“Have the enemy CO brought to this ship so we can ask her,” he ordered. It was possible that there was an enemy fleet within striking range, although if that was the case they’d missed their best shot at a decisive victory. “Then alter the fleet’s formation — Tango-Charlie, I think.”
The communications officer looked up. “The planetary government has surrendered,” he said. “They’ve confirmed that the Marines are granted passage through their airspace.”
There was a pause. “I think they actually want the Marines to hurry,” he added. “I’m picking up some chatter about mob riots and crowds gathering in uncomfortable places.”
Colin sighed. “Dispatch the Marines,” he ordered. “Tell them to safeguard the planetary council, either by securing their property or providing emergency evacuation., whatever seems best to the officer on the ground. And keep me informed.”
He sat back in his command chair, watching as the fleet slipped into its new formation. It had been a close-run thing, closer than he cared to admit. If the enemy CO had had more starships or superdreadnaughts under her command, Colin’s forces could have been seriously hurt. As it was, he would need to spend a few days repairing the damaged Admiral Nelson before they could resume the advance. The imps had definitely won some time, even if they’d won nothing else.
There was a chime. “Sir, the officers and crewmen from the fortresses have been evacuated onto the holding freighters,” the communications officer said. “The Marines are being redeployed to assist the advance teams on the ground.”
Colin allowed himself a moment of relief. There had been several near-incidents on the fortresses — and they could easily have turned into bloodbaths. He knew the enemy would have taken the brunt of it, but he still didn’t like the thought. A shooting could easily become an unprovoked massacre once Public Information got their hands on it. He rolled his eyes a moment later. They’d probably already started making up stories out of whole cloth.
“Admiral, the Marines escorting Admiral Lanai are returning to the ship,” the communications officer said. “How do you wish her to be treated?”
“Decently,” Colin said. He didn’t know Admiral Lanai. That could be good or very bad. “Find her a secure cabin, assign her a pair of Marines as guards. Make sure they know she is to be protected, unless she does something stupid. I’ll speak to her as soon as I can.”
“Yes, sir,” the communications officer said.
Colin settled back in his chair and tried to project an air of calm. The Marines were heading down to the planet now… and half of them were barely worthy of the title. It was all too easy to imagine what could go wrong…
Chapter Seventeen
“This is a planet,” Howell said, as the shuttle plunged into the atmosphere. “It is surrounded by atmosphere…”
“Shut up,” Sidney snapped. He was used to asteroid settlements and starships, not fragile planets. It was hard for him to even imagine who would want to live on a planet. They were untamed, even the ones that had been extensively terraformed for human habitation, and limited. One could build anything in space, but not on the surface of a planet. “I don’t want to think about it.”
“Oh?” Howell jeered. “Is the big bad Marine scared of a planet?”
The shuttle rocked. Sidney glared at Howell, then concentrated on not throwing up in the confined space. Travel in space was normally smooth, but flying through a planet’s atmosphere was rough and dangerous. He hadn’t felt naked and helpless when he was making his way through enemy-held territory, not even when the imps had attacked Sanctuary Asteroid, yet he felt helpless now. But then, all the training in the universe wouldn’t help if the shuttle fell out of the sky.
He accessed the live feed from the shuttle’s sensors in the hope it would make him feel better, but it just sent shivers down his spine. The planet’s capital city was spread out on both sides of a massive river, which was flowing down towards the giant ocean. There was nothing like it in space, not even the asteroids designed and built for people who had engineered fish-like gills into their bodies. He saw boats making their way over the water, heading towards the city. It was easy to wonder, he decided, just how limited the locals felt. In space, there was always room to expand — or go elsewhere, if one didn’t like the neighbours.
“All right, listen up,” the Sergeant barked. “The people of this planet may not be pleased to see us. They will fear us, they will resent us, they may worry what we might bring down on their heads. You are to treat them with respect and courtesy — and you are not to resort to force unless there is no other choice. Anyone who defies me on this will regret it.”
He lowered his voice. “For most of you, this is your first time among the civilians,” he added. “Civilians can do damn stupid things. They will make threatening sounds, they will make rude gestures, they will delight in trying to make your job harder. Some of them won’t believe that we can hurt them, others will be too damn stupid to care. Remain calm, remain in control and use lethal force only as a last resort.”
The shuttle shuddered, then dropped down towards the city. Sidney had a glimpse of large stone buildings before the link dropped out, a second before the shuttle hit the ground. A dull thump ran through the craft; planetary gravity caught at him a moment later, tugging him downwards even as he stood up and jogged towards the hatch. Tyson had a slightly higher gravity than standard, he noted absently. Not enough to cause problems, but enough to be noticeable. But they’d trained under much worse conditions.
“Spread out,” the Sergeant snapped. “1st Platoon, remain with the shuttles; the rest of you, follow me.”
The planet was big, Sidney realised, as he stared around in astonishment. No asteroid settlement was so… unbounded. There were certainly no towering stone buildings in asteroids, at least none of the ones he had ever seen. The buildings themselves were protected by stone walls, although one glance told him that people could easily start climbing over the defences and breaking into the compound at any moment. A glance at his HUD revealed that crowds were already gathering on the far side of the wall.
He followed the Sergeant up to the building, where several wealthy-looking men were gathered outside, waiting for the Marines. There was a brief moment of conversation between the Sergeant and the welcoming committee, followed by orders for the Marines to secure the perimeter. Sidney pushed aside the air of unreality that threatened to overwhelm him and led his detachment down to the gate. Outside, the crowd was growing bigger and nastier by the second. The civilians, judging by their clothing, came from all walks of life. But they were bound together by a desire to riot…
“As long as they stay outside, leave them alone,” the Sergeant reminded them. “But be prepared to act if they break down the gates or come over the wall.”
Sidney stared at the crowd in growing horror. It was a jumbled mass of humanity, but every so often he saw an individual face. A young man, barely older than himself; a girl barely entering her teens; an older man with a tired worn expression; a woman old enough to be a grandmother. None of them looked happy, he realised; the crowd was pushing them forwards, even though some of them clearly wanted to escape. And weapons were being passed out; sticks, stones and even a handful of bottles. It took him a moment to realise that they were loaded with gas, ready to set fire to the building.
Their resentment was almost palatable. It felt odd, as if they didn’t really resent the Marines, merely their presence. Sidney realised, in a flash of insight, that the crowd wanted to get its hands on the planet’s former governors. They’d betrayed the population, somehow, even though Sidney couldn’t really imagine how it was their fault. The Thousand Families were based hundreds of light years from Tyson. None of the governors had known that the rebellion was about to begin.