Birth of a New Legend: Book 3 of the Death Dealer Saga - Death’s Own Daughter.

by Jessie Wolf

  “Excuse me, Lady Maiha, but I was sent by your mother to remind you and your sisters that you are expected to be at the Temple in three hours.” I was so lost in thought that I didn’t notice Susan White Horse enter the room. The fact that she said I had to be there in three hours would put it at sixteen hundred. “Oh, and your mother said to remember your Family’s swords. She said something about you needed to be present as the Defender of House Nakatoma.”

  I can tell by the look of confusion she didn’t have a clue about my needing a set of swords at a wedding. Thankfully I remembered how Matsu’s and Dai Etsu’s father wore them at my marriage to Matsu all those long years ago. Back then he carried the honor of the House and Family. Now it is my turn to perform this duty.

  Turning to Susan “Thank you, Susan, you can return to your mistress now. Please inform her that I shall have my sisters there in time and ready for her marriage.” I watch as she bows to me and heads for the door to leave.

  “Ok, sisters we have two and a half hours to get everything in order for mama’s wedding. Nanase and Nanami, I need you two to go to each of the mercenary units and invite their commanding officer and XO’s to the wedding.” They both give me a quick bow and head out to do as I have asked. “Fuyuko, I need you to get a hold of the com-techs and have them set up to broadcast the wedding over the net.” With a smile she bows to me and follows her sisters. “Captain Ravenswood if you can make sure that the POWs are secured in a safe and secure location I would greatly appreciate it.” He gives me a quick bow and heads off to take care of his assignment. With those tasks taken care of I turn to the gathered maids. There is a total of nine that I can use as runners to deliver orders for getting things set up for the reception.

  “Ok, listen up ladies. You nine have exactly three hours to get the Great Hall set up for a celebration banquet. There needs to be enough seating for two hundred. Because I plan to invite all the department heads, officers of House military, and their next in charge plus their supports or S.O.s. I don’t care how you get it done, just do it.” Turning to Alice I smile. “Love, I need you to do me a big favor. I need you to go over to the estates gardener and see if he can supply enough flowers to decorate the place settings.”

  “Um… Maiha, I don’t mean to be rude, but just what are you going to be doing while all of us are running around taking care of getting the wedding ready?” Alice was looking at me with a look of awe in her face.

  “I need to take care of seeing to the dead and wounded. That is my responsibility and I will not pass it off to anyone else. Besides I doubt that the Death Dealers will give out that info to anyone else.” I tell her grimly. I know too well how my brothers in the Death Dealers look on outsiders trying to find out that bit of information.

  “I made a promise to them and it is one I will keep. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to carry out that promise.” I turn away from them and picked up the Family swords. As I begin to settle them at my waist Gin, Kina, and Nia quickly move to give me a hand. Their expert eyes placed the Family swords where they need to be. “Thank you ladies, now if you’ll excuse me, I have to take care of a pressing matter.”

  With that I head out for the Death Dealers MCU alone. This was something that I had to do on my own. No one else had made the promise that I had and I was going to keep it. As I walk through the compound I look around at the damage that was done. Everywhere I look I see the signs of the battle form this morning.

  I can see were auto-cannon rounds that had missed their targets had landed carelessly in the inner compound area, craters from missiles, and whole buildings flattened by lasers and PPC’s. Yes, we had won the battle, but we had paid a high cost. The more I see the madder I become. I stop in the worst area and my heart feels heavy.

  I can tell that Light, Daniels, and Moor had given orders for their fire support APS units to target this area on purpose. A little more than half of the houses for the civilians had been hit by either long range heavy gun fire or missiles. This was a deliberate act of wanton destruction. My anger for Light, Daniels and Moor just became more and more incandescent. When it comes time to pass judgment on these men there will be no mercy. They are monsters pure and simple. They were blinded by greed and a desire for power.

  It is with a heavy heart as I enter the Death Dealers area. All around me I see the signs of the heavy fighting they had been in. Where once there was a neat and orderly compound, now there was make shift work areas for the repair of their equipment. A field hospital had been setup over on the far side of the MCU, and a vehicle recovery and repair area was setup on the other side. Once again I am reminded of the price we had paid for this victory. As I come close to the MCU I am stopped by a young Private on guard duty. “Excuse me, young lady, but this is a restricted area.”

  “Private, I’m Lady Maiha Nakatoma; I need to see the Group Commander.” I tell him.

  As he looks me up and down, he sees the swords at my waist. “You’ll have to leave the swords out here, ma’am.”

  Now this was something I was not prepared for. I was not going to give up my Family’s swords for anyone. “Sorry, Private but that ain’t going to happen. Now step aside before you piss me off even more.”

  “Ma’am, I’m sorry, but I have my orders from General Stevens himself. No one is to enter the MCU armed.”

  When I heard that someone else has given this order I realize that I might not have any friends inside of the MCU. Time for a little investigation. “Where is General Star, Private?”

  “He’s over in the hospital, ma’am.”

  “Ok, now where is General McCall?”

  “Dead, ma’am.”

  “General McFeeters?”

  “Also dead ma’am.”

  “Generals Fritz?”

  “He is in the hospital undergoing surgery as we speak, ma’am.”

  This was not a good sign. If the top four commanders for the Death Dealers have been put out of commission then I just might have a fight on my hands in that MCU. “Very well, Private. If you’ll be so kind as to let whoever is in charge know that I’m here to see them I would appreciate it.” When he didn’t move to carry out my request I know I have a problem. Taking a deep breath “Command override code Hellfire Delta seven nine Delta Omega one.” The look one this poor man’s face was priceless. He quickly turns and runs into the MCU. The very fact I had just used the First High Lord’s command codes was enough for him to realize he was not dealing with some kid.

  As I stand there waiting for whoever was in charge I noticed some very unsettling things. Off to one side there were four men from House of Light. The fact that they were not in custody was more than enough reason for me to be on guard. Before I can ask someone about them the Private returns with one of the acting commanders. “Are you Lady Nakatoma?” he asks.

  “Yes, I’m Lady Maiha Nakatoma. Who might you be, sir?”

  “Oh, I’m sorry, my Lady. I’m General David Stevens, General Star’s XO.” He was a good looking man in his mid-forty’s form the looks of it. He was a little tall for a Death Dealer at about six foot six, but other than that he was the perfect example of a Death Dealer.

  “Thank you, General Stevens, now if we can head inside we have things to discuss.”

  “I’m afraid that is not going to happen.” At my look of confusion he elaborated. “You see, Lady Nakatoma, I have no way of confirming your identity. You may claim to be the First High Lady of the Death Dealers, but I know for a fact that there has never been a woman in the Death Dealers. You maybe the Head of House Nakatoma, but you have no standing here. I don’t know how you got the command codes for the First High Lord, but I will not let you fool me the way you did General Star.”

  This stupid son-of-bitch just pushed me past my point of pissativity. “Empirical command override Beta six Tango seven.” Normally I would never invoke the loyalty override that is implanted in all Death Dealers, but this fool was trying to stage a coup. I watch as his eyes go wide in fright. No one in the past one
hundred years has ever used this command. For me to be using it means that not only do I have the authority of life and death over him, I was really the First High Lady of the Death Dealers, but the H.B.I.C. for the whole system.

  “Please, forgive me, Lady Nakatoma, I have not had the pleasure of meeting you as of yet.” I could tell he was honest in his reply and truly had no idea of what I looked like. I need to get to the bottom of this.

  “Can I ask why you doubted who I was? I mean I gave your guard the proper codes for identifying myself.”

  Stevens looks over at the four men from House of Light. “I was informed by members of House Light that there was an imposter in the House of Nakatoma who had stolen the codes who was passing herself off as the granddaughter of J.J. Owens in an attempt to replace the rightful leadership for this planet. I know that we just got through putting down a rebellion here by certain Houses, but I didn’t know the full extent of the rebellion. I didn’t want to place the Emperor or the Death Dealers in a position of interfering with the rightful succession of a planetary rule.”

  That was all I needed to hear. The man was following s.o.p. for any planet in open rebellion if there was even a little question as to the rightful leadership. As I look over at the four men form House Light I recognize that each of them is just First Lieutenants. Low men on the pole. They would not have been in on the full extent of what the Heads of House were actually doing. “General, I suggest that we continue this inside the MCU.”

  “Yes, ma’am, right this way.” He leads me inside the MCU. Once inside I find that instead of there being four generals I’m greeted by two Colonels and one Brigadier General. I take a quick look over at Stevens and see he is only a Lieutenant General. My God! What had happened on their front for them to have lost almost all of their upper command structure? As if reading my mind Stevens “This is our reserve MCU, my Lady. The primary took a direct hit from a guided missile. Only those that you see here now were not in or around it at the time. If I didn’t know better I would have said the enemy knew exactly where we had our CMCU when that missile hit.”

  “How do you know they didn’t Stevens? I know for a fact that I have had traitors in my own House Military.”

  He just hangs his head before looking at me. “It was my own antiaircraft battery that let the enemy helo get through. The bastard fired six self-guided missiles before the secondary battery brought him down.” The anger over that failure was clear in his voice, along with his disgust over it. “We just didn’t take the air threat as seriously as we should have, ma’am. It was my fault and no one else’s. My unit was assigned the task of making sure we had air superiority. I failed to take in to account how low those Raiders could fly.”

  “General Stevens, if there is one thing I learned from my grandfather it is this. No plan ever survives contact with the enemy. I had it all figured out on how they were going to come at us from the sea side of the estate compound. They did everything the way they should have and I still lost over a third of my House troops and almost half of the mercenary troops as well, not to mention putting my family in danger. All because I lost control of my temper and jumped the brim and attacked the enemy head on instead of staying in my fighting position. Trust me, we all make mistakes, now we must learn from them and move on. Now, please tell me how bad the butcher’s bill is.”

  “Outside of taking in the fact we almost lost all of the senior command our losses were rather low. Between the four divisions we only lost a total of ten percent of the APS, fifteen percent of the jump infantry, and ten percent of our armor. To be honest my Lady, most of those are in the hospital. Our actual dead is only around five percent across the board. I don’t know how we got so lucky, but I’ll take it any time.”

  As he hands me the read out of the dead and wounded I almost cry. A grand total of seven hundred and eighty six dead, may the Goddess forgive me, but to have such a low number of dead among the Death Dealers is a blessing in disguise. My House military maybe wrecked but I still had a Military force I can use if I need to defend this planet or the system. Looking up at what is for now my command staff I realize that except for Stevens the majority of my commanders have not truly ever handled these many troops before. Time to take some drastic measures. “General Stevens, please contact the commanders of the other five divisions, and make arrangements for them to meet with me tomorrow morning. Also I need to know who is in command of those divisions and what their make is.”

  A young Colonel interrupts me. “Excuse me, my Lady, but the next senior commander would be General Lassitor of the four nineteenth Light Division in Star Port city.”

  “Thank you, Colonel?” I leave it hanging so he can supply his own name.

  “Oh, sorry ma’am. I’m Colonel Johnny Recco of the tenth Jump Infantry Regiment, one hundred and first Light Division, Screaming Eagles.”

  “Thank you Colonel Recco, please send my compliments and request General Lassitor to join me here. Now I know that it is not our standard policy to give out the names of our dead, but I made a promise that all those who died here today would be remembered I need those names, please.” At their confused looks as to why I would need those names I realize I had to explain what I was going to do. “Gentlemen I plan to erect a monument to all of the fallen here at the beginning of a graveyard for them.” the looks of shock that crosses their faces is one that will stay with me to my final days. “That’s right, you heard me correctly. I have at my disposal more than eighty hectares of land. I plan to turn ten of those hectares into a graveyard for our dead. At the front of it will be a monument to all those who have died here today in the defense of the Empire. Yes I know that in the past we have always placed the names of our dead in the Valley of Hero’s, but this is one time they will be in two places because they bought their place of honor amongst the Nakatoma Family. So please, be so kind as to send the list of our dead to my House engineer. I will make sure that their remains will be treated with utmost respect.” When I finish I bow as deeply as I can to these men. Yes, I know I can just order them to do as I want, but there is a long standing tradition to bury Death Dealers in deep space. They are citizens of the Galaxy and as such have no home. I plan to change that today.

  The first to speak is a young Colonel with pilots’ wings. “Ma’am, allow me to introduce myself first. I am Colonel Manfred von Richthofen of the two ninety-second fast attack wing. While I did not lose anyone I find your offer one that should not be passed up. To have just a small piece of land to call our own to bury our dead is something the Death Dealers have never had. Thank you.”

  The next up is the Brigadier General is the next to speak. “Brigadier General Karl Shultz ma’am. I agree with Colonel von Richthofen.” He turned to face the other Colonel. “How about it Colonel Klink, what do you think?”

  “My Lady, as you have no doubt surmised I’m Colonel Wilhelm Klink of the thirteenth Heavy Assault APS Battalion. I too wish to thank you for your very generous offer. It is not often that the people who we fight for wish to honor us the way you have here today.”

  “Trust me Colonel Klink, if there is one person who knows what it means to be a Death Dealer it is me. I was raised on the stories of the Death Dealers and the sacrifices they make for our freedom. My grandfather made sure I would always respect those who wore the Imperial Black of a Death Dealer.” I tell them. Yes I know it was somewhat a lie, but my grandfather did tell me those stories as James J. Owens. They didn’t need to know that though.

  “I guess that I’m the last one to speak, ma’am. And give my thanks. Far too often we only have the names in the Valley of Hero’s to remember our fallen brothers and from what I hear soon our sisters as well. I would be greatly honored to place our dead in this cemetery you have proposed.”

  I can tell by the look in his eyes there have been far too many friends buried in deep space or the heart of some sun. I know all too well the sorrow these men feel. On more than one planet in more than one system I have lost friends, brothers
, and comrades in arms. I have cheated Death on countless battle fields and back alley brawls. To have a place to finally call home was what all Death Dealers dream of, and I was in position to give it to them. And by all that’s holy I was going to give it to them.

  “Gentleman, I am also here for another reason. It would be a great honor to House Nakatoma if you would please join us at the Temple for the marriage of my mother the Grand Lady Dai Etsu Nakatoma to First Sergeant James Malcom Bailey of the House Nakatoma military at sixteen hundred.” I could tell that they were not expecting that. “Gentlemen, please remember it was my mother’s own wedding announcement that brought the rebels down on top of us this morning. It is her firm belief that if she does not hold her wedding today that they will still have won. To be truthful I feel the same way.”

  “I can guarantee that we’ll be there my Lady. I for one will not let the rebels win; we have paid too high a debt as is. I will not let them have this win I will have all senior commanders in full dress uniform there and on time.” I could tell that General Stevens was a dedicated man. The fact he was giving his personal word to have all senior officers there in dress uniform was a true honor.

  “Thank you General Stevens, but they don’t have to be in dress uniform, they just have to be there.” I say.

  “That is where you are wrong, my Lady.” At my questioning look he explains. “I was just a boy of three when your grandfather married the Lady Matsu Nakatoma. My father had me there to show me that even Death Dealers can have the dream of home and family.”