TRANSMISSION 08: Gambit

PUBLIC ADDRESS BY FOREMAN WIED, RECORDED LIVE ON TAU CETI e SATELLITE TELEVISION (PUBLIC BROADCAST) 2-9-38, 06:34 SET

“Citizens of Aequor.

“As many of you know, last week, the dispute over the legitimate ownership of the Luyten Seven-Tw-Six-Eight system escalated into conflict. The United Systems Military emerged victorious after a short struggle.

“We must honor those who fell in the struggle, and I proclaim them heroes. They fought for what they believed in, and they deserve our praise. They deserve justice.

“But I have always believed that no man deserves vengeance, not if that vengeance is the death of another. Today is not a day for vindictiveness, or bloodthirst. It is not a day for visiting upon our neighbor what they would visit upon us. Today is the day that we finally begin to honor our words, and the lives of those who have fallen in pursuit of peace. Justice for the fallen will not be achieved through further bloodshed, but through peace. They will have died for nothing if the future holds only more war.

“It is a sad day. Sad, not only because of the lives lost, but also because, once again, the human race has elected to solve with violence and war what should by all rights have been settled by calm words and compromise. Today is a sad day, but it does not have to be only sad.

“No, today can also be a day of hope. A day of new beginnings; the first day of the future. A future where battles like the ones in the Luyten Seven-Two-Six-Eight system do not happen.

“Today, under Article Eleven of the Maidenhead Settlement, I proclaum Tau Ceti neutral in all conflicts. I have already sent requests to the Maiden on Epsilon Eridani, and to Admiral Engelund of the United Systems Military Command on Aitch-Aitch Andromedae, respectfully asking them to honor this neutrality, and by doing so, bringing an end to any further conflict between them. Since Aequor is the only habitable world in the Tau Ceti system, no army of the United Systems can attack the Maidenhead Colonies without violating our neutrality.

“It is my foremost wish that we all honor this agreement. Good night, and may the Plowman bless us all.”

ROSS 248 UNITED SYSTEMS MILITARY COMMAND ARCHIVE

PERSONAL OFFICE RECORDS OF CAPTAIN DIEGO MATHESON

TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCHEDULED MEETING 08:17:31

COMPILING...

COMPILING...

LOADING...

CAPTAIN MATHESON: What exactly does Article Eleven read?

1ST LIEUTENANT KUKHARENKO: Hnn?

MATHESON: Article Eleven of the Maidenhead Settlement, what does it say, specifically?

KUKHARENKO: Uhh... let me pull it up. Let’s see... “blah blah blah blah blah, no world shall, under obligation from another, unwillingly partake in armed interstellar conflict, with any forcible breach constituting an act of secession, blah blah blah...” basically, it underlines the fact the Maidenhead was always supposed to be an economic agreement, as opposed to a military one.

MATHESON: So this bullcrap about there being a ‘maiden’ in charge of five unified governments was never the idea?

KUKHARENKO: Nope. Neither was the Bridgehead, actually.

MATHESON: Heh. Guess we’ve only got ourselves to blame for that one.

KUKHARENKO: Yeah, really.

ADMIRAL ENGELUND: Hello, boys.

MATHESON: Admiral, sir!

ENGELUND: At ease, Dee. You too, Lieutenant. What are you boys up to?

MATHESON: Nothing much, sir. Just catching up on the stuff from the Maidenheads.

ENGELUND: Right, right... what did you think of the Foreman’s address last night?

MATHESON: Well, sir... the Foreman’s a smart guy. He knows he can’t fight us, and joining us or the ARM would militarize the entire Maidenhead, pitting him against whichever side he doesn’t choose.

ENGELUND: That’s right. Join the Allies today, and they could protect him from us tomorrow, but the day after that, his people could be off fighting the Empire, Blake or the Confederacy in some dismal Rim hellhole.

MATHESON: Right, and join us, and they’d lose all their fancy tax breaks and export tariffs.

ENGELUND: And could conceivably end up fighting the ARM!

MATHESON: Sir?

ENGELUND: I’ve been trading communiques with Ay-Ar-Em personnel through informal back channels; it seems they feel it “unlikely” that the Allied governments would ever feel “completely comfortable” trading with something they see as forcefully annexed planets under a centralized government.

KUKHARENKO: We’ll see how “comfortable” they feel trading with us when the One-Oh-Seventh is done plowing through the Maidenhead and comes knocking on their door, sir.

ENGELUND: Attaboy. We’ve still got some snags to work out, but that’s the general idea.

MATHESON: Pardon me for asking, sir, but if they like it so much out there on the Rim, why don’t we just let them stay there?

ENGELUND: The good of the human race, that’s why! All those resources they’re tossing around out there on the Rim fighting each other could be used here in the Thicket, feeding people who weren’t fortunate enough to happen upon some lost sleeper colony with a fully functional economy. Those economies should be supporting the entirety of the human race, not funding four rump empires and their respective warlords in their bids to tear each other apart. We should be helping each other, not fighting over what little we have... in many ways, I agree with Wied, that is to say if half of what he said last night is true.

MATHESON: I see. What would you have me do, Admrial?

ENGELUND: I’m sorry?

MATHESON: Well, you’re presumably here to order me somewhere in response to last night’s announcement, right?

ENGELUND: ...Lieutenant, would you give us the room for a second?

KUKHARENKO: Aye, sir. I’ll be right outside if you need me.

ENGELUND: Good man.

(door opens, shuts)

ENGELUND: Listen, Diego. There’s been a slight hiccup, but followed by an opportunity.

MATHESON: Sir?

ENGELUND: Do you have any booze in here?

MATHESON: Little early in the day, isn’t it, sir?

ENGELUND: You’re going to need it after you hear this.

(cabinet opens, glass clinking)

ENGELUND: About an hour ago, we received confirmation from independent assets on Epsilon Indi, revealing that the Murasaki Corporation has been engaged in secret talks with the Freehold Directorate. The Directorate says that if an independent commission from Stellar Patrol finds us guilty of provoking Bridgehead and illegally invading Bee-El Ceti, they’re willing to grant Murasaki citizens access to Earth on a temporary visa basis, in exchange for tariff reductions and exclusive arms deals.

(drink pouring)

MATHESON: (exhales) Jesus.

ENGELUND: The point of all this would be, of course, to ally against us and either push us into the Rim or wipe us out completely, with Stellar Patrol acting as the anvil to their hammer.

MATHESON: But if they want to side with the Murasaks, what’s stopping them? And why won’t they act without Stellar Patrol’s backing?

ENGELUND: My read on the situation is that House Centauri is acting out of their usual obsession with how they’ll be perceived by history. They figure that allying with Stellar Patrol will give them the legitimacy they’ll need, and Murasaki will give them the money and the resources.

MATHESON: Don’t the other houses get a say in this?

ENGELUND: House Barnard are probably choking on their own spit drooling over the business contracts they’ll get to draw up with Murasaki, and House Ross have never really had much say in anything.

MATHESON: And House Sol?

ENGELUND: They’re... an unknown quantity. I have a feeling they have less say in this than they’d like. There’s a slim chance they’ll be able to provide us with an avenue of negotiations... should ‘plan A’ fail, of course.

MATHESON: Plan A?

ENGELUND: That’s where you come in. See, we need a way to compromise Stellar Patrol’s perceived neutrality. If we can plant the seed in the Directorate’s collective excuse for a mind that Stellar Patrol is ineffective or – even better – acting on suspect motives, it’ll kill the deal.

MATHESON: (snorts) We hardly need to do much to convince anyone that Ess-Pee is ineffective.

ENGELUND: That’s why it’s more important for us to prove that they can’t be trusted, that their political motivations are just as cloak-and-dagger as...

MATHESON: ...as the rest of us.

ENGELUND: Right. So, remember when I mentioned an oppurtunity earlier?

MATHESON: Yes sir?

ENGELUND: Well, it appears that the commission to investigate the Battle of Bee-El Ceti has yet to leave Vee-Fifteen-Eighty-One-Cygni.

MATHESON: What’s taking them so long?

ENGELUND: Well, to them, it’s all over. They’ve yet to hear the Commodore’s address. It didn’t play on synthevision, so essentially, they’re waiting on word-of-mouth, or a leak from us.

MATHESON: No kidding. So either they have no sources...

ENGELUND: Or they’re playing them very close to the chest. I’ve decided to favor the first option, and treat this as an oppurtunity to not only stop this commission before it gets going, but also to make Stellar Patrol look particularly stupid.

MATHESON: How’re we gonna do that, sir?

ENGELUND: We’re going to intercept the commission before it leaves Gliese Twelve-Forty-Five.

(pause)

ENGELUND: If we nab them while they’re still on the ground with a quick response team from Vyssotsky Two-Oh-Seven and cover our tracks carefully, any claim they make about our ‘unchecked aggression’ and whatnot is going to seem particularly stupid considering everybody else already knows about Bee-El Ceti. We’re the victims and the victors here, as far as the interstellar community is concerned; the benign superpower that secured our frontier, but didn’t use it as a springboard for further attacks on the Maidenhead Colonies. We didn’t use their aggression as an excuse to wipe them out, even though we easily could have. Alternatively, if we let the Ess-Pee commission poke around, they’re going to reopen traffic between Tau and Bee-El, and the entrepôt trade will keep Epsilon Eridani fat and happy for another twenty years, not to mention that if they do find anything even slightly funny lying around on Cordoba Thirty-One –

MATHESON: Which they will.

ENGELUND: ...which they will, considering it’s within jump range of four other systems, they can make it public with Sol and Epsilon Indi, and there goes us.

MATHESON: ...and there goes us. Right.

(glass, ice clinking)

ENGELUND: There’s another option, Diego.

MATHESON: Sir?

ENGELUND: The commission is huddled into an em-see-see that’s making a refuel stop on Triad before heading to the cannon and jumping to Krüger Sixty. If we manage to send a rapid strike team to take out the em-see-see before it has time to construct any defenses...

MATHESON: Sir, that’s... worth a shot; maybe we could have a See-Ay put down some Em-Seventy-Nines or an Em-Nineteen-Forty-Six, but that’ll take time, and if we fail –

ENGELUND: We won’t fail. We’re going to send in our own em-see-see.

MATHESON: Sir... an em-see-see has a two-kiloton nuke on its back. With the kind of close-quarters fighting we'd be looking at around all those hoodoos... you’d be sending that em-see-see on a kamikaze run, sir.

ENGELUND: Most likely. It’s not a decision I came to lightly, Diego. But the stability of the region is at stake, and most likely, the stability of the Hundred Worlds as a whole.

MATHESON: Who did you have in mind for this kind of mission?

ENGELUND: There’s only one man I trust to do the job. You.

MATHESON: Me?

ENGELUND: You. You’ve been with me from the beginning, Dee. You’re the only one I could even think of asking. Right from the get-go, you’ve envisioned something greater than yourself, something to keep living for, something to die for. The cause. A unified humanity, free from greed and tyranny, instead of divided by petty hatreds and feuds... that should have died out a long, long time ago.

MATHESON: You really think killing this commission is going to give us that?

ENGELUND: It’ll take a very large and important step in the right direction.

MATHESON: I’m... not sure I’m willing to die for a step, Kev. If I’m gonna die for this, I want it to be at a time that matters.

ENGELUND: But even the last step will still just be a step. It won’t matter any more than the first step, or any one of the hundreds in between.

MATHESON: Are you giving me an order?

ENGELUND: Of course not, Dee. I’m asking you, as a friend, to volunteer for what could be the most important mission of the war for us. No one, especially not me, will think any less of you if you decline.

MATHESON: (sighs) Right.

ENGELUND: I’m going to need an answer from you sooner rather than later, of course. And if that answer is no, I’m going to need your help in selecting the alternative man for the job.

MATHESON: Do you already have some nominees?

ENGELUND: Of course.

MATHESON: Who?

ENGELUND: Pierre, Kim, Paolo or Joe. And maybe Hanley, or even Randy.

MATHESON: Well, Pierre would refuse out of principle, and Joe and Hanley just aren’t good enough. And Paolo and Randy, well... they’d do it, but not without taking a day or two to prep defenses first, rendering the whole point moot. Kimmy’s good, and she’d do it, but her crew are too inexperienced to handle combat maneuvers.

ENGELUND: Can you think of anyone else?

MATHESON: ...no, I really can’t. I really can’t.

ENGELUND: Then... is that a yes?

MATHESON: Yeah... (sighs; glass, ice clinking) yeah. That’s a yes, Admiral.

(pause)

ENGELUND: Good man.

MATHESON: Just... give me an hour to get my things in order. Call my sister.

ENGELUND: You’ll get an hour and forty. That’s all I can give you.

MATHESON: Right. Okay.

ENGELUND: I don’t need to tell you again how important this is, what a great service you’re doing for your people.

MATHESON: Yeah. Well, I’d better go.

ENGELUND: Alright. Send Kukharenko back in here on your way out, will you?

(door opens)

ENGELUND: And Diego?

MATHESON: Yes?

ENGELUND: Thank you.

(pause)

KUKHARENKO: You wanted to see me, sir?

ENGELUND: Yes... I trust you were listening to that?

KUKHARENKO: Yeah. What do you want me to do, sir?

ENGELUND: There’s a volunteer slot that’s just been made available in his platoon. Apply using the i-dee I gave you earlier... make sure Matheson does the right thing, then I want you to set up a base on Triad. A small one, nothing that would attract attention. You’ll have all the matérial you need.

KUKHARENKO: Understood. Uh... sir?

ENGELUND: Yes?

KUKHARENKO: If you needed some zealot to take the longest fall here, why not just promote some fanatic from Crater or Confluence? Can’t be no shortage.

ENGELUND: Matheson was... starting to ask too many questions. Getting too conscientious for his own good. It’s more convenient this way. And it’s... something I think he’s well suited to.

KUKHARENKO: He’ll get the job done, sir, no doubt.

ENGELUND: Hm? Oh, right. Right... right.

TRANSMISSION 07: Desperate Times and the Needs of the Many

SURVEILLANCE DATA TRACKING RECORD

ARCHIVE CLEARANCE 81-4-B-FALCON-SIGMA-8

COVERT SURVEILLANCE OF TARGET DESIGNATE “CHELEDISCUS,” 14-4-01

TARGET LOCATION: SPACE RACE CAFÉ, 823 COMPLEX, SECTOR 31, EPSILON ERIDANI b I

MAN #1: Lonny! Over here!

MAN #2: Hey, there you are. Thought I ‘d never find you.

MAN #3: We did pick the place because it’s small and hard to find.

MAN #2: You didn’t say anything about sitting by a thoroughfare, though. I doubt Cadmus would approve.

WOMAN: Well, Cadmus doesn’t have to know. How are you, Waylon? You’ve been under for a while.

MAN #2: I’m alright. Had a loose end or two to string up.

MAN #3: Nothing serious, I hope?

MAN #2: ...no, relatively speaking.

MAN #3: Relatively speaking? Relative to what, Waylon?

MAN #2: To what I’m about to tell you.

WOMAN: Oooh, this sounds exciting.

WAITRESS: Hi, there! Can I get you anything, sir?

MAN #2: Uh, no thanks.

WAITRESS: Okay, would any of you like a refill, or can I get you something else?

MAN #3: Another coffee, please.

WOMAN: And a diet soda. Sugarcane, if you have it.

WAITRESS: We sure do, and for you, sir?

MAN #1: I’m good, thanks.

WAITRESS: Okeydokey, I’ll be right back.

MAN #2: Now, where was I?

MAN #3: You were, ah, speaking relatively, if I remember correctly.

MAN #2: Right. Well. I wanted to tell you about ‘constructive escalation.’

WOMAN: Okay...

MAN #2: I see. Okay, when an entity thrives on that which lies outside its immediate reach, the laws of nature dictate that it naturally strive to reach those things. It will seek to have them in preference to the same things that it can get to. That’s pretty basic, right? For example, when Terry goes to a bar and sees two girls, one he knows he can have at any time, and another who might put up a little fight, he’s gonna go for the fighter, am I right?

MAN #1: Yeah, that’s me alright.

(laughs)

MAN #2: That’s because the benefits of having the thing that’s easily obtainable are already known, or at least easily knowable. You’ll never know how you – or your government – can benefit from the trickier option until you’ve obtained it.

MAN #1: Sounds about right.

MAN #2: And why is the harder thing so hard to obtain? Because it resists, either incidentally, or with purpose. So when the United Systems government decides that the resources which are being monopolized by our obliging hosts here in the Maidenhead Colonies, it’s only natural that they – and consequenty, we – work harder to obtain them than it would the resources of its own member worlds. Now, naturally, resistance is gonna cause conflict, and prolonged conflict will require escalation to sustain itself. A good example of escalation would be the Reese bunker complex. That job was very effective, and do you know why?

WOMAN: Because we attacked infrastructure and not replaceable individuals?

MAN #2: Close. Because it provided a constructive solution to how easy it is for the Colonials to replace personnel. When we hit Marmary spacefield, we asked the question: ‘what’ll you do when we destroy your equipment,’ to which they answered, ‘we’ll make more equipment.’ With the Reese bunker we asked ‘how are you going to make new equipment when we take away the place you make that equipment.’ Their answer is simple ‘we get our people to make new places and new equipment.’ They’ll work double-time. We are up against-

WAITRESS: Here we go, Diet Sugarcane for you, coffee for you.

WOMAN: Thank you.

MAN #3: Thanks.

MAN #2: We are up against a popular and well-liked institution that is based on ensuring that a few people live in luxury, while the others slave away their lives and gain nothing. Everyone is going to want to be part of the few, and therefore, it becomes very easy for the Colonial government to find loyal new soldiers and security personnel; they can simultaneously serve their own interests and those of the government. The reason the Reese bunker hit was so succesful, is that not only did it provide a disincentive for people to work for the government – fear for their own safety – but it also highlighted the fact that ultimately, anyone who signs up for public service becomes as accountable for the government’s actions as the Maiden herself. Not only did we legitimize everything government-related as targets, but we made people aware of it. That, my friends, is a prime example of constructive escalation.

MAN #1: So now we up the ante.

MAN #2: Precisely. Care to guess how?

WOMAN: Target a military installation.

MAN #2: No, the military already knows it’s a target. Remember, just whittling away at them isn’t what we’re here for.

MAN #3: Target a facility staffed by higher-ups in the chain, people who aren’t so easily replaced. They’re essential, and when they realize their danger, they’ll be in a position to demand higher wages or benefits, and the Colonies will have two choices: meet the demands, which eats at their coffers and sets a dangerous standard, or don’t, meaning forcing them to work anyway, which lowers morale, or allowing them to leave the Colonies, meaning they come to our side or the Allied Rimworlds.

MAN #2: Not bad, except we’ve already initiated such a dilemma with the Reese bunker thing, and the target I have in mind would confound it even further, as well as serving a more important primary purpose. I think we struck gold when we decided to let the Maiden and the Quinquevirate know that they can’t protect the lowest rung of the ladder. The mid-levels are already patriots; we’re never going to convert patriots by proving their government right.

MAN #1: So we... hit a... bigger government building?

MAN #2: No, we hit a smaller one. They’ve already diverted security personnel from smaller, secondary support buildings to guard places like the Tweentown Labs, the Vogelsetze and the Bridgehead embassies. I want us to show the Maiden and those five punks at her table that there’s an even lower rung on the ladder, and that even those people aren’t safe.

WOMAN: One thing, though... I don’t get how this is escalation. I mean, it’s constructive, sure, but didn’t you say that whittling isn’t enough? What good is one more destroyed building?

MAN #2: Precisely. It’s useless. That’s why our escalation is going to be a lateral one rather than a literal one.

MAN #3: ...oh, no.

MAN #1: What?

WOMAN: Oh my God, Waylon, you can’t be serious.

MAN #1: What? What is it?

MAN #3: He’s talking about killing people.

MAN #1: What?

MAN #2: Listen to me. It’s the only way to let these people know we’re serious, that there is something basically and inherently wrong with the way they live, and that their safety cannot hold out indefinitely. It’s the only way.

WOMAN: But in the entire history of civilization, terrorism has never once been effective in toppling a sitting government, or even forced capitulation of any kind! It’s counter-productive, and it’s not the reason we’re here. Cadmus would not approve.

MAN #2: I spent an hour talking to Cadmus about this, and he agrees wholeheartedly. He doesn’t like it, but it’s the only logical next step here. And besides, we never came here with an express mandate. Flexibility is a necessity here. If the Colonies want to place their civilian employees in harm’s way, we’re gonna have to harm them, plain and simple. We are in the unique position of not having to adhere to any rules of engagement, because there aren’t any.

MAN #3: What target did you have in mind?

WOMAN: We’re discussing this? I can’t believe we’re discussing this!

MAN #3: Let’s at least hear him out.

MAN #2: My first choice probably wouldn’t go over too well with this crowd, so I’m gonna skip straight to my second one: the Verrity-Tangiers Auction House in Canfrey Sector.

MAN #1: An auction house?

MAN #2: Since the Bridgehead Treaty, all captured enemy armor is sold at open auctions, with the proceeds going directly into military funding. Most of the armor ends up in the hands of private border militias on the Luyten Seven-Two-Six-Eight worlds, the same private militias who continuously make quote-unquote “unsanctioned” raids to Lacaille. Now, in the last five months alone, Verrity-Tangiers have sold more than six thousand tons of armor to these cowboys, and I think we can all agree that throwing a wrench into these particular works would be in all our best interests.

MAN #3: If they’re an auction house, why not just bid for the stuff and smuggle it home? We might benefit from keeping these people in business.

MAN #2: Lack of funding.

WOMAN: Simple as that?

MAN #2: Simple as that. Come on, Margie, we’ve got a population of close to sixty billion people to feed. We’re running on fumes as it is. You think Cadmus is gonna go running to Ross Two-Forty-Eight, begging the Quartermaster-General to allocate millions into our budget so we can give it to the Colonial government in exchange for our own third-hand equipment?

WOMAN: So instead, we’re just going to blow the place up?

MAN #2: That’s right.

WOMAN: With people inside?

MAN #2: That’s right. Desperate times, the needs of the many, and all the rest of it, Margie.

WOMAN: ...well, I don’t like this.

MAN #2: I’m getting that.

MAN #3: Casualty projections?

MAN #2: Two, maybe three, if we do it right.

MAN #1: That’s all?

MAN #3: He means two or three hundred, Terry.

MAN #1: Oh right.

MAN #3: (sighs) Okay. How do we get started?

UNITED SYSTEMS MILITARY INTELLIGENCE SURVEILLANCE, CLASSIFIED CODE ORANGE TOP SECRET

HIPPARCOS 114110 AGRICULTURAL SUMMIT WIRETAP

DAY 4, TRANSCRIPT BEGINS AT 27:32 LOCAL TIME

AMBASSADOR SU: Mister Foreman-Elect. Congratulations on your victory, and, may I say, as one former military man to another, that your tactics in the election were not only sound, but most gentlemanly in their conduct.

FOREMAN-ELECT WIED: Thank you, Ambassador, though I assure you, little military thought was applied. It’s all math now; kiss this many babies will get you this amount of votes, and so forth.

SU: Ah, but are not negative attack advertisements, leveled at your opponent, part of such math? And yet I did not see any... I profess that you are a gentleman, despite your insistence on the contrary.

WIED: Well, I never said I wasn’t a gentleman.

(laughs)

WIED: I just haven’t thought of myself as a soldier since before the Cannon. I haven’t so much as stepped into a kay-suit since, well, since Dione.

SU: Ah yes. Those were troublesome times... if it means anything to you, please allow me to apologize for the actions of the Murasaki Corporation’s military commander. He was... a disgrace to his employers.

WIED: Hardly your fault. It was a long time ago.

SU: You are most gracious. Also, if you would be so kind as to convey my most heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims of the Epsilon Eridani bombing. Horrendous, simply horrendous.

WIED: Thank you, Ambassador. It’s... good to know that the Board of Directors would condemn such a heinous act, no matter who turns out to be responsible.

SU: Oh, but I am not simply relaying the feelings of the Board. My sympathies-

PENDLETON: Ambassador, hi. Hello, Foreman. I’m Shariyar Pendleton, we met about a year ago at the Bridgehead ceremony...

WIED: Yes, I remember... actually, it’s only Foreman-Elect. I don’t take the oath for another month.

PENDLETON: Right, sorry... listen, Ambassador, I was wondering if I could steal the... foreman-elect for just a second.

SU: Of course. Perhaps when you’re done, Mr. Pendleton, we could discuss the upcoming tri-power summit, the Board of Directors have some last-minute changes they’d like to make to the schedule...

PENDLETON: Of course. I’ll be at the bar.

SU: Very well. Foreman-Elect.

WIED: Mr. Ambassador.

PENDLETON: Fruitful conversation?

WIED: Fairly. What did you want to speak to me about?

PENDLETON: Oh, you know damn well what I want to speak to you about. Is that room empty?

WIED: I think so. It’s a smoking room, but nobody smokes anymore. I thought you people owned this planet.

PENDLETON: The people own it, not the military. And besides, this party wasn’t my idea, so I’m hardly responsible for the layout of the rooms. Let’s go inside.

WIED: Let’s. You seem anxious to get right to the point.

(door opens, closes)

WIED: First of all, let me say that you’re looking well, and it saddens me to hear that you don’t approve of this summit.

PENDLETON: Ah, can it, Foreman. I’m not some snot-nosed junior politico trying to kiss up to a foreign dignitary, and I never said I didn’t want you here; it’s those Murasaki snakes I don’t like, slithering about on our planets when they should be facing a war crime trib on Earth.

(sound of cigarette being lit)

WIED: So they are your planets now.

PENDLETON: (inhales, exhales) Listen, what’s this I hear about Bridgehead getting the Quinque to greenlight a stepped-up defense plan for Luyten Seven-Two-Six-Eight?

WIED: Well, first of all, I’m not part of Bridgehead; in case those fancy schools on Praedium aren't teaching you proper astrography, I’m from Tau Ceti, which is not the same as being from U-Vee or Bee-El Ceti. Second, I’m not on the Quinquevirate yet, remember? I’m only foreman-elect.

PENDLETON: Come on. You have to have gotten some wind of this, from Bahadur or somebody.

WIED: Can we speak candidly here?

PENDLETON: My lips are sealed.

WIED: (sighs) Foreman Bahadur is not as well-informed as he once was. The mines have become overwrought with regulatory policies from Epsilon Eridani, as part of the Unified Front Initiative. When I take office, I stand to inherit a... bureaucratic nightmare that consumes most of the Foreman’s waking hours. If you’re hoping to negotiate some sort of arms reduction plan, I’m all for it, but I’m really not the man to speak to about it.

PENDLETON: But you can at least back-channel it to Bridgehead through somebody. And don’t bullshit a bullshitter, Foreman-Elect. I know you know something; what’s Bridgehead up to?

WIED: Honestly? I don’t know. But-

PENDLETON: Bullshit.

WIED: But, if I had to make an educated guess, I’d say it had something to do with the Epsilon Eridani bombing. I heard a rumor that the bomb was traced to foreign nationals, unregistereds with fake passports.

PENDLETON: Who could have come from anywhere. Epsilon is five parsecs away from Lacaille, twice as far as it is from Allied space. You don’t think its possible the bomb might have come from the Allies?

WIED: Bridgehead in Hip One-Five-Six-Eight-Nine is wound tighter than the proverbial drum, whereas their sister agency in Luyten Seven-Two-Six-Eight leaks like the proverbial sieve. And besides, the Allied worlds subsist and profit greatly from trade with us, especially now that they seem to be at war with the Empire again, whereas your military commanders have made their animosity towards us very well known on numerous occasions. We’re not idiots, Mister Pendleton.

PENDLETON: But all you’ve heard is rumors, right? If Bridgehead somehow mistakenly traced the bomb to us-

WIED: Actually, Mister Pendleton, I’d heard it wasn’t being investigated by Bridgehead. As soon as the terrorists were confirmed to be foreigners, the matter was outsourced to Stellar Patrol.

PENDLETON: Stellar Patrol?! They couldn’t find their own assholes if you put both their hands in their back pockets! Why would you do that?

WIED: Because that’s interstellar law. According to the Proxima Treaty, all criminal cases that intersect demarcated treaty boundaries must be investigated by Stellar Patrol to preserve the objectivity of the findings.

PENDLETON: Oh, come on! If you really wanted to solve this, you’d put your own people on it, and not wait for some douchebag from Gliese Twelve-Forty-Five to send a commission over.

WIED: Again, I am not empowered to make such a call, Mister Pendleton. I am a miner, elected by miners to serve their needs. If Bridgehead calls for increased security in the Luyten Seven-Two-Six-Eight system, that is not my concern.

PENDLETON: What! We’ll see how much it concerns you when Bridgehead’s warmongering brings the United Systems Military knocking on your door. Your miners might have to beat some mining drills into swords pretty soon.

WIED: If such a conflict were to take place, Pendleton, it will be the product of your government’s policies, not mine. What you have is a federal union; you’re the one who should pulling strings back in Ross Two-Four-Eight, trying to avert this. What happens on Tau Ceti has no bearing on-

PENDLETON: Wied, you know damn well who you’re in bed with; if you thought any different, you’d be somewhere in the Rim right now, or kicking it back on some Murasaki purseworld.

WIED: I remained loyal to the only government I considered worth following-

PENDLETON: I know, and I’m trying to help you preserve what you have on Tau! And thinking I have any say in what goes in U-Ess military policy... that’s naïve in the extreme. Come on, Foreman, you know what these army sluggerheads are like. You can’t stop the ball rolling on these things.

WIED: You’re seriously suggesting your Admiral wouldn’t roll in and snatch all our worlds away from us if given the chance?

PENDLETON: I know he’d much rather be fighting the Murasaks or those assholes in the Directorate. We don’t have to be at war. We shouldn’t be.

WIED: And since we ‘can’t stop the ball rolling,’ what would you suggest we do?

PENDLETON: Raise a shitstorm. You’re still coasting on the election; make some speeches, leak what’s going on to your press. Turn public opinion against militarization, show them what’s going on in the Rim, remind them what happened after the Cannon.

WIED: You know I can’t come out publicly against Bridgehead. That’s political suicide.

PENDLETON: Well, you’re a politician, aren’t you? You don’t have to even mention them; be vague. Say that we, uh, “we have to show unity and a firm belief that peace with our neighbors can be achieved in our lifetimes, and that we must be vigilant against those would bring war to our worlds,” or something like that. You have speechwriters, right? Don’t try to tell me you came up with that victory speech yourself? “The fractured soul of humanity can be...” what’d you say... “reconstructed with hope?”

WIED: It was... a collaborative effort. But what you’re saying... it’s all make-believe. It is not how things are done in the Colonies. I do not presume to tell Magistrate de Caus or Marshall Tjallingii how to run their planets, and they would not presume to tell me how to run mine. I can champion peace in Tau Ceti all I like, and the Maiden will applaud me for it, and maybe even some of the other heads-of-state, but it will not have the slightest effect on your confrontation with Bridgehead. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have other people to trade pleasantries with.

PENDLETON: ...of course. Thank you for your time, Foreman-Elect.

(door opens, shuts)

CAPTAIN MATHESON: Hey, Pendleton... how’s it going? You bored yet? You don’t look so good, are you okay? What’s wrong?

PENDLETON: ...I think we’re going to war with the Maidenhead Colonies, Diego.

USM COMBAT ARCHIVE

COMBAT LOG – OFFICIAL TRANSCRIPT

IDENT# 3850027845-2359

MISSION DESIGNATE “82 ALPHA” – OPERATION WILDFIRE

THEATER: LUYTEN 726-8 c

MISSION TIME 04:06:10

L/CPN KURT TRÄSCH, M-119 “BANSHEE 1”: Wilco, Echo-Bravo, Banshee is on point.

CPL HIROSHI WIEDEMAN, M-29854 MCC “GRABBER”: Relay four confirmed as receiving. Stay on point and proceed on a zero-eight-niner from current heading, Banshee One.

L/CPN KURT TRÄSCH, M-119 “BANSHEE 1”: Zero-eight-niner, confirmed. Turning right, over.

L/CPL CHRISTINE MAZIBUKO, M-37 “TRIPPER 4”: Banshee One, Tripper Four, over.

L/CPN KURT TRÄSCH, M-119 “BANSHEE 1”: Go ahead, Tripper.

L/CPL CHRISTINE MAZIBUKO, M-37 “TRIPPER 4”: Have sighted Em-Fifty west of Position Six Grid Two-Zero-Seven, uploading imms to TacNet. Should we proceed?

L/CPN KURT TRÄSCH, M-119 “BANSHEE 1”: Proceed with caution, and stay on course for ar-vee-one-eight.

CPL HERBERT SHISHKIN, M-106 “GATOR 2”: Man, these Colonials are spread pretty thin. This’ll go down same as Obex, no sweat.

L/CPL CHRISTINE MAZIBUKO, M-37 “TRIPPER 4”: Advise to trim it, Gator Two. We’re pretty thin ourselves out here. Just because nabbing one planet in this system was easy, doesn't mean the other one has to be, too... and besides, we lost people on Obex, too.

CPL HERBERT SHISHKIN, M-106 “GATOR 2”: Roger, Tripper Four. Foom! What was that?

L/CPL CHRISTINE MAZIBUKO, M-37 “TRIPPER 4”: That's Campy, lighting up one of the Em-Fifties. Nice shootin', Camp.

PFC ZOLTÁN CAMPBELL, M-37 "TRIPPER 4": Thanks, ma'am.

CPL FRANCIS KAKIZAKI, M-165 “SPACY 1”: Tripper Four, Second Column.

L/CPL CHRISTINE MAZIBUKO, M-37 “TRIPPER 4”: Go ahead, Second.

CPL FRANCIS KAKIZAKI, M-165 “SPACY 1”: Are you meeting any resistance out there?

L/CPL CHRISTINE MAZIBUKO, M-37 “TRIPPER 4”: Negative, over.

CPL HERBERT SHISHKIN, M-106 “GATOR 2”: Why the hell would they build all these em-ees and not even protect 'em?

L/CPL CHRISTINE MAZIBUKO, M-37 “TRIPPER 4”: They must have been built by the local militias, then left behind when they skipped town after the One-Tenth took Obex.

L/CPN KURT TRÄSCH, M-119 “BANSHEE 1”: Most likely, Tripper Four. A lot of the 'fifties we're seeing down here look well-maintained, but we've yet to make a visual on a single sapper... they can't have been left out here for more than a week or so.

CPL HERBERT SHISHKIN, M-106 “GATOR 2”: How'd you figure, Cap?

L/CPN KURT TRÄSCH, M-119 “BANSHEE 1”:  In an atmo this toxic, the Em-Fifties would need to be coated every month or lathed every couple of days to keep functioning.

PFC MATUS HEGEDÜS, M-106 “GATOR 3”: Imagine running around in this muck, sweating your balls off lathing a bunch of metal extractors so some trade guild bigwig on Epsilon can buy cheap metal.

L/CPL CHRISTINE MAZIBUKO, M-37 “TRIPPER 4”: Gettin' some moving blips on-screen. Grabber, what is em-e-you at... oh-two-two-four by four-six-seven-oh or thereabouts, over?

CPL HIROSHI WIEDEMAN, M-29854 MCC “GRABBER”: Uh, sensor relay reads as... “unidentified object,” over.

L/CPL CHRISTINE MAZIBUKO, M-37 “TRIPPER 4”: Figures.

L/CPN KURT TRÄSCH, M-119 “BANSHEE 1”: E-you pegged. Blip shift consistent with holding pattern for see-ay in mind-nano, most-like an Em-One-Oh-Five, over.

L/CPL CHRISTINE MAZIBUKO, M-37 “TRIPPER 4”: Got it. Yeah, I see him... wait, I got another... nuts, it’s an em-see-see!

L/CPN KURT TRÄSCH, M-119 “BANSHEE 1”: Confirmed. Stay on-site and wait for the heavies, over.

L/CPL CHRISTINE MAZIBUKO, M-37 “TRIPPER 4”: Copy, Banshee One... gah. Taking fire, over.

L/CPN KURT TRÄSCH, M-119 “BANSHEE 1”: Well, don’t ping him too hard, Tripper, or he’ll go cold-fusion on your ass.

L/CPL CHRISTINE MAZIBUKO, M-37 “TRIPPER 4”: Son-of-a...

CPL FRANCIS KAKIZAKI, M-165 “SPACY 1”: Tripper Four, this is Second Column, we are inbound, over.

L/CPL CHRISTINE MAZIBUKO, M-37 “TRIPPER 4”: Negative, Second, we are in tight with an em-see-see, and... goddamnit, Gator, hold your fire! That’s a mini-nuke on its back!

CPL HERBERT SHISHKIN, M-106 “GATOR 2”: What? What was that, Tripper Four, I didn’t copy.

L/CPL CHRISTINE MAZIBUKO, M-37 “TRIPPER 4”: I said-

L/CPN KURT TRÄSCH, M-119 “BANSHEE 1”: Grabber, Banshee One. What the hell was that?

CPL HIROSHI WIEDEMAN, M-29854 MCC “GRABBER”: Tee-en-ee, Banshee One. That was an em-see-see going up.

L/CPN KURT TRÄSCH, M-119 “BANSHEE 1”: Holy cow. What’s our board?

CPL HIROSHI WIEDEMAN, M-29854 MCC “GRABBER”: I count six, that’s zero-six friendlies east of Grid Two-Zero-Seven. Looks like you’re on your own, Banshee One. Over.

L/CPN KURT TRÄSCH, M-119 “BANSHEE 1”: Orders?

CMDR MARION YANG, M-29854 MCC “GRABBER”: Banshee One, this is Grabber actual.

L/CPN KURT TRÄSCH, M-119 “BANSHEE 1”: Copy, Grabber actual.

CMDR MARION YANG, M-29854 MCC “GRABBER”: You are to proceed north to the blast site and clear all enemy contacts off our board, with the Em-One-Oh-Five you eye-deed earlier considered the high-priority target. Is that understood?

L/CPN KURT TRÄSCH, M-119 “BANSHEE 1”: Roger that, Grabber. Proceeding.

CPL PHIL KAUF, M-119 “BANSHEE 1”: Sir?

L/CPN KURT TRÄSCH, M-119 “BANSHEE 1”: Corporal?

CPL PHIL KAUF, M-119 “BANSHEE 1”: We’re to proceed north without backup?

L/CPN KURT TRÄSCH, M-119 “BANSHEE 1”: We won’t be needing no backup. That was the em-see-see going up, taking the factories with it; you might as well crack open the bubbly. This solar system belongs to the United Systems Military now.

TRANSMISSION 06: Connect The Dots

WELCOME TO THE A.R.M.I. INTEL-AN LOG FACILITIES
PLEASE RECONFIRM YOUR CODE-WORD CLEARANCE
PROCESSING...
PROCESSING...
ACCESS CONFIRMED
INPUT INFORMATION QUERY
SEARCHING...
SEARCHING...
SEARCHING...
5 LIKELY MATCHES CONFIRMED:
INPUT DATA DATED 04-01-11; KEYWORDS “SCOPES” “MAZZOLA” “BLAKE”
INPUT DATA DATED 18-01-04; KEYWORDS “CANCRI” “MAZZOLA”
INPUT DATA DATED 21-02-07; KEYWORDS “SCOPES” “CANCRI”
INPUT DATA DATED 09-06-03; KEYWORDS “BLAKE” “MAZZOLA”
INPUT DATA DATED 04-06-91; KEYWORDS “SCOPES” “BLAKE”
FILE SELECTED
LOADING...
LOADING...

SPECIALIST HAYNES: Morning, El-Tee. Seen any good movies lately?

LIEUTENANT KILAR: Very funny, Specialist. I’ve been up for about thirty hours now, so jokes are definitely what I’m in the mood for.

HAYNES: Whoa. No Maureen?

KILAR: Maureen had to feed her cat or some bullshit, so I took a back-to-back.

HAYNES: She’s been feeding her cat for fifteen hours?

KILAR: He is a pudgy fucker.

HAYNES: What are we looking at?

KILAR: Uh, we had one of our undercovs go dark a couple days ago, and IntSec has us reviewing his last five days of footage, see if we might pick up any hints that he got snatched.

HAYNES: Jeez. Anyone we know?

KILAR: Lemme see... a Gianluca Mazzola of Four-Section Field Ops, out of Two-Thirteen.

HAYNES: Mazzola... don’t think I ever met him. What’s the need-to-know on him?

KILAR: Independent asset tracking with irregular reports. Visible deep-cover, with reccing wetware out the yin-yang.

HAYNES: And what ‘independent assets’ do we have him tracking?

KILAR: Ostensibly, that’s we brought you in here to verify, but seriously? Any yahoo with a subscription to Imperial Broadband could pick out most of these punks. Take a look.

HAYNES: Holy Mother of Moses. Is that who I think it is?

KILAR: In the flesh. And look who he’s talking to.

HAYNES: Wow... no wonder Brennan’s popping a gasket over this guy; he was in deep. Is it all high-level guys?

KILAR: Most of it, yeah. There’s a council meeting and a war room thing, with about eight or nine hours of security intel briefings, in case we ever have to drop an Infil team into Truncatis. The war room thing is a briefing for the Three-Seventy-Nine hit, actually; then it looks like he went invisible for the next couple of days, sitting on a council building on Fifty-Seven-Mono and watching the door. Lot of people there that I don’t recognize, actually.

HAYNES: Lemme see.

KILAR: Sure, grab a seat.

HAYNES: Hmmm... wait, go back, go back... yeah. That’s Leuchtner from Exec. And there’s... uh... what’s-his-name Doberman out of Logistics, probably bitching about all the assets they wasted trying to hit Three-Seven-Nine... whose office is this, anyway?

KILAR: Leslie Scopes, out of-

HAYNES: Scopes? Yeah, she’s the Luyten's Star section commander now, after bin Hassan bought it at Three-Seventy-Nine. Brennan wanted to watch her, that’s interesting...

KILAR: Who is this chick?

HAYNES: That’s need-to-know, El-Tee, you know that.

KILAR: Come on. Either I can wait two days for clearance, or you can just tell me now.

HAYNES: ...alright. She was with Astrographic Asset Evaluation before the cannon, and had a lot of ties to Blake. Defected during the Moon War, and ended up on Armand’s side of the split.

KILAR: Did she, now.

HAYNES: Yup. Brennan must think she’s still in bed with Blake, so to speak- WHOA.

KILAR: What? What?

HAYNES: That’s... it can’t be.

KILAR: What is it? Who is that?

HAYNES: That’s... Ashbrook de Blainville. He’s a talk show host.

KILAR: What, like political breakfast show?

HAYNES: No... vacuous celebrity dumbfucks for housewives and preteens. Runs every friday at four out of Mono-Bee. What in Hell’s Holy Bells is he doing walking into a military adjunct’s office?

KILAR: Are you sure that’s the guy?

HAYNES: Positive.

KILAR: Weird.

HAYNES: I’ll say.

KILAR: You want me to call upstairs?

HAYNES: Hmm? No, I’ll just slap it in my report.

KILAR: Come on. We don’t know he’s doing there, this is a time-sensitive thing, Brennan’s sweating his balls off worrying about this guy... let me call Four-Section, let them know we’ve found something weird, maybe they’ll clear us up a grade if this... du Blanville-

HAYNES: de Blainville.

KILAR: Whatever, if his name rings any bells.

HAYNES: Rings any bells? Come on, El-Tee, this dude’s a nobody, a civvy! He’s got nothing more to do with Mazzola blacking out than you or I do! For all we know, he’s trying to get an interview with someone out of the military for propaganda purposes.

KILAR: Yeah, but we don’t know that. What if he’s... some kind of intell operative? Some spy telling Scopes she’s being watched? What if Mazzola did get snatched, and this is the guy who fingered him?

HAYNES: Well... you’re the boss, boss.

KILAR: You’re damn right, I am, and I’m calling Four-Section.

HAYNES: Okay, okay... but don’t bitch me out when they start laughing at you for thinking their star undercov was kidnapped by a teevee presenter.


RECORD LOG 8661947638 – M107 ATLAS TRANSPORT “KUIPER”
MAIN HOLDING CELL LOG – AUDIO ONLY

(door opens)

MAZZOLA: Who’s there?

BLAKE: Oh, I think you know.

MAZZOLA: Blake!

BLAKE: Mmm.

MAZZOLA: Well, you can save your psych-techniques, you know I’m not talking. I’m a top-executive-tier Imperial Guardsman.

BLAKE: I’d appreciate it if that was the last time you insulted my intelligence, Mister Mazzola. I know exactly what you are and where you were trained, and it certainly wasn’t in an Imperial facility.

MAZZOLA: Oh yeah? And where was that?

BLAKE: Well, that would the Gliese-Two-Thirteen Allied Rimworld Military Intelligence Academy, of course. I have to hand it to Brennan, he’s got balls, placing an operative in the Imperial Guard. It’s the ideal place; you see a lot, you hear a lot, you’re rotated frequently, and have the authority to select your own assignments. Unfortunately, he overlooked one crucial detail: the Guard’s emm-oh was designed specifically to help the Viziers keeps tabs on the Emperor, and one another. It’s the obvious place to put a mole. When I saw how efficiently the En-En-Three-Seven-Nine-Nine assault was foiled, I knew the mole was working for Allied Rimworld Intelligence.

MAZZOLA: I admit it, Blake, your delsusions are magnificently detailed. You should be one of the Emperor’s speechwriters. I’m flattered by the implication that I’m smart enough to be some sort of undercover operative, but the truth is, I’m as dumb as you’re insane.

BLAKE: You certainly were dumb enough to fall for my red herring on the council. All I had to do was wait until I was absolutely certain Scopes was being watched, and have her jump on the next shuttle to Luyten's Star. Whoever had himself assigned to the shuttle was my man, and that man, Mister Mazzola, was you.

MAZZOLA: You just tripped yourself up, Blake. If Scopes isn’t on your payroll, how’d you get her on the flight?

BLAKE: It’s not quite time to reveal all of my schemes, but you’re obviously not as stupid as you’d have me believe.

MAZZOLA: Well, whatever side you think I’m on, I’m not talking to you.

BLAKE: I’ll leave that to my experts. In the meantime, I’m far more interested on what Scopes has to tell me, I’m sure she’ll be willing to cut some sort of deal to save her own sorry hide.

A.R.M.I. INTEL-AN COMM LOG
TRANSMISSION 18-12-10-71-4

KILAR: Mffh... what time is it?

HAYNES: You don’t want to know.

KILAR: God damn it, Haynes, what’ve you done now?

HAYNES: It’s not me, it’s you. You called Four-Section, and now our info on Mazzola is IntSec’s only lead on his disappearance.

KILAR: And this is urgent how, exactly?

HAYNES: ‘Cause we just got word from ComIntel: someone else has disappeared.

KILAR: Who?

HAYNES: Leslie Scopes.

KILAR: ...I’m putting on my pants, I’ll be there in thirty.


PERSONAL FEED ACCESS: ANTHONY STANISLAV BRENNAN, ID#94357998193056
RECORDING OF UNSCHEDULED MEETING AT INTSEC HEADQUARTERS
PLAYBACK CORRUPTED – DOWNLOADING TRANSCRIPT

BRENNAN: ...if we can’t even move assets in there!

LONGDEN: I’ll see what I can do-

BRENNAN: Dan! Come in, sit down. You look like shit. Coffee?

KILAR: Yeah, sure.

HAYNES: Hi, El-Tee.

KILAR: At ease, Specialist.

BRENNAN: Alright, I’ll get straight to the point. Dan, this is General Longden from SpaceCom, and this is Colonel Takatsukasa from ComIntel. Guys, this is Danny Kilar, the analyst who confirmed Mazzola as missing.

KILAR: I’m sorry, but... I did, sir?

BRENNAN: In a roundabout way, it appears you did. The, uh, de Blainville guy your people eye-deed going into Scopes’s office had been contacted by a blind drop on Fifty-Seven-Mono-Ay that we’ve been bugging for a while. We had no idea whose drop it was, and in fact, we suspected it might be CoRe or U-Ess-Emm until tonight. Colonel?

TAKATSUKASA: At oh-three-forty-one-local, an Imperial Em-One-Oh-Seven out of Gliese-Two-Eighty-Bee was officially declared overdue at Luyten's Star. Seems it was transporting one Section Commander Leslie Scopes on unknown business to her section garrison on Trigon. Playback of Agent Mazzola’s recordings show that she departed immediately following de Blainville’s visit, and we have constructed a likely scenario: de Blainville somehow gets Scopes to go immediately to Luyten's Star on some errand, and since Mazzola had been ordered to watch her, he jumps on the shuttle himself without waiting for clearance from IntSec. Then, whoever ordered de Blainville to Scopes’ office has ships lying in wait for her at Luyten. They grab her and Mazzola and disappear.

BRENNAN: We basically played connect-the-dots, but we’d never have found the first dot without you guys.

KILAR: Thanks, I guess... I reckon y’all have a pretty solid theory as to who might have snatched Mazzola and Scopes?

BRENNAN: We figure, the only ones who could possibly have ships in-system for the capture would be Blake’s people.

KILAR: What? Blake? How would they get there?

TAKATSUKASA: It seems that either Blake’s raid on Luyten's Star three months ago may have been a feint to place assets in-system, or the raid had the secondary purpose of leaving them there. Shortly before you were called, this was apparently confirmed when the Luyten jump cannon crew failed to check in, and a sortie was dispatched from the garrison to investigate.

KILAR: You’re saying Blake’s people took over the cannon, and used it to jump Scopes and Mazzola into Protectorate space?

TAKATSUKASA: Exactly, or to En-En-Three-Five-Two-Two, to be precise.

KILAR: She-sus... but one thing I don’t get: how do we know de Blainville is involved? Can’t Scopes just be working for Blake? Grabbing one of our undercovs seems like it would be worth blowing her cover over.

BRENNAN: Then why place assets in Luyten when he could just have Scopes bring Mazzola straight to him? She could make up any excuse she wanted for an attack, or invite another raid to Luyten's Star and ‘lose’ Mazzola in the casualties. No, de Blainville is involved, somehow. Granted, I don’t know how, but he is.

LONGDEN: The more important issue is this: does Blake know Mazzola is one of ours, and if he does, how can we retrieve him?

KILAR: He’s out of range?

LONGDEN: Completely, unless IntSec operatives in Ay-Dee-Leonis executed an extraction.

BRENNAN: Right, and blow their cover? My people have been working six years trying to infiltrate CoRe ops-

LONGDEN: When the only other option is launching a SpaceCom raid four-and-a-half parsecs through three jump points, all of which are heavily guarded, you bet your ass we blow their cover. A six-year op with no concrete results is a complete WOMBAT anyway, when the alternative is Blake’s people squeezing Mazzola! Do you have any idea how much he knows? Codenames? Troop ops? Chain-of-command intel?

BRENNAN: You’re goddamn right I know, because I’m the one who put him there in the first place! He’s my friend, and believe me, if I saw any feasible way to extract him using my people, I would-

TAKATSUKASA: Gentlemen, please. Let’s discuss the alternatives. First of all: are we sure Blake knows? What if he’s just after Scopes? Mazzola’s smart enough to keep up his cover; maybe he’ll pretend to defect, and we’ll have a mole in Blake’s militia, something we’ve wanted for decades.

HAYNES: No. Blake wouldn’t throw all that into grabbing an Imperial Council Member he could probably buy off anyway. He knows.

BRENNAN: Danny?

KILAR: Brian’s right. Blake’s no idiot. He knows. And besides, he’d never let a defector into his army, never mind his confidence.

LONGDEN: Can we rely on the Empire to send someone to retrieve Scopes, and grabbing Mazzola along the way?

BRENNAN: No, Armand hates Scopes and all the ex-CoRe people. He probably won’t even tell the council what happened to her, and use the oppurtunity to install some toady moron in her place.

HAYNES: So wait... we’re cerain that the dead drop on Vee-Fifty-Seven is Blake’s?

LONGDEN: Whose else could it be? This thing with de Blainville can’t be a coincidence?

HAYNES: Well, it could be, but it doesn’t really matter who it belongs to; we can still use it.

BRENNAN: What’s on your mind, Bri?

HAYNES: Well, what if we get the Empire to do our work for us, like you suggested, General? We could plant info in the dead drop giving Scopes’s location, and have one of our moles in ImpIntel rat out de Blainville. Then, once they’ve scanned the dead drop, they’ll know what happened to Scopes, and Armand will have no way of keeping it in the bottle. The council will demand they rescue her, and bam, they’ll send a strikeforce from Dee-Ex or Luyten’s Star within the week.

TAKATSUKASA: Forgive me, Specialist, and I know this is your area of expertise, not mine, but this all seems rather farfetched. How can you be so certain the Viziers will be so anxious to resuce Scopes? In fact, how can you even be sure the info will reach the Viziers?

KILAR: A lot of these Viziers sit on oversight commitees, basically whoring themselves out for mid-level and junior staff in the Imperial bureaucracy. If a low-level ImpIntel analyst finds our message-

HAYNES: And we can assure that happens, through use of our mole-

KILAR: He’ll run straight to one of the Viziers, and offer to exchange the information for a promotion.

LONGDEN: And what’s in it for the whores?

KILAR: Pardon?

TAKATSUKASA: What’s in it for the Vizier?

KILAR: Oh, right. Well, he or she gets to look decisive and well-informed in front of the Emperor, and if there’s a fight to be won, he or she can put somebody already in their pocket in charge of the strike force.

HAYNES: Plus, you realize this will out de Blainville, and we find out what the deal is with that guy. I’m betting he’ll break under Imp torture, and tell them who he’s working for, and then our mole can tell us.

KILAR: ...right. It’s the perfect plan, really.

BRENNAN: Aw, would you look at that. It’s true love, boys.

LONGDEN: I’m... uneasy about this, handing off legit info to ImpIntel. Are you sure they’ll even buy it? And what if de Blainville visits the dead drop and wipes it before they scan it?

HAYNES: They’ll buy it, because it’s real: when they start to back-check it, they’ll find everything adds up, and there’ll be no way we could have done stuff like a smash-and-grab parsecs out of Allied space.

KILAR: And as for de Blainville beating us to the drop, we’ve been anticipating a scenario like this for some time; our mole has had the dead drop under indirect ImpIntel surveillance for some time, and has the documents to prove it. It’ll look like he just happened to come across it-

LONGDEN: Which is exactly what happened.

BRENNAN: A lie, General Longden, is most convincingly hidden between two truths.

LONGDEN: Right. Well, this is your ball from now on, gentlemen. I’ll leave you to it; I have a report to write.

BRENNAN: Cool. You might want to leave out the part where we called the Viz council whores, in case they ever come knocking.

LONGDEN: Are you kidding? It’ll be italicized, underlined and bold, if I have anything to say about it.

(laughs)



RECORD LOG 9452779210 – M107 ATLAS TRANSPORT “CHROME”
BRIDGE LOG – AUDIO ONLY

CAPTAIN GOLIA: What’s our ee-tee-ay, Lieutenant?

FLIGHT LIEUTENANT PÖTSCHKE: About two minutes, sir.

GOLIA: Good. I trust em-see-see drop won’t be a problem?

PÖTSCHKE: No, sir: plenty of cover and plenty of potential ell-zees. Two-Two-bee is a toxic hothouse, about an ay-you or so away from being tidally locked with the primrary. Biochem records indicate silicon-based plant analogues sprung from microbial seeding, and acid precipitation regular enough to form seas.

GOLIA: Nothing metal-scorching, I hope?

PÖTSCHKE: No, sir. Well within acceptable pee-aitch levels for a standard hull. Resist the urge to go swimming, and you’ll do fine, sir.

GOLIA: Understood. And Lieutenant?

PÖTSCHKE: Sir?

GOLIA: In future, resist the urge to crack jokes while we’re on a combat jump, and you’ll do fine. If not, I’ll gladly accept your offer to volunteer for testing the acid’s effect on human flesh.

PÖTSCHKE: Yes, sir. Sorry, sir.

ENSIGN ZAMALLOA: Sir, calculations indicate we should be through the heliopause now! Should I fire the breakers?

GOLIA: At once.

ZAMALLOA: Breakers fired! Navs?

ENSIGN LUCAS: Collating... tracking... got it! Primrary confirmed at one-forty by sixty-two by eight.

ZAMALLOA: Adjusting yaw... there she blows.

GOLIA: How very underwhelming. Just for once, I’d like to conquer a star you could at least put on a postcard.

ENSIGN IDRISS: Picking up a comm blanket.

GOLIA: Good. Open up a channel.

IDRISS: Channel open.

GOLIA: Attention, forces of the Blake Protectorate. I am Marshall-Captain Thomas Golia of the Eighth Imperial Armored Division, and I am here to ensure the safe return of the prisoners you have illegally captured. Surrender them peacably, and a compromise can assuredly be reached. Withold them, and I will descend upon you like the flail of an angry god. The choice is yours; you have one minute to respond.

PÖTSCHKE: You do know, sir, that your transmission will take longer than that just to reach them, never mind the reply time-

GOLIA: One more peep out of you, Pötschke...

PÖTSCHKE: Right, sir.

GOLIA: I’m going downstairs. Helm, begin the insertion. Drop the em-see-see at maximum range.

PÖTSCHKE: Yes, sir... will that give us enough time to abandon ship and join you in the em-see-see?

GOLIA: No, but you have escape pods, don’t you?

PÖTSCHKE: Yes, but not enough for-

GOLIA: Well, the captain always goes down with the ship. Pick the crew you like the most, and get them to the pods. With any luck, I’ll have them picked up before Blake’s fighters find them.

PÖTSCHKE: Uh... right, sir. Thank you, sir.

GOLIA: ...whatever.