UNCLAIMED SPACE- Atlantis System

Planet IV- High Orbit

Atlantis Station- Commanders Office

John stared out at the planet below, he had gotten a message 30 minutes ago about Imperials hiring Mercs outside Imperial Space to target remote alien worlds. They had accredited three known attacks to this unit, and they were unsure if or when the attacks would stop. John was sure they were trying to destabilize a cluster of star systems so they could move in and Annex the region.

To stop them, they had to take out the unit, and maybe capture whoever was running it to debrief them. It had been nearly 8 weeks since the first War Game scenario and the second was right around the corner. It would be good for morale. Jimmy and Natalie were tracking down the Imperial base of operations and thought they would have the coordinates and hopefully the base layout within 72 hours. They would signal when they had it, so John could send someone in to stop it.

Due to personnel limitations, they could only field Raven, Riptide, and the Tortuga. Tortuga had a critical ongoing mission of bringing in new recruits and could not be re-tasked. Either way, the Riptide was uniquely suited for the mission. A signal at his door signaled that his guests have arrived.

Kara, Captain Stein, Lt O'Hansen, Commander Smitt, and Commander Jones joined him shortly, "Welcome people, and thank you for coming, I know you are all busy. I just received intel that an Imperial Black-Ops unit has been randomly attacking the Theron Cluster."

As John spoke the HALO on his desk lit up and highlighted the star cluster and zoomed in. "Within the next seventy-two hours, Captain you will be taking the Riptide with the Raven as back up to destroy this base they are operating out of, Lt O'Hansen you will act as Captain of the Riptide. Based on the initial Intel, they only have a freighter in support, they shouldn't have any Fleet assets. Within the next seventy-two hours, we will have the coordinates of the base and a basic layout. Commander Smitt, you will be leading the Marine portion of this raid. We will be transferring six squads of Marines to the Riptide for this operation. Some of them will be green, but they have to get bloody sometime.' John told the Marine. 'Commander Jones you will overall command of Marine Operations until Smitt gets back. Captain Stein, if the Imperials have any Fleet assets in the system, you will withdraw immediately. We have been off their radar for months now, as important this mission is our secrecy and our overall mission is far more important, is that understood. Everyone, Captain Stein will have overall command of the Operation. Secrecy and stealth are critical for this mission. Smitt if you can safely grab whoever is in charge down there do it, otherwise eliminate as many as you can. Everyone works together on crew assignments, once we have the coordinates and Intel on the base layout you will ship out within twenty-four hours. Any questions?.... Dismissed."

Kara was the only one that stayed behind "I am not trying to question your decision Captain, but how do you know this is the right choice?"

John looked at her long and hard "We are doing this because we started this whole rebellion because we wanted to overthrow the Admirals Board. This whole operation stinks and is exactly the kind of thing they would order done. I am not going to standby and do nothing when we could put a stop to their attacks and help the locals. Destroying their base and the Mercs they hired is a blow against the Admirals Board, a small one, but a blow nonetheless. It is a chance that we could be exposed, but it's a risk we have to take. No one else is around to stop them, Kara, we have to do it. Otherwise, what is the point of us being here? " John finished his rant.

"Good, those are the reasons I thought of. Just making sure we both had the same ones." Kara smiled.

Crazy androids John thought, "Send a burst message to all of our assets outside Imperial space, make sure they keep an ear to the ground about Intel about other bases like this. Where the Imperials do this once, they will do it again somewhere else. Maybe next time we can stop them before they start murdering people." John orders and Kara nodded her head in acknowledgment. The next seventy-two hours would be busy as the station prepped the Raven and Riptide to go to war. Either way, this would be the first battle in a very long war.

They received the Intel within thirty-six hours, the base was located within the Traga System of the Theron Cluster. They received a layout of the base and a topographic map of the region. Transit time to get there was a little over seventy-two hours. Twelve hours after the Intel had come in, the Riptide and Raven jumped out of the system.

Rebecca promised to send a burst message saying if they had succeeded. The next three days were going to drag on, and he had wanted to go, but he knew Smitt and everyone else would not have let him. They would have been right too, right now he was too valuable to the cause and as important this mission was, it weighed nothing compared to his safety. He still felt guilty though sending his people into danger without him. One day though, he would be leading them into battle, but it was not going to be this one.

The next three days were hell for John, he threw himself into his work, so he didn't have to think about what was or wasn't happening. He had been falling asleep in his office and when the seventy-two-hour mark approached he had been up for nearly sixteen hours. He told Kara to wake him immediately as soon as they received word what had happened and went and tried to sleep in his quarters.

Try was the operative word because all he did was stare at the ceiling and wait. The operation would take about an hour to two hours to complete depending on how slowly Lt O'Hansen went into the system. So John stared at the ceiling and hoped everything went well. Three hours later word arrived "Mission Successful, RTB +2" what the hell did plus two mean, John, wondered...Seventy-two hours later they found out what plus eight meant.

Jimmy and his squad of Mercs and two prisoners. One of them, Jacob Whitley, Smitt loathed and hated. He was supposed to be dead apparently. He was a former Marine that was kicked out for firing on civilians and almost started a rebellion because of it. Whitley was later captured with some pirates and was supposed to have been executed.

According to the Intel, they captured when they destroyed the Black-Ops base, IntelDiv got him out of the execution as long as he worked for them exclusively. The other was supposed to be some analyst that IntelDiv sent to support them and their endeavors. They had no idea who she was, or what she really did but something about her John did not like at all. Both of them were placed in lockdown with twenty-four-hour surveillance with no privacy what-so-ever.

"Sorry John, we do not have much on her. We were only there a couple of days before we sent you the Intel on the site. After that, we knew we were on the clock before you sent someone there to crash their party and burn the place down. She was never alone, and she was mostly with that Jacob piece of Shit. He is an animal. If you hadn't wanted command personnel I would have killed him. Something about her pissed Natalie off though, so I would be really careful with her John." was all that Jimmy really learned about the other prisoner.

Three days later, both prisoners had been denied clothing and sleep. They were allowed food but no utensils. Automated drones provided them food to eat and took it from them after 10 minutes if they ate it or not. No chairs were provided, a floodlight was on them at all times, and they were cuffed and chained to the ceiling and floor that denied them the ability to sit down or move around too much.

John hated it but both prisoners were little better than animals and both should and would die for their crimes. According to the colonies that had been raided, over seven hundred beings had died because of the raiders. With word that the camp had been destroyed, with all but two of the occupants dead and the ship destroyed they were placated but until these two died they would not be happy. Ending their threat had earned Atlantis a lot of goodwill from the Theron Cluster.

Natalie stood next to John as they looked at the female prisoner. So far none of their spies within IntelDiv knew who she was, but that was no surprise considering she was part of Black-Ops. They had only gotten some information about her from before she joined the military.

Kara and Douglas had insisted that four MECHs would be going in with them to ensure John's safety encase she somehow broke out. That and the collar they would be putting on her. The collar acted like a lightning rod, if she got further from one foot from the center of the room, electricity would shock her in bursts until she went back into the center of the room. Kara would be standing by with two more MECH units outside.

Natalie had agreed to lead the questioning while John would just stand behind her and wait until he saw an opening or Natalie signaled him to take over. "Ready John, once the light goes out, we go in. I lead the questioning. You are there to watch and read her body language. See what you can find out about her that her body will tell us without her knowledge. If she is an operator she will tell us very little what she doesn't want us to know."

"Hello, Kelly. Do you know why you are here....you have been very bad. Killing all those people. You have made a lot of enemies out there. They all want a piece of you, Kelly. I don't want to turn you over to them, but you have to tell us everything you know. I am trying to help you, but I only have so much time. Once my commander decides to turn you over to your enemies, I cannot do anything for you. So please Kelly, tell me something. You don't have to tell me any secrets, let's start with something simple. Tell us what happened after you joined the military. See IntelDiv did a very good job sanitizing your records after you joined them. Just tell us where you went to school and go from there." Natalie prodded her while John watched her body reactions.

Her shoulders had tightened up when Natalie said she killed people, Anger or offense that the aliens were described as people. Her buttocks had flinched when we said her records were sanitized by IntelDiv, surprise she had not expected us to have access to her military records. Based on her control either she was an operator or she had extensive training, more then an analyst required. 'Jeeves run a scan on her body for scars and any enhancements she has. See if she has physical or mental ones.' John asked his AI as 'Kelly' started telling her story.

A few minutes later Jeeves responded 'Captain I am detecting a cranial modification very similar to what you have. It will enhance her thought process and her ability to endure pain from what I can tell. Her muscles have also been enhanced, to what degree I am unsure because she has made very little movement since she was placed within the containment cell. I can tell the enhancements will increase her strength and her ability to react. If I had to make a conclusion she is an Operator that has been enhanced to assist her in completing her job.'

John looked at the woman again, her feet and hands were bound to a central chain, they had no idea though if her restraints would hold her though or if the electricity would disable her. 'Jeeves is there any way you can disable the cranial implant or reverse the effects of it?' John asked the AI.

Jeeves quickly responded 'Give me 30 seconds John and I will hack it and I can I will enhance the pain she will receive. If I cannot do that I will just disable it.' At that point, "Kelly" was crying and saying she just wanted to go home. 'It is done, Captain. I could not reverse it, so I just disabled it.' Time for John to enhance the interrogation.

John stepped forward and grabbed 'Kelly' by the throat and made her lookup. 'Douglas initiate Plan Alpha.' John hated what he was about to do, but these...people...deserved far worse. A screen descended from the ceiling and lit up with the view of Jacob Whitley restrained just like 'Kelly' was.

John had a gun placed at the base of the woman's spine if she moved he would pull the trigger. It was loaded with disabling ammo so it would hurt but not kill her. "Watch this, I do not want you to talk and tell any more lies. So I want you to watch and listen to what I am going to say.' Douglas strode into Jacob's cell with an injector with a very special injection they had made over the last three days, 'My friend there is injecting your former partner with some very special nanites. For the next hour, they are going to just reproduce. He will become very uncomfortable to start running a fever and get a headache. After the first hour is when the real fun begins, the nanites will start breaking down his body for real, bones, muscle mass, non-essential organs, over the course of eight hours those nanites will eat him alive. We can only stop the process for the first hour after that, we can do nothing. I want you to watch and remember because you have exactly twenty-four hours from this moment to tell us everything. My friend and I are going to leave. You are going to tell us everything you know including the crimes you committed in the Theron Cluster. If you do not, in twenty-four hours we are going to come in here and give you an injection. The enhancement you had, was disabled so you will feel everything as your body is broken down. No one is coming for you, you are alone, and only you can help you. When you feel like talking start, we will be recording everything for the next twenty-four hours, after that you will disappear forever." With that John and Natalie left.

"I am sorry Nat, I had Jeeves do a scan of 'Kelly' she had both physical and mental enhancements. She is a trained Operator, and we need to know what she knows ASAP. This is probably the only way to break her." John told the spy.

"I understand John but you should not bluff like that. In an hour she will know you are lying for sure, and we will be off worse than where we are now." Natalie told him

"I wasn't lying Nat. One of the Docs had family in that cluster. He worked with a mechanical engineer to design those little monsters. They are based on nanites that break down the trash we produce. In 9 hours that man will die a very bad death and hopefully, his death will break 'Kelly'. Douglas, I am sorry I dragged you and your sister into this. This is one of the most disgusting things one human can do to another, but I choose to do it because the Intel that 'Kelly' has might save more lives down the road." John stated.

The only question going through Natalie's mind was, would this break John before it broke the enemy?