Book 2 | Chapter 1 | Revision 3
From: The Mason Creed Chronicles
BLACKWAKE COMMAND SYSTEM
UNIT LOG — HEAVY WEAPONS COMPANY / MARSOC ATTACHED ELEMENT
DATE-TIME: POST-SHIELD NEXUS DAY 4 / 0600 LOCAL
LOG HOLDER: CWO5 CREED, M.A. / ACTING COMPANY COMMANDER
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INTEL PACKET RECEIVED: Ashalin Tactical Net / Source: Compact Central, relayed via Blackwake intercept layer.
CLASSIFICATION: MISSION AUTHORITY GRANTED / IMMEDIATE EXECUTION.
ASSESSMENT:
Packet contains 47 entries. 19 assessed as actionable. 11 flagged STALE — source data predates the Day 1 engagement; enemy unit positions no longer confirm. 9 flagged DEGRADED — Blackwake sensor net running on partial feeds following Day 1 damage; track correlation below threshold for launch confidence. 8 flagged UNKNOWN — no corroborating data available in the current window.
Ashalin directive is clear: interdict and deny inbound Vektri probe strike. Launch window opens at 0745. Directive carries compliance language.
Three fields in the launch worksheet remain UNKNOWN at this log entry:
1. Probe force composition. Best estimate is light-penetration package; basis is pattern only, no sensor confirmation.
2. Secondary approach vector. Primary corridor is assessed; alternate ingress has no current coverage.
3. Scout-class contact bearing 087, range approximately 14 kilometers. Allied channels tag it low-priority, non-threat. Signal is weak and inconsistent. Reason for inconsistency is not explained. Will monitor.
FRAG order is being prepared now. Platoon element readiness is below full but within acceptable range. Losses from Day 1 are factored.
Command decision: launch on the Ashalin directive as issued. Gaps are logged above. They are accepted, not hidden. If the scout contact creates a recovery opportunity inside the corridor, the order will include a conditional clause to exploit it.
LOG SIGNED: CWO5 Creed / 0627 LOCAL
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FRAG ORDER — COMPANY ELEMENT / SHIELD NEXUS INTERCEPT
ISSUED: 0630 LOCAL / POST-SHIELD NEXUS DAY 4
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1. SITUATION
Enemy: Vektri probe force, inbound. Assessed as light penetration package. Approach vector via primary corridor, bearing 041. Probe force composition UNKNOWN. Secondary vector UNKNOWN. Blackwake feeds degraded; confirmation below launch-confidence threshold.
Unidentified scout-class contact bearing 087, range 14 kilometers. Allied classification: non-threat. This command: status unresolved. Contact will be monitored.
Friendly: Heavy Weapons Company at approximately 87 percent effective strength. Ashalin Compact forces defending shield nexus perimeter. Ashalin tactical net is primary coordination channel; do not assume alignment on timing without confirmation.
Attachments: Rifle squads Alpha and Bravo remain attached. Squad Alpha — Mortar security. Squad Bravo — Anti-Armor security.
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2. MISSION
Heavy Weapons Company conducts intercept-and-deny of Vektri probe force in the primary approach corridor, NLT 0800, in order to prevent probe force from generating targeting data on the shield nexus.
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3. EXECUTION
Commander’s Intent: Intercept in depth. Do not allow probe force to reach range of the shield infrastructure. Force withdrawal is acceptable. Probe force destruction is preferred. Marines are not expendable for data denial; probe withdrawal with no data transmitted is a success condition.
Scheme of Maneuver:
81mm Mortar Platoon - Establish firing positions along ridge line, grid reference AMBER-4 through AMBER-7. Indirect fires on request; battery must be reachable within 3 minutes of call-for-fire.
Anti-Armor Platoon - Vehicle sections forward to intercept line at BRONZE-2. Primary kill zone covers corridor axis bearing 041. Section 2 covers secondary approach on standby.
HMG Platoon - Dismounted support by fire at COPPER-9. Covering force on extraction routes.
Rifle Squad Alpha - Mortar position security.
Rifle Squad Bravo - Anti-Armor security. Maintain visual contact with vehicle sections.
Recovery Clause: If scout-class contact bearing 087 transitions from passive to active distress, and a squad element has tactical space to respond without abandoning primary position, the nearest available element may commit to recovery at squad leader’s discretion per standing intent. Force loss acceptable up to one squad equivalent without abort. Inform command before committing.
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4. ADMIN AND LOGISTICS
Casualty collection at Blackwake bay, lower deck. Doc Fen forward with mortar platoon. All element leaders carry casualty accountability for their section. No resupply available during mission window; carry what you have.
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5. COMMAND AND SIGNAL
Command: CWO5 Creed, Blackwake command node. Tactical alternate: E8 Jorgenson.
Signal: Blackwake command net, primary. Ashalin tactical net, coordination only. All acknowledgments by callsign and element number. FRAG acknowledged by:
- Mortar element: PANTERI / 0641
- Anti-Armor element: SMITH / 0643
- HMG element: IBARRA / 0644
- Squad Alpha: VALE / 0645
- Squad Bravo: RIOS / 0646
END FRAG ORDER
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Bay 3 smelled like bore solvent, sweat, and whatever the Blackwake recyclers had decided passed for air this cycle.
The equipment lanes ran the length of the bay, and the company had taken them over the way they always took over any space they were given — completely and without asking. Weapons broken down on every flat surface. Gear spread across crates that were now seats. A fireteam from Rios’s squad had put a tarp on the deck and arranged themselves around it like it was a kitchen table, cleaning their rifles and arguing about something that had happened four days ago and would apparently never be settled.
“—I’m telling you, I’m telling you, the moment we hit that first line the LT just looked at me and I knew. I knew right then. Nobody was coming to help us.”
“The LT looked at everyone like that. That was just his face.”
“Rest in peace, Lieutenant Mercer.”
A pause, too short to be solemn and too real to be dismissed.
“Rest in peace.”
Then someone said, “He really did just have that face, though,” and the tarp circle broke up laughing, which was the only acceptable way to handle it, and they went back to their rifles.
On the port side, Smith’s anti-armor crews were several rounds deep into an argument about the Vehicle 2 actuator problem that nobody had caught before Day 1. The argument had been running long enough that it had developed structure. Smith maintained the problem was pre-existing and undocumented. Torres maintained it had been documented and ignored. The two Marines nearest them were maintaining they had nothing to do with any of it and were being very busy with a fuel coupling to prove it.
“You want to know what I actually think?” said one of them, Cpl Renee Cooper, without looking up from the coupling.
“We do not,” said Smith and Torres at the same time.
“I think this ship just hates us. Not tactically. Personally.”
“That is not a maintenance diagnosis.”
“It is an *environmental* diagnosis. Completely different category.” She tightened a fitting. “I’m just saying we didn’t have these problems before we were abducted by a haunted spacecraft.”
Nobody could argue with that, which ended the argument, which was clearly her goal.
Starboard side, Panteri’s mortar teams were moving through charge increments by hand. Nobody on this ship trusted the degraded feeds for fire solutions, and Panteri’s people had been running the manual checks since 0700. PFC Bennett was explaining something to the Marine beside him with full-arm gestures, all arc trajectories and impact windows. The Marine beside him had the expression of someone who understood the first part and was now just nodding.
“Alvarez.” Panteri crouched next to Squad 1.
“Still no,” Alvarez said, before Panteri finished the sentence.
“You don’t know what I was going to say.”
“You were going to say try the secondary targeting protocol on the degraded feed because it’s faster.”
Panteri said nothing.
“Last time someone on this ship trusted a degraded feed for a fire solution they put a round into a wall.” Alvarez looked up. “I was there. I counted the holes. I’m running the manual.”
Panteri stood, gave him the particular look that platoon sergeants develop around the third year and never lose, and moved to the next squad.
Forward of the mortar section, Ibarra’s HMG teams worked with a different quality of noise — less of it, more purposeful, everything laid out in the same pattern for every team. Two of his Marines were newer to their positions than they should have been. They were watching the veterans a half-beat behind, not slow, just still learning what confidence looked like in this particular job. PFC Cruz was wrapping a section of feed belt that didn’t technically need wrapping.
Cpl Henderson watched him do it for a moment.
“Belt’s already good.”
“I know,” Cruz said.
“So.”
“Keeps my hands busy.” Cruz shrugged without stopping. “Stops me thinking about other stuff.”
Henderson looked at him, then at his own weapon, then back. “Yeah,” he said, and left it there.
From the hatch at the aft end of the bay, Creed watched all of it. He had been standing there for ten minutes, long enough to get the temperature of the room without changing it. This was what the company looked like when command wasn’t present. Loud in some places, quiet in others. Funny about the things that couldn’t be fixed and methodical about the things that could. Nobody was pretending Day 1 hadn’t happened. They were just choosing not to stop moving.
Tarev came down the passageway from the command corridor and stopped beside him at the hatch.
“Your order went to the Compact command channel,” she said, looking into the bay. “They did not like the recovery clause.”
“They don’t have to like it.”
“They may push back during the window.”
“Then they push back.” He didn’t look away from the bay. “If that contact is what I think it might be, leaving it is wrong. The directive says interdict and deny. It doesn’t say ignore everything else.”
She was quiet for a moment. Then: “You assessed the scout contact yourself. With degraded feeds.”
“Yes. And I logged that.” He finally looked at her. “I’m not pretending the picture is clean. I’m deciding what to do with a picture that isn’t. Those are different things.”
She held his look, then nodded once. They stood there another moment, watching the bay, before she turned and went back up the passageway.
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At 0840, Anderson came through the forward hatch.
He didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t have to. The word moved through the bay the way it always moves, person to person, faster than it should be physically possible, until everyone in Bay 3 was on their feet and the only sounds were the last weapons being set down.
“Attention on deck.”
Creed came through the hatch behind him, Tarev a step back on his left.
Anderson turned to face him, came to attention, and reported with the flat economy of a man who had done this a thousand times and had not yet decided it was beneath him. “Company all present and accounted for, sir. Eighty-seven percent effective strength. All elements ready for orders.”
“Thank you, Gunny Anderson.” Creed let the room breathe for a second. “As you were.”
They came down from attention the way Marines do — not instantly, not reluctantly, somewhere in the middle, which is its own kind of respect.
Creed didn’t move toward the center of the bay. He stood where he was and let them find him with their eyes.
“The FRAG went out at 0630. You all read it. You all acknowledged it. I’m not going to reread it to you.” He paused. “What I’m going to tell you is what I know is thin. You deserve to know that before you step off.”
He said it plainly: the sensor gaps, the secondary vector with no coverage, the scout contact that was either nothing or something and he didn’t know which. He said what he was assuming and why. He said what would change the order if it happened and what would not.
“Mission is intercept-and-deny. Probe force does not get eyes on the shield infrastructure. Marines are not a fair trade for data denial. Force withdrawal is a success. I’d prefer probe withdrawal, but I’ll take ours.”
Nobody spoke.
“Mortar, ready?”
“Ready.” Panteri’s voice, flat and certain.
“Anti-Armor, ready?”
“Ready.” Smith.
“HMG, ready?”
“Ready.” Ibarra.
“Alpha, ready?”
“Ready.” Vale.
“Bravo, ready?”
“Ready.” Rios.
Creed looked at the bay. The tarp on the floor where Rios’s fireteam had been sitting. The equipment lanes with the gaps in them that weren’t going to be filled.
“Move.”
They did.