The Empire’s Corps: Book 01 - The Empire's Corps

by Christopher Nuttall

  Edward considered it. “Do they have heavy weapons?”

  “Not very many,” Kitty said. “A few weapons disappeared from Civil Guard storage depots and more may be coming in from off-planet, but mostly they have only what they can produce for themselves. Unfortunately, they are quite ingenious. Their industrialists show far more energy and application than the government’s show, which isn't entirely surprising. The Council has the whole system tied up, preventing any honest competition. The whole planet, Captain, is the Empire in microcosm.”

  Edward let that pass. “Tell me about the Council,” he said. “Who and what are they?”

  “You’ll meet them all later,” Kitty assured him. “The Governor was already talking about a formal ball to welcome you and your men to Avalon.” She shrugged, expressively. “There are twenty-one councillors in all, each one representing a specific district, at least in theory. Seven of them basically bought thousands of miles of land from the ADC when it was trying to sell off its assets. Seven more own ninety percent of the planet’s industry between them. Two of them – the Wilhelm Family – are debt sharks. They bought the debt contracts of thousands of people and used it as leverage to turn them into serfs. Markus and Carola Wilhelm have a fair claim to being the most hated couple on the planet. The remaining five were elected by the middle class, insofar as this planet has a middle class. They’re reasonably honest, but they’re not above taking bribes if they’re offered.

  “The Council’s exact position related to the Governor isn't clear. The Governor is the Empire-appointed Head of State and Government, but the Council can interfere with his programs if they don’t like them. Governor Roeder isn't a bad man – he’s certainly not as bad as either of the last two Governors – yet he doesn't have the strength of will to go up against the massed opposition of the Council. He controls the Civil Guard, at least on paper, but many of the Guard’s senior officers were appointed by the Councillors. The possibility of a civil war within the Guard’s ranks cannot be completely discounted. Major Grosskopf is a good man, but only five hundred of the Guardsmen can be ranked as good soldiers. The remainder go from average down to bad. He wanted to go after the bandit gang that hit the township, but the Guard is simply not equipped or trained to take on the bandits, let alone the rebel Crackers.”

  She gave him a charming smile. “Sorry you came yet?”

  Edward smiled back. It would require some investigation, but he was already beginning to see possibilities in the situation. And, besides, his orders from the Commandant had been delightfully vague. The Grand Old Man of the Corps might not know everything about Avalon, but he'd granted Edward vast latitude to act as he saw fit. Perhaps the planet could be saved after all.

  “Not yet,” he said, with a wink. One more question had to be asked. “Where do the indents fit into all of this?”

  “They're right at the bottom of the social scale,” Kitty said, coldly. “They’re criminals, sentenced to spending at least ten to twenty years working as slave labour before being freed and granted a small patch of land. Most of them should never have been sent here. Others complete their sentences, only to discover that they’re still at the bottom of the social scale. They don’t get their land; they’re lucky not to be lynched on sight. They gravitate to the shanty towns surrounding Camelot and just...stay there. They don’t have any hope at all. If the Crackers took over, they’d all be killed out of hand. They kill indent gangs on sight.”

  Perfect, Edward thought, calmly.

  “Above them are the indebted, the ones who will never pay off their debt,” Kitty added. “And then we have ones who might succeed, if the screws don’t get tightened any further. And then we have the ones who are free, yet burdened by taxes intended to help pay off the planet’s overall debt. The whole planet is a mess. It is no wonder, Captain, that the Crackers are being so successful. Why should anyone outside the upper crust – and the indent gangs - try to resist them?”

  She stood up. “My orders from my superiors are to make myself of use to you, Captain,” she concluded. Edward smiled inwardly at how much pride she – and her superiors – had had to swallow to issue such orders, let alone follow them. “What are your orders?”

  Edward considered the matter. “I want you to prepare a briefing for my senior officers and NCOs,” he said. The briefing would be recorded and shown to the enlisted men as well. “And then I want you to sit down with some of my people and start going over maps and planning operations. I don’t intend to sit on my ass at Castle Rock doing nothing.”

  Kitty stared at him. “Captain,” she said slowly, “how do you intend to send a hundred Marines against an enemy you can't even track?”

  “You might be surprised,” Edward said, seriously. An idea was already forming in his mind. He’d have to study the maps before he came up with a final plan, but he was fairly sure it world work. “I think the bandit gang that hit the township would make a suitable first target for our wrath, don’t you?”

  Chapter Fifteen

  There are two vital elements of any colonisation project that must succeed if the world is to develop properly; the farming, to provide food, and the industry. If those two elements fail, the colony world will either stagnate or collapse. It should be evident that it is vitally important to encourage those elements at all costs, yet far too many planets are concentrating merely on the short-term and neglecting the long-term health of their colony.

  - Professor Leo Caesius, The Waning Years of Empire (banned).

  Leo stepped out of the shuttle and took a deep breath. The smell struck him at once. There was a hint of jet fuel and the ionisation caused by shuttle drives, but all of that was minor compared to the fresh wind blowing across the landing strip. Earth’s atmosphere had stunk…and he hadn’t even been aware of it until he'd set foot on a starship. The pollution had been terrible. He knew, from his own private studies, that it caused massive death rates among the Undercity dwellers, but there were always more where they came from. The stink of hydrocarbons and far too many human beings pressed together had ever-present. He had just never been aware of it until he’d smelled cleaner air.

  He turned slowly, stepping away from the shuttle, and caught sight of the mountains in the distance. They were like nothing he had ever seen before. They seemed to reach up endlessly into the clouds, dominating the surrounding countryside for miles around, with green flecks of trees and grass covering their lower levels. He’d seen pictures of Earth’s mountain ranges, of course, but he’d never been able to afford a family holiday to the few remaining preserved areas of Earth. That had been the playground of the rich and famous.

  “Dad,” Mandy said. It was almost a whine. “Help me down, please.”

  Leo turned and held out a hand to his daughter. She was shaking, overwhelmed by her new surroundings, for she had definitely never set foot outside her home city on Earth. Avalon was vast and unspoilt by the human race, a paradise for the tired and weary, yet Mandy seemed daunted by the sight. The young were supposed to be more adaptable than the old, or so he had learned in his studies, but Mandy looked doubtful. Mindy didn’t seem to have so many doubts. She ran down the shuttle’s ramp and down onto the ground, staring around in awe.

  “It’s so green,” she said. “Daddy…what is that?”

  Leo followed her pointing finger and saw a strange animal moving around the edge of the spaceport’s new fence. A chill ran down his spine as it sank in that he was truly on an alien world. The animal looked like a weird combination of a dog, a horse and a donkey. It gave them a disdainful glance with fish-like eyes and wandered off, grazing as it moved. He wondered, absently, what it was called or if anyone had bothered to try to tame it and its kin. Was it even good eating?

  “So,” Fiona said. “This is Avalon.”

  The scorn in her voice made him wince. “Yes,” he said, silently wishing that she would shut up long enough for him to work out what to do next. They had to go into Camelot and find somewhere to live, and then
start seeing about jobs. He’d checked Avalon’s local net – such as it was – and found no mention of a university. The schools seemed to be mainly technical schools, designed to turn out the next generation of industrial workers. “Welcome to our new home.”

  Fiona snorted again, but mercifully kept her peace. She’d been complaining all the time since the shuttle had undocked from the massive transport, demanding that the pilot take it easy as they descended down towards the planet. Leo remembered what she’d been like when they had first married and wondered, not for the first time, what had happened to the woman he’d married. It was far too easy to understand. She’d had peace, security and wealth – at least for their class – and his actions had torn it away from her. The whole family had been exiled thousands of light years from the core of the Empire.

  Mandy realised that she was clutching her father’s hand and let go of it, her eyes flickering around the spaceport. Leo watched her with some concern, but she seemed to be recovering; her eyes were following a group of Marines as they unloaded another shuttle. Leo winced inwardly again. Mandy had grown up in a world where she had had no responsibility for her actions and it showed. He had a feeling that life was going to be much more serious on Avalon than it had ever been on Earth. Mindy didn’t seem to have any problems at all. She looked as if she wanted to start running all over the spaceport. Only the possible danger kept her firmly in her place.

  “Welcome to Avalon,” a voice said. Fiona jumped. Leo turned slowly to see Captain Stalker and another Marine standing behind them. He hadn’t even heard them coming up to the shuttle! “What do you make of your new home?”

  “It smells strange,” Mandy said, sullenly. For once, she wasn’t eying the Marine. “I don’t want to be here.”

  Leo gave the Captain a glance, silently willing him to understand. “What a remarkable coincidence,” Captain Stalker said. His voice was exaggeratedly cheerful. “I don’t want to be here either. Orders are orders.”

  “Yes, but that’s different,” Mandy protested. “You have to obey orders and go where they send you. I…”

  Her voice trailed off.

  “I cannot prove this to you, not now, but you are far better off here than in the Undercity back on Earth, or dead,” Captain Stalker said, bluntly. He looked up at Leo. “I understand that you intend to head into Camelot as soon as possible?”

  “Yes,” Leo said. He recognised the brisk businesslike tone. “We can’t presume on your hospitality forever.”

  “True enough,” Captain Stalker agreed. “I have taken the liberty of asking Rifleman Jasmine Yamane to accompany you until you get your bearings. I hope you won’t find her too much of an imposition.”

  Leo, who recognised an order when he heard one, however expressed, nodded slowly. “I’m sure that we won’t,” he said, ignoring Fiona’s angry look. She couldn’t wait to be away from the Marines, if only to keep Mandy out of trouble. Leo silently wished her good luck with that. His daughter seemed determined to sleep with each and every male Marine in the Company. “How do we get into town?”

  “Jasmine has a locally-produced car for your service,” Captain Stalker said. “Let me know how you get on.”

  He nodded briskly to his subordinate and walked away, leaving Jasmine with Leo and his family. “If you’ll come this way,” she said, politely. If she was aware of how both of Leo’s daughters were staring at her, she didn’t show it. “I can drive you into town and help you find lodgings.”

  The locally-produced car turned out to be a copy of a design that had been old when the Empire was young, large enough to carry Leo’s entire family in some degree of comfort. It was a new and strange sight to both girls and they stared in awe as Jasmine steered them out of the spaceport and onto the highway leading down towards the sea. None of the family could drive. On Earth, they had been restricted to using either the transport tubes or aircars, and the aircars had been controlled by their onboard processors. Privately-owned vehicles weren't legally banned, but they were very rare outside the wealthy. The expense was just too much.

  Avalon, on the other hand, seemed to have hundreds of privately-owned vehicles. The closer they got to the city, the more vehicles they saw on the road, ranging from cars to buses and trucks. He saw a van drive past carrying live horses – Mindy stared in astonishment, clearly planning to find out where she could get riding lessons – and another carrying newly-picked fruit. Some people rode animals instead, from horses to creatures that had to be native to Avalon itself. The standard colonisation program, he’d learned while he’d been carrying out his research, always included thousands of young animals, cloned and decanted on the new world. Horses, pigs, sheep and cattle reproduced naturally. It was another measure to prevent the complete collapse of a new colony world. Offhand, he couldn’t recall a colony world, one established after the rise of the Empire, that had actually failed. They were regarded as very solid investments.

  The thought made him study Camelot with a new eye. Parts of the city looked strong and prosperous, other parts looked poor and downcast. He saw men and women who strode purposefully around the city, as if they had places to go, and others who loitered on street corners, without any purpose to their existence. He spotted a line of women who had to be prostitutes, selling themselves for the best that they could get, and a line of men looking for labouring positions. Camelot looked as if it was spending its seed capital, rather than investing in the future. A chill ran down his spine. He had studied how colony worlds could go bad, but seeing it in person was different. The piles of litter in some parts of the city were a very telling sign.

  “This is the finest hotel in Camelot,” Jasmine said, as she pulled up in front of a blocky stone building. It looked reasonably clean, at least. “The Governor suggested that you stay here for a week while you look for somewhere more permanent.”

  “Thank you,” Leo said, as they stepped out of the car. Apart from a few bags of clothing they’d brought from Earth, they had almost nothing with them. Fiona had mourned the loss of her jewels and fashionable clothes ever since the Marines had taken them in. A mob had looted their house and burned what was left of it to the ground. He looked down at his wife and scowled at her expression. “Coming?”

  Jasmine followed them as they stepped into the lobby. If it was the finest hotel on Avalon, Leo would have dreaded walking into a less-prestigious hotel. The lobby was barely clean, with paint coming off the walls and carpets that had never been washed or even vacuumed. He was sure he saw something move on the table as he walked up to the single desk, operated by a girl who looked bored. Her mouth chewed incessantly on a piece of gum.

  “Welcome to the Hotel Avalon,” she said. Her voice somehow suggested that their presence was an imposition. “One room for the five of you?”

  “Two rooms would be fine,” Leo said. Mandy looked as if she wanted to protest, but Fiona shot her a glance that made her shut her mouth. He looked over at Jasmine. “Ah…?”

  “I’ll be returning to the spaceport tonight,” Jasmine said, dryly. “I won’t have to stay here.”

  The receptionist stared at Jasmine, and then looked back at Leo. “Two rooms,” she said. She quoted a price that made Leo splutter, all in credits. Avalon’s local currency clearly wasn't very strong. He named a counteroffer and she nodded, leading him to suspect that he was still overpaying them for the rooms. “If you’ll follow me…”

  The rooms weren't actually as bad as he’d feared, although the chambermaid didn’t look very competent at all. Fiona spent an hour inspecting them minutely, complaining about everything, before finally admitting that they were acceptable, for the moment. Mandy had thrown herself down on her bed while Mindy bombarded Jasmine with questions about the Marine Corps and how one joined up. Jasmine answered as patiently as she could, even when Mandy started firing off questions about what it was like to serve with so many handsome men and which one was best in bed. Fiona slapped her and sent her back to her bed in a rage.