Two days later. Fortress Alpha.
Eric was escorted into a room. A single scan across the room told him there were at least 8 Phasewalkers sentries across the room, but today, they weren't the ones that mattered.
At the front of the room sat three figures. In the center was Colonel Hunter, with her short blonde hair and her uniform. Her bright red insignia was on her shoulders. Seeing her former assistant, Caity kept her face straight and her eyes cold.
On the Colonel's left was a certain commissar, except it wasn't Ryan Carlson. No. In her place was Charlotte Williams, Commissar of the Battalion Security Platoon. The cold smirk on her face was as obvious as the Moon in the night.
On Caity's right was Major Blyfield. Despite the mishap with Eric, he still did well on the mission, and as a result he was promoted to the rank of Major. He was the third member of the Phasewalker High Command here.
As Eric sat down, Caity was the first to speak.
"Lieutenant Hemingway. You are being charged with delivering misinformation on purpose. What do you have to say about it?"
Eric sat back in his seat before letting out a deep sigh.
"Where is Commissar Carlson?"
"Commissar Carlson has returned to Earth. You are aware of that after he visited you yesterday." Charlotte replied coldly. "In his absence, I have been charged with investigating your crime and determining your punishment."
"Oh…" Eric grinned. "I just find this jury truly...impartial. The person who I saved happens to be nowhere to be seen. How convenient..."
His snarky remark impressed no one, but it did extract a response from Charlotte. "I assure you, Lieutenant Hemingway. Despite my opinions on you, you will not find me allowing those opinions to influence my decision. Whatever decision made today will be as impartial as possible."
"I doubt that."
Caity stopped the bickering. "Lieutenant. You informed Major Blyfield that I have issued an order to bombard the UEC command center. Correct?"
"Yes. To save Ryan Carlson…"
"A 'yes' will suffice." Caity cut him off. "But that's a lie, correct?"
"Yes. But I was trying to save…"
Caity cut him off again.
"Your job is based on my trust in you, Lieutenant! I don't care why you lied! The only thing that matters is that you lied in my name, which means you can no longer be trusted!"
She couldn't help but let out a sense of anger on her face.
"You broke the command structure just because you believed it was the right thing to do! But it was never your option to make the call! You...you disappoint me."
That last sentence was what made Eric snap. All of a sudden, all of his clever remarks were nowhere to be seen, and the man stood up in anger, only to be pressed back down by two Phasewalker guards.
"Disappoint you?" He growled. "What the hell am I supposed to do? Learn from you and let one of our own die? When all we need to save him is to take a little bit of risk? Tell me, are you willing to condemn someone, one of us, to death just to follow the rules? What are you even going to tell their parents? Their comrades. Answer me, Caity fucking Hunter!"
"It's Colonel Hunter to you, Lieutenant!" Major Blyfield raised his voice in warning. reminding the man on the trial of his rank.
Eric smirked coldly before turning to Charlotte.
"This is no more than a Kangaroo court. There's no jury. Hell, there aren't even any laws that apply to people in our situations. What happens next is completely based on your will. In that case, tell me, Commissar." He paused. "Are you going to shoot me in the head in the name of treason like your leader did to the Phasewalker back in the fort?"
Charlotte's eyes were sharp.
"As of the moment there is no need for that, but the second that changes, I am happy to oblige."
Eric sat back in his seat. Caity was disappointed in him, but he could say the same about her. For a while, he swore he saw something different in Caity. She could be so much more than just another ruthless psychopath like Ryan. When she was talking to Ava's mother, he swore he saw something in her.
But in the end, she fell nonetheless. Just another individual brainwashed by the glamorous cause of the Phasewalker Corps.
He was disillusioned, not just at Caity, but at the entire Phasewalker High Command.
"Strip my rank and put me into the field as a Private or something." He suddenly demanded. "Unless you want to decommission me and let a fully combat-able, experienced Phasewalker go wasted."
The three members of the Phasewalker High Command exchanged glances. Truth to be told, they weren't sure what to do with Eric either. If Eric acted for personal reasons, then well, everything would be simple. Shoot him in the head and if you were feeling extra annoyed, shoot him one more time in the chest.
But Eric acted on a noble cause, which made things much more complicated. More importantly, his intrusions yielded good results. Give him capital punishments and it could turn away the rest of the Phasewalkers.
Finally, Caity nodded.
"Lieutenant Hemingway, you are demoted to the rank of Private. You will be placed into the 4th Motorized Company. I...I honestly hope this will not be a mistake."
Eric scoffed before turning and leaving the room.
Behind him, Caity lowered her head with a heavy heart.
Was she really the one at fault here?
---
Eagle's Nest. Earth.
"Farewell, brothers."
Ryan said quietly before turning and walking out of the Hall of Martyrs, leaving behind three extra spots.
Yes. Three. Not four. The Phasewalker he shot in the head wasn't allowed to enter the Hall of Martyrs. Even the compensation given to his family was halved as a punishment for his cowardice actions.
But returning the bodies was just one of his reasons to be back here.
Ryan turned and walked out into the halls. Two Section X sentries saluted behind him. As Ryan moved, his thoughts turned to Eric.
Before he returned to Earth, he went to see Eric. He explained that he couldn't help Eric out of his situation, but if Eric needed, Ryan could help him with a personal favor. Of course, if Eric wanted Ryan to betray Earth or anything, Ryan would turn him in the first chance he got.
Obviously, Eric wasn't satisfied, but Ryan couldn't do anything else without breaking his principal.
Ryan made his way to an auditorium. As soon as he opened the door, he could hear a loud female voice crying out.
"We are the shield of our world!"
The entire auditorium was packed with Generation III Phasewalkers. They were no different than Generation Is and Generation IIs in their early days, and Ryan could see the same determined look on their face. It was the look of someone who has found a cause to fight for, and if necessary, to die for.
On the stage, a woman in a green uniform was screaming words of encouragement at the top of her lungs. Her words reminded Ryan of the speech Caity made before she became the Colonel. The same strength. The same fire.
Ryan sat down beside General Kennedy on an elevated stage in the back of the auditorium.
"Lieutenant Cara Mason. One of the best members of the Generation III Phasewalkers." General Kennedy explained quietly. "If she was a Generation I, she might be the Colonel right now."
"She seems...emotional."
"Yes she does, and she has this talent to bring that emotion to those around her." General Kennedy glanced at Ryan. "Of course, that talent is problematic for the Shieldbearers, but for most Phasewalkers, it could be astonishingly helpful in terms of improving morale...and god knows we need the morale."
Ryan turned to Kennedy in inquiry.
"What do you mean?"
"Section X research personnel have been working hard on the gears you retrieved from World Alpha. Gauss Rifles. Guardian IV Armor. Archon I Power Armor. Predator II Tank. Leopard Armored Personnel Carrier. Some sort of support aircraft. I am disappointed to say the scientists are nowhere near understanding and duplicating them, but that doesn't stop us from handing a portion of these weapons down to the Phasewalkers."
Fort Sentinel was the home to 8,000 UEC troopers. Ever since two days ago, multiple trips have been made to Fort Sentinel until everything in the warehouses have been transported back to Fortress Alpha. At that point, what the Phasewalkers recovered was more than enough to arm the several hundred members of the Phasewalker Corps and leave enough to do experiments on.
But by General Kennedy's tone, he wasn't settling with 800 Phasewalkers.
"At the same time, the Generation III Phasewalkers will be added to the 1st Phasewalker Battalion. Well, in fact, the command structure may need to be expanded again. You will have to talk to our analysts on that." Kennedy continued. "But ultimately, the Phasewalkers will need to further expand their sphere of influence."
This was met with a frown from Ryan.
"If I may, sir, I think this is a bad idea." The Battalion Commissar protested. "These Generation III Phasewalkers have little training and no combat experience. Generation IIs aren't any better. If we really do expand the unit, then nearly 1,800 Phasewalkers will have to rely on the two hundred or so Generation I Phasewalkers to fight effectively. That is the spelling of a disaster."
He paused for a moment before pushing on.
"Unless there is a source of urgency, I suggest we take our time and control our pace. We cannot risk losing the Phasewalker Corps due to impatience."
On the other side, General Kennedy sighed. For a moment, the man looked exhausted.
"Tactically, you are correct, Commissar, but you forgot one thing. Politics."
"Due to its very nature, information on the Portal and the Phasewalker program is only known by very few people. The participants. The instructors. Some members of the Military and the White House, yes. But that's about it. Most of the people working for us don't even know what they're really doing. They're just following orders."
"But recently, as the program grew bigger and more Phasewalkers are recruited, members of Congress are starting to ask questions about this classified spending that is taking up so much damn money." The frustration was clear on General Kennedy's face. "The President is facing a lot of pressure, which is why we are on a timer to accomplish more things quickly. The more progress we make in World Alpha, the safer Earth becomes, and the more we can handle the repercussions when this matter inevitably gets to the public."
"I understand hiding the program from most of the participants." Ryan had another question. "But why are we hiding it from Congress? They are a part of the decision-makers of our country. Surely they deserve to know about this."
"Well, here's the problem, Ryan." General Kennedy slowly organized his thoughts into words. "The moment the Phasewalker program is introduced to Congress, we will be involved in politics, and politics is what may ultimately doom us."
"The first thing Congress will do is overwhelm the program in a wave of investigations. The Republicans will demand that we reveal every piece of information we hold to the people because the people have a right to know. The Democrats will question whether all the money spent on the program is necessary and if it's better to spend them on health care or whatever they want to appease their voters."
"Before long, every move we make will be monitored, recorded, and analyzed by agents from a dozen government agencies. Our operations will be halted and our operatives will be questioned for every misconduct or violation. Corporates will somehow know about what we are doing, and before we know it, they may be trying to open up oil refineries on World Alpha. All sorts of activists will line up in front of our base every day to demand us to save the survivors from World Alpha or whatever, not to mention how they will react to us using teenagers to fight wars."
"Everything we have built will collapse, and the safety of Earth may be foiled."
"But...why would they do that? I mean...if we tell the politicians the urgency of the situation, surely they will put aside their differences for the greater goal of survival…"
General Kennedy was grinning, but it was a sorrowful grin.
"You are...optimistic, Ryan. That may be what you would do in a situation like that, but you can never underestimate the foolishness and short-sightedness of not just politicians, but people in general." The general said. "What we see as a danger, in their eyes, would be no more than another weapon to use against their opponents. The more threatening the danger, the sharper the blade."
"So...they are a threat to the cause…" Ryan's voice trailed off as his eyes turned sharp. "If they fail their duty as elected officials…"
A fire lit up in Ryan's eyes. It was the same fire in his eyes when he shot the deserter. Ryan didn't care if it was a defenseless foot soldier or a well-protected politician. All he could see were those who remained loyal to their duties and those who didn't.
If these elected officials turned against their words for selfish purposes, then he would handle them the same way he handled that unnamed Phasewalker.
General Kennedy saw the same flames, but he didn't say anything about it. The two sat and watched as Lieutenant Mason gave out another cry.
"For Victory!"
1,000 Generation III Phasewalkers stood up and saluted.