But she had no choice.
“I do,” she said, aloud. The rebels would have to take the supplies from the orbital supply dumps, but that wouldn’t delay them for more than a few days at most. “What will happen to my officers and men?”
“They will be interned or returned to the Empire,” Walker said. “If any of them wish to join us, they may do so. Again, however, we cannot tolerate resistance while we board your faculties.”
He paused. “Speaking of which, are you surrendering the planet as well?”
“I believe the planet will surrender shortly,” Ravi said. Tyson was well-defended, but an exchange of fire with the rebel fleet would be absolutely disastrous. It was why most PDCs and naval facilities were built on uninhabited worlds. “If you wish, I will ask them to do so, although they are not under my direct command.”
“I understand,” Walker said. “For the moment, I suggest you prepare to receive boarders.”
“It’s bigger than the last one,” Sidney commented, as the shuttle approached the giant orbital fortress. “Much bigger.”
The fortress was larger than anything he had ever imagined, apart from an asteroid settlement — and those were really hollow asteroids, not something built from scratch. It’s colossal hull was pitted and scarred, large gashes torn into the structure that revealed decks and machines beyond his comprehension. The shuttle suddenly felt very small against the fortress; the suit’s systems, linked into the shuttle’s sensors, reported that there were bodies drifting through space, blown out of the structure by escaping air. Faint lights glittered inside the darkness, some of them reminding him of the moment the Imperial Marines had attacked the asteroid.
“Same rules as before,” the Sergeant snapped. “But remember, this place is not safe. We can’t secure anyone until we make sure the atmosphere will stay in the remainder of the hulk, no matter how paranoid we feel. Watch your backs, confiscate all weapons… and try to avoid using lethal force. Do you understand me?”
“But these are imps,” someone protested, from the rear of the shuttle. “They attacked us and…”
“You will treat them with respect because you have been ordered to do so,” the Sergeant growled. “If I have to remonstrate with any of you over prisoner mistreatment, you will regret it for the rest of a very short and miserable life. I don’t care what you think these poor bastards have done to you. You will be calm, professional and respectful, as long as they behave themselves. If they don’t, you can give them hell.”
The shuttle rocked as it slipped into the hulk and settled down on the torn deck. Sidney checked his mask, then followed the Sergeant out into the giant fortress. The entire compartment looked badly mangled, torn and melted metal everywhere. He was silently grateful that he couldn’t see any bodies. If a nuke had gone off inside the structure, he realised, as the Sergeant led them towards the closest active airlock, the metal would have survived, but the crew would have been utterly vaporised. He was surprised that the gravity generator was still functional.
“It’s probably helping to hold the fortress together,” the Sergeant grunted, when he said that out loud. “These structures are tough, but not that tough.”
Sidney nodded, remembering what he’d been told about internal compensators. Sometimes they had difficulty compensating for sudden shifts, which was why starships shuddered when they were struck by missiles. But if the compensators failed altogether, the crew would be smashed to paste before they had the slightest idea what of what was about to hit them. The airlock was sealed, he realised, as they stopped in front of it. After a moment of fiddling, they managed to open the hatch and step through, three at a time.
Inside, the sensors blinked up alerts at once. The station was definitely badly damaged; the air was starting to foul alarmingly quickly. Life support was usually the last thing to go, even given the Empire’s dismal maintenance record. But the system probably wasn’t designed to stand up to such a heavy battering.
He gripped his rifle tightly as he saw the first Imperial Navy crewmen. The officers and men he’d encountered on the last station had been relieved, to some extent, that their war was over and done with. Once they’d realised that they weren’t going to be shot on the spot, their relief had almost been palatable. Sidney had been torn between irritation that they were going to get away with being enemy officers and relief himself, relief that they hadn’t tried to fight.
But this group were different. There was clear resentment in their eyes, suggesting that they’d actually liked and admired their commanding officer. None of them were carrying weapons, as far as Sidney was able to tell, but the hatred in their eyes worried him. It might lead them to do something stupid.
And we’re not even allowed to bind their hands, he thought, sourly. They could try to jump us the moment we turn our backs.
He spoke through the suit’s voder. “Please remain calm, then wait for collection,” he ordered, finally. “You will be taken off the station as soon as possible.”
“We may have to transfer the crewmen to the planet’s surface,” the communications officer said. “There’s a lot of them.”
Colin nodded, sourly. Fortresses tended to take thousands of crewmen, even if they were simpler than starships. But it was just another logistics problem, one made easier by having captured the shuttles on the surface. Unless, of course, the crewmen could be convinced to join the rebellion… and yet, that seemed unlikely. They’d been treated well, competently led and they’d given the rebels a beating even if they’d lost. In many ways, they were as good as the forces he led.
Lucky they didn’t have superdreadnaughts, he thought. We might have come out worse.
He smiled. “Has there been any reply from the planet?”
“The planetary council is demanding guarantees for the safety of their property and investments,” the communications officer said. “What would you like me to tell them?”
Colin snorted. At a guess, the planetary council thought that it could keep its position, even the investments from the Thousand Families, despite losing to the rebels. It was clever of them to try, he had to admit, but it wasn’t going to get them anywhere. The planet’s inhabitants could sort out who got what afterwards.
“Tell them that we will guarantee their own personal safety, but nothing else,” he said. “And if they don’t surrender the planet, we will take it by force.”
There was a pause. “They would like to report the existence of supplies on the surface,” the communications officer said. “If we protect them, they will tell us where to find the supplies.”
“Tell them that Marines will be on the way as soon as they are cleared to fly through their airspace without being shot at,” he ordered. “But make it clear that I want that acknowledged before we provide any protection.”
He gritted his teeth. The planetary defenders should know that they were in a hopeless position, but if they had no real experience or training they might figure they could still stand off the rebel fleet. If worst came to worst, Colin would blast the planetary defences from orbit, then mine the high orbitals, isolating the planet from the Empire.
“Admiral,” the sensor officer said, suddenly. “We just picked up two departing flicker signatures.”
Colin looked over at the display. From the size, he guessed they were courier boats — probably heading back towards Morrison. They’d be pushing the speed limits all the way.