TRANSMISSION 09: Scatter Gun

ARINURIAN HALL PUBLIC RECORDS

SECTION IDENT 2248/61

RECORD 10: SENATE SESSION 8-6, 23.71.7362

SENATOR SWEETWATER: All will come to order. The first business of the day, as you all know, is to conclude the preliminary rulings based on the findings of Senator Kirchheim’s committee hearings last Tuesday. Now, Senator; we’ve all seen the news lately, but if you’d be so kind as to give us your report.

SENATOR KIRCHHEIM: Thank you, Mister Chairman. The Allied Rimworld Senate’s Special Investigative Committee’s original task was to discern if the commander-in-chief’s judgement was in any way lacking in the matter of the defense of Hipparcos-Yale-Gliese-Eight-Six-Two-Two-Six, better known as Ror Sho in the Double-En-Three-Three-Seven-Nine System. We’ve found, after much coordination with the Intelligence Committee, that President Karweta’s actions were absolutely correct, and completely above reproach. Furthermore, there is nothing to suggest that the president in any way willfully endangered Rimworld citizens. The complete report on our findings can be accessed from the mainframe via datanet, but my committee is satisfied, and will be pursuing no further action.

SENATOR SWEETWATER: Thank you, Senator Kirchheim. The floor is now open… the chair recognizes Senator Lund of Ror Sho.

SENATOR LUND: Thank you, Chairman… when exactly will the members of the Home Party, most of them affluent businessmen from right here in the Keid System, realize that the danger from the Empire is very real, and very constant? We on Ror Sho are sitting on the doorstep of an enemy that seeks nothing less than the total annihilation of our people and our way of life, a fact the president selectively ignores and our esteemed military does absolutely nothing about, and yet we are expected to share these conclusions? That there is, and I quote, “nothing to suggest that the president in any way willfully endangered Rimworld citizens?” Senators, I implore you: if you believe these findings, take a leave of absence and have your heads examined!

SENATOR SWEETWATER: Order, order. Find a complaisant way to make your point, Senator, or yield the floor.

SENATOR LUND: Very well, Mister Chairman… my point is that our nearest rimward neighbor is a tyrant whose intentions have always been to make war on us. It was just a matter of waiting for the Emperor to make his move, and my constituency was his first target. Now, I have it on very good authority that to preemptively attack the Empire was deemed by Military High Command to be a far less intelligent option than to wait for Armand attack us, and react accordingly. The military gambled with our lives, and a president who allows this to happen is simply not fit to lead us!

SENATOR SWEETWATER: Alright… thank you, Senator. The chair recognizes Senator Halmstad of Evad.

SENATOR HALMSTAD: Thank you, Mister Chairman. Senator Lund, I’m sure you notice, as I do, that there is a sizable detail missing from your assessment of the siege of your homeworld: it failed. Miserably. The enemy contingent was easily detected by the Homefront sensor network in the outskirts of your system, and was monitored making moonfall as local assets were diverted. These assets then intercepted the contingent and wiped them out, and with great ease, it seems. At no point was your civilian population threatened, military casualties were light and no mining infrastructure on your moon was damaged. Indeed, I believe that asides from a slight stock hit to the independent corporations based on Ror Sho, life on your moon was basically unaffected. How is this not acceptable to you? You say yourself that the soundest military strategy was to invite an attack and then repel it swiftly, and I agree; after all, it worked brilliantly. We all know that the Allied Rim lacks the firepower to simply barricade an entire solar system, especially now with the rapidly deteriorating situation on the other end of the River. So how are we to proceed? If you had been president, how would you have acted differently, Senator Lund?

SENATOR SWEETWATER: Thank you, Senator. Anyone else care to comment? Yes? The chair recognizes Senator Lamberton of Coral.

A.R.M.I. INTEL-AN COMM LOG

TRANSMISSION 71-57-66-91-7

SECRETARY: Good evening, General Longden’s office, Claire speaking, how can I help you?

BRENNAN: Yeah, hi Claire, Tony Brennan here. Is the general in?

SECRETARY: One moment, Mr. Brennan.

BRENNAN (humming): Dun-dun-dun-dun-on a thing on a river, girl with kaleidoscope-

LONGDEN: Longden.

BRENNAN: Hey, Vince. You watching TV?

LONGDEN: Yeah, the Breakers are really taking it on the chin, huh?

BRENNAN: Not the game, dickcheese, the Senate session. Flip it over.

LONGDEN: But my game…

BRENNAN: Game, what fucking game are you watching? There’s no game on now.

LONGDEN: Breakers-Rockets game, last night.

BRENNAN: The Breakers lost, like they always do. Now pause your fucking game and change the channel.

LONGDEN: Alright, what am I watching here?

BRENNAN: Kirchheim wrapped up his ess-eye-see last week and found Liza innocent.

LONGDEN: As she is. Wasn’t this leaked by your people last week?

BRENNAN: Yeah, but that’s not the point. Lund came at Kirchheim like he owed him money, and guess who stepped up for Kirky?

LONGDEN: Who?

BRENNAN: Zheng Halmstad

LONGDEN: No way.

BRENNAN: Yes way.

LONGDEN: The ‘Straw Man’ himself.

BRENNAN: Vincent… I think it’s time.

LONGDEN: Time for what?

BRENNAN: The big push. The breech. The levee. No man’s land.

LONGDEN: Really? Now?

BRENNAN: I think it’s time we hit Vee-Fifty-Seven-Mono.

LONGDEN: You’ve discussed this with your analysts?

BRENNAN: No discussion required, General. I know everything they know.

LONGDEN: That’s a stretch.

BRENNAN: When it comes to our own Senate, it’s true. Who do you think keeps the faucet flowing to you guys? Who do you think keeps us Alliance boys up and running when every prospie on every Allied world wants to devolve and pull up their skirt for Bridgehead? Who do you think-

LONGDEN: Alright, I get it, you’re the puppetmaster, the wheel-within-the-wheel, the fucking Daedalus building the labyrinth. Jeez, you get pissy sometimes.

BRENNAN: I’m serious here, Vince. I know my shit, and if Zheng Halmstad, a borderline secessionist, is lobbing bungers on behalf of a Home Party ess-eye-see, then trust me, we have the votes to back this.

LONGDEN: A major military action? Against a foreign capital system?

BRENNAN: A foreign capital a parsec-and-a-half from our doorstep! Lund may be an asshole, but he’s not wrong when he says he’s in the line of fire. And you know Imps: they don’t give up. Come this time next year, we’ll have beaten them back at least once more.

LONGDEN: At least.

BRENNAN: Yup.

LONGDEN: You realize what you’re proposing legally requires an executive order from the President of the Allied Rimworld Senate.

BRENNAN: Draft the memo, I dare you. Just see what happens. I guaran-fucking-tee it, you’ll get a response.

LONGDEN: …alright, I’m sold. You just keep the fires lit under Halmstad and his buddies, and the memo will be on the President’s desk on Monday.

BRENNAN: Friday, Vince.

LONGDEN: Okay, Friday… wait a minute, you’re basing all this on a mood that won’t even survive the weekend? The hell kind of ‘guaran-fucking-tee’ is that?

BRENNAN: Hey, I got you to write the memo, didn’t I?

LONGDEN: You’re a fucking scam artist, you know that Tony?

BRENNAN: That’s what it says on my desk. Brennan out.

COMM LOG EXCERPT OF A.R.M. COMBAT VEHICLE FOLLOWS

CODE: “ELIXIR” (AUTHORIZED ACCESS ONLY)

M-29854 MCC “NORTHLIGHT,” CENTRAL COMMAND OF ROSS 614 THEATER

M/GNL. OSTROZHSKY: Captain, execute long-fall-stall maneuver and triangulate for optimal comms. Lieutenant, where’s that transmission?

2/LT. HARRIS: Coming, sir.

CPN. WARGNIER: Triangulation complete, sir! Topside reports repairs complete to dorsal antennae; should I launch a buoy, sir?

M/GNL. OSTROZHSKY: Negative, Captain. If Lieutenant Harris here is as good he thinks he is, he’ll have Major Vesna on the horn in no time.

CPN. WARGNIER: Aye, sir!

EN. BOUDDI: Incoming! Sensor pings on twelve-down register… it’s an Em-One-Thirty, sir! Trajectory fixed on-

M/GNL. OSTROZHSKY: I see it! Never mind the trajectory, Ensign; the Defenders’ll get him.

EN. BOUDDI: Copy, sir… that’s it, Em-Seventy-Nine Two-Two-Four reports a clean hit, sir. Kill confirmed.

2/LT. HARRIS: “Angel” online, sir! I have your transmission!

M/GNL. OSTROZHSKY: Excellent, Lieutenant! Let’s hear it!

2/LT. HARRIS: “Angel,” this is “Northlight,” do you read me, over?

MJR. VESNA (incoming): Roger that, “Northlight,” switching to dee-ess-you, over.

M/GNL. OSTROZHSKY: Switch it through, Lieutenant.

2/LT. HARRIS: It’s good, sir.

M/GNL. OSTROZHSKY: Copy… Ruthie, you read me?

MJR. VESNA (incoming): Yeah, I’m here. You okay?

M/GNL. OSTROZHSKY: We took a little heat up on Chiaroni Bridge, but we’re okay now. Went for a swim in the river, as it were.

MJR. VESNA (incoming): We’re underwater ourselves, sir. Composer’s Lake is beautiful this time of year.

M/GNL. OSTROZHSKY: So I’m told… listen, Ruthie, there’s something I’m not finding out here.

MJR. VESNA (incoming): Yeah, I know… the people, right?

M/GNL. OSTROZHSKY: Do you have any theories on why I just fought my way across the entire Eastern Hemisphere of a planet without seeing any people?

MJR. VESNA (incoming): They must have evacuated them, seen us coming, sir.

M/GNL. OSTROZHSKY: I dunno… does any of that sound like the Empire that we know and love, Major?

MJR. VESNA (incoming): Not really, sir, no… I could get an Em-Ten-Ten online in an hour or two and rig it to launch a satellite, have the Em-Thirty-Sevens do spectrograph pings off it.

M/GNL. OSTROZHSKY: Go ahead, I’m sure intel would appreciate the recon, but I don’t think that’ll find our citizenry either. I’ve got Ay-Ar-Tees scattered all through the Vusanje and they’re getting exactly zip, except for the occasional enemy aircraft. No structures, no movement, nothing.

MJR. VESNA (incoming): It’s downright unsettling, sir.

CPN. WARGNIER: General? I have a Specialist Haynes from Intel on the horn, says he wants to talk to you about our missing populace.

M/GNL. OSTROZHSKY: Is that a fact? Put him through.

SPCT. HAYNES (incoming): Major-General Ostrozhsky?

M/GNL. OSTROZHSKY: This is he.

SPCT. HAYNES (incoming): Good afternoon, sir, my name is Brian Haynes, I’m an analyst with Military Intelligence.

M/GNL. OSTROZHSKY: I’d like to think we all have a little ‘military intelligence,’ but this crap has me baffled, Mister Haynes. Can you tell me what happened to all the wonderful people we’re supposed to be saving?

SPCT. HAYNES (incoming): Well, I can tell by your transcript that you’ve already considered evacuation, and we can tell you that while the See-of-E team is still en-route to the Jump Cannon, I can almost certainly rule out that they were evacuated to any of the other Imperial Systems, unless it was extremely last-minute.

MJR. VESNA (incoming): Well, I don’t know about Heard, but Rancho certainly wasn’t evacced in in the last seventy-two hours. When we made planetfall, there were houses that were already burned out after being set fire to, and pack animal corpses that were definitely four days old at least.

M/GNL. OSTROZHSKY: Same here. One of my Em-Thirty-Seven patrols found a feedscanner with unpurged databanks; the last sift was dated eleven days ago. Not the most incisive yardstick, I know, but still. How do you rule out evacuation to the neighbor systems, Mister Haynes? Moles not chirping?

SPCT. HAYNES (incoming): That’s right, sir, all quiet. IntSec’s assets at Sirius, Procyon and Luyten’s Star have reported no bulk transportation of civilians in the last week, and transfer from there to Dee-Ex-Cancri can definitely be ruled out. If the people are stashed away somewhere in the neighboring systems, it would be an unlikely intelligence failure on our part.

M/GNL. OSTROZHSKY: Or an equally unlikely victory on theirs… and even if you could, why would you hide three and a half billion people?

SPCT. HAYNES (incoming): Right.

M/GNL. OSTROZHSKY: Am I to assume you’ve already taken this up the ladder?

SPCT. HAYNES (incoming): Yes sir, the message capsule is en route to the Jump Cannon as we speak, but knowing my superior, Director Brennan, he’d want me to be proactive on this. Time could be a factor here.

M/GNL. OSTROZHSKY: Most likely, yes. Are you about to ask me a favor, Mister Haynes?

SPCT. HAYNES (incoming): Yes sir. I’m currently inbound from my drop point, e-tee-ay of about thirty-five minutes, but I’d appreciate it if you could spare a spacecraft to ferry me to the Jump Cannon so I can coordinate with the See-of-E people.

M/GNL. OSTROZHSKY: I can do you one better than that, Mister Haynes; let me speak to the captain of your transport.

CPN. KAZUTOSHI (incoming): Here, sir.

M/GNL. OSTROZHSKY: Captain, I want you to fly Mister Haynes straight to the Jump Cannon and give him all the support he needs from you and your crew, even if that involves staying with him there at the Cannon or taking him back to Three-Seven-Niner, understood?

CPN. KAZUTOSHI (incoming): Yes sir, but the Queue-Cee-

M/GNL. OSTROZHSKY: Is that understood, Captain?

CPN. KAZUTOSHI (incoming): Yes sir, understood, sir.

M/GNL. OSTROZHSKY: Good man. I’ll submit my own report to the Quartermaster Corps along with a commendation for your flexibility.

COMM LOG EXCERPT ENDS.

RECORD LOG 8749328664973 – M107 ATLAS TRANSPORT “DULUTH”

BRIDGE LOG – AUDIO ONLY

SPCT. HAYNES: Sorry if I just got you in some water there, Captain. I really didn’t expect the Major-General to assign me a chauffeur.

CPN. KAZUTOSHI: Eh, no gripes from me. I just had to sound like I was putting up a fight for Northlight’s audio log. You support boys always think having to fly you places ruins our day, but I’m a pilot; I like flying. I don’t care where I’m going or who I’m taking there.

HAYNES: Your mandate from the Queue-Cee’s not your preferred gig?

KAZUTOSHI: Humping boxes for those rear-echelon pukes? (snorts) They can drive their own trucks. Gimme a vee-eye-pee hot drop over that crap any day.

HAYNES: I thought you said you’d fly anything anywhere.

KAZUTOSHI: Well, that’s the exception. Just do me a favor, alright?

HAYNES: What? Leave what you said out of my report?

KAZUTOSHI: Yeah, that and don’t ask for any slow flybys of a hot zone, okay? These ain’t no battleships we’re flying here.

HAYNES: No problem.

LT. HERNÁNDEZ: Sir? We’re coming up on the Jump Cannon and… well, maybe you’d better just take a look.

KAZUTOSHI: What in the hopped-up handicapped hell…

HAYNES: What is that?

KAZUTOSHI: I don’t know. It looks like the Jump Cannon’s all… fused up.

HERNÁNDEZ: That’s nothing, Skip. Take a look at the eye-ar.

HAYNES: Motherloving...

KAZUTOSHI: Artie? How heat-resistant are the gunwales on a Jay-Cee?

EN. LOM: Upwards of fifteen-hundred Kay at least, and that’s a low-grade.

HAYNES: So... could the temperature readings we’re getting be residual from the gunwale fusing to the bulwark like that?

LOM: That could jibe, but to get her hot like that you’d have to be conducting upwards of like... a jump every ten minutes or something, with zero time for calibration, not to mention calculations. For a max-range cannonade, you’re expending almost seventy-five megatons per acceleration, and the blowback, even with the shock absorbers, is enough to knock one of our Jay-Cees out of whack by two or three parsecs. To get her this hot, you’d have to be basically firing blind. If it’s one of our Cannons. You’re familiar with ‘two point four is too damn far?’

HAYNES: Yeah... that’s the practical upper range of a Jump Cannon, right?

LOM: Right. Anything beyond that, and the margin of error becomes too much. You start plowing through Kuiper belts or decelling so far out that your crew runs out of oh-two or water before they can make planetfall.

HAYNES: The Empire’s cannons are actually slightly less accurate than ours. When they hit Ror Sho, we plinked them on Homefront coming in on a coreward vector. They actually overshot the system by about four ay-yous.

HERNÁNDEZ: And they had months to set that up.

LOM: Hot damn.

KAZUTOSHI: Aw, you don’t think... Haynes, you don’t think that...

HAYNES: I do. I really do.

KAZUTOSHI: Oh shit. Armand, you twisted fuck. What were you thinking?

HAYNES: Ensign Lom, judging by the orientation of the Cannon, where would you say it was currently facing? Educated guess.

LOM: I don’t like to guess, but if I had to… lemme see… well, that’s… Aquila.

HAYNES: And is anything within two point four parsecs of here in Aquila?

LOM: Hell, no. That’s Sirius way over there, and there’s Procyon, big and bold off the starboard bow. I’d guess Luyten’s Star is beneath the prow right now.

HAYNES: Can you identify that star right there? The one in Aquila?

LOM: Hold on, I’ll check the comp…

KAZUTOSHI: Don’t bother. It’s Sol, isn’t it? Armand jumped all those people to Earth, didn’t he?

HAYNES: I think so, Captain. I’m really beginning to think he tried.