| Chapter 2 | Chapter 4 |
Chapter 3
Time: CY 9788 April
Location: Major Korgar's office spaceship repair facility Tizona
"First Signifer Lawford, reporting as ordered, Sir," said Lawford as he walked into the room and snapped a salute to the major sitting in the chair behind the desk.
"Have a seat Signifer,"said the major waving a hand in the direction of the chair positioned before the desk. "And congratulations on your upcoming nuptials."
"Thank you sir," said Lawford as he settled into the indicated chair. "Oh, Hippolyte says that I'm to tell you that you get the first dance with her at our reception."
"Tell her to bring along a pair of crutches then. She'll need them if she dances with me. We seem to have made quite a haul with the remnants of the Nietzscheans population here. We rescued nearly 1800 comfort girls and what is it, more than 1300 of them have married into our unit. I'm beginning to feel more like a marriage broker than a division commander. But I'm glad you brought up your wedding. I have a bit of bad news for you. You're going to have to postpone it for a few months."
"What!," exclaimed Lawford half rising out of his chair "Why?"
"I have a job for you. Off planet. What do you know about Durendal"
"Not a thing. Why?"
The majority of the original settlers who arrived here on Tizona after the Commonwealth opened up the planet for general settlement came from there. For the first few years Durendal provided the settlers with amino acid supplements and assisted with the creation of the detoxification facilities here. Our Chancellor has decided to send a delegation to Durendal to ask for assistance with supplements and detoxification facilities. In a rare display of good sense he assigned Doctor Rhinegold to head the delegation. Both her staff and mine agree that if we can supplement our food with the native crops we'll be able to get by until we can put the pieces back together.
"What's this have to do with me?" asked Lawford.
In an even rarer display of good sense the Chancellor requested that I send a contingent of troops along with the delegation. Major Tinibu will be in charge of the contingent. You're going to be the major's second in command.
Time: CY 9788 April
Location: Durendal
"Welcome to Durendal," whispered the gunnery sergeant to Lawford. "If I didn't know better I'd think that they didn't trust us. But then I don't know better."
"You've said that before Gunny and I'm inclined to think you might be right. What do you think this Colonel McTavish wants with us?"
"Probably something to do with the rebellion on South Island Major Tinibu briefed us on. And in the process of the discussion he'll try to pump us on our military capabilities as he engages us in pleasant conversation."
"Lawford nodded in agreement. Of course and we'll be doing the same to him. What do you think so far about their capabilities?"
The gunnery sergeant raised his finger to his lips in a 'shush' gesture then pointed to the walls then to his ears.
Lawford nodded once again indicating he understood "the walls have ears" gesture. But before he could make a reply the door to the colonel office opened and a young enlisted woman stepped into the hallway.
"The Colonel can see you now," she said
The two men followed her into the office. The colonel was sitting behind a large desk, to his right there was another desk undoubtedly used by the enlisted woman. There were two chairs in front of the colonel's desk. As they stepped the colonel rose to his feet inside and offered his hand
"Welcome to Durendal," he said. "I'm Colonel Ian McTavish chief of counter insurgency. I'm sorry I wasn't able to met with you earlier but things have been pretty much of a dog's breakfast ever since your arrival. We were frankly astounded when your craft arrived. The last we had heard was that Tizona had been occupied by the Nietzscheans. And of course once you arrived the President and my superiors all wanted to have the first opportunity to speak with you, and get their images taken with the head of your delegation." He waved at the two empty seats. "Please take a seat. "Inouway," he said looking at the enlisted woman, "bring us some coffee"
"It was," replied Lawford as he sat down in one of the indicated chairs.. "We took it back."
"I hope you killed everyone of those rebellious scum," said McTavish. "Signing the Treaty of Antares was a mistake. One we paid dearly for. We should have let the Magog eat them all. I understand that Tizona had a fairly large population of them living on the planet. How did you handle them?" The colonel pointed his hand at Lawford and mimicked firing a pistol. "We had a few living here. We made sure they didn't aid the enemy."
Lawford heard his gunnery sergeant shift uneasily at the colonel's words and was suddenly happy that Hippolyte was back on Tizona. The two of them had a flaming row when he had informed her that she was going to stay on Tizona when he left. She had given him the silent treatment until the night before he departed. From the general's comments he suspected that if the local population had found out that she was Nietzschean the diplomatic visit would most likely have turned into the opening shots of a war. Keeping his voice carefully neutral he responded. "When the rebels occupied Tizona they executed most of the the local population themselves. When we booted them off planet we took care of the survivors."
McTavish nodded his head in approval. "Good. The only good Uber is a dead one. Now I'm sure you're wondering why I asked you to come over. This is nothing more than get to know each other meeting. I wanted us to have a chance to meet you and your gunnery sergeant in an informal fashion as were' going to be working together closely in the near future."
"I'm not quite sure I understand, Sir," said Lawford. "We'll be working together?"
"Humph," grunted McTavish. "Apparently your major hasn't briefed you yet. That's not a good sign keeping subordinates completely in the dark. It's not my job to brief you on the status of the diplomatic meetings so I'll keep this brief. My government has agreed to assist Tizona with amino acid supplements and detoxification equipment. In return your planet will supply troops and equipment to put down the rebellion on South Island."
Time: CY 9788 September
Location: South Island Durendal
"A message from the South Island Liberation Front, ma'am" said the orderly handing Major Tinibu a flexie. "They've accepted our terms for surrender. Their troops will lay down their arms at midnight tonight."
"Congratulations, ma'am," said Lawford. "I just wish I could feel more enthusiastic about the victory."
"Something bothering you, Lawford?" asked the major.
"I sometimes think we helped the wrong side. I don't have much use for the government of Durendal.
Tinibu put a hand on Lawford's shoulder in a comradely fashion. "I can understand your feelings. I might feel the same if my spouse was hated by an entire world."
"So what do you think, ma'am?" pressed Lawford.
"What I think Signifer is that my personal feelings about our deployment are irrelevant and I suggest that you do the same with your feelings. We accomplished our mission with minimum casualties on both sides and more importantly now that we've completed our assignment we'll receive the rest of the promised payment.. We'll be getting the supplements and detoxification equipment we need. Nothing else matters, nothing."
| Chapter 2 | Chapter 4 |