun.” Lucas scoffed.

“What’s not to love? Belt fed auto shotgun on top; a rotary magazine full of a dozen rail-launched mini missiles slung below. You only wish we had toys like these back in the day!” Victor scoffed, Lucas said nothing.

“Enough of the chatter. We have friendlies up ahead, get your shit together.” Lance barked.

“All right, already! Let’s see… IFF tags them as EOD. Looks like we're here.” Victor said.

”Lieutenant-Commander! We have already cleared and swept the surrounding corridors, and we have narrowed down any possible escape routes. He’s trapped, thermals are giving enough of a faint register consistent with a human presence at the back. Problem is, he has rigged a breacher to fill that hallway with lead at the slightest sign of movement. We are stuck until someone takes that thing out.”

“We got it from here, Petty Officer, be ready to assist once we've taken out that breacher.” Lance replied.

“Lucas, why don’t we send the drone in? Skim one of the upper corners and stay near the ceiling and you should stay out of the cone of spread so we can get a visual on how he has rigged this trap.”

Lucas nodded and set down the case he had been carrying slung to his back, and then popped it open. Most of the case was filled by a TK drone in a charging saddle, the rest by its controller and relay equipment. Lucas flipped a switch and the drone lifted off before he grabbed the controller and expertly piloted the small craft towards the doorway. A new video screen was shared in group comms by Lucas as he patched them into the drone feed.

“I’ll give this one to you Victor, I do wish we'd had one of these back in the old days. Almost in position…” Lance said.

As soon as the drone moved in front of the open corridor, the breacher began to fire, shredding the steel wall opposite of it, and bathing the corridor in steam before automated systems shut off the localized flow at the source.

“Once the air clears a bit we will have a better view. The drone is motionless, so we can keep the gun silent for now.” Lucas noted.

“Resourceful little bastard, isn’t he?” Lance said as the fog cleared. The breacher was welded into a steel platform to which was bolted several sections of the most advanced composite armor made by mankind.

“Is that… hull plate?! The fucking guy shielded the gun with stolen hull patches!” Victor growled.

“Makes sense, most of the mutineers were recruits from the firemen, and damage control is one of their core ratings. He would have had access, even if not personally, through his network.” Lance said.

“All right. So here is the question, do we have anything that can pierce hull plate? No! Sorry Vic, not even your breacher can do that. That takes capital ship grade weaponry.” Lucas sniped, causing the pair to stare at each other through their visors.

“Enough! We don’t need to get in there if we can get him to come out to us. Can we isolate him and drain the oxygen from the room? Even if he has an emergency face mask that’s thirty minutes, we have eight hours in our suits.” Lance said, after contemplating their predicament.

“No, we are standing in the very lungs of this whole deck, when a room or cabin gets depressurized, we are standing in the section of the ship to which that air gets pumped. We combined these spaces with the maintenance passageways out of convenience, now we've just given him the perfect hiding place.” Lucas moaned.

“Tear gas?” Victor offered.

“In the lungs of the ship, are you mad?!” Lucas scoffed.

“We don’t need to breach the hull plate so much as compromise the weapon. What if we…”

“I’ve had enough of this shit!” Victor declared as he rushed the entrenched gun, firing a rocket from the underslung launcher and raining hell on the front section of receiver that was poking through the overlapping hull plate. In the last seconds of functionality, several rounds were fired from the doomed breacher, which quickly spread to fill the corridor.

“Victor!” Lance yelled as his friend was impacted by a projectile, sending him tumbling to the ground in a heap. His bio monitor on his HUD was flashing orange as Victor's suit ran damage assessments.

Lance raced with Lucas to roll Victor back over and check for injuries. Victor’s breacher lay discarded a meter away, smoking from a gaping hole torn in the upper receiver.

“Is he bleeding?” Lance asked as he raised his rifle and studied the darkness for any signs of movement. Victor’s biometric status flashed green, easing Lance’s concerns slightly before he saw the man stir beneath him.

“Do you realize how stupid that was?!” Lucas yelled, smacking Victor’s helmet. You are lucky you took that slug at that angle; your hauberk is scarred to hell, but you look fine. Walk it off with me, c’mon.”

An alert popped up on Lance’s HUD saying that ambient temperature had dropped to below freezing, which made no sense to him, but had the effect of reminding him to check thermals. He would forever thank himself later that he had followed that instinct. As soon as he switched over, a human shaped mass could be seen moving with a purpose through the darkness. Curiously, it was surrounded by a veritable galaxy of small moving orbs of heat energy circling around it in a toroidal pattern.

“Hostile incoming three o’clock! Switch to thermals! Focus on falling back with Victor, I’ll cover you!” Lance shouted as he opened fire with a string of 185 grain depleted uranium 7.62 NATO penetrators straight into the heart of the anomaly.

Two of the white-hot spheres formed a sheet of pure blackness between them that cut the thermal signature of the humanoid target off from view. Lance could see the heat from his tracers bouncing straight off the surface of the pitch black shield like it was a null barrier. Somehow it was playing by its own set of rules according to the shape, which rather resembled a kite shield.

“It’s got some kind of shield, looks like a flat null barrier!” Lance shouted as he began to alternate between firing short bursts and falling back himself.

“I see it, what the hell is that thing!? Is that Andrew?” Lucas asked over comms.

Two more orbs formed a flat scimitar-shaped blade of what Lance now assumed had to be null matter. The shield continued to change shape and location to block the anomaly from getting shot while the floating blade began testing Lance’s reflexes with probing strikes and feints before a volley of fire from Lance’s reinforcements forced it back towards the safety of the corridor once more and straight into a stalemate.

”Surrender yourself now Andrew, don’t make this harder than it has to be!” Lance shouted out, not particularly hopeful for a positive response. At least the record would say he tried.

”How can I explain to them the enormity of the wisdom, it is too much your eminence… Silence wretch! We will speak for ourselves. You know nothing of the threat which you face, human. We wish not conflict, but parley. We wish to retain ownership of this fleshy vessel in exchange for the trade of knowledge and wisdom with your leadership. We are but days from reaching the Heliopause, time is of the essence. This first warning is offered for free, knowledge of the other dangers you face will come after we are assured ownership of this form. You must turn back before it is too late.”

“Too late? Heliopause? What are you talking about?” Lance called out, incredulous that talking for now seemed to actually be working. He had a horrible, sinking feeling that the anomaly could have made short work of him had it truly desired to. It made the idea that it truly wanted to talk strangely more believable. That null matter sword could have struck him any number of times, but it had been held back. He had seen what happened when people got an extremity caught in the path of an activated null barrier. That sword would have bisected him cleanly had it been aimed at him with the intent to kill.

“No!! That's not our deal!” Andrew yelled, breaking the entity's control. For a moment, the torus of orbs dimmed almost completely before they began to flicker in brightness and fly in more turbulent patterns.

“You… would doom your entire timeline to preserve your dying ambition for but a moment longer? What lunacy besets those cursed with flesh. What… are you doing?”

Andrew’s hand slowly moved down to his hip as he drew a sidearm slowly, shakily to his temple.

“Andrew, don’t do this, we need to know what happens when we pass the heliopause!”

“I am a dead man walking already. Say goodbye to the physical world, demon, go back to hell, or wherever it is you came from.” Andrew pulled the trigger and painted his brains against the wall before his body crumpled to the ground in a steaming heap.

“You… have been… warned… Our energy… is spent… To the sea… of primordial chaos… we return… Good luck… human.” All at once the flurry of orbs dissipated from in front of them. Lance fell to his knees, numb with shock, trying to comprehend what had just happened.

“Isn’t that just wonderful, we lost the intel, and have a cryptic ass warning to deliver. How the fuck are we going to tell Alvarez about this one?” Lucas moaned.

“Fuck if I know, but what I do know is that I'm not it.” Victor said, looking over at Lance who simply groaned.

“Fine, I'll tell him, just get me your after-action reports right away. No fucking off, I mean it!” Lance scowled even though they would never see it. He liked to believe it came across in his voice though, as the terror twins straightened their backs a bit and remained diplomatically silent.

“All right, since I'm breaking the news to the commander, you two clowns are on cleanup. That’s an order.” Lance said casually as he put his rifle on safe and seated it on a magnetic saddle on his back.

“The commander will believe us; you have your helmet camera and sensor data backups too. That will do the heavy lifting for you anyway.” Lucas said, trying to revive morale a bit.

“What we have the deranged ramblings of a man talking to himself and manifesting strange powers. Face it, we have nothing without being able to interrogate the entity further.” Victor said. “If you ask me, the whole thing is bunk and you will make yourself look like a madman by believing it."

“Victor, you saw the same things I did man, there was something strange happening there, and you know it.” Lucas stated with an edge to his voice.

"Fuck that, I plan to keep my career, and reporting ghost stories on record is a good way to sabotage said career." Victor replied defiantly.

“You are both right in a way. If it was up to the three of us there would be two votes to bury this, but that ignores one crucial fact. Alvarez should have final say on this, he will know what to do, how to break it to the captain. If there is anything to this, far better for it to be on their shoulders to decide how to handle it than ours.” Lance said with grim finality.

“Okay. I’ll find Alvarez. Clean this up, don’t pass it off.” Lance said as he headed off to the armory to stow his gear, and then to go find Alvarez.