Master sergeant Ono ended up in a bunker room on Detention Level 2. In fact, he was the only one in this particular room. That was not unusual, as the empire’s starships always had an excess of bunker rooms. It wouldn’t do to have preventable casualties as a result of a shifting vessel and dramatic gravity forces. Every spacefaring society learned that lesson sooner or later, it was only a question of bodies; how high would they be allowed to pile before something was done about it? The Operatic Empire decided two bodies was enough, once they were important people. Fifty-five Imperial Marines had died before that.

  No, his situation was not unusual, but it was desirable. Right now he needed to coordinate the efforts of every imperial marine in the Fourth, and it wouldn’t do to have distractions in the form of mouth-breathers. His eyes ran through the latest report. It seemed that several of the ships in the Fourth were behaving erratically. On each vessel the marine compliment was not responding. That was a problem. The sergeant generals for those ships were here on the Hidden Dagger, and they had reported, via visual report, that there was no reason for them to be silent. There was no graft, no intimidation, and no anger simmering away. Quite the opposite. Every one of those marines were beyond thrilled to be serving in the Black Drake Navy.

  He rolled his eyes. That had gotten around through his boys and girls far too quickly to be accidental or half-hearted. They meant it, and they wanted everyone else to know. He hadn’t told Rieven yet, but every marine in the Fourth had added a Black Drake service patch to their standard kit, with a corresponding emblem on their armour. Standards were being printed in every ready room and each marine dropship now sported a Black Drake on the underside and on the door. There would be no missing it when the shuttle came in for a landing. He fully expected that by the time they left the dragon’s empire, every marine would have memorised a new fight song in the commandant’s name. The man who took down a dragon in single combat, CQC style. Epic!

  He rolled his eyes again but smiled anyways. To be fair, it was epic, he thought. I was there and I hardly believe what happened. How do you pass up the opportunity to slay a dragon? He should have used his sword. That would have been perfect. We are going to have words. His training would have to be intensified, I could tell he was flagging there at the end. I’ll get him into shape. Jackie Boy will help there. Quick reaction speed and killer instincts on that one. Death’s Surety. Ha! We’ll be the envy of every navy when we get back to Homeworld, assuming they don’t hang us for having the audacity to survive after we were marked MIA.

  There were two issues that needed dealt with, he decided, after reviewing the messages. The dead zone, and the mutiny of one or more ships in the Fourth. Dead zone first, he thought, that’ll kill us all – can’t dodge a sun forming spontaneously for fourteen seconds. He looked and saw a message from sergeant Marchioness. Looks like she’s reestablished comms. He pulled her up on the wallscreen. She answered quickly.

  “Sir! Please make this quick, I’ve got a level of stupid in my squad that won’t allow me to leave it alone for a minute before it starts growing wings.”

  Ono smirked in his head. This soldier was better than almost everyone in the Fourth, but few would know it by the way she carried herself. Better to be underestimated, she figured, than to have it any other way. “No, soldier, it won’t be slow. Status?”

  “One dream-octopus tentacle murdered, and one dead zone stabilised, sir. The ship’s turned to melted glass, so it’s still cooling. We don’t want to sink through the hull, or get stuck between floors, so we’re moving slowly. So far there are no survivors. The area was flooded with a strange foreign axiom – it got into my squad’s head before we even docked, sir. Something’s not right.

  “Dead zones don’t behave this way. This felt alive. It was deliberate. Some idiot invited something onto the ship they should have passed on. The SI is silent. No response. I’d worry about those other ships if I were you. I’m also not seeing any sign of the marines stationed on the Grace and Wonder. A marine should have had that shut down ages ago. Why not? What’s quieted the SI? I don’t like it. I did my duty and got it shut down. I’m doing my duty and getting the commander. I’m doing my duty keeping private Dumbass alive despite his best efforts,” there was a squawk of indignation in the background, “any thoughts, sir? I will not allow these dragons to destroy the last little bit of smart there is in this navy, sir.”

  As usual, she made little sense and offered no solutions, but she did provide a warm body that was willing to shovel the dirt however deep the hole had to be dug. He slowly shook his head. “No sergeant, I have no real thoughts for you. Standard military doctrine should suffice. Intelligence suggests Greeves is keeping people locked up. That may be what’s happened here. Get down to engineering and keep those axiom engines off-line. It won’t do to make another dead zone in the same place so quickly. The reality anchor won’t respond for another twenty-four hours. I suspect that the commander is either dead or maliciously influenced beyond his ability to fight. Don’t kill him if you have any other reasonable option available.”

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  She scowled. “Fine, sir. Fine. I’ll keep the bloody idiot alive when he’s not smart enough to dust off his own laces when evil axiom uses them like it stole a ship.” She closed the connection, muttering, “Private Dumbass doesn’t have the level of stupid that was crammed into heads in officer school.”

  Ono smiled. She’d get it done, and have her squad feeling like they should have done a better job than they did, despite doing a better job than Ono hoped for. That’s life. He felt the ship’s engines activate. Ok then, he thought, thing’s are starting to heat up. Time to figure out the Greeves situation. He put a call through to each of the sergeants on the Exile’s Retribution, Greeves’ ship. Surprisingly, they each picked up. He was looking at twelve squares on the wall that showed their faces. They were each in separate bunker rooms.

  “Sergeants, why have I received a report that the Exile’s Retribution is preparing to fire upon the Fourth in general and the Hidden Dagger in specific?”

  Sergeant Swivels decided to answer that one, “Well, sir, he called red corners and everyone flew to a bunker room. When we queried the SI to learn the situation, we got no response. Doors are locked and mundane shielding keeps everything closed. We can’t blast out sir, because we’re in a small room and any kinetics use would kill us and the room’s shielded against axiom weapons. We’ve been hacking at the door, but no luck yet sir.” The view panned to show a perfectly intact bunker room door with scratches and carbon scoring. It was clear it wasn’t coming down any time soon. The walls were similarly decorated. “We’ve been trying to reach you sir, but comms were down until just now.”

  “Makes sense,” Ono said, “an active dead zone was just taken out. No idea how long it’s been building, but it hadn’t made itself permanent yet, so sergeant Marchioness was able to stabilise it. Damn thing was on the Grace and Wonder. The Grace and Wonder! Artificial too, from the looks of it. Your laces clear of foreign axiom sergeants?”

  They all closed their eyes and looked inwards. After a moment they each confirmed that yes, they were clear. Except for one. Sergeant Patience took longer. When she looked up, she said, “I had something knocking around in my skull, sir. My squad too. They’ve just tried the door and ours isn’t locked. We’re getting the rest out and into full armour; that’ll keep ’em safe from the combat manoeuvrers.”

  “Good sergeant. Get going, but leave this line open for now.”

  “Sir!”

  They could see her ordering her marines into action. He turned to the others and asked, “None of your marines have any issues?”

  They each responded in the negative. “Ok, so we’ve got more than one dead zone forming here, and we’ve got foreign contaminant spreading asymmetrically through the Fourth. Well, they’ve timed it right, if this’d happened without the distraction of the dragons, it’d’ve been shut down immediately. Have you determined the location of the anomaly?”

  “No sir, everything looks good to us” said sergeant Roll.

  “Very well then. Swivels, Flag, and Rolls, go to engineering and stop those torpedoes and lasers from firing – you’re the first one’s freed. Patience, get the rest out. Tiger, Eyes, Sliphook, and Stealth; I need you to secure the bride and the corridors leading to it. Grippling, Handout, Grumps, and Bonnet; I need to know what the status of that ship is. The Grace and Wonder turned to glass, I need to know if the Exile’s Retribution is leaking. Patsy, Bleak; take your squads and determine the status of the crew in the upper levels. Meadow and Gamble, same for the lower levels. Leave off the routes the others are handling. Keep this line open for now, as long as you can. Patience, now that you’ve rescued all the maidens from their towers, get to that reality anchor and actuate it. If you don’t, things will get worse. Marchioness had to put down a dream-octopus. If you see one, report it immediately. Questions?”

  There were no questions, they simply began executing his orders. He passed the twelve mini viewscreens to the adjacent wall, muted his side to them, and opened another to call Rieven. He responded immediately, “Ono, I have seven more ships that are becoming active dead zones twelve stages before that should be possible.” He was tabbing through screens, “Why?”

  “Sir, I don’t know. My marines are pacifying the Exile’s Retribution as we speak,” the ship suddenly banked left. Hard. Ono shook his head to clear it and then continued speaking, “and sergeant Marchioness is looking for survivors on the Grace and Wonder. She put down a dead zone and pushed back a dream-octopus, or just a tentacle of one.”

  Rieven started, “That’s surprising, though it explains why my pearl was concerned.” Ono raised an eyebrow at that, and smiled because he could see confusion in the eyes of the marines to the left and right of the commandant.

  “Does your pearl of wisdom have anything else to say?”

  “Not at the moment. They are here.”

  Ono stilled. “The dragons?”

  “Not them. Jackson promises this is not his father, and if it’s another, that Big Red will shut that down quick, on account of his honour. This is something else. Mutiny I expect.”

  Ono looked at the list of ships turning into active dead zones. He typed out a quick message to every sergeant on every ship in the Fourth: Do all in your power to scrub external axiom from your laces and to prevent it from coming back. Enemies are reaching out through artificial dead zones. Activate the reality anchor on each ship and report to your sergeant general once complete. -Ono

  Rieven looked up. “Perfect Ono. Now that we know what’s going on, we can begin to fight it. I have activated the Silent Stalkers. They’ll spike the SI’s and we’ll learn how they were silenced. If there’s nothing else, Ono, I’ll set you aside and argue a bit more with the situation.”

  “Very well, sir.”

  Ono shifted gears. Time to meet with the sergeant generals.