321: A Plague of Phantoms: King of the Land of Lies I

"Grab your squad! I have a mission for all of you!" Beaufort announced with a sickening glee in his eyes.

"Mission?" Parroted then glanced around at the Generals and majors scattered around the room looking at plans or at least pretending too.

"Yes! An important one! One that will put your cursed shit of a brother in his place." Beaufort proclaimed proudly. I narrowed my eyes at the declaration. To say I was skeptical was an understatement, regardless of how I felt in that moment my body's automatic reaction to hearing Chase referred to as my brother kicked in.

"Half-brother." I said quickly. Beaufort rolled his eyes at my statement then waved me off.

"Gather your squad, Kingston we haven't got all day!" Beaufort griped. I nodded then turned on my heel and left the war room without another word.

I knew where the remaining members of my squad were but loathed to go get them. They were in the the same place they'd been when Dad and I left earlier that morning for that banquet, the hotel's bar. They'd been drinking since the early morning, Cross and Oliver hitting the sauce especially heavy.

Steeling myself to face them in whatever state of drunkenness they were in, I strode down the hallway to the main staircase and headed down to the main lobby. The bar was a short walk across the main lobby and sadly even from the staircase I could see Cross and Oliver sitting at the bar with Alex and Tyme beside them. They were obviously drunk, Cross and Oliver drunker than the rest.

'Fuck…this is bad!' I thought then stormed across the lobby floor over to the bar.

I approached my squad from the side and slammed my hand, palm down on the bar beside Tyme and glared at my squad. To my amusement everyone jumped and looked at me like deer in lamplights, Cross and Oliver both nearly fell off their bar stools.

"What the fuck are you four doing?!" I hissed and shot each member a glare. Tyme and Alex looked confused for a brief moment, thanks to their level of drunkenness. Cross however returned my glare and curled his lip into a snarl.

" 'Re mourning the death of a squad mate! Sumtin you shud be doin'!" Cross snapped, the fact he was slurring his words was obvious. I scoffed and pointed to the stack of whiskey glasses and beer bottles on the bar counter, enough for eight people instead of the four sitting in front of me.

"You're drinking yourselves stupid! Have you forgotten where we are and what our job is?! How the fuck can any of you expect to guard the president when you're three sheets to the wind!" I snapped. Cross grabbed a glass of whiskey then downed it in a single gulp. Slamming the glass on the counter, he turned and pointed a finger at me.

"How the fuck can you expect us to prospect the presi…presi…that fat fuck…when yous can't even protect yerself!" Cross snapped. Cross stood up with shaky legs and stumbled over to me. "Ya got your little prissy ass handed to ya by that crust-puss guttersnipe of a brother of hers!"

"Half-brother!" I snapped bitterly. I could feel my anger starting to boil, it had been steadily raising over the course of the day thanks to Chase and for once my Dad but Cross was pushing all the right buttons. Cross snorted and turned to look at Alex, Tyme, and Oliver.

"Half, full, Quarter! Like it means shit! Ya still got the s-same fucking blood in y-ya crystal cursed v-veins!" Cross yelled. He then snorted and slapped Alex roughly on the back. "The fucker even has the f-fucking balls to merry some bitch from…"

***

"….LIEUTENANT! LIEUTENANT! LIEUTENANT KINGSTOOOON!" A voice screamed.

I blinked several times as I took stock of my surroundings. Cross was on the ground, bleeding heavily from his face with several soldiers crouched around him. I was being restrained, looking go my right and left I saw that it was Alex and Oliver holding me. Both were panicking and had scrapes and wounds on their faces.

"Wha…?" I muttered.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!" A voice commanding voice roared, shocking everyone. I turned towards the voice's direction and saw General Custard barreling towards us from the staircase.

Everyone snapped to attention, baring Alex and Oliver who were still holding me back. General Custard stopped several feet away from the commotion and took in the scene for a second before snapping his fingers and pointing at a random soldier.

"You! Report! What happened here?!" He barked with a feral snarl.

"Y-yes sir!" The soldier exclaimed while saluting. "I didn't see everything Sir but I saw Lieutenant Kingston smashing a glass across Lieutenant Cross' face then slamming his face into the counter top…a lot."

"I what…?" I muttered.

It all came back to me in that moment. I had blacked out in a moment of pure blind rage at the insults thrown at my family, my bloodline, and my wife. While the marriage the purely political and for the benefit of my father, Zianna still had my last name and was a Kingston. My rage was at the slight against the Kingston name.

General Custard looked at me with a hardened scowl then over at the unconscious Cross and shook his head. He looked disappointed at the fact that Cross had gotten knocked out by me or rather disappointed in the fact a member of the border guard lost to a army soldier.

General Custard wasn't a Army general but rather a General in the Border Guard, and a rather experienced general at that. Even men in the army knew about the storied career of the general who was commended for singlehandedly diverted at incursion of Ca'oons that would have washed over three states like a plague back when he was an enlisted soldier. The exact number of evos is often disputed but it is unofficially accepted to be more than ten thousand. The man was a true living legend, unlike myself who's entire legend was based off the lie perpetuated by my father.

"Kingston!" General Custard said sharply. Instantly grabbing my attention. "You were supposed to grab your squad for a mission. Not beat the most components member unconscious. Is this how the hero of St. Louis deals with troublesome situations?"

"A man can only be pushed so far…" I said calmly then shrugged off Alex and Oliver. Shooting them both a stern glare I then turned saluted the General. "…at your leave Sir, I'll take the rest of my squad to see about the president's mission for us."

General Custard narrowed his eyes at me then huffed and waved me off with a flick of his hand. Turning his attention back to the unconscious Cross, he also physically turned his back on me. As good a dismissal as any. I started walking towards the staircase with that.

"Lieutenant, are you just going to leave Lieutenant Cross like that?" Alex exclaimed. I paused mid-step then looked over my shoulder and shot Alex a glare.

"The president is waiting for us, let the medics deal with him. Maybe missing out on the briefing will teach him how a soldier should behave." I said coldly then kept walking.

"A proper soldier would have slit his filthy splicer brother's throat when he was still a crystal cursed infant!" General Custard snapped suddenly.

I ignored the comment and kept walking on towards the staircase. When I reached the bottom of the staircase I was pleased to see that Oliver, Alex, and Tyme were following behind me. Though they didn't look happy about it. My squad quickly returned to the floor that the war room was on. As we approached the soldiers guarding the door the saluted and stepped to the side, opening the doors as they did.

"Kingston! Finally!" Beaufort snapped. He frowned when he saw there were only three men with me instead of four. "Where is Lieutenant Cross?"

"He met with an accident. General Custard will probably speak to you about it later." I said quickly. Beaufort arched a brow then shook his head.

"Whatever, having him along would only complicate things. Perhaps this accident is for the better." Beaufort said dismissively then waved over to the table at the middle of the room. I stood in front of Beaufort across the table with my squad standing in line a step behind me. "Logan, I need your squad to head to the next town over and collect a group of VIP's then escort them to another location."

"What is the meet up location, drop off location, and way of identifying the VIP's?" I asked. Beaufort looked to one of the officers stationer at the edge of the room and the officer quickly rushed over to me and handed me a folder.

"All the mission details are inside this." The soldier said. I nodded then flipped through the folder. After a few minutes I closed the folder then handed it back to the soldier.

"I understand the mission. My men and I will compete it without fail." I said confidently, despite my internal reservations.

"Then hurry up! This is all for that bastard's downfall!" Beaufort cackled gleefully.