The Founder's Chosen, Sequence 01, Chapter 04

Adrian awoke to his alarm after 90 minutes of sleep. He went through his contact lists on his comp. He’d saved hundreds of names over his twenty-four years in the armada, and labelled each with their relationship, and the date he’d last spoken to them.

He selected one of the more recent ones and dialed. He got a warning; thirty seconds lightspeed delay.

“Hello? Supply savant?” the voice on the other end said.

“Hey Marie,” Adrian said and burst into laughter. “Fancy ending up back in the same system.” Colonel Marie Dantonnie had been his commanding officer for a few years when he’d been a logistics officer. She’d been a lowborn stuck at Major, trying to make the final leap into Colonel before retiring. Adrian had used his position to play the budget numbers on hers and her nearest competitor’s commands, ensuring she got the final promotion.

“I didn’t know you were here. I would’ve asked you for some candy bars,” she said.

“I arrived in Salcrow six days ago and I’m leaving with first Armada, so sadly I won’t get to spend much time,” he said. He pulled the half-finished beer off his counter and drank it in the delay. Flat, lukewarm, still alcohol.

Adrian felt awkward speaking to people just to ask for favors. “I’ll tell you what. We can share a single drink when we meet, because I’m calling in that favor.”

“Of course you are. What can I do for you?” she said.

“How many soldiers do you have on PH?” Adrian said.

“One hundred and four enlisted, six officers. All busted down to the lowest rank possible. All causing me headaches because they want to go to war and they’re stuck here on the edge of the system. Do you know how many liberty request forms I have to fill out? They all want to leave and the Armada won’t let any of them.”

Adrian leapt on that. He needed all of them, but them being motivated was far better. “I understand your situation completely. That’s why I went into combat command, so I could fly my soldiers to liberty myself.”

He waited for the thirty seconds, and got a solid few seconds of laughter as a reward.

Then he kept going. “Unfortunately, I’ve only got an equivalent exchange for you. I’m going to take every one of them off your hands. In exchange you are going to receive about sixty very angry chiefs and up, three of which are going to be in restrictive custody pending court martial.”

The silence lasted ten minutes. “What the fuck are you doing?”

“No questions. All the paperwork will be signed off by a couple noble officers of equal rank to me. Just get your judicators ready and have your trooper escort there in case they do something stupid,” Adrian said. He waited.

At thirty seconds, a long breath rushed over the line. “Just be there. I swear. When you got me that promotion to colonel, I should have known you were a lunatic.”

“I am, as always, doing the most reasonable and sensible action possible given the circumstances,” Adrian said.

“Yes, sure. Be there. No beer. I don’t even want my face attached to this.”

“Mine is already, are you sure?” Adrian said.

“No. I’ve got six months to retirement and I’m not taking any risks.”

“Yes ma’m,” Adrian said. “I’ll see you soon.”

The ship was silent except for the engines as he walked to the bridge. The crew moved about their duties without a word, or a glance up from their own boots. There was no contact between any of them. They were dozens of individuals going about their business in the grey, tight corridors of the destroyer.

Adrian tried to make eye contact with some as he passed. Regardless of rank and race, they dodged his gaze as easily as he dodged each others.

He got to the bridge to find Hoy and Lennier waiting for him.

“Morning,” he said.

“Why were we not notified about last night?” Lennier said. There wasn’t even a polite ‘sir,’ in front of that. Adrian had really pissed him off.

“I wanted you to get some sleep,” Adrian said. Hoy was looking stoic and brutish as ever. Lennier had his chest puffed out.

“You were assaulted by a mob of enlisted and you kept that to yourself, are you serious?” Lennier said.

“And it was under control,” Adrian said. “They’re all in the brig now courtesy of the heroic conduct of Chief Narinack, and when we jump to FTL I’ll handle it at CO’s mast.”

“They should be flogged,” Hoy said.

“I don’t believe in corporal punishment,” Adrian said. He looked around the bridge. Everyone nakedly stared at them. They all looked tired physically, and tired of the drama exploding.

“What kind of soldier are you? The rabble damn well need a strong hand. The fist and the neuro whip are necessary to shape them into mighty soldiers like the CMC here,” Lennier said, loud enough for the entire bridge to hear.

Adrian reached into his breast pocket and wrapped his fingers around the six points of his star of Hallard. He pulled it out and held it up for the entire bridge to see. He watched the bottom drop out of Lennier’s stomach. Hoy’s eyes went wide in genuine admiration.

“I’ve got about thirty confirmed kills to my name; do you know where I got this?”

“A great battle, surely,” Hoy said.

“No. There was no battle. It was a rout. My foxhole buddy and I carried sixty wounded soldiers out from enemy lines. We were both privates. We didn’t fire a shot, and didn’t make the ground run red with blood,” he said. “Brutality only gets you so far. True soldiers require a firm and gentle hand. Unless you want to challenge me.”

“Excuse me?” Lennier said.

Adrian wanted to fight Hoy, to settle who had done better with their enlisted upbringing. However, that was such a breach of rank and protocol he could never get away with it. So he head to settle. “Lord Major, since you are openly questioning my judgement I’m offering to fight you to decide whose idea is better. Brutality or the firm hand.”

“That’s a silly idea, sir.”

“Why is it now? Are you questioning my superior experience and authority?” Adrian said, and spread his arms.

“No. I’m saying you would lose. I have ten kilos on you and all of that is muscle. Clearly you train hard, but I know the signs of childhood malnourishment and how it stunts your muscular growth. You can work as hard as you can, but you can’t escape who you were born as,” Lennier said.

“Then you shouldn’t be afraid to break me in half,” Adrian said. Come on, take the fight. Let me break you.

“No. I am nobility. It wouldn’t be fair of me to take that fight.”

Adrian stopped short, feeling so close. “Fine. Get to your station and stop delaying us,” he said and walked around him.

“You are being…” Lennier trailed off as Adrian turned his back to him.

“What did I just order you to do?” Adrian said and slipped into his chair. He waited until he heard their footsteps withdraw, and the hatch slide shut.

He stood up immediately and walked over to navigation. Elli wasn’t on the bridge yet, so he had Second Lieutenant Crocker, who was looking terrified. “We’re having a change of course. We’re burning ahead of the armada, and making a quick dock at Titellius anchorage to offload most of last night’s miscreants. Plot a course. Expect four hours of docking time, so make sure we can do that while reaching the jump shelf at the same time as First Armada.”

“Yes sir,” she said.

Acceleration climbed as the lone destroyer raced ahead of the five-thousand-kilometer-wide wall of ships. Adrian had already requested, and received permission from his unit; 5^th destroyer squadron’s command, so none took note of Belladonna’s quick departure.

The day passed slowly, in relative silence. At 2000, Adrian took off. “Helm, what time do we dock?”

“Sir, 0630 tomorrow,” helm said.

“Right. I’ll be on the bridge by then,” Adrian said. “Weapons, with me,” he said.

Demirici followed him off the bridge and down a maintenance tunnel. Only at the end, far from prying ears, did he turn around and address her.

“Do you trust all the chiefs in your department?” he said.

“Some of them. We have twenty-two chiefs, and I trust about ten of them,” she said. “They’re the ones who sit and listen to everyone. And don’t think they’re superior to the junior enlisted.”

“Alright, I need their names,” Adrian said and found a notepad on his comp.

“Sir, what are you planning?” she said.

“Just name them,” Adrian said as anger flared. Fuck, he was too tired and jumping at people.

“Yes sir,” she said before he could apologize. Then she did. Adrian added them to the list with Narinack and a few chiefs he’d seen around the ship trying to correct the soldiers, or just comfort them from Marijowka’s death.

“Thank you,” he said. “I’ll be on the bridge tomorrow, normal time. We’ll depart Titellius and rejoin the armada. Then we’re off to war. Make sure the torpedoes are ready.

He returned to his cabin, showered, and took ninety minutes to sleep.

When he awoke, he gathered up all the names on the list, combined them with the ten on security team and sent them an individual order to come to the armory in twenty minutes.

Weapons were highly controlled in an artificial environment. The lone armory onboard was locked up tight with DNA locks coded to the six soldiers who had access, and a passcode. Adrian pulled it all open, and waited, sipping his coffee.

Twenty-six people arrived one at a time. They saw him and fell silent.

He waited until all were present before speaking. “Arm yourselves now. Sidearms and riot guns and stun batons. Each of you take three pairs of liqui-cuffs,” he said. They did so without question. There were three Timerid enlisted among them. Adrian watched closely, but no one said anything or gave them so much as a side-look. He’d picked the right people.

They reassembled.

“We’re docking with Titellius Anchorage in two hours. That’s the last stop before the jump shelf. I have a list of names who we are taking into custody and ejecting on either PH, or outright criminal charges. I have charges for all of them, signed and witnessed by multiple noble officers. You will apprehend them and bring them to the airlock. Use whatever non-lethal force needed. If you have no other choice, use the sidearms for disabling shots.”

They all nodded, and exchanged looks among themselves. Adrian heard heavy, terrified breathing all around. The reality of the situation hadn’t fully sunk in.

“Here’s the list,” Adrian said, and sent the files to all of them. He had sixty-four chiefs in total. Almost eighty percent of all the senior enlisted onboard.

They looked up at him as one, as the reality did finally sink it.

“Yeah, that’s it. If you’re worried about justice, then know they’ve all judged you guilty already, for not hating the Timerids enough,” Adrian said with a pointed look at Narinack. “If you’re worried about retaliation. Know that my word is backed by nobility and theirs isn’t. And while they’ll use back channels to retaliate, I’ll just come to their homes and do it myself to protect you,” Adrian said. He pulled out his Star of Hallard. “This says that I don’t care what anyone can do to me. I’ll commit all the crimes it takes for you to be heroes. Understand?”

“Yes sir,” they all whispered.

“Go. I’ll meet you at the airlock.”

He confirmed by comp with navigation, that the ship was on final approach to docking. As he crossed the ship, the humm of the main drives fell still. Some of the chiefs would be at their stations. Others would be asleep in bed.

He leaned on the airlock door and waited. The ship shuddered as it docked. He went through the security procedures and opened the gate. Colonel Dantonnie met him in the airlock, wearing a chestplate and carrying a saber on her hip. A dozen armed troopers followed her.

“Good morning ma’m,” Adrian said and saluted.

She returned the salute. Then presented her ID card. “Requesting permission to come aboard.”

Adrian scanned it with his comp, then the mark 1 eyeball. “Granted.”

She came, and her receiving security detail checked in one by one.

“So, where are they?” she said.

“Being packed up as we speak. It’ll take some time,” Adrian said. As he spoke, bootsteps hammered down the corridor

Chief Narinack and a Timerid petty officer hauled Hoy by his shoulders. Three more chiefs were being led by other pairs of security after.

“Major, what the fuck are you doing?” Hoy said.

“Hold him back and process the others,” Adrian said, and stepped aside from the door. Hoy kept yelling.

“I have thirty-five years of service and you have no right to take me! I was here before the Rebellion!” Hoy bellowed.

“This is the one waiting on a court martial. Here are his charges, witnessed by two separate members of the nobility,” Adrian said.

Hoy fell silent. The security details stopped and stared at him in disbelief. Adrian walked up to Hoy and drew his knife.

“Using my authority as your commanding officer, I’m demoting you to chief,” he said, and carved the gold chevrons off his shoulder. “There’s a great war coming, for the fate of the Systems. We’re going to kick the ass of the premier power in the known universe. You won’t be there for it because of your own actions.”

“You think you’ll change any of our minds? The Timerids are a rabble who belong in the gutter!” Hoy said. He turned and spat on Petty Officer Second Class Krykawlski. She shook her head.

“I don’t need to change your mind. You’re too far gone. I just need to put you in a box where you can’t poison anyone else’s minds,” Adrian said. Hoy kept yelling as he was hauled through the airlock. Adrian didn’t care what he was saying. The security teams headed back into the ship for the next group.

“You’re going to press full charges?” Dantonnie said.

“Yes,” Adrian said. “Him especially. Code sixteen mutiny, code twelve gross disobedience, and all the general codes I can throw at him.”

“You’re insane,” she said.

Adrian thought it over. “We had a soldier get murdered for being Timerid. That’s all that matters.”

The chiefs kept coming. Adrian repeated the same speech for each of them. “There’s a great war coming, for the fate of the Systems. We’re going to kick the ass of the premier power in the known universe. You won’t be there for it because of your own actions.” Then he turned his back on them as they were hauled through the airlock and out of his legal responsibilities.

He imagined word was getting around now. A few chiefs came through with obvious bruises. None had gunshot wounds fortunately, because that was a whole new pile of paperwork.

“Wait, wait, what the hell is this!” Lennier’s voice boomed down the corridor. “Stop, now! I order you.”

“Our orders come from the CO,” someone said and kept hauling the terrified senior chief in his arms.

Lennier sprinted down the corridor. “Huxton, what the fuck is this?”

“Problem and solution,” Adrian said softly.

Lennier didn’t stop until he shunted Adrian back a step. His back hit the wall and his rebs stung.

A couple soldiers went for their riot guns but he waved them off.

“Are you completely out of your mind? This is our entire senior enlisted. Where’s CMC?”

“Already in custody,” Adrian said.

“No, bring them all fucking back right now! This is an outrage.” Lennier’s real face was red and hissing like a beast

“Don’t give your superior orders,” Adrian said. “And we will talk in private.”

Lennier practically shoved him into the supply closet. “What are you even thinking? You have just fucked us out of leadership and manpower!” he howled.

“No, I’m taking on over a hundred PH enlisted and officers to make up the manning.”

“That disgrace of a rabble? They aren’t fit to serve. They are gutter trash. I will not let you sully our warship’s desks for your ego project. You had an idea, it went poorly. Instead of moving on you,”

“No, a handful of angry, stubborn soldiers refused to listen and undermined me. You are one of them. I know what you’ve been telling Hoy behind my back,” Adrian said. No, he didn’t, but he knew Lennier had been talking and would let him think he did. He stared at Lennier like he’d already gutted him.

Lennier stared back with growing rage. “Of course we did. You came on, up from the ranks and the infantry no less, and you’ve immediately threw everyone into chaos. Is all this worth it? Sixty careers ruined by your crusade?”

“All they had to do was stop hating the Timerids and lead their junior enlisted. That is on them and you. As the acting CO for six weeks before I arrived, I hold you responsible for that, Marijowka’s murder, and that brawl that put ten people in the brig. All this is on you,” Adrian said and jabbed a finger at him.

Lennier looked at his finger, then back at his eyes, then down at his feet. Adrian looked down, and as he did remembered that right before throwing a sucker punch, people looked at their feet as a distraction.

The massive fist whipped at him. Lennier was bigger, with solid bones. It was an un-blockable swing.

So Adrian ducked it, and heard the crash and grunt of pain Hecame up with the uppercut and caught the solid line of his jaw. Lennier stumbled back a step, his eyes dazed.

Adrian saw all the big man’s weight land on his right ankle and kicked it hard.

Something popped and Lennier fell right on his rear with a thud. Adrian kicked him center-chest and knocked him on his back. He stared up at Adrian, breathing heavy and wheezing.

“That’s settled,” Adrian said. “Get yourself up and get back to the bridge.”

Adrian turned his back on him and walked to the door. Please take the bait, he thought. Please let me keep going.

Lennier’s boot squeaked as he rose. Then, the faint scrape of nanosteel on leather.

Adrian yanked his gladius free and spun in time to see Lennier’s eyes empty and cold as the saber crashed down at him.

He deflected it sideway into the floor and backpedaled before the sheer mass of Lennier’s form.

Lennier’s step hitched as he landed on his injured ankle, but he adapted by reaching further with his wicked followup at Adrian’s belly. Adrian rebounded and launched himself inwards. He slammed shoulder-first into Lennier, and threw him back to the ground. Lennier howled for the first time and swung blindly upwards.

Except Adrian caught his sword by the hilt, heedless of the blade digging through the palm of his glove. He twisted until it wrenched free. Then he knelt on Lennier’s chest.

“Look at me,” he said.

Lennier spat up at him.

Adrian jammed his right fist down his throat and held it until he began clawing at his arm. Then he yanked it out.

“Look at me,” he repeated.

Lennier finally did. Saliva dripped down the corners of his mouth. “What?” he whispered.

“I’ve got enough evidence to charge you and noble witnesses to ensure those charges stick. Since I can’t afford to get rid of you, I’m going to hold that over you. You’re going to return to the bridge and be a good XO for the duration of this deployment. If I ever hear anything mutinous from you, or a whiff of mutiny, I’ll come to your cabin to settle it. I’ll even let you pick up your sword and defend yourself,” Adrian said. He dropped the saber on Lennier’s collar.

“Yes sir,” he said.

“Are you sure?” Adrian said.

“Yes, no trouble at all,” Lennier said.

“Alright.” Adrian stood and turned his back to him. He waited a second to see if Lennier was angry enough to try again. He wasn’t, so Adrian went to the door and hauled it open. There were more chiefs being processed. Everyone stopped to look at him.

“The XO had a fall when I was talking to him. Get medical to take care of him, I think his ankle is broken,” Adrian said.

“Yes sir,” someone said and radioed ahead.

The final few chiefs were offloaded. “Alright, next assignment,” Adrian said to his assembled security team. “Turner, Mikloos, Sugianto, and Xi, you are going to be my four group leaders.” He pointed at the four soldiers at random. “I’m sending you this list. Divide it in four alphabetically. Those will be the people you’re in charge of counting.”

They did so, with rather worried looks on their faces.

“Do you have my replacements, ma’m?” Adrian said.

“Yeah, they’ve been packed up and waiting on my side this whole time. You’re insane offloaded all your quality enlisted for this rabble,” she said. “Actually, you’ve lost it. I’m returning your people. This was a horrible idea.”

Adrian’s heart leapt as his plan died on the final step. He circled around her, boots making a quick squeak as he stopped between her and the airlock. She stopped short and gaped, while behind them her security detail just stared at them both.

Adrian tried to sound confident while he crumbled. “Ma’m. I understand you have concerns, but,”

“But you’re career suicidal. I’ve worked thirty-nine and a half years. I’ve got a beachfront house in Salcrow. I’m not going down with you!” she said.

“Well how about for the sake of our ship going off into war and all your comrades onboard. This is the only option I have left, the crew was ready to explode before I did this. Do you want us to head out there with a toxic rot of leadership so bad that it had a soldier murdered and others fighting each other in the mess hall? I’m only taking such an extreme option because there’s nothing else left,” he said.

“I doubt a few chiefs on your one destroyer will make a difference,” she said, even as her hands shook. “How about you face your own command problems instead of shunting them off onto me! Get out of the way, I gave you an order.”

Adrian remembered being helpless again. Enlisted bootcamp, day one. No future but cannon fodder, no world but his fellow screaming, sweating convicts and the drill instructors orbiting them to spit fire. That blew away any fear, the fact that he couldn’t got any lower. “Say it doesn’t matter to every one of them!” he pointed into Belladonna’s belly.

“I don’t need to. Get out of my way.” She circled around him

“Nah,” Adrian said and stepped before her. He felt the utterly confused stares from both their security details. That was good, they were officers having officer drama. “I’ve got two nobles who signed off on those papers. My dear friends Tarly and Molitor, you remember them, yes? You follow through with our deal or whatever happens it will matter for you.”

She looked back and forth. “You’re insane,” she said.

Adrenaline from the fight was still pounding through his veins, and it made him spit out a very different answer than he intended. “Actually, I think I’m the only sane one here,” he said.

“Just take them, please. Let those blasted convicts through!” she said. Her side of the airlock opened once more. The first soldier through was a Timerid woman with two duffel bags, one on each shoulder, and a look of wide-eyed confusion. Adrian opened the second sheet of his clipboard. The soldier presented her ID.

“Able Spacer Wenikowski, welcome aboard Belladonna, the fiercest warship in the Armada. Go with Chief Xi,” Adrian said and pointed his way. Then the next soldier. Adrian went through the entire list. By the time he was done and the new crew was being led off to their barracks, it was nearly 0700. He was so tired he leaned on the wall for a second and fantasized about sleeping right there.

He headed back to the airlock. “Thank you, ma’m,” he said to the Colonel.

“Never contact me again,” she said.

“Let me know if you need me to embezzle federal funds again,” he whispered.

The airlock slammed shut behind her. Adrian sighed. He’d done so much to make it this far, and now he had a good chance of throwing it away.

Fuck you, he thought at Lennier and the retreating, very miserable chiefs. Then he turned up the corridor. His security detail had dispersed to home their new crew.

Adrian headed up to the bridge. First shift was waking up, and crew ran about their duties. They were louder than yesterday. That was good, Adrian hoped. He’d take a chatty crew over a silent one.

He reached the bridge and found it mostly manned, with three empty spots where senior enlisted had been removed.

“CO on deck!” the chief of security announced. Adrian felt every eye on him, forsaking their assigned stations.

“Eyes on your duties. I’ll speak when I want to share information,” Adrian said. He got to his chair and remained standing, for if he sat down he’d fall asleep. “Navigation, status?”

“We’re thrusting back up to speed, and the armada is rapidly catching up, sir. Estimate four hours until we’re back into formation. Eight to the jump shelf, sir.”

“Good. Comms, I’m setting an order. All departments are to make do with their current crew until we are in FTL. All section leads will adjust their department manning upwards in responsibility and submit their new manning requirements to their division chief officers, who will submit them to me for filling in the ranks. Remind them we have over a hundred new soldiers onboard.”

“Yes sir,” comms said as he typed away.

Adrian waited five minutes for the order to disseminate, while he watched the data streams.

“Comms, give me the intercom,” he said.

“Sir, the intercom is yours.”

He had theorized over the speech while he was checking all his new soldiers in. There was nothing he could say to solve their problems.

“All hands, this is Major Huxton speaking. For those of you who don’t know, this morning sixty-four chiefs including the CMC were placed into custody and removed from the ship on charges of disorderly conduct and disobeying direct orders. This is not a fault of their rank, but of the poor character they, personally brought to the rank.” He paused, grateful to be done with the nice part.

“The night I got onboard, I watched one of you bleed out in the medical bay because another soldier stabbed him over twenty times. All for what the kid was born as. I traced the influence of unacceptable behavior and condonement to its source. Removing those chiefs was not what I wanted, ever. It is a failure of my leadership that I could not convince them to change their ways. However, they collectively pushed me. So, I had to deal with them.

What’s going to happen now is those of us in the officer ranks will cover down, and those of us enlisted will cover upwards. Look around you, there’s over one hundred new soldiers onboard. They will fill in the manpower gaps. If you’ve got any issues, message me anonymously or otherwise and I’ll deal with them because my responsibility is all of you.

Whatever all of you were before today, and I’m including our new arrivals in that, does not matter anymore. We are going into war against rebels funded, trained, and backed by the Talwar Federation. One hundred and fifty years ago, they made a deal with the old Empire to split the region. Now that the Empire’s gone, they want to take it all. They think it’s free space to take, and that we don’t have the strength to defend it. The didn’t see our revolution as a great victory of liberty over all. They saw it as a chance to replace the empire as the next true monsters.

“We are going to stop them. Every soldier, every ship together. Jacob Hallard gave us the chance. We will use it,” Adrian said.

He turned off intercom, and finally sat down. His body creaked as he slumped in his chair. “Day one,” he muttered to himself. That speech was just words. He’d have to survive long enough to prove to everyone including the timerids that they belonged together on the same ship. All he’d done was do due diligence. It had even sounded like a generic briefing.

Then the speaker clicked overhead. Adrian looked up.

“Huzzah!” a few voices said.

“Huzzah!” they grew into dozens crashing over the intercom.

“Huzzah!” his bridge staff joined in.

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Hello everyone. This concludes sequence one, thank you for reading. I will be taking a week off before beginning sequence two. If you enjoyed this and want updates, feel free to subscribe.

I look forwards to seeing you on the next chapter.