Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes

Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he, too,  does not become a monster.

Friedrich Nietzsche

"Uhhhh……boss?"

"Go ahead, Harper."

"I think you'll want to see this…."

"On my way. Hunt out."

Captain Hunt half-marched, half-ran through the dimly lit corridors of the old High Guard munitions depot. Little more than a pressurised asteroid with a fusion generator and AG, it had begun life as a navigation beacon in an otherwise uninhabited system. During the Fall, it was pressed into service as a hiding place for combat supplies moved from the path of the advancing Nietzscheans. Beka had found it during a routine sort of Andromeda's navigation data, and it had been agreed that it would be worth a visit, if only to confirm there was nothing there.

Hunt arrived to find Harper looking at a locked door.

"What's the problem?"

"Listen." Harper tapped the keypad by the door. It failed to open, instead asking for a valid access code.

"Well, it always worked before…..authorisation Captain Dylan Hunt, ten-break-alpha".

"Survey says…..yes," breathed Harper as the door laboured open. It revealed a cavernous room , with a facing wall covered in a matrix of many smaller, armoured doors. Neither Hunt nor Harper needed long to recognise the characteristic symbols on each of the smaller doors.

"Nova bombs…….lots of nova bombs," Harper whispered almost reverently.

"I count…..my Gods……more than a hundred," said Hunt. "I know the war against the Nietzscheans went badly, but……."

The two of them stood there in silent contemplation of the almost unimaginable destructive power arrayed before them. The silence was broken by Hunt's communicator.

"Dylan, this is Rommie. I've turned up a Planetary Assault 'Bot. We don't really have space for it, but we can't leave it here either….."

"Rommie, forget the 'bot. Come down here…..I need some historical opinion."

"Understood."

When Rommie arrived, Harper and Hunt were stood, mute, outside the door. They looked up at the sound of Rommie's approach, and beckoned her inside.

"Nova bombs. One hundred and forty of them. Dylan, this isn't - wasn't - listed as a strategic weapons storage site."

"Rommie….how old is this storage area?"

Rommie's eyes flickered briefly as she talked to the facility's computer. "According to the records, the last time this door was opened was…..304 years ago…..just after the Nietzschean betrayal."

Hunt narrowed his eyes in thought. "Rommie – at that time…..give or take five years, who owned this area of space?"

"This system, such as it is, was Commonwealth-controlled, as were the adjacent stars. But Nietzschean space was only forty light-years away. Even now this sector is pretty much owned by Sabre-Jaguar….I suppose they just never saw anything worthwhile here. Surprising, but not impossible."

"Rommie…..do you have any historical records that tell us how the Commonwealth military was faring at that time?"

"Badly….Tarn-Vedra had just dropped off the slipstream network, the Nietzscheans had overrun most of the Milky Way, and the High Guard had just been routed at Acheron. Dylan….what are you thinking?"

"One hundred forty nova bombs in an unmarked storage facility? As I see it, there are two possibilities. The first is that the High Guard could not allow them to fall into the hands of the Niets, and hid them before they were found. The historical record shows that they were quite happy to plunder High Guard depots, so that's feasible. The other……"

"Dylan…..what you're suggesting is impossible. No-one would ever have allowed a strike that extensive. Besides, there weren't that many uninhabited systems."

"Rommie, by the time this place was set up, we'd already lost. All that changed was the body count. If you were a High Guard staff officer, with all your forces falling back in disarray, a hundred and forty Nietzschean systems in exchange for the Commonwealth's survival, or to at least forestall the Nietzschean offensive…….the math probably worked out well at the time."

"So….you're saying…..that the Systems Commonwealth….authorised…a massive nova strike against Nietzschean territory….Dylan, the Council would never have condoned it, much less approved it….."

"It might not have stopped them, but with the right targets it would've put a big dent in their war effort…..they might even have been forced to sue for peace. Not likely, but I'm sure that the situation was desperate enough for the General Staff to try. And desperate times breed desperate men."

"So how come they're still here?"

"Who knows. Maybe the task force assigned to it was destroyed, or couldn't get here….hell, maybe they just called the plan off. What matters is that we have to do something with them."

"Dylan, we only have lockers for 40 of them….I can't take them all on."

"I don't want any of them. Even with the Magog worldship on the way. And hiding forty nova bombs from Tyr would be non-trivial……no. Rommie, tell Beka we're heading back. Harper, if you need any spare parts from here, I suggest you load them quickly. I say we take off and nuke the place from orbit….it's the only way to be sure."

"Dylan, are you sure?"

"Rommie, no-one, but no-one needs this many nova bombs. Not us, not the Reformed Commonwealth, and definitely not the Nietzscheans. I want them gone."

With that, he stormed from the room and back toward the Maru.

"Oh crap….he's angry," observed Harper, who until now had stood in silence.

"You heard him. Let's go."

-----

Their return to the Andromeda was silent, and very sober. Even Harper was quiet. As soon as they docked, Hunt ran to Control, leaving Rommie and Harper to do the post-flight routine. Even as the doors slid open, he began issuing commands.

"Beka, take us out to one light-second. Tyr, I want the place destroyed. If I can see anything bigger than dust afterwards, I'll be a very unhappy man."

"Captain……," Tyr began, but Hunt cut him off mid-word.

"NOW, MR ANASAZI!"

Tyr growled, but relented. "By your command…..sir."

"We're at one LS, Dylan."

"Kill it."

Rommie and Harper arrived from the hangar deck in time to watch as salvo after salvo of missiles pounded the asteroid into dust. Hunt had left command before the last explosion had finished.

----

Rommie found Hunt leaning against the Obs deck rail, staring into space.

"Why, Dylan?"

"Rommie…..those nova bombs….each of them had at least a billion Nietzschean names on them. I can't…..how, Rommie? How could the Commonwealth stoop to their level?"

Rommie shrugged. "You said it yourself. The military situation was desperate. At the time, it probably seemed that there was no other alternative."

"Do you remember Haephestus? When Gaheris suggested I use a nova bomb? And I said no, because there were half a billion sentients living there. If I had…."

"…..The Commonwealth would never have had to come up with this plan in the first place? Dylan, that would change nothing. The only difference would be the body count," finished Rommie, echoing Hunt's earlier words in the depot.

"But why, Rommie, why? I feel…..I don't know….cheated, somehow. I spent my whole life defending the Commonwealth against enemies inside and out – enemies that would include those who'd destroy whole solar systems because them had nothing better to do! That isn't the Commonwealth I fought for…..and not the one I want to remember." Hunt was shaking now, his knuckles clenched and white with rage.

"When does it become okay Rommie? When is it sound strategic planning to kill a hundred billion people?" he asked, his voice now quieter, less forceful.

Rommie said nothing. She could think of nothing. To simply agree with him, to say that it was never acceptable was to demean his beloved Commonwealth. If Hunt began to see the Commonwealth through a lens like that, he might not want to restore it, lest it try the same thing again.

Instead, she placed her hand on his shoulder, and watched the stars go by.

---