Likewise we were getting messages from planets in Tiger and Roo space who were in serious trouble, and as far as we could, were directing local forces towards them. We were not yet ready to help anyone, but it wouldn’t be long now.
But what we could use soon, was jump drive equipped recon ships, which could move out beyond where Jane was dropping comnavsats, to find areas which needed attention faster than we could currently find them. I set Walter to thinking about who would crew such ships, and what their mission profiles would be.
One of the things we did need to provide now was a development path for new recruits going through either the cadet or midshipman programs. The cadets were being trained widely to become officers where needed, while the midshipmen were being aimed purely at being future ship captains. The latter were supposed to spend more time on ships, and we needed ships to put them on. Once they graduated to being deck officers, I was thinking a decent recon ship would be a good first command for an ensign.
The day wound down, and Aline and I moved over to Haven through the permanent walking rift, after picking up Angel. We had takeaway Chinese sent to us from our new Chinese friend, with the promise of his Haven store being open within a week.
We continued watching Firefly for a couple of episodes, and after a quick look at our defensive situation, went to bed.
Quite sometime later, we drifted off to sleep.
Thirty Two
The problem when you kick the ant hill is some of the ants don’t like it.
Before starting all this, I’d told the Imperium council what I expected to happen. The problem was, we didn’t know anything about conditions along the spine at the time.
And the main part of what we didn’t know concerned the Nazi’s. On our time line, they’d been beaten back to a single system. On this time line, they occupied from what had been our Jamaica, down to what had been the Fourth Reich. Which included all the East European and eastern Mediterranean settled systems. Some eighteen systems in total, making them bigger than any of the sectors down spine from them. The Germans had another ten all the way down to Kuwait, which wasn’t called that anymore, and had no Middle Eastern descendants living there at all now.
Jane was monitoring the entire spine, and had made me aware of various rumblings in areas we hadn't been dealing with. She’d broken the firewalls on the sector comsats, and everything they were carrying in the way of message traffic was also being duplicated on ours. But ours were also picking up a lot of planetary stuff the sector coms were not.
The distress call was exactly what I hadn't wanted just yet.
Aline was still at breakfast, and I was in my ready room, when Jane entered and played it for me.
“Imperium. This is the resistance on the planet Heydrich.”
Jane stopped it as I raised an eyebrow at her.
“It’s on our navmap as Cuba.”
I nodded, and she started it again.
“We desperately need your help. Rumours abound suggesting the Nazi’s are about to commence a new purge to stop viewing of illegal broadcasts about the Imperium. The last time they did a purge of dissidents, millions died. We know the sort of societies who’ve been allowed to join the Imperium. We’ve seen images of your ships, and know them to be superior. We need your help.”
The voice was female, and young sounding. Another voice took over the appeal. His voice sounded older, and he was in a hurry.
“The Nazi’s hold a lot of planets simply because no-one could beat them at the time, or since. They rule with an iron fist, but every planet has an active resistance. On most worlds, all we need is their space based weapons destroyed, and we can take our planets back ourselves. But some like this one have large garrisons. Those will need military help. Help…”
“That’s it,” said Jane. “The comnavsat recorded an explosion at where the message originated. From a missile platform in orbit.”
I sat there at my desk, hands interlocked under my chin, elbows on the desk. The sigh was long and drawn out.
“Show me the navmap from where the Earth sector ends, to where I severed the spine.”
It popped up, and zoomed in. Most of it was spine systems, with very few of the off spine jump points having been found. From what was now Sixth Reich along to what had been Poland, the demographics suggested mainly Germanic inhabitants, and those who weren’t had been fully assimilated. From old Athens through to Jamaica, it looked like everyone else had been progressively moved up spine. Old Jamaica had the biggest Nazi garrison, obviously because of the likelihood of invasion by the Americans if they broke through, or even to supply troops to invade into the American sector.
The next two systems along also, one of them Cuba-Heydrich, had significant troop numbers, but all of them had garrisons. Sixth Reich itself, being adjacent the German sector, and in a war mode, had the biggest fleet and the most troops. But it was the single planet I was least concerned about.
“What happens if we destroy the Nazi fleets from Athens on?” I asked.
“Why would you do that?” asked Aline, now standing in the doorway.
Jane explained the situation, and she came in and sat.
“In the first instance,” went on Jane, now back on my question, “fleets from the core Nazi systems would be sent to replace whatever we took out. As we continued to destroy them, they’d reach a state where they’d have to weaken the block point with the Germans, or risk losing planets to dissidents. But I suspect before then, the resistance would get word of their losses to the Germans, and they’d make an attempt to take Sixth Reich and cut the head off the snake. But that would be suicide with the missile platforms in orbit. So the result would be a bloodbath, followed by a German takeover.”
“So we’d swap one empire building lot for another one?”
“Pretty much. The Germans would walk in and take everything up to the cut spine themselves. Which in itself would be another problem, as if they weaken the Earth sector blockade at Kuwait, Earth sector would start doing the same thing to them.”
“So we’d end up with a total war scenario.”
“That’s my expectation, yes.”
“So let’s not do that,” said Aline.
“We won’t,” I said. “I think we can resolve the situation without too much blood being spilt. Jane, I want a detailed account of what military assets are on each planet between Athens and Jamaica. In particular, I want to know if the missile platforms are manned or not.”
“Confirmed.”
“Does David know about the distress message?”
“I just played it for him.”
“How did he react?”
“He’s brought an Imperium council meeting forward for a half hour from now.”
“Good. Let me know the outcome.”
“He wants to know what you propose doing.”
I told her.
Thirty Three
I didn’t wait for the council.
I sent Jane and Aline out onto the bridge, and brought up a navmap of the Israel and Kuwait systems. The Earth sector fleet was staked out on one side of the common jump point, and the German fleet was on the other. There was no civilian traffic anywhere near either fleet, and no actual military action taking place. In short, both sides were blockading the jump point.
My staff appeared in my hand, and I turned each side of the jump point back on itself. Until one side or the other tried to go through, they’d not realize it was effectively severed.
I did the same for the Poland Athens jump point, even though there were no military forces there. There would be soon. Oddly, there were no civilian ships there either. There were plenty heading down spine from the Poland planet, and up spine from the Athens planet, but nothing going between them. For me, this made things a lot easier, as it demonstrated where Nazi space really ended. The closest military forces were about an hour out from Athens, on a line to the jump point, as if there to interdict anyone going that way. But apparently no-one did.
Staff vanished again, I walked out onto the bridge, and took my seat. Jane was in her normal position. Aline was in the XO’s chair. I looked at her.
“You want to get your team ready?”
“How long?”
“Waiting on David.”
“Be right back.”
She left. With no marines on board, all I had to use were her six security team members. She’d taken her time recruiting them, and the last two had joined us after our first visit to the Americans. I suspected Jane had headhunted them specifically. Of the first four, Joss Carter and John Reece had been members of Annabelle’s original beta and gamma teams, and Sameen Shaw had been a Democratic Union special operative. All three were lethal in different ways, and all ready to retire from active service. Joss and John had specifically refused promotions and their own teams.
The fourth was Samantha Groves, who’d come to Jane’s attention when she’d tried to hack into the Imperium bank just after its formation. It had taken Detective Jane several weeks to track her down, and in the process had discovered she was ex-Democratic Union military intelligence, and now working outside the law to stave off boredom.
All four were tired of the conventional military life, and needed a new challenge. Exactly how Jane and Aline had talked them into being my protection unit, which as far as I could see was about as boring as anything could get, was something I couldn’t even guess at.
The last two, Lionel Fusco and George Hirsh, had been Washington and New York PD respectively, and sick of being low detectives on the totem pole, and always subject to someone highers political bullshit. Detective Jane had tried to recruit both of them to Burnside’s growing station security division, but they’d opted instead for ship work, and been snapped up by Aline.
Of them all, none of whom you’d want to pick a fight with, it was Sam Groves who was not only the sweetest looking and thus the most deceptive of them, but the most lethal. She was not much bigger than Aline, but I’d seen them all in the combat ranges, and Groves was someone I’d not want to take on myself without my sword in hand. Shaw wasn’t far behind her, lethal in different ways, but having the same sort of mindset.
Neither had any concern for who they put down. In a way, they bothered me, but since they had my back, I knew they’d do what needed doing. Aline had made it quite clear killing was a last resort. They’d both separately asked if knee caps were off limits as well, as had John Reece. I wasn’t quite sure if they were joking or not.
The seven of them appeared at the back of the bridge before I’d heard back from David. They were in the same red uniform as I was, but without any insignia. Not my choice, but theirs. The object was to appear as if they were dumb grunts. Heavily armed dumb grunts, since they wore side arms where each wanted them, and the lighter Trixone gun on their backs. The only identification they wore was the word ‘Imperator’ on their belt buckles instead of a ship name. I waved them to seats, but none of them took me up on it, preferring to stand at the back of the bridge.
Jane began outlining the defenses around each planet, and it turned out the missile platforms were unmanned, but serviced by crews regularly. They were controlled from the military station in orbit of each planet, and were designed purely for firing downwards. In other words, they were a weapon of terror to keep the populations in line.
Finally, with Jane now into details I really didn’t want, David popped up as a hollo, interrupting her. Angel opened an eye to see who it was, but quickly went back to sleep.
“You have a go, but try not to escalate things more than you have to.”
“It won’t be me escalating anything.”
“All the same, we don’t want millions dead.”
“I’m not planning on any dead, if I can help it. But I can’t control what the locals do. I suspect there will be some violence.”
“We know. How many troops are you sending in?”
“Six.” Aline shot me a glance. “Sorry, seven.”
“Brigades? I know we don’t have that many divisions.”
“No. Seven people. The ones on my bridge right now. I make eight.”
He sighed.
“You really want to do it the hard way?”
“We’re not ready to fight a ground war anywhere. I don’t intend to here either.”
“We’ll hold you to that. Good luck.”
He vanished.
“The eight of us are the only ones going in?” asked Aline, sounding surprised.
“About time,” said Shaw, and all of them were grinning.
I didn’t bother pointing out Jane had two hundred combat droids formed up on the cargo deck.
“Jane?”
“Jon?”
“Take us to Sixth Reich. We need to make a call before we get the ball rolling.”
“Confirmed.”
BigMother started jumping.
Thirty Four
The Reichstag was in session.
I wasn’t going there.
The rift opened into the outer office, and I strode through, the others following, leaving Jane on the bridge. I was the only one unarmed. Or at least, not apparently having a gun on me. The others brandished their Trixone weapons, albeit in stun mode, and the two soldiers on the door froze, as did the young female receptionist behind the desk.
“Is he in?” I asked her, as politely as I could.
“Not officially.”
“I’m not here officially either. Can I go in?”
She looked across at the two soldiers, whose weapons had just thumped to the floor, and now had their hands raised high in the traditional surrender gesture. She looked back at me.
“Whom do I announce?”
“Imperator Hunter.”
She shuddered.
Well that was new.
“He won’t see you.”
“I’m not giving him a choice.”
She looked at me for a long moment, and sighed. Her finger went to an actual button, which she pressed.
“I told you I didn’t want to be disturbed!” came a male, obviously annoyed voice, in German, of course.
My PC shifted languages to make it primary.
“Imperator Hunter is here to see you, mein Führer.”
There was a silence which lasted for a full minute.
“Better send him in then, Fräulein.”
She motioned me to the closed door, opened it for me, and waved me through. I stepped into the huge and richly furnished office, to see a man looking out the window, with his back to me. The door closed behind me.
The man turned, and shot me.
My suit went full protection mode, and the pulse hit me right between the eyes. I couldn’t help flinching, but I’d been half expecting it, and so was braced enough to not be knocked over, managing just a short sway back and forth. My suit shifted back into uniform, and his eyes opened wide.
He lost any chance of firing a second time, as I moved his gun from his hand to the floor at my feet. I was actually amazed it worked, as while Thorn had told me I should be able to do stuff like this, I’d never really practiced it. Moving ships had been my main use for jumping things.
His jaw dropped open for a moment, and closed with an audible click.
“What are you?” he asked.
“I know a few tricks,” I responded, grinning at him, before waving him towards his desk.
He stood his ground for a moment, and the noise of shots being fired came from the outer office. The louder ones had to be local troops, while the softer sounds belonged to my team. The proportion was about ten soft to each loud. The softer sounds were followed by a series of thuds, and subsequent firing started to get further away.
The door opened, and Aline peeked in, causing the man now standing behind his chair to gape in amazement.
“You ok, Jon?”
“Fine, Aline. Any problems?”
“Not really. Reece took a couple of shots that were going to hit the young lady, but she’s under the desk now. We have the corridor o
ut there secured.”
“I won’t be long.”
She nodded, and closed the door. I looked back at the man, who pulled his chair out abruptly, and sat.
The Führer was a man called Adolf Bormann. Jane had given me a rundown on him, which made fairly sickening reading. But we had one thing in common. His family like mine, went all the way back to the Second World War, in the nineteen hundreds.
I sat in the chair facing him, and he glared at me for a few moments. I looked impassively at him.
“Do you normally shoot visiting dignitaries without warning?” I asked him.
“Only ones we’re at war with.”
“Are we at war?”
“Of course we are. Your Imperium allied itself with the Americans. That makes you our enemy as well.”
“Ah. I must have missed the memo. Technically though, we didn’t ally with the Americans. They joined us. And we were not at war with you, and in joining us, their war with you ended.”
“Not from our perspective.”
“Fine. So you’re inviting me to a war?”
“If you want to put it that way, yes.”
“Think about it really carefully. I can overlook being shot at. So can my people, and none of yours have so far been harmed. There is no benefit for you at all in going to war with us. And a lot for you to lose.”
“You think yourselves superior to us?”
“No. You’re human, same as I am. No better, no worse. We’re just more advanced in the tech department than you are.”
“I doubt that.”
I stood, my sword appeared on my back, I drew it, and cut his desk in half down the middle, neatly between his legs. Probably just as well he hadn't crossed them. I sheathed it, and sat again. He was looking at the two halves now forming a V in front of him, forcing his legs wider, with everything on it now piled in a heap in the middle.
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