Chapter 581: Stock Car Race

"Any other species having been all but wiped out would eventually die. Even if they had the numbers for a genetically stable population, depression and ennui would carry them away.

"The Mad Lemurs of Terra though, they looked it as just one more thing to scream and rave against.

"None of us should have been surprised they returned."- Former Grand Most High Sma'akamo'o, from I Have Ridden the Hasslehoff

General NoDra'ak sighed and folding his grasping hands together, resting his bladearms on the desk, and leaned down to push his forehead against his hands.

Every officer with longer than two weeks in service knew that a deployed soldier wasn't the biggest problem. Sure, it was a little disconcerting after someone had been in the zone for a year or two and they got that thousand light year stare and got a bit... odd... but there was nothing worse when it came to trouble than a bored soldiers or Marines or sailors or airmen or spacers with access to a military base and too much time on their hands.

Then there was the problem with the chains of command. With Terran Descent Humanity making up so much of the ranks, that left huge holes blown in the upper officer and senior NCO chains that were being plugged by any officer that the Confederate Military could grab.

That meant there were a lot of inexperienced commanders or senior NCO's or retired ones pulled up via Citizen's Recall or commanders who had been "on the beach" on half-pay and usually working planetary defense now being put back on Active Duty and told to lead men.

Which meant every day there was at least a half dozen calls from high ranking officers and senior NCO's about the difficulties they were facing. The fact that a lot of them were jumping the chain of command complaining directly to General NoDra'ak, instead of their Division or Corps Commander like they should have.

But that wasn't what was making him rest his head against his thumbs.

The board of inquiry had again reared its head to be a headache and he wasn't sure just how bad it was going to be.

He sighed, got out his pack, and lit a cigarette, before looking at the datapad on his desk.

Personally, General NoDra'ak had never figured that the computer would be able to complete its task but this, this was even worse. The idea of randomly promoting some poor surviving Terrans to a high rank and having them sit on the board of inquiry before demoting them had been floated but then shot down by JAG as being nine different shades of illegal. The idea of using Born Whole clones had been floated until it was pointed out that the process would be entirely illegal according to the TASCMJ's regulations.

But the computer had spit something out that made General NoDra'ak's eyes cross, which was no mean feat.

In order to ensure that there would be fairness and unbiased officers, the Judge Advocate General used the Personnel Command computers to randomly select officers according to the guidelines. The local JAG Commander had warned General NoDra'ak that a quick cursory check of the surviving officers had suggested that there was no way that there were any Terran Descent Humans high enough ranking to even sit on the Inquiry Board, much less gather for a court martial if that was what the board decided. There might have been in TerraSol had been out of the bag, but that wasn't looking to be an option for decades, maybe even centuries.

So, JAG had put in the request to the PERSCOM computer and washed their hands of it.

Only an hour ago the computer had kicked out the names to JAG and JAG had immediately shown up at General NoDra'ak door.

"How?" General NoDra'ak asked, without looking up at Brigadier General Shesshkren, the local JAG Commander.

"Their names are still on the roster as Active Duty since Case Omaha," Shesshkren said, shaking his head and making the spines on the back of his head and neck rattle. "They're still listed as living, holding actual rank, and since they answered the Case Omaha it pulled them from retirement or irregular status to Active Duty status."

"How long until everyone stopped screaming in fear in your office?" NoDra'ak asked, looking up with the equivalent of a grin.

"About an hour," Shesshkren said, giving his own equivalent of a grin.

"Do you think the computer was actually able to give the people it chose notification that they're required to report here with all due haste to sit on the board of inquiry?" General NoDra'ak asked. He exhaled smoke, dispelling the scent of his own stress pheromones.

"I really really hope not," Shesshkren replied. "Can you imagine..."

The dataslate next to the General beeped and he looked at it for a long moment. General NoDra'ak could see the anxiety wind up until the other General looked up.

"They've received and acknowledged the court summons," the General said. "They will be present within twenty-four hours."

General NoDra'ak dropped his cigarette.

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

Herod stared at the fire, sitting on the ground, his knees pulled up, his arms resting on his knees and his chin resting on his arms. It felt good to just luxuriate in the heat of the flames, stare into the fire as the wood was slowly devoured.

Across from him Legion, Menhit, and Daxin all sat, passing back and forth a bottle that seemed to Herod like it never went down and never got them much more than buzzed. There had been discussion earlier about the condition of the facility, to vastly understate it, of the the SUDS mechanism, what kind of pathways that would have be taken from the sole entry point to Atlantis, and what they could be facing.

Herod felt despair at the fact that his friend was the ultimate target of an operation being planned by everyone around him.

"Herod," Menhit said softly.

Herod looked up, looking at the brown skinned woman across the fire from him.

"We agree with you. Killing Sam isn't our aim. Our aim to pull him out of the system, reset the entire thing. We don't want to kill him any more than you do," she said gently.

Herod nodded. "I know. I've heard you. It's just... it's just..."

"You feel like you're betraying your friend," Daxin said, handing the bottle off the Legion. "We can understand that, Herod."

Herod nodded again.

"The goal is to pull him free from the system. It might crash the upper level system but it shouldn't effect the SUDS system itself, shouldn't effect the hardware and storage," Menhit said gently. "But we need to remove him if we're going to reset the system."

"I know," Herod said, setting his chin back down on his arms.

"Don't worry, we're going to..." Daxin stopped speaking and frowned, reaching up and touching the side of his head. "Wait, what?"

Herod looked up again, seeing that all three of the Immortals were looking at each other.

"Did... did you get an email from Confed mil dot net?" Legion asked.

"I did," Menhit said.

"Yeah," Daxin said. He chuckled. "I just seriously got an email from JAG."

"Uh, so did I," Legion said. "What was yours about."

When Daxin answered, Herod found his eyebrows going up.

"You're serious? They still have you listed?" Herod asked.

Daxin nodded. "I'm still military, always have been," Daxin said. He shrugged. "I've been on half-pay for a few eons, but I went Active Duty after I reported on the Mantid Omniqueen and the Goliath Harvesters. Case Omaha reinforced that."

"I'm still on the record as a commander in the Earth Defense Force," Menhit smiled. She shook her head. "It has been many years since I have been addressed by such."

"Are you going to ignore it?" Herod asked.

"Personally, I just want left alone," Daxin shrugged. "We should ignore it. We can. I want to. Who's going to do anything about it?" he asked.

"Dax, brother, you know I love you, but you're not looking at it past your grim and gritty 'grr, leave me alone'," Legion laughed. "We should totally do it. Think of how funny it would be."

Menhit gave a soft chuckle, puffing on her pipe as she accepted the bottle from Legion. "Could you imagine their expressions?"

Daxin went from frowning to looking thoughtful. "You know, we really should do it. Teach them to leave me the hell alone."

"I'll teach them not to leave me alone, I'll participate in this and show them. Oh yes, I'll show them all," Legion mock-growled, then laughed and shook his head. "If we left now, we'd have enough time to sober up before we get there."

"You know what? Fuck it. We've just been spinning our wheels here," Daxin stood up. "I'll wake Bellona, let Dee know what's going on."

Herod frowned. "You're really going to do it?"

Menhit nodded. "We may have been released from the Imperium's old controls, but our old oaths hold great power over us, especially the oaths given willingly."

Legion smiled. "Plus, it'll be funny."

Menhit smiled as she puffed on her pipe. "Indeed, it will."

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

General NoDra'ak had his bladearms and grasping hands behind his back, his thorax back stiff and slightly back, his head lifted, as he watched the shuttle set down. He had to admit, the shuttle was undeniably Terran. Blocky looking, matte black warsteel dark as night, with Confederate Armed Services markings on it. The lines were strange to NoDra'ak, sweeping, almost organic lines.

It also looked old.

He had his officers, NCO's, and aides around him, all of them in full dress uniform. It was a dizzying array of medals, badges, awards, some officers having centuries in service and racking up awards and medals like they were candy.

The shuttle settled down and General NoDra'ak shifted slightly as he made his thorax back more rigid and ensured his footpads were at the proper distance from his body and his knees were at the correct angles.

The door hissed, broke seal, and slowly lowered into a ramp.

It shouldn't be surprising that they took a combat dropship, but it still feels strange to see high ranking officers using a combat dropship rather than a more comfortable shuttle, General NoDra'ak mused.

Privately, General NoDra'ak had a wager with himself that the people summoned for the review board would all be dressed in power armor, heavily decorated power armor, and carrying terrible weapons.

General Shesshkren had bet that they'd be wearing civilian clothing.

The honor guard marched out, all of them looking identical in dress uniform, carrying rifles. They formed two lines, on either side of the pathway from the ramp, and went to attention with their rifle butts grounded, the weapon at an angle, held by just behind the front sight.

His implant glitched trying to identify the men and women walking down in dress uniform.

Two of them were massive male Terrans, built for bulk and power. Two were tall slender females. Two were bulky woman with heavy bone and muscle. A short woman in civilian clothing. A pair of tired looking male Terrans. An old style Goodboi in a heavy combat frame clacked down the ramp after everyone, its tongue hanging out as it wagged its tail.

They were all following one of the larger men, who moved up in front of General NoDra'ak, who fired off a salute.

"Welcome to Dustpit," General NoDra'ak said. He saw that the Terran had decided to go with the 'six highest awards' look rather than the full 'fruit salad' that NoDra'ak and everyone else had chosen to wear.

One of the awards was the "Defense of Terra" award with two gold oak leaf clusters. Another was the "Anthill Campaign Award" with three bronze oak leafs.

"General of the Warsteel Daxin, Preceptor High Lord Marshall of the Martial Orders of Terra," the big Terran said returning the salute. He motioned at one of the women. "Lieutenant General Menhit Chisisi, Commander of the 9th Nubian Earth Defense Force," he motioned at the other one. "General Mentissa, Joan of the Sisterhood of Holy Terra," then motioned at a woman with a sweet innocent face, slight fur on her face, a cat ears. "The DokiJoan, her rank before her Fall was General, it's up to your JAG to determine whether or not she can serve," he motioned at the men in uniform. "Grand Admiral of the Warsteel (Upper Decks) Dhruv Deshmuhk, who holds the additional rank of General of the Iron; General Lucian, Preceptor High Marshall of the Holy Order of TerraSol; General Cavarxis, Preceptor Dread Lord of the Holy Order of Mars."

He pointed at the two civilian men. "My Brother in the Digital Omnimessiah's gaze, Peter, and Herod. Neither have military rank."

Finally he pointed at the civilian female Terran, who was lighting a cigarette and staring around her with cold unreadable gun-metal gray eyes. "Dee. No other name, no rank."

The woman nodded slowly.

General NoDra'ak introduce himself and the other officers. Once the greetings were over the gathering of beings moved to a nearby building.

General NoDra'ak stared at himself in the window of the groundcar as it swept to the meeting.

This has to be the strangest thing to happen since P'Thok borrowed a cigarette.

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

9th ARMY BUGLER

All news; No rumor!

BOARD OF INQUIRY FORMED IN TRUCKER CASE!

In a shock to the entire galaxy, the JAG computer selection for officers to sit on the board of Major General Trucker has been selected as well as the selection of alternates and those who might sit on any court martial convened.

Rumors are correct.

The board consists of several of the Immortals, members of the Digital Omnimessiah's Biological Apostles, and four members of the Martial Orders, including a DokiJoan, who was determined by the JAG office to be ineligible for service on the board due to special circumstances.

What this means for the former commander of Third Armor remains to be seen, as evidence and arguments will be presented to the board of inquiry starting tomorrow morning! The board could recommend a dropping of charges, forwarding the charges to a court martial who's type would be selected by the board, or even recommending General Trucker be removed from service!

[WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW MORE?]

----------

Presenting evidence and reading out the charges and concerns took less than two hours. The courtroom was packed to the point that JAG had been forced to break up the seating area into groups depending on rank. Reporters were at the sides and the air was thick with spycams recording every last bit.

It was fairly simple: Did Trucker's use of the Black Cauldron Protocol violate Confederate legal codes and Confederate Armed Services doctrine? If so, does it warrant punishment or a trial? If so, what punishment should be levied?

Confusing the entire thing was the fact that in the handful of times it had been used, the commander who had activated the system had died with their men. Trucker was the first commander to have survived using the Black Cauldron Protocol.

At the end of the presentation of evidence the seven being board withdrew to deliberate.

Trucker sat silently, in his dress uniform. He had no regrets except for being forced to use it.

In truth, he wished desperately that he had never been forced to use it, that he would have either died with his men or his men had been alive when he had led them.

But that wasn't how it had happened.

So he waited.

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

The members of the board, making up of Daxin, Menhit, Mentissa, Cavarxis, a Rigellian General by the name of Juilette, a Treana'ad General by the name of Max Ikl'tzik, and a Pubvian General by the name of Rhanshford, all sat down at the table.

The TreaNa'ad lit a cigarette as he looked around.

"Since I'm the most senior officer here, it basically comes down to me," Daxin said. He rubbed his hand through his close cut black hair. "It's pretty obvious that there wasn't any choice, upon reviewing the logs from the battle."

Everyone nodded.

"I'm inclined to just dismiss the entire thing," Daxin shrugged.

"General Trucker used what he had to pull an untenable situation into victory," the Pubvian said. He popped a piece of gum in his mouth. "He saved countless civilian lives by driving his reaniminated forces into the strongest concentration of enemy forces, forcing them to redeploy their planetside forces in order to counter him."

Cavarxis nodded. "I concur," he said, his gray face serious. "I would have done no less."

"Shall we take a vote?" Daxin asked.

Everyone nodded.

"A moment," Menhit said softly.

Everyone turned and looked at her.

"We are responsible for more than just the letter of the law. We must also look at the intent, and the intent of the law in this situation is to protect the rank and file of the Confederate military. The views of the lower ranks matter here," she said. She stood up. "I am not arguing whether or not any of us would have done the same, I am arguing from the simple standpoint of whatever we do here creates precedence."

Everyone nodded.

"You're suggesting forwarding this to court martial," General Juilette said.

Menhit nodded. "The court martial selection board has already gone through, and we're going to be on the board. That much is obvious. However, we need to set a strong enough precedent that we will avoid commanders throwing their men's lives away with the simple belief that they can activate the Black Cauldron Protocol should they take too heavy casualties."

That got General Ikl'tzik to nod. "I can see that."

Menhit tapped her finger on the table. "SUDS has already made it so that many commanders view human life as disposable. Setting the precedent on the Black Cauldron could make it so that commanders view living troops as less desirable to undead."

Cavarxis nodded. "Why worry about discipline or morale when you can just reanimate your command to follow orders more slavishly than a VI."

General Ikl'tzik tapped his bladearm on the table in a thoughtful manner. "More to that, why worry about commanding living troops in peace time when you can just put them on ice and bring them back with the Black Cauldron when you need them," he shook his head. "It's bad enough that more than a few staff officers have no concerns over human casualties because 'oh, they'll be back in a few hours' thanks to the SUDS. This brings us on the edge of a horror show."

"While I respect General Trucker's record and what he did, and the courage to do what he did, it goes far beyond one man and one set of circumstances," Menhit said.

"We are at war and to throw away General Trucker at a time like this could be considered negligent," Rhanshford added. "But, on the gripping hand, we don't want someone to think that victory will wipe away their actions or that a chest full of medals and a handful of luck will allow them to do whatever they want."

"It needs to all be dragged out into the light. We must protect not only General Trucker's rights under the statutes, but we must protect the rest of the Armed Services, from the lowest private to the highest Admiral or General," Menhit said. She tapped the table. "I suggest we forward the charges to a general court martial. Ensure the arguments are allowed to be wide scoped and in depth, so that precedent is firmly set."

"By strict definition, he's guilty," Rhanshford said slowly. "He doesn't deny he did it, we have him on record as doing it, we have footage of the combat action."

Menhit shook her head. "It's not whether or not he did it, it's not whether or not he was authorized or empowered to activate the protocol, the question that we need to forward to court martial was whether or not he had no other choice giving the standing general orders, his knowledge at the time, and situation on the ground."

"So, whether or not he was in the right to use it," the Rigellian mused. "I dislike legislating morality. It leads to commanders second-guessing themselves about whether or not they'll be thrown under the train or their career will end."

Daxin rapped on the table. "Something like the Black Cauldron Protocol should have a commander carefully weight the options. We need to set the precedent that using it should be a last resort. In a way, Trucker is less on trial than the Black Cauldron Protocol is."

The big human looked around. "Let's take a vote on either dismissal of charges or they're forwarded to a court martial."

The rest of the table nodded.

---------

9TH ARMY BUGLER

All news; No rumors!

GENERAL TRUCKER TO UNDERGO A GENERAL COURT MARTIAL!!

The board of inquiry came back with its decision in less than an hour of deliberation.

That General Trucker did knowingly and purposefully activate the Black Cauldron Protocol.

Furthermore, the board stated that use of the Black Cauldron Protocol should always be handled by general court martial so that all the pertinent facts of the situation, including the context of the ground fighting and the greater war effort, could be weighed against the possibility of abuse.

The selection for the officers of the court has already undergone.

JAG has waived their objections that members of the board of inquiry will be sitting on the court martial board.

The trial begins tomorrow at 0900 hours.

[WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW MORE?]

----------

Legion moved into the living room of his Bachelor Officer's Quarters apartment, already knowing who he'd find due to the smell of cigarette smoke.

Dee sat on one of the chairs, a holo-emitter in front of her. One window held General Trucker's image and his military file. The other was a 12X speed replay of a battle.

"What?" Legion asked.

Dee pointed at the holo-emitter with her cigarette, jabbing at Trucker's portrait.

"We need him."