Warrior Chronicles 4: Warrior's Wrath (14 page)

Lex said, “Also no disrespect meant, but that means we have an endless supply of suicide troops, sirs.”

Cort said, “You’re right Lex, and H’uum and I have talked quite a bit about that. We have disposable warriors.”

“Disposable warriors?” JJ asked. “That is a bit callous, sir.”

H’uum smiled, “Not at all, Admiral. I think you are applying your values to my species. We are not
that
united, yet. You forget, we are sworn to defend the federation. To die fulfilling a Canon oath is a great honor. Our species aspires to such a death.”

“So every one of you is a Marine,” Mike said.

“General Addison made the same observation, General. We see such a death as a second life. We spend our young lives supporting the species, which is all a being can ask, then we are able to die for it as well. When recruiting for this operation, I had to turn many away because they were too young.”

JJ thought about what H’uum had said.
We need to keep that under control though. It wouldn’t be prudent to let them get too many numbers. For now we are fine, but after Heroc’s Law is expired. . .
“Supreme, how does the joining of our species affect Heroc’s Law, and how will it affect us after ten generations?”

“It does not affect Heroc’s Law at all, Admiral. The new First Queen, Laypa, has already ratified it. We are working now to assure that our laws default to honoring our ties to the federation. With some changes and some concessions from both sides, we can make an unbreakable bond,” H’uum said.

Liz Thoms asked, “What kinds of concessions?”

“Concessions regarding the government seat, for one. We are proposing the Federation Government rest here at Solitude, but since the planet belongs to Kimberly, she would have to deed it to the combined federation. Further, trade agreements have to be cancelled and rewritten to recognize a single government. Our communal system of government must be reconciled with your military democracy as well.”

“Okay,” Cort said. “We will work those things out, but let’s get back to our little war for the time being.”

H’uum clicked, “I have one other request that
is
pertinent to our little war, General.”

After H’uum made his request Cort said, “I have no problem with that. We won’t force them, though.”

“Agreed. It will have to be by their choice. But if they do not agree…”

“Then we will never protect them again, H’uum,” Cort replied.

--

On Solitude, Cort was asleep next to Dalek when his comm activated.  Shart and Bane both stood at the interruption, but Dalek just turned to his side. Kim was on her morning run with Coke, and the room was quiet except for the chirping of the communication unit as Cort put it in his ear.

“Yeah?” he asked.

“Sir, it’s Kate Williams. We’ve bloodied their noses.”

“What happened?”

“They appeared at Deint. When they hailed the planet, Terip ordered them to Government World. We tracked their signal and hit them before they could even turn their ship. The
Randall
fired from such close range, that our sensors got visuals of the other vessels. I doubt they even got a signal off before we fired at the rest. I also ordered the other three target systems to high alert.”

“Good work, Kate. Go ahead and bombard their planets with our rocks. We still don’t know how they communicate and I don’t want to take a chance. Hit them hard and send in the shock troops. And Kate, no survivors. Not a single one.”

“Yes, sir. Admiral Jones is already on the line with the invasion fleet. I will pass along your orders.”

“Anything else, Kate?”

“No, sir. We will send you an update in a few hours, or sooner if it is appropriate.”

“Thank you. Ares out.”

--

On a planet that the Ares Federation had designated Tapon-3, hundreds of asteroids were raining down on the surface, raising clouds of dust and debris that blotted out the light from the system’s star. The first few hundred rocks to approach the sphere were destroyed by the system’s defensive network, but as Ares ships destroyed one satellite after another, resistance to the onslaught dropped to nearly nothing. Once the Tapons’ ships began to move through the atmosphere, federation ships shot them out of the sky before they could escape to the blackness and invisibility of space.

--

“Lap has betrayed us, there is no other explanation,” Krrril said to his council. “We have lost contact with three planets, but not before they confirmed the presence of both H’uuman and Ares Federation ships. In addition, we have reports that those planets have been bombarded with kinetic strikes. Two were a total loss and the third has reported a H’uuman invasion similar to the one that took the home planet from us.”

“What about our other planets?” someone asked.

“The asteroid strikes are of such intensity that our defensive networks cannot prevent all strikes. Every planet will be affected. In our case, we are fortunate. The asteroids that are headed toward us are still quite distant. We have at least six days to prepare, but there will still be more than three hundred significant hits.”

“And we will still have to deal with the invasion fleet.”

Krrril said, “That is correct. I believe we will lose our planets. Which means we must accelerate our designs for Nill, and I would like council approval to launch an attack on the traitors as well.”

Deint

“Lap has arrived, Your Highness.”

Terip was in a foul mood. He had known something was amiss, but until that morning, he didn’t know the extent of the damage done to his empire, or the extent of the subterfuge. “Send him in.”

Lap entered, surrounded by four guards, all of his arms in shackles. Terip, Cardinal Fourth, and leader of the species humanity knew as Blatterians looked at the prime minister and Speaker of the Collaboration of Species and said, “Were it not for the trust I place in your broodmate, I would have you disposed of, Lap. You assured me that the vote would be in our favor. We have invested our future in the Tapons. Now the Ares Federation is evacuating the diplomats of our allies from this planet. What have you to say?”

Lap was both furious and terrified, but after years in diplomacy, he knew better than to show his emotions, so he reflected neither emotion in his reply. “The vote did go our way, Your Highness. I believe the Collaboration has fallen victim to Ares trickery. We made the mistake of using their communication system.”

“You said we had control of the system! I have the message right here!” Terip searched through the pile of messages in front of him and threw one of them at Lap’s feet. “Explain that!”

“I never sent such a message, Your Highness. As soon as the humans sent my coded message to our allies, they destroyed the communication equipment and abandoned our planet. That was when I first suspected something was amiss. At that same time, several Tapons on Government World were assassinated.”

“I am Cardinal Fourth, Lap. Before me, three generations of my line have ruled our people and now I may lose it all. My own Matriarch will lose honor, and you are telling me that you have been deceived by the rapacious offspring of a planet barely old enough to bear life?”

“They are cunning, Your Highness.”

“They are thieves! They would not even be among the stars if they had not found a discarded trinket from a species ten million years their better. Your collaboration may have trusted them but I never have, and now they have brought ruin to our very system!”

Lap was a diplomat, and as such, he did not remind Terip that His Highness had offered lines of credit to other species in order to secure their support for contracting the humans to protect the Collaboration. Instead, he just said, “Yes, Your Highness.”

Terip looked up suddenly, “How came you to be here so quickly?”

“When I realized what General Addison must have done, I left Government World and came here as quickly as possible. My first duty was to our people.”

Lap’s broodmate entered the chambers. The look of shock on his face was undeniable as he looked from his captive sibling to Terip. “Your Highness,” he said, “I am sorry to interrupt, but more Tapons are in system. They are demanding we surrender to them.”

Terip looked between the two and sighed, his mandibles flexing into a frown. “Would that we knew the ways of war. We have forsaken a protector, only to fall to his guile. Now we will face the wrath of another. Let us hope that our bloodshed is little.”

“You mean to fight, Your Highness?” Lap asked. “But how? We have not taken up arms for a thousand years. You must surrender!”

“Fear not, Lap. I agree that we must capitulate, but I will not surrender to the Tapons. We have been contacted by our cousins the H’uumans. Our fate lies in the hands of the forgotten colonies. We will seek refuge behind the shield of the Ares Federation.” Terip opened his desk and removed a H’uuman communicator.

Earth

Dar Sike stood and walked around his desk to greet his visitor. “Chief, it is good to finally meet you in person. I am more than a bit surprised though. I thought you were done with us.”

Shaking Dar’s hand, Chief Rhodes said, “It is good to talk to you too, Superintendent Dar. I truly wish I could be done with government matters, but fate will not seem to allow it.”

Disappointed at Rhodes’ use of his formal title, Dar said, “Does this have to be so formal, Chief? You left the government without an explanation and ignored us for years. Now you are here and still seem unwilling to be more than civil. Why?”

“Because something is going on in Africa and I need your help figuring it out.”

Sitting down after pouring them both water, Dar said, “No. I finally have you in my office and I want an explanation. Why did you jump ship? Answer that to my satisfaction and we can talk about your problem.”

“Really? I have to give you answers or you will not do the right thing? That is your Addison blood showing through, Superintendent.”

When Rhodes stood, Dar thought he was going to leave. Instead the younger man walked to the office window, which looked out over a large dog park. Below the full length glass, a dozen breeds of small and medium sized dogs played while their humans talked and ate lunch.

“You know, he has done great things. We have dogs again thanks to him. He united the planet. Gods, he even led us to the stars. I admire a lot of things about him. In some ways, I even wish I was more like him. But there is a monster underneath his skin. Not the kind of monster that lives under a child’s bed. The kind that gives adults nightmares.”

“That monster you have nightmares about also does a lot of good. You said that yourself.”

“It is not worth it though, Dar. He set aside an entire planet to bury the victims of his wars. Why would he do that unless he was planning on killing enough of us to fill it? He has killed trillions of aliens. He is not a savior. Not to us or the galaxy.”

“Even H’uumans would argue that, Chief.”

“And they would be wrong.” Rhodes turned away from the window and looked at Dar. “I took part in his wars. I pushed the button a hundred times to help him kill President Beard’s people when they tried to take Mars back.”

When Dar started to comment, Rhodes held up his hand and said, “Wait. I get that it was necessary at that point. That is not my point.”

“What is then?” Dar asked. Dar stood and walked to a sideboy. Without asking if Chief wanted one, he poured two glasses and walked to the other man, handing him one.

“Thank you,” Chief said. Taking a drink, he answered Dar’s question. “It happened before that, when he attacked the Earth colony at the pole. I have a lot of nightmares about that day. We all spent days trying to talk him out of it, but he destroyed those modules and then ripped them open like presents to look inside.”

Dar remembered reading the after-action reports from that day and the subsequent battle. He had lost a lot of family, including his pregnant daughter Kay then. “What is your point Chief?”

Clare was right that day, Dar. Cort wanted to kill those people to prove
his
point. That Mars was his and no one else’s.”

“You know that is not true, Chief. He was right. It was not a research colony like Clare thought. For the gods’ sakes, man, she was my granddaughter! And I lost my daughter days later. You were there, but I promise you that I have more nightmares about those days than you do. But Cort was right.”

“How did he know, Dar? How did he
know?
And I admit he did, but how? How does someone become so good at killing that he knows something like that beforehand?”

Dar went back to his desk and sat down. “I cannot answer that. But he did know. Maybe Bazal is right. Maybe he really is the god of war. I recall you told me once that you yourself said something like that to Keen.”

“Maybe. I do not remember that, though. But do we really want to glorify that? Do we want to glorify war and everything that Cort is? Are we willing to give up our humanity in order to ride on his shoulders across the galaxy?”

“Are you saying that he cannot be humane? If so, you are wrong. He himself ordered the extinction of the Cuplans, but he did not go through with it. He fought for months trying to find a way not to wipe them out.”

“Because of the vagabond Heroc. Because of her friendship with Kim Point. Maybe he should try to talk to the enemy before he kills them.”

“She is Kimberly Addison now.” Dar replied.
Don’t attack Kim, Chief. This meeting will end right now.

“Maybe so, but before she and Heroc became friends, Cort was going to kill them all.”

“Heroc was part of it. No argument there. But that does not mean he was inhumane.”

“He tortured them. How is that humane?”

“The Cuplans. Not the species, but the Cuplan empire, was a disease. Before we had synthetics, people fought a disease called cancer. Doctors cut cancer out of people all the time to save their patients. That what Cort did. He cut the cancer out the Cuplan empire. Now we have our strongest ally. By this time next year, we will be a single empire.”

“You did not answer my question. How is torturing our enemies humane?”

“You would do better to ask him, but he has also forbade the abuse of our enemies and ordered their fair treatment. So far as I know, our torture policy is very simple: It is authorized when there is an eminent threat which information gained may be able to mitigate. But it is forbidden if there is not a clear and present threat to the federation. You may argue that those conditions did not exist, but I would argue that they did. Once Cort got the information we needed, he stopped the torture.”

Dar finished his drink and started to get up and pour another. He thought better of it after looking at his schedule, and settled for water.

“That is not true, Dar. I have watched video of it, and he kept going long after he could have gotten the information he needed. Twice, once with the Cuplans and once with Governor Taps back on Mars, he was clearly enjoying what he was doing. He even admitted to it.”

“I won’t ask how you got access to that video, Chief. But in the case of Governor Taps, he was avenging my grandson.
And
that was before the federation was founded. I do not think that counts.”

Chief handed Dar his empty glass. “We are not going to agree about this, Superintendent. Can we move on, or should I leave?”

Dar gave up. Cort would be disappointed that Chief’s problem was with Cort personally, but at least they had an answer. “We can move on. Tell me what you need help with.”

“A lot of people are missing. I am not talking about girls running away with their boyfriends. I mean entire families disappear overnight. Last month in Bertoua, a building that housed four hundred people one day was completely empty the next. In some cases, they left food on the table. The way we found out about it was a grease fire from a pot that was left on a cooktop.”

“Have you talked to the African governor?” Dar asked.

“The authorities know about it, but they cannot find anything out. Governor Churq will not meet with me about it, either. They
are
trying. But they have nothing to go on. These people are not being taken somewhere. At least not somewhere on Earth. They just disappear.”

“What makes you say it like that?”

“Surveillance video from around the building. Lots of people went inside, but no one came out. When a fire crew went in to evacuate the building, there was not a single living human, inside. Pets were fine, chickens were fine, fish were fine, but every single human was gone.”

“What else?”

“Total, over one thousand people have disappeared across Africa in the last six months. Looking at news vids, I think it is happening everywhere though.”

“What do you think is happening?”

“Personally, I think your
God of War
pissed off another spacefaring race,” Chief said.

“Maybe.” Dar thought for a moment before adding, “I will look into it. Well, I will have someone look into it. Get me all the information you have, and I will let you know what we find.”

Chief pulled a data chip from his pocket and dropped it on Dar’s desk. “If I get anything else, I will comm you. Thank you, Superintendent.”

“One more thing, Chief. At some point, I am going to talk to Cort about this. Is there any part of what you said that you want me to keep private?”

Rhodes looked at the chip on Dar’s desk and said, “No, sir. I stand by what I said. You can tell him whatever you want.”

“Okay. He is not your enemy, Chief. In fact, he has missed you.”

“He is the enemy of all of us, Dar. Clare saw that. I only hope everyone else figures it out before it is too late.”

AFS
Mare’s Leg

Cort was standing beside Captain Melvin Ross when the
Mare’s Leg
dropped out of warp in the Blatterian home system. As soon as the warp bubble collapsed, he activated his comm and spoke to the commander of the H’uuman shock troops. “Ares has arrived. What is the status on the surface, General Norvan?”

Norvan was the first H’uuman general in the federation. He was hatched from Heroc’s assertion mating as First Queen. He clicked, “Welcome to our little war, Pledge Father. We control the capitol and the surrounding land. Perhaps two-thirds of this continent. They hold the polar regions and the high altitudes. We simply cannot fight well in those conditions. Fortunately, the civilian populations are small in those areas. However, the equatorial belt of the planet is ours. I considered a kinetic bombardment of the poles, but Terip asked me to save that as a last resort. He has concerns about the agricultural impact of the strikes.”

“We can clean the atmosphere pretty easily,” Cort said, “but you were smart to defer to his wishes. Politically, it was the right thing to do. What are your losses?”

“A few million. They have lost more, but they are here in much larger numbers than we expected. I would estimate their current strength at three to four million. There are more arriving daily though. I have new troops coming in as well. Fortunately, the
AFS
ships are keeping enemy’s new arrivals in check. For every million that reach the surface, your coil guns prevent twice that many from landing. Will your ship join in that effort, Pledge Father?”

“Norvan, I appreciate the honorific, but we are in battle. Please address me as General or better yet, Cort. Officially I am
Ares
. But yes, the
Mare’s Leg
will take position as picket ship once my troops are offloaded.”

“How many warriors do you have with you, General?” Norvan asked.

“Ten thousand. I suggest I drop half of them at each pole, and we push the Tapons to you.”

Norvan clicked, “That would be my hope as well.”

“Okay, we are about one hour from being able to skim the atmosphere and deploy. Is there anything else we need to know?”

“They are light on armor. We have them outmatched in that regard. I think your CONDORs will be safe, but I would not recommend dropping FALCONs. There is one other matter, General. Since the onset of hostilities, the food supply on the planet has been interrupted. I did not want to further strain the resources of the civilian population, so we have been forced to utilize an alternate food source, sir.”

Cort didn’t catch Norvan’s implication at first, but when it hit home, he was momentarily nauseous. “Yours or theirs, General?”

“Theirs. We have been giving our combat rations to the young. At the end of each day, we feed on the fallen enemy. We would not ask that of the civilians.”

“I will see what I can do about getting more supplies shipped here,” Cort said. “You know, it is ironic. The very people you are fighting for consider H’uumans to be monsters. Lap even said that to me once. And here you are feasting on your enemies, just so you can provide better for them.”

Cort heard the noises he recognized as laughter before Norvan clicked, “We are hardly feasting, Cort. The Tapons are stringy and bitter. There is little that I would not give for some honey from Solitude. But I would probably just give it to the children anyway.”

“I understand, Norvan. Better than you would believe.”

“Thank you for that, Cort. From what I understand about your species, not everyone would be so understanding.”

Cort remembered the words of Desmond Tutu from the twentieth century, and sadly paraphrased them. “We who are warriors have committed so many massacres and horrors that we should bow our heads in shame, General. But such is our way.”

“Yes. Perhaps our species is fortunate that our old fight our wars. The young should not live with the guilt of our actions.”

“Norvan you are barely two years old. That is hardly old, even for your species. I’ll see you soon. Addison out.” Turning to Captain Ross, he said, “Okay Mel, drop one brigade at each pole. When the rest of the division gets here, send the air wing to the capital and ask General Norvan where he wants the ground troops.”

Ross looked at Addison a little too long and paid for it. “Captain, do you have a problem with my orders?”