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Revealed: Chapter 14

There it was, the great gas ball Jupiter, sort of. Military craft didn't have windows, structural weakness. Instead I was watching a monitor on the deck of the USS Columbia, which was near the exact center of the ship where it was safe from battle. The ship had come and gathered everyone who was going to take part in the military raid after dropping off the news crew.

We had to avoid the news crew, even though our existence was known in the military now, the public was ignorant of us and that was for the better. During the voyage, I had heard arguments that by showing us to the public, the military could draw up more support for this raid. Some people weren't happy when some minor details were leaked. Some called it a military takeover of the corporate sector. All bullshit of course, but public support was important in a democracy.

In the end, it was decided that it would be better to keep the secret a bit longer, especially after the briefing for the mission.

Many of the officers and squad leaders of various groups that would actually go into the station were crowded into the war room. It was a large cylinder shaped room with a holo-projector in the center. One of the first things that they showed was the Jostens soldiers. The response was silence, but brooding silence.

Every ship that held an infiltration team held its own briefing and each of those would be showing the images. News would spread fast. All communication with the outside world was cut off so there was no ban on internal communication of the information of the briefing. It wasn't long before people began to talk and that was good. I wanted them to hate Jostens. The man was a monster for doing this and if they felt the same way I did, then all the better.

"Anderson." A heavy voice called from behind me. I turned from the screen. It was Krauss, surprisingly without his brothers. He was wearing the standard grey uniform of the Spec Enforcers.

When NATO had learned that we were taking part in the operation, they wasted no time in getting in contact with us. I was surprised to see it was Colonel Mathews, now Brigadier General, my old commanding officer from back in Berlin who got in contact with us. I had believed that he had died when the berlin base was hit by a nuke, but it turned out his daughter had a wedding in Poland and that was enough to get him out one day before the blast.

He didn't consider himself lucky. He considered it a fluke and he was pissed. The man had a history of absolute devotion to his job, which was mainly intelligence gathering for the Spec Enforcers. When the Eurasia was affected by the gas that had turned Crane and me into walking dogs, he blamed himself for letting something like that happened. I could only imagine how he felt to have nukes get under his nose. No one blamed him. The nukes had gotten through the security of over a dozen nations and their militaries as well, it was a global security fiasco.

He had reinstated Krauss and his brothers' status as Spec Enforcers and had our uniforms sent over. He gave me a small, half-assed lecture about me going AWOL, but in the end he just smiled and told me not to get myself turned into something uglier.

He had also sent over the weapons we wanted, the X-A301s. Felt nice to hold a familiar weapon in my paws again and they did sync up nicely with the armored suits Hawthorne provided us. We were all set to go.

"What's up Krauss?" I was in relatively good spirit. The crew of the ship was friendly and not at all hostile to us. The Captain of the ship had made it explicitly clear to his crew that we were not to be pestered with questions or hostility in any way.

"What's your opinion on the offer Mr. Hawthorne gave me?" He asked. He stood over next to me and gave a quick glance at the image of Jupiter.

"I'm not sure." I replied. He wanted to have Krauss and his brothers around due to the telepathy they had developed. I doubt that he would do anything stupid, especially with Krauss, but the idea of experiment being ran made me uneasy form my friend.

"I've given it a lot of thought and I think I want to take it."

"Why's that?"

"Well." He rubbed the nape of his neck. "I want to keep my brothers safe after all of this and I think that Mr. Hawthorne is the most capable of provided the necessary protection to us. I've talked to my brothers and they're fine with the idea."

Mr. Hawthorne did have nearly limitless resources. If anyone was capable of keeping someone safe, it would be him. The military could do it, but they would still want to send him out on missions as well.

"If that's what you want to do, then I won't stop you. But, you need to keep cautious." I winced slightly inwardly at the thought that I was giving out Dog's advice.

"I know. I just wanted it to run it by you before I make any commitments." I felt honored by that. I guess I really was the leader of our rag tag group of misfits.

"The thought is appreciated." I smiled at him and he returned it.

"Yeah."

I looked back at the screen. It wasn't going to be long before the operation was launched, the scanners were picking up the images of the Jostens stations. "We better go get suited up, won't be long now."

We went to the armory where we had stored out gear. Crane was already there, giddy as ever as he put on the legging of the armor. He already had the chest piece on and the helmet sat off to the side, next to him.

"Hey cap!" He called out when he saw us enter. "Krauss, if you're looking for your brothers, they're already in their armor and left a few minutes ago."

"I know." Krauss tapped the side of his head.

"Gotcha." Crane nodded. "Telepathy."

I pulled my armor off of the rack and brought it over next to Crane. I stripped down to my boxers since I needed to put on an under-suit that would make the entire thing airtight. It was somewhat tight and bunched my fur in places. Once I had that on, I took some time to get my fur into a comfortable position.

"How did you do this?" I asked Crane who seemed to have his under-suit on perfectly.

"Easy." He gloated. "With fur, you need to get an under-suit one size too big than what you're used to."

I sighed and began to take it off. "I should have known." I muttered.

By the time I had my armor on, Crane was just grinning at me and Krauss had already left to get his brothers.

"Let's get back up to the bridge and see what's going on now." I told Crane.

"Yeah." We headed out with our gear on and helmets under our arms.

"Cap?" Crane asked as he walked down the metal hall.

"What's up?" A sense of déjà vu hit me.

"What do you plan to do after all of this is done?"

I stopped and he waited for me. I hadn't thought of that. Being so focused on solving the problems that had come up, I had given no thought about the future.

"I don't know." I began to walk again. "What about you?"

He rubbed his chin with a gloved paw. "I'm actually thinking about retiring."

"Really?" I would never had guessed that would be what he planned.

"I had a talk with Mr. Hawthorne about our compensation." He grinned. "Let's just say, we'll be fine financially. I guess I want to spend the prime of my life doing what I want and all of this excitement it more than enough for a lifetime."

"Hmm. I guess that's a good of a reason as any." I put some more thought into his question. "I suppose I'll stay in the military. It's the life I know and if I can, I want to keep this career going." I was good at what I did, minus the aiming part. Might as well keep doing it while I still could. I also wanted to stay in so that I would be right there if anything else ever happened. I was tired of all of the idiots in the universe who got a false sense of grandeur. If I stayed in the military, I had a better chance to fix the problems as soon as they came up.

"Good luck with that." He chuckled. "You're a magnet for trouble."

"I guess I am." I agreed.

We spent the rest of the walk discussing what Crane planned to do in retirement. He had always wanted to live in the New York City. Something about the massive size of it seemed to enthrall him. I joked that it was because he was short now, everything would just be even larger.

The bridge was full of activity when we got there. People were bustling about and the Captain was sitting in his command chair that was in the center of the room on a raised platform. The screen in front of him was divided into nearly a hundred different panels. Each one had a face on it and the center panel was the largest and held the face of a grizzled old man with an old, oversized Admiral's cap. They seemed to be in the middle of a very animated discussion.

The main screen that stretched around the entire front of the room was on and had the image of Jupiter up. We were a lot closer now. A few ship stood opposed to us and were hoarding the Jostens stations. It was a classic standoff, except they were outgunned, outmanned and without any hope of victory.

I looked off to the side and saw the dreadnaught. It was massive and was easily two kilometers long, dwarfing the five hundred meter heavy cruiser that I was on now. Those German's sure knew how to build big. The entire flotilla was positioned in a half-sphere, with the dreadnaught in the center.

A red light began to blink and a klaxon went off. Everyone seemed to tense up and the Captain stood up.

"What's going on?" He yelled out.

"Sir, half of the fleet's transponder signals changed to match that of the Josten's ships." A woman sitting at one of the many consoles in the room spoke up.

The Captain's face went pale. I noticed that half of the panels on the Captain's screen had blinked out as well. Everyone who was left on the panels were also panicking including the Admiral on the center large panel.

"The fleet's breaking up sir." Another person, a freckled red head on the other side other side of the room called out.

"Put the Admiral up on screen." The Captain yelled out.

Crane and I were just standing off to the side watching in confusion at everything that was going on.

The grizzly man's face came up along with all of the audio from his side.

"I want to know what's going on this instant." The Admiral was yelling at the top of his lungs. I could see veins bulging in his neck and a flurry of sailors running about, trying to complete his orders. He turned back to the screen. "Attention, Captains of the remaining ships. I have been informed that many of the people who came here with us are under the pay of on Louis Jostens. They're currently demanding out surrender."

"Fuck." I muttered. I guess the playing field had just evened out.

"What does this mean for us Admiral?" The Captain asked worryingly.

"This means Captian." The Admiral calmly addressed everyone who was listening. "It's a trap."