“Open the doors, please.”
There was a pause as the stockade warden fretted over the sudden appearance of her superior officer with a tired expression on her face.
Seeing this Roberto Malek calmly added, “I’ve come to collect the young master.”
“But.. he put himself in there, Major.”
“I know, but we have an officer’s meeting in half an hour.”
“But-”
“He’s not gonna complain if you’re just following orders, warden. Just open the doors for me, and blame it on me afterwards.”
With the half hearted sigh of an underpaid NCO, the warden opened the doors giving passage to the cells within.
For a quick construction it’d be hard to tell that this space was considered a temporary structure. As the Tribunus Major walked, the metal floors and walls resounded with a sense of security that you’d only find on a battleship. Superior by Design.
Roberto made it to the end of the hallway standing outside of the plexiglass door, seeing the Tribunus sitting up and staring at the walls. Maybe in meditation? Or maybe that’s just how they make these academy kids nowadays? He wasn’t sure, and tapping the glass for a reaction wasn’t doing anything.
“Cell please!” he shouted down the hallway, and after a few seconds the door slid open.
Moving quickly the once still officer moved in quick step preparing to place the intruder into a submission hold, but Roberto in similar speed awkwardly interlocked hands with him and pulled them down as if they were on a date.
“I appreciate the spirit, Yosyf but we’ve only known each other for so long.”
Coming to his senses, the Tribunus, Yosyf Koening, became aware of his opponent and their current state.
“Oh, my apologies Major. I was not expecting you to come, or anyone really outside of MPs.”
“Yeah well,” Roberto started letting out a sigh of disappointment, releasing his hands, “We have a meeting in half an hour and I’d rather not have the Legatus be on anyone’s ass right now for missing a meeting.”
“Well she should be on my ass!” Yosyf shouted.
Roberto snorted, “O-okay, but considering that today’s matter concerns what you experienced out in the field, it’d be pretty helpful to have you around.”
“What could I have to say that’s helpful, Major? How to get your commanding officer killed? I should be court martialed! I came to the 47th to make a name for myself, prove myself a quality officer and bring up this legionnate to its former glory! Now I’m just a criminal who got their commanding officer killed!” Moving from the door, Yosyf returned to the bench he started in.
“Ah, well in the case of a court martial, you don’t have to worry about that.” Roberto moved and sat on the cold metal next to his junior, internally remarking the strangeness of being in the stocks by choice.
“What do you mean?” Yosyf said, turning towards his superior, “It is Standard Procedure.”
“You see, the things they teach you at the officer’s academy are rather… idealistic compared to the reality out in the field, my dear Tribunus,” clasping Yosyfs hands in his.
“Despite what they’d have you believe, officers are a dime a dozen out here, and any idiot with enough years, or friends can make their way up the ladder without much issue. Multiply that by the thousands of Legionnates, and tens of thousands of rank and file in each, and you get a massive bureaucratic backflow, even with the help of NHPs. Hell hath no fury like a military lawyer following a warpath. So yes, trying to court martial everyone who may have led their CO to their deaths is just impossible and not worth the time.”
“But what about Justice and Order?”
“Yosyf, what is just about putting someone on trial for making an honest mistake? If you want someone to prosecute, go find the bullet that killed them. But until then we still have a mission that needs doing. Plus you’d be surprised how plush the funeral package is for families. Getting shot up two ranks ain’t too bad in that case.”
Yosyf opened his mouth to say something, but turned his face away towards the wall. He couldn’t deny this reality.
Seeing his junior straining, Roberto sighed. “If you truly feel responsible, then use the memory of that mistake as a lesson to yourself. In my experience, it helps with keeping level headed. Besides I doubt the Prefect would’ve wanted you in the hole for his sake.”
“But wait, Major? The same thing happened to you?”
“Hmm? Oh yeah, but it’s been years now, and ‘War moves on’. Putting that aside,” he said standing up, “if you want to actually get court martialed, you’re free to stay, and feel her Ladyship’s wrath for missing a meeting. But I think for all our sakes, you should just come along, Yosyf,” offering a hand to him.
Yosyf stared at his superior’s hand for a moment, finally taking it with hesitation and standing up.
“Yes, sir.”
“Oh right I’ve been meaning to say, you know you can just call me Roberto, right?”
“With all due respect, Tribunus Major. I think that’s a bit over the line.”
“I appreciate the respect for formality, but all things considered, Ras Shamra put this unit past that line years ago.”
“You very much love to skirt the line for tardiness don’t you, Malek?”
“Oh, of course not ma’am. I simply believe in making the most use of all the time I have.”
The legatus, Suzanna Allbright, took a grim expression to her face turning away from the documents before her to face her clever 2nd-in-Command, “Well I hope you aren’t inspiring our new Tribunus Koening, to act in a similar fashion?”
“Considering that I’ve been told that I’d make a poor teacher (as I hope you’d remember, ma’am) I doubt that’d happen if I tried.” The room of officers chuckled in response.
“Well if you’re quite done, Tribunus Major, sit down.” the Legatus commanded.
Taking their seats, the legatus turned her attention to the rest of the room.
“Now that we’re all here, let’s get started.” The table before them started to glow with blue hardlight and projected the images of the local islands, 7 red markers at various islands.
Raising his hand, Yosyf spoke, “Legatus, may I say something before we start, I-”
“No Tribunus, you may not. Whatever it is, it can wait until after this meeting.”
“…yes, ma’am.” he said, shrinking down.
“Now, not to put too fine a point on this, as all of you know we’ve lost the Prefect Immunes… or I suppose legatus soon enough, Haroldson in action along with one of our senior Exploratores. Thus we are not in the best position to continue a full quiet and thorough scouting of the various anomaly points we’ve detected. And considering the nature of our mission and our currently on hold staffing requests, we likely won’t see experienced replacements for several months.”
Yosyf spoke up, “Several months? How is that possible? The unit turnover rate for individual soldiers is thousands a week.”
“Quote: ‘Staffing resources have required prioritization to various other fronts.’ End quote. Not an uncommon response, I’m told.” the Legatus replied.
“Well ma’am, we can still hope that HQ will dump a graduating class’ worth of academy misfits onto us,” Roberto cut in.
The room went awash with laughter at the notion.
“Well considering our Tribunus’ recent arrival, I think we can have hope for a better lot of recruits, Tribunus Major.
“Regardless, we can’t afford to have any more unknown variables. I have no desire to be at the R&D’s beck and call forever. So we need this test to go smoothly and without any issues. So the first order of business: to our surviving Exploratores, Immunes Laerz, you’re promoted to Prefect. Speak with the commision office to go over the pay details.”
The room raised a small applause as Laerz stood up, “Yes ma’am, thank you, ma’am.”
With a brief nod, she turned her hair “Next, Tribunus Koening, if you could, describe to us the events of this last excursion to the best of your memory.”
Yosyf, making a quick glance at Roberto giving a support look, stood up already defeated, “Yes, ma’am.”
Taking his time to talk through the events of searching and running in upon a group of 4 machines, and the ensuing skirmish and its end result, Yosyf felt a heavy burden upon him. Thinking of all the mistakes he made, the things he could’ve done, should’ve done. Better maintenance to prevent his systems from failing so quickly, or moving in more unison with the rest of the unit, or maybe even just bringing more people. His brain was spiraling with the myriad stream of regret.
“Thank you, Tribunus,” the Legatus said, cutting off his stream of consciousness, “you may sit down now.”
“B-but, Legatus,” the young Tribunus sputtered with shock “shouldn’t something happen to me? The Prefect died because of me and-”
The Legatus put her hand up, stopping the Tribunus.
“No Tribunus, it should not. As unfortunate as it is to lose officers of specific skill and sufficient quality, I do not care to belabor the matter more than is necessary. You may sit down, Tribunus.”
Taking his seat, Yosyf looked down avoiding anyone’s eyeline. But did feel a pat on his shoulder from Roberto.
“So,” the Legatus started, “before we were dealing with one rogue pilot appearing at each anomaly point, so I was content with capturing them and hoping it would resolve this or at the very least give us a better understanding of what’s going on, but it seems they have friends besides.”
“Looking for a doctor with an Anti-Mat and a Nanocarbon Sword is certainly not what you’d expect of your typical search party,” Roberto said.
“Neither is killing a captive officer, so I’m not inclined to believe that they want a doctor for any actual help.”
Yosyf’s stomach turned at the resurfacing of the memory, but the conversation between the Legatus and the Tribunus Major continued despite that.
“They could be a kill team, ma’am.”
“Then they must be a bad one if they’re contacting unidentified groups. More likely they’re reinforcements for the red one. It’s not a coincidence that they showed up together at the same point.”
“Do you think someone has compromised the mission? It’s not impossible, but considering the pains we took getting to this point, I’d think it unlikely.”
“EIther way they are here now, and we cannot afford to stop. Our budget is hemorrhaging enough as it is.”
Looking around the room, the Legatus took note of each of the officers, stopping at the Tribunus and then back to the map before them.
Not looking up she said, “Tribunus, I’m activating your Evocati squad and attaching them to the scouting parties. It seems they’ll need the extra firepower. I hope your experience out in the field yesterday will help you in informing them of what to expect?”
Brightening up, Yosyf rose to attention. “Yes, ma’am! I’ll be sure to lead them well.”
“Actually Tribunus,” Roberto said, “I was going to say that you should probably not be going out. Unlike the former Prefect, you are far from an expert in scouting, and Command staff doesn’t need to go out with every party.”
“Y-yes, sir.”
“Also while we’re on the topic, Legatus, if I could suggest sending out some Stabuli and Medici as well? They should be some help with capturing this rogue group, or at least with taking them down without much issue.”
“Hmm… authorized, I’ll leave the party compositions to your discretion, Tribunus Major.”
Raising her gaze to the room, the Legatus stood pulling all eyes towards her, the officers all audibly shifting in response.
“We have less than a week until the start of the testing window, and while we have been doing well to remain secret thus far, these new actors are likely not to make this a quiet matter for us. Regardless, the restriction on the use of incendiary and explosive weaponry and systems will remain in effect. This weapons test must be kept secret and alerting local authorities to our presence here will jeopardize our goals.
“Also I am authorizing lethal force, however, capturing any extraneous persons or machines takes priority. The less blood, the better, but move at your discretion. We don’t need anyone starting a blood feud over this… or a lawsuit.
“Do I make myself clear?!”
0 Comments