Chapter 3 - The Complaint Signed Vance
Eight months earlier, Staff Sergeant Amelia Vance reported that Drake had ordered soldiers to sign false maintenance logs.
Amelia was Sarah’s cousin.
She served at Mercer before suffering serious injuries when a transport vehicle lost steering during a mountain route.
The official investigation blamed operator error.
Amelia insisted the steering assembly had been marked as replaced two weeks earlier, even though mechanics warned that the new part never arrived.
She submitted photographs, inventory numbers, and messages from Drake ordering her to stop asking questions.
Her complaint disappeared.
A month later, she was reassigned while recovering.
Drake told the unit she had become unstable after the crash.
Sarah did not become involved because they shared blood.
She became involved because Amelia’s evidence reached the Inspector General through an independent channel.
Sarah was assigned only after investigators confirmed the supply numbers connected to a wider pattern.
Still, when she read the original complaint, one sentence stayed with her.
Captain Drake told me nobody would risk a career over the word of another Vance.
Drake believed Amelia’s surname had become synonymous with trouble.
When Sarah arrived, he saw the name tape and assumed she was a relative seeking revenge.
He began testing her almost immediately.
First came jokes.
Then extra duties.
Then public corrections for mistakes she had not made.
Sarah documented each one.
She was not waiting for him to humiliate her.
May you like
She was waiting to see whether he would repeat the same methods under observation.
He did.
