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Beyond Hope
- Chapter 2 -[]
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Reunion[]
Freedom Station
Lutyens 64-28, Uncharted System
Terran Hegemony
"How is she…WHERE is she?" General Aleksandr Kerensky demanded.
"This way, sir." Colonel Doctor Vickers said, leading the Commanding General to a secured area of the Station.
"Uncle Aleks? Is that you??" Helena Cameron asked weakly.
"Helena!! Thank god you're alive!!"
She flinched instead of accepting his hug. "I'm so sorry…"
"It will be alright, you're safe now!"
After a moment she let him hug her after all as she buried her face in his chest and sobbed.
“They never could get a quite right body double for you, Uncle Alyks.” Elizabeth explained.
"Don't leave!!" Helena said it into his shoulder, "Don't leave us!!"
"I won't leave you…" he said it without realizing…and then, "I won't leave you unprotected again."
“Teach me, Uncle Alyks. Teach me how to fight. So I never have to be a victim again.” Helena looked him in the eyes.
He had to.
“I will. I’ll find you the best of the best. Specialists who know more about particular forms of combat than I do. I may be a General and a Gunslinger but that doesn’t mean I’m the best at everything. So I’ll find those people for you. They will be hand picked so you never have to be unprotected again either.”
"Sir?" Aaron DeChevalier said from the doorway, "ah, General, sir, the divisions are ready, are you going to dismantle the plan to put an adequate garrison here in case the Rim Worlds uncovers this base's location? Amaris is going to want her back and we're still not to full strength."
“We will indeed leave a strong fleet here just to be safe. But we should have more than enough to spare to take on the Rim Worlds. He has left terribly little behind in defense.”
"I hate to be the accountant here, Sir, but…we can't afford it. We need every ship if we're going to cut him off at the knees by taking the Republic."
"I won't leave her unprotected, Aaron!!"
"I know sir, but we can't have a strong enough garrison HERE and still carry out the war plan THERE. We're a hell of a lot closer to where Steve-oh has his main body, It may be a good idea to keep Her Majesty on the move until we've cut down on the opposition, sir."
“That’s just it Aaron, LIC has confirmed for us his main fleet is here at Terra, we can afford to leave a strong garrison fleet and have plenty left over for the operation and keep up the raids.” Kerensky countered.
'Raiding is different from defending a fixed point, in a base system whose main security is obscurity, sir. Ground warfare a defender is worth three attackers, but in space..it's the opposite-one defender is worth a third of an attacker who has the initiative. Talk to Admiral [name] if you don't believe me. Until we've got firm control of the area, this base is a giant target we can't adequately defend until we've finished off the Republic and brought in our Ralliers, Sir." Aaron was firm on this, digging his heels in, even.
“We must split our forces. We have to keep the pressure up here while we attack or he’ll see us coming.”
Elizabeth spoke, "You need every ship you can get." she said, "I have a ship…I am the ship."
“And where she goes, I go. I won’t ever let anyone separate us ever again.” Helena clutched onto her sister.
General Kerensky winced, as if he'd been struck, and pure misery filled his features, "You don't know what you're asking…I've tried so hard to protect you from it…and I failed."
“Look sir, the best I can offer is we pull the self-destruct and maybe up armor the ship in the process. We can spare enough to do that.”
"Do it." Kerensky seemed to make up his mind, "after we take down Apollo and have secured our rear, we'll revisit this topic, but Aaron? Tell the admirals I want at least a four ship escort on the…SLS Elizabeth Cameron and she's not to be put forward ahead of the line."
"Yes, sir. We’ll also see about re-shaping the hull. So it looks more like a Lola III. Might not hold up much with the time we have but anything to adjust the sensor cross section and visual features."
Recalling Kowloon[]
February 2nd, 2769
"....it's diplomacy, Helena. It might even be valuable diplomacy."
They were on the way back from Apollo, Uncle Alyks had succeeded in most of his objectives, and ralliers had stiffened the region where she was to stay….but there was this stop, here.
"Kowloon…why do I remember that name?" Helena mused aloud.
Elizabeth snorted, "Early in Dad's reign, an SLDF operation went bad here." she said, "City of fifteen million people in revolt were blown to hell by SLS Belleau Wood under Vice Admiral Chivington."
"The guy Uncle Alyks as much as accused of being a war-criminal who got away with it at the Christmas party in 2750?"
"Same guy, there's records in the hard storage, the planet's been a pain in the ass of House Amaris for centuries…and now, they've apparently thrown the Rim Worlds out, and kept the Lyrans from exploiting the change of government."
"Well…good for them! Why are we stopping here?" Helena asked again.
"Because General McEvedy is willing to evacuate the surviving Rim Worlds government people and their dependents, seems the locals hate House Amaris so much they hanged every Amaris official who set toe outside of a fortified set of apartments in one of their cities…"
"Good."
"You, are the First Lord in Waiting, Helena. You need to be in charge here, or people will think you're weak." Elizabeth persisted, "This is in your job description, negotiating the release of hostages in the name of the Star League, proving we're not…animals to people who have no love for either House Amaris, OR House Cameron. Uncle Alyks and General D think they might be useful-these are, after all, people who waged an insurgency for the last two and a half centuries without giving up."
Helena weighed it in her mind, "If I meet with them, it will be here, Elizabeth. On your decks, where I have control and safety."
Below, the blue, white, and reddish brown marble dangled, four hours transit from their current position.
Five hours later…
"Madame Cameron." The man was whipcords thin with asiatic eyes and black hair cut very short. He wasn't much older than she was, but there was a strain in his eyes…
"You are?" Helena asked.
"Colonel Trung, Kowloon Defense Establishment, also this is Commander Anh Cu'ong of our Coast Guard. We're here to hear your terms for the removal of the Rimjob parasites from Hue."
"I thought I would be dealing with the Provisional government directly, Colonel." Helena managed to say coolly.
"The civilian government is currently widely distributed in case your task force decides to replicate the lesson of Dinh Diep, Ma'am." he said, "I'm the highest ranking disposable person we've got, and I'm not much for a hostage."
"You're not going to bend the knee."
"No ma'am, two surrenders in the past, nothing good came of either one. We're not inclined to do that again, ma'am. If the Star League decides to make us go back to the Rim Worlds Republic, we'll fight to the last breath to keep those slavers off our world, and i can confirm, we're not all that particular about how to do that-we dropped kinetic kill weapons on their bases to break their garrisons during the rising."
Elizabeth, at least, looked shocked. "On your own world?"
"We really wanted them gone, Ma'am." he said it without blinking. "When you don't have 'mechs you use what do have. We've got rocks, rifles, and bombs."
"What if I offered you the Star League's guarantee you will never be forced to submit to an occupying power again?" Helena asked.
"I'll take it." he said, "In writing, if you please."
“Then you shall have it.”
“Helena.” Elizabeth cautioned.
“They hate Amaris as much as I do. Maybe more. And that’s saying something. I don’t need them to love me. I need them to face a common enemy.” Helena said with vitriol.
"So, when do you need us, madame first lord?" Tran Truk Ngo asked, "Because we're going to have to organize a supply line, and mobilize soldiers. My people won't serve under a foreign flag, but we'll serve beside one…and there are a lot of my people who would walk light years in the naked to kill a rimjob."
“Fair. I’ve been getting a crash course on war fighting. So get your logistics in order. That’s what really wins wars, not soldiers. Though having both helps.” Helena nodded.
"Yes, Ma'am."