An Uneasy Alliance: Book 4 of the Sentenced to War Series

by Chaney, J. N.

  While the lawyers argued before Congress and the courts, Evvo brought in more equipment and stepped up the mining. After Evvo forcibly evicted five families and destroyed their homes, the Scratchers reacted, burning two excavators. CMG, which had a very robust corporate army, sent in the troops.

  In normal conditions, this wouldn’t be a huge problem. From a legal standpoint, most experts opined that the CMG had the upper hand. And to be blunt, the fate of such a small Scratcher population was not going to be a major flashpoint.

  Until the Osnovnoy Alyanz got involved.

  With the war with the Centaurs over, various governments started the age-old game of power. Everyone was at peace, but for how long? And no one wanted to cede what power they’d manage to create. Before the war, the Osnovnoy Alyanz was a mid-level government, but they had ramped up military production until it almost matched that of the Union, MDS, and Federation. And they were in the thick of the fighting, losing perhaps more soldiers and sailors to the Centaurs than any other nation. And now, they were flexing their strength, anxious to be considered a major power.

  One of the very first refugee groups to reach Cat Scratch was a small sect from the Ural Mountains on Earth, back when humans still lived there. The Osnovnoy Alyanz used that connection, which was tenuous at best, to claim protectorship over the entire Scratcher population. Grasping at any lifeline, the Scratchers agreed.

  The Alyanz sent a task force of four ships and a regiment of Cossacks to take orbit above the planet and demand that the CMG troops stand down. Using the Alyanz as cover, the Scratchers raised their own militia to face the corporate troops.

  The CMG force could mow down the militia, but when the ships were taken into account, the militia and Cossacks, if they landed, were far more powerful than the CMG troops, so it looked like they would have to comply.

  Except . . .

  CMG was a Federation of Independent States corporation, and Talik Moud, son of the CEO, was high in the FIS central government. There was no way that the FIS was going to one: allow CMG, who they said was legally in the right, to be taken under threat by a foreign government, and two: allow the upstart Osnovnoy Alyanz to maneuver its way into a seat at the table as a major power.

  While Rev and the rest of the Home Guard Union Marines were enjoying their birthday ball on Enceladus, a task force of eight FIS ships and a division of soldiers entered the Cat Scratch system. Their terse message was that if any Alyanz ship fired upon the planet, or if any Cossack set foot on it, the SA would consider that an act of war and would react accordingly.

  The Alyanz commander replied that they would consider any movement of the CMG forces against the Scratchers an act of war, and they would react accordingly.

  This situation was one of the reasons the Congress of Humanity existed. Before the war, the CoH might have tried to rely almost exclusively on diplomacy, but the new Counsel General was more proactive. He knew diplomacy took time, and the situation on Cat Scratch was a powder keg, ready to blow. With his mission to cement the place of the CoH as the de facto government of humanity, he had to prove the CoH’s worth. This was the situation that was either going to do that or relegate the CoH to the trash bin of history along with every other attempt at uniting humanity.

  Six hours after the arrival of the FIS task force, the Home Guard got its marching orders. The alert battalion was to immediately leave for Cat Scratch to make sure the powder keg’s fuze wasn’t lit.

  31

  Rev, Randigold, and Sign of Respect, each with their IBHUs mounted, stood at attention behind and to Assistant Vice-Counsel Borgia’s left, while Staff Sergeant Kvat and two other karnans stood behind and to her right. It was obvious that they were props, and Rev thought he knew how Sergeant Tsao felt as part of the Praetorian Guard. But while Tsao was there to impress the tourists, the IBHU Marines and karnans were there to impress two parties. They were a display of Congress of Humanity strength.

  The battalion had landed three short hours before, inserting themselves between the militia and the CMG corporate troops. They were to act as physical buffers, keeping the two forces from clashing. Hopefully, no one would risk a conflict where the Home Guard could be involved. The political situation was ever-evolving as nations began to fall in line, backing either the FIS or the Alyanz, or, like the Union, remaining neutral. In this fluid situation, neither side would want to do something to alienate other nations, sending them to support the opposite camp.

  That was the general theory, at least.

  And now, the Home Guard was going to set the stage from a position of power. The assistant vice-counsel essentially demanded a meeting with representatives from both sides.

  Rev was surprised that someone so low on the totem pole was put in charge, but she’d been hustled aboard their old ride, the Takagahara, at the last moment, and word was that someone more senior would replace her. She was somewhat on the short side and a little overweight, and her dark auburn, ear-length French bob, might make her look like a woman unsuccessfully trying to regain a cute, youthful appearance. At least, that’s what was Rev’s initial impression—one that lasted all of a minute. She had completely taken charge, immediately refusing requests by the FIS and Alyanz to send reps to the meeting. As Bundy explained later, letting them attend would help lend credibility to those two nations when one of the main goals of the task force was to separate them from the direct conflict on the ground.

  Three representatives from the militia, with only green armbands signaling that they were part of an organized military, stood at the back of the expeditionary shelter, empty except for the single table. They eyed the six troopers, but their gaze lingered on the three IBHU Marines. That wasn’t surprising, as when they were in their combat suits, they had more obvious differences from normal humans than did the karnans.

  Rev couldn’t tell if they seemed more angry, wary, or cowed by the troopers’ appearance. With his face shield down and darkened, they couldn’t see his face, so he was free to study them without having to be a stoic Praetorian Guard. He could also watch for any signs of aggression. He doubted very much that they’d dare make a move against the assistant vice-counsel, but better vigilance than regret.

  The door to the shelter opened, and Major Muncie-Toulamore, the battalion executive officer, stuck his head in. “The CMG team is here, ma’am.”

  “Send them in.”

  Rev didn’t move his helmet, but he shifted his eyes to watch as three mercenaries walked in. Legally, they weren’t mercenaries, but Rev and most other military personnel thought of them as such. In their plain olive-colored jumpsuits, they had almost none of the traditional military appearance and were more like . . . well, businessmen.

  He knew not to be dismissive of them, though. They may look like mid-level corporate stooges, but each of them had served in a military force until they’d been recruited by the corporate world, lured with high salaries and perks. Each would be proven warriors, not to be underestimated.

  They ignored the three militiamen and approached the assistant vice-counsel, but before one of them could speak, she raised a hand to silence him.

  “Representatives from the local settlers . . .”

  Rev noticed she didn’t say “squatters.”

  “. . . if you would step forward. I don’t want to be saying this twice.”

  The three militia hesitantly moved forward, one of them, a younger woman, glaring laser blasts at the three soldiers. The soldiers still didn’t acknowledge them, staring at the CoH rep as if she were the only person in the room.

  Once they were all standing in front of her table, she said, “I’m Assistant Vice-counsel Katherine Borgia from the Office of Conflict Resolution. Currently, your disagreements are being considered by the Counsel General and appropriate divisions.

  “We, and by we, I mean the Home Guard and my staff, have been sent here to monitor the situation on the ground. Currently, the MCS Takagahara is in geosynchronous orbit over our position. More ships and ground
troops will be arriving over the next week.

  The three CMG soldiers didn’t blink at that last. The three Scratcher militia looked at each other as if trying to figure out the ramifications of what she’d just said.

  “I want to stress that we are not here to support either one of you over the other. That is a matter that is being determined back on Titan. But as you know, the wheels of diplomacy and law sometimes turn slowly. And until a decision has been reached, there . . . will . . . be . . . no . . . direct contact between the two of you.”

  She stopped to make sure that sunk in.

  “As you leave, you will be given a chart delineating your current positions. You will conform to those boundaries until a final resolution has been reached. We are here to enforce these boundaries.

  “Should one of you cross the boundaries, the other is not authorized to take matters into their own hands. You will contact us. Should you have any issues with the other, you will not take matters into your own hands. You will contact us. If, for any reason, you feel you need to interact with the other side, you will not take matters into your own hands. You will contact us. Do you understand this?”

  One of the soldiers—Rev couldn’t tell this rank, and he made a mental note to get ranks and organizations from Punch—nodded, and a militiaman said, “Yes.”

  The CoH rep smiled and leaned back in her chair. Her voice lost some of the rock-like fortitude she’d just been using. “Good. I’m glad we’re all in accord here. I believe you each have been assigned a liaison team. If you have any issues, any at all, please use your liaison to get word back to me.

  “I’m serious when I say we’re not here to pick sides. We’re just here to try and keep the peace until this mess is unraveled and we’ve reached an equitable resolution. Please cooperate, and we can keep things from deteriorating into something none of us want. We can maintain civility while those in Titan argue and negotiate.

  “Do you have any questions?”

  The three soldiers were marble statues. The young woman, the one who’d been eye-killing the soldiers, opened her mouth to speak, but one of the others elbowed her into silence.

  The assistant vice-counsel had to have seen that, but she acted as if she didn’t.

  “OK, then. That’s all I have for now. Thank you for coming and for your cooperation.”

  She finally stood up from her chair and reached across the table to shake hands. She split the two groups by moving to the Scratchers first, who quickly moved quickly to take her hands. When they were done, she hesitated, freezing the soldiers in place before she offered her hands to them.

  “If you’ll step outside, Mr. Hannah will hand you the maps.”

  It was an obvious dismissal. The three soldiers nodded and turned away, but as he was doing so, the older soldier finally let his eyes linger on Rev for a moment. His eyes were piercing, and Rev felt like he’d been peeled apart, layer by layer.

  Yeah, Reverent. Don’t underestimate these mercs.

  The Scratchers waited until the soldiers left. As two of them turned away, the young woman turned back to the CoH rep and took a step forward, her body language pretty clear that she wanted to talk to her. But the older man snaked out a hand, grabbed her by the upper arm, and pulled her back. Her face was flustered, and she tried to resist, but the old man’s grip was firm. He half dragged her out of the shelter.

  The assistant vice-counsel waited until they left, then let out a sigh and sat down. Rev was impressed with her performance. She’d brooked no nonsense at first, and her little comment about more ships and troopers was a warning; make no mistake about that. But after laying down the law, she’d become more approachable, leaving the impression that they were only there to help, that they were all in this together.

  Pretty slick. But I guess that’s why she’s a diplomat.

  She turned to face the six troopers behind her. “Thank you. I appreciate you standing there like mannequins. I know that’s not what you expected when you left Enceladus, but we each have to do what we can to forward the cause.

  “Go ahead and rejoin your unit. But stand by. Once Evvo realizes that the boundaries prohibit them from moving forward with their mining, I’m sure we’re going to hear from our merc friends again.”

  Rev smiled behind his darkened face shield. Even a civilian called them mercenaries.

  “And if you can send in Mr. Hannah, I’d appreciate it.”

  And that was a dismissal as well.

  * * *

  The assistant vice-counsel had been right. Three times over the last two days, the six of them had been summoned to stand guard in the room. The first time was only an hour after the initial meeting. The young Scratcher was back, and she spent ten minutes making a passionate plea about “fairness” and “history.”

  The CoH rep listened with a pleasant smile on her face until the woman ran out of steam, then she reminded her that they were not here to take sides. They weren’t allowed to take sides. All the negotiations were taking place on Titan.

  The Scratcher wasn’t happy when she left, and the mission head dismissed the six of them, only to call them back thirty minutes later. This time it was a company rep arriving with one of the soldiers who’d been there earlier. The Evvo rep was almost beside himself, complaining that he had excavators that were now stopped at the edge of the “bullshit” boundary and crews who still had to be paid for sitting on their butts doing nothing. He kept stressing that gorbnium was a strategic material, vital to the defense of humanity.

  “Is it really that vital?” Rev asked his battle buddy.

 

  Rev might not have known that, but he was pretty sure Ms. Borgia already knew it without having to look it up. He didn’t think that much got past her. She just sat there with the slight smile and earnest expression that said, “I’m listening to you and will consider what you’re saying.”

  The man went on, saying that margins were so tight that even a few days would put the operation into the red, and she, as head of the CoH mission, would be blamed for the hit on the galaxy-wide economy.

  He finally finished with the flush of someone who absolutely knew that he’d destroyed the assistant vice-counsel with his brilliant mix of logic and threats . . . only to have her shut him down with a simple, “Thank you for coming. The boundaries will stay where they are.”

  The man’s face got redder, and he started to argue when Ms. Borgia turned to Rev and Randigold and asked them to escort the rep out.

  Both Marines stepped forward to do her bidding, and the Evvo rep, with a horrified look at Randigold and her Genesian nightmare appearance, started sputtering about “taking this higher” and almost ran out of the shelter. The soldier escorting him couldn’t help but roll his eyes as he followed.

  Ms. Borgia shook her head, thanked them, then got back to her pad. Rev expected to be called back at any minute, but the petitioners held off to the next day when yet another group was sent back without achieving their objective.

  Yes, Ms. Borgia was tough as nails. Rev thought she’d have made a good Marine.

  Between acting as props, the six joined their squads in visible, non-tactical patrols. The Home Guard had basically claimed a klick and a half wide, forty-five klick long swath of land running on either side of a major dry riverbed. The battalion CO was sending a continual string of squad-sized patrols up and down this slice of Cat Scratch, making sure that both sides could see them.

  The patrols weren’t tactical and could easily be ambushed in the tortured terrain, particularly in the maze of washes on the north side where Fox Company patrolled, but the CO wanted to both remind the watchers that they were there and that they were confident of their abilities to withstand an attack.

  Rev had confidence, too . . . to an extent.

  While the Scratchers might have fire-and-forget missiles or even some energy weapons
, the intel was that they didn’t have much in the way of military training or leadership, and that the battalion’s active countermeasures should be enough to turn back any Scratcher assault.

  The CMG troops, however, were a different story. They had the money backing them up so that their weapons were modern, and they had the means to counter the battalion’s defenses. Rev didn’t think they could defeat the battalion, but they could do some damage.

  The real threat to the troopers was the forces in orbit. If either the FIS or Alyanz ships jumped the Takagahara, she wouldn’t stand much of a chance against those odds, and without her, the ground troops would have lost their biggest support platform. And if the FIS ground troops decided to close with the battalion, the Home Guard troopers would be extremely hard-pressed to defeat them. Rev wasn’t sure they could.

  But from the patrolling standpoint, if one of the other fleets made a move, the troopers would have time to abandon the open shows of force that the patrols were and assume a more tactical posture.

  All they had to do was keep the two sides from each other’s throats long enough for reinforcements from the home system to arrive. A week at most before more ships joined the Takagahara and more troops landed in their little buffer zone.

  Easy peasy.

  32

  Corporal Akkeke scrambled down into the wash and up the other side while Rev covered him. The corporal paused there, surveyed the area, then gave the all-clear signal.

  Only, it wasn’t clear. Five armed Scratchers were just on the other side of the boundary, openly watching them with interest. But as long as they stayed in their area and didn’t cross over, they were to be ignored. They weren’t there, as far as the troopers were concerned.