BSE Chapter 6-46

As it turned out, there wasn’t much to discuss. Kynel agreed to have his remaining people wear the cybernetic disabler. Not that he had much of a choice, considering the other option was death, but Alexander still expected some pushback from the Shican Grand Commander, but he turned out to be a rather pragmatic individual.

Over the next few hours, Shican cyborgs left the ship one at a time to receive the devices. Most weren’t all that cooperative. After dealing with the rather apathetic Kynel, it felt more normal. Between Alexander and Four, there was little a single cyborg could do to prevent the device from being attached.

Alexander glanced over at a pile of corpses. A few of the uncooperative Shican had immediately attempted to remove the device by smashing it against another cybernetic portion of their body. Those attempts always ended the same way.

Kynel stood by impassively each time they killed themselves. Eventually, enough bodies piled up that the message got through to the rest.

Once the devices were attached, small groups of the prisoners were loaded aboard a specially prepared shuttle and taken into orbit. They were heading for Judgement and other fleet ships for transport.

The fleet vessels weren’t really equipped to handle that many prisoners, but with Lucas and the other engineers’ help, they found an alternative method to hold the Shican. Cargo holds were converted into holding spaces, with dozens of crash pods. Nobody really trusted the disablers for the entire trip, so locking the cyborgs in molecular stasis was just an extra precaution. Everyone agreed with the extra security measures.

“Is that all of them?” Alexander asked when no more Shican appeared from the ship.

“No,” Kynel replied, “but the rest refuse to obey my commands.”

“They will die,” Alexander replied.

“They have chosen their fate,” the Grand Commander said without concern.

Alexander glanced at Four, but she just shrugged. Seeing as nobody present seemed concerned about what happened to the holdouts, he contacted Galloway.

“Trouble?” the man asked immediately.

“A bit,” Alexander admitted. “A few of the Shican prisoners are refusing to leave the ship. I want you to send in strike teams to clear them out.”

“I can do that, but why not just destroy the ship from orbit and be done with it?”

Alexander subvocalized the response, so Kynel wouldn’t overhear. “It’s the Grand Commander’s battleship, which probably means it’s the most technologically advanced. I want to see what those advances consist of.”

Galloway chuckled. “I should have guessed. Alright, I’ll have ten teams over there shortly. That should be more than enough to clear the vessel.”

Alexander thanked the man before ending the call and turning his attention back to Kynel. “Your turn,” he said.

The man held out his cybernetic arm, and Alexander placed the device on it. The only sign of discomfort was a slight flicker of the Grand Commander’s ears.

He let his arm fall back to his side before speaking. “It’s done then.”

“It is,” Alexander confirmed.

“May I ask one request?”

Kynel had been cooperative so far, so Alexander nodded.

The Shican commander produced a small tablet and handed it to him. “If your people could drop us off at this world, I would appreciate it.”

The data on the tablet had already been converted from Shican to human. Alexander cross-referenced the coordinates and mentally pulled up the location. The scouts had tagged the location as a Shican world. It was located on the far side of Shican space from human territory and near the massive dust cloud, making it a strategically unimportant location. The fact that it only had a few orbital shipyards also made it a low-priority target for the automated ships, which continued their work of destroying any Shican vessels and space stations.

 Alexander hadn’t hidden his agenda from the Shican commander during their talk. He wanted to see how the man would react to the fact that the Shican were going to be planet-bound for the foreseeable future. Kynel had simply shrugged and said, “It is a far better fate than most of my people deserve.”

“Very well, I can do that,” Alexander agreed.

Kynel nodded and headed off toward the waiting shuttle, while Alexander sent updated commands to the scouts still in Shican space. They would spare that world, along with a few other Shican planets, but he wanted to remove any easy access to orbit or defenses before the fleet arrived. One act of self-preservation didn’t make up for the atrocities that the Shican had committed since reaching the stars.

He doubted he would get all the Shican space presence, but he would get enough to cap their aggression and prevent them from becoming a threat for a long time.

Four must have seen the conflicted expression on his face. “You did the right thing.”

She was wrong about why he was conflicted, but he didn’t want to get into it, so he grunted in response. “I guess we’ll find out eventually.”

With his piece said, he walked back toward the facility.

***

The BSE fleet arrived above the Shican world a few days later. Clouds of debris orbited the planet, remnants from the scouts’ preliminary work to make their arrival safe, and to ensure the Shican couldn’t rebuild their fleets.

“We’re being targeted from the surface,” the sensor operator declared.

“If they fire upon us, destroy every single ground emplacement,” Vitor replied. Alexander had told him about the strikes, but there was always the possibility that some defensive installations had been missed.

Vitor would leave them if they were. His job wasn’t to strip the Shican of defenses; it was to drop off the prisoners and ensure any ships or installations that could help those ships reach orbit were destroyed, but he wouldn’t hesitate to destroy more facilities if they threatened his fleet.

Katalynn’s people were performing a similar role at the other designated sanctuary worlds. He suspected they weren’t being as understanding as he was, however. He couldn’t blame them. The Union suffered the most from the Shican’s two wars.

In a surprising turn of common sense, the Shican didn’t fire on the fleet. Before he started indiscriminately bombing locations, the hangar door opened up, and the drop pods containing the Shican were ejected.

There was no way in hell Vitor was risking any of his people or a shuttle to return the bastards to the surface.

It took a few hours for the pods to descend to the planet, but it was nearly a full day before Kynel finally contacted them. The Shican looked slightly different, and Vitor realized it was because he had changed his cybernetic arm for a new one, removing the disabler device without killing himself.

Vitor wasn’t all that surprised; he would have done something similar if given the choice.

“I have explained to my clan what must be done. You may begin.” That was all the Grand Commander had to say before he ended the call.

Vitor chewed his lip for a moment before giving the order. Focused beams of destruction ripped through the planet’s atmosphere, targeting spaceports and shuttles. A few standard missiles raced out as well, targeting large production hubs.

The defenses that had been targeting them since they arrived finally stopped during Kynel’s call, so Vitor didn’t need to worry about return fire.

The selective orbital bombardment took a full week and was one of the worst things Vitor had been asked to carry out. He could see it bothered others on the crew as well, but nobody complained because everyone knew it was necessary.

By the time they were done, a full fifth of the Shican’s infrastructure was left in ruins. He could keep the fleet there longer to ensure nobody was hiding shuttles or smaller ships, but he had had enough. He gave the fleet the order to withdraw. The rest could be left to the EFEC Swordfish, which would act as sentinels.

***

“You’re being shortsighted, Jarl Kane!” Katalynn glared at the man through the holo.

“I’ve already given you my position on the matter,” Kane replied. “I will not be providing any more gravity bombs, so you can further some quest of vengeance against the Shican.”

“How many more people do they have to kill before you realize they won’t change?” she demanded. “Leaving them even one planet, let alone three, is just asking for a third Shican War.”

“Lagertha Char, if you cannot accept my decision on this matter, perhaps I should withdraw from the Union.”

The declaration was like a slap in the face. She narrowed her eyes, but ground her teeth together to prevent herself from screaming at the insolent Jarl. She quickly got her anger under control. She wasn’t stupid enough to push Kane into leaving the Union, despite how often the man’s actions annoyed her.

“Fine,” she finally ground out. “But don’t say I didn’t warn you. When they inevitably attack again, the deaths will be on you.”

“If that ever happens, I will take full responsibility,” he replied tiredly.

She ended the call and stared at the image that showed the world below. Fire burned across its surface as magma spilled from cracks. New volcanoes erupted across the planet after only a single gravity bomb was deployed.

She had witnessed similar destruction on a dozen other worlds so far as her fleet went from Shican systems, eliminating resistance.

The irony of what she was doing wasn’t lost on her, but she didn’t care. The Shican would have done far worse had they won.

A knock came at her cabin door.

“Enter,” she replied in annoyance.

Vyrik opened the hatch. “I take it by your tone that the meeting didn’t go well?”

“You were right, Kane refused to provide more gravity bombs.”

Vyrik nodded before stepping inside and shutting the door behind him. He took the seat across the desk from her before speaking. “I told you he would.”

“You don’t have to rub it in,” she replied.

“I think I do, actually. Perhaps it’s for the best that we used up the last of the gravity bombs. Those are weapons that should not exist.” His eyes flicked over to the projection she was watching before landing back on her. “Just look at the devastation they can cause.”

“Don’t tell me that you’ve grown soft on the Shican threat,” she grumbled.

“No. I agree that they should have been wiped out completely, but it doesn’t matter what I believe. Kane probably feels the same way you do after they killed his friend. I’m sure Kane had his reasons for leaving a few of the Shican alive. One of those reasons could be his new AI allies. Look at what Kane has accomplished in only a few short years by himself. By his own admission, he isn’t as smart or as capable as the three AIs who joined his cause, despite creating them. I still find that hard to process, but I can’t see any reason for Kane to lie about something like that.”

“It still irks me,” Katalynn replied.

“As it should. If that isn’t enough, just look at the economic impact of his contributions. With Kane as part of the Union, we are finally in a position to grow beyond the STO. You’ve read the Lokis’ reports on Kane’s conversation with the STO admiralty. Despite the Jarl’s flaws, Kane is a man of his word. He said he was going to cut the STO off if they failed to commit fully to the war effort, and he has. That alone gives the Union an advantage. I don’t think it’ll end there, either.”

“You know something?” Katalynn asked with a raised eyebrow.

“No. I’m just basing my analysis on Kane’s personality. If he left the Union, I fully believe he would carve out his own political entity from the STO, and probably the Union, eventually swallowing both, given time.”

Katalynn wasn’t at all surprised to hear that. She honestly thought Kane would challenge her for her position long ago. “You forget one thing,” she replied.

“You mean Kane’s aversion to being in charge?” Vyrik asked with a chuckle. “I didn’t forget. I believe that if you pissed Kane off enough, he would put aside that hangup just to prove you wrong.”

Katalynn couldn’t help but laugh at that. “Fair enough.” After her amusement faded, she quickly schooled her face. “Let’s hurry up and finish our work with the Shican. I suddenly find that my appetite for war has run its course.”

Vyrik nodded.

***

The four STO admirals stared at each other from across the table.

Patel was the first to speak. “You all read the report?”

The other three nodded in ascent.

They hadn’t told Kane the complete truth when they last spoke. They did have one of the Nyx-class frigates shadowing the enemy fleet. That came to a stop after the frigate witnessed the Union’s attack on the enemy armada. If the STO leadership weren’t already worried about Kane’s technological and political influence, they would have been after viewing that attack.

“Any idea what the weapon was?” Thorne asked.

“Not yet,” Patel replied. “The frigate left the area to report before better readings could be attained. We have a science vessel heading out that way to gather better data.”

“Do you suppose he was hiding that capability this entire time?” Trelawney asked.

Dufresne gave the new admiral a disbelieving look. “If he had, his people would have used it long before.”

The two looked like they were about to get into an argument before Patel spoke up and put a stop to that. “It doesn’t matter. All that matters is that he does have such a weapon. The reports from our spies on Eden’s End also confirm that he employed other technologies that allowed them to survive the remaining enemy forces. Does anyone think that if he decides to go on the offensive against the STO, we will win?”

They all shook their heads.

Patel gave a curt nod of approval, glad that some people in the STO administration could think past the next election cycle. “We’ll keep a cordial relationship and deal with whatever legal issues he sends our way. If we are ordered to do otherwise, we will do our duty. Meanwhile, I will keep trying to reach out to him or his people to discuss an equitable resolution. Perhaps we can come to some agreement, but let’s table that for now and discuss other matters. Does anyone have an update on the missing corporations?”

Dufresne cleared his throat. “My family contacts confirmed that they all fled the moment the war started. It’s safe to say they probably won’t be returning.”

Patel grunted in annoyance at that. “I never thought I would say this, but I wish they would. The new corporations that are attempting to fill the void aren’t being subtle about it. I’ve already received angry messages from planetary governors to do something about the spreading violence.”

“Omni stuck around,” Trelawney pointed out. “Perhaps they can help in some way?”

The three stared at their counterpart like he was an idiot, and Patel pondered, not for the first time, about replacing the man. Before he could address the question, Thorne cut in.

“Omni wouldn’t help unless it was in their interest to do so. Besides, our intelligence reports that the thruster manufacturer has completed whatever secret project they were working on. Based on the materials involved and the fact that a large portion of their staff had vanished along with their entire upper management, it was a ship of some sort. They were obviously hedging their bets in case the Shican overran the Navy.”

“Even so,” Patel added. “They remain the STO’s largest manufacturer and the Navy’s sole propulsion provider. I’ve reached out, and apparently, their Chief Engineer, a man named Benning, is currently in charge until and I quote, ‘The board returns from its sabbatical.’ Despite the obvious lie, we have no other choice. We will maintain our contracts with them and hope that the planetary and corporate violence subsides. We don’t have nearly enough Marines to enforce any peace, nor should we.”

Some of the Admirals didn’t look all that happy by Patel’s admission, but they needed to face facts. The Navy had lost over half of its ships during the war. They barely had the resources to protect the border anymore, let alone enforce planetary rule, even with the additional speed of production that Kane’s printers provided.

The next few years were going to see an uptick in piracy and violence.