Chapter 504

Vuxten left the command center, which had gone from a drop pod that had used its drill to dig under the ground to a full fledged armored building with battlescreens, and stepped out into the warm sunny day. The atomic detonations had stripped away a lot of the ozone layer, letting harsh UV rays through, but after several days of rain it felt good.

The Elven Court had arrived from Telkan two weeks ago and had set up.

He checked his datalink, spotted 2LT Nultrik over by the mess hall, and headed that way.

It was good to be out of his armor and back in adaptive camouflage. He was wearing plating, there was always a chance that a small Precursor machine was lurking around even though one had not been seen in a month. Still, the cloth felt light and freeing, even though he was still walking with the steady slow smooth movements that spending weeks or months in power armor would make into habit.

The Lieutenant, one of the Telkan Marines, was watching as tools were being boxed up, marking each off on a checklist. Vuxten thought it was interesting that it was still done with paper, pen, and a clipboard rather than a datapad, but apparently it ensured closer accountability for some reason.

Vuxten stepped up next to the lieutenant, who made a motion and the lower enlisted holding boxes of tools paused.

"Yes, sir?" LT Nultrik asked.

Vuxten nodded at the box. "Might as well unpack it all, Lieutenant," he said.

"Sir?"

"Just came in from Fleet. We're staying here. Something about a Corps wide refit," Vuxten said.

The LT sighed. "Dammit. And here I was looking forward to getting back to Telkan now that the Welkret had their planet back," he complained. He turned to the lower enlisted. "Take it back to the wrench shed, boys."

"Yes, sir," the enlisted answered together, slightly surly about the whole thing. Vuxten didn't bother to correct them like he's seen some officers do.

Being surly and bitching about everything was an enlistedman's Digital Omnimessiah granted right.

It was when they stopped and gathered together in small groups to whisper that an officer should get concerned.

"Follow me, Lieutenant," Vuxten said, motioning at the TOC.

"Yes, sir," Nultrik said. On the way to the tent the LT looked at Vuxten. "Your knee still hurting, sir?"

Vuxten nodded. "Russets say I'll need surgery on it. Not nanite, actual blade and needle surgery. I'm about two hard drops from needing a replacement."

"Oof," the LT said. "Congratulations of the promotion, sir."

Vuxten chuckled. "It's not official until I graduate Manuever and Combat Captain's Career Course. I don't have to go to Mars or East Point, I'll be doing eVR for it."

"How long it is?" Nultrik asked.

"Twenty-six weeks," Vuxten said. "Six months."

"Oof. They going to pull you off the line that long?"

Vuxten shook his head as he ducked underneath the camouflage netting. "No. Well, not really. I'll still be here while we undergo a refit and wait for our orders to be cut. The magic of eVR."

That made LT Nultrik chuckle as he followed Vuxten inside. Two other officers and three NCO's followed them in, and Nultrik wondered why.

"Everyone, have a seat. This is only a klikitik," Vuxten said, using Treana'ad slang for an informal meeting where everyone speaks their mind without worry about rank or position. He reached out and tapped the holotank.

A glittering female Terran appeared.

"Morning, Captain," she said.

"Major Soothing Glitter, thank you for joining us," Vuxten said. He turned to the others. "You all know each other, since you're in the chain of command."

They all nodded and Nultrik realized what he was seeing. Colonel Shaklashk was the 4th Maintenance and Sustainment Brigade CO, a Saurian Compact Kobold. Lieutenant Colonel Anglagwark was the 3rd Sustainment Battalion CO. Captain Doozelak was the Bravo Company CO, and Lieutenant Nultrik's commander. The three NCO's were one Treana'ad and two Telkans. Bravo Company's First Sergeant, the platoon Gunnery Sergeant for 2nd Platoon, and 4th Squad's squad leader. Soothing Glitter was in charge of mental health medical care.

"You know why we're gathered," Vuxten said.

Everyone nodded.

"I'm taking the lead on this because it was my decision back before they reconstituted our chain of command," Vuxten said. He turned to other holotank and tapped it.

The Novastar VII power armor nicknamed 'Lozen' appeared next to Lance Corporal Casey.

There was a slightly cold wind that blew through the command center.

Vuxten turned back to the officers that not only outranked him, but had decades in service before he was even born.

"First Telkan Marine Division fought for a total of twenty-six days, counting the temporal anomaly," he started off with, putting his hands behind his back as he spoke. "Of that twenty-six days, we were in direct contact with the enemy or sleeping during threatened movement for seventeen days. This resulted in significant psychological stress on the Telkan of First Division."

That got nods.

"We got lucky, our training and preparation held and we suffered no killed in action," Vuxten said. He used his datalink to bring up another tank that showed the casualty lists. "Although Lieutenant Geemrik suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died four days ago, the autopsy confirmed it was a congenital birth defect that had slipped by the scanners rather than enemy action."

"Hate those," Gunnery Sergeant Taklri't mumbled.

"Additionally, the Division has twelve hundred psychological and emotional injuries still under treatment, although they're expected to fully recover," Vuxten said. "Major Soothing Glitter's section has been indispensable during this period."

"Modern warfare looses more troops to psychological injury than permanent battlefield injuries," Lieutenant-Colonel Anglagawrk said, shaking her head.

"Then we have this case," Vuxten turned and nodded at Casey's picture.

"I know some of you have their doubts about me having Lance Corporal Casey moved to First Division," he said.

That got some slow, careful nods.

"However, he represents nearly a thousand years of military experience and knowledge, and Telkan itself needs his experience," Vuxten said. He turned back to the others. "However, there is information that all of you in his chain of command need to know."

Vuxten pointed at First Sergeant Kalka'tik. "How is his performance from your perspective?"

Kalka'tik waved out the 'match' he had used to light his cigarette. "Exemplary," the big Treana'ad warrior said. He clicked his mandibles twice and pointed at Casey's picture with his cigarette. "The man's a born leader. Even reduced in rank he uses every moment he can as a teaching moment for those Telkan underneath him. Performance metrics are high when he's involved."

The big Treana'ad took a drag off his cigarette and puffed out smoke from around his feet. "Sometimes I've seen his staring at the loading frames for a long moment, perfectly still."

"He wipes his mouth before he turns away, like he had been salivating," Captain Doozelak said, shaking her head. "I ordered him to stay at least fifty paces away from any unmanned loading frames."

Vuxten nodded.

"Part of Complex Operator Identification Syndrome is a psychological addiction," Soothing Glitter said. "A relapse like Lance Corporal Casey has suffered will manifest as if he had never received treatment."

Vuxten nodded and pointed at the tank holding the images of Lozen and Casey. "There's an additional problem that we were unaware of until earlier today."

"What is that?" Colonel Shaklashk asked.

"We had assumed, naturally, that Casey was suffering the same temporal compression anomaly that we were," Vuxten said.

That got nods.

"We should have known better," Vuxten said. He tapped the holotank. "The entire fleet is going over the logs of all of our armor, putting together timeline of the battle. I was alerted two hours ago about a major temporal displacement that matches with the attack of Hesstla two years ago."

Shaklashk frowned, tapping his tail on the floor. "This is going to be bad, isn't it?"

"What do any of you know about Novastar VII power armor?" Vuxten asked.

"It's a war crime," Gunnery Sergeant Taklri't said.

That got nods.

"Do any of you know why?" Vuxten asked.

"Records on it are sealed," Glitter said. She made a musing noise. "Huh, I can't even access it."

Vuxten nodded. "The reason is, well, to be honest and pardon my language, but it's fucking horrible."

"How so?" Colonel Shaklashk asked.

"The Novastar VII is made of Warsteel Mark II," Vuxten said.

That got everyone to frown.

"Mark II? When did they come out with Mark II?" Doozelak asked.

"A thousand years ago," Vuxten said. He held up one paw. "It's not in service for the same reason that just manufacturing the suit is a borderline warcrime," he reached out and unlocked the file in the holotank. The holotank immediately flashed the icons that it was airgapped, that the tank had blown the safety interlink.

"Warsteel Mark II is extremely phasic reactive," Vuxten said. He sighed. "Smokey 'No briefed me on it this morning. It not only can resist outside phasic enhancement, but it goes even further."

"My god, the levels on this are obscene," Glitter said, 'leaning out' of the holotank slightly to look at the other one. "It not only stores ambient psychic power from the user, it integrates with the user, fuses to them," she turned and looked at the gathered troops. "Literally. Not like the Neko-Marines or the Imperium of Wrath armor physically fuses to the wearer, it psychically and psychologically fuses to the wearer."

"It also enhances the wearer's psychic output by a magnitude of five," Vuxten said. He suddenly felt tired and sat down, taking the weight off his knee. "Normally a wearer's psychic signature is blocked by armor, but the Novastar VII has a psychic signature because, in a war, it is the wearer."

"By the Biological Apostles," someone said softly.

"Additionally, Warsteel Mark II, when fully 'integrated' as they put it, is self healing. The Novastar VII first modifies then uses as the template the operator's mental and psychic self-image," Vuxten said. "It's literally regenerating phasic element strange matter alloy that normally has to be guided by someone with phasic manipulation abilities, and that's extremely rare. However, thanks to the rather 'unique' eVI, the feedback loop energizing system, and the massive amount of phasic energy production, the suit self-heals without guidance."

"The eVI uses phasic circuitry and a phasic coprocessor. It's designed to interweave itself into the operator's emotional and psychological makeup," Glitter said softly. "This is custom made to induce Complex Operator Identification Syndrome."

Shaklashk looked away from the specs on the armor. "Warsteel Mark II requires pain, suffering, and rage to create," the Saurian shuddered. "By the Digital Omnimessiah, it's almost vile."

Vuxten nodded. "To top it off, a user inside of it can still operate the suit while asleep."

That got a shocked silence and Vuxten brought up another window. Again, the holotank flashed it was now airgapped.

The right two-thirds of the image was of the battlefield, the coloration off, rippled, strange looking. The left side was vital stats, armor and pilot.

"His brainwaves show he's in REM," Glitter said softly. "Pulse, respiration, blood pressure, all show he's at rest."

Sergeant Wunnok pointed at the visuals. "Tell that to them," he said. "I ran a suit of power armor during Second Telkan, he's still fighting."

The big main gun went off, silently, the shockwave destroying Dwellerspawn, the bar of light connecting the end of the gun to the large pillbug, which swelled slightly before the middle exploded in a shower of burning gore.

Vuxten held out one paw and rocked it side to side. "Yes and no. The armor, and the eVI, use his subconscious dream state to run the combat, so he can sleep while the suit stays operating with all his instincts and reflexes."

"How long?" Colonel Shaklashk asked. "How long was he in there?"

Vuxten nodded, reaching out and tapping the hologram. "From the point of view from outside the anomalies? Fourteen hours."

"You were fighting for one hundred nine hours, correct?" Gunnery Sergeant Taklri't asked, lighting himself a cigarette.

Vuxten nodded. "Correct."

"How long for Casey?" Lieutenant Colonel Anglagwark asked.

"Fleet triple checked the date stamps, threaded the data on a highspeed simulation verification system," Vuxten said. He reached down and rubbed his knee for a moment then looked up. "They confirmed how long he was in there, fighting Dwellerspawn, cut off, alone, no reinforcements, no support, no area for rest and refit.

"The Atrekna kept bringing in different terrain to try to slow him down or bog him down, including urban landscapes," Vuxten said. He tilted his hand so a keyboard shimmered into existence over his open palm. He tapped two icons and images appeared. "Not that it mattered."

Images of the same small city burning, huge chunks ripped out of it, of that main gun firing into buildings as the armor fought at close range with other Dwellerspawn. Images of forest, jungle, desert, all nothing more than a Dwellerspawn corpse strewn battlefield.

"We all saw the condition of the landscape when he was pulled out," Vuxten said. Vuxten tapped another icon. This one showed Casey knelt down, in the mud, using an impact wrench to pull the tire off of a ground vehicle.

"He was in there, just him and Lozen," Vuxten paused. "For thirty two years, six months, eleven days, nineteen hours."

That got silence.

"Trapped in there with Lozen," Glitter shuddered. She looked at everyone. "When Casey was disconnected from her, she went dormant after ninety-six hours," Glitter waved a hand and a picture appeared of a digital sentience curled up in the fetal position. "She is unresponsive to stimuli and according to our diagnostics, she is merely dreaming."

Everyone nodded slowly.

"Where did he get the templates for the armor?" the Bravo Company CO asked.

"He is the templates," Vuxten said. He brought up the data on one of the airgapped systems by tapping on the physical keys. It showed strands of DNA. "In here, in what's called 'junk', he had, at some time in the past, probably during his training, the creation engine templates for the armor was impressed into his DNA."

"That's how the armor self-heals," Glitter mused. She looked closer at the DNA strand. "No genetic prosthesis. No DNA overlays," she shook her head. "This is about as close as I've seen in a living person to pre-Glassing DNA."

"So now we know how it was done," Vuxten said. "Smokey 'No has convened a board and gone over the evidence. Casey will not be court martialed."

"And the Admiral?" Colonel Shaklashk asked.

"No action," Vuxten shrugged. "I didn't really ask."

That got some low murmurs. Vuxten knew that more than a few people felt that the Admiral had been dangerously negligent in the opening phases of the planetary defense, and some felt that his rank was what saved him.

Vuxten didn't much care. He'd seen actual malevolent negligence during Second Telkan.

"Has there been any problems?" Vuxten asked.

There was just answers in the negative. Vuxten looked at Glitter. "Is he complying with treatment?"

She nodded. "He's compliant, more so than most of my patients. He's been through it before."

"So, he stays. He can work his way up the ranks, but right now, until he's cleared by MEDCOM, he's got a bar to promotion applied at Corps level," Vuxten said.

Despite Vuxten's lower rank the officers gathered nodded.

Vuxten wiped away the data. Two of the holotanks began smoking as the molycircs melted down.

Everyone got up, shaking hands, nodding, and slowly left. Glitter waved and vanished in a shower of sparkles.

Vuxten sat in the room, by himself, for a long moment, staring at the wall.

-------------

Casey was kneeling down in between two Telkan privates, all three of them staring at the wheel of a wheeled heavy cargo ground transport.

"See that slight bulging around the lip?" Casey asked.

Vuxten was standing six paces away. One or two more paces closer and the three enlisted would have to take notice. As it was he was, by regs, outside the 'zone' for them to have to pay attention. He was wearing his adaptive camouflage, 471 sitting on his shoulder.

"Yeah," one said.

"You over-torqued the nut," Casey said.

"I used an smart impact wrench," the other said.

"Who used it last?" Casey asked.

The Telkan private hefted it, and Vuxten could 'see' him query the wrench with his implant.

"Lance Corporal Kunkler," he said.

"And what was Kunkler working on?" Casey asked.

"Umm... a light armored tracked fighting vehicle," the private said.

"And what's the wrench set for?" Casey asked.

"Oh. The M113Xe," the private said.

"You didn't reset it to the proper specs. The wrench thought it was placing a nut and bolt on one of the running gears," Casey said. He tapped the bolt. "Reset the wrench, back off the nut about an inch, redo it. Do that for all the nuts on each wheel."

"Sorry, Lance Corporal," the two privates said.

"Just remember, boys, always doublecheck your tools. A smart wrench is only as smart as an operator," Casey said, standing up. "If this vehicle had gone out, there's a chance it would have sheered a bolt, and nobody wants that."

"Yeah," the one with the wrench said, scooting over in position and fitting the wrench into place. It chattered as Casey turned around and saw Vuxten.

"Sir," Casey said, moving up. He didn't salute, the area was still considered an Amber Zone, and that meant no saluting by the regs.

"Lance Corporal," Vuxten said. He tilted his head. "Walk with me, Lance Corporal."

"Yes, sir," Casey said. He shortened his stride to match the shorter office. "Congratulations on your promotion."

"It's provisional, reliant on my passing another school," Vuxten chuckled. "Apparently running a Division under combat for a couple days makes people think you might have what it takes to lead a company."

That got a chuckle from Casey.

Vuxten led them around pallets of missiles and stopped. He looked up.

"How are you doing, Casey?" Vuxten asked.

The big human sighed, looking at the pale bluish-white sky. "Today's a good day. The fact we're getting new vehicles and equipment templates means Maintenance is really busy, which means I'm busy."

Vuxten nodded. "Keeping busy is important."

"You Telkan don't really care about the fact I took The Long Drop," Casey said. He leaned against one of the stacked missile racks. "It didn't break my neck, so I'm ahead of the game."

Vuxten nodded. "A lot of people would have yelled at those two, made them redo it, without showing them where the mistake was made."

Casey shrugged. "I'm old. Older than most, that makes me more patient than most. They're privates, and while computers may be twice as fast, the average private is as drunk and stupid as ever."

That made Vuxten chuckle. "First time I heard that, I'd fired an anti-armor missile backwards, sent it zooming off over the horizon behind us."

"First Telkan?" Casey asked.

Vuxten nodded. "Yup. I'd been a soldier about four weeks when that happened. Most of my armor's systems were still locked out. I was just a jumped up neo-sapient in lemur armor."

"How times change," Casey said softly, looking over at the missiles. He ran a finger along the stenciled markings.

2.75" Rocket - HEAD

"It is what it is," Vuxten shrugged. "You all right that you're not allowed to help run the nanoforges and creation engines while the entire vehicles are run off?"

Casey nodded. "They're VI assisted."

"That's part of it."

"They're worried Lozen will crawl out of one," Casey said, running his finger along the serial number.

"That's part of it too," Vuxten said.

"I dream about her," Casey admitted, his voice soft. "Her, Peel, me, the suit, all wrapped together."

"Just talk it out with someone," Vuxten said. "Same thing they told me in therapy."

"It's like I'm missing part of myself. Like I'm missing an arm, or something inside, like one of my organs. It's a constant dull ache, an awareness that she's gone," Casey said.

"Lozen?" Vuxten asked.

Casey shook his head. "No. Peel."

Vuxten nodded, staying silent.

"I keep seeing things that remind me of her. There was a beef enchilada ration pack on the table, her favorite, and I about broke down," Casey said.

"You talk to Major Glitter about it?" Vuxten asked.

Casey nodded. "Yeah. It still hurts, though, you know?"

"I know," Vuxten said. He reached out and put his paw on the human's thick forearm. "Each day, Lance Corporal. Just take it each day at a time."

"Thank you, sir," Casey said.

Vuxten saw one of the LED's on Casey's datalink flicker amber. Casey shook his head. "Well, so much for this depressing talk."

"What?" Vuxten asked. He could hear shouting.

"One of my geniuses just caught a light tank on fire," Casey laughed, turning away. "I better help get it under control before they catch the entire planet on fire."

Vuxten watched him jog away.

-------------------

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

OK, so Mark II is phasic enhancing and storing to the point that it makes people's head explode.

Mark III catches on fire right after it's inverted.

Mark IV, well, we don't talk about Mark IV.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

MANTID FREE WORLDS

Is that research facility still on fire?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

Yeah. It's still burning.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

PUBVIAN DOMINION

Wow. A little unstable?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

Lets put it this way: when its fuel gets too low, new particles pop in from nowhere to join the fire. The fire's so hot it even burns chronotrons and boojums.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

PUBVIAN DOMINION

>uses strange accent

Now that's a fire!

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

MANTID FREE WORLDS

>snickers

She's a Bigfeet, isn't she, Gus? Your bringing a bigfeet around my kids, Gus. Why? You burn down my yard every summer and your bigfeet scare my kids. Don't bring a bigfeet into my house, Gus.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

ALL>LAUGH

AKLTAK SOARING WORLDS

I don't get it.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

PUBVIAN DOMINION

Old Pre-Glassing early Age of Paranoia comedy.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TNVARU GRIPPING HANDS

Oh.

So Warsteel Mark V is what we're working with?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

Well, technically, it's called arcanochromium. Warsteel is just part of alloy.

It doesn't suffer the problems that warsteel is suffering with the Atrekna attacks.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

PUBVIAN DOMINION

How many times have we tried to replace warsteel? Like a thousand?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

MANTID FREE WORLDS

A lot. Every new metallurgy and materials science breakthrough the news is all "Will this replace warsteel?"

TNVARU GRIPPING HANDS

No. Save you a click.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

ALL>Snicker

but it never does. The Terrans jump into some war and we find out that the new stuff has a horrible glaring weakness.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

PUBVIAN DOMINION

Think this stuff will work?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

For this war. It's been tested repeatedly against Atrekna phasic wavelengths.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

MANTID FREE WORLDS

Um... this isn't going to, you know, create another, well...

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS

Novastar scandal?

We hope not.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---