Sword of Axia (The Arcadian Jihad) (12 page)

“Now you know,” Berg said drily.

They looked across at the Comms Station, despair setting in. They had no heavy weapons, no way of going against that kind of massive power. And yet.

“I’m going in there,” Smetana said.

“You’ll be killed, we have to call it off.”

“No, Max, pull the men back. I think one of us may succeed, this is going to be a solo effort. I want you to decoy them, I’ll slip in while they’re looking the other way.”

“You don’t stand a chance and you know it.”

“I’ve managed with worse odds. Can you set it up for me, Max?”

“Give me a few minutes and I’ll be ready.”

“Make it ten minutes exactly, I’m going to get into position now.”

“Do you want a signal?”

The Hesperian grinned. “I don’t want anything, Max. If I see or hear it, the Axians will. No, just do it, you won’t see me either but I’ll be ready. Ten minutes.”

“Good luck, my friend.”

They shook hands. Max Biermann thought it unlikely he’d see him again. He shouted for his squad to prepare to lay down a withering fire on the Comms Station. He looked around, checked they were all ready and looked at his watch, it was time

“Fire! give it everything you’ve got.”

The square erupted in fury as the beleaguered Rescom force poured small arms fire onto the building. Max ducked as a huge explosion announced another burst from the plasma cannon that destroyed the building next to where he was sheltering. He knew that at least eight of his men were firing from inside before it was hit, they had no chance of survival. He kept his men firing for another five minutes, multiple bursts from the cannon had destroyed almost an entire block in return for which they had only scratched the outer shell of the Comms Station. It was all up to Berg.

Inside Smetana slipped quietly from room to room, leaving a trail of Axian bodies behind him. He was heading for the plasma cannon first, he had to stop it before it wiped out the entire attacking force. For some reason it hadn’t fired for a few minutes, but it would only be a matter of time. He peered out of the doorway and saw nothing, but as he eased out he heard footsteps. He swiftly moved back inside the room, a storeroom, the footsteps came nearer and nearer, there were two of them, the door opened and they stepped inside the room, absorbed in their conversation. He hid behind a pile of wooden crates and listened.

“A few more salvos and those bastard rebels will be history, Gabe.”

“Yeah, I thought we had them until the trigger circuit shorted out, but the spare one will fix it and we can finish the job.”

So that was the reason they’d ceased fire. The two men rummaged on a rack of spare parts and took down a circuit board.

“That ought to do it, let’s get it fitted and finish them off, poor bastards, I almost feel sorry for them. If we can make a...”

He stopped as they turned to go back out through the door. Berg Smetana was an anomaly, a huge, powerfully built and muscular man. Yet he moved in total silence, an uncanny ability that had been instilled into him decades ago on Hesperia when he’d been taken out of military training and put into an elite assassin's program.

“Who the hell are you? What are you doing here, show me your authorization,” one of the men said.

They stared as he pulled out his knife, the blood from the men he’d already slaughtered was still wet on the blade.

“Will this be enough authorization?” he murmured quietly as he whirled and spun with peculiar, balletic movements. He was back where he had been standing even before the two bodies hit the floor.

He picked up the circuit board and put it into his pocket, then made his way to a communications terminal in a nearby room. He spoke quietly into the microphone and then sat down to wait. A few minutes later he heard a noise, a ship was landing directly in the square outside.

Max could hardly believe it, the ship that was touching down was a Helios Class Rescom Battlecruiser in the distinctive sky-blue livery that was the badge of Res Publica, the council of the Nine Systems before the Axian conquest. The ramp hissed down a squad of Rescom troops stormed out, forming a defensive ring around the ship. Then Admiral Rusal descended the ramp with Guide Tell. Max ran out to meet them.

“Gentlemen, it’s good to see you, I thought we were finished. Listen, Mr. President, this area is very dangerous, you should go back into the ship, the Axians have a plasma cannon deployed in the Comms Station.”

Rusal shook his head. “It’s quite safe, we just received a message from Berg Smetana, it’s out of action. Berg is holed up inside waiting for us to attack the building and finish this. Do you know how many Axians are still there?”

“Probably about a hundred of them, Admiral. We can’t fire on the building if Berg is inside, I’ll send in a squad to finish them off now that their cannon is out of action.”

Tell laid a hand on his arm. “Mr. Biermann, let me try to speak to them first, perhaps I can end this without more bloodshed.”

“Mr. President, they’re crazed Axian religious fanatics, they won’t listen to you.”

“Let me try, Max. Admiral, would you arrange for a communications link, I’ll speak to them from down here.”

A few minutes later he spoke into a commset. “Men of Axia, your outer defense platforms have been destroyed, your fleet has been shot out of space and the Power Station has melted down. Our fleet is landing all over the planet even as I speak. I am not asking you to surrender.”

Rusal and Biermann looked up in surprise. What was he saying?

“I am not asking you to surrender,” he repeated. “I am asking you to join us. Your leaders have misled you. Where is the wealth they promised? Where are the better houses for you to live in? Where is the better food, where are the better opportunities for you and your children? All they have given you is a dictatorship. The brutal law of the squads of special service troops that hunt you down for any real or imagined challenge to their iron rule. Join us, remember the way it used to be when you were free of the Axian tyranny. And if you don’t like what you find, vote us out of office at the next elections. There are no dictatorships inside the Rescom Federation.”

He spoke passionately, with a sincerity and honesty that seemed to wash over the whole city. He finished speaking and stood waiting. For a long time nothing happened. The troopers started to fidget, checking their weapons and looking at their officers for orders, but none came. Rusal started to say something to Tell, but the President held up his hand for quiet. The Admiral looked up at the ramp, Blas was waiting there, watching. Then he sensed movement, the doors were opening and a familiar figure came out into the square, Berg Smetana. Max Biermann smiled and walked across to him, but before he could speak a flood of people started pouring out of the Comms Station, their hands in the air. It was over. He ran up to his friend.

“I thought for a while they’d toasted you, Berg.”

“Not this time, they didn’t even come close. Here, take this,” he tossed the circuit board to him. “It’s the trigger mechanism for their multi-barreled plasma cannon, it could come in useful.”

“I’ll make damned sure it does.”

The two men joined Rusal and Guide Tell. Blas came down the ramp.

“We’re getting signals from all over the planet, it looks like it’s nearly all over, most of the Axian force on Corazon is either dead or has surrendered. The outlying units that guard the hydroponics plants will need to be dealt with, we could order some of our squads to make the situation clear to them.”

“Let’s do it a little more gently, Captain, gunboat diplomacy should be the last resort, not the first,” Guide Tell said quietly. “If they start shooting at us like they did here, we’ll send the troops in but until then I’d sooner talk to them.”

Admiral Rusal looked at him with a serious expression. “This is just one planet, there are hundreds of planets across the Nine Systems to conquer. We can’t talk to them all.”

“You’re quite correct, Admiral, but we’ll try and avoid unnecessary loss of life here at least.” Tell glanced around the square to satisfy himself that everything was peaceful. “The question is, where should we go next? We need a planet that will give us the best possible strategic advantage, strategy is something that you men know better than me.”

There was a silence.

“Hesperia.” Berg Smetana’s voice spoke the one word that stopped all their thoughts. Hesperia, of course.

“It’s obvious,” Rusal said. Planet Isolde is in the second system, Arcturus. We’re right next to the first system, Vega that of course means Axis Nova. If we take Hesperia in the third system, that means we’ll have them in a vise.”

“There is another advantage too,” Blas added. “Berg is a native of Hesperia, he knows it intimately. Of all the planets to target, Hesperia has to be the one.”

“Very well,” Guide Tell agreed. “Hesperia it is, but Mr. Smetana, we have a lot of work to do before we can send ships into the second system. I don’t even have a fleet to offer you.”

“I don’t need a fleet, Mr. President. I’m a well-known merchant, I shall simply restart trading on Hesperia. I’ll have the one thing to offer them that they’ll be desperate for. Food. I can virtually name my own price.”

“What if they refuse to pay?” Tell asked curiously.

“Then they’ll starve,” was the simple reply. “With your permission, I’d like to take Max Biermann and his men with me, I’ll need an armed crew of tough fighting men. I’ll also want a ship, one of the light cruisers, something that I can configure as an armed merchantman.”

“Go to the spaceport and take whatever you need, Mr. Smetana. You have my blessing.”

The huge, tough Hesperian nodded. “Thank you, Sir. I’ll need about three months to put everything in place, I’ll contact you when everything is ready.”

They shook hands and Smetana walked away with Max Biermann, trailed by a company of his troopers. Admiral Rusal looked anxiously at Guide Tell. “I think you’ve been on the surface long enough to make a point, Mr. President, would you please go back inside the ship where I can protect you.”

Tell shook his head. “I’m setting up my temporary headquarters in the Comms Station, Admiral. Perhaps you would be so kind as to keep me advised as to how the military campaign is progressing.”

“But, Sir, the radiation is still a danger.”

“I’m sure you’ll find a way to deal with it. Thank you, gentlemen.”

He walked away with his bodyguards. Rusal called up to the ship for additional personnel to be assigned to protect the Comms Station. When everything had been done, he went back aboard the flagship.

“Captain Blas, you can get us underway, we have a planet to secure, the foodstuffs of entire civilization depend on us not making any more mistakes.”

“We’ll lose about a quarter of the output for the next few years, Admiral, before the radiation is brought fully under control.”

Rusal grinned at Blas. “That’s one way of helping some of these fat Axian priests to lose weight. I like it. They’re always telling everyone how altruistic they are, how much they sacrifice for the good of their followers, let’s see if it extends to giving up most of their food rations for the greater good.”

Blas thought about the Axian priests and prophets he’d encountered. It was true, with a few exceptions they were fleshy to the point of obese. Perhaps the Admiral had a point.

System Standard 2728.1302 Tulum City, Planet Hesperia

Smetana and Biermann were enjoying a drink in their warehouse in Tulum City, capital of Hesperia. In three short months they’d built up an impressive trading company and customers were flocking to buy what they had to offer. Food was already in short supply before the reactor explosion, since then it was being hoarded across the whole of the Systems and the price had already more than quadrupled. The result was an inevitable upsurge on the black market and what was vital to the black marketeers were the smugglers. Berg Smetana was a very effective smuggler. The two men they were expecting came into the office. Jon Ewald and Brandon Sondar, both government deputies, it was a measure of their desperation that they’d come directly to Berg. They shook hands and the newcomers were shown to their seats.

“Ewald, Sondar, how can we help you?” Berg smiled.

“You know what we want, Ewald snapped back. “We’re short of food, the entire planet is almost at the point of revolt. You have warehouses full of the stuff and our people are starving. We must have the food, Smetana, we need to distribute it immediately.”

“That’s no problem, you pay the price and you can take delivery immediately.”

“But there is a problem and you know it. Your price will bankrupt us, either you sell it at the old price, or...”

He stopped, letting the threat hang in the air. But Smetana had no such pretensions.

“Or what?”

“Or I’ll send an armed squad in here to take it, complete with a signed order from the Supreme Court that empowers me to confiscate it at no cost.”

Smetana smiled and sitting near him, Max Biermann worked to keep a straight face, although he was grinning inside. When his friend smiled like that the person he was smiling at usually regretted it afterwards. If he lived to regret it, that is.

“Ewald, that sounds like theft to me.”