Wrath of Axia (The Arcadian Jihad) (14 page)

“It’s not a total success,” Blas said grimly. “But we’re not without resources. Evelyn, you have to get us out of here.”

She nodded. “I’ll do my best, as soon as they come back and open the door. Be ready.”

System Standard 2734.1636 Security Bureau Headquarters, Tulum City.

Rad Bose stood in front of the visiconn with his brother Pieter. The President stared at them from the screen, and his fury was awe-inspiring.

“You heard that open message from Cadmus?”

“Yes, we did, Sir.”

“So you know that this damnable man claiming to be Xerxes Tell is on Cadmus. And where is your Battle Fleet? It’s in fucking orbit above Hesperia.”

“We only just found out about Cadmus, Sir. I’ve recalled the ship’s company. They’re on the planet’s surface. I gave them leave as we didn’t expect this. As soon as the men are back on board, we’ll go to Cadmus with the entire fleet and arrest these traitors.”

“No, Commander. You’ll leave now, with whatever men you have. I’m detaching part of my personal escort to rendezvous with you over Cadmus, so you’ll be there in overwhelming force. I want that fucking prisoner, Bose. You know why, don’t you? People are beginning to believe him. The fate of the Nine Systems could rest on this. As does your position, your land holdings and businesses, and all those off-planet bank accounts you two have stuffed with undeclared money.”

“But Sir, we don’t…”

“Shut up! I don’t care about the fucking money. I want that man! As for you, Pieter, arrest the men responsible for letting him go and execute them at once.”

Pieter shifted uncomfortably. “Sir, I’ll make arrangements for the trial and…”

“I’ve passed sentence, you fool. There will be no trial. I’ve already condemned them to death. See to it.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“And while you’re at it, you can accelerate the native resettlement program. I expect this prisoner had help. Kill a few million more natives and it’ll teach them a lesson. It’ll also give you an excuse to confiscate more land for growing burlash. Just make sure you remember our commission arrangements.”

“Of course, Sir.”

“Good. Commander Bose, I suggest you move fast. I’m beginning to question where your loyalties lie.”

“Sir, I’ve never given you less than total support.”

“It’s results I need, Bose. If you can’t get them for me, I’ll replace you with someone who can.”

“I won’t let you down, Sir.”

“See that you don’t.”

The screen went blank. Rad turned to his brother. “You’d better see to those jailers and get them executed fast.”

“Rad, two of them are our cousins, the guard captain is my wife’s brother.”

“Do you want to die as well for disobeying orders?”

“No, of course not.”

“Then execute them.”

Pieter nodded. He knew his wife would give him hell, but surely she’d see he had no choice? “I’ll see to it. The natives won’t like the mass round-ups and executions either. It could start a revolt.”

“Not if they’re all dead.”

System Standard 2734.1637 Arta City, Planet Hesperia

Blas had organized them as best he could. As soon as the door opened, Evelyn would use her mental powers to cripple the guards. He would rush forward with Rusal and take their weapons. Evelyn would come behind with Max, who had still not recovered from his torture. They heard the sound of the heavy bolts being withdrawn from the outside and the door swung open. There were two civilians standing in the doorway, and they staggered as Evelyn sent a searing burst of mental energy at them, enough to completely disorientate them. The men fell to their knees as if they’d been hit with a club. There were two men behind them. One she didn’t recognize, but the other she did.

“Berg!”

Their old comrade in arms, the Hesperian master assassin. The man they’d been hunting to aid their fightback against the tyranny, now stood in front of them. He had a faint smile on his face.

“I’d appreciate it if you’d spare my men any more pain, Evelyn. We don’t mean you any harm.”

“Berg!” Blas ran forward and hugged his old friend. It’s good to see you at last, but how did you get past the militia guards?”

Smetana’s smile broadened, and he chuckled. “This Arta Defense Volunteers nonsense is just a smokescreen, but it gives us an excuse to recruit people and arm them.”

“So they’re your men?” She smiled broadly. “What exactly are you doing on Cadmus?”

“Preparing for the next war, of course. Admiral, Mr. President,” he nodded at them, and then smiled at Evelyn and Max. Then he looked back at Tell. “We were cursing you, Sir, thinking how much blood was spilled to get you into office, only to see you die and Fabian Bartok take over. We picked up the broadcast, so now we know what happened. It’s the best news we’ve heard in a long time. I assume they weren’t too gentle with you?”

Tell explained what had happened on Axis Nova, the years of imprisonment, the drug-fueled hallucinations. Smetana shook his head. “All those years we thought you were dead. Come to our control center and I’ll fill you in on what we’re up to here.”

They followed him through a maze of passages and airlocks. The path started to rise as they were getting near the surface. They went through a final airlock and entered the control center. There were windows overlooking an underground lagoon, and floating on the lagoon were hundreds of small assault boats. Smetana waved at them. “That’s our navy, Admiral. Cadmus is a world of water, and so armored vehicles are useless over large parts of the planet. That’s why we have those. They’re fast and well armed. What it means is that we can strike anywhere on the planet. We come out of the night and hit them where they’re least expecting us.”

Blas nodded, it explained the defenses on the islands they’d passed on the journey in.

“Have you had much success? We saw the gun positions.”

“Yes, the gun platforms have caused us one or two problems, but nothing we can’t handle. Have we had much success? We’ve got the whole planet in our pocket. You know about the famous prison in Arta city?”

“We saw the banners on the train.”

“No one escapes, yes? Come with me. I’ll show you why not.”

He led them out of the control center and down to the jetty at the side of the lagoon. They climbed into one of the boats and Smetana expertly navigated the craft out of the cave and into the Cadmus night. The journey was quite short, only a few minutes, but their destination filled them with foreboding. It was the prison jetty. Arta prison was built on an island separated from the city by a mile of water. Two uniformed guards took in their line when they touched the jetty. To Blas’ surprise they greeted Smetana in a friendly enough fashion. They followed Berg into the main building and he gave them the grand tour. The prison was crowded with people, but none of them were locked up. There were engineering shops making weapons, a computer center, classrooms and even a firing range.

“What’s going on, Berg?” Blas was totally bemused. “Where are the cells?”

“It’s quite simple, my friend. The prisoners that the governor sends here are all political. It means that they are opposed to the administration in some way, so that makes them our people. We just give them the chance to put their opposition to good use. The governor is in effect recruiting an army for us, and all the time he fondly thinks no one has ever escaped from here.”

“What about when new guards arrive, how to you persuade them to cooperate?”

“We vet them in Settler City before they ever come out here. Any of them we think are government fanatics, we reject. Only our allies ever make it here to the prison.”

Blas noticed that the men and women were looking intently at Tell. Berg noticed it too.

“I guess it’s time I introduced them to their President,” he grinned. He led the group to the central rostrum in the main hall, and the room rapidly swelled with people. When the room was full, Smetana stood up to address them.

“Friends, we’ve all cursed the name of President Bartok, the man we fought for and who sold us all out. Now we know that he’s an impostor, no more than a thief who only exists to steal everything we struggled and fought for. This is our real President, and the man who was elected by all of you. The man we thought was dead. President Xerxes Tell.”

There was a deafening applause, wolf whistles and shouts.

“I think that shows you how they feel, Mr. President.”

“Yes, it does,” Tell said. “May I say a few words to them?”

“Of course, they’re all yours.”

He stood up in front of the crowd. The room went silent.

“People of Cadmus, I thank you for your support. You know why the government you fought a war for never came into being. This time we’ll get it right. I’m authorizing a message to be relayed throughout the Nine Systems. Within days, the whole of humanity will know how they’ve been duped. Some won’t believe it, but I think enough will believe to give us the strength and the power to begin the fight back. A man once said, ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.’ Because you were all misled, evil has indeed triumphed and we have done nothing. That is all in the past. From this day forward, good men like you will be marching to victory over the evil of Fabian Bartok’s illegal regime. His time is ending. Yours is about to begin.”

There were thunderous cheers, clapping and feet stamping, Smetana led them to his office. The walls were hung with charts of the planetary surface, marked with unit designations and lines of attack. Both Blas and Rusal recognized battle maps.

“We’re going on a raid shortly. I wondered if Constantine and Admiral Rusal might like to come with us and see how we do things here.”

“You won’t leave me behind, Berg,” Max snarled. “That’s the way we’ve always fought, together, side by side.”

Smetana shook his head. “Not this time, my friend. You’re still recovering from that beating you took and I want you well enough to be my second in command again. Evelyn will stay to take care of you. Mr. President, perhaps you’d like to mingle with the people here. They’ll be delighted to meet with you. They need hope.”

Tell nodded. “I can at least offer them that.”

Berg showed them to their quarters in the disguised prison. Rusal and Blas were handed their weapons and new breathing masks.

“These are tougher than the standard civilian sets. You don’t want to end up with a broken mask in the middle of a battle.”

“How long can we last breathing the atmosphere on Cadmus?”

“A couple of minutes, no more. Best not to let it happen. I’m sorry there’s no time to talk more, but the attack is scheduled to start. Let’s get to the boats and get it moving.”

They boarded the armored vessel. The craft, a high-speed assault boat, was near silent as it slipped across the surface of the sea. It was almost like atmospheric flying.

“Our destination is a military outpost fifty miles from here. It’ll take us half an hour to get there at this speed. We’ll slow down when we’re three miles out and drift in quietly.”

“Anything special about this outpost?”

“It guards the planetary tracking systems. As soon as we hit it, I’ve got another team going in to take down their backup station. It’s on another island. I want them destroyed. It will mean that the planet will be blind, so they’ll lose their warning systems, communications, everything. The only signals going out of this planet will be ours.”

The boats slipped quietly into shore. So far, the planetary security people had failed to find a way to detect these small, low profile craft. They were painted in dark colors and traveled so low in the water that conventional sensor systems were useless against them, until it was too late. They touched the beach with a gentle bump, and Smetana led the way inshore with six of his men. Rusal and Blas followed, six more rebels followed them as rear guard. The planetary tracking station lay undercover beneath camouflage nets. In the darkness it would have been impossible to see without the night vision equipment they all carried. The guard barracks was a long, low building a few hundred yards away. Four of Smetana’s men rushed away to plant explosives.

“When the tracking station goes up they’ll come out shooting, so we have to deal with them as soon as they appear.”

Two of his men went forward and dealt with the sentries. Two more entered the control room and shot dead the on-duty technicians. They planted more explosives around the tracking aerials and mined the control room. Then they pulled back to wait. When Smetana was satisfied that all his men were back, he hit the button and the explosion almost threw them back into the water. There were no cries of alarm, no wounded running around seeking help. The entire station had been destroyed. Smetana nodded in satisfaction.

“That’ll give them something to think about. Let’s get back to the boats and return to Arta.”

System Standard 2734.1638 Battlecruiser Sword of Axia in outer space

Rad Bose’s Heavy Battlecruiser Sword of Axia was about to spool up their fusion thrusters ready to make the jump to Cadmus, when the urgent coded signal came in. He ordered engineering to stand down while he went to his cabin and decoded it on screen. Firstly, the tracking station on Cadmus had mysteriously stopped working, and they suspected enemy action. It was a serious setback. The damned rebels were becoming bolder than ever. Detection and coordination between the surface and his battle fleet would now be more difficult. Well, he could live without their help. They had no choice. The second part of the message explained the encoding. Word was spreading amongst the Nine Systems that President Xerxes Tell was back. The message was very clear. Fabian Bartok was an impostor, no more than a thief and a murderer. The people were told that the poverty and suffering they’d had to endure for five long years was not as a result of repairs war damage, but was due to profiteering by the men at the top. Bose had known for some time their nickname. Everyone knew, it was ‘Golden Brizas’. The Briza was a rare bird found only on Axis Nova. Their plumage was a rich, golden color. Bartok’s senior administrators had adopted a uniform adorned with a golden sash, hence the nickname. Bose looked down at his own uniform sash and cursed. They’d had to work hard to beat down the insurrections that seemed to sprout up in every System, but to the masses the sash was the real embodiment of their hate. They all knew that the warehouses were stuffed with food while people were starving. But it was basic economics. If they opened the warehouses to everyone the prices would drop, and the value of their holdings and companies would plummet. It was common sense, even if a few million people did have to starve.
 
But the message worried him; Bartok said that discontent had even begun to spread through the fleet. It would mean that the political officers would have their work cut out dealing with any mutinous rumblings they came across. If necessary, he would have to execute a few hundred naval ratings to restore order. But what is some of the officers were questioning the authority of President Bartok? Who then would order the executions? Who would carry them out? He needed to take swift action to stop the rot, and the first task was to manage the situation of Cadmus. The planet was the center of the rebellion; snuff out the ringleaders and it would be nothing but a half-forgotten myth in a few years time. He activated his commset.