Chapter 11: The Damning Trial

John

Today was the day where I had to face my fate, I couldn’t hold off the trial due to injury any longer, I had to deal with this, and I would most likely go to jail. I still had no fear, I did what I thought was right at that moment and I, although frustrated understood, I went too far. I had been funded a lawyer by the school, principals’ gift for trying it seemed, would it be enough? Probably not, even my lawyer said that I should plead guilty and cooperate fully and try and whittle down the sentence, he did say I was lucky however, Myles parents where gunning for a murder charge, my lawyer said he could whittle it down to manslaughter if everything went down right, he said he could get the sentence down to 5-7 years instead of 15. I didn’t want that however, I was gunning for an innocence charge, or even aggravated assault causing death. He did push me to do it, he attacked first and continued to lay into me for way longer than he needed to, then he assaulted Emily, someone who I would grow close to in the coming months, I could get off this, I just had to play my cards right.

I walked into the court room pin point on time and sat at the defendants table, the opposing was already waiting there, who I presumed was Myles’s mother glared at me deathly, maybe if your son wasn’t such a cunt I wouldn’t have killed him. The judge took the stand analysed the two parties and began the opening of the case. “Johnathan Doddman of faction 1, you have been accused of one count of murder, that of the young man of Myles David. Take the stand and give your story as it stands.” I stepped up to the stand next to the judge and took the oath of truth. “I was walking back to my social circle on the 5th of January on a Thursday, I had maths and open study beforehand, I was stopped by two boys who’s names were Nathan and Joel, they were manipulated by Myles in order to beat me up to send me down the list.” The judge stopped me “The List?” I continued “The list was well… a list composing of all the people who wanted to get into battle school. Myles was 5th now and I was 4th he saw me as a threat. I then talked them out of it, I continued to make my way across the school, just before making it to my location Myles stopped me. He was angry that people didn’t do what he wanted, he then started to lay into me, over and over and over again. He was then stopped by a girl who’s name I learned to be Emily, he decided to hurt her too.” At this point Myles’s mother had enough “I object your honour, he is lying!” he judge was unimpressed with her interruption “He did, the evidence lines up, he had her blood on his hands after his hospitalisation, Continue Johnathan.” I couldn’t help but grin, at this point the judge was on my side. “I then got up to pull them apart, he then hit me again, it was at this point I was scared for my life, so I hit him in the back of the head. He hit the ground and in a fit of fear I continued, a teacher then separated the incident.” The judged analysed the story, so were the lawyers, picking apart every detail. There was one detail they could pick at, and that was I hit Myles in the back of the head, but he was facing me in my story. “Story checks out Johnathan, anyone else like to ask any questions.” My lawyer kept sitting, he knew I was in a good spot and didn’t need anything. However, the oppositions lawyer stepped forward in front of me in the stand. “Why did you continue to hurt Myles even when he remained on the ground?” I held my ground “Because I was in fear of being hurt if he got back up, don’t forget he was much bigger than I was.” There wasn’t much else to ask me, so she stood down.

Benton

I couldn’t really believe what I was doing, I was breaking into battle school… I wore the most generic clothes possible, I had to blend in. I had to avoid every camera, every guard I knew, every teacher I knew, every student I knew. This was going to be near impossible but if I could pull it off I could get a creditable witness, Emily was being pulled out of the trial even though she was part of the incident. I had to one, find out why and two, get her there. If there is something vital to Johns trial, I needed her there. I slipped in through the side gate, it wasn’t really guarded much and the guards that were there I didn’t know at all. I continued my trek if I was correct my old team was in training, I would find her there.

I made it to the battle room and checked the locker, to my luck one of the new guys must have been sick or something because his suit was in there, It was a tad small for me but I slipped into it all the same, I grabbed weapons from the armoury and headed inside, the good thing about this plan is that the helmets didn’t show your face, you remained anonymous other than the name tag that showed up in others heads up display, Good thing for me is it wasn’t my suit. I entered the battle room and I was greeted by an intense firefight training the Captain talked to me first “You okay now?” he then continued to run across another wall and continue, I found Emily fast, she was on top of a building taking pot shots at people with a marksman rifle. I acted fast I boosted all the way across the cross map using the various buildings and made my way too her, she shot me immediately “Nice to see you too!” I had my radio off, she turned hers off immediately “Benton?!” she was shocked “Why are you in Jaspers uniform? Did you break in?” I nodded “John’s trials today and their keeping you out of it intentionally, You need to get out and testify, they cant turn down a key part of the trial.” She nodded “So how do we get out?” I grinned “The same way the enemy did…”

Daniel

The group had just finished training and we assembling for a debrief, the captain did a head count and stood confused, “Were missing two people, I know Jaspers not here, but who is missing?” we all looked around the room, I knew who was missing, it was Emily she must have dipped for whatever reason. But to my surprise the lockdown bell went off, I then heard gunshots, two to be exact. Everyone took it as another attack and panicked. But as the new procedure was followed minutes went by and no other shots were fired, we were held for another 20 minutes before the bell stopped. We were let out swiftly and the teachers pretended like nothing happened, something was wrong here…

Commander Jenkins

I sat at my desk doing paperwork like every other day, when I wasn’t getting things done, this was what I was doing. James walked in, in a panic “What is it James? I know that panic.” He stood nervous “Its John, someone broke Emily out, she could sabotage the trial as a creditable witness, I sat shocked “How did she get out?” he looked at me and the lockdown report sitting on my desk he then looked back at me, “No! goddamn it, someone must have triggered it to get her out, but who?” I then realised “Benton… he was the only person that knows the school that would know when his trial was, James, get on it, find and charge him!”