McEwan hoped to keep the fragile Legion alliance together long enough to make this quick, initial assessment of the local situation before developing a longer term plan. From start to finish the operation wasn’t expected to take more than 35 years.
Of course, as the reader will doubtless already be aware, this strategy is of interest only to historians and counter–factual fantasists, because it fell to pieces the moment the Human Legion flotilla entered the Khallini outer system.
— Chapter 12 —
HUMAN LEGION INTELLIGENCE REPORT: KHALLINI SYSTEM
DATE (STANDARD): 1,436,192.017
DATE (TERRAN): 2569.089
SYSTEM GEOGRAPHY:
Khallini is a main sequence star. Q-Class. Unremarkable.
Starting from the star, heading outwards, notable planetary bodies are as follows:
Hot Zone:
2 inner gas giants and 1 lifeless rocky planet.
Habitable Zone:
Khallini-4 is 60% water covered. Oxygen levels in both water and air are good for Littoranes and humans to breathe without needing equipment. Toxin levels low. There is great colonization potential. Previous attempts at colonization have failed for unknown reasons. However, data from colonization missions within the past hundred thousand years suggest marine fish stocks are plentiful, and enzyme programs to allow digestion of native fish are already on record, and can easily be adapted for humans and Littoranes.
A dominant, bipedal land species is semi-intelligent with sentience rating of 0.9. Previous contact suggests this species is not aggressive unless attacked.
An automated listening post was left on the surface by the last imperial mission, and returned sensor data until only a few centuries ago. Our assumption is that enemy forces have repaired and upgraded this listening post.
Cold Zone:
One outer gas giant, which is currently being mined for fuel and has orbiting fuel refineries.
There are no asteroid belts, making mining less profitable. However, the system’s Oort Cloud is rich in heavy elements and rocky material.
ENEMY DISPOSITION:
The enemy has nearly completed a major dockyard facility orbiting Khallini-4. The yards are currently constructing two major capital ships, which are approximately 80% complete.
No nano sensor grid detected. If any exists, it is likely to be limited to the vicinity of Khallini-4. The planet once hosted a listening post, which might have been brought back into use.
The enemy has its main forces in fast and highly elliptical orbits around Khallini-4.
Consists of:
18 Tactical Unit (TU) warboats – assessment: dangerous when used in numbers due to ability to rapidly deploy their Marine contingents to close assault Legion craft.
4 Tactical Unit ‘sleeves’ – these appear to be unmodified from the standard design used to transport TUs across interstellar distances. Minimal combat relevance.
3 heavy construction vessels – used in construction of the orbital dockyard.
2 capital ships. Unknown type.
14 destroyers of a variety of ship classes. Most have significant offensive missile capability. The two Havoc-class destroyers have limited missile capability but high survivability and single, spine-mount meson weapons that are highly dangerous at close range.
8 frigates of a variety of ship classes. General-purpose warships of limited survivability rating and designed for point defense systems to interlock with both heavier warships and other frigates.
We note that the composition of this fleet is counter to any standard tactical doctrine. Our interpretation is that this is most likely an ad-hoc assembly of straggler vessels. We see no AI-drones, but assume they will be carried in the larger ships.
In addition to warships and warboats, there is limited in-system travel by shuttlecraft and trawlers. Traffic is almost entirely between Khallini-4 orbit, Khallini-4 surface, and the gas giant being mined for fuel.
ASSESSMENT OF ENEMY PRESENCE:
We think the enemy presence has come to this system for the same reason we have: to use Khallini as a forward supply base and jumping off point to attack or defend nearby star systems, several of which have significant economies and war manufacturing capability. What we cannot yet explain is the high level of activity taking place on the planet’s surface. We think there is a slight possibility that it is an attempt to establish a fast-growing colony, but to do so in a warzone seems unlikely, as any population on the surface would be extremely vulnerable. Unless the enemy feels the planet is less vulnerable than we do due to unexplained reasons. Those unexplained reasons could be dangerous. Consideration should be given to an active reconnaissance of the planet to discover what the enemy is doing, paying particular attention to the possibility of hidden anti-ship defenses.
FRIENDLY FORCES IN SYSTEM:
1st Flotilla, Human Legion
Human Contingent
Beowulf (flagship)
41 Human Navy personnel
46 Human Marines
571 Human Irregulars
Littorane Contingent
9,086 Navy personnel
31,928 Marines
Warships
The Enveloping Water of Ecstasy (tactical name: Vengeance of Saesh) – Songsmasher-class battleship
Cleanser of Doubt – Revenge-class battle cruiser
Storm of the Gods – Revenge-class battle cruiser
Now You Listen – Royal-class cruiser
Deep Current – Royal-class cruiser
Eviscerator – Royal-class cruiser
Orphanmaker – Shield-class missile cruiser
Bloodletter – Shield-class missile cruiser
Scourge of the Godless – Purify-class destroyer
Blacktail – Purify-class destroyer
Purifier – Purify-class destroyer
Forwards – Shield-class destroyer
Liberty – Royal-class destroyer
Divine Hammerblow – Lightning-class destroyer
Hellbringer – Lightning-class destroyer
Human Endurance…
Human Endurance! Where did that name come from?
Arun sighed. He didn’t bother to read the entire list. He hardly needed to be told the Littoranes had 19 ships in their contingent. Only the Littoranes had the facilities to scout an entire system while, hopefully, avoiding detection. Which was good. Unfortunately, that meant the Littoranes got to write the intelligence summary… and ram home how miniscule the human contribution was. He had to get that sleeping legion hidden under Detroit operational as soon as possible.
Normally, Arun would read through the intelligence briefing a second time, but on this occasion he had his own intelligence to gather: how was his new joint command reacting?
They were conducting the campaign planning session in the tertiary control center of the Littorane carrier, a compartment they called the Chamber of Decisions. The immense capital ship’s official name was Scourge of the White Knights. Arun had insisted on a change to a less confrontational name and had won a compromise with an everyday working name of Vengeance of Saesh. He had a feeling that was just a taste of problems to come.
The Littorane senior commanders were still giving the appearance of digesting the report. The humans – Xin, Indiya, Loobie, and Del-Marie – were glancing at Arun for guidance. He decided to allow his allies their time. After all, they had shown courtesy by filling the Chamber of Decisions with air, despite their frequent protests that the Littorane mind only operated keenly when underwater.
Arun hated all this political drent. The senior Littoranes surely must have read this report already.
When Admiral Kreippil opened his eyes, Arun decided to take the advice that Del often gave him and opened with an uncontroversial topic before addressing the disagreements he knew were inevitable.
“Admiral, I’m not clear on the significance of the indigenous inhabitants of Khallini. Can you explain the description of ‘sentience level 0.9’?”
“Of cour
se, General.” The senior Littorane commander bowed. “They are proto-sapients. About the level of the species on your homeworld called…” He rolled his eyes up and kept them there for a second. “… called baboons.”
Frakk it! Was the alien trying to make a point about Arun’s fitness to lead? “I do not know much of the species of Earth,” Arun admitted. “Are these baboon-analogs a threat?”
“Or an opportunity?” added Xin.
Kreippil rolled his tongue around his mouth – a sign of Littorane approval. Already they respected Xin while merely tolerating Arun’s command. “It is unlikely the Khallinies, or however we shall name them, will play a part in our holy war. Sentience 0.9 indicates limited tool use, language, and the mental capacity to imagine the future in order that they may influence events. The capacity to make the leap to civilization and advanced technology is there, but at their current level they are no more a potential ally than any intelligent animal that relies on pure instinct.”
“I have to ask,” said Xin, a teasing quality to her voice that would be lost in translation but Arun heard loud and clear, “what is the sentience rating for humans?”
“One point one.”
“And what is the maximum score?” Xin asked.
“Five.”
Xin rolled her dark eyes. “Figures. What else could you expect from a scale dreamed up by aliens?”
Admiral Kreippil flapped his gills in amusement, but many of the other Littorane Navy officers present went rigid at Xin’s comment. Arun struggled to take in how the Littorane were pumped up with desire to fight in the human cause, but distrusted every human being they met. Mind you, Xin had that effect on most species. Love or hate her, you couldn’t ignore her.
“Let’s move on,” said Indiya. “If we decide to contest this system, then control will be determined by naval superiority. If we hit the enemy vessels head on, we may achieve victory, but the cost will be unacceptable. Do you agree, Admiral?”
“The Commodore is accurate in her assessment,” said Kreippil, “as always.”
“What we need is a way to split up the enemy forces so that we may defeat each portion in detail,” said Indiya. “Suggestions on how we divide them?”
“What if the Wolves had succeeded in their mutiny?” asked Xin.
Barney whispered in Arun’s ear that Littoranes were livid at this mention of the perpetrators of the Year of Sorrows. The AI needn’t have bothered; Arun had already worked out what the sharp upturn of their tailtips meant.
“I’m serious,” said Xin. “Imagine they had exterminated us all and didn’t suffer from zero-gee weakness. They would see the enemy forces and withdraw, but not before taking what they could grab easily.”
“They would need to refuel,” said Indiya. “The main drive can mine the quantum foam directly, but secondary systems run off chemical fuel. Before running for a safer system, the Wolves would mine the outer gas giant for fuel.”
“No they wouldn’t,” said Xin. “The imperials are already mining the outer giant. Dredging is inefficient and dangerous in the inner gas giants because they are so much warmer. All their fuel mining and refining is taking place on that one outer gas giant. The Wolves wouldn’t mine for fuel themselves. They would hit the refineries and take what had already been mined.”
Indiya nodded. “And if raiders were interrupting fuel supplies, the defenders would have little choice but to dispatch ships to chase them away. If the enemy thought they were facing a military fleet, they would be reluctant to divide their forces, but if we can convince them they faced only thieves and pirates, that would be a different matter. Meanwhile the Human Legion strike force attacks from the opposite direction to the gas giant, and defeats the core of the enemy fleet before the detachment returns from chasing the raiders.”
Arun didn’t like the way this was slipping away from him. “Commodore, your use of the term ‘enemy’ is premature. I have not received intelligence regarding the allegiance of the forces we have discovered here. May I remind you that our purpose in taking the Khallini system is to establish a forward base to conduct a campaign of liberation across the nine inhabited systems within ten light years of here. It seemed too good to be true that Khallini for some reason was never colonized. It appears that a faction in the civil war thought much the same and has been busy establishing a base while we were in transit. Do they support the Old Empire or the New Empire – the faction who destroyed Detroit and mutinied on Themistocles and Beowulf?”
“Does it matter?” asked Kreippil. “You talk of Old Empire and New Empire. Old? New? What do I care? You talk as if they are different yet both are empires of the White Knights. My warriors are eager to flood this system with the blood of the White Knights’ servants, because through that scarlet stream we shall swim to the place of their masters and slaughter them.”
Arun clamped his jaws before he said something he could never take back. Kreippil was changing the mission objectives by the second, and in front of the senior command staff too. “I see, Admiral, that I have not explained this adequately. Corporal Del-Marie, would you please explain in your own words, so that even the Admiral understands.”
Del’s face lit up, grateful of the opportunity, and then winced at Arun’s choice of words. As a mere corporal, he had no place at this table, but Arun was grooming him as a negotiator, or even an ambassador. For now, he was needed as an intermediary between sparring allies.
“There are often levels of meaning that are lost in the translation between species,” said Del, “so forgive me when I tell of some things we already know. Before the civil war, the White Knight Empire was the major regional power, but still only one polity within the Trans-Species Union, which extends coreward for hundreds of light years. Every previous interstellar civilization we are aware of has eventually wiped itself out in wars of mutual destruction. The Trans-Species Union has survived thus far due to the inevitable slide into mutual destruction being offset by mutual paranoia. Every polity in the union fears that if the rule of law were ever to fail, then the anarchy that would surely follow would wipe out civilization and render planets uninhabitable for megayears. Interaction within and between polities is through contracts. The paranoid vengeance of the entire Union will fall on anyone who appears to break a contract that binds them. The whole of humankind is bound by our treaty, the Vancouver Accords, signed by President Horden five centuries ago.”
“I know that,” said the Admiral. “The Littorane Articles of Servitude were signed eight thousand centuries ago. It is not coincidence that the gods sent the Purple Warrior to us at a time of civil war. This is our chance to crush the White Knight tyrants. The gods seek always to test us. Victory will not come easily, but our divine backing means we shall prevail. Defeat is only possible if we are too cautious to even fight. Too cautious, or…” The Admiral twisted his tail so that its tip pointed at Arun. “Or too cowardly. Makes no difference.”
“Don’t—” Arun took a deep breath and deviated from the furious response he was about to spit at the Littorane. “Don’t forget that we are still weak and need the shield of loyalty to the Old Empire. If they emerge as the victors in the war, we can argue that all the Human Legion did was loyally secure assets from the rebels. Behind the public statements, the stronger we are militarily, the more concessions we can demand from the Old Empire.”
“And if the so-called New Empire wins,” Del added, “we challenge their right to inherit the rights and privileges of the predecessor White Knight Empire. Our bargaining position is even stronger.”
“Thank you,” said Admiral Kreippil. “This matter of politics is finally clear to even an old warrior such as myself.” He bowed to Arun, who managed to relax a little. Perhaps sense would prevail, after all. “Our political position is strongest if the New Empire wins the war. Therefore we must declare for the New Empire without delay and betray them later.”
“It’s too risky,” said Arun.
“War is always risky,” retorted the Admiral.
“True. But a good leader controls the risks. Not the other way around.”
The Admiral was angry – his flicking tail needed no interpretation – and looked at Indiya for her judgement. Kreippil had stopped a few nanometers short of openly challenging Arun’s status as overall commander, but he was getting closer all the time. As far as the Littoranes were concerned the entirety of Arun’s legitimacy came from Indiya’s backing for him.
“General McEwan is correct,” said Indiya. She could have replied quicker.
Kreippil hissed but eventually calmed enough to say: “Very well, we bide our time. This will be hard for my warriors, who have seen the White Knights insult our gods for countless generations. They wish retribution.”
“Admiral, I have an information update.” The officer who spoke was Xoomar, the captain of the Vengeance of Saesh, which Arun reckoned made her Kreippil’s second-in-command.
“Update on enemy comms. We now have partial decryption. We’re hearing nothing but chatter but the enemy refer to themselves as ‘Free Corps’. Linguistic interpretation suggests the enemy species is human.”
Humans! Arun flicked a glance at Indiya who had never fully healed after killing so many people in the Free Corps mutiny years earlier. If the prospect of going to war against fellow humans daunted her, she did not show it.
Captain Xoomar paused, studying the reaction of the humans before continuing. “We still don’t know what is going on at the surface of Khallini-4, but there is even more activity there than in the orbital dockyard. It’s the rebel side for certain. The so-called New Empire.”
Kreippil flapped his gills. “See, General? Our enemy is in plain sight, which means we need no longer concern ourselves with your moral and political complexities. The entire Human Legion is united in simplicity. Every one of us is but a simple warrior now. And as warriors our sacred duty is clear. We must destroy our enemies with every iota of strength. General, do you still hesitate?”
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