“Aye, Admiral,” the operations officer said.
Rani smiled. “Is there any response to our surrender demands?”
“Negative,” the communications officer said. “I’m trying to track their communications, but it’s proving impossible. I don’t think there’s anyone left in command on the planet below.”
The plan worked too well, Rani thought, then laughed at herself inwardly. Not being able to demand a formal surrender from the planet paled compared to losing one’s planet to an outside occupation force. The problems she was facing were the problems of victory. She could guess the horror and despair gripping the remaining planetary defenders, defenders who knew they could do nothing to stop her taking Thule. All they could do was bleed her a little.
“Contact General Haverford,” she ordered. “Inform him that he has permission to land his advance forces.”
***
Thomas looked around Riverside and shuddered, inwardly. It looked far more civilised than the Zone, even though most of the houses were still quite small. They had gardens, parks and even a library, as well as a healthy degree of separation from their neighbours. It was easy to understand that the people who lived in Riverside were the ones who had jobs and employment, the ones who had survived despite the economic crash ... and the ones who had silently supported the local government’s refusal to find a compromise.
There were hardly any civilians in sight. Thomas hoped that meant they were keeping their heads down, although he wouldn't have put money on their chances if – when – the mobs started rampaging through Riverside. The radio channels were a non-stop litany of horror, an endless series of reports of fighting right across the giant city. No one was in command, it seemed, on either side. The insurgents they’d fought were pushing out of the Zone, while police and military units fought hopeless battles for survival.
“Enemy fleet launching shuttles,” a voice said, through his radio. “I say again, enemy fleet launching shuttles.”
Thomas sighed, considering his options. Nearly two hundred men had made it to Riverside and dispersed through the district, abandoning their vehicles in the middle of one of the giant parks. They’d be targeted from orbit, Thomas knew, as soon as the enemy fleet took the high orbitals. He would be very disappointed with the enemy commanders if they wasted time trying to capture the simplistic vehicles instead of destroying them.
But what were they going to do?
He’d been in bad spots before. Serving in the Marines during the last days of the Empire had involved moving from bad spot to bad spot, pissing on fires long enough to put them out and declare victory before moving to the next one. But this was different. Offhand, had there ever been an Imperial unit in such a dire position in the last thousand years? The Empire normally controlled space so carefully that outright defeat was rarely a possibility.
His men could fight, when – if – the shuttles landed in Asgard. Hell, they had a handful of HVMs they could use, giving Wolfbane a taste of their own medicine. But then ... they’d be obliterated, along with the civilians in the district. It crossed his mind that that wouldn't be a bad outcome, a thought he angrily dismissed. Maybe it would help the Commonwealth if trained and skilled manpower were to die, rather than fall into Wolfbane’s hands, but it wasn’t something he could countenance. If they started thinking like that, they might as well start depopulating whole planets. And no one would win such a war, apart from the RockRats. They’d probably be relieved.
He passed the word to his men, then waited. It was all they could do.
***
Jasmine looked down at the portable terminal, then up at the operator. “They’re not coming near the spaceport?”
“Doesn’t look like it,” the operator said. He looked nervous, but pressed on anyway. “As far as I can tell, half of their shuttles are heading for the centre of the city and the other half are heading for Riverside. They’re dropping decoys and flares everywhere, though.”
“I see,” Jasmine said. It made a certain kind of sense; secure the remains of the planet’s government and the most valuable sections of the population, then deal with everything else. At least they weren't dropping Marines out of orbit onto the city, she noted; Wolfbane didn't seem to have any trained Marines, at least no one comparable to the Terran Marines. Or maybe they were just holding them in reserve. “Warn the locals, if possible.”
She shook her head, inwardly. The local defence network had fallen apart, completely. It was unlikely that any resistance could be organised, at least in time to matter. Besides, the invaders would have orbital fire support to clear any large obstacles out of their way. She was mildly surprised they hadn’t destroyed the spaceport already, along with her command post. Did they think the command post had already been destroyed?
“That’s another flight of shuttles,” the operator added. “I think these are heading for the edge of the city.”
Jasmine nodded, wordlessly. In the distance, she could hear shuttles dropping through the planet’s atmosphere, heading towards their targets. There was a flash of light in the distance, followed by a fireball that billowed up into the darkening sky and slowly faded away to nothingness. She didn't need the operator to tell her that the KEW had struck the remains of one of the major military garrisons in the city. Two more died in quick succession, obliterating what remained of the military infrastructure. The local troops – all that was left of them – were doomed.
In an entertainment flick, she knew, the Marines would come riding to the rescue at the last possible moment. Or, if the producers preferred the Imperial Navy, a large battlefleet would appear out of nowhere and save the planet from certain destruction. But there would be no miracle, Jasmine knew; they rarely happened in the real universe. And, even though Mandy was a competent officer, she had strict orders to withdraw rather than engage superior forces and risk losing her fleet. There was no hope of rescue.
And the end could not be long delayed.
***
General Mark Haverford distrusted Admiral Singh more than he cared to admit. Governor Brown might have been a corporate hack, rather than a military officer, but Mark knew that he’d done an excellent job of holding the Wolfbane Sector together after the Fall of Earth, when chaos had threatened to tear them all apart. He might not have been someone Mark would have expected to respect, yet he’d saved the sector from chaos. Admiral Singh, on the other hand, had come begging for succour and somehow parlayed a handful of starships into a position of considerable power. Mark suspected she was ambitious enough to do whatever it took to gain supreme power.
But he pushed his concerns aside as the shuttle dropped through the planet’s atmosphere and fell towards the centre of the city. The advance elements were already on the ground and reporting minimal resistance, which wasn't entirely surprising. Between the shock of commando assaults in their own city and the massive deployment to the Zone, the enemy troops were definitely caught out of place. There would be no time to recover before his forces held all of their targets and deployed to suppress resistance.
The shuttle lurched, then hit the ground with a loud crash. Mark pulled himself to his chair as soon as the craft stopped shaking, then followed his troops towards the hatch and out onto the local ground. The smell struck him as soon as he took his first breath – every planet had its own smell – but he ignored it as he looked around. Hundreds of years of work had been reduced to piles of rubble.
He smiled, darkly. The first major planetary invasion of the post-Empire era and it was going according to plan. His troops had already fanned out, securing the remains of the central government, while a number of prisoners were held firmly in the middle of one of the grand parks. There was a dull roar behind him as the shuttle took off, clawing frantically for the sky before an isolated enemy unit could try to fire an HVM at it. Mark allowed his smile to grow wider as he strode over to the newly-established command post. The enemy were so badly hammered that they couldn't even mount a counterattack in the h
eart of their own city.
“We’ve secured all of the approaches, sir,” Major Hodge reported. “Limited contact with roving bands of soldiers and a handful of armed civilians, but not much else. They didn't even manage to shell our landing zones.”
“Let’s hope it stays that way,” Mark said. A single mortar shell at the worst possible time could do a great deal of damage. The downside of having shattered the enemy command network so thoroughly was that the bands of soldiers wouldn't get any orders to surrender, if the local government had sent any. It was much more likely that any survivors would try to blend into the local population to continue an underground war. “Start transmitting the message for the civilians on all bands. We want them all to hear it.”
“Yes, sir,” Hodge said.
Mark nodded. The message was simple enough, just informing them that Wolfbane had taken over the city and urging them to remain indoors, where they would be safe. It was hard to know just how well they’d take it – civilians were mindless sheep at the best of times, in his opinion – but Thule had been in the grips of a civil war. Surely the civilians would have learned when to keep their heads down by now.
“And then raise the Commonwealth forces,” Mark added. There had been a reason the spaceport hadn't been targeted, quite apart from the value of having the facility intact for his own forces. “Tell them ... that we wish to discuss their surrender.”
***
Jasmine found herself wrestling with a dilemma that she had never considered, not outside her worst nightmares. On her own, she could and would continue the fight as long as possible, no matter what happened. She had escaped from captivity once before, after all, even though it should have been impossible. But she was responsible for over two thousand soldiers, all of whom would die if she continued the fight. And there were the civilians who were likely to be caught in the middle.
She looked down at the terminal as the message started to repeat itself. It was very simple, she noted sourly, but effective. The Wolfbane commander had pointed out that their position was hopeless, ensuring their rapid destruction if they tried to fight. But if they surrendered, he’d continued, they would be treated as prisoners of war under the pre-Unification Wars conventions. Jasmine had had to look them up; they’d be imprisoned, unless they were traded back to the Commonwealth, but they wouldn't be harmed, interrogated or forced to betray their comrades.
But could Wolfbane be trusted? Her impression of Admiral Singh had been that she was pragmatic, but also completely ruthless. Even if she didn't know who Jasmine was, she might well interrogate Jasmine and her subordinate commanders for intelligence on the Commonwealth. It would kill Jasmine if she tried, Jasmine knew; her implants simply wouldn't let her be interrogated thoroughly. Would Admiral Singh see the benefits of keeping her word, despite the golden intelligence opportunity that would fall into her lap?
She stared down at her hands for a long moment, mentally searching for options. But there were none.
“Contact their commander,” she ordered. Her mind felt numb, as if she had passed beyond sensation. “Tell them ... tell them that we would like to surrender.”
She took a breath. “And then destroy the computer cores,” she added. “I don’t want even a scrap of useful data to fall into their hands.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Second, the social scientists who had established themselves as ‘advisors’ were still exercising huge influence over the conflict zone. In particular, they put restrictions on how the military could conduct its operations. For example, given the nature of most aggressor armies, a program of targeted assassination aimed at their leaders would have rapidly rendered them headless. Such a program, however, was declared verboten – forbidden.
Third, there was a colossal refugee crisis on the surface of the planet. Imperial Army units found themselves tied down defending the refugee camps, which (at least in the case of the less well-disciplined units) rapidly resulted in mass abuse of the refugees. Worse, the limited manpower available to the operation’s commanders forced them to limit their commitments, which meant that refugee camps often became targets for the aggressors.
- Professor Leo Caesius. War in a time of ‘Peace:’ The Empire’s Forgotten Military History.
“They surrendered,” Rani said. “Excellent news, General.”
“Yes, Admiral,” General Haverford agreed. His face smiled at her in the display. “With your permission, I will prepare them for immediate transport to the POW facilities.”
Rani hesitated. “You don’t want to interrogate them?”
“Admiral,” Haverford said, “I gave my word as a military officer that they would be treated under the conventions. And I expect you to honour my word.”
Rani kept her face under tight control as she thought rapidly. She wanted – needed – intelligence on whatever contingency plans the Commonwealth had for war with Wolfbane, but the General had neatly pre-empted her from pulling information out of the prisoners. It would be simple enough to appeal to Governor Brown, but he might well take the view that harming prisoners would damage their cause more than gaining information would benefit it. And besides, he had to be wondering about her role in starting the war ...
“Very well,” she said, tightly. “I expect you to take the utmost care with them, General, while my forces secure the outer system. And if they cause trouble, you are not to hold back.”
“Understood,” the General said.
His face vanished from the display. Rani glared down at it for a long moment, then looked up at her crew. There was still much work to be done before the system could be declared secure. Besides, the enemy fleet had yet to abandon the system completely.
“Two destroyers are to remain in orbit to provide fire support for the troops on the ground,” she ordered. “The remainder of the fleet is to prepare for immediate deployment.”
Her crew, sensing her vile mood, hastened to obey.
Rani settled back in her command chair and forced herself to relax. Losing custody of the prisoners was annoying, but it paled compared to the sheer scope of her success. The war had begun, Wolfbane had claimed the most important prize along the border ... and she’d ensured that there would be no hope of a negotiated peace. Governor Brown would need her more than ever, now that the Commonwealth was hopping mad over the assassination attempt on their leader. Rani had hoped it would kill her – a person who could broker a durable truce between warring factions was clearly not someone to underestimate – but it had worked out well enough. For a plan executed across light years, with so much that could go wrong, it had been damn near perfect.
She smirked. No matter the problems on the planet’s surface, there was no escaping the simple truth. The war was halfway to being won. All they had to do was keep up the pressure and the Commonwealth would crumple and collapse into chaos. And then Rani would be well-placed to unseat Brown and take power for herself.
***
Mandy had known it was coming, but it still shocked her.
“She surrendered?”
“Yes, Captain,” the communications officer said. “The CEF has surrendered.”
Mandy gritted her teeth. At best, Jasmine would go into a POW camp, either on Thule itself or somewhere deeper in Wolfbane’s space. There would be little hope of escape, even for a Marine. But at worst, Admiral Singh would know just who was responsible for unseating her from Corinthian and extract a little revenge. Jasmine might be tortured to death ...
She pushed the thought aside as she considered her options. There was no point in lurking around the outskirts of the system, not now. Admiral Singh would just keep tight hold of the planet and wait patiently for Mandy’s force to run out of supplies. But if she was leaving the system, maybe she could deliver a parting blow before she left.
“Send the transports out of the system,” she ordered. “And then alter course towards the gas giant.”
She smiled, humourlessly. These days, replacing a cloudscoop wasn't quite
the time-consuming task it had been in the days of the Empire, but losing the cloudscoops would still delay Admiral Singh’s attempts to turn Thule into a supply base for Wolfbane. It would still take months to rebuild the scoops, even the newer ones. Mandy was reluctant to engage them at all – spacers hated the thought of running out of fuel – but she saw no alternative.
“And broadcast a message across the system,” she added. “Anyone who wants to seek refuge from Wolfbane with us is more than welcome.”
It was impossible to know just how many people would take her up on the offer, or if she could get them all away from the out-system bases and industrial nodes. But any trained manpower was welcome ... and it would deny Admiral Singh the chance to make use of them. Besides, if she threatened the cloudscoops ...
She shook her head. An officer as experienced as Admiral Singh would know there was no point in trying to save the cloudscoops, not now. There was no hope of distracting her from Thule long enough to slip around her and pick up Jasmine and the CEF. All they could do was take out the scoops and pray it was enough to score a minor victory.
***
“This is bullshit!”
“As you were,” Thomas snapped. He was just as shocked himself, but he had to maintain discipline. “You have your orders, soldier.”
The soldier looked mutinous. Thomas didn't really blame him. None of them had prepared for the prospect of surrender, not really. Going into Wolfbane’s hands would be risky – the promise of good treatment might easily be broken – but the alternative was disobeying orders and trying to go underground. Anywhere else, Thomas would have considered it a viable tactic; after all, as long as it wasn’t completely hopeless, Marines were meant to carry on the fight. But here, on Thule, he knew it had become hopeless.
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