Chapter One - The Girl

Chapter 2

Time: CY 9787 October
Location: Major Korgar's office spaceship repair facility Tizona

Lawford paused outside the door to the operations office and did a quick check of his uniform while trying unsuccessfully to stifle a sneeze as smoke from a burning patch of rust weed drifted towards him. The rust reed had been discovered growing on the repair facility grounds and was being burned out. The weed as a common native plant, named after the rust coloured spores it produced in large quantities during one portion of its life cycle. It spread like wildfire and if left unchecked would crowd out the settlers' imported food crops. As it was highly resistant to herbicides and uprooting it only scattered pieces of the plant which would take root elsewhere, the only sure way to eradicate the pest was to burn it. Unfortunately burning the plant released copious quantities of oily smoke, which was currently drifting in Lawford's direction.

"ACHOO!" the sneeze exited Lawford's nose with enough force to throw his head back.

"I'd rate that one a ten on the Richter scale," said a voice from behind him

"Morning, Alstair," said Lawford recognizing the voice. "You have any idea why the major wants to see us?"

"Not a clue," said the other man. "But it's got to be better than supervising another reconstruction team. I'm guessing it has something to do with the courier craft that arrived last night."

"Probably" agreed Lawford. "What ever the message was it must have been hot. I hear it was eyes only for the major. And they left as soon as it was delivered. Maybe he's going to tell us what it's all about." He pointed to the door. "You first."

As he entered the office Lawford paused to smile at the woman manning the major's outer office, who smiled briefly in return. She was a Nietzschean, one of the slightly less than 1,800 Nietzschean women that the Lancers had rescued from the invader's slave camps. Nearly all of the women, like the ones Lawford's unit had rescued, had attached themselves to the Lancers where they had taken over most of the division's administrative duties and a significant portion of the medical and vehicle maintenance duties.

"Signifers Lawford and Strachan here to see Major Korgar," he said.

"He's expecting you," said the woman. "Don't bother to knock. Oh, and be careful. He's in a foul mood." She turned her attention back to her computer screen and began typing on the keyboard.

Both men looked at each other for an instant then Strachan shrugged and the two men entered the major's office

The major was sitting behind his desk with a flexie in one hand and a cup of the local coffee in the other, glaring at the flexie as if it had personally insulted him. Unlike the two signifers the major wasn't human. He was an Umbrite, a member of one of the few nonhuman races that the Vedrans had allowed to join the High Guard. He was basically humanoid in appearance with a two arms and legs and a head with two eyes but the large set of pincers that protruded from his jaw ensured that no one would ever mistake him for a human or Nietzschean even in poor light. He was also the Lancer division's commanding officer, the majority of the division's senior officers having been killed in the initial assault when the Atmospheric Attack Carrier which had been coordinating the landings had been wrecked by the unexpectedly heavy Nietzschean planet-to-space defenses.

He looked up from the flexie and nodded curtly at the two men. "Good you're here. Chancellor Juno should be arriving any minute."

"Planetary Chancellor Juno?" asked Lawford. "What do you want us to do when he arrives, sir?"

"Keep me from strangling him," said the major. "The man's an idiot. If he ran for election against a shovel the shovel would win by a landslide. He was appointed to the position of assistant undersecretary of transportation because his family was a major contributor to the original Chancellor's election campaign. Now he's the senior surviving member of the government which makes him the acting Chancellor. In a couple of months we're going to be having a serious food shortage here in some parts of the continent, but instead of working out plans on how to distribute what surplus food we have, he has his staff working on plans to rebuild the Chancellors mansion." The major waved his hand in the direction of the wall. "Just stand at ease over there and don't let me do anything lethal."

The two junior officers positioned themselves against the wall and settled into an 'at ease' position. As if that had been his cue Chancellor Juno came storming into the office.

"What is this I've heard about a courier craft arriving from San-Ska-Re last night with an urgent message? Why wasn't I immediately alerted about it's arrival and why haven't I been informed about the contents of the message?" demanded the Chancellor totally ignoring any initial small talk or pleasantries.

"A courier did arrive Chancellor, and departed immediately after transmitting their messages to our communication center." said Korgar his attention still on the flexie. "And as to why you weren't immediately informed of the contents, I didn't feel it was that urgent. They would have arrived at your office with the rest of the afternoon message traffic. They were exactly what you would have expected. The division has been ordered to remain in place on Tizona and defend the ship repair facility and supply depot until we are relieved by by other High Guard forces."

"And what about the other rumor I've heard, that you plan to release the prisoners?"

"Not release them, Chancellor, send them back to their homeworlds,"

"You can't do that," said the Chancellor.

"Of course I can," said Korgar turning his attention back to the flexie rather than the man before him.. "Any one of the freighters we captured in the repair facility is capable transporting all of them back to Nietzschean lines. Not very comfortably perhaps, but I never promised them a luxury cruise."

"Don't be coy with me, Major. You know what I mean. The invaders must be tried then punished for their war crimes. The population will rise up in arms if they think that you're letting them go. You have no idea how much we suffered under their rule." As he spoke he moved until he was standing next to the desk looking down at the major.

Korgar laid the flexie and coffee cup down on his desk and gazed up at the Chancellor totally unperturbed by the Chancellor's attempted show of dominance. "Tried then punished?" he asked. "Not tried and convicted? Whatever happened to the concept of fair trials? And I do have an idea of how your people suffered, Chancellor. I have nearly 2000 of them in the care of my division at the moment. All of whom suffered not only at the hands of your conquerors but at the hands of their own people as well. Or have you forgotten abut the internment camps your government set up? As for the population rising up in arms, at the moment I suspect that most of them will be glad to hear that there will be 8,000 less mouths to feed. Or where you planning to starve the prisoners before you had them executed?"

"If you hadn't disregarded the orders I gave concerning the attack on the supply depot we wouldn't be needing to feed the prisoners and wouldn't be having this conversation. You had no right to disregard my orders."

The major slammed his hand on the desk so hard coffee spilled out from his cup, causing Lawford to wonder what was the best way of physically subduing one's commanding officer. Standing up, Korgar placed both hands on his desk and leaned forward until his face was only inches from the Chancellor's. "You idiot," he snarled. "If I'd followed the orders you gave me we would most likely all be dead. Did it ever occur to you that the Neitzs were sitting on enough strategic weapons to sterilize this entire planet several times over? They were completely cut off from any chance of retreat. If we had followed your orders and gone in there with the intent of not taking prisoners they would have had nothing to loose by using those weapons. And even if they had decided not to use the weapons they would still have fought like one of your cornered rats and we would've suffered massive casualties, not to mention loss of equipment. I'm not in the habit of throwing the men under my command into a meat grinder if I can avoid it.

"If it wasn't for the ship repair facility and the supply depot my unit wouldn't be here and most likely neither would have been the Nietzscheans. Tizona has nothing worth exporting and can barely feed itself. By itself it's a worthless pile of rock. But it does have the ship repair facility and supply depot and those change Tizona from a worthless pile of rock to a prime target, and you can bet that sooner or later the Nietzs or someone else is going to come and try to take Tizona away from you. And when they do if the reinforcements mentioned in the message haven't arrived whoever's in charge of Tizona's defense is going to need every man and woman who knows which way to point a weapon."

The Chancellor might have been an idiot but he wasn't a coward. He had been a resistance fighter during the Nietzschean occupation of his homeworld. His only reaction to the major's display was a flicker of his eyes as he judged if the major was positioned to physically attack him. "We have the supply depot and the repair facility in our possession now," he said. "The prisoners are no longer a threat to either. I demand that you turn them over to the Home Guard so they may be executed as war criminals."

"No. I gave them my word as an officer of the Lancers that if they surrendered they would be given transportation off world."

"Think carefully, Major," said the Chancellor venom dripping from his voice. "I can have you removed from command and replaced by someone who will obey my orders."

"Actually, Chancellor, you can't," said Korgar the tone of his voice was that of a man whose hole card filled out a royal flush. "When the Nietzschean sleeper cells activated, the entire Commonwealth was placed under martial law by order of the Triumvirate, and only a member of the Triumvirate or a two thirds majority vote of the Voice of the Sectors can repeal the decree. And since when Tarn Vedra pulled its vanishing act it took the triumvirs and the majority of the sector representatives with it, I don't think the decree's going to be lifted anytime soon. So to be blunt about it, Chancellor, until the decree is rescinded you and the Home Guard work for me, and I'm the one who can have you removed from office." He sat back down in his chair and resumed his study of the flexie "Now I recommend that you leave my office and start working with your staff on a plan to feed the refugees that this war has created before I completely loose what little patience I have left with you and have my officers," he indicated Lawford and Strachan, "bodily remove you."

Lawford and Strachan moved away from the wall and took a step towards the Chancellor ready to carry out their commanding officer's orders. The Chancellor deciding that walking out of the major's office was better than being carried out left without a word.

"Food shortage, sir? " asked Strachan.

The major tossed him the flexie. "A Dr Ludmilla Rhinegold and some other surviving members of the Jules Wells school of medicine have been working with what's left of our logistics and medical staffs analyzing the situation here on the planet. Look it over, it's going to be important soon. Basically the local plants don't provide some essential amino acids needed to support humans, or my people for that matter, and contain some toxins as well They can be eaten for a while but eventually you either develop deficiency diseases or get poisoned. When the High Guard bases were established here the Commonwealth decided it would be cheaper to allow the planet to be settled and let the settlers raise crops to sell to the High Guard garrisons then to continually ship food to the garrisons, They also decided it would be cheaper and easier to GM off world crops to thrive in the local environment than to GM the local vegetation so that it could be eaten by the colonists and the garrison troops. It was a good idea in theory but the imported crops never did as well in their new environment as had been expected so there was never a big surplus of food. There were facilities here on planet that produced supplemental amino acids or detoxified the native plants but most were destroyed when the Nietzescheans took over. Add to all that the fact that very few off world crops were planted last planting season due to the fighting and in a few months we're going to have a serious problem here. But that's probably going to be the least of our worries."

"What do you mean sir?" asked Lawford.

A look as grim as any Lawford could ever remember seeing came over the major's face. "I was planning to brief all my officers this afternoon concerning the message that came in but since you two are here I'll give you a summary. I didn't tell the Chancellor everything that was in the message the courier brought. The orders were just for public consumption. What was really important was the personal message from the acting Chief of Argosy Operations Commodore Francis. We're not going to be relieved. The bulk of the High Guard fleet went up against the rebels in the Witchhead Nebulae, and was virtually annihilated. With the exception of scattered units like ours there is no more High Guard."

Lawford felt a hollow space where his stomach had been. The message had to be in error. The High Guard had been in existence for nearly 10,000 years. How could it have been annihilated? "Does that mean the Nietzscheans have won?" he asked.

"No," said Korgar. "According to survivors of the battle the Netzschean fleet fared even worse than the High Guard. What it does mean though is that without the High Guard the Commonwealth for all intents and purposes no longer exists. I'm afraid gentlemen that we're on our own now."

Chapter 1

Chapter 3