Chapter Eighteen – Nothing but the Truth

Chapter Eighteen – Nothing but the Truth

“And in international news, the cruise ship Azeb of the North Sea was lost this weekend. The cruise ship, with a passenger count in the upper seventeen thousands, called out for assistance as it moved over Antithesis infested waters over the north Atlantic. This is the second cruise ship to be attacked this year.”

–Int News, 2033

***

I removed my helmet so that I could better rub at the bridge of my nose. I already had a migraine starting up. “Myalis, you have anything for headaches?” I muttered.

Plenty. And I have things for stress, which might serve you better in this case. Root causes are often best treated first.

Yeah, that was a good point. And speaking of root causes. “Where’s this commander guy now?” I asked.

Juno’s tongue darted out as he licked his lips. “I’m not entirely sure. Everything I’ve said was what I could put together so far. There are a few lieutenants that didn’t defect and who stuck to their work. One of them reported to me, and that’s where I gained most of my knowledge, but it’s not verified yet.”

“And it’ll take forever to get a proper investigation going,” Tinwhistle said. “We don’t exactly have a whole lot of MPs over here. A few, sure, but not enough for this kind of shitshow. The MPs that are here had to know. And they’ll want to be formal about it. Do a whole investigation and, you know, cover their own asses.”

“Tinwhistle,” Juno said, his tone warning.

“Just the truth, Juno,” Tinwhistle replied.

I raised a hand, stalling out the discussion before it could turn into an argument. “Alright, I see how this is going down. Let’s say, hypothetically, that we do this by the book. Call in fresh MPs… that’s military police, right? Right, we call in new ones from Montreal or whenever. They get here tomorrow, then how long would it take for things to get in order?”

“A few days,” Juno said instantly. “If we can even retrieve those troops… if we even want to.”

“Yeah, not exactly brimming with loyalty,” I said.

Tinwhistle nodded. “We’re going to have to run the investigation no matter what. At best it’s a lot of troops obeying stupid orders. At worst it’s half a city’s active garrison doing a bit of desertion. Can’t remember that ever happening.”

“It has,” Juno said. “Not in Canada, but there’s precedent in the States. Lost cause cities where morale dropped too low. The fall of Syracuse is practically textbook for how desertion can make a city fall. More recently there was Medford in the Democratic Republic of Oregon.”

“The what?” I asked.

“They don’t matter,” Juno said. “It’s just an example. The city was hit hard by some antithesis that had hived in a nature preserve and when reinforcements took too long to arrive, the army broke up and deserted.”

“Okay, fine, so it could happen,” I said. “Do we know where the Commander is right now?”

“No,” Juno said. “Not precisely. But I can try to find out?”

“Nah, it’s fine,” I replied. “I’ll figure it out.”

I turned towards Crisis Mode and eyed her up and down. She didn’t seem to be bursting with energy, but she wasn’t exactly sleeping on the job either. “What is it?” she asked as she noticed me staring.

“Just wondering. You down to go Commander hunting?”

“What are we going to do with him?” she asked.

“That really depends. Juno, if I flung him out of a window would you be the next Commander?”

“That’s not how it works,” he replied.

“Would it be less paperwork than bringing him back as a prisoner?” I asked.

He was quiet. Suspiciously quiet. “I… think I’m supposed to encourage you, very sternly, not to throw out command personnel from windows.”

“Noted,” I said. I’d fling him off a roof, then. Well, if he gave me trouble or had a face I didn’t like. If he was cooperative it might be a balcony, or a place with a nice view. I shook my head, ran my fingers back through my hair, then pressed my helmet back on. “Keep things running here. I’ll be back in three or four hours. Try to get a good idea of what’s going on past the wall, if you can?”

Tinwhistle nodded. “I got some new surveillance tools that I want to play with. Little drones that are all shiny and new. I’ll need a couple of squads, if you can spare them, but I can have them out within the next six to nine hours. Some of the local surveillance net isn’t completely shit, so that might work as well.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“Alright,” I said. “I think that’s it, then?”

“The militia,” Crisis Mode said. We all turned towards her, and to her credit, she didn’t flinch back or anything. “We’ve been keeping the wall safe for a couple of days with little help from the army except for some soldiers and gear. I think you’ll find a lot of ‘deserters’ joined the militia. I’d… like to advocate on their behalf. If I can do that?”

“You can,” I assured her. That would probably save some brave souls an ass kicking.

She smiled a little. “Good. If you want to know what’s going on, you might want to get in touch with the people in charge of the militia. Libre has been using them for weeks now. They have a pretty good chain of command. It’s a little piecemeal in places. Some people only join for a few days, or half-days, or whenever they have off work. So it’s not nearly as professional, but there are a lot of militia people and they’ll know more about the state of things than… no offence, but more than anyone just showing up today.”