Entry #22
Zenith Jump Point, Graham IV,
Terran Hegemony
08:00 7 February 2767
Graham IV was founded right from the beginning to be a major industrial centre. There are six major cities, each of which grew up around the factories of a different corporation. Two of them are major military contractors, so the planet is guarded by five massive Castles Brian, fortifications intended to keep the planet from falling entirely under foreign control, and a fairly significant number of M-5 and M-3 drones.
That hadn't protected it against Amaris' soldiers and I'm not proposing to let it stop me from liberating it. Of course, since I only have five brigades at my disposal… please excuse me, General McEvedy only has five brigades under his command: the three from his own 331st Division and two HAF brigades, one of tanks and the other of mechanised infantry. And that's not a huge force to use as a planetary invasion force. Taking even one Castle Brian with a single division would be impressive under normal circumstances.
Of course, since unlike the troop transports I've used one of the SLDF's recharge stations to come via Pollux they are… adequately escorted.
Pollux, it turned out, didn't have any surviving SDS control centres. It had had plenty of Caspars though and between McTiernan and the various SLDF veterans serving on jumpships that operated from New Dallas, I'd been able to put together crews for as many as I could control.
We're in the Graham IV system for about half a minute before my leading squadron of eight are under fire from twelve of their counterparts here, and the rest of the jump point defences are coming online.
I bring the rest of the Caspars into formation, piping targeting data from the leading squadron to their sister-ships, allowing us to fire with far greater accuracy than our range should allow.
Even so, five of the eight Caspars are burning wrecks – in one case, several chunks of wreckage – before we've smashed down the immediate response and there are thirty more hostile M-5s incoming and the pair of Pavise stations are launching Voidseekers and M-3 drones at an impressive rate.
I'm not too sentimental about the Caspars themselves, but only one of the jump crew got off in time.
Thirty seconds after the other crews have taken to their shuttles, my little fleet go to double the usual sustained acceleration and start generating attack vectors upon the stations. It's an interesting tactical challenge and in some ways like a game of chess: to win this fight, neither side has to destroy all their opponents, just the 'king'. Without controls, the loser's drones would be useless.
And just to balance things up, while I have twice as many drones in the fight, they have twice the command posts.
It seems entirely too fair to me, so I skew things back in the proper direction by aiming two of the intact squadrons directly at the massive space stations. Even battering them into fragments won't stop a couple of megatons of metal from striking home unless they manage to divert those ships with massive firepower.
Massive firepower that won't therefore be directed at me.
Yes, I'm using my fellow drones as expendable cannonfodder. No, I don't feel particularly guilty about it. I'm fairly sure that they're not sapient. And if they were, they'd almost certainly want to do this, right?
They're soldiers, made that way.
I don't 'keep telling myself that' in some obsessively guilt-ridden way. It's no more immoral than riding a horse to war, even before the day of the machinegun.
The crew of one of the space stations must want to live more than those aboard the other one, since about half of the swarm of fighters coming at me divert towards the two ramming squadrons. The others are coming straight on at me with a formidable degree of focus.
After the previous issues I've had with hacking active drones, I've refined my approach. I also keep it simple, focusing on a single M-3 – specifically one that the Voidseekers are about to pass. I do have open command channels now, after all.
The fighters are almost past the drone when I bring it under control and there's a very narrow window before the crew aboard its parent station realise that I've cut them off from the self-destruct system and resort to more direct means of getting rid of it. Long enough to take out more than a dozen of the Voidseekers. Rather a shame that the stations had almost three hundred at their disposal really.
My own Voidseekers engage the rest. To even things up I'm carrying two M-10 drones – automated Titan carriers - but that still leaves me only a few over sixty. My only advantages are that the division of the strike between myself and the ramming squadrons leave my drones outnumbered only two-to-one – and none of mine are slowing themselves down with nuclear missiles.
There had been an ample stock of Air-to-Air Missiles on New Dallas and they were much more useful in this situation. For the first time in this battle, I kick in to transmit a musical accompaniment. Just in case they didn't know who I was.
That I am Winterborn.
Despite a rather impressive opening salvo, backed up by bracketing fire from my entire fleet, my fighters aren't quite capable of stopping every one of the enemy drones from reaching firing range. I would have killed for an anti-missile system – something to suggest if I can get a refit at any point – but all I can do is grit figurative teeth and –
AAAAAAAAAAAAAH! AAAAAAAAAAARGH! … … . AAAAAAAAARRRRGGGGH!
- against my worst expectations to crash onwards out of the aftermath of three nuclear strikes. None, fortunately, had penetrated but my forward coilgun turret and one of the Howdahs welded to me was gone.
So were twelve of sixteen Caspars I'd assigned to ram, with one squadron entirely wiped out. Of the other four, two peeled up and raked the station in passing while the other two plunged right in, followed by what was still thousands of tons of wreckage. The resultant explosions left half of the enemy M-5s directionless, mostly the ones that had been engaging me.
With their own fighters gutted by trying to get at me, the remaining station rather quickly realised the scale of their predicament. It took only a single transmission from General McEvedy to persuade them to surrender. That gives me enough Caspars to replace my losses… if I hadn't lost a Howdah. Ah well…
Oh yeah, one more thing about Graham IV.
It's only one jump from Terra.
Fat man? My gauntlet just hit your face. I hope I broke your nose.
Entry #23
Graham IV, High Orbit
Terran Hegemony
10:00 16 February 2767
From information gathered from the Pavise – along with some transmissions received from Graham IV – we pieced together the situation.
In some ways the news was better than anyone had expected. The planet had not entirely fallen into the hands of the Rim Worlds troops. Although three of the five Castles Brian had fallen easily in the first minutes of the Coup – giving them control of almost all of the local SDS systems – Fort Ball and Fort Baldwin were still in SLDF hands.
The flipside was that rather than attempt a more formal siege – which would have demanded a major troop commitment and a considerable length of time – the local Rim commander had pragmatically decided to use a more economical solution: repeated use of nuclear weapons against every entrance they traced.
Already the areas around the two Forts were going to be uninhabitable for centuries to come – and would likely glow slightly for that long – and even their massive structures would collapse if this continued.
Somehow I don't think they're going to stop just because we ask them nicely.
Unlike New Dallas, Graham IV has a large star with a correspondingly powerful gravity well. It's taken us nine days to reach our destination, boosting at a standard one gravity. The M-5 drones from the Nadir jump point have made a faster run so there are a hundred and twenty of them waiting for me, supported by a mix of eleven Republican warships – except now they're apparently part of the Amaris Empire Armed Forces – led by a single Sovetskii Soyuz that looks to have been captured, not copied. The rest are destroyers and corvettes.
I've got what is now a full set of Caspars for me – sixty-strong – and the 331st's escorts can support me. Most of my Voidseekers were destroyed fighting for the jump point. These numbers are not favourable.
Under normal circumstances, this would be highly inadvisable, but given that there are SLDF soldiers fighting down there, none of McEvedy's staff have questioned the decision to press on.
The Rimjobs having control of the SDS network here was one of my worst case scenarios. Fortunately, not my absolute worst case scenario – that would have had them proficient in using it and the entire Rim… Imperial fleet here waiting on the far side of the planet.
I'm about ninety-five percent sure that that's not the case.
The good news is that there aren't all that many Voidseekers out there to fight back. Graham IV has six Pavise stations – two at each jump point and two in orbit – and a primary command centre on the surface (the back-up is in Fort Ball but not doing any one much good since its transmitters got taken out in the initial attacks). So only around five hundred or so drone fighters to worry about.
The better news is that since I can only manage sixty Caspars right now, that left me with a surplus of fifteen that I didn't really need and certainly wasn't going to leave lying around.
I've got just the song and cue up. Iced Earth's Declaration Day.
The transport flotilla and my squadrons open up on schedule and all fifteen of them plunge right through our formation. They were masked from the planet's telescopes by our drive flares as we decelerated and although they launched on their way from the Zenith point well after we did, they were accelerating at three gravities for the eighteen hours, after which point they went silent which made them rather hard to detect at any great distance.
Space stations don't really move around for all tactical purposes and I know exactly where their orbits are supposed to be. Frantic use of emergency thrusters intended only to stabilise the orbit can't change it more than the rather more powerful engines of my Caspars can alter their trajectories and I'm still at a safe distance to cut my squadrons out of the net to briefly issue correction orders.
Even then I only hit with half the ten Caspars aimed at Pavise stations, which is perfectly satisfactory. Even one hit at this speed with that much tonnage is ample to obliterate them. As demonstrated since four Caspars cruise past the north polar station before the last one hits home.
All five missed 'shots' arc around Graham IV and slingshot off in the direction of the sun. A bit wasteful but they don't have the fuel to slow down and anything else could turn them into traffic hazards.
The other five have another target. Given that planets don't have reaction thrusters, good luck avoiding these, Rimjobs.
One of the five is aimed directly at the SDS control systems buried in the Fort Baxter Castle Brian. The other four are aimed at points surrounding it, at distances of no more than a kilometer. I'm fairly sure that the region's geologically stable but five kinetic impacts, each over six hundred thousand tons, moving… well, very fast...
It doesn't particularly surprise me when the site disappears beneath massive mushroom clouds. Nothing radioactive, but I wouldn't want to be on the surface in that general area. Fortunately the nearest city is a couple of hundred kilometres away. I'm not too disappointed when the M-5s and M-3s and Voidseekers go to inactive though.
It really seems to upset the Imperial warships though.
In minutes – long enough that I'm just now about to segue from Declaration Day into Metallica's Waste My Hate – the odds have shifted from two to one in their favour to their being outnumbered more than five to one.
"You know, you can surrender any time you like," I offer between the songs.
All eleven ships fire up their drives, which doesn't suggest surrender is likely. And when they do accelerate it's not along any vector that would count as retreat.
They're aiming themselves right at me, forming a 'fist' of five corvettes in the lead, followed by the destroyers and one cruiser. So far as I can tell, the lighter ships are playing shield for the heavier ones, buying time for them to get close to me. Interesting choice – tactically it would make more sense to try to punch through and engage the fragile (well, relatively) dropships that carry the 331st and the HAF soldiers. Strategically though…
Did I have a price on my head or something?
It was strategically sound, the odds didn't favour the Imperial warships being able to threaten the dropship's escorts even if they did manage to get through to me, but without the Caspars it would be impossible to hold Graham IV against a determined counter-attack.
Of course, even with what was now nearly half my armament disabled, I wasn't what you might call a soft target and I was surrounded by a considerable amount of firepower to throw at the incoming ships. Voidseekers darted in as my Caspars shifted to outflank the enemy warships. One by one the corvettes died, then the destroyers. I gave the cruiser a [i]coup de grace[/i] myself, one rippling broadside at extreme range. None of them ran.
Entry #24
Graham IV, Low Orbit
Terran Hegemony
18:00 16 February 2767
The skies of Graham IV were lit by the storm to end all storms as lasers, missiles and particle beams lashed up and down. While I knew where the stations were and had shared the information – apparently my databases were considerably more complete in this regard than those available to the elements of the SLDF we were in touch with – that was only half the battle. They'd been competently laid out and short of using more major kinetic weapons or heavy-duty nuclear bombardment, digging them out when they weren't firing wasn't practical.
"I'm not in favour of it," McEvedy had told me when I raised the option of using more force. "My staff tell me that between the nuclear weapons the Rimmers have used and yo- [i]our[/i] kinetic strike on the SDS command centre, the climate is already being affected. Further use of weapons of mass destruction could tip the entire planet into an ice age and we don't have the humanitarian resources to deal with that."
"That's true," I'd agreed. "And since whoever is in charge down there is smart enough to hold the weapons in reserve until your dropships start heading down, I'll have to take them out in the middle of your landing operations. I don't see any other way."
The general nodded. "Establishing a beach-head is always messy, Praetorian. And you'll have to cover a lot of the sky because if we land all in one area we're just asking for a nuclear strike on our landing zone."
"Agreed. Well, we do have a reasonable degree of orbital coverage, although with the cloud cover, please stress to your soldiers that if they call in orbital support fire they're going to need to be very precise. I can't see a thing down there in the muck."
"I'll do that. We've decided on liberating Fort Baldwin first, it's closest to Dekirk City and taking the capital back should hopefully knock out their command elements too."
"I'd better be doubly careful then." At his questioning look I'd added: "There's a major research facility under a lot of the city. If I cause structural damage I could collapse the entire thing and turn the city into a hole in the ground."
It was a worrying prospect as my fleet fanned out and slammed fire down on the calculated positions of the many turrets and launchers. Fourteen dropships had been destroyed so far including three BattleMech transports. One of them had been a Dictator-class with an entire battalion embarked but the other two, fortunately, had been low enough that their 'Mechs were already gone, dropping towards the surface. While the heavy weapons could certainly swat them from the sky if they hit, that was easier said than done. Mechanized infantry, armour and support units couldn't jump unassisted and the other eleven dropships accounted for over a thousand dead and tens of thousands of tons of supplies and equipment destroyed.
Some of the targets I'm aiming at are likely being held in reserve while others might well have been destroyed but I just can't tell!
My Voidseekers are down in that muck, but between the air defenses and keeping Rim aerospace assets away from the dropsites they're fully engaged and can't give me any appreciable recon.
"Praetorian, this is 3312nd Brigade HQ, we need fire support."
At least I'm getting some data, what I can piece together from messages like that. "Roger that, three-three-twelve. What's the target?"
"Our aviation report a RWA artillery detachment set up at the following co-ordinates – multiple Vali or similar. Too much Air Defense in that sector to get close and we're mixing it up down here."
Vali carried a fairly standard Arrow IV launcher I recall, which means there's no reason they couldn't be loaded with Davey Crockett nukes to use against the landing zones. "Confirmed." Checking the coordinates against the map, that's awfully close to the suburbs of Dekirk City. "Coordinates are for a hill overlooking the city, is that right?"
"Height 178, confirmed Praetorian."
"Understood. Firing a spotting shot."
Given the circumstances, I only spike the area with a single particle beam from one of my Caspars.
"Two hundred metres north of target, Praetorian! They're preparing to launch. Fire for effect!"
Great – no time for another spotting shot. I correct and then have the drone lay in four staggered shots south of the original targeting point.
"That's the medicine, Praetorian." The line goes dead, but there are others.
It'd almost two hours before the pace of action slows enough that I can break off four pairs of Voidseeker drones – all that's left of three squadrons – to sweep out and examine the results of my bombardment. In most cases there's a smoking crater that's almost certainly not a threat, allowing me to let up and focus on the exceptions, two of which even have enough air defence left to shoot at the Voidseeker, I redouble my fire and correct to strike more precisely at the installations.
By the time the fighting on the ground reaches the edges of Dekirk City, I've put a hole hundreds of kilometres in diameter in the defences of Graham IV. I'm less concerned by the millions of dollars of damage I've caused than I am by the possibility I may have to defend that gap in the future if Amaris counter-attacks. Or would that be counter-counter-attacks?
Whatever it's called, it's a real possibility. As a potential staging ground to hit the inner core of the Hegemony – including Terra – Amaris isn't likely to be happy about it not being under his control. It's possible he'll gather his forces and try to retake it. Whether those forces would be sufficient, I don't know. As far as I can estimate he probably has about as many warships as I have Caspars here. Certainly he has far more ground forces at his disposal.
Of course… he may not know that. While his intelligence apparatus is no doubt very capable, given the success of the Coup, it can't be perfect. He may just decide that if we're bold enough to attack now then we must have the strength to follow through and pull everything back to defend Terra and the other key worlds. The trouble is that those worlds are almost all centrally placed, making it very easy to use them as staging grounds to attack us – so the only way we're likely to find out what he does is the hard way.
Reports are coming in of units advancing block by block into Dekirk City with no resistance. Despite ferocious resistance earlier, it seems the remains of the regiments that tried to break up the landing had fled through the city, rather than setting up defensive positions there.
Given what a bloodbath city fighting could be, that was all to… the… good? Except Amaris' soldiers would never be that considerate of civilians. I snap open a channel to McEvedy. "General, this is too -"
Light, heat and radiation wash over Dekirk City's centre and the leading elements of the 331st Division.
Entry #25
Graham IV, Low Orbit
Terran Hegemony
00:00 17 February 2767
My fighters are short of fuel and scattered by the shockwaves but they're my only eyes on the scene. I send them sweeping across the area, looking for SLDF survivors. The trailing elements – including most of the logistics – are intact but at the very least the leading 'Mech and Infantry regiments have been almost – perhaps entirely – wiped out.
At least the city's not collapsed entirely. It might not take much more… but not yet.
It occurs to me that this trap might have more than one arm. Sending the fighters out past the city shows the Imperial regiments are regrouping. With the SLDF in disarray… they might well be able to push them back.
"General McEvedy?"
No reply. His 'Mech wasn't at the forefront of the advance, but it wasn't at the back either. He might have made it, but if he's out of touch then I have to assume that he hasn't.
"All SLDF and HAF ground forces, this is Praetorian. A nuclear device has been set off in the centre of DeKirk City. Military and civilian casualties are high." There was no point sugar-coating that. "Amaris Imperial regiments are amassing for a counter-attack, something that will no doubt cause further civilian deaths. General McEvedy is for the moment out of communication."
I pause to let that sink in. "The Hegemony Armed Forces are to advance around the city to the south and intercept the imperious soldiers of Stefan Amaris, protecting the civilians against further harm. The 331st Division are to take control of relief efforts in the city, both for our comrades and for the civilians. Fort Baldwin is to prepare what resources they have for disaster relief and the accommodation of refugees."
There's an almost immediate response – in most cases, compliance with my unofficial orders, but Lieutenant General Esther Wayne of the 3rd HAF Infantry brigade apparently has other ideas. "Praetorian, you've no authority to take charge. And my boys and girls can't take on 'Mechs unsupported."
"Don't worry, General, this won't be a fair fight. I just don't want them trying to use civilians for cover. As for authority, since I'm commanding what amounts to a small fleet I'm the equivalent to at least a Vice Admiral – which leaves me senior to everyone but Major General McEvedy. I hope that that adequately addresses your concerns."
Then I punctuate my answer by delivering a smashing fusillade down behind the Rim troops, catching their rear elements and herding them towards DeKirk City.
The very visible salvo seems to be sufficient persuasion for Wayne to accept my highly tenuous argument. "If you're going to do this then you'd damn well better have the chain of command regularised out in future," she grumbles but the APCs and their support move out after the heavier tanks a minute later.
I punch another salvo on the heels of the Rim formation – not behind the heels, on them. The combined fire of sixty Caspars and myself makes for quite a barrage.
The units that aren't smashed flat get the message almost immediately and formations break up as lighter, faster units pull forwards and away from their slower comrades. It's not very friendly of them, but what else can they do? Scattering gives them the best chance of some of them getting away… except that my next salvo doesn't drop on the slower units, it hammers down left and right of the path of the advance, doing much less damage but boxing them in. It's almost like a cat playing with its prey, but I don't feel cruel about it. Not now. Not today.
They only have one way out, back towards Dekirk City and they know that they aren't being herded that way for their health. But where else can they go? They have to hope that I'll stop shooting at them if they're in the suburbs (and they're right).
Me? I just don't want them to get away and I'm hitting them with constant pin-pricks now, hitting the hindmost and whatever clusters look as if someone is getting them organised.
What reaches the edge of Dekirk City isn't a military formation, it's a mob and one that's scattered and already half-broken. Some have the courage to try to get past the HAF regiments, others have the vastly greater courage to recognise that they're defeated and surrender. I don't fire on either of those groups but the angry tankers aren't as restrained and about half those trying to surrender aren't given the chance.
The third category are the ones that recoil away from the defences. They don't want to fight any more, but they're not inclined to surrender (fairly understandable for those of them that can see surrenders not being accepted). I won't let them retreat though.
Slowly and deliberately I fire shots behind each stray I can detect, making it clear that I know where they are and that I won't tolerate anything but approaching Dekirk City. Some, stubbornly, hold their ground. The next shots come down on their heads. The others head for the HAF again, for the most part throwing down weapons and doing their utmost to beg for surrender.
By my estimation around half the Rim garrison on Graham IV have been defeated, at the cost of at least a third of a division and hundreds of thousands of civilians.
And this might be the easiest battle of the campaign, with them not having had the chance to go to ground.
I'd prefer to stick to fighting in space. It's cleaner. Then I remember the civilian dropships destroyed over Terra. Well, slightly cleaner. Hell, I was beginning to think I'd rather it was just all over but that requires the consent of both sides and I don't think Amaris is going to give up. Maybe I can stop this before the Star League comes apart at the seams but it's not going to be clean or quick or easy.
Now what am I forgetting?
Oh yes, the civilians. Now where's the national emergency broadcast channel? It's practically easier to filter for Amaris' propaganda than it is to look up what frequency I should tune to.
"…not satisfied with brutally bombarding the Fort Baxter, Kerensky's stormtroopers have –"
Yeah, just about of that crap. "Just about finished liberating Dekirk City from Amaris' army of occupation," I cut in, overpowering the planet-side transmitters by amping my own transmitter up to dangerous levels. It wasn't as if I have to worry about irradiating my crew and my own electronics are hardened to cope with it.
"My name is Praetorian," I announce. "I fought over Terra when Amaris launched his coup and I saw Unity City burn after he used nuclear weapons to destroy the Black Watch regiment. And now his soldiers have murdered thousands of helpless people in Dekirk City in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent their liberation. I strongly urge the citizens of Graham IV to evacuate their cities as I have no doubt that they will attempt such cowardly tactics again, when we come for them. Because we will come for Amaris and for all his followers."
"We couldn't save Richard Cameron, but you can be damn sure we'll avenge him."
Entry #26
Graham IV, Low Orbit
Terran Hegemony
12:00 17 February 2767
It's around twelve hours since Dekirk City was nuked.
According to the plan, the 331st Division should be moving towards Fort Baldwin now by now. Given their losses, that's not going to happen for at least another day.
We brought considerable disaster relief equipment with us and Fort Ball had a large reserve of such gear as well – it's standard for Castles Brian. Unfortunately due to a combination of dropships destroyed on the way in and damage done to Fort Ball… well, even if we hadn't lost a lot of that equipment, we'd probably still have been overwhelmed.
Right now, the doctors and paramedics are working in two groups. Firstly, patching people up to the point that they can survive what's likely to be a long drive to another city. Secondly, dividing survivors into those who should be sent to the first group and those who should be moved to one of a dozen or so sets of tents where they are left to die, because there's nothing else we can do.
There are hardened soldiers down there in tears because, in their eyes, the Star League should be able to help those people and we can't. Maybe if we had a dozen major hospitals but what we have are the outlying clinics and secondary medical facilities of Dekirk City; half a dozen military field hospitals; and, god bless them, several thousand civilian volunteers.
It doesn't help particularly that the roads are getting clogged. I'm getting some worrying cases of subsidence – localised fortunately – that suggest that parts of the Dekirk research facility underneath the city are collapsing. It could be that we've already lost everything at risk, or the rest could be about to give way. I've got a couple of 'Mech battalions racing around playing traffic warden and forcing broken down cars and trucks off the roads so that everyone else can get past.
That's important because I've strongly recommended that survivors evacuate the area entirely. If they have room and if they're willing, they're taking patched-up survivors with them. In some cases just because they're decent people and in others because they don't have friends or family outside the city to go to and their passengers can offer something along those lines. I don't really care why.
What I do care about is that on another, smaller scale, people are leaving the other cities. It seems that whether they believe me or the Rimjobs over who nuked Dekirk City a lot of Grahamites don't want to be under the same crosshairs themselves. Given that I don't want them there either… good.
"Praetorian, this is Augustine."
I focus on that channel. Augustine is the callsign for the company of combat engineers working their way through the area that the 331st's leading elements were when the nuke went off. Fortunately the weapon used was clean enough that standard gear makes the area relatively safe. "I read you, Augustine."
"We've found General McEvedy, sir. He's alive but his 'Mech and those of his command lance are half-buried – they're in one of the areas that's experienced subsidence."
Well that's just great. "Well if you can get him out, that'd be good. Once you've done that ask the troops from Fort Ball how to get into the underground complex. Someone's going to have to survey it and see what's collapsed and what can be kept from collapsing."
"I guess we can do that," the Captain replies unenthusiastically.
"I know, it's a shit job. But we don't know for sure if there's anyone trapped down there. I'd do it myself but I'm a bit too fat for those narrow space…"
He laughs, as much in surprise as amusement I think. "I can see that being a problem, Praetorian. Oh well, maybe there'll be some beautiful lady scientists like the ones in the holovids."
"Good luck with that." I end the conversation and turn my attention to our next steps. Questioning the more co-operative of the prisoners gave us a rough idea of what we were facing and about half of their regiments had been here, and a couple more in Fort Baxter. That left about four regiments and two Castles Brian under Republican control – it's much easier to call them than to confuse everyone with their new 'Imperial' allegiance.
Besides, I don't see any point catering to Amaris' ego.
Except for a few units that had been penning up the SLDF garrison in Fort Ball, the Republicans are all forted up. On the plus side, we can probably liberate the remaining cities fairly easily… but there's nothing to say that they might not have other booby-traps placed to gut the other cities if they don't remain 'loyal' to the Fat Man. It's a tough problem and I don't see any clever way around it.
Which means we'll have to do this the hard way. I'll call a conference of the senior officers and hand the decision back to McEvedy if he's in condition to take over again… but I'm pretty sure this is going to have to be the slow way: taking back each city, each Castle Brian and SDS site one at a time.
I'd been over-optimistic about our ability to do this on a shoestring. Now we'd need reinforcements and I wasn't inclined to start pulling more units off New Dallas – that could leave them dangerously unprotected. Thinking back to Zebebelgenubi though… maybe there's another option.
What have the Rimjobs been doing with SLDF reservists on Graham IV?
The answer's out there and it's not calculated to make me happy.
It seems that the Office of Policy and Doctrine – a bureaucratic group of vaguely defined purpose even in my databases – had stepped forwards as the primary agents of establishing the new order of the Amaris Empire. One of their first moves had been to recall all SLDF reservists on Graham IV and then to turn law enforcement loose on those who didn't report in.
If you think that they'd had those reservists equip themselves from the pre-stocked weapons and other gear in their bases I have a bridge across the Thames to sell you. Instead they'd been coralled into a hastily established a detention camp on the grounds of the Flight Academy of Graham.
It would be too much to hope that there wasn't a convenient means to get rid of them if we tried an obvious rescue but… well, we were being delayed anyway. Something more covert might work.
"General Wayne, this is Praetorian."
"What do you want now?" she snaps.
"Firstly, to tell you that General McEvedy has been found so there's some hope of him taking command back shortly. I'm sure you're even more pleased than I am. Secondly, I'm going to need some volunteers for a dangerous operation behind enemy lines. It seems that many thousands of SLDF reservists are in a detention camp and we need someone to find out about any booby traps before we rescue them…"
Entry #27
Graham IV, Low Orbit
Terran Hegemony
12:00 27 February 2767
The arrival of a Scout-class jumpship at one of the nearest pirate point isn't a particular surprise. With the HPG station in Dekirk City destroyed, both sides are relying on couriers to communicate with the rest of the human race. Both loyal Hegemony and enemy Republican jumpships have hopped in (and mostly out) several times in the last week.
The surprise is the dropship that detached from it and began a hasty run in towards Graham IV. The Titan-class ship would be a perfectly welcome addition to our forces here, but I don't recall asking for one. What I'm hoping for is a team of the Ulsop technicans to set up a new SDS control centre here – and if they brought another Howdah to replace the one I've lost that would be great too.
Why don't I just wish for a Newgrange while I'm at it? As far as I know they're all out in the Periphery supporting the deployed fleets there. It'll be months before any of them can get here.
Still, it's got a friendly IFF so it should be from New Dallas or one of McTiernan's hidden bases. I send a quick interrogatory signal and get a coded response.
A senior officer on an inspection tour!? This is a battlefield! We're about three hours from the operation to rescue the local SLDF reserve, I really don't have the patience for this and I'm sure that General McEvedy doesn't – he's making his move towards Mitchell City now, to draw attention away from the detention camp.
And now there's a second message, just a brief data squirt.
Tommy, this is important. Colonel Taylor Corvus.
Well hell.
And a third message: a request for permission to dock with me.
Better that I be distracted than McEvedy I suppose. Our conversation once he was back in command was a mix of congratulations for handling the job and brutal criticism for mis-handling the command arrangements. Then he apologised for not making clear to everyone how the chain of command was going to work with SLDF, HAF and myself all involved in this operation. Apparently it had escaped everyone else that he'd intended everyone to answer to the SLDF chain of command… which wasn't really acceptable.
General Wayne was very smug when it was deemed that my place in the chain of command would henceforth be after hers. Specifically I was flagged in to take command if McEvedy, his chief of staff and all four surviving SLDF and HAF brigade commanders were out of action, although as a sop to the pride I pretend not to have, I'm the overall commander of space operations for this mess.
Which drops this in my lap.
And I can't entirely rule out that this [i]might[/i] be a trap. There [i]is[/i] a price on my head it seems. Apparently I'm a rogue war-machine, evidence of the hubris of House Cameron, a mass murderer (which is more painful an accusation than the rest) and a danger to everyone around me. Amaris has offered a Ducal title to the commander who destroys me (or, in a touch of realism, to their heir) and unspecified but no doubt horrible consequences for anyone that passes up an opportunity to do me wrong.
Still, they'd have to have the right codes and have suborned Corvus if they're working for Amaris.
It occurs to me that both would be much easier if whoever is on that dropship has the same mission but from Kerensky.
If I'm destroyed, Graham IV and the ground force here are open to counter-attack by the Republican navy. I'm confident the SLDF leaders here know that. I'm fairly sure that Kerensky wouldn't order my demise with such urgency as to write off an entire Division and support.
"Permission to dock at collar #3 granted." I start pressurizing the necessary compartments – mostly I don't keep my limited life support active. What would the point be?
It's an acceptable risk, I hope.
Hmm. According to the registry the dropship is part of the Thirteenth Line Squadron – Kerensky's own escort. The first person out of the hatch was Taylor Corvus. Then two marines. And then Admiral Joan Brandt, ex-Director of Naval Command, last I'd heard acting as commander of the Army Group fighting in the Magistracy of Canopus. Well, the senior officer part had been accurate – absent Kerensky himself officers didn't get much more senior.
In honour of the occasion I sound off a recording of bosun's pipes. "Welcome aboard, Admiral."
She looks around, then up at the forward bulkhead. I believe – for obvious reasons I've never actually seen it – that most SLDF warships have the ships' name and some kind of badge or emblem there in their shuttle hangers. So that the crew can find out if they've arrived at the right ship if they return from surface leave half-drunk I presume, although it'd be rather late by then I'd think.
I don't have any such emblem, although if I keep getting traffic like this maybe I should see about arranging one.
"You're Praetorian then," Brandt concludes. "Do you have anywhere I can sit down? I've come quite a long way to talk to you."
"Hopefully to do more than that." I open and close hatches so that the four of them can walk into the living quarters set aside for the First Lord and his household if they ever had to flee Terra aboard me. "What hospitality I have is yours. I'm afraid the late First Lord never got around to fitting me with a wine cellar, but I presume Colonel Corvus remembers where she left the beer."
"That'll do." Brandt takes a seat facing the holoscreen and on cue I project my face on it. "You're remarkable, you know. Have you ever tried to have a conversation with a Caspar? Not just ordering them around in battles?"
"Once or twice. It's depressing. I gather they're based in part on a mental map of the famous Admiral Kinru Dvarahal. Judging by military history he was undeniably brilliant but judging by his progeny he wasn't much of a conversationalist."
"Not like you at all." Brandt looks thoughtful. "Whose mental mapping did they base you on?"
"That's a very good question," I admit ruefully. "However I don't have that information. I gather that a lot of information about me was classified or outright destroyed in order to keep me secret from the rest of the SLDF."
"I imagine that quite a number of scientists will want to lynch the Camerons for hiding away a functional AI from them. You're something of a holy grail in some circles. That's beside the point though, Praetorian." She points at Corvus. "The Colonel has told me quite a bit about you but not enough for me to answer the critical question I'm presented with. So, Praetorian. Why shouldn't I order you destroyed?"
Entry #28
Graham IV, Low Orbit
Terran Hegemony
13:00 27 February 2767
The advantage of being a computer is that you don't need to visibly bat an eyelid and it's possible to get over a shock very quickly. "The only reason that you should destroy me is if you don't trust me, Admiral. That is the crux of the matter, isn't it?"
"There are doubts, yes. You are, by your nature," Brandt gestures to indicate, I believe, my hull and weapons suite, "capable of immense destruction should you so choose."
"And I have chosen to so employ myself, but in the cause of the Star League. Just, I might add, as the commanders of rather a large number of warships have chosen to do. Do you intend to destroy them too?"
"There's a difference. They've… got crews to act as safeguards. They aren't lone individuals, unrestrained."
"Except by their training and morals? Or by, let us say, by logistical concerns. Admiral have you seen the holes in me?" I switch the screen to a damage control schematic that's got a lot of reds and oranges across the outline of my hull. "I'm going to need patching up if I survive the next few weeks and who else can I turn to for that but the SLDF?"
"I can think of at least five people who'd at least try in return for certain considerations."
"Considerations that would violate some Star League laws, most likely be in conflict with my core directives and quite possibly would leave me enslaved." I pause, switching the display back to 'my' face. "Thank you, no. I'll take my chances here." And I can think of nine people that would be willing to open me up in a dockyard (putting me back together being optional) but I don't plan to compare lists.
"Well to rephrase then, why should we trust you?"
"All I'm asking, Admiral, is that you base that decision upon the same things you'd use with anyone else: my words and my actions."
A thought occurs to me and I cross-reference her file. "Changing the subject for a moment, I'd appreciate your input in an operation General McEvedy and I are running on the surface."
"I'm not exactly a ground specialist," she demurs, eyes suspicious.
"But you know this ground." I bring up a map she should recognise. "You graduated from the Flight Academy of Graham and it's currently been re-purposed by the Republicans as the headquarters for a detention camp set up around it."
"A detention camp?" asks Corvus in surprise. "For who?"
"SLDF reservists. Amaris' Office of Planning and Doctrine apparently consider them a security risk. I hope very much that he is right."
"The Office of what?"
"An ill-defined subset of the Bureau of Star League Affairs that's in his pocket. Possibly since before the Coup. Think of them as his watchdogs over the Hegemony government. The Rim Worlds Republic has a long tradition for dealing with internal resistance and it seems Amaris intends to continue it here."
"Crush hard, crush often and don't spare the whips," Brandt mused bleakly. "I wasn't very fond of the Academy, to be honest. Just of the flying. But they deserve better than that. What's the plan?"
"There's a nuclear weapon set up to take up the camp it if looks like the prisoners are about to escape or be rescued. One back up, biological or chemical, we're not sure. Commando teams are going to try to disable them both and we've got a dozen [i]Leopard[/i]s ready to airdrop 'Mechs and a scratch company of every jump-trained infantryman we can scrape up to handle the more conventional defenses."
"That's it?"
"If you want a squad by squad breakdown I can bury you in details."
"God, no." She actually shudders. "But I do know the airspace, including the nap of the earth parts. Show me the flight paths for the Leopards. There are a few places flight control at the Academy doesn't have good coverage."
I can do better than that, of course, and put her through to the crews that will be flying the mission. Corvus slips away and returns with four bottles of beer that she hands around. The marines wait for the nod from Brandt before sipping very sparingly. The Admiral isn't so restrained and Corvus empties her bottle quickly before escaping back to my kitchen spaces.
"Do you know what you're doing, Tommy?" she asks. "If the Admiral tells Kerensky that you're a threat…"
"Then I'll be dealt with as a threat. Right now, I'm in the uncomfortable position of being as nearly indispensable as anyone in the Hegemony. I'm sure she and Kerensky'll be just as glad once that's no longer the case, and by then they may have grown accustomed to me."
"Familiarity breeds contempt," Corvus murmurs, quietly enough that I'm not sure it's aimed at me. There is nothing I can think of to say to it.
Upon reflection, she takes a fruit juice back to the lounge.
Brandt watches the operation unfold on the screen, data from units involved intercut with a computer graphic – the cloud cover is still far too heavy for the time of year. Grahamite ecologists are probably going to be very worried once we manage to talk to any organised group of them.
The nuke doesn't go off and as best the 'commando teams' can determine the back-up hasn't poisoned anyone. Casualties are heavy, but fortunately only for the Republicans. The Office of Planning and Doctrine demonstrate a shocking readiness to die for the cause. I'm assured that none of them offered to surrender even when very, very angry SLDF reservist swarmed them over and tore several of them apart with bare hands. I don't like where that's going but it's McEvedy's problem right now.
"I'm almost disappointed," Brandt tells me, "That you didn't provide musical accompaniment to the operation."
It would have been a bit of a giveaway that we were up to something if I'd transmitted something. Still, she had asked for it.
"~When the stars shine bright through the engine's trail; and the dust of another world drops behind. When my ship is free of the open sky. It's a damn good day to my way of mind.~"
Brandt hears me out, a curious look on her face. Then she nods sharply. "You'll do. You'll do."
Interlude #4
Unity City, North America
Terra, Terran Hegemony
15:00 1 March 2767
Takiro Kurita had ruled the Draconis Combine since before any other member of the Star League Council had been born. In comparison to most of his family he was considered contemplative and mild of temper.
Amaris granted himself license to doubt that. The white-haired man on the screen veritably crackled with fury. "You claim to be First Lord? You? Your hands still red with the blood of my nephew's son, you expect the submission of the Dragon? Your venality was never in doubt, Stefan Amaris, but clearly what pass for your wits are as vacant as your loyalty."
"Now fall to your knees and pray that Kerensky reaches Terra before my loyal soldiers do. For he will merely crush you like an ant beneath his boot, while I have given my son very explicit orders as to your fate if fortune smiles and you should come into our hands."
Remarkably, the vitriol remained fresh on the… how many times had he replayed it now?
Dammit, dammit, dammit.
It wasn't as if Amaris had forced a gun into Drago Kurita's hand. The stupid bastard had been in protective custody, far too valuable to risk, until the SLDF broke him out looking for Amanda Cameron.
For his part, Patrick Scoffins seemed less disconcerted by the ancient Coordinator's wrath than resigned to it. "The garrisons at Moore, Mara and Nashira are all reporting Combine warships and transports in the outer system," he announces, offering a sheaf of reports to the Emperor. "We don't have enough ships there to contest the outer systems without concentrating squadrons and they're spread all along the border."
"Concentrate squadrons against the Combine?" Amaris snarled. "With that damn ship at Graham IV like a dagger at my back? Are you mad?"
"I don't advocate it, but the decision is yours," the general conceded drily. "The worlds are technically part of the Combine anyway. It's remotely possible taking them back might satisfy the Coordinator. Shall I withdraw the garrisons? I can certainly use the soldiers elsewhere."
Amaris made an irritated gesture that translated to permission. OPD could handle making taking those three worlds painful for Kurita without regular units to help them, and if not they'd better learn quickly. And Scoffins has a point: other garrisons were certainly in need of reinforcements.
"What's the situation on Carver V?" he asked.
"No change. They're unfortunately well dug in."
"Well that machine of Kerensky's showed us how to deal with that." Amaris' mustache twitched. "I'm sure the navy can find some wrecks to drop on Quantico at… what's the term? Sufficient velocity. Once that's done, Milton-Davis's forces can be cut back as well."
"I'll pull her off entirely, sir." Dropping major kinetic weapons on Carver V – which didn't have a single continental mass – was going to have far more widespread consequences than doing so on Graham IV had had on that world. Quite possibly, the resultant tsunami could eradicate the human presence there entirely.
Amaris nodded. "Yes. I'm disappointed in her. Well thought. Give me a short list of replacements within forty-eight hours, Patrick."
"Sir."
"That machine will be the death of me." And the teams working on the SDS weren't any help. He'd hung the first project leader, someone from NETC, when he'd estimated three years to bring the drones under control. Who was it who'd said it was as well to kill an Admiral every now and then? Some French philosopher? Didn't matter. Nothing mattered except lifting Damocles' Sword from over his head. "All it would have to do is jump here and it would have a fleet waiting for it. More than two hundred drones."
Scoffins nodded regretfully. "We could cause him significant problems, but even with a year to work the orbital and ground stations could not repel such an attack. Our advantage is that for the moment he lacks the ground troops to follow through on the surface."
"That didn't stop him at Graham IV though, did it? He found the forces for that."
"One Division, sire. It was exceedingly rash to launch an invasion with so few soldiers and reports indicate that losses at Dekirk City were severe. Similar landings here would be a devastating failure. Invading Terra with less than a Corps would be foolhardy in the extreme and that will take time to amass and prepare."
"If he has been foolhardy and rash once and seen success then he will attempt it again," decided Amaris. "Have the drones destroyed. Concentrate the entire fleet if you have to. I want them here to destroy Praetorian when he comes. But make sure he doesn't have a fleet-in-waiting for him."
The general paled. "The drones will defend themselves, sire. We lack the capacity to cancel that part of their orders."
"Then the Navy had better get very good at killing them. Because whatever those Caspars can do to them, I swear to you, Patrick, that pernicious machine will be far worse. So we must break him here and then roll back his conquests. Retake Graham IV and New Dallas, then Kerensky will think twice. He won't weep to see Praetorian destroyed, I assure you."
"The Praetorian, if it is a machine intelligence as reports suggest, appears to be an extremely able field commander, sire. It would be shortsighted of Kerensky to destroy him."
"Aleksandr Kerensky is anything but shortsighted, Patrick. In the short term, the machine is valuable on the battlefield. In the longer term it is of uncertain allegiance and asks questions as to the legal status of an artificial intelligence that no sane ruler wishes to address. It is increasingly unlikely that Kerensky will eliminate it himself, but far more manageable from his perspective if it is a martyr for his cause."
Scoffins was far too practised in the politics of power – at his level of the military it was all political or so close as not to matter – to show obvious nervousness. "As an alternative to mustering the entire fleet here, we could strike at Graham IV as soon as possible. It is highly probable that he would have no serious support from the SLDF and destroying him there would leave the option of retaining the drones here for your service."
For a long moment Amaris weighed the decision and then shook his head. "No, I can't trust them. I can't even trust ones we build. That machine could compromise them too for all we know. I believe we have some of the drone fighters under control – use those first, use them all up. I'll rely on men to guard me in future."
"I'll take care of it sire." Scoffins bowed deeply before backing towards the door. Attention already elsewhere, Amaris reached for the controls and Kurita's message began to repeat itself once more.