System Change

Lieutenant Hobbs sat back at his desk with a sigh. The Planetary Battle on Planet A-37 was moving along nicely, especially considering its size. If things continued to go the way they were, Commander Kelvin would surely reward him with a promotion. Perhaps he would even get promoted to one of those comfy command positions back at base. A man could dream.

But soon, all his hopes and dreams were dashed by a blaring alarm going off on his bracelet. He had set that alarm around a year ago and hadn’t bothered with it since. In fact, he had put it out of his mind. But the alarm meant one of two things. Either the commander was going to be extremely pleased, or he was going to be extremely pissed.

Praying for the correct outcome, Hobbs slowly raised his bracelet up and punched in a few commands. Then, all the air left him as his face fell into his palm and he began to shake his head. It was the wrong outcome-the one he hoped and prayed it wouldn’t be. That bastard didn’t die. He didn’t die, and he was on his way back.

Just then, a quick series of knocks rang out on his door, causing him to sit up straight and swiftly fix his previously bedraggled hair before uttering, “Come in!” With his deep voice.

The door to his office swung open and a woman with dark skin and fiery orange hair strode in.

“What is it, Sergeant Trusk?” Hobbs asked.

“Commander! There is a commotion at the east gates that may require your attention,” the sergeant spoke.

Of course, he could already guess what sort of commotion she was talking about. The only person who had been exploring to the east was that man. On top of the alarm he had set to go off whenever that man entered a certain distance from the camp, Lieutenant Hobbs knew exactly who was the cause of the commotion. He only wondered what that man was doing.

Hobbs almost let out another sigh, but caught himself. He didn’t want to look or sound defeated in front of one of his sergeants. So, instead, he stood, looked at Sergeant Trusk, and said, “Very well, lead me there.”

As Sergeant Trusk led him out of office and through the barracks, Hobbs couldn’t help but think about the man. In around a year, nobody has heard anything from or about that man. We’ve also kept soldiers from venturing out east, just because of him. But that area is full of the Obsidian Ash Panthers, including their leader. Did he manage to survive alone against them for all this time? I don’t even think I would be confident to survive an entire year alone in that area without backup.

Just what is it with him? Did he hide for a year? Hobbs couldn’t help but think. But he’d met the man before sending him east of their camp. No. He didn’t seem like the type of person who would hide. If nothing else, he was a fighter.

But I haven’t heard anything from any of the camps to the east of us, so he couldn’t have made his way all the way through. He surely would have met other soldiers mapping out the forest to the west of them. So why hadn’t anyone contacted him? Surely Hobbs would have gotten some kind of message from one of the other camp lieutenants.

Continuing to follow the sergeant, they finally arrived close to the east gate entrance. When they got there, they were met with quite the sight. All the guards and multiple soldiers were positioned around a man. They were ready to battle at a moment’s notice. Some used swords, some used guns, but all weapons were pointed at a man in the center.

The man, of course, was Jace… the person Commander Kelvin currently hated more than anyone. Hated might have been too strong of a word, if anything, the commander was more or less extremely annoyed with the young man that came from Planet C-186, also known as Earth.

Jace cut quite the figure. Like Hobbs thought, the man hadn’t been back to civilization in a year, and his appearance showed that. Normally, the Earth soldier sported a bald head so his hair couldn’t get in the way of his fighting, and wore light leather armors that were easy to move in and provided minimal protection.

But the Jace in front of him looked nothing like the man Hobbs had met briefly before sending him into the forest. No, the man before him had shaggy dark brown hair matted in blood, and was wearing nothing but a hastily patched together dried black skin around his waist to provide some protection for his dignity.

The man had previously been pale white, but it seemed after spending a year outside on Planet A-73, he seemed to have gotten a bit of a tan. Though it could just be caused by some of the blood and mud that adorn his skin. Speaking of his skin, from his neckline down to his waist, there wasn’t an area that wasn’t covered in scars both deep and shallow. He even had three scars in a line on his left cheek that looked like some beast had swiped him with its claws across the face.

Hobbs couldn’t help but wonder what all Jace had gone through over the last year. When he last met the young man, he used two machete-like blades, but what he currently held were two short spears, one in each hand. I guess his weapons must have lost their durability after all this time, and he didn’t feel like coming in to have them repaired.

All of those things may have been different from what Hobbs had previously seen, but the alarm he had gotten, the bracelets on the man’s wrists, and the bloodcurdling aura emanating from the man was enough to prove it was Jace. Hobbs hadn’t experienced his aura first-hand, but he was close enough to feel it when Jace activated it when he first entered the forest.

“Everyone, stand down!” Lieutenant Hobbs ordered, causing many of the soldiers to flinch and shift their attention to the approaching lieutenant. “I said! Stand. The. Fuck. Down!” Hobbs ordered again, this time loudly, as a few of the soldiers were too intimidated by Jace’s aura to hear his first command. That was finally enough for everyone to recognize that a lieutenant had arrived on scene.

“Jace, welcome back. It seems you have had a tough year,” Hobbs moved on to addressing Jace. Once the soldiers knew that the man was a known entity and not some surviving native from the planet, a lot of the tension left the area. “It would be best if you put away your… weapons,” Hobbs said.

Jace turned his gaze from the soldiers to Hobbs. When Hobbs’s eyes met the blood-red eyes of Jace, it caused a chill and shiver to go down the lieutenant’s spine. It was like he was looking at a blood thirsty animal that couldn’t even be bothered to feel threatened by him. Just how much has the man grown? At this point, Lieutenant Hobbs questioned if he would even be able to put up a fight against Jace if it came to it.

Such growth in just a year. Just how much time did he spend fighting and increasing his skills? Surely, with all of those scars, he had to take breaks to recover. Commander Kelvin is not going to be happy about this, Hobbs thought.

“Where’s the barracks? I need a shower.” Jace dropped his makeshift spears and stepped forward. The sea of soldiers parted before him, and soon he was standing in front of Hobbs and Trusk. “Barracks?” he repeated.

“Uh… sir…” Trusk started, but was visibly shaking under Jace’s intense stare.

“Control your bloodlust!” Hobbs commanded, hoping Jace would do as he said.

Jace shifted his eyes back to Lieutenant Hobbs and tilted his head. “If I wasn’t controlling my bloodlust…” he took another step forward and was soon eye to eye with Hobbs, only inches away. Hobbs did his best not to flinch, but his body betrayed him at the sight of the other man’s blood colored eyes. “You would know.”

Doing his best to keep from losing even more face in front of so many soldiers, Hobbs cleared his throat and turned around. “The barracks are this way.” He began walking toward one of the barracks, hoping Jace followed behind, but not daring to look. Yup… Kelvin is going to be royally pissed.

A short walk later, and the three of them were standing next to the entrance of one of the barracks. Trusk had calmed down and followed as well.

“Here they are. I’m sure you can find the showers yourself,” Hobbs said. “When you finish, meet me at my office. There is a lot for us to discuss.”

Jace didn’t bother with a reply, and strode forward to the entrance to the barracks. But before he opened the door, he paused and turned back around, looking at Hobbs and Trusk. With a couple motions, he held his wrist out and nodded to the bracelet.

Understand what he was hinting at, Hobbs reached out and took the communications bracelet off of his wrist and moved back. Then, Jace pulled the other bracelet off and tossed it to him as well.

“There’s your map. Sell everything in the other one for system credits. And have somebody bring me a change of clothes.”

Hobbs looked down at the blood covered bracelets in his hand and nodded. The next moment, Jace disappeared into the barracks.

“Is he really a soldier?” Trusk finally asked, breaking Hobbs out of his thoughts.

Hobbs snorted. “Only in the faintest sense. He’s someone the commander sent here to die, but apparently that didn’t work. Now I have to be the one to report it to Commander Kelvin.” The lieutenant shook his head and turned to go back to his command center.

Once back in his office, after giving Trusk the order to find Jace a spare uniform, he leaned back in his chair, deep in thought. He’s even less sociable than when I saw him last. And that bloodlust. What did he go through this last year? Finally, took the time to inspect the two bracelets Jace had tossed him.

First, he connected his own officer-grade communications bracelet to the one Jace had been issued and transferred all the data it had collected to his own. Without hesitation, he began his inspection. The more information he found, the more surprised he became.

He actually mapped every corner of the eastern forest. Almost up to the other camp, even. How did nobody see him? That was the main issue tugging on Hobbs’s mind. If a man like Jace got that close to another military encampment, surely someone would have noticed him.

But soon, he found his answer. At one point a few months ago, Jace’s communication bracelet came into contact with three other bracelets. But just as they came into contact, those three bracelets disappeared. He killed them? But there aren’t any demerits. That means… of course. The three soldiers who met Jace in the forest must have attacked the man first. Who wouldn’t attack when meeting someone like that in the middle of a forest?

There really wasn’t much Hobbs could do about it if the other three had attacked first. The best-case scenario was a light reprimand for not holding back in his attacks. But that wouldn’t do anything. Finally, he finished going through all the new data collected by Jace. If nothing else, the man had been extremely thorough. He had collected as much information about the eastern forest alone as an entire squad would have.

Next, he moved onto the man’s storage bracelet to see what all he wanted to sell. The number of Obsidian Ash Panther corpses was staggering. His eyes widened in shock when he found the queen and king panther corpses among them. He also sighed when he found the bodies of three soldiers, all neatly taken out with a single slash.

Once more Hobbs sat back and sighed. It was a rough day for the lieutenant. For over a minute, he fidgeted with his own communication bracelet. He had to make a report. I hope Kelvin doesn’t take this out on me. With a deep breath, he finally made the call.

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