“Why did we decide to merge the military into one branch? Tactically, that is a terrible decision. An Army general can’t grasp the nuance of the Navy, and an admiral can’t understand the Air Force. That’s not even touching the fact that nothing exists to counter them should they go rogue.”
“But they are separate. Remember, the Seven Corps are each commanded individually at the top, but operate as a single unit near the bottom. We just don’t see the interactions of the top very often.”
“And the fact that they have no checks and balances?”
“Come on, you and I both know that, if it came down to it, there is no way the Old Earth branches would have turned on one another.” – On the efficiency of a single branch, High Ministerial debates, May 14, 3265.
When he woke up the next morning, Jack realized something incredible; for the first time in two years, he didn’t have anywhere to be. There was no P.T. to rush off to, and there was no formation to be late for. Instead, he could lay here in a pile of intertwined limbs with the woman he loved, and nobody would care.
Not wanting the moment of bliss to end, he kept his eyes closed, simply savoring the feeling of holding Thea. In that moment, he wished nothing could ever intrude on their life, that he could just listen to her breath and love her more for it.
He knew if he took that step, if he opened his eyes and got out of bed, it would be gone. The real world would come crashing back in with a vengeance, and there was nothing either could do to stop it. The Senate trial would continue, their leave would end, and their peace would be shattered.
“You know I know you’re awake, right?” Thea mumbled into his chest.
“Shh, don’t break the illusion,” he whispered, desperate not to let go.
“You also know that we need to get going soon.”
“Can’t we pretend the message never got to us?”
“Not while still looking responsible, no.”
Groaning in mock annoyance, he pulled away from her and ever so slowly rolled to his feet. In an almost zombie-like trance, he stumbled into the shower. Less than a minute later, Thea joined him. Unlike their activities the previous night, they were both solely focused on getting clean and being ready for the day.
“Think we have time for breakfast?” he asked, checking his HUD as he pulled a freshly laundered uniform from the auto cleaner.
“Yes, but only if we get it on the way out. I’m absolutely certain your wallet couldn’t handle another round of room service.”
“Touche, it would put a damper on whatever we wanted to do tonight,” he agreed, slipping on his boots and straightening his jacket. “I think I saw a little café when we were checking in.”
“Ooh, look at you pulling out the French while admitting you’re broke. Ironically historically accurate you know,” she replied, putting the finishing touches on her own uniform, “Well then, my charming beau with the deplorable accent, allons-y.”
The café turned out to be much more than the cheap buffet common in most hotels. No, they’d gone several steps farther and constructed a dining room that gave each table real privacy. The owners of the establishment designed the room in a way that ensured every table had privacy and would not be interrupted by anyone.
“Have you ever noticed,” Jack began, sitting back in his chair while holding a cappuccino that could only be described as divine, “That nearly all the food we’ve had since being away from Earth has been insanely good?”
“In case you’ve forgotten, I was also on Algol.”
“Obviously I don’t mean there. That crap was one step up from gray sludge. Hell, I’m still convinced that part of the training was learning how to gag it down. What I mean is that everywhere civilians have made their mark, the food is beyond outstanding.”
“Ah… I’m assuming you’ve never focused on this question long enough to actually look it up?”
“What is there to look up? That food is yummy?”
Laughing and taking a sip from her cup of tea, she set it down before explaining, “Most of the food we had back home was artificially manufactured. If you ask him, Dave will tell you the amount of genetic modification done to crops is so extreme, they produce nearly a thousand times more than they’re meant to. At a certain point, scientists needed to make a choice; feed the people or preserve the taste. They chose the former. It wasn’t until mankind colonized multiple worlds that the senate passed a law banning future modification. From there, it was just a matter of taking originals from the Seed Vault on Earth and returning the crops to their natural state.”
“Wait… How do you ban something needed to increase output? Hell, how do they keep up with the demand?”
“We have entire worlds devoted to nothing but farmland. I think of the fifty-five colonies, they designated twenty as grow worlds. No major city has ever been built on one, and there never will be. Every inch of serviceable land serves the purpose of planting, growing, harvesting, and rotating crops. The only thing that breaks up the farmland is the occasional small community that tends those fields.”
“What you’re saying is that it tastes better because it simply is?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Basically.” She shrugged.
“I wonder how much defense these planets have. If they are just farmers, there is a chance they wouldn’t be well protected.”
“Probably not, but why are you so worried about them in the first place? Are you hiding a love for agriculture that you’ve never shared?”
“No, no,” he laughed, “but I am thinking about what an invading force would do. If I were looking to wage war against humans, I would attack the food first.”
“Good thing there is no war.”
“Who says there isn’t?”
“Nobody, but I would bet that not being deployed on a suicide mission to protect a tomato is a pretty solid indicator.”
“Unless we were the ones that uncovered the threat in the first place. Think about it Thea, before that mission, nobody had ever seen those things before, and now we are being pulled into meetings with the damned senate? There is absolutely no reason anyone lower than a major should address them. Our protocol is to assume any new alien we meet is hostile. What if we killed an ambassador or something instead of a soldier?” he asked, sipping from his mug.
“Then we are truly and irrevocably fucked.”
“That, my love, is the truest thing either of us could’ve said to describe this situation. If it takes an Optic pushing himself to the absolute limit just to kill one, imagine what it would be like against an army?” he asked, tapping on his temple.
“Wouldn’t we just call in Albert to fix the problem?”
“Maybe, but what happens when the attacks are coming from multiple locations at the same time? The seven are nearly gods, but the key word there is nearly. They are still basically human and can only be in one place at a time.”
“Looks like we need you to focus on training then,” she said, plucking a strip of bacon from his plate. “In the end, you need to be able to hold at least three strands of that intensity at once.”
“And if I hit my personal limit long before that?”
“Then you may as well sign a death certificate for every member of our squad. If you’re the only one that can create a weakness, then we have an even larger dependency on you than we did before, and that’s saying a lot.”
“Let’s just hope I don’t reach my limit anytime soon.”
~~**~~
“Good morning, Captain,” Senator Eliza Peters said after calling the chamber to order, “As you are aware, there was quite a bit of deliberation as to the efficacy of your soldiers’ claims yesterday.”
Not knowing if the senator was waiting for a response or not, Captain Griffin stood quietly. This announcement was for anyone not in attendance the day before. Not that many missed it, but decorum was decorum, and it needed to be acknowledged when working with politicians. Until someone bothered to ask her a straightforward question, she would stand there silently.
“Some of our number choose to downplay the sacrifice of these brave men and women, outwardly spitting on the price they paid. Men and women of the Senate, need I remind you that not a single one of us was there and has no way to truly dispute their claims? If we claim them liars in the face of video evidence, we deserve to be destroyed by this coming force.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Jack ignored the mostly useless fanfare, looking around the room and to find the snarling face of Senator McDaniel missing from the crowd. It didn’t surprise him. It was a well-known fact that politicians would often disappear when things got tough, then claim glory when all was said and done.
“Senator, while I appreciate your willingness to bring everyone up to speed with a recap, I do not see how this is a good use of my time. After all, my soldiers only have one more day on solid land, and I would like to let them enjoy it.” Captain Griffin interrupted, “If, by some miracle, there is a senator here that has no clue what is going on, they may ask me or mine for elaboration when and if they need it. Otherwise, let’s do away with the pomp and have an actual discussion.”
It was clear by their reactions that the senators were not used to being talked to in such a way. Even the nearly unflappable Senator Peters just stood there with her mouth open, trying to determine if she’d been insulted or not.
Sure, it wasn’t exactly necessary to recap the previous day’s major talking points, but it was tradition. And in this room, tradition always trumped productivity.
“Captain, if you’d like to wait outside for a bit, I will continue my update,” the senator said, trying to reclaim her dignity.
“No need,” Unranked Officer Mayer said from his alcove, “The Captain is right, we do not need a recap for something that happened yesterday. If it eases your tension, I have already verified that everyone here was also in attendance yesterday.”
“Well, then… I guess we will move on,” Peters said, backing down from what she knew was a pointless battle, “Do you have anything to add before we move on, Captain?”
“Yes Ma’am. Senators of the UHR, heed this warning; We do not know who these people are, or why they are here. The only thing we truly know is that if the enemy sends an actual fighting force against us in any capacity, we lose. Since Optics are the key to surviving these things, it is fair to say most squads wouldn’t have come back at all. You want proof? Look at the missing spot in Turaspeir’s ranks. Look at the video we’ve provided. Simply put, our weapons will not help us against creatures that are immune to Light,” she talked with a passion Jack had never seen from the woman, “Frankly, it took an act of true heroism to take that thing down, and we can not expect that act to be replicated every time we face one.”
“But you just said it yourself. You don’t know if or when you might cross paths with one of these creatures,” Senator Greene said like she’d caught the Captain in a grand scheme. “Why should I vote to have more resources devoted to something so fleeting? Better yet, why should I bother taking the advice of a captain?”
“Miss Greene, your family will not see any loss of income from this. So, if you would kindly shut up, I would appreciate it,” a voice said from the Unranked Officers terrace, “I know, for a fact, that you don’t care about your people. This mock outrage of yours is just insulting.”
A man with gunmetal gray skin stepped out of the shadows and approached the center of the room. His face was hard, but his eyes held a measure of peace Jack would never have imagined. The crisp white uniform he wore matched Albert’s perfectly. The only two things hinting at his identity were the profound lack of medals on his chest and the thin strip of crimson around the cuff of his sleeves.
“This captain felt the need to bring this engagement to the attention of both the Senate and the Unranked Corps. That alone should be enough evidence for you,” Benjamin Hargrave said, his quiet voice carrying to every ear in the room.
It was the first time Jack had seen him. He’d watched videos of Unranked Officers as part of his training, but seeing Hargrave in person made him appreciate how impressive the Steel Cast truly was. The sheer air of power emanating from him was something that couldn’t be felt through a video.
“Private Jack Monroe,” he said, coming to a stop beside Albert, “believe it or not, yours is not the first interaction we’ve had with one of these creatures. However, because of the… enhanced nature of our abilities, we were unaware of the immunity you unfortunately discovered. I am sorry we could not predict this. Your squamate’s death is on our hands. If, by some measure of chance, it makes you feel better, I am personally working on the development of a weapon that will harm these creatures without the need for the presence of a strong optic.”
While Hargrave’s attention should have been intimidating, Jack wasn’t afraid. There was a sort of calm in knowing the person in front of you was so adept at killing that if he wanted you dead, you would be dead. At a certain point, fear gave way to acceptance, and acceptance gave way to practicality.
In the end, the only thing Jack could do was treat this man with the respect he deserved.
“Officer Hargrave, you will not speak to me or any senator in such a manner!” Senator Greene screamed from her desk, “If you don’t sit down this instant, I’ll…”
“You’ll what, Mary?” He said, turning toward her as his body became translucent, “Get irritated at me for ignoring a silly tradition my brothers and I did not create? Or maybe you’ll try to have me thrown out, and I get to prove the corruption of yet another senator today? Even if you try to have me expelled from this room, there is not a single guard in the Senate’s command that could force me to comply, especially when the law says I’ve done nothing wrong.”
“You’ve betrayed secret information!”
“All I did was acknowledge that he was not the first to cross paths with The People. Ironically, the only thing cementing the knowledge of a larger issue here is your insistence on burying it.”
“We still don’t know if this soldier is telling the truth. As I mentioned to the captain, there is no way for us to know what happened. Until I see it for myself, it is nothing more than the lies of untrustworthy soldiers,” she spat, turning the last word into a curse.
“If that is all it would take for you to sit down and acknowledge your foolishness, we can have that rectified,” he said, ignoring the look on her face as she processed what he said, “Turaspeir, would you mind opening your memories to Albert? I know it is a heavy burden to remember that day, but it is easier for him to grab information that’s freely given.”
Feeling as though they were in a fight they had no business being in, Jack and his squad nodded their heads in acceptance. If the Senators wouldn’t believe without proof, there would be no better experience than the one already past. He just hated that it meant reliving those memories yet again.
A flash of violet was the only warning the Senators had before being forced into nine distinct memories of the same battle. They wouldn’t experience the smell of blood or the feel of a rifle in their hands, but they would experience loss and hopelessness. Perhaps a few would even grieve the loss of a soldier.
Albert held the politicians prisoner inside a memory of war for nearly ten minutes. At one point, retching sounds echoed around the room as the memory forced the dignified and dainty senators to watch a man die slowly and painfully.
Even if he didn’t like the tactic, Jack had to admit that Hargrave was right; if these people refused to believe his story because they claimed there was no proof, then why not force them to live through it?
“Heavy-handed as the approach was,” Albert said, releasing the threads and ending the horrific experience, “I think even a room of senators would have to admit it was incredibly effective. Even if the memories are second hand, they are memories. Before someone states that memory can be faked, you need to know I cannot change something as ephemeral as thought.”
“Those things are real,” a senator in the back said, falling back into a chair. Closing her eyes, she tried and failed to escape the recollection.
“Yes, Senator, they are real. In fact, they are the only reason I’ve spent the last two days trying to convince you to mobilize every optics in the corps. Even if they have been flying a desk, they must be reassigned to a combat company. If they already are in a combat company, we will move them out of a support role and into the field. Those lacking the strength that young Monroe showed in that battle will train until their powers have reached the minimum capacity to fight back.” Albert explained, clearly expecting the arguments that would come his way.
“Didn’t Hargrave just say he was working on a way to infuse the weapons with the needed frequency? Isn’t that enough?” Senator Greene said, trying to stir up more trouble.
“IF we can design one that works, IF we can build it, and IF we can distribute one to every soldier, then yes, it would be enough. However, fate is rarely kind. We are working on a fix, but it is always possible that a company of soldiers will run into The People next week,” Hargrave replied, “you just watched a soldier being popped like a grape. If you don’t do as I suggest, I can promise you many more will follow in that fate. Your approval, or lack thereof, will not stop us from doing what we must. But I’m certain these men and women would sleep more soundly and fight more effectively if they knew their government stood beside them. Don’t fail these soldiers, and they won’t fail you.”
“You make a compelling case.” Senator Peters replied before turning to address the others, “My fellow lawmakers, these people are asking us to give up our near-instant communication. At last count, we use over four-hundred optics as nothing more than errand boys. If these soldiers made it through a gauntlet of pain on that mission, we can deal with the inconvenience of losing a secretary. Cast your votes.”
Conversation amongst the congressmen broke out, shattering the spell of silence that had fallen over them after being forced to experience a true battle. This vote was a question of greed; could the various representatives of the UHR’s many worlds truly make the sacrifice of giving up their optics?
Some cast their vote quickly, feeling that it was not a question of deliberation or a matter of what they could gain from the situation. Others took their time, unable to decide if they would protect their own interests or those of the people. After nearly an hour, Senator Peters finally revealed an answer.
“Though the margins on this were depressingly close, the UHR Senate has decided to transfer all optics, regardless of current assignment, into combat units immediately. Further, it has been decided that they will give the Unranked Officers the funds and resources necessary to build weapons that might kill these creatures.”
“Good. Before this session ends, there is one more thing that needs to be done,” Benjamin said. “Now that the authenticity of this soldier’s heroism has been proven, I feel the need to honor him personally. Private Monroe, step forward.”
With the unthinking motions of a trained soldier, Jack rose from his seat and approached the Officer. Outside, he was the perfect picture of military decorum as he walked. Inside, however, he was nervous, excited, and if he were honest with himself… more than a touch fearful.
“Private First Class Jack Monroe,” Benjamin said, raising his voice to draw the focus back to him, “The honor I am choosing to give you today is not given lightly. In my thousand years of life, I’ve only seen fit to do this a thousand times. It’s not the most prestigious honor a soldier can hold, but it is one that I hope you will wear with pride.”
The Steel Cast man reached into his uniform and pulled out a small silver box. Nestled atop the back velvet was a medal that Jack hadn’t seen before. A bronze seven-pointed starburst highlighted by the softly glowing crimson gemstone at its heart.
“I, Benjamin Hargrave of the Unranked Officers, award you the Bronze Nova. It is a poor replacement for a friend lost on the battlefield, but one day you will look back at this day with pride,” The Officer pulled the award from its resting place and pressed it into the front of Jack’s uniform. Before Jack could express his stunned gratitude, Benjamin grabbed Jack’s rank insignia and ripped it off.
“You are no longer fit to wear this rank,” he said. “I have never granted this award to anyone lower than the rank of sergeant, and I don’t intend to start now. Because of this, you’re being promoted to sergeant with all the responsibility that comes with it. Can you handle this duty with honor and pride?”
Surprised by the turn of events, Jack nodded in the affirmative.
“Good. As for your squad, they are being promoted to the rank of specialist for their role in the battle. Without them, you would have gone nowhere. Everyone in this room has watched what happened, and knows what you did.”
“Thank you, Sir.”
“Return to your post, Sergeant Monroe.”
Jack turned and walked back to his chair in a haze, barely listening to the polite applause from senators that felt the need to be seen. He never expected this, and truth be told, he wasn’t entirely sure he wanted it.
In hardship, we rise.
His family motto had never felt more appropriate than in that single moment. He may not want it, he may not have asked for it, but he would rise to the challenge and fill the role he’d been given.
He would lead.
