F-Rank Frank: Chapter 52 Desertion (Patreon)

Chapter 52

Desertion

Frank sat alone in a darkened military interrogation room. Finally, after a few minutes the lights popped on, letting him know the automatic sensors detected movement. Given that Frank himself had chosen to use this time to cultivate the air, which was infused with ambient charged dust particles, Frank went about seeing if he could in fact draw earth energy from such air.

If he could, then increasing his reserves would be easy. Well far easier than he had to deal with thus far.

As soon as he got back with the fellow soldier, he was first welcomed, especially as he did his job of bringing a fellow soldier back alive. This was what he was supposed to do as a Combat Medic, it wasn’t until the view of his uniform was taken in, having minimal traces of dirt and mud that caused higher ups to wonder just how he survived the massive onslaught of monsters.

An onslaught that left even the strongest of the SERE candidates left in haggard and tattered states of dress. Everyone but Frank.

He was taken back, had his new Attributes read, with his top off, the new tattoo on his arm was instantly identified and recorded. After that time he was taken back to this interrogation room, where he was questioned relentlessly.

“This is a truth stone,” The Interrogator began.

The stone was in fact two distinct stones, well two parts of the same stone that had been broken off and linked together by an ancient connection cord. Having seen many such cords recently, the purpose of the cord was easily noted in Frank’s mind. The cord was attached to the two sympathetic and linked stones.

These stones were then placed conveniently on Frank’s side of the interrogation table where he could easily rest both of his hands upon the two stones.

“Perhaps you are aware of what these are or do, but this is but one of many tests to determine if you are lying. The idea being that you will first begin by cycling mana from one stone through the cord to the linked stone and back into your own body. As you are doing this, the two stones will light up.

“We will let you spend a few minutes getting used to this process. The light and level presented during this initialization phase will be our baseline period. From there, we will begin asking a series of base questions to get you used to thinking and cultivating at the same time. This will create a second baseline reading of yourself, this time while answering easy questions.

“Once we have completed both baseline tests we will begin asking you a series of questions related to desertion and possible dereliction of duties while your fellow soldiers were being overwhelmed by hostile enemy forces. Do you understand the details of what is being expected of you, and what to expect going forward?” The man finally concluded his long and complicated speech.

At this point, Frank wondered about his rights and just how far he wanted to push this.

“Do I need a lawyer?” Frank questioned.

Hearing the question, the Interrogator nodded his head as if he had been expecting this, “you can, and that is your right. Though know that by just asking for one, your ability to explain your way out of this will be impossible. As the unified code of requesting and advocate for the defendant incurs at the very least a week in minimal security prison.”

Hearing that, Frank remembered the laws that were passed. Laws passed by civilians who never saw battle. Yet, felt outraged when warriors didn’t stand their ground during outbreaks, which is exactly what had happened was now considered. While the SERE base and their highly trained instructors had managed to survive the ordeal, there were still damages suffered by nearly everyone. That is why Frank even now was being met with such derision and scorn by his fellow soldiers.

Even the soldier that he had resuscitated and escorted off the field no longer spoke to him. She had offered a few good words on his behalf at first, but since that point she has been missing from coming to see Frank.

For his part, Frank couldn’t begrudge the soldier. He also understood the optics of everything. And realistically he could have gone out to try to fight the surging insectoids that had been driven from their homes for whatever reason happened after Frank was teleported away.

It was for all these reasons, that Frank didn’t protest.

Also, having heard what was expected of him, he now had a plan for what he would do.

“Do you still wish to have an advocate made available to you?” The interrogator asked.

“Not at this time,” Frank stated as he began circulating his mana through the two stones.

The process was tough, not impossible, just tougher than one would expect. After having spent so long cultivating with the actual Ancient devices, it was clear that this one had been modified in some way. Likely done as a refurbishment of previous products, or a hack job of trying to link together items and components that were similar to, but not identical to the ones being recreated.

This was part of the reclamation of lost technology, a project that had received ample funding at the beginning of the Cultivation wars. But in recent years the funding to such projects had dwindled due to lack of production, but one thing that had come out of that initiative were devices like this.

Devices that would force the cultivator to send and pull mana from opposing ends and was likely meant as a way to improve cultivation outside the body. It wasn’t until later that people came up with the idea of using such a device as an interrogation device for cultivators.

The idea was simple, while a cultivator could keep the flow of energy fairly perfectly with minimal distractions, the more a person had to think about a lie, the harder it would be for the cultivator to keep this circuit going. This way, when a lie was told, the light would either dim, meaning less energy was cycled. Fluctuate, where the energy would be different from hand to hand while a lie was being processed. Halt completely, meaning the cultivator lost complete thought in what they were doing and focused entirely on their mental words they were using. Or the flow remained consistent, implying that the cultivator was not lying in the process.

While such methods were often inconclusive and thrown out in military courts of law; they did often lead to some form of crime being committed, which was why they were still allowed as an initial interrogation method.

Hearing the words and realizing this was exactly as many of the recent military movies and trials had depicted the changes, Frank could only feel confident that he knew what to expect from this part.

“Very well, you may begin by channeling your energy through this device. Use any direction you want, and after a minute of getting used to the new cultivation method, I will begin by asking you a series of control questions.” The Interrogator began.

Being as this was positive energy  that Frank was supposed to cultivate, Frank decided to start the current with his left hand, have it travel through the cord and then end up with the current being completed with his right hand. At which time, the residual energy would filter up towards his mouth, where it would then be cycled back into his main circulation channel, while the recently regathered energy would spin around his self-propelled bi-directional circuitry.

When Frank had first heard the process, he did not think it would be that tough for a cultivator, and thus believed the sayings that anyone that had a fluctuation of any type would have to be lying.

Then, once Frank became a dual affinity cultivator with both his internal and external meridians being pushed constantly by his own will, Frank realized how much tougher this particular event would be.

Frank even went so far as to try to avoid being placed in such situations.

Now though, thanks to the new bi-directional cultivation method he had implemented, along with his ability to gain ambient earth energy from the atmosphere and surrounding area, Frank found this new idea to be a great way to cultivate.

In fact, Frank wondered if this would be a way that Ancient cultivators cheated and were able to accumulate massive amounts of ambient energy faster.

The reason he thought this to be a cheat was due to the way he could already feel more and more ambient energy from the room, from the nearby cultivator, from the ventilation system in the facility and everywhere slowly releasing not only positive charged energy, but negatively charged energy as well.

In this case, the tubing still did it’s part, causing the positive energy to be pulled into the actual channels of the lie detector, while the negatively charged energy seemed to form a layer on the outside of the repository.

While the negatively charged energy would also serve as an inhibitor as well, the longer the interrogation went, the more negative build up would be formed and thus the harder it would be to perform this task, normally.

Fortunately for Frank, he was able to take it all in. The negatively charged energy while fighting against the positively charged particles still followed the same path through his right hand, up his arm and finally to his mouth where the entry area for both circulation channels began.

Also the amount of negatively charged energy gathered was seemingly less than the natural positively charged particles in the area. The only real difference came at first, when Frank was first adjusting his flow and thereby cleaning off years of interrogation residue that had built up over time, from cultivators who were unable to process the material.

This was why, Frank’s coloration actually began to grow brighter ever so slowly, especially as he made his way through the initial baseline questions.

“Okay, we will begin recording your baseline readings. This is a photon spectrometer, it is designed and calibrated to measure the brightness of the energy being released from both hands and record those readings in real time. Note, that the subject is using a backwards cultivation method, with the flow beginning in the left hand and ending in the right hand. Is there a particular reason for this?”

“No.”

With that the Interrogator just nodded his head.

“Know that some cultivators think that by cultivating backwards, they can somehow cheat this system. I will warn you that if you are in fact doing this, then it is pointless, as studies have shown that if you cultivate in ways that are contrary to your normal methods, you will often suffer problems the longer this goes.”

“Okay.” Frank replied.

“Okay, in that case we will begin with the first baseline question, what is your name?”

“Frank Fotos.”

“What is your occupation?”

“Combat Medic.”

“What were you doing prior to coming back to base?”

“I was conducting SERE training.” Frank answered succinctly, he could clearly go on, but did not want to get bogged down in the details.

“What did you do during SERE training?”

“That is classified.”

With that the Interrogator just glared at Frank, but made a quick note on his pad, before continuing.

“Where were you during the overflow event?”

Hearing that question, Frank knew that the baseline questions were already over, and it was now time to answer truthfully.

“In the Ancient SERE training area.”

“Why weren’t you torn apart by the marauding ants?”

“I destroyed the enemies I faced from a distance.”

“You are F-Rank, how is that possible?”

“That is only my primary Affinity. My secondary Affinity can go much farther.” Frank admitted, then pausing he wondered if that was in fact true anymore.

Flicker.

As Frank thought this, the light being released did flicker for a second, but not in the way Frank or his interrogator would have expected. Rather than diming slightly, or going darker, Frank had managed to work away a dense chunk of solidified dark energy from the tubing, which allowed both hands to glow brighter and continue to glow brighter for some time.

Scribble.

There was a scribble made on the machine readout that noted the spike in energy. A spike that continued to glow at the same intensity from that point on.

“Did you have a breakthrough?” The Interrogator asked.

“I did, during the trials.” Frank confirmed.

“No, I mean just now?”

“No, I did not have a secondary breakthrough during our conversation.” Frank confirmed.

With that, the Interrogator’s eyes went wide as the new peak was noted and did not seem to go back down.

“You’re name is Frank Fotos?”

“Yes.”

“You are a Combat Medic?”

“Yes,” Frank re-confirmed.

With each answer, the Interrogator’s eyes grew wide, as he noted the near perfect emission that was much higher in intensity than previously noted.

“Tell me a blatant lie,” the interrogator demanded.

With that, Frank said the first thing that came to mind.

“I fucked your mom.”

At that the Interrogator watched the readout and then seemed to note that once again there was no change. Then finally dawning recognition hit the man as he realized the lie that Frank had used. At which point the Interrogator never changing his face just glared up at Frank.

“Unless you think I did, is that why we are here? To find out who your new dad’s going to be?” Frank asked. He wanted to push this just enough to get the cursory flexing of authority, and power. But he didn’t want to push too far where he would be sent to a supermax prison.

Instead, he needed to be punished just enough to get sent to the end of Death Row, where most prisoners were sent to either cool their heels, or serve as a life lesson. Normally it would be stupid to send someone like Frank back there, but he also knew that the wheels of bureaucracy would not change to pass a law for one person. At least not this quickly.

If all else failed, Frank knew he could use the trump card of calling for his lawyer, which would almost guarantee him a minimum of a month’s sentence in the prison.

The other option would be for Frank to either go AWOL and try to get to the prison by himself, where he would theoretically be a war criminal of humanity. Or this method that seemed to come to him at the most perfect of times.

It was clear from everything that was happening that the leadership needed someone to focus on while this incident happened. Half of the SERE base was destroyed, along with the SERE training towers apparently being taken down. Frank thought he remembered something to this effect as he was leaving, as he was fairly certain that a year long time appeared before he was sent to the sterile cultivation room.

Also, it was clear that the leadership here never really liked Frank, even their attempt to quote unquote “help” Frank were little more than attempts to keep him down. No, getting out of here was the best thing for him, as was previously noted, he already had the SERE certification on his records. Going out to the spires and training area was little more than a pointless exercise in futility, one that his instructor had all but confirmed upon his time to leave.

SMACK!

The blow came quick, though Frank had mostly been prepared for such an event. The fist was barely balled up, the blow was all but telegraphed. Seeing the blow, and having received many before Frank was well accustomed to taking a punch. That was why he was able to tilt his head slightly and already prepare to move with the impact before being struck.

Ringing.

The blow while mostly mitigated did still cause a bit of ringing to appear in his ear. Though even that was minor compared to what he had been through before. Also his natural regeneration was already kicking in and fixing most of the strike, though he purposefully stopped his body from healing any bruising that might occur from the attack.

Frank who was still bound and chained to the table only looked up at the attacker with a contemptuous sneer. He had been around bullies enough to realize what their triggers were, and how to keep them going.

This was why, Frank again realized this was the perfect moment to push.

He was innocent, and if things kept up as they were, he would likely be released. Where he would be forced to go back to garrison, where he would be heavily watched and scrutinized.

While there had not been a time limit that was implied on getting to the second door, Frank felt that the sooner her got there, the better off he would be.

That was why, Frank chose this time to continue the process.

“Must feel super proud, beating a chained opponent.” Frank said mockingly.

Crack.

A second blow came, this time from the Interrogator’s left hand. Again the move was all but telegraphed, and Frank was once again able to both prepare for the blow by infusing the right side of his cheek with positive earth energy.

This made it so almost no damage was taken by Frank, who just stared at the Interrogator.

It was clear from the way the Interrogator now shook out his left hand that the strike had hurt him more than it hurt Frank. This did two things, first it insured that the next strike would come from his right hand, and that the Interrogator might back down, if not provoked. For that reason and that reason alone, Frank made sure to provoke.

“That’s two, next time, I’ll take your fucking hand.” Frank said, defiance clear in his face as he stared down the older cultivator.

“Oh yeah, you think you can get off of charges for this?” The Interrogator began, as his right fist began moving on autopilot.

Seeing the incoming strike, Frank just grinned wildly.