Rikugun

by Kali Altsoba

  “We had a plan for that, but these serial premature assassination attempts have gutted it.”

  “Pyotr is already altering security protocols at the Waldstätte, sir.”

  “It’s worse than that, major. An hour ago he insisted that I change the ten hour wait time in the invasion ‘Go!’ order. It’s down to three. That’s not enough time to get our reinforcements here.”

  “No sir.

  We can’t wait for the order as planned. Yet, we still need to hide our ship movements in his larger war plans.”

  “What will we do, sir?”

  “We need a more direct plan. We need an event that allows us to make our coup maneuvers on the ground here in Novaya Uda, to spark a wider revolt.”

  “So, it is decided? We reverse the order of the coup? We move first here on Kestino, then set the Resistance ships and armies in motion offworld?”

  “Yes. But there’s still the problem of local numbers. We must do this with the limited Resistance armor and infantry already hidden here. We cannot get bogged down in a siege of the Waldstätte Palast. We must strike fast.”

  “Yet, we agree that Pyotr has too many reinforcements closer than ours, that his forces can overwhelm ours in the first hours, perhaps before we get to him.”

  “And that it remains true that regime support will only collapse when news spreads that Pyotr is dead. He must be killed. We must assassinate him first.”

  “I agree, sir. But with respect, his palace defenses are now impenetrable.”

  “That means we must lure him out of his impenetrable fortress to where we can get at him, in the city. We must kill him right out in the open, in the middle of the city, surrounded as he will be by his absurd Royal Canary guards.”

  “You mean to fight his Palast Wache in the streets?”

  “Yes. It’s the only way, now that our other plans are aborted.”

  “That’s quite a tall order, sir. Do you have something in mind?”

  “As a matter of fact, my dear Major Winter, I do. I do indeed.”