“Do not finish that sentence,” he said, voice low and shaking with controlled fury. “You’re suspended from duty effective immediately. MPs will escort you to the holding facility until JAG arrives.”
Mills blinked, stunned. “Sir, you can’t—”
“I can,” Roth said, standing. “And I will. You’re relieved of command. Now get out of my sight before I forget what restraint looks like.”
The MPs moved in, their faces unreadable. Mills struggled, sputtering protests about rank and procedure, but none of it mattered.
As they dragged him out, Roth’s voice followed him like a sentence.
“You dishonored this uniform, Captain. And I don’t forgive dishonor.”
Word spread through the base like wildfire. No one spoke of it openly, but whispers carried through every barrack, every corridor. The general had personally arrested a captain — and for the first time in years, soldiers felt something unexpected: respect that bordered on reverence.
