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Grass Eaters 2 | 47 | Ghost Fleet III
🕑 Added 2024-09-02 16:47:01 +0000 UTCLima Mine, Titan
POV: Ace of Clubs, Terran (Republic Most Wanted #1)
“Fine. How’s it going down there at Lima Mine?”
The Ace of Clubs froze.
“Cold there this time of year?” Amelia asked.
“W—What?” she stuttered. “What are you talking about?”
“You heard me. We know exactly where you are. Lima Mine, northwestern Titan, in the old ice-mining sector. We’ve got a flight of fire support ships overhead right now.”
The temperature in the room was indeed cold, but the Ace of Clubs had never found herself sweating harder.
Amelia grinned at her. “Nothing? No insults? Nothing about how the spirit of the Saturnian Dream will prevail? At least give me a couple Vive la Résistances. No?”
“Why are you telling me this?” she asked quietly. “Is it really just to gloat?”
The Republic admiral said nothing for a second. Then, her face turned serious as she sighed. “We just had a meeting. We decided that we aren’t going to send Marines in to get you after all. Too dangerous for our people and no civilians around anyway to justify the risk. It was an easy choice… for some of them. I’ve been authorized to send a couple bunker busters down there and verify your DNA from the wreckage… I figured you weren’t going anywhere. So, call me nuts, but I was hoping I could give it one last go to convince you to surrender… Or if I watched you die on here, we wouldn’t need to search too hard for your body.”
The Ace of Clubs was quiet for a moment. She muted her microphone and looked to the side, where Felix was looking at her with an inscrutable expression.
“Where are they on tracing the call, Felix?”
“Nowhere, which is what’s weird. They’re not even attempting to break through our proxies… I think— Ace… I think she’s telling the truth.”
She sat in quiet contemplation for a few seconds, then switched her microphone back on.
“Admiral, why are you doing this? I read your propaganda news. Tell me… Is it true that you are a daughter of Ganymede?”
“I am. Born and raised. My parents were founders of the hydroponic farm colony that became Uruk City.”
“Why did you join… them? The Reps, our oppressors. Why?! Why collaborate? How could you?”
“Because… Ace, the Terran Republic is humanity now. It’s in the name. In the end, we are all Terrans. Your parents… they too came from Earth, just like mine. Ever taken a look back at the blue marble? Its majesty— how ironic that most who live on it can’t appreciate its beauty like we can.”
“Yeah, and you ever wonder why our parents left? Why they left the hospitable planet our ancestors evolved on… for the dark?” the Ace shot back. “Its decrepit people. The very oppressors we escaped — and the very ones who followed us out of its gravity well beyond the asteroid belt! The corrupt and cruel Republic. That is the system you collaborate with.”
“That’s where they differ, I guess. My parents were scientists, not former despots and malcontent opportunists. The Republic— it is not perfect, not by a long shot. But if you don’t like the way it’s run, it’s a republic of democracies: the way to change it is from the inside. You think the Resistance has done any better of a job out here?”
“Better than the Republic? Of course! Did you— have you seen all the people your Navy killed? Our families. Our friends. And look at you, changing it from the inside,” she sneered. “One of your most pacifist Senators that you people protect, he participated in the massacre at Free Zone Alpha just a few decades ago. You think we should forgive the Republic so easily? Turn the other cheek? Just wither away and accept your domination and rule?”
“Our domination? Our rule?! You mean the district mayors and governors and Senators in the elections your people demanded and then refused to participate in when we put them in place? Or is it the now entirely voluntary system of equal citizenship that you object to?”
The Ace shook her head. “If you really think that the Republic can do no wrong—”
“I think… sixty years ago, your Resistance might have had a righteous cause. Before the reforms. Before the Outer Planet Rights Movement. Maybe even fifty— forty years ago. And if you were still fighting us twenty years ago for what we did before, I might even have understood that. Individually, maybe. But now? All this ugly fighting… it has to stop, Ace. It just has to stop! With or without me, the Republic can keep this conflict going another century; it’s not just going to give up and go away. We’re never leaving the outer planets. Especially not now that we’re gearing up for interstellar war. And this time? The people in charge on Atlas… they’d send the combat robots in, wave by wave, before they allow a terrorist group like yours to rule over an entire segment of our home system. You’re not accomplishing anything except stirring up more hatred against your own people here. Your people, my people, all our peoples.”
“The people of the Free Zone will resist—”
“They’re tired of this too! You notice the silence all around you, Ace? There’s no popular uprising, not this time; nobody is coming to your aid. That protest on Galileo Two last week? You saw how few there were. You don’t even have many sympathizers inside Ceres this time, not anymore after Tharsis. You read The Atlas Times this morning? Our raid on Mimas barely even made page four. You think—”
“Preposterous! The undying spirit of our Resistance is not measured by how our heroes and martyrs are depicted by your war propaganda complex.”
“How do you think this all ends for you? How does this end? For the Red Zone? All the while, the aliens at the door are burning down the neighborhood—”
“We are merely an inconvenience to you,” the Ace said bitterly, shaking her head. “An obstacle on your way to dreams of galactic domination.”
“No, Ace. You’re not an inconvenience. You’re a fucking embarrassment. For humanity,” Amelia said, her voice containing no trace of a lie or even hostility, just sadness. “You know when I talk to the Malgeir, they ask us why we’re fighting amongst ourselves like baby cubs squabbling when the monster is beating down the door? I’m ashamed. Not even of you — I’m ashamed for you.”
“Shaming me won’t end this war,” the Ace retorted as lamely as she felt.
“No, probably not. But an orbital strike could,” Amelia sighed as she sat back in her office chair.
“We still have your alien prisoners. Sixteen of them.”
“About that: we found out where most of those guys were held. Same way we found out where you are. Sprung them all except the two officers you have with you in your basement. Guess your news dump didn’t give you that update.”
“I don’t believe you, Rep.”
The admiral sighed again. “You don’t have to. It won’t even matter if you do in a few minutes. I’ll give you and your people fifteen minutes to call your families, get your affairs in order…”
“Wait,” the Ace of Clubs said, her fear overriding her pride. Her fear of what? She wasn’t sure. “No! You can’t do this! Please. Think of how many people are down here!”
“All combatants, you’re not fooling us this time. The terms— they’re not that complex, Ace! Unconditional surrender. You just need to come out onto the surface without your weapons. Even now. You know who we are. Even if you won’t admit it. We are the Republic, not you. You’ll get your lawyers, and you’ll get your day in court.”
She sputtered, “My day in—”
“You’ll get a fair trial… probably go to prison for a while. A long while, given your participation in the planning for the Tharsis attack.” Amelia paused for a moment before continuing, “I’ll be honest with you, Ace; I don’t think we’ll ever let you out of prison. But your people down there with you? Most of them haven’t done much. The ringleaders will get some time, but most of your people will get to go home. To see their families again.”
“Give me— give us some time to think about it, Admiral, please.”
Amelia shook her head. “Sorry, but you’ve already gotten a few decades to think. It’s until I hang up or never.”
“Wait! What if I release your prisoners? The two alien officers we’re holding.”
The other end of the call hesitated for a moment. “Nice try, but you can’t be allowed to trade their freedom for yours. I don’t have the authority to pull that off even if I wanted to. Too many people calling for your head.”
“Not for me. Just for some time.”
“What are you planning, Ace?” the admiral asked, her voice sharp. “You aren’t getting away this time. And even if you did, we’ll find you again easy.”
“Just a month. Just give me a while to— to explain it to my people. I owe it to them. We aren’t going anywhere. And our ships, which are what you’re really looking for, aren’t going anywhere. Please. You’d want the same if you were in my position.”
The admiral thought for a while, then relented, “Two weeks for your stay of execution. Two standard weeks. One for each of your hostages. And if you don’t come out with your arms up by the fifteenth day, the orbital strike will come without warnings this time.”
The Ace of Clubs thought for a moment and nodded reluctantly. “Two weeks.”
“And send the hostages up now. Both of them. If they’re not on the surface in fifteen minutes, the deal’s off.”
“Fine. Deal.”
The admiral hung up.
The Ace of Clubs stood there for a minute, just staring at the walls, imagining them tumbling down on her, burying her alive. It might be preferable to explaining to her own people how she just sold them out. She was not afraid to die; she was somewhat afraid of her people thinking she was a coward, but mostly it was just her own sense of responsibility for her people. She couldn’t just let them all perish in a pointless kinetic strike. For nothing. Even if she does go to prison, the Resistance will live on in them.
Besides, she wasn’t planning on going to Neu-Nuremberg. Once her people go to the surface and the Reps take them into custody safely, she was going to…
“Ace?” Felix’s voice cut into her thoughts.
“You heard all of that?”
He hesitated for a second, then nodded. “Yeah.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No, Ace. Thank you.”
++++++++++++++++++++++++
Atlas Naval Command, Luna
POV: Amelia Waters, Terran Republic Navy (Rank: Admiral)
Amelia stared at the body camera footage on her screen with a blank expression, watching the Marines in massive EOD suits check the duo of released Malgeir prisoners for explosives and traps. They were not in good shape, their patchy fur showing signs of abuse all over.
“Admiral?”
Amelia shook herself out of her daze and looked at Samantha at her office door. “Yeah?”
“They’re cleared. We have our people in custody. They’re on their way to the Mercy now.”
“Good.”
Samantha hesitated for a moment. “Should I tell the strike ships to launch the attack?”
Amelia shook her head. “No, we’ll give them the two weeks I promised her. Have the ships hold fire without my explicit authorization.”
“Are you sure, Amelia? They might escape. What if they’ve dug an underground tunnel that could lead them out—”
“They haven’t. Panoptes would know. And she was right. Even if they slip away, they can’t move their ships. Without the ships and equipment down in that hangar, they’re just a bunch of angry assholes who hate the Republic. We don’t have a shortage of that anyway.”
“I still think you should reconsider. She wouldn’t have given you that courtesy.”
Amelia nodded in full agreement. “No, she wouldn’t have. But she agreed to it knowing that I meant it. And that’s two more Pupper lives we’ve saved.” She flicked her screen to show another interface, this one a developing battlemap of the Gruccud system. “Which is probably the only good news they’ll be getting for a while.”
Samantha nodded solemnly. “What are we going to do about that?”
“Well, I’ve had just enough of watching that war from an air-conditioned bunker.”
“You’ve got a plan, Admiral?”
“First, put those two EOD Marines and that search and rescue squad somewhere where they can access social media. The rescued Puppers as well.”
“Admiral?”
“Then, get me a fast transport shuttle out of here.”
++++++++++++++++++++++++
Outpost Murdo, McMurdo System (600 Ls)
POV: Zwena Tanith, Terran Republic Navy (Rank: Commander)
“Incoming from the Sol side,” Bert said, sitting up straight in his chair. “This isn’t a scheduled transit.”
“We’re not due for a resupply any time soon, are we?” Zwena asked.
“Negative… gravidar FTL signature too small to be a cargo ship anyway. Looks like one of the Python-classes… or one of the Three Rivers.”
“What are they doing all the way out here?” they wondered.
Bert frowned. “Signature acquired. It’s the Mississippi… I didn’t know it was authorized for deployment.”
“It’s not,” Zwena said, checking their console. “Still on hold in the Oversight Committee. Technically, it shouldn’t even be all the way out here.”
“And… we have blink emergence. They’re burning hard towards the Datsot direction. Combat burn,” Bert whistled. “I didn’t even know her engines ran that hot. Thought it was just the Pythons that could pull that with afterburners on—”
Zwena got on their communication console. “McMurdo to Mississippi, come in. Chuck, we weren’t notified that you were cleared for deployment. Copy?”
An unexpected face appeared on her screen, transmitted from the ship with her authorization code. “McMurdo, this is Republic Navy Admiral Amelia Waters. I am approving this deployment.”
“My apologies, Admiral. I didn’t realize you were on the ship,” Zwena replied nervously. “Nonetheless, I believe you do not have the authority to bypass the hold on your ship’s deployment. Only the Senate does.”
“They will soon,” Amelia asserted. “But this is an emergency. We are transiting the system now, Commander.”
Zwena muted their microphone. “Check the status of their deployment hold again,” they ordered Bert.
Bert shook his head, pulling up the rejection notice on the command center’s main screen.
“I’m sorry, Admiral,” Zwena apologized again into their radio. “But I can’t comply with what would be an illegal order.”
Amelia grinned on their screen. “What are you going to do? Start shooting at us?”
“Negative, Admiral, but I’m afraid I will need to log your presence with Naval Command if you are attempting to blink out of Republic territory without authorization. And they might order us to stop you.”
“Hm… good point. I wouldn’t want to put you in such an unpleasant position. Give me a minute.” Amelia went off-screen for a while, and then came back with an even more smug smile, if that were possible—
An alarm rang somewhere distant in the command center.
“Commander, multi-spectrum FTL jamming source nearby! Attempting to locate it…”
Zwena gawked at the admiral’s image on the screen. “You’ve deployed a broad spectrum FTL jamming drone? Against us?!”
Her smile did not leave her face. “Just a quick training exercise, Commander. We’ll deactivate it once we get our authorization in order. Like I said, this is an actual emergency.”
Zwena sighed. “Admiral, unless you plan on firing on us, we will need to eventually need to report the excursion incident one way or another.”
“Have at it, Commander. But you’re going to look real silly when you file your incident report, timestamped with Atlas after the deployment approval order comes through. I’d recommend waiting until you read your inbox before you file the incident report. But hey, that’s your career not mine,” Amelia winked.
Zwena sat back in their command chair. “What’s the plan here, Amelia? You’re just going to shoot off to Gruccud and kill some Buns? You’ve got what— no more than twelve missiles in your missile bay, fewer if you’ve got any medium or large ones.”
“Nah, all Kestrels. Twelve dead Bun ships. Not bad for a day’s work. And I hear they’ve got some of our missiles there in Gruccud from a prior supply shipment, oddly enough. Might come in handy for a reload.”
“Hey, kill a Bun ship for me, Amelia, but twelve against that incoming fleet of over a thousand? And we both know you haven’t got a chance in hell of getting the Senate deployment authorization. Even if you think I won’t find and trash your toy drone there, you’re going to throw away everything for this? And you’re just going to leave McMurdo in the blind forever?”
Amelia glanced at the corner of the screen for her time. “Not forever. He hasn’t let me down yet.”
She cut the connection from her end.
Zwena sighed in exasperation. “Anyone got any ideas?”
“I’m looking for the jammer source,” Bert said, his fingers flying up and down his console as he furrowed his brows in concentrations. “But it’s one of the Mississippi’s next generation EW drones. Requesting permission to deploy additional search assets. I think if we triangulate with our own drones, we can find it in a few hours, right before she gets to the blink limit. At that point, we’ll have options…” His voice trailed off, and he looked at them for guidance.
Zwena made up their mind. “No. Hold that— Maybe the admiral is right. Maybe she’s gotten her legal deployment orders. We can’t know. After all, we’re cut off from Atlas right now.”
Bert stopped typing and threw up his hands. “So… we’re just going to hope Schrodinger’s orders comes through by the time her EW drones get bored?”
“We’ll wait until she blinks towards Datsot and then give her a few hours before we send out the search party. I really, really do not want to be ordered to shoot at her. And who knows, maybe the Senate Oversight Committee is really in the process of approving it.”
Bert snorted. “Yeah, and maybe pigs fly.”
“You ever met her in person, Bert? They do for her.”
Comments
M
Here goes nothing!
AnAbsoluteVillain
Finally! Ready for the real war
