The Advisor
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: I've been advised I don't own Castle. Rating: K Time: Shortly after Battle Group Castle.
Castle thought, and wished he'd been briefed about this assignment. But, he hadn't.
"The Edo colony was founded by the Japanese about forty years after we got to the Cluster. They still have close relations with Japan on Earth, but nowhere near as close as the Han Worlds and China. They have a population of some fifteen million and are highly industrialized with technology roughly on a par with any other star nation. They have an excellent fleet, a light cruiser for a flagship, four or five destroyers and about fifteen frigates that are all FTL capable. They also have fifty or so non-FTL system defense boats. They're not a part of the ECDO, nor are they particularly friendly with the Han Worlds."
Castle tried to think of something else to say but was rescued by Kate.
"There are seven or eight other colonies on the planet, none of which have any spacegoing capabilities." Kate added.
"Very good." Said Sir James. "Even if a bit incomplete."
He tapped his desk and a holographic image of the planet Edo appeared.
"This is the colony of Edo, on the far side of the planet from the other colonies. As you can see it occupies a continent that looks roughly like a comma. A rather lumpy comma, I suppose."
"Economically, they provide support for the mining colony at Sylvestre, some three quarters of a light year away. The Sylvestre system has no habitable planets, so Edo colony provides about 85% of their food, consumer goods, and mining machinery parts. Some of the other colonies also provide goods and services to Sylvestre. Only about one percent of Sylvestre's imports don't come from Edo and they're mostly luxury goods from Earth and the Core."
"Edo also provides recreation for the miners from Sylvestre. In fact, some of the executives bring their families and they stay in Edo colony almost invariably."
"Sylvestre is run by Pacific Partners, LLC. It's owned by a consortium of Chinese and American companies. Needless to say, PP never has any trouble with pirates."
Sir James turned the holographic globe around.
"Now let's look s at the other colonies. The one we're most interested in is Saint George. It was colonized a century ago by people from the English-speaking Caribbean, with a few Dutch, Spanish and French speakers mixed in."
"Saint George consists of over a thousand islands, although most are just rocks or sand bars. There are seventy-three inhabited islands, not counting the occasional fishing camp or government outpost. The islands are in a rough arc along the coast of a continent called Ambrosia. The population is about 800,000 people."
"Economically, they provide food for Sylvestre and some vacationing Sylvestre employees stay there. They do have three valuable exports. First is the black fin tuna. That's an Earth tuna that's been genetically altered to survive and prosper in the waters of Saint George. The second is blonde seal hair. The blonde seal is a native species analogous to Earth seals, but at mating time the males grow long blonde hair. Once they mate, it begins to fall out. That's when Saint Georgians come to shear them. The seals seem to like it. The hair is very much in demand for clothing. Lastly, is sunlight sea grass. I mentioned the Jai Havai a moment ago. The grass contains a very complex molecule that's a specific for a degenerative disease the Jai Havai are prone to. The molecule can be synthesized, but so far, it's cheaper to get it from the ocean at Saint George, or elsewhere on Edo."
"Next, Saint George's military. Being an island nation, the military is based on their navy. Wet navy, not space navy. Their ships are thirty or so small patrol boats mounting nothing heavier than machine guns. Their air force consists of a dozen or so commercial aircraft that have been modified as patrol planes. They have no armament. Lastly, their army numbers a dozen platoons of lightly armed soldiers, with no organization higher than the platoon. They're really more police than soldiers."
"This was sufficient for normal police and search and rescue duties until their neighbors began hijacking ships that collected fish, seal hair and sea grass. Now they need something more powerful, and the government of Saint George has asked us to recommend a reliable mercenary group to advise and train their forces. The government of Edo colony controls the only spaceport, space side and dirt side, and they don't want the UK, or the Han Worlds, involved on their planet, officially. Accordingly, you'll be going as true mercenaries. I'm sure Edo colony knows what you really are as does Saint George's government. But, officially, you're mercenaries."
"We plan to sell Saint George a dozen well-armed and fast patrol craft for starters, and some armed advanced training aircraft. They don't need anything more expensive and more deadly. You'll have UK naval and aerospace force officers and enlisted men under you and your own people to train and equip their army."
"How big an army are we talking about, Sir James?" Rick asked.
"A reinforced light infantry battalion to start. We think three- or four-line companies, a weapons company or perhaps a light artillery battery, engineer, recon, and sniper platoons and a support company."
"What are we facing, Sir James?" Kate asked, already thinking of the people they'd want to take.
"Quite an odd group. Moving from the south to the north of Ambrosia we first have Samland. It was built as a retirement home for an American trillionaire named Sam Hoskins. Being only a trillionaire he wasn't in the top tier of Earth's wealthy, but anyone with a net worth of a trillion dollars is quite wealthy. He built a magnificent place for himself and his friends. He had numerous golf courses, tennis courts, since he played both. He also built basketball, football, baseball, horse racing tracks and motor sport tracks. He invited professional athletes to come and play. They were well paid, of course. He also had theaters, casinos, restaurants and bars built. He had a different home for every day of the month and luxury hotels for his friends. Oh, and lots of obliging women."
"So far, he doesn't sound like a problem." Rick said.
"He's not. He died eighteen years ago. His children and grandchildren took over his company and decided Samland was a dead loss. They sold it for next to nothing to the managers of the various facilities. Hoskins' rich friends and some of the better paid managers got off planet, but tens of thousands were left behind."
"Luckily, Sylvestre and Pacific Partners came to their rescue. They were just getting started and needed someplace for their employees to go for rest and recuperation. Samland was perfect. Samland is now run by nine corporations, which is a polite name for criminal gangs. Sylvestre keeps them in line. They don't want their employees getting social diseases from hookers, or getting robbed at rigged gambling games, or addicted to drugs. But behind the scenes, there's violence."
"It still doesn't sound like a problem." Castle said.
"There are two problems. One, anything and everything is for sale in Samland. The Edo colony runs the spaceport and has no problem with people importing weapons as long as they're not nuclear, chemical or biological. But Samland launders funds from the other, less than honest, colonies."
"Secondly, they have a lot of uneducated young people. Criminal gangs aren't known for their dedication to education. Sylvestre's engineers make sure that everything in Samland works well, so they have no need for an educated class of workers. The gangs fight each other behind the scenes, but that still leaves a lot of angry people. They like to go raiding their neighbors. More of that later."
"To the north of Samland is Berberia. The Berbers were the original inhabitants of North Africa back on Earth before the Arabs overran the place, oh, a thousand years or so pre-spaceflight. The Berbers were driven into the mountains by the Arabs and have remained a poor minority. Some thirty years ago a private military corporation raised a Berber division to fight in the Mayan Civil War in the Latino Cluster. When the war was over, the Berbers were sent to Edo colony for their next mission. However, the owners of the PMC took off with all the money that was owed the Berbers. Edo colony, not wanting a heavily armed and angry group in the midst sent them all to Ambrosia. Counting women and children, they number about 80,000 people."
"A division is quite a powerful force. How come Saint George is only raising a battalion?" Rick asked.
"Two reasons. It's not that powerful a division. There are nine infantry battalions armed almost entirely with light infantry weapons and one battalion of artillery, some sixteen light 105mm guns. Engineer, medical, reconnaissance, and other support units are all company strength. Their transport depends on mules since they have very few vehicles. They have no armor or aircraft and no anti-aerospace weapons. The division is half the size of a conventional division and has much less firepower."
"Luckily, the Berbers do no hijacking themselves, but do raid other hijackers."
"It sounds like they'd be good allies for Saint George. We could provide them with more and better weapons." Rick said.
"They might be good allies, but Saint George doesn't want a heavily armed division on their doorstep just in case the Berbers decide to become hijackers at a later date. We've tried to explain that if the Berbers become dependent on us for heavy weapons, we can make them allies. Saint George doesn't accept that. Yet."
"Next in the north is the colony of Jesus Christ Li."
"Who?" Rick and Kate asked in unison.
"The original Jesus Christ Li lived in the south coast of China about eighty years ago. He claimed to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. There have been five reincarnations of Jesus Christ since then. There are about a hundred thousand people in JCL colony as it's called. They're poorly armed with an ungodly assortment of military and civilian weapons with no heavy weapons at all. They are fanatical and are responsible for a lot of the hijacking. Their boats are decidedly third rate, in speed, armament, carrying capacity and range. But there are a lot of them."
"They used to raid Berberia until the Berbers got mad and flattened half of their country. Even so, they still send an occasional raid south. Being fanatics, they're sure God will help them. That gives the Berbers an excuse to raid JCL. Not that they really need one."
"To the north of JCL is the Free Land. It's an honest to God nation, if we can use that word, based on classical anarchism. They have no government, just free associations. They raid Saint George freely as they feel threatened by any government, which they regard as an absolute evil, but the raids are small scale. They get raided by the JCL, but no amount of damage done by their enemies will change their philosophy."
"The next colony to the north is Free Cornwall. They're composed of Cornish nationalists who left Earth because they were being oppressed by England which they claim was stolen by England so they're just trying to right an ancient wrong. They said that Cornwall was once a mighty and well-respected state. Of course, Cornwall and all of England was once run by the Romans, but for some reason they don't seem too keen on learning Latin. They regard English speaking Saint George as their hated enemy and raid them constantly. They're well-armed but small, call them a small two battalion brigade with some heavy weapons."
"Next to the north is Quebec Libre. They're from the nation of Canada back on Earth. Like the Cornish, they're nationalists who feel an ancient sense of the loss of their nation. They're a bit stronger than the Cornish and raid Saint George. Of course, they also regard the Cornish as just another brand of English and raid them as well."
"The northernmost colony is called the Ashram. They're followers of some ancient philosopher called Gandhi. They're pacifist, vegetarian and devoted to being poor for the sake of being poor. They don't raid anyone but get raided by anyone who drops by."
TBC