UNCLAIMED SPACE- INNER SYSTEM OF UNK402

IRN Riptide- Bridge

John watched as the two assault shuttles with 24 Marines and Smitt approached the Raven. Based on the internal sensor data Kate had access to, eight officers were in the launch bay. Six of them were restrained and two were armed and pointing weapons at the restrained officers. All the enlisted were packed in the living quarters per his demands, two officers were on the main bridge, one on the secondary bridge, one at the Armory, and three in the Engineering compartment. Smitt told him he would contact the Riptide as soon as he was sure the Raven was secure.

The Marines would relieve the officers of their stations and send them over to the Riptide to be questioned. Depending on what was going on John might leave them drifting in space, he might blow the Raven up, he might leave the crew on one of the habitable moons in the system. It all depended on what had happened on the Raven and how many of the crew could be trusted. Smitt would change the command codes of the Raven so the command staff's authorization would be suspended until John reinstated them.

UNCLAIMED SPACE- INNER SYSTEM OF UNK402

IRN Riptide- Brig

Twenty minutes later the first assault shuttle was back with the prisoners in the landing bay. All the prisoners were wounded but none were critical so they would not get any medical treatment until he had the truth about what the hell was going on. The prisoners were split up, some would be held in sealed cargo containers that could be jettisoned into space at a moments notice others would be held at the brig until further notice. As John walked into the brig, the Sgt pointed to the door on his right. He looked through the one way glass and sitting at the table was a kid with Lieutenant bars on the arms, in his early twenties at most, with a Marine in power armor standing behind him. He looked scared and afraid.

The other room held a man in his thirties in the same situation but he had an arrogant look on his face like he knew he was going to get out of the situation sooner rather than later. 'Kate make sure the Raven's long-range Comms is locked down, I don't want anything about what happened to get back to FleetComm or whoever sent these guys.' John told the AI before he strode into the scared LT room.

"On your feet sailer. Rank, Name, Ship, orders on the double." John roared as he went into the room.

The sailer hopped to his feet as he bellowed out his response "First Lt. Nick Grimes, IRN Raven out of Loki Station, on attached duty with IRN-Intel Division, Command of Third Shift SIR!!!" John got right into his personal bubble.

"You want to tell me exactly why the hell your ship tried to nuke mine sailer? You want to tell me what the fuck happened over there and why your crew thinks it is ok to kill your fellow brothers and sister in the Navy not to mention or cousins the dam Marine Jarheads!!!" John barked out.

The LT was nearly pissing himself but he was responding before he could think up a lie "Sir, the majority of the crew and the lower ranking officers are not Intel. We were attached to the Intel Division to assist in their operations. The senior officers are all Intel but I and my crew are not Sir. I never signed up to kill my fellow sailors, not even Marines Sir. When I found out that the Captain had ordered a nuke to be launched on an IRN vessel I immediately organized the other Junior officers and subdued all the senior officers, Sir. Why did this happen, Sir? Why did they want you dead?" John considered his choices and decided to be honest with him.

"Sit down son. Those officers tried to kill us because we found a very important secret that could...no it will start a civil war if it gets out. Thousands of Sailors and Marines have already been killed to keep this secret buried, but some secrets son do not want to stay buried." John told him. With that John left the room, the Lt would receive some food and medical attention, he was a good sailer just placed in a very, very tough spot and made the right choice.

The questioning of the other senior officer would have to be done differently. He was more seasoned some blind intimidation would not work. Not to mention he was probably trained in interrogation methods. So he wouldn't he would ask him questions and he would get the information...one way or another. As he walked into the room the other man sneered at him, John just smiled at him before he shot the prisoner's hand. As the prisoner screamed and cursed John pinned his other hand to the table "WHAT DO YOU WANT? WHAT DO YOU WANT TO KNOW?"

John just looked at the man and waited...after about another minute he pulled the trigger again eliciting another howl of pain from the man, "You know exactly what I want to know. You tell me or I hurt you, its that simple. I am not going to ask questions. How much you get hurt all depends on you." John calmly stated before he cocked his gun again.

The prisoner was moaning in pain and not paying any real attention so he slapped him and brought the gun toward one of the prisoners' fingers, that got his attention real quick "It was Fleet Admiral Jamie Hernandez gave the verbal orders but the hard copy had the digital signature of every single member of the Board. My copy is in the Captain's Cabin aboard the Raven, in the filing cabinet at the desk. Its the only file in the cabinet. It is not rigged or anything."

John nodded his head before he responded, "If you lied about anything, if anything on that ship is booby-trapped or if you have any sleeper agents on board I need to know right now."

The prisoner cried and immediately responded, "NOTHING I SWEAR."

John took a deep breath "I believe you. I hope you did not forget anything or lie. If you did, I am going to come back here and cut off your hands and feet and then we are going to drop you off on the nearest habitable moon. Am I understood." The prisoner just nodded his head before he went back to moaning. John just left the tortured prisoner behind with the Marine that hadn't even twitched in response to anything the Captain had done.

'Kate alert Lieutenant Commander McHaney that he is needed at the brig now and let Commander Smitt know that if he finds any Intel Division Officers or Enlisted that they are to be arrested immediately and let him know I want the hard copy of the orders that prisoner told us about ASAP.' John called as he headed toward his quarters to clean up.

He could wash the blood off but the stain he felt on his soul would take far longer to come off. He had not let that part of himself out in a long time. Now it had been out and he had to cram it back into the deepest and darkest part of himself.

UNCLAIMED SPACE- INNER SYSTEM OF UNK402

IRN Riptide- Captains Quarters

'John, are you ok? Do you want to Log out and take some time?' Jeeves called out.

'Thank you, Jeeves, but I cannot log out right now. My ship and crew need me right now, and I cannot leave them twisting in the wind. Leave a report with the Devs though and make sure this Mission Line does not make it to the final version of the expansion.' John told the concerned AI.

'They have already assured me that this Mission Line was a one-off, meaning whoever found it first got it. They want to know what happens as well because this universe is semi-independent and will keep going without their input. Think of it as a wind-up toy. It's been wound up and it's up to us to see where it goes.' Jeeves responded as John headed into the shower to clean off.

When he got out the Doc was already banging on the door...time to face the music. "What the Hell were you thinking? Do you have any idea what you have done? You.....are you ok John?" whatever Lieutenant Commander McHaney saw on John's face stopped him mid-rant.

"I am doing as well as I can James, I let out a part of myself I thought I would never see again. How is the prisoner? How is the Marine that was in there with me?" John asked the man.

He snorted before he responded "You scared the piss out of him, I mean that in the literal sense not figurative. It will take him weeks to regain full use of his hands though. The Marine was kinda shocked at what you did but also glad you went that far to protect us all. Dammit John, what the hell are we going to do? We cannot go back, FleetComm will only wait so long before they send another ship or list us as a Rogue vessel and have the whole fleet ready to kill us. What are we going to do??"

John smiled like he hadn't done in nearly 15 years "Someone once told me Doc 'if you are losing at a game...cheat, if you are still losing...change the rules if that doesn't work flip the board and shoot the other guy' in other words we are going to stop doing what the Admirals Board expects." The Doc smiled and left his captain, the gun was laying on his bed though. 'Kate I want Chief Letts to send someone he trusts over to the Raven on the next shuttle we send over there. I want an estimate to see how long until she is spaceworthy.' he told the ship's AI as he left to go to the bridge.

UNCLAIMED SPACE- INNER SYSTEM OF UNK402

IRN Riptide- Bridge

The mood of the Bridge was still shocked silence, everyone was still stunned and scared about what had happened. Someone had tried to blow up their home and they had no idea why. John knew he was going to have to tell them why this had all happened sooner rather than later. They had to know why they could not go home now and why they were on the run. The time for secrets was over...' Kate get me ship-wide on both the Riptide and Raven please...Attention crews of the Riptide and Raven. As you are aware not long ago conflict erupted between our two vessels. You are all probably wondering why. We are all in the same navy, we all serve the Remnant, why would we fight? The answer is complicated but I am going to tell you. About 20 years ago the Admirals Board took power from the Senate. Now the official version is that this was a seamless transition due to an attack that killed a dozen Senators and their families. What is not known is that the Admirals Board was behind the attack and that 17 ships and over 5000 Sailers and Marines were murdered to cover up the coupe. The Gilded Claw, a ship the Riptide found was one of those destroyed by the order of the Admirals Board. Now as far as our Official Log went, we never found anything on the wreck because I wanted my ship and crew to be able to go home. Apparently, just finding the Gilded Claw was an automatic Death Sentence because the Admirals Board tried to kill us twice. The first time when the sent a virus that would have emergency vented the whole Riptide and then when they sent the Raven to make sure we died. Now the majority of the Enlisted and Officers of the Raven had no idea what they had been ordered to do. They were just following orders and once the Junior Officers found out what had happened they immediately restrained and imprisoned all the Senior staff aboard the Raven for what they had tried to do. Now I am sure a lot of you have questions and I wish I had all the answers but we don't have time right now. In the next twenty-four hours, we have to run and both the Raven and Riptide are coming with me. Anyone who does not wish to come will be left on one of the habitable moons here in the system with an Emergency Beacon if they want to try their luck with the Admirals Board. For those that wish to stay, please inform Kate, the ship's AI onboard both vessels. I am not judging you if you wish to stay. To those Intel Division officers and enlisted, you do not have a choice you will be left behind.' cut transmission Kate' John sat back in his chair as he studied the display in front of him and thought about everything that had happened.

30 minutes later John was broken from his thoughts by Chief Letts "Sir, I am over on the Raven with their Chief Engineer Johnson, we have looked at the engines we can maybe save one of the Pulse Engines but the others will have to be taken out. The good news is that the Warp Drive is still operational, we can jump out of the system whenever you want."

John thought before he responded, "What do you need to repair that engine Chief and how much time?" John could hear them whispering back and forth before they finally responded

"The majority of the engineers from the Raven are staying on Captain. I need all of them released so they can get to work and thirty-six hours if possible." Chief Letts replied. John looked at the display, FleetComm probably expected a response from the Raven in the next three hours and the nearest IRN vessel was forty-eight hours away according to Kate.

"Ok Chief Johnson and Chief Letts you got what you need and the time you want. The sooner the better though people. Beg, borrow, and steal what and who you need, I have to have that engine up and running ASAP." John cut the channel and continued to think. 'Kate advise the Marines over there that I am paroling the engineers into the care of Chief Letts.'

'Message to XO...I need to see you on the bridge ASAP...end message' He didn't want to break up his staff or crew but he did not have a choice. He needed to mix up the crews so any hard feelings would be buried sooner rather than later.

'Kate is Commander Smitt back on board or is he still on the Raven?' John asked the AI.

'He is still on the Raven Captain, would you like to send him a message or open comms with him?' Kate told him.

John considered his options 'Record message as follows...Commander Smitt due to the recent conflict and due to the Raven being under my command I want to intermix the crews so we can bury any lingering feelings as quickly as possible. I will be transferring some of the Officers and Enlisted sailors from the Riptide to the Raven and from the Raven to the Riptide. Should we do the same with the Marines?....end message'

His XO strode onto the bridge about that time. "Captain you called?" the XO asked.

John considered what he wanted to do and he really didn't have many options "Rebecca in the next twenty-four hours you will be transferring over to the Raven and assuming Command you will have first Lt. Nick Grimes as your XO and two other officers, two NCOs and twenty enlisted sailors will also transfer from the Riptide to the Raven. Talk to your new XO and Kate I want two NCOs and twenty enlisted sailors from the Raven transferred to the Riptide. Due to all the Senior Officers being compromised on the Raven you will be stretched pretty thin as far as having officers. In the next hour, we should know who is being left behind also. You will answer ultimately to me, but the day to day running of the Raven will be up too you. Remember to take up boxing or spend more time at the range and if you need to talk I will be here for you. Congrats Rebecca on your promotion" John told the stunned officer.

Over the next hour, John learned they lost a total of seven Officers, one NCO and fifteen Enlisted on the Raven and surprisingly only five enlisted from the Riptide. No Marines from either ship opted to stay behind. Commander Smitt agreed with John and arranged to transfer one Lt, two NCOs, and their squads. Apparently, the Commander of Raven's marines was an old buddy of Smitts from basic and they knew each other very well from back then and they were working well together. In thirty-six hours one way or another, they would be running for their lives and hoping that FleetComm wouldn't find them.