Junction Pt. 04

Jace looked at her, "You mean illegally entering an area under Martial Law with fake IDs? Displacing actual support crews who are needed in the area by doing so? I am within my rights to arrest you.

I have sent for more units to take you back to the city to be processed and charged. The Royal Family can decide if you are still journalists after this or not. I am sure the 3-16 month jail terms you are facing at a minimum will make it hard for your employers to keep you on the payroll. The King might give you a break in the matter."

Jace contacted Coop, "You are making my life easier and harder today."

Coop laughed, "How so?"

Jace sighed, "Claremont Wilds under Marshall law and he bypassed the local marshals. I got 12 reporters waiting on transport for being charged for false identities and attempting to breach this area. I got the General to release local law enforcement to do their damned job instead of turning his back on his own relief vehicles."

Coop chuckled, "I will get with the Minister of Defense on that matter. You got a solution?"

Jace sighed, "Sort of, he wants our people reporting to him. I warned him that they would work to enforce civilian law as we do not need another round of rapes occurring."

Coop nodded, "I will talk with the Minister of Defense to get the General situated."

---

The Minister of Defense was already on comms with General Carnolaus when Coop was looped in.

Coop smiled, "Hello General. I just spoke with Commander Rivers. While going to the Minister of Defense for Marshal law is allowed, it is supposed to be used after you have failed to get cooperation with local law enforcement.

Please read your rules of procedure. In this case Commander Rivers or myself. Those who you did not attempt to contact and he is working on getting your relief supplies across your border and arresting 12 reporters so far who have attempted to breach your borders.

Our people over in the Holly wilds have been working that and arrested some going out that your military apparently got bribed to let them through. We seized their vid footage of the damage as that is classified information at the moment.

Holly Wilds also has construction going on for a new town that has road crews working it. From what I have here, this is a priority for the Royal family as it will get miners back to work. Best to work in cooperation with us, and not ignore civilian authorities.

They will act if civilian crimes occur, like raping the female population, yet again. You have standing orders on that already. Warn your soldiers to obey the fucking law. Martial law is not an excuse to commit crimes. Please remember, I am a retired General as well and I know the rules from your side as well as the civilian side."

The Minister of Defense looked at the General, "You told me you could not get any cooperation from them so you wanted complete control in your province. Yet it sounds like you never asked the question."

General Carnolaus sighed, "Until they contacted me, I had no direct line of communication with them to ask."

Coop laughed, "It's called calling the Marshal switchboard asshole. They will get you to one of us. It is not that hard to work with us. Sign the Marshals onto the order, give them rights over civilian matters, and let us deal with getting your supplies over the border.

You can use your military to quell any uprisings and to escort in your relief vehicles. They can participate at these crossings but they have no contact with our databases to identify fraudulent IDs that might be presented. Where my Marshals have facial recognition, some do and they are working your borders.

To resolve these holes in the security for both sections of Wilds. Have you deployed teleportation blockers across the entire region? I know you have craft flying into the area. I know a helo went in and pulled my son from the base who was in critical condition. The Royal family needs to order a media blackout and deal with those coming in who tried to or succeeded in crossing illegally."

The Minister of Defense modified the order and sent it to both of them, "Play nice and warn your troops, General. The Director is correct in this matter, as you know. I will get with the King on the media blackout."

---

The Minister of Defense sent the message to Levaransin. She sent a message to General Carnolaus and General Nirshana, "Play nice General Carnolaus. Your counterpart in the Holly province has learned this lesson already. You would not have what forces you have left if it were not for Jace Rivers working with finding this threat and aiding in bringing it to a quick resolution."

General Nirshana sent a message to General Carnolaus. "I got messages from the Royal family and the Minister of Defense. Follow proper protocol or you will be relieved and interrogated."

General Carnolaus sent out messages to all of his commanders and 'reminded them' they were still applicable to civilian law. Rape would not be tolerated under any circumstances.

Half the men who left the base returned to help with relief efforts as the commanders decreased their presence to be less of a threat to the Marshals and sheriffs in the area.

---

Jace watched as they took 12 away with 4 jammed into the back seat of 3 vehicles. They were designed for 3 across, maximum. Xandra wanted to complain more, "You cannot press us in like cattle!"

Jace nodded, "There is a media blackout being announced on all activity in the southern Wilds as of right now. We are busy and can only spare so many marshals. It was this or waiting for them to return in 6-8 hours to take you and 2 others back. We are trying to be expeditious in processing you into your cells so you can contact your people to work on getting released, or getting fired. At the very least your press privileges will be revoked for a while."

He pulled the officers who were driving to the side, "10 km an hour below the speed limit. No stops except for the traffic, traffic lights, and emergencies. No lights and sirens unless called on to take up another matter that will delay you even longer. The reporters have pissed me off."

They laughed and headed back with the prisoners. The other Marshals were working matters. Jace left his Captain in charge and went into the province himself to the first town of Clearwater.

A water treatment facility ran from here and they had a population of 125,429 who lived and worked in the area. Jace got emergency crews from there out to the base and pulled up to the area of damage. He had Army guards looking to draw down on him and he flipped the switch for his lights. They backed off as he got out. He walked up and put a force wall below him and went higher to look over the base.

He shook his head and came back down. "You have entire sections of water main pipes gone and hundreds of breaks. You don't have the manpower to work it on base. These are civilian repair crews who can help to restore essential services to your water supply.

If your General agrees to take them in and fix your infrastructure. Disaster recovery is one of those things we can work on together during Martial Law. Contact your Base commander and find out if he wants to send 250 able-bodied water repair crew personnel to work on saving what water is currently being lost and causing further damage to his base?"

The Captain at the gate called it in. The General sighed, "Get military police to escort them in and put them to work."

Jace went back to the border town and ran into the local sheriff who appeared to be waiting for him. He shook his head as Jace pulled up. "Names Jonna. Thanks for getting this situation straightened out. I believe we have over 300 reported cases of rape but it could have been much higher."

Jace nodded, "Use your surveillance. Send information to my Marshals and a copy to the Minister of Defense to address. These were from military personnel?"

Jonna nodded, "Total across all 15 towns and villages. You got them turned around quickly and freed us to do our job. The military is wanting us to release them. Jace sent the information to Coop and the Minister of Defense.

They sent a release order but to hold all charges in place. That in turn was sent to General Carnolaus and General Nirshana to handle dispensation and restitution. Levaransin was sent a courtesy copy on the matter and asked to let the military handle it.

Jace looked back at the Sheriff, "Release them to Military police or Captains and above only. Keep the charges in place along with the evidence. Keep them away from those attacked."

The Sheriff nodded, "Alright, at least I got guidance and you got it shutdown from what some were hearing."

Jace nodded, "Yes, I reminded them that civilian laws still applied and rapes would be handled as there are already orders in place to cover that."

---

General Nirshana was tired of this. He sent in telepaths to question those involved. Those found guilty would have half of their Ki stripped and given to the victims. Then half of that would be replaced by General Carnolaus personally or his family to keep the forces somewhat fit for fighting. Needless to say, General Carnolaus's family was not happy about the expense.

---

Jace spent most of the next 2 weeks alternating between those 2 sites, except for one 3-day trip into Cordon Wilds where he replaced another Marshal Captain and sent him to headquarters, and then half of the sheriffs in the province were relieved, arrested, and replaced.

All over illegal drugs as he could screen the entire population. All while checking on the road crews and those working the infrastructure for the new towns. He brought in 50 Marshals to the area. He sent them into 27 different drug manufacturing houses.

They busted them up, shut them down, and arrested those who gave up and killed the others. They worked on bringing in another 254,000 DC's in bounties but divided it among the Marshal deputies who worked those raids instead.

Jace wanted no part of it. Then they went about destroying the illegal crops in half of the fields. That would work to bring food production back up instead. Jace knew this was not the only such location, but it was a big one inside of the City-State.

All while finishing his enchantment project on his armor during the evenings to the surprise of Rayne who was impressed with his work, as he nailed it down on his first try. He wanted the armor done before looking to do the estates in totality.

---

Jace got contacted at home that evening by the Gold Dragon King. He asked Jace point-blank, "Why did Director Cooper never find those issues in that province?"

Jace sighed, "Your Marshal service was undermanned to check fields for illegal crops. You have that ability with Genesis station but you are focused on other priorities. Also, until he got a processor upgrade with a bio-monitor and another chip that provided drug screening. He could never do what I did.

He could never identify those hooked on it without sending them to a lab. Instead, I could look at them and find them en masse. I got him upgraded, but he never got the one for drug screening as he was overseeing 4 captains that were geographically separated.

That one chip was expensive, 15,000 DCs. More than a car, even mine. But I have it as I picked it up as a Captain. I just still have it as I want to know if someone is amped up on performance enhancers or ego enhancers, Your Majesty."

Jace spent 10 minutes explaining the difference. The Gold Dragon King finally chuckled, "The Marshals don't have the tools to do this and there are too few of them is what you are saying."

Jace sighed, "Each officer is required to get and maintain their own gear. Service revolvers were upgraded under Director Cooper because of the information I gave him about the F series vs the X series. Having guns jam up in the field, in the wilds they were a problem.

The restrictions to 'use what I give you' I challenged Director Younger on that and he did not argue with me about it as I stood fast on the matter. He just asked for a signature on my weapon.

I was taking over one of the ones that had the biggest turnover rates. The Investigation into Marshal Patterson's death showed his gun blew apart in the field. Exactly what happened with your army and you required it to be fixed for them.

You never made that demand for the Marshals. In fact, you shipped them to the Marshals and city cops to save money. Blame can be thrown in a lot of directions over that issue. Coop took me for my word after looking at the numbers. When he became Director, he addressed it. But his budget for the Marshal service is only so big, Your Majesty."

The Gold Dragon King sighed, "Alright. How do I fix it?"

Jace smiled, "Easiest way. Set up a drug unit in the city police force and one to move from Wild to Wild territories with your Marshals. Screen them all with telepaths, to begin with. Get Marshals equipped with the right processors, bio scanners, and this drug screening chip. Putting 50,000 DC's into each cop's head per man is a 12 man unit.

Hoping the tech is not rejected and burns out is a big expenditure to do across your entire force. You want to do it with your military as well. Faster than a drug screening sent to a lab and it cannot be faked. In short...spend a lot of DCs to address the problem everywhere or targeted searches for a lot less.

Keep in mind, we only find those being done in areas you claim. Not in unclaimed wilds and those who are manufacturing outside of your City-State or in other City-States who are exporting this here to give you problems.

City docks and city ports of entry. How much drug screening is being done there? Did you ever follow through and investigate your city police chief, Your Majesty?"

The Gold Dragon King sighed, "No. We should revisit them and each precinct. I am concerned about another attack though."

Jace nodded, "You should be. They know based upon the council that those bases were heavily damaged. RECD knows. Which means your enemies know you are vulnerable. Those genesis stations are going to bite every royal family in the ass one day.

They should all be destroyed. I gave you 2 codebooks...other City-States have human Spec-ops aware of them. That is a problem. You never used it for our Spec-ops missions. You have not gone in search of others.

Separate ground stations and orbital space stations that exist that your dragons have no control over...or others have control of more than one and have not confessed that fact.

Who was using Trimarka's unit until you bombed the ground station? Someone had to have claimed it. Did they build another ground station to reconnect it and claim it, Your Majesty? Or claim it from an adjoining station."

Jace sent him images of a world and then of the station to show areas of coverage. "If everyone has one, and they are over their own territory how did HonYoko have coverage of my home for that operation? Unless they hijacked into your station to do it and ran it from their station, but even then..no line of sight.

They would have to have hijacked into another and then into yours. At least one...unless they had a second already in unclaimed territory. This map is not complete, Your Majesty.

Too many unanswered questions. How many species 874's are left on the planet, Your Majesty? How do they breed? When has a planet-wide search for them EVER been done, Your Majesty? More could have arrived undetected. Provided they all truly left.

I know, I drifted off-topic. But these are things I think about. Things that keep me up at night. I am giving you a tactical assessment of all the problems I think about every night on your behalf, Your Majesty."

Jace knew he just threw the Gold Dragon Kings Paranoia into overdrive as to who was planning against him and who needed to be questioned more. HonYoko was once again at the top of his list.

---

The following day the Gold Dragon King was in a meeting with his Dragon General and his Minister of Defense as he replayed his last question and answer session with Jace back to them.

The Dragon General shook his head, "I looked over those codebooks and then had our station experts look them over the day we got them in hand. Director Cooper stated that Jace Rivers had them wrapped and sealed when he turned them over to him. He did not want the information to be exposed to anyone.

Jace likely knows the answer in the fact that HonYoko technicians figured out how to hi-jack the observation feeds of surrounding stations, in use, or even those 'not claimed' that have no active ground stations. Then bridge across and use our own station to monitor our own facilities over our territory.

We now have that information. There are 83 City-States and there are 184 manned out of 300 stations in orbit. Most are less than a century old. We only have the 1 Genesis Station. There are only 104 ground stations upgraded and active as not all go back to the ground directly.

We traced out all of the comms using the information contained in the codebooks that those humans had in hand. That means 21 secondary ground stations are active. We have locations but some are not in any area close to any City-State. 4 of them are on remote islands in unclaimed territories.

At least 34 of those have non-dragon species working aboard the stations, humans, and elves in 30 of them. 4 of them are showing as being manned by members of species 874 alone. 10 of those stations are showing outgoing communication being directed into outer space. Including our own.

We used all of the stations and conducted a world scan yesterday on that question. There are over 10,000 members of species 874 on this world, including in bases in the Deep and other underwater facilities we are not equipped to get to.

Dragons could swim to them, but we have no intelligence on what defenses they might have. In short, we have them all mapped, but we would have to destroy those ground stations; all of them, to kill the comms they are hijacking and likely using to monitor our people.

Coordinating that across all of RECD without Species 874 picking it up is another matter. The other issue is destroying 300 of them in orbit. Species 874 did not leave, they went covert. Again, some of those are less than 100 years old."

The Gold Dragon King contacted Jace on a secure channel. Jace responded, "Your Majesty?"

The Gold Dragon King sighed, "If you wanted to bring the Genesis stations down, all of them. How would you do it?"

Jace smiled and active his stealth field as he drove, "Going for an unorthodox and an elegant solution. A solution they would never expect. Then you can always blame it on Species 874 taking action, or your enemies if you have other proof to support it. My favorite plan if you are going it alone. Fredrick Tillman, Former Spec-Ops in your prison.

Master hacker, officially deceased. Have telepaths monitor him for malicious intent. He creates up a virus and deploys it, time syncs it, and gets all of the stations to drop 500 meters in altitude and keep them dropping into The Deep.

All of them. They will burn up on re-entry and Species 874 comms will not work with them inside of the weave area. He succeeds, he will want his freedom but you could get him to work in your Marshal's Service or someplace else. With telepathic monitoring of his activity.

Sink them into the Weave and the Debris into the Ocean. The outgoing comms are shut off. All of the comms bridges are shut off. That is your best solution if you are going it alone. RECD has its own dragon-based satellites but they would be monitored by the Genesis station so doing a coordinated attack will not work.

You want me to do it? I would need a space-worthy shuttle and 100,000Ki to cover the hundreds of stations in orbit, but I could not guarantee where the wreckage would go or the orbital defenses that might be launched at me. I would have to take them down one at a time. Very risky and not what I would volunteer for without a lot of discussions with my family.