“Damn it,” she muttered, as she tried to hook into the Marine network. Even with the emergency codes the Commandant had given her, it was a long time before she could pull a full emergency briefing off the net. Normally, the download would take less than a second. She hadn't seen such poor transmission rates in her entire life. “What the hell is going on?”
The download finally completed. Belinda opened it and skimmed through it quickly, cursing the long delay. Her implants had spoiled her. There was fighting almost everywhere on Earth, all four orbital towers had turned into warzones ... and Earth’s defence network was tearing itself apart. Home Fleet seemed to have fragmented; outright mutiny seemed to have broken out on hundreds of starships. Her lips twitched in bitter amusement. The Grand Senate had ordered the Marines off the ships, before the crisis had really exploded in their collective face. No doubt they were regretting their decision now.
“They didn't go after Imperial University,” she said, in some astonishment. Reading onwards, she discovered that part of the Civil Guard had mutinied and joined the students, while the rest of the Guard seemed to be on the verge of mutiny. The Emergency Committee had been trying to bring additional troops down to the surface, but the fighting in orbit had put paid to that. “The rebels are still there.”
“We could go there,” Roland said, seriously. “And ...”
“And then what?” Belinda demanded. “Earth is simply too far gone to be saved.”
Her duty was to protect Roland. The fighting in orbit almost certainly meant that Earth was going to be bombarded by debris, as well as overrun by starving rioters intent on doing as much damage as they could before they starved to death. Staying on Earth meant almost certain death. She had to get Roland off the planet.
But how?
She paged through the report quickly, thinking hard. The orbital towers were warzones – and, in any case, no one would be docking there in a hurry. There was the spaceport, but it was heavily guarded – and it was quite possible that most of the shuttles were gone. And then ...
There wasn't anything. The aircar they’d stolen couldn't get into orbit; the very thought was laughable. Marine HQ might have survived – it would have taken a nuke or precisely-targeted KEW to damage the building – but there were no shuttles there. If she’d been able to contact the Commandant, perhaps he could have arranged a pick-up ... a quick test proved that the network wasn't accepting messages, even with her override codes. The entire system was on the verge of collapse.
And the Emergency Committee was still trying to manage the disaster.
Belinda almost laughed with bitter frustration. Didn't they see? No matter what they did, no matter how many troops they deployed, Earth was finished! The riots would destroy what remained of Earth’s infrastructure, including the bureaucrats who kept it functioning; even if the orbital fighting came to an end before something large enough to shake the entire planet fell out of orbit, Earth was thoroughly screwed. Now, all they could do was flee.
“We need to take those bastards out,” Roland said, when she’d finished explaining. “If we could kill them ...”
“I can't disagree,” Belinda said, tartly. “But you do realise that they have a large force dug in around the Imperial Palace? There are three of us ...”
“So we find help,” Roland said. “Can’t you call the Marines?”
“I can’t get through to the Commandant,” Belinda reminded him. “Even if I could, I doubt he would agree to send reinforcements. I don’t even know if he has reinforcements.”
Another piece of debris tore through the air, leaving a fiery trail to mark its passage. Belinda silently calculated that it would come down somewhere thousands of miles to the south; it certainly looked large enough to survive re-entry. And everyone underneath it when it came down would die.
“Excuse me,” Amethyst said, holding up her hand. “I have an idea.”
***
Amethyst swallowed as Belinda turned to face her. Having the idea had been the easy part; suggesting it out loud seemed to be far harder. She'd half-expected the Marine to simply abandon her once they’d seen the chaos spreading through the megacity – and the complete absence of anyone trying to maintain law and order.
“The students have some help from the Civil Guard,” she said, carefully. “And they’re already in Imperial City, not too far from the Imperial Palace. Can't we ask them to help?”
“That’s brilliant,” Prince Roland said. He gave her a smile that made her legs melt. “They have weapons; they could help us get into the Imperial Palace ...”
“There's enough firepower camped out around the Imperial Palace to deal with a small army,” Belinda pointed out, coldly. “And believe me, most of the Civil Guard are not worth whatever they’re paid by the government. Even if they did attack the Imperial Palace, they’d be quickly slaughtered.”
“But they don’t have to actually take the Palace,” Roland said. “They just have to cause a distraction.”
“A distraction,” Belinda repeated coldly.
“A distraction,” Roland confirmed. “They keep the defences busy while we sneak in through the through the tunnels.”
Belinda frowned. “And how exactly do we get into the tunnels?”
Roland held up his right hand. “The Imperial Palace is controlled by a computer network installed by the First Emperor, my ancestor,” he said. “It couldn't have been removed or reprogrammed without completely ruining the Palace. And it responds to those with the Imperial Bloodline. Why do you think they left me at the Summer Palace?”
He smiled, brilliantly. “They might have limited access rights while they live there,” he added, “but I can override them. We can get in and kill the bastards, then take the spacer that is supposed to be buried in an emergency hanger ...”
“We might be shot down by the orbital defences,” Belinda said, carefully. “But if we took out the Emergency Committee, we might be able to convince them to stop firing and stand down. It still wouldn’t save Earth.”
She looked over at Amethyst. “You do realise that plenty of your student friends are going to die?”
Amethyst nodded, reluctantly. The chaos sweeping the streets would eventually overwhelm Imperial University, even if it was guarded by armed students. And then everyone she’d ever known and loved would die. God alone knew what had happened to her parents ... their CityBlock might have been overwhelmed by now. There was no way to know. And it struck her, as Belinda’s eyes bored into her skull, that she might never know.
“It’s a fucking crazy plan,” Belinda said, turning back to Roland. “But it seems to be the best we have ... are you sure you want to go through with it?”
Roland waved a hand towards the chaos outside the aircar. There was a brilliant flash of light in the distance, followed by a rumbling sound that sent shivers running through the entire CityBlock. Most of the structures were built to be invulnerable, Richard had told her, but they were built on weaker foundations. Some of them might topple over as they lost their stability, or suffer internal collapses. Eventually, they might become nothing more than hollow shells.
“If we can stop this,” he said, “even long enough to evacuate people from Earth ...”
“We can't,” Belinda said. “You could gather every starship in the Empire and you still couldn't take more than a fraction of Earth’s population.”
“But we have to try,” Roland said. “And besides, that shuttle is our only way off the planet.”
“Very well,” Belinda said, after a long moment. “The Imperial University it is.”
Amethyst felt a cold shiver running down her spine as the aircar took off again. Belinda set a course that skirted the edges of Imperial City, rather than flying over the heart of the Empire. The riots didn't seem to have reached Imperial City yet, but it was clear that trouble was brewing. Despite the lockdown, despite orders from the Emergency Committee, there were crowds gathering on the streets below. There was no way to know what was
going on inside the residency blocks, but Amethyst would have been surprised to hear that they weren't suffering the same problems as the rest of the world.
Imperial University – a towering white building – came into view. Belinda took the aircar lower, reminding them that there might be loyalists watching for people trying to aid the students – and the students might mistake them for loyalists – and headed towards the first barricade. It had been put together from junk, Amethyst saw; Belinda snorted rudely and commented that it wouldn't stand up to a tank for more than a few seconds, if that. The armed students on the barricades pointed rifles towards the aircar as it dropped to the ground. Amethyst couldn't help feeling that they’d landed on the wrong side ...
“Go talk to them,” Belinda ordered, as the door hissed open. “Tell them that we want to be taken to their leaders. And make sure that you keep your hands in sight.”
Amethyst shivered as she stepped out of the aircar and walked towards the barricade. After everything she'd done, being shot by a nervous student holding an unfamiliar weapon would be the height of irony. She held her hands up as she reached the barricade and halted, realising that Belinda had been right. The barricade really was pretty flimsy.
“All right,” a voice drawled. Amethyst looked up to see a male student, poising like a hero from one of the entertainment flicks where the bad guys were very bad and the good guys always won, if only because the bad guys were also stupid. “Stop right there and identify yourself.”
“My name is Amethyst,” Amethyst said, carefully. She'd heard that Jacqueline was one of the leaders of the uprising – certainly its public face – but what if she blamed Amethyst for what had happened to her? Now she was staring at a student with a gun, the whole idea seemed more than a little insane. “I need to speak to Jacqueline.”
“Ye Gods,” the student said. “I heard they’d arrested you!”
Amethyst had to smile. “Rumours of my death ...”
“Yes, I saw that flick too,” the student said. “I can ...”
“We don't know what she’s doing here,” another voice said, from behind the barricade. “She might be under their control.”
“Or she might have escaped from them,” the first student said. “We should call Jacqueline and ask her to tell us what to do.”
“I thought the point of this was learning to think for ourselves,” a third voice said. It was impossible to tell if the voice was male or female. “We don’t know what happened to her ...”
“Call Jacqueline,” Amethyst said, as patiently as she could. The students sounded like members of the debating club, which had been more interesting before she’d realised that the debates were slanted in the officially-approved direction. It was astonishing what sort of nonsense could be drawn from data that was also nonsense. “I think that she will recognise me.”
“We will,” the first student said. He gestured with his gun towards the aircar. “And who exactly are your friends?”
“Allies,” Amethyst said, shortly. She wasn't sure that she should mention names yet, at least until she knew what sort of reception she was going to get. “I need to explain to Jacqueline first.”
She had to wait nearly ten minutes before she heard the sound of someone scrambling up the other side of the barricade. Jacqueline’s dark face appeared and stared down at her in complete astonishment, before her friend jumped down and landed neatly in front of her. Amethyst was still staring when Jacqueline wrapped her up in a hug and squeezed her tightly.
“What happened to you?” Jacqueline asked. It had been weeks since they'd last seen each other, before the first riot had torn apart the trust between students and the government. “And who are your friends?”
“It's a long story,” Amethyst said. “But they are friends.”
“They’ll have to face the Committee,” Jacqueline said, as Amethyst beckoned for Belinda and Roland to join them. “Who ...”
Her voice broke off as she stared at Roland. “Prince Roland?”
“Pleased to meet you,” Roland said, with a formal bow. “I would have been here sooner, but the Grand Senate ... delayed me.”
Jacqueline shook her head. “A long story, you say?”
She smiled in disbelief. “You’ll have to tell it to the Committee,” she warned. “All hell has been breaking loose out on the streets. We don’t know what to do.”
Amethyst nodded, no longer trusting herself to speak. Seeing Jacqueline again reminded her of just how far she’d fallen since she’d first met Richard - Bode. Her friend might have ended up helping to run a revolution, but she was still innocent. Amethyst had lost her innocence the day she’d allowed Bode to manipulate her into becoming a monster. Whatever she could do to make up for it, she would.
But Belinda was right. Far too many students were going to die.
Chapter Forty-Two
Furthermore, as the Grand Senate had systematically neutralised all other centres of power, the uprising was utterly uncontrolled. Blood ran through the corridors of cityblocks as the Undercity exploded upwards, its denizens intent on killing as many ‘toffs’ as they could before they died. We will never know how many citizens, unprepared for such violence and incapable of defending themselves, were raped and murdered as the uprising raged onwards. They were nothing more than collateral damage as the Empire fell.
-Professor Leo Caesius, The End of Empire
If it hadn't been for Prince Roland’s presence, Jacqueline would have refused to believe the story that Amethyst told them. Her friend couldn’t have helped to start a riot, or launched missiles at Prince Roland’s aircar ... or played a role in creating the conditions that had allowed the Emergency Committee to take power. It was impossible. But there was no denying Roland’s presence, or the scars she could see on her friend’s soul.
“Right now, the Civil Guard is either dissolving or coming over to our side,” Brent said, when Amethyst had finished. “Why should we not sit tight here and wait for victory?”
“Because you don’t have time,” the Prince’s bodyguard – a strangely-frightening woman who had been introduced simply as Belinda – said. “You can see the fighting outside Imperial City and the fighting up in orbit. If the mobs break into Imperial City, you will simply be overwhelmed and destroyed. Or, if too much debris falls into the planet’s atmosphere, Earth’s biosphere will be ruined – and you will all die.”
Her voice hardened. “And the Emergency Committee might win the fighting in orbit,” she added. “If they do, you can rest assured that they will use orbital bombardment to bring the mobs under control. And Imperial University will be their first target. A single KEW will wipe all of you out of existence.”
Jacqueline shivered.
“I saw ... I saw what was happening in the uprising,” Amethyst added. “Looting, rape, murder ... all sorts of horrible sights. The mobs will come here, eventually. We couldn't hold out indefinitely.”
“But if we can take out the Emergency Committee, we might be able to stop it,” Roland said, softly. “You’re all that’s left to try.”
John Foster, the ex-Civil Guard officer, frowned. “There aren't that many of us,” he pointed out, “and some of our units have been having discipline problems.”
“Mutiny is habit-forming,” Belinda observed, wryly.
Foster shot her a sharp look, then continued. “We might be able to lay siege to the Imperial Palace or the Senate Hall, but I don’t know if we have the firepower to break in,” he said. “It could be disastrous if we try and fail.”
“You don’t have to break in,” Roland said. “All you have to do is provide a distraction. Keep them looking at you, rather than at us.”
“Thank you for your time,” Brent said, before an argument could break out. “We’ll discuss your proposal and come to a decision as quickly as possible.”
Roland looked astonished that they weren't just going to agree with him, but his bodyguard helped escort him out. Jacqueline watched him go and then looked back at
the small group. They had authority, of a sort, but it was very limited. Foster might have controlled most of the Civil Guard, yet the Guardsmen were forming their own revolutionary committees and debating each and every order. Jacqueline had been puzzled by the whole affair – surely, democracy was a good thing – until Foster had pointed out that there was often no time to debate in wartime. And they were very definitely at war.
“I’ve been picking up reports from uninvolved units,” Foster admitted, as soon as the door was shut. “There are scenes of bloody savagery from all of the megacities. It won’t be long before the tidal wave rolls over Imperial City.”
Brent frowned. “We can't stop them?”
“We’d run out of ammunition in an hour,” Foster said. “All we have is what was either issued to us or stored in the nearby dumps, which we emptied before coming here. And ammunition is produced in the orbital factories, some of which have already been destroyed. Once we run out, there will be no resupply. And then we die. Unpleasantly.”
Jacqueline nodded. Ammunition wasn't the only thing in short supply. Imperial University had had a large stockpile of food for the students, but there were so many people in the independent zone that it was being depleted rapidly. The committee had managed to ration food, yet by her calculations they had barely more than a week before they started to suffer major shortages. Several of the committee had wondered openly if the government just intended to blockade them inside the University campus and then wait for them to starve.
And she wasn't sure she trusted the water either.
None of them had any experience living without power or fresh running water – or, for that matter, toilets. The government’s decision to cut off power and water supplies to the university had been a stroke of genius; despite the best the committee could do, sanitation was starting to become a major problem. And no one wanted to volunteer to shovel shit.
The Empire's Corps: Book 03 - When The Bough Breaks Page 39