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Beyond Hope
- Chapter 58 - Envy[]
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Hunting in the Wilderness[]
Kowloon, Federated Commonwealth (Lyran State)
June 3063
The Jian Twins spotted a Browardbeast in Canyon 22 of The Folly. Eddie was home within days.
"You're sure?" he asked.
Tiana Jian nodded, "Ayeh Misteh Vanh. It was got a steer what wandered off the Mesa on the south slope, prolly thirsty."
Gabriel frowned, as Eddie questioned the Cadet aged? Not quite a child and not quite adult girl.
"Your father has eyes on where you think it's holed up?" he asked.
"Ayeh, Sirrah."
"Well, we're going to have to put off the trip to the Scar. Hope you don't mind over much…" he walked up to the house. "Sarah, this is Gabriel, she's an offworlder."
The child at the door nodded.
"Where's your grandmama?" Eddie asked.
"Grandmama's sick, Uncle Eddie. She in town with Ma."
"Okay, well, you need to make sure the guest room's ready for Miss Gabriel, okay? And I need the keys to the gun locker… and put out a call, pest control team on the southeast range. Repeat it back to me."
The child did.
"Gun locker?"
"Broward Beast's not like other animals, Gabriel," Eddie said. "Might go grab Morgan. We can bring the good guns, if either of you can ride."
"Good guns?"
"Twenty five millimeter by one oh-three high velocity penetrators," he told her. "Pest control guns. Depending who answers the general call, we'll probably want to bring a couple flame-throwers too. Broward Beasts are nasty ******. And if one's gotten to adulthood on the south range, it's going to be a bitch to eradicate."
“Eddie Vanh, you do know how to show a girl a good time,” Gabriel smiled.
"Nikki didn't think so," he shrugged. "Which is just as well. Come on." He led them through the house to a cabinet next to the fireplace.
Two of the rifles racked in the cabinet were…big. "You were not kidding about the anti-armor and anti-materiel rifles…"
"Problem with Broward Beasts, they're armored and they don't have any weaknesses," Eddie explained. "Multiple brains, multiple hearts, distributed organs…" He handed one of the large rifles to Morgan, the other to Gabriel, though he took a moment and adjusted the stocks to fit the large Clanners.
“If it bleeds we can kill it.” Gabriel was still smiling, but somehow it just didn’t look right on her, almost a school girl fashion smile.
"Yep… but first we gotta make sure it's the only one, and where it is…" He selected his own rifle, a bolt-action that looked like a toy compared to the larger weapons. "When we find it, and it shouldn't be too hard with an alpha predator like that, it's going to react. A Broward Beast can make fifty KPH in the distance of this living room, and keep it up for twenty minutes over land. And they're six-legged, so they can climb a slope of forty degrees at speed for over a kilometer."
"How powerful are they?"
"Found a Rock Rover that ran into one, it tore through the cab to eat the men inside," Eddie said blandly. "Regency tried hunting them with 'mechs, but Beasts can get into places you can't take a 'mech."
“Perhaps this is something we should keep from the Ghost Bears for their own good, should it ever arise in conversation,” Morgan advised.
"Let's just hope the things never migrate off world," Eddie noted. "Okay, ammunition…" He handed each of them a box of 25mm AP/Incendiary shot. "First, keep your cool when it surfaces, those shells are expensive and hard to get. Most of the time we don't get to use them because nobody can afford to get good with the only rifle that uses 'em, so most of the pest control party's going to be armed like I am." He held up his weapon.
"Do those even WORK?" Morgan raised an eyebrow.
"At very close range," Eddie said. "Which is why I'm hoping we get at least ten people, but if we don't…" he sighed. "Dad used the twenty-five from the bed of a truck, but given where the sighting was, we're going to have to ride in either on a Hummingbird, or on horses."
"Hummingbird?"
"Light civilian aircraft, mostly used for round-ups or Cattle Drives. If we need to go in by Hummer, then I'll be hoping the Charletons are contributing a pilot, because landing is a bitch in that part of the Folly."
“The Clans do not teach horsemanship…” Gabriel admitted.
"Well, shit," Eddie said. "I don't have a few weeks, and I don't know we've got a horse big enough for Morgan here anyway. If we can’t use the Hummingbird, then we'll have to drive in as close as possible with the truck, and walk the rest of the way in."
The other ranchers were arriving when they came out with pack frames and kit for cold-camping.
"Is this everyone?"
"Most of the men are up north. Been a fire in the Hills, so they're doing wildfire duty."
“Then good thing you have us.” Gabriel boasted.
Eddie walked the line of volunteers. "You, go home. You too. Casey, your Dad still has the Hummingbird?"
"Up north," a teenage boy said.
"You can fly?"
"Ayeh, I'm pretty good."
"Southeast Range, you know it?"
The boy nodded.
"Show me your card," Eddie held out his hand palm up.
The boy brought out a laminated card, which Eddie scrutinized. "Morgan, Gabriel, you're riding up on a Hummingbird. The rest of you men? It's horse country up there. We'll meet at Starvation Mesa." He looked at Casey, "Our Hummingbird’s in the garage over there. Walk your passengers through pre-flight and get them situated, make sure your fuel's topped up, and load radio relay beacons and the thermal sights, then…" he described the route, the kid listened, asked questions.
To Morgan Icaza, it looked and sounded just like an officer giving instructions to a combat scout element.
Gabriel didn't miss it either. The men with the horses rallied together, and set out ahead, they would be arriving after the aircraft.
“You seem rather enthusiastic about this for a Mechwarrior.” Morgan commented to Gabriel.
“Here I thought we were not going to be able to shoot anything, and would have to be on ‘best behavior’ the whole trip. Plus, it is a worthy cause that is normally looked down upon at home but should not be.”
The Hummingbird was a biplane, with a three bladed propeller, low slung on a taildragger undercarriage, and it looked… light.
“Are you still sure about being excited?” Morgan said with a slight smile as he saw Gabriel’s expression change.
"I thought it would at least be a HELICOPTER…" she blurted.
"Sorry sir, mum," the boy said, pushing a palleted pile of… unidentifiable stuff out of the way. "’Copters are all up north dealin' with th' fire. Asides, they runs outta fuel too fast. No linger time. Biplane's easier on the fuel tanks, an' cheaper to keep fixed."
“No matter. We make do with what we have,” Morgan chuckled.
The boy hooked up a chain on the back of a three wheeled cycle, and towed the plane out onto the open, unhooked it, moved the trike out of the drive, and finished his pre-flight.
"No further test of courage is necessary," Gabriel said. "Is that… cloth?"
"Doped canvas, ayeh mum."
Gabriel nodded as she began inspecting the surface.
The kid loaded canisters behind the back seats, "Mind your heads sirrah, mu'm, it's a bit tight in the plane… rack th' guns at your feet, please."
It ended up needing to have Gabriel in the copilot seat, and Morgan half-folded across both rear seats.
From her seat, Gabriel watched Casey walk in front of the prop, grab it two-handed, and haul down hard.
The engine coughed, sputtered, and fired as their pilot climbed in. 'Sorry about the no-insulation, but this'n is an old model…" the boy shouted, and started running the engine up to power as it creeped forward, bouncing lightly on the gravel drive.
"How much is this rated to carry?" Morgan asked from behind.
"About a thousand kilos. I estimate you two together is maybe five hundred, plus a hundred fifty for the beacons and gear…why??"
The plane accelerated, drowning out the Elemental Warrior's answer, the tail lifted first, then the rest of the plane hopped into the sky.
"I thought you said it had fuel cells?" Gabriel shouted.
"THOSE ARE FOR THE RADIO!!" the boy answered, "ENGINE RUNS ON PRECIPITATED COMPLEX HYDROCARBON, THEY CALL IT AV-DIESEL!! THE ORLENGERS HAVE A REFINERY ON THE SOUTH SHORE OF THE LAKE!!"
We are going to die.
She tried to calm the thought by studying the cockpit.
"Where are the Instruments??"
"Right there- got an altimeter, inclinometer, and a compass, see? There's also the tach for the prop, and a temp gauge!"
“By the founder…” Gabriel muttered.
"How fast are we going??"
The kid studied the area, tach, and said, "Oh, around fifty KPH more or less."
More or less.
"Just watch the landmarks. Fly enough, and you get a feel for it," the boy added.
"How often do you fly?"
"Going to the Academy Next Year!" the boy said. "Jet School!"
"Jet school?"
"Aerospace Fighters!" he said, "It'll be fun, not pokey like these."
The plane slid into a passage, a canyon, flying more or less parallel to the top edges. In flight, the noise was less pervasive, it eased up more when Casey pawed a compartment open, and handed his passengers headsets. "Sorry, forgot the Vanhs didn't lose theirs."
"Lose them?"
The kid shrugged. "Happens. Anyway, while we're checking the river?" he commented. "There's a story about a Rim Worlds unit that got lost in these canyons. They thought they were pulling a flank on the defense. This was during the Conquest war. Their guy led his troops into the canyons, and they got lost. Most of 'm starved to death. The rest were eaten by Broward Beasts, Brassfish larvae, or got bit by Fursnakes… so the story goes. We still find rusty parts in the canyons once in a while. Few years ago, they found a Star League Tank buried under a collapsed cliff."
"What kind?"
"Alacorn, the Autocannon model. It was all rusted out, but that's a long time after Minsky died. Nobody's sure where it came from or how it got there."
Gabriel watched the sides of the terrain, they passed a cavern in one of the cliffs.
Battlemechs?
"Casey, what-"
The kid glanced in that direction. "I don't know, never seen that cave before."
“New?”
"Probably opened during the floods this year maybe."
“Hmmm… Perhaps.” Something about it was tickling the back of her mind.
"Funny it would be in this branch. This is the same area Paulie Vanh found the tank ten years ago," Casey said conversationally. "We can check it out once we've made base-camp, our destination's not that far off."
The patch of land the boy brought the plane down on was more suitable for landing a VTOL. The amount of flaps he used, and the way he stood on the brakes once the wheels were down was testament to that.
They were two meters from a sheer drop when the plane halted.
"Eh, not the worst landing I've done…" Casey helped unload the back of the plane, then laboriously used a chain fall and an anchor to drag it back and get it turned around, the tail-wheel less than a meter from the cliff. "See, everyone's alive."
This is why they are all crazy.
"Okay, you two are guests, but this is pest control. So I'm gonna have to ask you both to work out who's on watch, while I unload the gear and set up the base camp."
“I will be glad to stretch about after my transit.” Morgan stretched.
"Okay, watch the step on the edge. The sandstone is undercut in places and it's soaked through with this year's floodwaters and rains, so it's going to be soft."
“Aff. It will be like wilderness survival training back home.”
"Oh, so fun then. Your training is doing the fun stuff," Casey said conversationally, as he dragged a sledge into geometric patterns, and set up a fire pit. "Don't step on a Fursnake, they get cranky and I don't have any anti-venin in my kit…then again, you're wearing good boots, so you should be alright if it's a young one, and the adults have better situational awareness than to be stepped on."
“Blood Spirits, Goliath Scorpions, Ghost Bears, Strana Mechty Wolves, we have no shortage of predators and vermin that we are used to dealing with.”
"Yeah but Fursnakes are easy to tame and make good pets if you get them young… But they are venomous. One bite, you got a few seconds of the best day of your life, and then you're dead."
“Mister Snips… He was so angry and vicious,” Gabriel reminisced.
"Her Grace the Duchess kept one as a little girl. Eddie's Dad, the current speaker of the Assembly? Used to say she named him Slinky. She was like, five or something. We raise domesticated ones for the pharma market. Milk their venom two, three times a day. Stuff's worth a thousand Kroner per liter."
“I take it that is rather expensive? I must admit I am not quite sure with the conversions and prices…” Gabriel asked.
"Yeah, it is. But I got a big family and we have a lot of bills." Casey observed. "So it isn't so expensive we get rich off the business, just comfortable."
“Ah. Well perhaps I should focus on getting the tent set and a fire going,” Gabriel offered.
Two hours later the rest of the party arrived.
"We found the tracks. It's an old adult, probably up from the Swamplands near the coast. Cause it sure as hell didn't get that big and old up here."
“How big are we talking?” Morgan asked.
"Three, maybe four tons," Eddie estimated. "So it'll get hungry and surface pretty soon."
“Where do you want us then?” Gabriel was pouring herself some coffee.
He drew out a rough facsimile of the mesa they were on, and the surrounding lowlands in the canyons. "We're going to do a foot patrol along the East side, starting here…where we found what's left of Mister Lian's truck. You'll need to watch the river and the shore. Broward Beasts are amphibians. They can submerge for indefinite periods of time, then come up out of the water at speed."
“Opposite ends of the bend here then?” Morgan pointed at a section of the river.
"Good spots for the big rifles," Eddie agreed. "I'd like to get it up away from the water before it dies. That way we can burn the ****** before the eggs hatch and unleash a few thousand young."
“Three, four tons… I must admit I would like my Battlearmor.” Morgan nodded.
"Suits WOULD be nice," Eddie agreed. "Unfortunately, they're Military goods and unavailable on the open market. They don't make enough of 'em for private purchase."
The teams spread out, setting up, and waited.
The second sun was setting when the waters rippled in a quiet bend of the river, and Gabriel got her first look at a Broward Beast.
It was bigger than a battlesuit… by a lot. Almost the size of a Jeep. The six articulated legs were almost spider-like in their distribution, and the skin had thick, ridged plates. There were three what at first looked like manipulators, but then she realized they were heads… with large, circular MOUTHS lined with flexing teeth.
“Savashri,” Gabriel exclaimed as she took in the scale of the creature.
It crabbed, sending up a spray of water, and suddenly it was coming up the hill at her.
Rifles around her fired as if in unison.
She fired with them.
She could SEE her hits. It didn't even slow down.
She cycled the action and fired again.
And again.
And again.
It finally stopped coming less than five meters from her.
One of the heads lunged, and was finished by Morgan Icaza.
The farmers set about with cans of petrol, soaking the dead animal.
Then they brought out flamer units, and ignited it.
A few tiny ones, barely finger sized, tried to escape the inferno as the men burned their mother.
"Chase, you brought the sneks?"
"Ayeh Eddie."
Eddie gathered his guests. "We burned the carcass because how Broward Beast reproduction works is the young are in fertilized eggs under the carapace, they don't hatch until the parent is dead, and then they eat their way out," he explained, crushing something small that was on fire with his boot. "Thing is, no plan is perfect, so Mister Chase brought some trained Fursnakes up, and we're going to let them hunt the area in case momma here had a few get away from the fire. Fursnakes prey on Broward Beast young, along with other small animals. We'll let the snakes roam for a few days after this, then he'll call on 'em with a training whistle, collect them, give them treats, and take them home. After that, the area will be termed 'safe'."
“There is a lot of similarity to our history.”
"This isn't history, it's day to day," Eddie said. "Though it's been a while since we've had a venerable come up from the swamplands. Means it was displaced by something more dangerous."
Morgan looked at the dead beast, "What could be more dangerous?"
"Ants," Eddie said. "If a Colony of Phuket Ants rode driftwood across the ocean, which happens from time to time, those are more dangerous than a Broward Beast. Even Browards will run from a marching colony of Phuket Army Ants. Means we may need to dump a few tons of bug-dope into the channel and have the Coasties set up monitoring for Ant-sign."
"How big are these… ants?"
"About two millimeters across, and a centimeter or so long," Eddie said. "Not dangerous by themselves, but they're called 'ants' because that's what they act like. And these colony swarms will strip a region bare of animal life before moving on. A swarm can strip a cow in a few minutes, and they're small enough to get under a Broward Beast's shell."
“There an equivalent to the Terran Ant-eater to prey on them?”
"There's stuff that eat them, but most of it dies of malnourished off the Phuket continent-trace elements they need aren't in abundance on the rest of the planet. If a colony DID cross the sea, it'll only be a problem for a year or two, then they'll starve, but they can do a hell of a lot of damage in a year or two."
“Burrocks. They are notorious for being able to dig through just about anything on Eden. Fortunately they are not naturally aggressive.”
Gabriel watched as the 'snake wrangler' turned his creatures loose. They were dust-colored and looked… well… furry.
"Are they safe?"
"Nothing is really 'safe', but those are domesticated, so they're not going to bite humans unless you hurt one," Eddie confirmed. "Kinda like dogs that way."
“I see. I helped tend to a Goliath Scorpion once. If you understand them, they can be surprisingly accepting of interaction but they are very aggressive, so you must be constantly on your guard.”
"Well, yeah, they're invertebrates, kind of, what, order Crustacea? Something like that? Like Crabs, eat anything that doesn't eat them first. Good shooting by the way, you got one of its brains and I think three of its hearts."
“Surprising since I know so little about their anatomy.”
"Yeah, but you and Morgan placed your shots on-target often enough to bleed and burn it so the rest of us could make the precise shots to bring it down the rest of the way." Eddie explained, "Like I told you before, Broward Beasts doesn't have an 'off switch' vulnerability. You have to practically disable the whole animal before it will die. It's like it was designed for someone's war, only it was here when the first colonists landed."
“We had a similar rude awakening with our Goliath Scorpions. They were determined. Nearly suicidal. It took us some time before we learned to adapt and co-exist.”
"You hungry? Because I'm starving, let's get soup on and we can all talk in relative comfort."
“Aff.”
“Careful, Eddie. You are making a Goliath Scorpion’s day. She got to shoot something, talking about history, and now you are about to share a meal,” Gabriel smiled.
Eddie chuckled, "It's called 'cowboy barbecue'. As for history, just wait until tomorrow when we go to the Scar, that's all history there… and besides, why wouldn't I make a pretty lady's day?"
“Mmmm… You are an interesting one, Eddie Vanh. Your tent or mine?” Gabriel asked.
"Well, we'll see how you feel about that after we eat, alright?" he gave her a crooked smile.
“I suspect it will be difficult for you to displease me.”
On the whole, it was a good night.
Ruins of the ancient Crimes[]
The Scar, southern Golden Lake region
Kowloon, Federated Commonwealth (Lyran State)
Mid-3063
"This is the Scar." This time, they took a much better aircraft than a Hummingbird, from the Mosovich ranch, across the south end of Golden Lake, and up into a sterilized valley. "Rad counter?"
"Please."
He handed out the monitoring devices and checked everyone's dust filter mask. "The zone was scrubbed repeatedly by NBC teams over the centuries, but it's better to be safe than sorry."
"Those… trees look odd," Morgan said.
"Not trees, those are part of the city," Eddie said. "We're standing about forty meters above what used to be street level. See, The Rim Worlds moved a hell of a lot of gravel to bury the site. They dropped it from dropships, then sent crews made up of political prisoners and slaves to spread it out to bury what the SLS Belleau Wood left behind. It took 'em twenty years, and they were still sending people to be worked to death here right up to twenty-seven-sixty-six."
“History is not all glorious.” Gabriel nodded.
"The Glorious part, was how many of those political prisoners were able to escape and hide among the rural population, or out into the outer system. My ancestors couldn't get everyone, but we got a lot of them out, and fooled their overseers enough that there weren't very many reprisals after an escape."
He led them toward what was now identifiable as the broken skeletons of high-rise buildings.
"Now, the 'history' part I'm here to show you…" Eddie said. "Not all the city was burned, twisted, and broken by the detonation…" They reached a set of prefabs, with crew moving among them.
"Heyo Cheri!" Eddie greeted a hazmat-suited worker.
"Heyo, Chief!! You playing tour-guide?"
"It's for credit," Eddie told the woman in the suit. "How safe is the dig?"
"Pretty safe. We thought we came across a chemical leak, but it turned out that the detector was faulty, so it's safe down there…" The woman froze, staring at the Clan personnel. "Eddie, those are Clanners."
"I know," Eddie said. "Guests of Her Grace, and attending the school."
"Right… okay… which clans?"
"This is Gabriel of Clan Goliath Scorpion,” he gestured to Gabriel. "And this is Morgan Icaza of Clan Jade Falcon. Neither one of them is a Smokey."
Cheri visibly relaxed, her hostility abated. "Oh, good."
“My Clan considers it a great honor to preserve the past, especially of the Star League. Thank you for sharing this experience with me,” Gabriel nodded at the woman.
"You didn't tell them?" Cheri asked.
"I thought they'd like seeing it for themselves, Cheri. Is Doctor Fassler around?"
"He's back at the Capital, briefing the Assembly's subcommittee on our discoveries and begging for more funding."
"Right… Okay, our guests are here to see the dig. Can we go in?"
"Not without an escort, Eddie. Give me a few minutes and I'll lead you all down into the train station…" she eyed them. "In the meantime, come on, we've got a few finds we're cataloging in hut three."
Gabriel followed behind Cheri.
Inside hut three, was a collection of items any Goliath Scorpion could recognize as being from the correct era-the era of the Star League.
Most were damaged in some fashion, and being cleaned by students.
“My Clan would gladly bargain with you for the honor of access and preserving this site and artifacts.”
"Where did this come from?" Morgan Icaza asked, nodding to a laser pistol on one of the shelves.
"Oh, section four of the dig, street level," a student said. "It's a Colt Intek model-"
"Seven Thirty one, Aff. Eleven millimeter aperture, solid state circuit, cerametal frame… is it functional?"
"Not in that state. We found it under the remains of a city bus, we're not sure which cadaver had it before it was knocked loose, but the going theory was a rich businessman or official who was just that unlucky."
"May I?"
The student looked to Cheri first, who nodded.
Morgan Icaza handled the weapon with respect, and care, and extracted the power-cell. "Contacts look good…" he inspected the muzzle end, "Dust cover is undamaged…" he used a finger nail, "The optics are intact."
“Serial number? It end with a letter or a number?” Gabriel asked.
"Serial number ends with an SL," he said. "This was an officer's sidearm of the SLDF. The number begins with an A prefix code."
“Aff. From the Kentucky armory itself then. Old Terra,” Gabriel nodded.
Eddie shot the student a look, "You taking notes there, cub?"
"AYEH, sirrah." The student started writing frantically.
"Then, get on the terminal over there, and look up 'Colt Collector's Club', there should be serial tracking, if it was an issued sidearm, those collectors will know where and when it was last issued… and maybe even to whom."
“Maker’s mark. Here. ‘25.”
"So it was current issue in 2729, not surplus," Eddie commented. "It was dropped by a member of the Three Thirty Second."
“Aff. It is quite likely a prestigious officer to be issued something like this instead of a more standard side arm.”
"So, someone famous from Chivington's unit, maybe the Gunslinger?" Eddie suggested.
"Unlikely, those were usually replicas of the Colt 1911A1, a bullet firing firearm. This would be the sidearm of a senior officer in Chivington's staff or a Battalion commander."
“Plus it would be unlikely Chivington would send one of his own down if he was planning to bombard the city.”
"In the ambush that triggered the fire mission, General Chivington first tried to combat drop his First Battalion, famous for city fighting, under Colonel Oscar Mosely. They immediately began taking severe casualties, and the Dropships were shot down during the dust-off."
“In the city… Possibly a member of Assault Jump Infantry?”
"Possibly," Eddie agreed. "You finished cataloging that piece, Cub?"
"Ayeh, Sirrah."
"It's not mine to give, Mister Icaza…"
Morgan laid the pistol on the table. "Of course."
Cheri showed up again, handed out headlamps, and masks with air-bottles 'in case the air conditioning fails', and led them to a stabilized lift with open sides.
“And down we go."
Gabriel had her eyes constantly dancing around.
"How stable is this shaft?" Morgan asked casually.
"We've got it reinforced with culvert and endosteel white mesh wire, why?"
“We located a tunnel while we were dealing with a Broward Beast that we think may meet up with a part of this ‘undercity’,” Gabriel said, constantly studying every detail.
"Where at?" Cheri asked.
"In the Folly," Eddie said.
"Unlikely then," Cheri said. "The links out of Dinh Diep were overland rail, not subway. And the city was constrained by the valley here."
"Could be something else then, my older brother found that Alacorn in the same riverbed."
"I'll talk to the prof about sending a team out that way, maybe there's some part of the story we ain't been told or found yet out there."
The lift halted at the bottom of the shaft, and Gabriel could see the ferrocrete was as clean here, as it must have been when it was laid.
Marred only by the entry to a subway, with half melted (and recently cut away) safety rails at ground level.
"This way folks, and watch your step, we cleaned up, but it's stairs," Cheri explained.
They filed down into the transit station, Gabriel noted the cleanliness of the tiling-Star League era materials designed to resist wear and erosion, still doing their job centuries after being buried.
Lighting was irregular, mostly work-lamps powered by cell generators.
"We found five hundred dead down here," Cheri said to Gabriel conversationally. "Mummified, because it's dry down here, and it was sealed off from the outside. Men, women, kids, mostly."
"Unfortunate."
"Yeah. The station was only supposed to handle around two hundred… see?" She pointed her light at a sign announcing that this station, on 4th and Vine, had a capacity of 200 persons.
They turned a corner and passed through dismantled turnstiles.
Gabriel saw it.
It was hard not to see it.
The mural covered the far wall, with matching murals on this wall. "Savashri…"
Whoever the artist was, was truly an artist, to convey that much pro-Star League sentiment.
"You can't have a traitor, without trust…." Eddie commented.
"Want to see the enlistment posters?" Cheri asked the visitors. "Go down the tunnel about four blocks, and the subway entry to a Star League Defense Force recruiting office. People before they made the Scar out of the city? That recruiter had an active list of applicants longer than HIS-" she pointed at Morgan, "-arm."
“Our Seekers would lose their minds over this…”
"Some of ours already have. Imagine growing up absolutely believing that your ancestors didn't care about the Star League, only about getting Amaris and the Rim Worlds boot off their neck, swearing by Dinh Diep… and then finding out those ancestors you've been swearing by, were great-big-fans of the Star League, even if they didn't like House Amaris," Cheri explained. "I lost a couple graduate students because after they reviewed the security footage, one of 'em… quit, the other capped himself." She mimed suicide with a pistol. "Part of the reason the Prof is in the Capital right now, is because of that second one. He's trying to prove there's nothing down here like a nerve agent or something that scrambles people's brains."
Some of the tiles in the mural were damaged.
"Bullets." Morgan said.
"Yeah, a lot of the civilians had gunshot wounds. The ones that didn't suffocate, according to our medical examiners. Going theory was the vending machines."
"Vending machines?"
"Ran out of food, nobody came to dig them out." Cheri explained, "We found signs of cannibalism too. The people who were buried in this station died hard."
“Barbarism…” Gabriel shook her head.
'It gets worse," Cheri told her. "Come on, the train tunnels are reinforced, like the builders expected the bomb that killed the city. Maybe you can explain something that's dogging at me, given your perspective on Star League history."
They walked past dead monorail subway trains on a ferrocrete surface walkway.
Down the tunnel.
"Bunker spec," Morgan noted, looking at the construction. "To support the large buildings that were on the surface, quiaff?"
"Running theory is that, ayeh. They reinforced it, but vents were blocked or something," Cheri agreed.
They came to another platform, with another mural, this one celebrating the partnership of the Rim Worlds Republic and the Star League's ruling family, it included an image of the First Lord himself, standing and benevolent smiling. A propaganda image blown up to five meters tall in a commuter train station.
"We're about a quarter kilometer from the Administrative center of the Rim Worlds Republic's government of Kowloon," Cheri explained. "To your right, is the subway level entry to an SLDF recruiting office. This one has a damned Gift Shop, with Star League themed items including sweatshirts, hats, and knicknacks. Would you believe it still had power when we found it? Well, it had power, and it had bodies."
"Bodies."
"Yeah. The Recruiting Station was, apparently, open right up to the moment it was closed forever." Cheri said. "Which is weird as hell, when you consider what the history we all grew up with says was happening outside."
The door opened at a touch, and the shop was lit.
So many souvenirs of the Star League.
So many…
"Brown stains. Blood."
"Yeah," Cheri said. "Blood. We know what happened here, but I'll be damned if I can answer why, because it doesn't make any damned sense."
Gabriel examined some of the 'gift shop' items. So much like the homeworlds…
Star League materials, Star League symbology. A collection of unit patches from the 2720s of Star League units, some famed for fighting by Kerensky's side fifty years later.
“It must have been a true madhouse down here.” Gabriel shook her head.
"Want to see the security record?" Cheri asked.
“Aff.”
"This way. We didn't try to dismount the building's servers. We just copied what was on them to the blank Memory Sticks in the office supplies closet."
Gabriel’s mix of awe and shock was evident even through the layers of protective gear.
Cheri led the group through a door marked 'Staff only' and down a set of stairs to a rather ordinary looking injection-molded plastic office door with a brushed and burnished metal handle.
"Offices. Any time there's a facility, there are offices," Cheri commented. "Most of the bodies we pulled out down here were dead of suffocation. Someone put the air conditioning on recirculate and opened the fire suppression system. Staff suffocated at their desks. Probably better than starving to death in the station under the rubble."
The door was marked with a little placard, 'Security Director Nielsen, Pamela' with a miniature version of the SLDF's rank of Lt. Colonel beside it.
Cheri opened the door with gloved hands, and led them into a complex office, with displays aligned along one wall and desks arranged below them.
"We're pretty sure they had camera access to the street level. There's recordings of it, including the fighting outside. And the blast, which blanked everything at about February 22, 2729, ten hundred local time. The internal monitors, including the train station and their gift shop, keep going for about six months before the system stopped recording."
Cheri finished activating one of the control stations. "SO… where would you like to begin?"
“The morning of the attack.”
Cheri brought up one of the screens, then another, and another. Street views, the interior of the recruiting station, the train station, and the exit at street level from the same.
This was not a city at war, there were no soldiers in the streets.
An electric bus marked with the name of a school district rolled into the frame, and a group of children in flimsy little uniforms, shorts, short-sleeves, a silver cravat with the Star League's Cameron Star, and ball caps, lined up to come inside.
"The '29 uprising was supposed to be in full swing. Does that look like a city at war to you?"
“Neg.” Gabriel answered.
On the interior cameras, she saw those long dead children being taken through the facility, a tour, escorted by a silver-haired NCO and a young-looking Lieutenant. Meanwhile, glances at some of the other images showed young men going through the process of in-processing or enlistment.
It was banal until zero eight hundred, while the kids were in the gift shop. The doors at the tunnel entry opened, and men in riot gear and Rim Worlds Police uniforms entered.
"Lockdown, Zero Nine Thirty." The procedures for locking down were immediately apparent, as the attackers mowed down… people.
Steadily, as if following a strategic or tactical plan.
Sparing nobody.
On the street, troops in SLDF uniform were landing, and engaging with heavy weapons.
At Ten AM, a flash and the cameras on the outside went blank.
Inside the station, the small group of armed garrison repelled the attackers.
"What is this?" Morgan asked. "The display in the corner, that office, what is it?"
Cheri bit her lip, "Do you really want to know?"
"Humor me."
She brought it up, and they could see the obvious commander of this station, his face twisted in despair, silently ordering something while clutching a message in his fist in anger.
At Eleven AM, the fire suppression system activated.
"What was the message?" Morgan asked casually.
"I don't know, sir. Doctor Fassler has locked off the site administrator's office. I'm not cleared to go in."
“Get clearance.” Gabriel almost grunted.
"Screw clearances,” Eddie said coldly. "Cheri, you had to see it. What did you see?"
"Chief, you don't want to know-"
"TELL ME, Corporal!" he barked. "Come on. We slogged across half the Clan Homeworlds. Whatever it is can't be that bad, not at three and a half centuries in the past!"
"It was… an order from Star League High Command. Destroy the classified information and terminate the facility, help would not be coming," she answered. "There, happy now?"
"Who signed the order?"
"Assistant Chief of Staff George Meade, Star League Intelligence Command." she said miserably.
"There's more," Eddie said. "You wouldn't even try to hide it if there wasn't more. You wouldn't be giving us the indirect show, if there wasn't something else."
Cheri tapped a command into the console.
"...experimental subjects have shown a high degree of resistance to conditioning. Additionally, Major Chien Vieh continues to persist in sending her requests for an intervention in the situation here in the Rim Worlds Territorial State. This continued agitation could put field-testing of the Twenty-One Bravo social control agent at risk, as it is beginning to get media attention. I have been unable to convince Colonel Mallory to order a stop to it. At this point, tensions are crossing the boiling point, and the outer communities have already gone into revolt. Request guidance from High Command regarding how to best clean up and terminate this operation. As it is, in my view as oversight, compromised and will not achieve our objectives…"
"Who's that?"
"We walked through her office when we came in here," Cheri said. "Star League Intelligence was planning to run some kind of… experiment? The '29 revolution was real, but you saw the imagery, they never even got to the capital." She crossed her arms, "There was no valiant repelling of the landing forces, we didn't drive off their first thrust!"
“A fiction. Orchestrated by the Star League… Savashri,” Gabriel growled.
"Some in the Star League," Eddie countered. "Don't get me wrong. I was raised to hate the Earthers just like every other Kowloonese, but they were lying to their own guys. Had someone running something shitty on the side and not everyone was okay with it. Or would be, or they wouldn't have been hiding it from their own guys." He ticked off his fingers. "So, someone inside the League, probably corrupt, in the pocket of House Amaris even then… but not all of your ancestors, not all the Star League!" He took Gabriel's hand. "Okay? THINK: Amaris couldn't have made his Amaris Empire without Quislings, right? So this is part of the dress rehearsal, fifty years early, seeing what he could get past scrutiny, with active help by some outright bastards… but Traitors can't betray you if you don't trust them first-that's how Betrayal WORKS."
“Aff. But I still find myself in the mood to punch something,” Gabriel nodded.
"Take the feeling, bottle it up. Put it on a shelf marked 'never let this happen again'," Eddie urged.
“Now you sound like Why Yeh. A mentor of mine,” Gabriel smiled slightly.
"Never met them, but it's the way you don't let something like this poison everything good around you. Passion is Anger put to Good Use…" Eddie turned to Cheri. "So Fassler's in the Capital, why again? Truth time?"
"He wants to meet with Her Grace, to see if this should be released," Cheri told him.
"Makes sense," Eddie nodded. "Morgan, you okay??"
Morgan Icaza opened his fists, and in a too-calm voice said, "I would like to find out what they thought they were doing. And why all of… this… horror, was deemed forgivable, nevermind necessary… And I find my thoughts going to whether this is not a pattern in the Inner Sphere… or even the Clans. If someone is not, or has not, been doing similar things and getting away with it. If they are, they should be punished." He paused. "Other than that? I am well, thank you for asking."
“Aff. We Clan Warriors do have some sense of justice after all,” Gabriel nodded.
"Cheri, we'll keep this between us, okay Corporal?" Eddie urged.
Cheri nodded, "Ayeh, Chief."
"Let's get surface side and have lunch folks… I think I'm about done with tourism."
“Understandable.” Morgan nodded.
Ancient Crime leads to Modern Problems[]
Offices of the Duchess of Kowloon
Kowloon, Federated Commonwealth (Lyran State)
Mid-3063
Elizabeth closed the terminal, and looked at the Academic. "Release it," she ordered. "Let the truth be known, and the chips fall where they may. Release it. All of it."
“Yes, Your Grace.”
She waited for him to leave, before calling Helena Cameron.
"Heya. They found something at the dig-site. Not just the bodies or the evidence of massacres."
”Another shoe. What is this one?”
"The rising in 2729? Evidence strongly suggests there was no resistance at Dinh Diep… and that Chivington was operating on orders from Star League Intelligence. I've told Professor Fassler to release everything he's found to the public."
”Really? It was a cover up?”
"Worse, OUR people bought the legend they spun," Liz told her. "So it's going to be a major shock when people find out that our glorious ancestors weren't even fighting back, much less successfully."
The string of profanity of someone taught to speak the traditional languages of the five great houses and spent entirely too much time around sailors was truly epic.
"I need you to do something for me, Helena, as First Lord Elect," Liz continued.
”Name it.”
"Pressure the Word of Blake and Comstar reps to release Kerensky's investigation of the Dinh Diep incident. It was disappeared under 'classified' but you KNOW they kept the investigation record."
”Kerensky wasn’t Commanding General at the time, it was Fredassa. She should have been the investigating authority.”
"There's still going to be records. Tell the Blakies it's a show of trust that will elevate their position with the rest of the League… Tell Comstar the same, and see which one turns over more rocks to find it."
”I’ll do it. And I’ll even ask Jane to scour her memory banks. Kerensky looped her in on a fair few classified tidbits.”
"You remember an incident on Arluna a few years back? Jane found that bioweapon warhead for us? The one we tossed in the sun?" Liz continued. "Remember that one?"
”Hard to forget.”
"Twenty One B," Liz said. "Was specifically mentioned as a 'social control agent' they were planning to test here, it's part of the recording Professor Fassler showed me. It's a puzzle, you're good at puzzles and so is Jane. How does the piece fit?"
Helena’s next tirade of cussing put her previous one to shame.
”Sounds entirely too plausible. Star League probably thought they had a targeted virus, one able to seek out phenotypic traits so it would leave certain populations alone. But instead what they got was a civilization killer and hid it on Arluna.”
"First thing we all learned from the First Succession War: viruses mutate," Liz nodded. "It's why biowarfare is so bad. It ends up being the gift that keeps on giving. Alright, I've asked my favor. Are you set for a visit to Evelynn's place in the Folly? Get out of the cold and enjoy some barbecue?"
“Yeah, and good old hubris can’t be discounted either. I’m ready to go. I’m doing my best to enjoy my last few days of freedom before all my spare time gets gobbled up by council meetings, drafting referendums, memos, studies, requests, and whatever other fresh hell human politics can unleash on me.”
"Bring Johnny and Jakob. I'll be dragging my husband and kids along too."
”Of course.”
Clan Expedition Continues[]
Periphery Space near the Inner Sphere
June 3063
The star was almost too small, and the fleet would have to spend extra time recharging, but the resupply columns bringing fresh rations were a relief.
Cassius N'Buta watched impassively as Clan Star Adder's fleet went through the process of underway replenishment of supplies, stocks, and the daily existence of a force on a long deployment far from home.
"We think the Scout vessels have found the target, My Khan. The 'exotic matter facility'."
"Good. How far?"
"Four more jumps."
Four weeks.
Two weeks if they pushed it, but pushing it would be less useful.
"Show me."
Today, is September 18.
“October. It will be decided in October.”