The Renegade

by P. M. Johnson

  Attika held up a warning finger in front of Bishop’s nose. Then she suddenly slapped his cheek.

  “…And you’re dead!”

  Bishop raised a hand to his stinging cheek and glared angrily at Attika. Then his eyes darted to Tyana, who stood behind the Septemberist leader. The younger woman was clearly delighted by the sight of the former Justice Guardian being insulted, humiliated. How dare she? The smug, stupid, child. Attika’s name was already at the top of his list of people whom he loathed. Now he would add Tyana’s name to that list. The tides of fortune would turn; they always did. An opportunity would present itself for him to avenge the many insults he’d endured under this preposterous new regime. And when the moment was right, he would strike without hesitation, without mercy on all those who dared to mock him.

  “Maybe there will be a public trial followed by a hanging,” continued Attika, drawing his attention back to her. “Maybe you’ll be beaten to death in a dark cell. Maybe you’ll get a knife between the ribs in some filthy alleyway. It all depends on my mood, Bishop, but whatever the method, the result will be the same.”

  Bishop changed his demeanor from angry wolf to submissive dog. He lowered his eyes and said, “Forgive me, Attika. I meant no disrespect.”

  Attika scoffed, unconvinced by Bishop’s conciliatory tone. “Take the files and report back to me with whatever you know.”

  Bishop nodded his head and walked over to the desk. He picked up the files without making eye contact with either Attika or Tyana. He tucked them under his arm and left the room the way he had come in.

  As soon as he was gone, Tyana began to speak, but Attika held up her finger to silence her. She walked to the door and looked out into the hall. Bishop was gone. She closed the door and quickly returned to her desk.

  “Yes, what is it?” she asked tersely.

  “Captain Dwyer has been trying to reach you.”

  “I’ve been busy. What does he want?”

  “He sent you a message by secure link. He says it’s urgent.”

  Attika sighed with frustration and exhaustion. “Fine.”

  She powered up her Personal Data Device and entered a code. She scrolled through a number of messages from Dwyer, all of which were highlighted as urgent. She clicked on the top one and saw the image of Dwyer, a middle-aged man with hazel eyes and thinning dark hair. A video began to play.

  “Attika,” said the recorded message. “There’s been a breech at the Highshore Facility.”

  Attika’s expression immediately went from annoyed to alarmed.

  “I’m go to run the video feed from a security camera,” said Dwyer. “It’s best you see for yourself.”

  There was a pause as Attika brought the PDD closer to her face and stared intently at the screen as the recording played. She parted her lips in stunned disbelief, pulling her brow into tight ridges as she took in the images. Then she suddenly gasped in surprise.

  Dwyer reappeared on the PDD. “We’re doing everything we can to find out what happened, but there is no evidence of entry or exit. Please contact me as soon as you can!”

  Attika threw the PDD to the floor and roared in anger.

  “What’s wrong, Attika?” asked Tyana, who hadn’t seen the video. “What happened?”

  Attika looked at the younger woman for a moment but seemed to be looking through her to some distant horizon. Then she turned and stormed toward the hall from which Tyana had entered her office.

  “Come!” she said over her shoulder. “We’re going to the Highshore Holding Facility.”

  “Why?” asked Tyana as she rushed after Attika. “What’s going on?”

  “He’s gone,” shouted Attika. “Goddam it! We’ve lost Linsky!”

  As the two women hurried out of Attika’s office, neither had noticed the thin dark object, no bigger than a child’s fingernail, attached to the underside of Attika’s desk where the files had rested. Nor were they aware of the dark figure of a man hidden in the shadows of a burned out building across the street from The Residence. The man reached a hand up to his right ear and removed a tiny device. Stealthy as a cat, he turned and glided down the dark road, turning left into a narrow alley where a dilapidated little Unity automobile was waiting. As he approached the rust-spotted vehicle, a light fixture attached to the wall of a nearby building flickered to life, casting pale yellow light on the figure.

  Bishop instinctively turned his face away from the light and quickly opened the car door, which despite its distressed appearance, opened without a sound. He slipped into the driver’s seat and closed the door. Sitting for a moment with his hands on the steering wheel, he lightly drummed his fingertips against the dashboard. Then his lips spread into a thin smile, and with a soft chuckle of satisfaction he started the engine and drove slowly away.

  Chapter 30

  Out of every one hundred soldiers, ten shouldn’t even be there, eighty are little more than targets, nine are real fighters, hard and true, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one, one is a true warrior, and he will lead the others, filling their hearts with courage, and bring them back to the fight!

  - Heraclitus.

  “Well, well, if it isn’t Logan Brandt,” said General Joshua Longmire, grinning as he got up from behind his desk. He came around to shake hands with Logan. His face was perhaps a little leaner than Logan remembered, and fine creases ran across his forehead and along his jawline, signs of the stress of leading armed forces of the League of Free Cities against the PRA, and now the entire North America Corp against the Sahiradin menace. But Longmire’s eyes were as keen as ever and he’d lost nothing of his military élan.

  “I hear you’re looking for a job,” said Longmire.

  “I guess I am, sir,” replied Logan, also smiling broadly, happy to be talking with the man whose leadership abilities and tactical genius had led to a surprising victory over the PRA and their Sahiradin allies on the high hills overlooking the Mississippi River.

  “And you two are a welcome sight as well,” said the general to Ravenwood and Beth, who stood just to Logan’s left. Looking at Ravenwood, he said, “Looks like the world has finally come to believe you about the Sahiradin threat.”

  “Some have,” said Ravenwood. “And may I congratulate you on being appointed the commanding officer of the North America Corp. We have only just arrived, but what I have seen of Harmony Base is encouraging. Thousands of troops from all over this continent and beyond training with Lycians on weapons and tactics - very encouraging indeed.”

  “It’s a start, but we’ve got a long way to go. A hell of a long way,” replied Longmire. “But none of this would be possible without you, Ambassador Ravenwood. Somehow, you convinced enough UEC delegates to not only vote in favor of joining the Alliance, but to pass the Enabling Act too. That’s nothing short of a miracle. Troops and funds are now flowing toward the EDF.”

  “It was the destruction of Black Dagger that created the opportunity I needed,” said Ravenwood. “The delegates to the UEC were instilled with a sudden confidence that they could defeat the enemy after all. I merely built on those feelings of optimism.”

  “Is that all it took?” asked Longmire with a knowing smile. “I hear you struck a deal with the Russians.”

  “I had what you might call a heart-to-heart conversation with their leading ambassador, Vladimir Vasiliev, but no deal was struck. I did, however, reaffirm my commitment to ensuring the Lycians admit Earth into the Trade Federation on advantageous terms, something the Visk and a few others in the Dewar have resisted until just recently. In fact, I must depart for Tyseria soon in order to ensure the Dewar votes as promised.”

  “Well, good luck to you,’ said Longmire. Looking at Logan, he asked, “So tell me, why’d you part ways with Attika and the Federated States?”

  “Call it a clash of opinions, but it boils down to the fact that she’d rather bicker over politics than take the Sahiradin seriously. She’s always been suspicious of the army so she’
s defunding it and pushing the older combat veterans out with the promise of an early discharge stipend.”

  Longmire scoffed. “Politicians! Well, her decision to allow early discharge is good for us. We’re getting volunteers from east of the river by the thousands, enough to create an entire brigade.”

  “Very convenient,” said Ravenwood with a smile.

  “I have no doubt she is already regretting her decision,” said Longmire. “Now that Linsky has escaped his cage, she’ll have her hands full just to hold the nation together.”

  “What?” asked Logan. “Linsky’s escaped? How?”

  Longmire shook his head. “I don’t know, but you can bet he’ll try to bring back the good old days, this time with him as the Grand Guardian.”

  “Unlikely, sir,” said Beth. “He’ll find a proxy. Linsky’s not a guy who likes to be out front in the public eye.”

  “He and Attika have that in common,” said Logan half under his breath.

  “I agree with Consul Styles,” said Ravenwood, slowly scratching his jaw with his thumb as he processed this information. “Linsky is first and foremost a servant of Joseph Harken. So long as Harken lives, and I believe he does still draw breath on some distant Sahiradin-control world, Linsky will remain in the shadows, preparing the way for Harken’s return. Indeed, the fact that he was able to escape from a maximum security detention center suggests he is an agent of the Sahiradin, who no doubt had a hand in freeing him. Harken must be part of their plan for the overthrow of Earth, perhaps as humanity’s future puppet leader.”

  “I thought they wanted to exterminate us,” said Longmire.

  “They may well do just that, but who can say for certain what sinister plots dance through Khadiem’s mind.”

  “Well, they’ll have to get by us first, right General Brandt?” said Longmire with a wink at Logan. “We stopped ‘em once, we’ll stop ‘em again.”

  “I’m not a general any more, sir,” replied Logan.

  “Of course you are!” exclaimed Longmire good naturedly. “You’re a Brigadier General in the Earth Defense Force, North America Corp. That is, unless you’ve got something better to do.”

  Logan beamed with pleasure. “Thank you sir!”

  “I know you held a higher rank in the Federated States, but I could really use a good fighter with your experience. Does that work for you?”

  “Happy to do it, sir!” said Logan.

  Beth gave Logan a hug, returning his smile with a kiss on the cheek, though she could not entirely hide the fear in her eyes. She knew any brigade Logan commanded would see plenty of fighting. Then she turned to Longmire and said, “Okay, so now that you’ve got a new general, what’s the plan?”

  “The plan?” echoed Longmire. “The plan is to send as many troops as possible to Agurru and stick it to the Sahiradin, knock ‘em on their asses, and kick ‘em all the way back to Sahir.”

  “And how are we going to do that?” asked Ravenwood.

  Longmire led them out of his office and into a briefing room where ten or fifteen staff officers were working on the logistical challenges of rushing as many soldiers through training as possible for deployment to Agurru. He walked toward a dark table in the middle of the room.

  “Give me a hand running this thing the Lycians gave us, lieutenant,” said Longmire to a nearby woman in recently issued EDF multicam battle fatigues. “Pull up the Agurru System.”

  “Yes sir!”

  The lieutenant waived her hand over the center of the table then placed her palm on a square highlighted in blue. The table suddenly projected a holographic map of the galaxy. She waived her hand again and controls appeared to her right. She entered a few commands and the image of the galaxy rapidly telescoped in on a single star around which seven planets could be seen. The inner three were rocky in composition, the outer four were gaseous. Three large rings of material encircled the star. The first was just beyond the innermost planet. The second was between the fourth and fifth planet. And the third ring was much, much farther out, well beyond the orbit of the seventh planet.

  “This is the Lativian system,” said Longmire. The second planet from the sun began to glow red. “And this here is the planet Agurru where the Lycians placed their hypergate power generators, which I’m told are essentially massive fusion reactors.”

  A silver line rose up from Agurru’s surface and coalesced into a shimmering ball of energy in orbit above the planet. Additional shimmering lines flowed from the glowing sphere to a cluster of distant star systems.

  “Power from the reactors is gathered in this ball you see here. It forms a kind of energy-only khâl, or hypergate, and shoots power off to over thirty major Lycian systems. This is what powers the super-hypergates in those systems. These super-hypergates or pôltir, as the Lycians call them, are different from basic ones like they stationed near Earth. Pôltir are constantly connected to each other. The Lycians send vessels through them, but they also channel energy and communications to other systems. The energy and data that flows through this network of pôltirs is like a nervous system, ensuring trillions of interconnected manufacturing, mining, finance, and other enterprises in these core star systems function at maximum efficiency. But they only function if the reactors on Agurru are powering them, so if Agurru falls to the Sahiradin the Trade Federation’s economy grinds to a halt.”

  “And then they’ll surrender,” said Logan grimly.

  “They’ll fold quicker than a lawn chair on a rainy day,” said Longmire. Looking at the lieutenant, he said, “Zoom out to show the fleet.”

  The lieutenant touched another icon on the holocontrols, expanding the image to show the star system’s outermost reaches. A tiny dot appeared just inside the third ring.

  “That’s the enemy fleet,” continued Longmire. “They appeared at the system’s heliosphere two weeks ago and they’re making straight for Agurru. As you can see, they just crossed what the Lycians call the Buhiria, the ring of debris and frozen water farthest from the sun. At current speed, they’ll arrive at Agurru in about five weeks.”

  “That’s not much time for the EDF to prepare,” said Beth.

  “No, it’s not,” agreed Longmire. “The Lycian are clamoring for us to contribute at least two hundred thousand troops. We can’t do that, not with just four weeks to train and one week to deploy. Most of our soldiers have never been trained to fight an enemy equipped with particle guns, swords, and antiballistic shields. And don’t even ask about the interoperability challenges we’re facing. Nobody can agree on tactics, logistics, even a common language. The EDF isn’t a single fighting force. It’s a hodgepodge of continental armies jumbled together. We’ll get there, eventually, but it’ll take years of hard work.”

  “So how many troops are you sending?” asked Beth, though she was afraid to hear the answer.

  “I’ve got three heavy brigades ready to go. And I plan to send the new volunteers from Logan’s Second Army too. I’d keep their previous command structure in place and put them under General Brandt. Add them all up and you’ve got about 20,000 troops.”

  “What about other EDF Army Corps?” asked Beth.

  “Africa Corp has promised seven to ten thousand troops. Europe Corp is trying to pull together a brigade or two.”

  “So Earth will be sending about 30,000 troops,” said Logan. “Who has overall command?”

  “You’re looking at him,” replied Longmire.

  “How many are the Lycians sending?” asked Beth.

  “Not enough,” said Longmire. “You’d think with all the planets they’ve settled their army would be larger, but they’re desperate for soldiers. They’re long range scans of the enemy fleet is scaring the hell out of them. The fleet is huge, bigger than anything they thought possible. They estimate the Sahiradin will deliver a force of four to five hundred thousand warriors. The Lycians have, at best, two hundred thousand to defend Agurru.”

  “The Sahiradin will have more than a two-to-one advantage,” observed Ravenwo
od darkly.

  “The power generators are located deep underground in a fortress called D’norah Kûhn. It should help to level the playing field,” said Longmire. “The Lycians have known for a long time that those reactors are a strategic vulnerability, and they expanded the fortress’ original design to house up to eighty-five thousand troops.” Looking at the lieutenant, he said, “Show us the defense works schematic.”

  The holographic projection zoomed in to show the schematic of the fortress housing the generators and the surrounding mountains.

  “Eighty-five thousand sounds like quite a lot,” said Ravenwood.

  “It is, but only if you don’t bring supplies,” continued Longmire. “If you need to prepare for a siege, you can fit about sixty-five or seventy thousand.”

  Beth leaned forward to examine the details of the fortress. It was built into the slopes of a tall mountain at the end of long and narrow valley. The uppermost level was quite large and reached not only far back into the mountain but also into both sides of the valley like the extended wings of a great bird. Below the main level were five smaller levels and at the very bottom a large round cavern in which the massive reactors were housed. The entrance was guarded by a huge outer door. Two equally large inner doors had been placed at intervals of about two hundred meters.

  “If that is the maximum number of defenders that can be placed inside D’norah Kûhn, where will the remainder be?” asked Ravenwood.

  “They’ll be held in reserve for boarding Sahiradin vessels during the fleet engagement or landing after the enemy forces begin their assault.”

  “The fortress defenders will be severely outnumbered if the Sahiradin can land their entire army,” said Ravenwood gravely. “And don’t expect them to lay siege. That is not part of their warrior ethos.”

  “I agree,” replied Longmire. “But you typically need at least a four to one advantage when attacking a position like this. So if the Lycian fleet does its job, we should be able to hold out.”