John woke two hours later, realizing he wasn’t anywhere near alert enough to stay safe that day. He already knew what was waiting for them all at the simulation facility. During morning PT, John managed to quietly warn Anne, and she managed to relay a message to an instructor who was part of their support. He, in turn, sent a message to the support coordinator, who started the ball rolling to bring the entire operation on-line including a battalion of Troopers who would flood the campus as soon as they were called. After PT had finished, John realized the exercise had cleared the dopamine from his system so he should be okay, for a while at least. After breakfast, the students headed to the briefing room to be briefed about the day's activities. The students would be operating in a simulator that day, simulating the bridge of a starship. By this point, six people, about twenty-five percent of the trainees who’d started the course, had been washed out so the remaining trainees could just man all the bridge stations without people standing around uselessly. This Exercise required the students to work as a team, defending the ‘ship’ against superior forces. The ‘ship’ being simulated for them to fly in this instance was one of the newer Cruiser designs, quite a bit better armed and Shielded than FNS Destiny, but still not the most powerful ship in the Federation Navy. The Cobra, Colin commanded during the Exercises on Cambridge, was almost as well armed and was faster, more maneuverable, had better Shields and armour, all in all, it was a significantly more capable platform.
John wasn’t commanding for this Exercise, he was to be the damage control coordinator while Anne was dealing with the power plant. This arrangement suited John fine because it would allow him to pay more attention to what was happening in and around the simulator compartment. The simulator was a very highly integrated facility with no wasted assets. The surveillance cameras used the same, high bandwidth signal lines to carry data as many of the simulator systems. The simulator computer core was more powerful and more flexible than most of Earths super-computers so could take on the role of surveillance monitoring as well as running the simulation. The simulation techs could input, and modify, scenarios, to test the trainee’s ability to deal with different problems, but the simulation itself was all run by the AI on the computer. Because of this high level of integration, John could, with only a little tinkering, add a small subprogram to monitor specific things and warn him when those events took place. He could also set up external communications and call in the cavalry when and if they were needed. John’s problem was judging the exact right time to yell for help. While he knew some things about the enemy plans, John didn’t know everything, and certainly wasn’t aware of the enemy timetable.
The student in command for the purposes of this Exercise was a young human called David Sinclair. David was an excellent Officer, though perhaps lacking a little in self-confidence and John thought he was just a little timid. These problems weren’t so bad that he shouldn’t have a shot at command, in fact, John was confident that given a chance, he could knock these faults out of David and make him into a superior Commanding Officer. David’s biggest problem was a tendency to second-guess himself, the man had good instincts but didn’t believe in himself enough. Everyone took their places, and John began giving instructions to the AI, requesting it to alert him if any movement could be detected around his points of interest, or if there was a suspicious surveillance blackout, including cameras being taken offline, anywhere in the facility. This simulation involved a scenario quite similar to the one facing FNS Destiny in the Zafar system, they were outgunned by several enemy Warships and had to run towards a sub-optimal Jump-Point to avoid contact. When John saw what was happening he realized, in this case, they could get around these two ships. Still, he wasn’t in command, or on tactical, so opted to say nothing, feeling it better to just do his job, and keep an eye out, waiting for the enemy to make their move.
The Exercise had dragged on for nearly two hours when the AI notified John that two surveillance cameras had suddenly gone offline. He decided it would be better to have his back up sooner, rather than later, so he sent the activate request for the Troopers to come in and occupy the base. Only seconds later, John saw an instructor who wasn’t expected to even be here for this simulation via one of the redirected surveillance cameras, moving stealthily towards the device that John deactivated the night before. John decided it was time to act. He caught Anne’s eye to let her know what it was time then moved into a blind spot and activated his surveillance scrambler before silently exiting the simulation compartment, heading to a location where the rogue instructor could be taken down. John wasn’t completely sure what the device’s purpose was, not then anyway, but thought it was intended to do something with the systems, sowing confusion among the other people in the facility. He carefully crept towards the instructor's location. John stopped behind some cover and quickly shifted his head to one side to look around a corner when a Laser bolt from behind, singed his cheek. John dropped to the ground, rolled to the side, and snapped off a stunner shot towards the assailant. John’s aim was good enough to shoot the other person before he could duck behind cover. When the enemy agent was hit by the stunner, his finger spasmed on the trigger of his weapon, and it fired, tracing a line up the wall beside where John was laying.
The sound of the three shots being fired was unmistakable, even in the simulation compartment. When Anne heard them, she quickly walked over to David Sinclair and told him in her most commanding voice to keep everyone else there, in the compartment. David opened his mouth to object, to tell her he was commanding on this mission when the look in her eyes said it was time to obey, questions could come later. David had seen that look on both John’s and her faces before. He already knew, when either of them had that look, things were about to become very, very interesting. David nodded, and Anne turned, moving quietly and efficiently towards the compartment exit, pulling a weapon from one of her boots as she went. David saw the gun come out and realized something incredibly dangerous was happening. He found himself hoping Anne and John were loyal and on his side. David had already seen the way they cared about people, then he found himself hoping they would be alright.
Anne quickly made her way to the exit hatch, wondering if someone was waiting to shoot her on the other side. She moved to the side of the opening, then unlatched the door and pushed it hard enough to make it swing open slowly. Anne barely pulled her arm back behind cover, when a Laser bolt fired through the opening, singing the wall at the end of the passage. At least now, she had an idea of where the shooter was, and it wasn’t good.
She heard a stunner shot fired nearby in the facility then she heard John say, “It’s clear Anne. This guy’s down, be careful, though, there’s at least one, possibly two more roaming about.”
Anne acknowledged John then quickly exited, looking for trouble as she moved. When she looked up, Anne saw John quickly wave at her from a catwalk above, then he was gone. After looking around to make sure she was still alone, Anne closed and locked the hatch into the simulation compartment to keep the other students inside, safe, or so she hoped. While they were on Destiny, and later, on both Sankarah and then Cambridge, Colin made Anne practice Trooper tactics with him, and whichever Troopers were available for them to train with. At the time, Anne had wondered at Colin’s insistence, thinking how would she ever need these skills, now she was thanking him for it. Because of those practice drills, Anne at least had some idea of what needed to be done. After locking the door, she moved quietly and efficiently, from one piece of cover to the next, senses on full alert, looking for trouble. Anne came across one of the instructors with a wound to his head. He was still alive but other than that, he’d need medical attention quickly. She didn’t think John would’ve done this to the instructor, he would’ve shot him with a stunner.
After John stunned his attacker, he gingerly touched the Laser burn on his cheek, wincing at the pain, then had a sharp intake of breath when the wince, produced, even more, pain. After taking a second to get his head back in
the game, pushing the distraction from the pain into the background, John once again turned his attention to his target, but the target had heard the weapons fire and moved on. John returned to the person he’d shot and after carefully looking around to make sure he wasn’t being stalked by someone else, placed restraints on him. Only two sets of Restraints were available to him, but John knew Anne had another two sets as well. They simply couldn’t carry more, not with the other equipment they had concealed about their bodies. Just then John heard Laser fire coming from the direction of the simulation compartment, then silence. He hoped nobody was hurt but made his way towards the spot. John arrived near one of the sniper nests that were identified the night before and could see somebody sighting down towards the entrance to the simulation compartment. He realized Anne must be trying to come out, so John very carefully looked around, making sure he wasn’t a target of somebody else then took aim and shot the sniper with his stunner. That was two shots down, five more to go on this weapon. John carefully checked his surroundings again, then made his way out to the sniper. He used the second set of restraints on this guy, then picked up the sniper weapon, carefully checked the surroundings yet again, before letting Anne know it was safe for her to come out. She acknowledged him as John waved to her and then moved off, in search of the next target.
John hadn’t gone far when he saw one of the simulator technicians lying on the floor. The technician was dead, his throat slit so deeply, it almost severed his head. The bile rose in Johns' throat, but he forced it back down, there wasn’t time to be sick now. Instead, John tapped into the anger arising from this senseless violence, this unnecessary taking of an innocent life, to make himself more efficient against these Pirate scum. After allowing himself a few seconds to feel for the dead technician, John left the body undisturbed and moved on to continue his search for enemy agents. Not long after leaving the body behind, John found one of the backup team who was supposed to be helping him. When John checked, this one, he was still alive. The injuries weren’t fatal, but the agent wouldn’t be helping him for a while. John was crouching over the body, checking the vital signs, looking for ways to help the injured person, when he heard a weapons discharge behind him. He dove to one side as he spun around in time to see someone falling to the floor. Anne called to him not to shoot and stepped around the corner. John nodded in her direction, and she bent over the body to place restraints on her victim. John still hadn’t found the enemy agent he’d came out of the simulation compartment to catch, so, when Anne was finished, they moved off together, carefully making their way from cover to cover, senses on full alert, looking for their last target. As they continued their search, they were catching subtle hints of someone being close by, sometimes a slight sound, perhaps a scrape or tap when whoever it was moved about, trying to evade them but they never caught sight of him. They could tell, he was trying to reach an exit, but so far, they’d been able to head him off before he could do so.
This game of cat and mouse continued for another ten minutes when they heard sounds coming from the direction of the building entrance. John hoped it was the cavalry arriving in the nick of time to save them all. He indicated to Anne they should move in that direction and let the Troopers deal with the problem. They made their way quietly towards the entrance till they found two Troopers who were carefully making their way into the facility. The two Troopers were not taking any chances, so John and Anne were disarmed and put in restraints before they were escorted out to the entrance to be handed over to someone else.
Chapter 4
At the entrance to the facility, John and Anne were handed over to another pair of Troopers, who escorted them to the CO of the contingent currently taking over this facility.
When they arrived at the CO’s command area, he gave a long considering look before asking, “So, who are you two? Are you the ‘special’ agents we were told would be around here somewhere, or are you enemies of the Federation?”
John replied, “Sir, if you would care to look, both of us have a data strip sewn into the collar on the front left side, near the tip. It will tell you everything you need to know about us. Please, tell your people there’s at least one enemy agent still at large in there, along with fourteen students who we’ve locked into the simulation chamber to keep them safe. “
The CO ordered his Comm-Tech to relay the information to the people inside then called someone over to extract the data strips this student claimed to be carrying. The soldier used a scalpel from his first aid kit to carefully cut the stitching in the indicated area and extracted the data strips. When the CO placed the one John was carrying, his jaw nearly dropped open. These two really were DNI agents. He immediately ordered their restraints removed, apologizing to them as soon as he gave the order. About then, the CO also seemed to notice the Laser burn on John’s cheek for the first time. He called one of his medical people over to treat the injury. While they hadn’t complained or done anything else to indicate they were unhappy, he didn’t want them unhappy with him.
As the CO apologized, John said “Don’t worry about it Sir, both you, and your Troopers were only doing your jobs, there’s no need to apologize to us. If I may make suggestion Sir, leave the students in the simulation compartment, for now, their simulation has another couple of hours to run anyway so they should be fully occupied in there, that’ll keep them out of your hair while you clear the rest of the facility.”
The Troopers inside the installation all received the data detailing who was in there and where they were. They quickly found the restrained enemy spies and dragged them out of the installation for later interrogation. They also found the injured and dead staff. As it turned out, one instructor and one simulator technician were dead, two others who weren’t enemy agents were wounded. The injured were evacuated from the building and taken to the base medical clinic to be given the care they needed, the dead were left in place for later forensic examination. The Troopers found themselves playing the same cat and mouse game with the lone remaining enemy agent as John, and Anne had. There were a lot more Troopers now, so eventually, they cornered the remaining enemy agent, and after a short but ferocious firefight, he was stunned and finally captured. After this, all the prisoners were placed in stasis pods till they could be examined for things like suicide implants. When those checks could be completed, and they were cleared, the interrogations could begin.
The CO was quite taken aback when he thoroughly read the information on the data strips. Among other things, the entire Trooper contingent for this Exercise was placed under the command of one Colin Gordon. When he saluted the Officer in question and told him the news, John just laughed.
John took the Officer over to a corner and quietly said, “Sir, you, are senior to me. And I dare say, much more experienced at this type of thing. I would not presume to exercise that authority except under the direst of circumstances. How about we agree that you’re in command of the Troopers, with me as a trusted adviser, someone whose advice you take very seriously, someone you listen to.”
The CO visibly relaxed, realizing this Officer had no interest in usurping his authority, just in getting the job done. The man clearly didn’t have a need to stroke his own ego and was willing to work with the Troopers as equals. His respect for John went up a notch.
When the simulation facility was finally cleared, except for the students, John and Anne went in to bring them out. As the door was unlocked and opened they could hear a cacophony of voices on the other side, as people asked what was going on, why were they locked in, and where did John and Anne go to?
David was repeatedly saying, “I don’t know,” because he didn’t.
When the doors opened, with both John and Anne there, backed up by four fully armed, and armoured Troopers, they all quickly subdued, not sure what was going on.
John said, “I know we have a lot to explain to you, and we will give you an honest explanation soon, but for now we need to evacuate this facility. There have been some, … incide
nts. You will all be going back to the Command School for now. Anne and I need to go see the Academy Commandant. We’ll come and explain it all to you afterward, I promise. Now, if you could all follow Anne out we’ll leave the investigators to do their job.”
The students all knew better than to argue or ask stupid questions under these circumstances, so they quietly followed Anne out, just as they were ordered. When the students left the simulation facility, they were formed up and marched down to the Command School building where their accommodation was located. To their surprise, when they arrived there, the students were not confined to quarters. Instead, they were met by some of the instructors and taken for food before going to one of the classrooms where they began to dissect their own performance during the most recent simulation. It was almost as if this was nothing more than any ordinary day at the Academy. When asked, what was going on, the instructors wouldn’t, or perhaps couldn’t, tell the students anything, but in truth, they had nothing to say, they just didn’t know. All the instructors knew was that they’d received a message from the Academy Commandant to keep the students inside the Command School building and to keep them busy till further notice.
After the other Command Course students, had been marched back to their school, Colin and Anne were transported to the Central Administration building where they were quickly ushered up to the Commandants offices. When they went in, they came to attention and saluted him as if nothing unusual had happened. He returned the salute and waved them to a chair.
Star Man 2: Star Rise Page 7
