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Entry #31
Pirate Point, Carver VII
Terran Hegemony
3:00 5 March 2767

I’ve picked a very obscure point to jump in at, taking advantage of the very complex movements of the moons around the gas giant that happens to be within six months or so of its closest pass to the inhabited Carver V, which isn’t very close.

As a result, it’s not very well secured and there’s a decent chance of no one noticing the jump signatures of eighty or so ships arrive. I’d say the odds are… oh, at least eighty-eight percent that no one will notice us.

And if they do? Well, eighty Caspars and me. I think we can handle it.

As far as I can tell, no one has noticed, which might be because pretty much every dropship in the system is heading towards the Nadir or Zenith jump points, escorted or chivvied along by a pair of Republican warships – one going each way. I could probably take them out but it’d delay reaching Epsilon Indi so it’s probably not worth it.

So why is everyone – looks like a division or so of Rim Worlds Army units in dropships, damn, maybe I should break cover and take them out – leaving Carver V? Why? Has Amaris decided to consolidate? McTiernan hasn’t reported anything like this but it could be a new development.

I start scanning through radio channels, trying to pick up RWA chatter, signals from the CAAN holdouts on Quantico or even civilian broadcasts to explain what’s going on.

There’s not a lot.

In fact there’s barely anything, which is odd. Carver V has a population of almost one hundred and twenty million people, mostly on the shores of the larger islands where they populate the famous resorts and the arguably more important fisheries industry. I ought to be getting a lot more traffic than this.

There’s quite a lot you can do telescopically by pointing a set of sensors across a sizeable area all towards the same target. I had eighty Caspars, now spread across several thousand kilometers. Since there wasn’t any immediate threat, I can spread them out further and… that’s a lot of cloud cover on Carver V. Not impossible for it to be natural but…

Okay, even at this distance, I should be able to make out the artifical lights of some of the cities. Either there’s a lot of cloud or they’re blacked out or…

Ah, something on radio at last. Not strong enough to make out what but there is some traffic on the emergency bands. Well that becomes clearer. Some sort of disaster. I’m not going to use the word natural here because I’m not convinced that it’s accurate.

It takes about an hour to painstakingly shift ships around to build up an array that can get some sense out of the emergency traffic and then Carver V’s turned enough that I can get a firsthand look at the cause of the problem: a massive thermal signature across most of what used to be the island of Quantico, home to the CAAN training facility and associated fortifications.

About half of the island isn’t there anymore. The rest of it is on fire.

And there’s one word that’s I’ve managed to decipher repeatedly out of the weak signals.

Tsunami.

I don’t know how, but “This has to be Amaris’ fault.”

“What has to be?” asks Corvus.

“Carver V… there’s not enough radio traffic. I think… I think something terrible has happened.”

“Is there anything we can do?”

I bring up a map of Quantico and overlay the damage. “I’m not sure what could have done this. It would take a phenomenal amount of nukes. Maybe a…” Something about the pattern of damage catches my eye. “Oh.”

“Oh?”

“I think I do know what happened.” On the screen I display the aftermath of my improvised kinetic bombardment of the Graham IV SDS command centre. “I get the distinct impression that I inspired them to extreme measures to neutralise the CAAN hold-outs.”

“But what would that do to the rest of the planet? There are settlements all aro- oh. When they hit the base…”

“Thousands – tens of thousands - of tons of debris would have been flung into the sea, creating a tidal wave. Carver V’s got so little land that there’s not much to stop it from sweeping around the planet. Chances are that most of the coastal settlements got hit and that’s ninety percent of the population right there.”

“There will be survivors, surely?”

“Oh I expect so.” My voice is bitter. “Half, maybe?” It’s a guess, nothing more. “Of course, with the infrastructure gone the injured survivors won’t be in the best of places. I’d expect… a quarter again dead in the week afterwards – the shipping should be fairly safe and they would have some precautions. So only fifty or sixty million people dead.”

Corvus groans and buries her head in her hands. “How can anyone do that? It’s monstrous!”

“Thanks.”

“Not you. You shot at a military base.”

“So did they. Let’s be honest – do you think I haven’t killed civilians so far? I fired into the heart of a major city on Terra and I’m pretty sure I killed a fair number of innocent bystanders on Zebebelgenubi and Graham IV.”

“Yes, but not deliberately. They had to know what would happen.”

“Would that make it better, or worse?”

The Colonel shook her head. “What do you mean?”

“Is it worse if they did this knowing it would mean killing millions… or if someone who didn’t realise that ordered it and the local commander, who would have known, did it anyway?”

“That just makes my head hurt. Is there something we can do?”

“Without screwing up our mission? Just watch… and remember.”

Good lord

Good god, you got me Gabriel.

Entry #32
Outer System, Epsilon Indi
Lockdale Province, Terran Hegemony
14:00 19 March 2767

Jumping into the outer system, about as far out as the standard jump points, is generally pretty safe. The chances of anyone being close enough to pose a problem when you jump into an otherwise unremarkable point in space are about on par with winning the lottery. Actually, worse.

While the odds of arriving just as the 34th Royal BattleMech Division do are much better, they’re still hundreds of thousands to one against and in both cases probability plays out without any long shots.

“Well either they got here already and were destroyed –“

“Don’t even joke about it!” Corvus snapped. She paused. “Is Epsilon Indi…”

I check. “I’m getting signal traffic on civilian bands. Looks mostly normal.”

“That’s a relief.”

“Let me get a count of the M-5 drones in-system and if they’re all around then probably the 34th haven’t arrived yet. Unless, playing devil’s advocate, they’re a couple of light days away and the light of their arrival hasn’t reached this part of the system yet.”

She nods her understanding.

We’ve talked on the way about our options once we get here. It’s a more desirable topic of conversation than Carver V. The main problem, of course, is that we have no co-ordination with the 34th Royal BattleMech Division. Without knowing where they’ll arrive it’s hard to open up a route for them in advance. And that’s not mentioning the very real risk of friendly fire. They’ve no particular reason not to believe that any Caspars they encounter are under Amaris’ control, assuming that they actually heard of me at all.

I’m sure my reputation is spreading, but they must have set a fast pace if they rushed all the way from the Outworlds Alliance to the Terran Hegemony in a couple of months so they’ve probably not stopped to get the news. As far as our own intelligence goes, their only escort is a transport flotilla they picked up in the Combine. Rear Admiral Braso has an excellent record, but only eight warships.

“Okay, interesting. I’m picking up the eighteen Caspars that should be at the Zenith point… looks like they’re not active. But the fifty-six that were over the planet aren’t there. Most of them burning away from the Nadir point and I don’t see the M-5 drones that should be covering that.”

“Do you think the 34th came in there then? If they hit the drones at that point and then got overwhelmed by the survivors…?”

“It’s… possible. Although why they’d hang around there long enough for M-5s to get there I have no idea.” I calculated. “If they were there already, maybe. The transports would have been jumping right into an ambush. But would the Republicans risk uncovering Epsilon Indi without ironclad evidence that this was the only attack they could escape?”

Corvus groaned. “Amaris must have pretty good intel to pull of the Coup. It’s not impossible he did get information about the 34th.”

“I suppose, although if even Kerensky didn’t know where they were going to jump in, the information can’t have been widespread.”

“Who else could they have been fighting.”

I think for a minute. “I suppose McTiernan could have raided them, but again, why move more than fifty M-5s out that far? They’d have to know that there was someone there to fight.”

“What if…”

“What if what?” I ask.

Corvus shrugs. “Well you’ve made quite a mess out of the Republicans by taking over drones. What if they decided to eliminate every drone they didn’t already control?”

I whistle. “That’d be quite a job. They’d defend themselves you know?”

“Yeah, well according to our intel there should be eighteen M-5 drones at both jump points. What if the ships moving away from the Nadir point are what’s left of the planetary fleet after taking them out and they’re heading for the Zenith point to pick them off too?”

It takes a minute or so for me to run some simulations. Eighteen drones defending automatically against fifty-six being run on remote direction from Epsilon Indi... “The numbers aren’t inconsistent with that theory. It’s a big job he’s taken on though.”

“It’s really going to make it difficult to replace your losses,” warns Corvus.

“True, but if that’s really his policy… wow. There’re a couple of thousand drones out there and if he’s committed himself to destroy more than half of them then Amaris just tied his navy up for a couple of months. That’s a lot of time for our reinforcements to arrive. And we do know that the three squadrons over at the Zenith jump point are still available…”

“What are you thinking?”

I sent orders out to the Caspar Centuria. “Get ready for company. I’m recalling the crews from the other ships and then we’ll make a low emissions run to intercept our friends over there before they reach the Zenith point. I’m pretty sure they’ve not spotted us now so a short, high gravity burn to build up some speed has a good chance of not being noticed until we’re close enough for it to be hard for them to evade.”

“I doubt that they’ll try to avoid action,” observes Corvus. “You’re their number one target, they’d almost have to try to destroy you. And we won’t be near enough to pot-shot their command centre this time.”

“Well I could try. I wasn’t exactly shooting from the hip last time, but I’d rather keep strikes like that to a minimum in the future. I’d have to hit the primary and secondary command centres to be sure, so that’s double the damage.”

“Are you sure that you can afford not to destroy them?”

“I’m not doing this to prove that I’m better at killing people than Amaris is,” I point out. “I could be, easily. I’ve got enough firepower under my command to destroy every settlement on Epsilon Indi. But that doesn’t appeal to me and not just because it would probably convince Brandt to rethink keeping me around. There are some lines you don’t cross and the sites aren’t as isolated as Fort Baxter was.”

Fun!

Kerensky needs a reality check

Entry #35
High Orbit, Epsilon Indi
Lockdale Province, Terran Hegemony
11:00 8 April 2767

Amanda Braso and Ling Pao Collins look suitably confused as they exit their shuttle and see Corvus standing waiting for them with an honour guard a dozen strong drawn from the Caspar crews.

“Permission to come aboard?” Braso asks, saluting me – the ship, rather. I don’t think she’s grasped what I am yet.

Collins matches her salute in a perfunctory fashion and doesn’t wait for Corvus to return it before lowering his hand. He, I’m quite sure, has no idea at all.

“Welcome aboard THS Praetorian,” Corvus says with her own salute. “I’m Admiral Praetorian’s chief of staff, Taylor Corvus.”

“Was the ship named for him or is it just a coincidence?” asks Braso curiously. “She’s obviously not a standard Texas-class.”

Corvus opens her mouth to answer but is cut off by Collins: “Who cares. Let’s just meet him and get this straightened out.”

A Major General outranks a Rear Admiral and a Colonel so however rude that was, he’d usually get his way. Not this time.

“You’ll treat my people with respect, Collins.” My ‘face’ appears on the monitor overlooking the shuttlebay. “I can use your division. The jury is still out on whether or not you are worth retaining.” I pause until he’s gathered his wits and is about to reply and then speak right over him. “Admiral Braso, your flotilla is being broken up and I’m afraid you’re losing your flagship. Advise Commodore Mitchell that he’s to take every ship except your four destroyers to rendezvous with the new Second Fleet at Graham IV.”

Her face falls. I’d be more sympathetic if she hadn’t gone along with this crazy scheme. “Once you’ve got your effects sorted out, we’ll discuss your role in the fleet. You’re dismissed.”

Collins’s face is an interesting puce as Corvus gestures for him to follow her towards the lounge. I wait until the doors close before I add to Braso: “I’m going to want full report on why you used a standard jump point, much less both.”

“It’s standard doctrine to seize the jump points so that you can control the shipping lanes,” she protests.

“Standard doctrine assumes the SLDF is deploying overwhelming force, Admiral. I’m going to expect better from you in the future. I’m going to be entrusting you with the protection of the fleet’s jump-crews, after all.”

In the lounge Collins looks around impatiently. “I thought you were taking me to Admiral Praetorian,” he demands of Corvus.

“I thought I told you to treat my people with respect just a few minutes ago,” I remind him activating the screen so that he has a face to address. “I’ll talk to General Collins privately, Corvus.”

She left obediently and I locked the door behind her – not to keep her out but to keep Collins in.

“I thought we were going to talk face to face,” he asserts.

“This is as good as it gets, General. I see it’s not been made clear to you yet so let me clarify this for you: I am the machine intelligence that controls this ship and by extension all of the drones around it. I’m also, by decree of the Interim Director-General, a Vice-Admiral.”

“You’re a machine!?”

“A machine you’re inside of. Think about that for a minute. And while you’re at it, what were you thinking, rushing back here on your own? A single division isn’t much to deploy to liberate an entire world.” At least in this day and age.

He puts his hands on his hips. “How could you possibly understand? This is our home!”

“I also have a home. A home I have had to withdraw from to preserve forces that can – eventually – retake it. Forces that have then been redirected to save your Division from committing highly expensive suicide in the form of bringing urban warfare to the heart of your pleasant, mostly pastoral world instead of, for example, preparing to liberate my home. Aren’t you glad I’m a machine? Otherwise I might be a little bitter.”

His eyes are a little wide.

“Am I getting through to you, General? If you, as the man on the spot, had information that Kerensky and I did not then by all means explain it to me. If there is a good reason that Epsilon Indi must be liberated, no matter the cost to the overall strategy of defeating Amaris… then I’m ears.”

“But if you, selfishly, arrogantly, put your personal concerns for your homeworld over your duty then Kerensky was right to get rid of you. And if you keep doing this, then I’ll leave you here on your homeworld because the duty of the SLDF is to the entire Star League first, and only then to individual states and worlds. Epsilon Indi is a hard target and while it’s economically important, it is not a strategic position. If we lose more than a division liberating it… then it’s a net loss for the campaign and we should have just let you die.”

“Well that’s the heartless machine I was expecting to hear from. All about the numbers.”

“Yes. It is about the numbers. It’s about thousands dying every day in prisons across the Hegemony. It’s about millions of people out of work and going broke because the core of the entire Star League’s economy is cut off and being asset-stripped to cater to Amaris. It’s about the billions of civilians in the line of fire because Amaris would rather burn a planet to the ground than surrender it.”

“It is not about catering to one person’s selfish demands.” Although it probably looks a lot like catering to my demands, at least considering what I got up to in the month or two of this year.

“I want to protect my family, and the families of my soldiers. There’s nothing selfish about that!” protests Collins.

“What you were doing would, at best, have added your command to the death toll. Not that you’d be more than a blip. The death toll of fighting Amaris is already over sixty million.”

“Sixty million?”

“Carver V suffered about fifty percent losses to its total population when Amaris decided to cut his losses. The Republicans also, incidentally, had at least one city on Graham IV mined with a remote-detonated mine so that they could take out the leading elements of the liberation force. Do you want that to happen to your home town?”

For a moment the question hangs in the balance before Ling Pao Collins draws himself up and salutes. “No sir, I do not.” He pauses. “The Epsilon Indi Division is reporting for duty. What are your orders?”