Warrior Chronicles 3: Warrior's Realm (16 page)

“I don’t know of many forces in history that will be like that one.” Cort indicated the wolves and asked, “What do you have for them today?”

“I hate this part, baby. I understand it, but I hate it anyway. Today, it’s a raptor. It lost a foreleg in migration.” Kim stood and walked to a gate. After opening it, she said, “Hunt!” and watched all three wolves bound through the underbrush in search of their prey.”

“It’s necessary though. Now more than ever.”

Kim sat back down beside Cort and began eating the plate he had made for her. After a few bites, she said, “Will you be here when the baby is born?”

“Yeah, I will. I should be back with a week to spare. I’m taking Bane with me. It’s time for him to hunt the enemy.”

“Cort, he could get you caught.”

“He could also save me. Kimberly, you haven’t seen much in the way of ground combat. I have. The books about me in the family library only tell about the things Amber knew. But Sköll and I fought a lot of battles before I met Amber. He killed a lot of animals defending me, including humans.”

“Bane isn’t Sköll.”

“You’re right. He’s twice the wolf Sköll was. He’s meaner, he’s tougher, and he’s better trained. I always tried to protect Sköll. I don’t have to protect Bane. He’s a weapon.”

As if on cue, Bane backed into the clearing. In his jaws was a raptor that was easily three times as large as the wolf, and whether it had lost a foreleg or not, it had clearly fought well. Bane was covered with cuts and bite marks that were already healing. Zandra and Coke were blooded as well, though not to the extent that Bane was. They too, were healing. Like all of Cort’s warhounds, the two had been given the bio-synthetics that the Asian scientists had developed for Bane.

Bane dropped the dead dinosaur next to Cort and sat down. Once the other two sat near him, Cort stood up and, with his FALCON-enhanced strength, he picked up the raptor and began tearing pieces from it. After dividing the meat between the wolves, he sat again and wiped the blood from his gloved hands. Kim had watched the same scene play out dozens of times, and as with every other time, she felt both revulsion and desire as her warrior ruled their pack.

The group was on their way back to the main compound when the defensive net activated. They ran the rest of the way to the command center, where Cort donned the latest incarnation of the CONDOR suit and Kimberly locked the compound down. Through his HUD, Cort saw a timer begin to flash. “Stand down, people. It’s a drill.” The random drills happened at least once a week, and not even Cort or Kimberly had any control over them.

Cort said, “Well done, everyone. It looks like that was the last short drill. From here on out, we will have to respond to incoming ships. Study up on dummy rounds and be sure you know the code to abort the exercise. They might not be charged, but even a dummy slug could wipe us out.”

“General,” a comm tech said. “I did not want to disturb your lunch, sir. Major Pence is inbound on the
Taurus
. He is due to arrive in thirty minutes, and asked us to clear your afternoon.”

“Okay, thanks for giving us a break, Sergeant. I truly appreciate that. Send him to my office when he arrives.”

--

“I hope this is going to be a pleasant surprise, Jeff.” Cort welcomed Pence into his office and poured them both coffee. Bane had never met Pence, and stayed alert even when Cort tried to calm him.

“Yes, sir. I think it…” Pence looked down at the massive wolf. “Sir, are you sure my FALCON is enough if he takes a lunge at me?”

“He hasn’t torn mine yet. Not even the neck.”

“Your neck, sir? Damn.” Pence started to reach down to the animal.

“I wouldn’t do that. The suits are only so good. He’s broken quite a few fingers.”

“Ah. Yes, sir.”

Cort sipped his coffee and put the cup down before saying, “What can I do for you, Major?”

“Are you religious, General?”

“Not in the least. I grew up that way, but then I, well, grew up.”

“Well, I am, sir. To a degree, anyway. More to the point though, are you familiar with the
Septuagint
?

“The Old Testament translation? I’ve heard of it.”

“Well, sir, legend says that Ptolemy II sequestered seventy scholars individually and had them translate the Old Testament word for word. They all wrote the same thing. Some think it was divine, some think it was because Ptolemy threatened them. Either way, they all said the same thing.”

“I use a similar technique in my interrogations, Jeff. Mythology aside, where are you going with this?”

“I interrogated all of the prisoners using the peaceful version. That is, I didn’t threaten them. Really I just had conversations with them, but I asked them all the same things. About their people, and the like.”

“Okay, what did you get?”

“I recorded hours of conversations for the intel people, but there was one key thing. Out of the forty-two prisoners we have, thirty-nine of them told me that Heroc is a queen.”

Cort sat upright. “A queen? How confident are you of that?”

“I never directly asked a single one of them. Over time, a lot of them just let it slip. I can’t imagine they all had that one piece of false information to share, or what they would hope to gain from it.”

“You did well, Jeff. Why did you befriend them?”

“Your old interrogation manuals. If you have enough time, being nice is much more fruitful.”

“If you have enough time.”

“Yes, sir, and I did.”

“So why didn’t you comm this, Jeff?”

“I have a question, General. And I need a straight answer.”

“Okay.”

“Do you really intend to wipe out the species?”

“No. They get one planet.”

“They will never agree to that, sir.”

“They don’t have a choice, Jeff,” Cort said. He leaned forward on his desk and pushed the coffee cut to the side. “Are you having second thoughts, Major?”

“I don’t know, sir. Well, that is not true. I am having second thoughts. I do not think I can kill them just because you order me to. I’m sorry, sir.”

“Could you kill them at all?”
Fuck. This has to be Bazal. I can’t keep him around my fighters. Goddammit!

“I think I could defensively.”

“But not otherwise.”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

Pence looked down and said, “I’m sorry, sir.”

“I won’t lie, Jeff. I am disappointed. But part of this is my fault. I should have been clear and ordered you not to interact with the prisoners. It humanized them.”
But how do I keep Bazal’s bodyguards sharp?

“So, what now?” Pence asked.

“What did you do before I popped up?”

“I have a doctorate in botany. I suppose I can go back to that.”

“I could ask Dar to put you in charge of the domes on Mars. Kim has more than she can do now, so I am sure she would welcome someone else being in charge of that. You won’t see other worlds, but you will still see their flora.”

“I would appreciate that, sir.”

“Okay, Jeff. Why don’t you make yourself comfortable around the compound. I need to order the changes. I will drop you at Mars later today when I am on my way to Government World. Before you take on your new role, you will be debriefed by the Admiralty.”

“General, John Glass would be a good man to take my job.”

“I appreciate the input Jeff, and I know you mean well, but I can’t include you in those decisions.”

More than a little dejectedly, Jeff said, “I understand.”

After Pence left his office, Cort began reorganizing his Table of Organization and Equipment. After he closed the TOE, Cort commed his Admirals and then Dar.

Government World

“How are you, General?” Bazal asked.

“I’ve been better. We have a problem. It seems your influence, even just residually, is affecting my men. I have to protect you, but I have to protect them as well. They need to be able to fight. Jeff Pence told me today that he cannot. My fear is that every human fighter on this planet has been compromised.”

“Is this why you are wearing your heavy armor?”

“Yes, and all security teams assigned to you from now on will be shielded from you at all times. I will also be rotating them out regularly. In addition, they will get new quarters that will be shielded from you.”

“I will miss communing with you, Cortland.”

“Bazal, if we can find a way to do that safely, I would like to do so again. But frankly, my base violence is the only hope the Collaborative has. So I cannot risk it.”

“I understand, General. Perhaps you could simply shield me.”

“We are designing a tank with that in mind, but your knowledge of the mental state of others is too valuable to me, so it will only be used when you visit human worlds. Is that acceptable?”

“It is sad, but it is acceptable, Cortland.”

“Thank you for understanding,” Cort said as they approached the detention facility. “I also intend to tell Admiral Jones my reason for the change. But it will not go beyond her. Now, if you will excuse me, Bazal, I am going to visit our prisoners. I hope to see you before I leave, my friend.”

“I understand your need to tell the Admiral of my abilities. If you are able to see me before you leave, I will make time for you. Good day, General.”

--

“Heroc, it is time to contact your people again,” Addison said as he entered her cell. “I’m sure they would like to speak to you.”

“I trust your negotiations with them have gone well, General,” Heroc clicked.

“There have been no negotiations, Heroc. Nor will there be. I have stated my terms.”

Heroc stopped short and looked at the General. “You have made no attempt at communication? But you have had my transmitter all this time. Has it not activated?”

“It has activated several times. I have not bothered to answer it.”

“When will you continue your attacks, sir?”

“Heroc, I have never stopped them. In the past six months, we have destroyed over seventeen hundred of your planets. I have an entire fleet of ships working on it full time. This war will be over by the next solstice. All that remains is to know whether or not it will end peacefully, or with your extinction.”

The sound Heroc made was something of a mournful chirp. “Seventeen hundred worlds?”

“Something like that, yes. We will destroy the rest of them unless you get your Supreme to agree to my terms.”

“Perhaps that is why they tried to communicate. To discuss options.”

“There is only one option, Heroc. I’ve been clear about that. I don’t know how to make that more clear to you. I will stop destroying your worlds when you have only one left,” Cort said. With grim finality, he added, “The one I assign to you.”

“System 641,” Heroc added.

“Yes. We have already started preparing it for your arrival.”

“How so?”

“It has been seeded with plants that are high in sucrose and xylose, and your native microbes have been added to the ecosystem as well. We have also planted many plants used by Blatterians on the planet.”