The Hokum - Chapter 2

The Hokum – Chapter 2

Chapter 2.25

Chapter 2.50

Chapter 2.75

Blood Valor, capital city of the Asteroid Axis colony world of Crimson Expanse, was as prepared as possible for the impending landing by the Hokum Army. Protecting the city’s population of 200,000 were the only Axis troops on the planet, 15,000 in all. With the knowledge his troops wouldn’t last long in a conventional battle General Narsan decided to conduct his fight mostly within the confines of Blood Valor proper. An old army hand himself, the colonial governor consented. All the buildings in the city had extensive basements and shelters. If the enemy was indiscriminate then the shelters would serve as tombs, especially if he had kinetic bombardment satellites. Otherwise, and this is what Narsan and the Governor were hoping for, the enemy will have to expended considerable time and manpower in taking the city, building by building.
     Together they decided on a pre-war plan to mobilize the citizens to take part in a ‘passive-aggressive’ anti-occupation campaign. Some weeks after the enemy’s apparent victory designated groups of citizens would attack whatever collection of enemy troops happened to be nearby. In response the enemy would either have to reduce the number of patrols or increase their size, making them less maneuverable in the city streets. Like Governor Genpan on Citadel the overall plan was to inflict as much damage on the enemy army for as long as possible until relief came in the form of Axis reinforcements.
     This only became apparent to the Hokum Imperium Space Army (ISA) later on. For now the initial 40,000 of what eventually would become a 400,000-strong ISA Expeditionary Corps began their battle for control for Crimson Expanse. Among this number was Company B, 31st Tactical Armor Regiment. Assigned to prove armor support for a mechanized infantry regiment Company B moved in front and covered the flanks. It was in the third platoon one would find a Mongoose tactical armored vehicle named Loaded Vice by its crew.
     Reservists all, the four-person crew attended to their duties with intensity never before experienced. 3rd-Class Sergeant Pendex, an apprentice carpenter, was Loaded Vice’s driver and sat alone in the forward compartment. 1st-Class Vara Licus, an employee at a daycare center, was in the central compartment under the turret. Her job was sensors and communications management. Up in the turret was 1st-ClassVara Spuran, gunner and controller of all the vehicles offensive weapons. Sitting to the left and behind was 2nd-Class Sergeant Furdex, vehicular commander. A physical education teacher at an elementary school, Furdex was also the oldest in the crew, albeit by only one year.
     To a one, the vehicle’s crew all joined the ISA over five years ago during the Short War with the CPS. Patriotism and adventure were all calling points, but the college tuition incentive had a heavy hand in the final decision. When the war ended as quickly as it did there was much relief. Practically all the recruits were made into reservists to guard against the day they might be called upon to serve the Imperium. With a ten-year commitment to honor each reservist received monthly training and participated in a yearly three-week exercise to keep their skills at an acceptable level.
     There had been no opposition to the landings, not even spasmodic volleys of nuclear warheads. From the way the Axis wrote its manuals everyone expected to be trekking across fresh radioactive wastelands. Armadas of UAVs and ships in low orbit ferreted out signs of Axis troop concentrations, finding none yet captured records indicated at least three brigades were on hand. For the past six hours repeated calls for the colonial government to surrender have went unanswered, leaving Field General Ronon no option but to secure Blood Valor and use it as his center of operations on Crimson Expanse.
     Sgt. Furdex took a look through his cupola’s viewports (which were nothing more than transparent blocks of armor) to see the outside environment without resorting to video feeds. The sky was a washed-out blue with no hint of clouds. Large, broad-leaf ferns were in the place of grass and the trees were little better than shrubs. The road the transports were using wasn’t meant for military use, judging that it ended at an apparent lake and camping area in the foothills. It was while engaged in idle thoughts of fishing back home that Furdex heard the 7mm rail gun on the turret top rotate.
     Licus shouted into her mic. “Multiple red-eyes lasing the transports! Employing countermeasures!” Like the other vehicles in the convoy Loaded Vice fired off grenades filled with anti-laser aerosol. Computed down to the last decimal in placement the resulting clouds of light bending particles cloaked the convoy and messed up the guidance of the missiles. Some veered up, others right down into the ground. Those that got too close were peppered by streams of solid 7mm rounds.
     Also employed were the 30mm guns on the tanks. Since the lasers had to have a clear line of sight to acquire a target that meant they had to be higher than the ferns. After squirting off a few rounds every shrub within 300 meters was on fire. “All known targeting lasers destroyed, Sarge,” Licus said over the tank’s comm net.
     “How did we miss those launchers?” Pendex the driver demanded. “Those shrubs are sparse when it comes to leaves. No way could they’ve hidden something as big as a launch tube.”
     “Getting some feeds from the Eagle Eyes now,” Licus responded. “Those missiles were buried underground. They popped up once the lasers acquired a target. That’s the only reason why we’re still here. If they didn’t have those two seconds of hang-time in the air…”
     “Our widows would get our pensions, small as they are,” Furdex announced. “Just keep you eyes, ears, and all four hands ready. They’ve gauged our defensive response with that volley, so…”
     “Second volley incoming!” Licus yelled. “They’re not lasing, must be optical guidance!” Loaded Vice’s computers had already taken the defensive action need, firing grenades that this time spewed inky dark smoke. Pendex also responded by turning the tank right towards the incoming missiles, presenting a smaller profile. Of the two missiles that got the closest to the Vice one was brought down by 7mm gunfire while the other was shredded by a point-defense strip.
     Then, emerging from craftily well-hidden pits 500 meters from the road were four Axis ground-effect tanks. They acted liked demented combinations of lawnmowers and garbage disposals, leaving behind them twisted and broken ferns. Each tank barked from its main gun, a solid round of dense metal moving at supersonic speed. One tank in the first platoon was hit, the round going right through the driver’s compartment. Two infantry transports were holed, running off the road and into the fern-covered landscape.
     Retaliation was swift. Anti-armor missiles from the Hokum Mongooses took out three of their Axis opponents. The remaining unit was resilient, its defenses smiting six missiles while in turn it put the hurt on another tank, blowing off its turret. Spuran, Vice’s gunner, fired a third missile only to see the Axis tank turn as if warned psychically. The missile didn’t hit at the proper angle and thus its shape-charged warhead was largely wasted. Feeling indignant Spuran switched to the 30mm rail gun, selected solid shot and set the firing rate to maximum. In the space of three seconds 20 supersonic rounds hit the side of the Axis tank’s turret in an area roughly 10cm in diameter. The last three rounds penetrated.
     The turret rotated at full speed, out of control, while the tank changed direction in a lurch, lumbering at increasing speed towards the road. To this Spuran simply fired again, bathing the side of the tank with rounds until the lift fans on the tank’s starboard side were shredded. With one side of the tank grounding into the dirt it slowed to a pathetic crawl, its remaining lift fans screaming as the driver tried to bring his behemoth back on the level. Spuran put an end to this notion by firing into the rear part of the tank, ripping it open and hitting the powerplant. The tank grounded hard and buckled its port skirts. Only then did an Eagle Eye UAV fire a missile that penetrated the thin armor on the tank’s top. Furdex saw fire licking out of the turret and the various holes in the tank hull, confirming the kill. He had the opportunity, but had no care to smell the air outside.
     An assault shuttle arrived to pick up the wounded and dead from the convoy, taking them ‘upstairs’ to be tended in the hospital ward aboard one of the orbiting troopships. Once the field engineers arrived to assess the damaged vehicles the rest of the convoy went on. By nightfall they were once again engaged in combat on the outskirts of Blood Valor.

Crimson Expanse had only two warp points, simplifying security for the Hokum Expeditionary Fleet. No pinnace so far had returned from the far side of the second warp point, and Lord Admiral Janus wasn’t in a position to conduct a reconnaissance in force as of yet. Three more Legion armed pinnace tenders were on the way but it would be three weeks before they arrived. Repair ships had begun their work on the battlecruisers damaged in the assault as well as prepping fighters for Janus’ depleted strikegroups.
     600 mine patterns, 300 laser and 300 energy beam buoys and two buoy tenders formed the fixed defenses around the warp point. 45 Type 2 DDs, 30 Interior CAs, 12 Foreguard and 15 Imperium BCs kept to a distance of 2 light-seconds and orbited the warp point. Just 24 fighters were on the CAP, leaving 64 on the carriers four light seconds out.
     Janus recalled the brief battle against Crimson Expanse’s space station two weeks earlier. For having access to mineral wealth and population the station was pitifully undersized. Whoever was in charge had months with which to expedite expansion, yet scanners showed it was building just one type-5 base and making additions to the station. Just two F0 squadrons opposed the Fleet, shot down by Senior Picador Maro’s fighters. Long-range SBM bombardment reduced the station to ruin, helped along by stand-off missiles fired from those fighters not tasked with defense.
     Being privy to information known only to the Imperial Council and the Emperor had made Janus thankful the opposition was as weak as it was. As long as the Asteroid Axis continues to commit the bulk of its forces against the Terpla’ns and their allies then the Imperium might be able to hold its own against the AFC. She knew the reasons why the IC kept quiet about the Imperium’s involvement in the war. Understandable as those reasons were Janus felt it would better to have the Terpla’ns onboard as allies sooner than later. A chance meeting on the battlefield might result in a fresh war between the two nations for the ISN still nursed a grievance for coming out second-best against the Terpla’ns five years ago. The expansion of the ISN was fueled in part to avenge itself against the CSF (as the Republic Navy was called now). All it would take would be some youngblood seeking fame to attack any CSF force that happened across his targeting ladars.
     As for Axis activity there was no sign of ships hiding in the outer portion of the system. Two enemy pinnaces transiting into Crimson Expanse via warp point 2 were detected and destroyed in the space of five days, leading Janus to believe that an assault attempt was in the offering. That became clear when on fifteenth day 40 Dispersion escorts emerged from the warp point. Six of the little vessels overlapped into the same volume of space and exploded like fireballs. This was the first time this class of ship was observed, and upon seeing that they had no shields Janus ordered the fighters to stay clear. No sense in wasting ordnance when another alternative was available.
     In all just ten ships were destroyed, leaving 24. A tender did reach action stations and, as if reading Janus’ mind, fired enough energy beam buoys to ensure the outcome. That was the case for 23 of the ships, but the 24th was only hit by one. It was only able to see the immediate 5 LS area around the warp point when it turned around and left. Since its tactical scanners were destroyed it couldn’t gauge the strength of the minefields, and the escorts’ BAM-Rc rounds had only destroyed four mine patterns. Minutes passed, and after fifteen Janus had the fleet stand-down from combat stations. The tugs were called forward and towed the 23 escorts like they were fish on a line to a spot 16 LS from the warp point. Marines were called in to board and search the shorted-out ships. After taking care of the crews (only four prisoners were taken as the Marines accessed engineering controls and vented air into space) the databases were searched. In time six intact cores were found.
     Janus didn’t have these ships destroyed. She wanted them adapted and repaired for use by her fleet when it came time to assault particularly well-defended enemy warp points. Three days later the haul of captured enemy ships increased. Just after the morning news broadcast from Crimson Expanse the alarm klaxons blared as the first ship of the Axis assault, a Falcon Crest carrier, made transit. It was followed by a Soar carrier and 30 Grenadier corvettes, all of them seen for the first time by the Hokum. Six Grenadiers exploded from interpenetration, their debris clouds soon parted by two more Soars and another Falcon Crest. As with last time the non-carrier ships of the Expeditionary Fleet circled the warp point at a distance of 2 light-seconds.
     The first Axis ship launched its EDMs and fired four BAM-Rc rounds into the minefields while the four CAP squadrons fell on the hostiles like falcons about to snatch a rat in the open. All veterans, two of them got their fire control systems active and lined up on a pair of dreadnoughts. Both of the big ships lost their shields and nearly half their armor. Knowing that not enough ships would become active in the brief time before the Axis ships were free of transit effects Janus settled on having their shields knocked down. Five corvettes were destroyed; leaving a total of 24 ships as targets for the 100 energy buoys the one active tender had armed. The Axis dreadnoughts were also armed with BAM-Rc rounds and a pair of HET lasers each, though they only managed to mangle the armor of one DD.
     As predicted the energy buoys sowed havoc on the shieldless corvettes, immobilizing all of them. Designed to take laser hits the Axis assault carriers lost engine rooms from electric discharges fit for lightning storms. Just the first Falcon Crest transited out but not before it and its brethren launched 20 squadrons of fighters. The Hokum fleet responded by moving 0.5 LS further out, putting the Axis Hatchets out of reach for their short attack missiles. 28 Hokum Spears were crash-launched from their carriers and took position over the fleet, ready to fire their laser packs at the oncoming strike. One CAE also moved forward, ready to employ its datalink jammer.
     No further Axis ships made transit and the dreadnoughts launched their pinnaces. The two unfired CAP squadrons had pulled away for the time being as Janus ordered the big ships immobilized by energy buoy fire. 66 additional buoys were utilized, three each for every ship on the warp point. Those corvettes that still had plasma guns lost them and the carriers were further reduced in speed. Anti-fighter measures brought down 26 Hatchets.
     The second Falcon Crest left the system, still sparking from electrical discharges along its hull. Employ maximum ECM the Fleet moved only at 0.017c, divided evenly going port and starboard as to engage the Hatchets in each other’s blind spots. The CAE covered the fleet with its datalink jamming, and with the firepower involved the rest of the Hatchets were felled but at the cost of one Imperium BC destroyed and another with its armored breached.
     Aligning themselves the Type 2 destroyers fired their needle beams at the hulking Soars. The three Axis pinnaces watched this take place and transited out before being shot down by Hokum fighters. In no time engine rooms, point defense, shear planes, magazines and tractor beams were lanced by precision energy strikes. Even the life support systems and crew quarters were destroyed. Janus had the three Soars towed to Crimson Expanse, taking along the damaged Imperium and Type 2 destroyer. If the Axis crews tried to restore life support, weapons or an engine to attempt self-destruct then they would be lanced by the Type 2’s needle beam. By the time the tugs reach orbit the Soars’ crews would have died from asphyxiation. There were more enough hulls to search for data.
     So in three days time the ISN collected 23 escorts, 18 corvettes and 3 dreadnoughts like a barkeep collecting bottles after closing time. More mobile yards and repair ships were definitely needed to rework these ships and repair them just enough so as to make the trip back to the Whel system to effect a complete refit. Janus wondered why the Axis bothered to conduct the raid at all. They knew about the energy buoys from the last time, and yet sent ships that could easily be disabled by said weapons. For their effort all they managed to do was destroy one ship, damage two others and eliminated twelve patterns of mines.
     What concerned Janus the most was the possibility of an Axis fleet moving in from a flanking system and sealing her forces from the Imperium. Minelayer groups were covering bypassed warp points but all they could do was act as tripwire defenses. It then occurred to her that the second raid’s purpose was to confirm the findings of the first. If that was true then an attack along the flanks was likely. What was needed was information. With a much larger population there was bound to be multiple astrogation databases on Crimson Expanse for the ISA to find. It all depended on just how confident and proud the Axis defenders were in safeguarding their data.

North Barrows was, appropriately enough, located in the northern hemisphere of Crimson Expanse. About 100km south of the planet’s arctic circle, North Barrows was the most northern city, having a population of 20,000. As for its industry it centered on uranium mining, uranium enrichment and construction of missiles for the AFC. Despite being a high-priority target it wasn’t defended by troops or even air defenses, all of which were around the capital city of Blood Valor.
     Using the planet’s northern magnetic field as cover a squadron of ISA assault shuttles had sneaked in and deposited their loads of airborne troops. So it came as a complete surprise for the police and the militia when 1,500 ISA soldiers using descent packs landed in their midst around the North Barrows’ Municipal Affairs building and the missile manufacturing complex. A follow-up drop of vehicles came in time to see the complete capitulation of the city.
     Three days after the city’s capture Field General Ronon invited Alba, a civilian appointed by Emperor Valsur to assist the military government, to a private meeting at his field headquarters. He offered his seat to the distinguished university professor because she was not only his senior but was also one of her students several decades earlier. “I trust you found your trip down agreeable, Professor,” Ronon said apologetically. “Most of the Axis anti-air batteries had been suppressed on the first day. However our pilots have to regard every radar that attempts a lock-on to be linked to a missile.”
     “It was like being an amusement park ride,” said Alba cheerfully. “The only thing missing was the vomiting. Now, stop acting like a penitent and sit down. You got something to tell me, so get started.”
     Ronon sat on a folding chair he brought along with him from his home on Hokum. It creaked of age and looked it, having been consigned to outdoor use for years. “Firstly, I must thank you for your diligent work in interrogating prisoners and assisting the intelligence teams back in Whel. It was you who discovered that Comensal diary and its entry about North Barrows. Had we waited as originally planned then the battalion would’ve been wiped out in a nuclear blast.”
     Alba folded her back pair of arms on her lap while gesturing with her front pair. “While my own talents are formidable, Ronon, I must say deciphering the diary was a grueling experience. The handwriting was atrocious, only trumped by your own chicken scrawls so many years ago. I was only able to infer that the writer was talking of his sister being a uranium miner. Being described as a ‘soldier on the frontline producing the raw heart that converts the enemy of the people in radioactive steam’ was as obvious a tip-off one could make. That, plus mentioning the city’s name and its general location.”
     “Had they been more in line with their own self-proclaimed righteousness then our troops would’ve been made into ash long before now, Professor,” Ronon commented. “The battle for Blood Valor is likely to continue for months; you’re going to set up shop in North Barrow. Find out what makes the Comensal civilian tick and make them accept the virtues of peaceful co-existence.”
     Alba rubbed the top of her graying furred head with her left front hand. “It’ll try, Ronon. What if they become intractable and downright hostile to our presence? The Emperor had me read the secret reports.”
     “Oh, those,” Ronon sighed. “Well, conducting a genocide campaign on alien territory is one thing. Potentially facing it on your own soil is something different. As the Comensal didn’t kill off any of our populations…”
     “Because they were smashed in Whel,” Alba pointed out firmly. It was like the old days when she tested her students’ resolve in open seminar. “They wouldn’t have bothered garrisoning the asteroid and lunar colonies in Whel. I’m afraid they’ll take our moral high ground and make a mockery of it.”
     “In Blood Valor, perhaps, but not in the hundreds of towns and cities across this planet.” Ronan leaned forward in his chair. It creaked loudly, like it was in pain. “In a way I’m glad there’s only one major city we have to actively contest for control. Every hot-blooded Comensal on the planet will make their way to Blood Valor. Those left behind will be a little less eager to die for their ideals, and more amenable to live under Hokum rule. That’s the environment you’ll be facing, Professor. Find those things that will make the Comensal believe that it’s in their best interest to live rather than die in cause that’s already lost.”
     Alba brooded in thought for a moment, her face scrunched up in the same way Ronon remembered it years before. “This is virgin territory we’re treading in. It’s all going to depended just how steadfast the Comensal civilians are to their racial imperatives.”
     “Just do your best, Professor. I can’t ask for anything more than that.”

The capture of North Barrows did more than deny the Comensal access to a ready supply of nuclear material. In the basement of the Municipal Building resided an archival storage datacore that dated back to the founding of the colony. It was classified as inactive, and as such was not attached to the mainframe; it didn’t even have a physical or remote link connection. In their sweep of the building ISA troops found a civilian worker about to chop up the datacore with a fireaxe. He was shot with a tazer and disarmed.
     It was realized that had there been more warning time the civilian would’ve succeeded in his goal or found a more effective tool. Chopping up the datacore was an act of pure desperation as the device employed holographic storage. One sizeable fragment would still contain the information of the whole core. Submersion in acid was the only viable method. Indeed, had the civilian been a bit more rational in his zeal he would’ve remembered the storage cabinet in same room with the datacore held a bowl and a copious supply of acid.
     In no time the core’s software protection was cracked and the data analyzed. It proved to be a treasure trove of information and a godsend in the area of astrogation. All systems four transits out from Crimson Expanse, 29 in all, were laid out in detail. Every warp point, open and closed, was notated as to maximum transit size and gravity surge correction. This plus military data was immediately forwarded to Lord Admiral Janus and her staff.
     Pleased in getting a comprehensive layout of Axis systems in far less time than survey ships could possibly provide Janus nevertheless felt a chill. Just three transits from Crimson Expanse was a system called Bedrock. Its main planet had a population of over 100 million and an asteroid belt that was fully exploited, adding a further one hundred thousand. The military data on Bedrock was five years out of date, but it was clearly noted that the system was labeled as a major fleet base for the AFC. Crimson Expanse, in the very same data, was to become a major base as well once the sufficient level of population was attained.
     Then more disconcerting news fell on Janus’ lap. Marine teams had succeeded in getting downloads from six Axis corvettes, one of which had recent data on Bedrock. The defenses guarding Bedrock’s warp points had, naturally, dramatically increased in the five years that the archived datacore was in storage. No less than 27 type-5 bases guarded the warp point most threatened by the Expeditionary Fleet, and the space station, already large, was doubled in size. Most telling was the corvettes themselves. All six from which data was recovered were in commission for two months, built in the orbital construction slips of Bedrock’s space station. She had to assume that all the corvettes, indeed, all the ships used in the two probe attacks were built and crewed in Bedrock.
     Janus’ staff had its work cut out for it in planning further offensives while preserving their hold on Crimson Expanse. They noted that there were five other systems with populations within four warp transits. One was called Blood Pride, located at the bottom of a dead-end chain that could easily be blocked off with minimal effort. Another was Borehole, a system noted for its very rich mineral wealth and atrocious weather on its main planet and a mineral poor but much fairer climate on the other. Borehole, with a combined population only one-forth that of Crimson Expanse, was tagged as a likely objective for the ISN.
     Two other systems, Brickyard and Forger’s Gate, had lunar and asteroid outpost and colonies to mine rich mineral resources. The records indicate they were established at the same time as Crimson Expanse. Clearly the Axis had expanded its resource base to facilitate rearming after the Nu'Chut War and found their investment most useful in prosecuting its current war against the Terpla’ns and by extension the Hokum. Fallowed Field, the last system, had three habitable words but poor mineral resources. The Axis colonized those worlds to become, in their words, ‘population farms’ from which crews for their starships and troops for their armies can be drawn from. With a combined population of 48,000 and the likelihood that it had no defenses worth mentioning it would be an easy manner to occupy the system. Janus pondered on the options open to her, hoping to find the right one on which to hang the hope of her fleet and that of her race upon.

As predicted the Battle of Blood Valor chewed up block after block as the ISA ferreted out pockets of Axis Army troops. It came to the point where it was simpler to entomb the enemy by collapsing buildings down to their foundations. The basements were designed to sustain their occupants for months, but that was predicated on the belief that the occupants would be rescued during that time. There were no escape tunnels, no bolt holes, and no pipes with which an enemy could use to gas the occupants to death. Again it was thanks to the information found in the captured North Barrows datacore. ISA casualties went down dramatically thanks to this fortuitous find.
     Field General Ronon, not wishing to see his armored vehicles get wasted in the confining streets of Blood Valor, had decided to blockade the city. With manned aircraft and UAVs providing aerial surveillance and support the multitude of Mongoose platoons sat at various holding areas around the city perimeter. When a group of Comensal refused to stay in the city or ignored the warning not to approach a platoon was dispatched to eliminate them.
     On the 28th day of ground combat the 3rd platoon, Company B of the 31st Tactical Armor Regiment received orders to move out. A group of Comensal was spotted heading toward the city. Ignoring warnings to retreat and clearly shown to be armed the group was bombed and strafed by Eagle Eyes drones and Matador manned aircraft. When ammo ran low it was up to the 3rd platoon to finish the job. 2nd-Class Sergeant Furdex, commanding the Mongoose named Loaded Vice, appraised the situation with his platoon leader, Piton Susex.
     “No sweat, Furdex,” said Susex on the command net. “Just use mortar rounds to put them down. If any stand up, just blast them with some proximity 30s.”
     “You got it, Piton.” With Furdex watching Loaded Vice’s gunner, Spuran, deployed the vehicle’s 50mm mortar, its protective armor flap in the bow folding to the side. With the other five Mongooses in the platoon a short shower of shells blanketed one cluster of Comensal. Wood splinters and rock fragments were just as deadly as the shrapnel the mortar rounds produced, dozens killed where they laid for cover. A few staggered up only to be nailed by proximity-fused 30mm rail gun rounds, slowed greatly so that explosive envelope was a perfect sphere.
     “I’m getting a radiological reading,” said Licus, Vice’s sensor operator. “There’s a nuke out there somewhere. NBC protocols activated.”
     “I see it!” Spuran shouted. “There’s a guy kneeling next to what appears to be a large suitcase!” He fired without waiting or needing an order from Furdex. Utterly destroyed by a solid 30mm round fired at full power, the Comensal’s body parts scattered over a wide area.
     “Pendex, get us out of here yesterday,” Furdex said unhurriedly. The Loaded Vice jolted to life and turned sharply on its six wheels, accelerating as fast as it could even though Pendex wanted his foot to push the plate right through the compartment’s floor. Eighteen seconds later the sub-kiloton nuclear explosive went off, killing what remained of the Comensal in the area and bucking the Vice like it was going over a mile of bad road.
     “I guess they had to open the case in order to arm the bomb,” Licus said afterwards. “That’s the only reason why our sensors picked it up. Otherwise they could’ve gotten a lot closer.”
     “Then the Eagle Eyes will have to fire on anyone carrying a lead-lined suitcase from now on,” Furdex observed. “If those boney bastards are resorting to using civilians to carry pocket nukes then what else are they capable of?”
     As Loaded Vice and the rest of the platoon made for decontamination area no-one could imagine how it could get worse. In a month Furdex got the answer to his question.

Chapter 2.25
A meeting was held at the main chamber of the Imperial Council on Hokum Prime. All eight ministers were in attendance, along with Imperator of the Army Bemus and Emperor Valsur. The war against the Asteroid Axis was well into its eighth month, and Army operations on Crimson Expanse, after one month in combat, were picking up with each new wave of reinforcement. The councilors had questions for Bemus regarding the ultimate size and purpose of the occupation force.
      First, as always, was the Minister of Arms. He let the purely decorative eye glasses slide down his nose, giving him the look of a test proctor quieting a noisome student. “Bemus, given the relative passivity of the Comensal population on CE (Crimson Expanse) do you still find it necessary to commit 400,000 troops to its occupation? That’s 90% of our current offensive army strength.”
      “Yes, I do find it necessary,” said Bemus in a righteous manner, his back pair of hands on his knees while the front pair made fists. “Despite field training and exercises the only proven way to increase a soldier’s proficiency is by doing his job in actual deployments. Given the ratio of CE’s population to the planned deployment we can rotate battalions from frontline service and replace them with fresh ones in-theatre much quicker.”
     “There’s the cost involved in providing for so many troops so far from home,” injected the Minister of the Treasury. “As you know, for each soldier deployed to an active theatre he gets a hazard pay bonus. If only a fraction of the actual occupation force is involved in active service on CE then why should all the troops get the bonus? When you factor in the cost of supplies and support services for troops that would essentially be sitting around…”
     “They won’t be ‘sitting round’, Councilor,” Bemus said tensely. “When taken off the line the troops will be involved in building infrastructure suitable for long-term habitation. That includes such things as housing, tunnels, roads and airfields. Since using Comensal labor is clearly out of the question for the foreseeable future, and civilian labor here is in such high demand, it makes sense to use troops that have been rotated to the reserve pool.”
     Valsur spoke before the Minister of the Interior. He didn’t want the meeting to degenerate into a shouting match. He knew Interior would say that using troops as builders was a waste of time with Treasury quickly chiming in about long-term expenses. Arms will naturally drag out a warmed-over corpse known as the budget and point out Interior’s foibles. “What Bemus meant by long-term habitation is that CE will become the forward assembly area for future Army operations against Axis Systems. As you all read in the Navy’s report there are five systems within four transits of CE that have enemy populations. Once the Navy has secured these systems Army formations will be deployed from CE. Being closer to their objectives will reduce transit time significantly and conquer them that much quicker.”
     Treasury harrumphed, knocking the council table with his left hands. “Expenses to supply and maintain this forward Army base, as well as additional formations of troops, will be reduced greatly if the resources of CE are exploited.” He looked to Interior. “Has the Diplomatic Corps made headway with any of the leading citizens of CE?”
     “If there are any leading citizens on CE then they’re leading the way in hiding,” Interior barked. “The mayors and business owners of those towns and cities occupied by our troops so far are refusing to do business with us. They won’t accept promissory notes or lines of credit. What they demand are precious gemstones.”
     Upon hearing this for the first time Treasury snorted his derision. “Oh, that’s rich. At least they weren’t asking for gold. Thanks to asteroid mining gold is as common as dirt. I suppose they even suggested an exchange rate?”
     “I’ll share the data with you later. You’ll just have an aneurism if I tell you now.”
     “Bemus,” said Valsur, getting the discussion back on topic, “how confident is General Ronon about securing effective control of CE?”
     The highest ranking officer of the ISA smiled. “Very confident, my Lord. There have been very few instances of active resistance outside of the capital city of Blood Valor. In fact the city has been acting as a magnet for those Comensal that want to fight our troops. The initial total blockade of the city has been replaced by several heavily fortified checkpoints. Anyone trying to enter or leave the city without first going through these checkpoints are treated as hostile and engaged. Such incidents have gone down dramatically.”
     “As well as casualties,” the Minister of Health joined in, “for our side, at least. Have there been any more instances of suitcase nukes?”
     “Not few enough, Minister,” Bemus admitted. “Anyone carrying a lead-lined suitcase is killed immediately if they ignore their only warning. Anything large enough to hold such a device is searched. There have been several instances where they tried to sneak a nuke without shielding, with the predicable results.” He wiped his brow in an unconscious gesture of distress. “People leaving the city basically have only the clothes on their backs and whatever they can carry in their hands or on their back. Only vehicles with open cargo areas are allowed to leave the city. Incoming vehicles and people are similarly searched. The mobile action teams take care of anything that attempts to enter or leave the city in the areas in-between checkpoints.”
     Valsur knocked the table top with his right front hand. “I sincerely hope that this represents the extent of aggression from the civilian Comensal population. Those feeling hot blooded will avail themselves for the opportunity to die for their society. What remains will be those who would be more amenable to work with us, even if it is with shallow-buried resentment. As this will be the first of what will eventually be multiple occupied Axis planets there has to be a comprehensive plan for integrating them into the governance of the Imperium.” He looked to the Minister of Education. “I realize that were learning on the job on CE, Carmex. It may take generations to get the Comensal to abandon their supremacist beliefs. Given what we know now, do you believe we have a chance?”
     A scholarly-looking senior woman, Carmex tugged on the hem of her ministerial vest with all four hands. “As long as they have a vested interest in their future, namely the children, then they will incorporate those behaviors and laws that will ensure their prosperity, not the least their survival.”
     “As long as they’re rational in their assessment of the future, Carmex,” Valsur observed. “As long as they’re rational.”

Camp Lazlo, the planetside home of the 3rd Division, ISA, was a far different affair when it was established on the first day of landing. Tents were replaced by duraframe prefab buildings, paved roads instead of paths mowed through the ferns, and a steady supply of power and water in place of batteries and tanks shuttled down from orbiting starships.
     The most recent addition to Camp Lazlo was covered garages for vehicles. In one of these could be found a Mongoose tactical armored vehicle called Loaded Vice. Assisting the ‘pit crew’ maintenance squad was the vehicle’s four-person complement. On the schedule this day was the replacement of the front pair of tires, installing new point-defense strips and reapplying reactive camouflage paint. The pit chief appraised a ruined tire like it was family heirloom being sold at auction. “How did you manage this, Furdex? It looks like you deliberately ran over grenades.”
     “That’s what it exactly looks like, Chief,” Furdex said from atop the hull. “We ran into an infiltrator group that tried to cross a lake. Some of them had rocket launchers, fired with just optical guidance. The forward point-defense strips didn’t shred two of the rockets completely or knock them out of the way. They exploded in proximity mode under the bow when they were unable to score a hit on our armor, hence the tire damage.”
     “It was a terrible experience for me,” said Pendex the driver, helping one of the pit crew in installing a new strip on the bow. “It felt like an angry piston was punching right under my seat. My equipment had better work for I plan to have a family after the war.”
     The pit chief raised a prudish eyebrow. “I see. What about the infiltrators?”
     Spuran the gunner, working on something on the turret’s starboard side, took that question. “They got the duty to infiltrate the bottom of the lake. To help their cause I sent several 30mm rounds into their boat to make it dive faster.”
     “Just what is that your doing up there?” the Chief inquired.
     “I’m painting the tally of our kills so far,” replied Spuran. “Two tanks, four technicals, and a Black Bird UAV.”
    “What’s a technical?” one of the pit crew asked.
     Spuran admired his work for a moment and then applied a fresh stroke of paint. “It’s a term for any civilian vehicle used offensively by the enemy. Specifically, it’s a pickup truck with an exposed cargo bed with which to mount weapons. The ones we faced had machine guns and shoulder-fired rockets on pedestal mounts. Against tanks they were way out of their league.”
     “There was something odd about those technicals.” This came from Licus, the comm and sensors operator. She was applying paint to those areas on the hull where it got chipped off. “They carried quite of number of people in their cargo beds, all armed. But why would they load up a vehicle that was going to have a lifespan of minutes in open combat? Even one of our guys with a tri-barrel infantry weapon could bring down a technical unaided.”
     “It must what General Ronon said about hot bloods,” Furdex offered. “Those Comensal that feel the most passionate about their nation are willing to come to the city of Blood Valor rather than wait for us to come to them. If they keep throwing themselves on our guns then what’s going to be left behind will be easier to control and govern.”
     The Master Chief scratched his head. “Going by how often I patch up Mongooses I’d say there’s going to be a steady supply of hot bloods for a long time to come.”

Thanks to captured data the ISN knew the layout of the systems within four transits of Crimson Expanse. Minelayer groups were dispatched to cover key chokepoints and previously laid fixed automated defenses were repositioned. In a bid to sow confusion in the Axis camp Lord Admiral Janus detached a portion of her precious reinforcement to conduct a raid on enemy systems that were until now considered safe from attack.
     Two Imperial Wave carriers, one of the new Deflector 2 escort cruisers, three Interior CAs, three Podium pinnace tenders, one BC tug, a repair ship, three of the new CL-sized minesweepers, two Empresario automated weapon control ships, two freighters and four Fast Walker scouts formed the 1st Reconnaissance Strike Force. Their first target was the Fallowed Field (FF) system. According to the new warp line map there were two ways to get to FF. The first was to get past the defenses guarding the other side of the Crimson Expanse’s second warp point, in a starless nexus called Abyssal-018. Linked to that system was Tire Iron, which in turn linked to Bedrock and FF. A clearly unsuitable route at present due to proximity of the AFC fleet base at Bedrock and the lack of assault forces to tackle Abyssal-018’s defenses, which very well could be formidable.
     The second route was far more practical. Moving out from the Cain system, which linked to Crimson Expanse, the RSF moved into Red Wire and then the Solid State system. FF had two warp points, one of which linked to Tire Iron, and the other which had its closed side in Solid State. Having been very careful of its movements so far the Axis didn’t allow any shipping transits to occur between FF and Solid State until very recently. In that way the anonymity of the closed warp point could be maintained, either from sensor observation or by database capture.
     Clearly the Axis didn’t factor in the possibility of a captured planetary database, even an outdated one as found on Crimson Expanse. They figured that such records would’ve been destroyed by dutiful employees of the state. In this case Providence had, in their opinion, turned a blind eye and allowed the Abominations to wreak havoc. Absolute in their belief of safety there were no defenses on the FF side of the FF/Solid State warp point. Just a solitary scanner buoy kept watch, a holdover from the Nu'Chut War. There were no comm or scanner buoys anywhere near the closed side of the warp point in Solid State. All that would’ve done was to lead a new enemy to believe, correctly, that another warp point was within the finite range of a comm buoy’s courier drones.
      So it came about the RSF entered Fallowed Field. The armed pinnaces from the Podiums did a sweep, finding and destroying the scanner buoy. The system was a close binary pair of yellow suns. Component A had two of the colony planets and Component B had the last but was considered the prime planet due to Component B having both asteroid belts. Indeed in the past five years the Axis had been slowly establishing outposts in the asteroids, something that happened after the CE database was placed in cold storage.
     A Fast Walker identified a single space station over FF-B-2. In terms of tonnage it was 50% greater than that of a battleship, meaning that it couldn’t have very much in the way of anything. Just the carriers, their escort and the three Interiors went forward to destroy the station. After giving the obligatory warning for personnel to evacuate the station and the planet’s spaceport the attack commenced. Firing SBM-Lts at maximum range, the Interiors kept up their bombardment until atmosphere gushed from the station. At that point just two squadrons launched from the station to which the carriers responded with six. Accompany the Spears was the escort cruiser, using its datalink jammer to the detriment of the Axis Hatchets. Carrying just one gun pack and a standoff missile each the Spears held the speed advantage and easily closed on their opposites and knocked them down with no loss to themselves.
     When the station failed to fire weapons the escort cruiser moved defiantly to within 2 light-seconds. The Interiors moved in closer as well and fired capital missiles with regular nuclear warheads and capital force beams. Shields collapsed, the escort cruiser used its long range scanners to see what the station had in the way of equipment. As expected there wasn’t much of anything, the station had just have twelve hanger bays and a single shipyard module. The six Spear squadrons closed in to 1 LS range and fired their stand-off missiles. In the face of its futile position the station elected to use two of its point defense systems to engage the fighters while saving the third for missiles. Whatever minute satisfaction the Axis crew had in bringing down one Spear (the pilot was recovered) was lost when the station fell apart around their non-existent ears. Even the escort cruiser participated, firing one CAM to finish the station for good and lobbing two at the planet’s equally minor spaceport, destroying it.
     With the RSF on the way to FF-A-3 a scout discovered a small Axis convoy leaving an asteroid outpost, heading in the general direction of the Tire Iron warp point. Composed of one frigate-sized freighter and three freighters that were slightly smaller than corvettes the mission to destroy them was given to the Podium pinnace tenders. Running at full speed the destroyer-sized ships launched their twelve Apins just 3 LS from their quarry. Fitted with stand-off missiles the armed small craft got into the blind spots of their selected targets and fired, destroying all three FT2s at no loss. The Podiums took care of the FT3 with CAMs.
     The space station over FF-A-3 appeared to be the same as the one over FF-B-2. The escort cruiser, the Interiors and 35 Spears moved as one and engaged at 3 LS distance. As if by rote the station launched its twelve fighters. Two Hatchets were claimed by the escort cruiser’s improved point defense and the Spears got the other ten at no loss. Once the shields were down the escort cruiser moved closer and scanned the station, finding it an exact match to B-2. Now adding antimatter capital missiles, the Interiors finished the station in three volleys. Again the minimal spaceport was destroyed.
     For the third act it was a further refinement of the first two. This time no missiles were used as the Interiors planned to pull up to point blank range and cut loose. Generating the most ECM possible the cruisers offered the twelve Hatchets on the A-2 station the opportunity to conduct a suicide attack. Of the twelve only three succeeded to stay on target yet failed to bring down the cruiser’s shields. Six were shot down by the escort cruiser and only one Hatchet fired its short-range attack missiles before it and the other two were splashed by the Spears. The rammed Interior lost 22% of its armor. It took only one minute at point-blank range for the capital forces beams on the Interiors to destroy the station.
     The commander of the RSF noted that the shipyard modules on all three stations were creating minefield patterns and buoy weapons. He sent a scout to the FF/Tire Iron warp point and found that it was covered by two BS2s and approximately 300 buoys. The fact that the scout wasn’t fired on when it came within 2.5 LS of the warp point indicated the buoy weapons were of the recharging type and not of the one-shot laser variety. Of course the scout didn’t care to move in closer to find out.
      Wanting to maximize the destruction the commander took the RSF to the warp point, destroyed the BS2s with long-range fighter strikes and wiped out the buoys with Apins and fighters. The minefield around the warp point, 600 patterns in all, wasn’t spared. The RSF loaded BAM-Rc rounds onto their XO racks with the Interiors filling their magazines with the mine clearance weapons, courtesy of one of the freighters. When one section of the minefield wiped away a Fast Walker was sent into Tire Iron to keep watch for Axis reinforcements.
     Going at a deliberate pace, resting the crews and reloading as needed the minefield was reduced in 30 hours from 600 to 36 patterns. The trio of CL minesweepers moved in, finding the remaining mines were set at a normal release rate. In thirty minutes, including the time it took to reload the sweepers’ XO racks with EDMs, the last of the mines were destroyed. No sweeper armor was damaged at any point in this operation.
     The RSF headed back to the Solid State warp point. A scanner buoy deployed earlier by a Fast Walker picked up an Axis ship making transit. It was a military freighter, moving at cruising speed towards FF-A-2. It was in-system for only two hours when it turned around and increased to full speed, obviously having received a radio warning from A-2. At the time of turn-over it was just four light-minutes away from the RSF. A Fast Walker and the three Interiors followed at maximum speed, occasionally detuning engines to reduce the range. The rest followed normally, with the freighters deploying mines and buoys on the Solid State side of the warp point and the two Empresarios taking station to control the automated weapons.
     For minimal cost the destruction of Fallowed Field’s space-orientated infrastructure was a success. The next target was the Blood Pride system, but something far more important had to be addressed. An alien drive field was detected in Solid State, and it was closing in on the Axis military freighter. The senior captain of the Interior CAs, Linus, prepared his first contact protocols. With the speed of the alien contact matching his own the captain wondered if the newcomers were either allies or enemies of the Axis.

Galaxy Admiral Danmor, Commander of the Second Advanced Fleet and headquartered on Bedrock, had to face harsh facts. The four-armed abomination race, now known as the Imperium thanks to a translation matrix it broadcast at Crimson Expanse, had captured astrogation data on the aforementioned planet. It was the only way to explain how it was able to utilize the closed warp point in Solid State to access Fallowed Field. It stood to reason if they had data on Fallowed Field then in all likelihood they knew about Bedrock, Borehole, Forger’s Gate, Brickyard and Blood Pride, the last being very likely to be the Imperium’s next target.
     The destruction of Fallowed Field’s three space stations, small as they were, was an inconvenience that had to be rectified. Danmor had been using them to produce mines and buoy weapons so as to allow Bedrock’s massive station to fixate on building warships, fighters and bases. Even the distant Blood Pride station had been assisting in that effort. He authorized four DN and two of the new CA mobile yards to go into Fallow Field and re-established their space stations. This time each station will comprise one standard section, a weapons section and one of the new fighter sections. Additionally mines and buoys would cover both of the system’s warp points along with light fortifications. Maintenance expense would increase greatly, reducing the amount of processed materials the system could export to Bedrock. On the flipside, having 18 shipyard modules with which to repair ships and over 900 fighters to serve as a ready reserve was more than adequate compensation.
     The far more immediate problem was the allocation of fleet elements. With the Commonwealth in Borehole the defenses in Circuit Run, which linked to Forger’s Gate, Bedrock, and Laser Burn (LB), had the priority when it came to resources. Now it was likely that the Imperium knew the location of the close warp point in LB that lead to Circuit Run, the defenses of the latter would have to be strengthened even more, not to mention the Bedrock/Circuit Run warp point. As for the Imperium, if they elected to move back into Fallowed Field anytime soon, they could get into Tire Iron. From there they could enter Abyssal-018 and destroy the task group and fixed defenses or threaten Bedrock directly. Or they could simply seal up Abyssal-018 from the Tire Iron side and let the Axis forces there die on the vine and defend the Tire Iron/Bedrock warp point.
     After a series of discussions with this staff Danmor decided on conducting a major spoiling attack on Imperium forces in Crimson Expanse. To that end he had Bedrock’s shipyards, which was about to complete several sets of warships, to construct large numbers of warp point assault ships. Updated Grenadiers and Dispersions, along with the new Grenadier 2 and Critical Mass classes, will swamp the Imperium defenses. Despite the proclamations from the eggheads on Eloto Prime Danmor believed that specifications for antimatter technology wouldn’t be implemented on Bedrock in time for this attack. In his opinion it wouldn’t make that much of a difference. In three months time the Imperium was going to be dealt an irreversible setback. Once armed with antimatter the AFC will move into Crimson Expanse and finish what was left of the abomination fleet and then reclaim the planet.
     Having decided on that course of action Danmor then turned his attention on how best to deal with the Commonwealth forces in Borehole. If Danmor had a better grasp of the nature of the forces arrayed against him then he would’ve gone after the Imperium with full force immediately. To merely raid a system and not occupy it (not to mention exterminating the populations outright), using an economy of force that made a string purse look like an embroidered leather bag had shown the weakness of the Imperium. A more powerful foe, with knowledge of the warp lines and systems that Danmor correctly attributed to them, wouldn’t have passed up the opportunity to isolate the defenses in Abyssal-018. Like Axis commanders before and after him Danmor would come to regret his decision moments before death.

Brookwater, a city of 45,000 on Crimson Expanse, was one of several secondary cities that were selected to be actively administered by the ISA Military Authority (MA). An ISA regiment, recently arrived from the Imperium, was sent to Brookwater to ensure the population was in compliance with MA regulations. To the surprise of the army troops they found the Comensal to be very cooperative, turning in their personal weapons in an orderly fashion and accepting MA identification cards. Only offensive words uttered by incorrigible seniors assaulted the Hokum troops as they took their prized hunting rifles away. Odd; in the opinion of Hokum civilian specialists there wasn’t any fauna on CE that could be deemed threatening or worthy of consumption.
     It happened on the fourth day. A Comensal child nicknamed Butter by his parents and friends alike watched as an ISA patrol came down the street. Two of his friends were watching with him, standing behind a low stone wall that came just above their chins. Butter stood on his toes, leaned forward to place his chin on the wall’s smoothed top surface. He initially found the Hokum’s appearance to be ‘cool’, imagining how neat it would be with an extra set of arms. They would be useful in climbing rope in gym or in playing basketball, to name just a few possibilities. His parents told him to forget such things, for Providence had shown the Comensal to be the pinnacle of creation in the universe. He listened and obeyed, as any Comensal child would, but still thought of having four arms as cool.
     Butter and his two friends then remembered what their parents had told them. They were told that the four-arms were here to make everyone unhappy and have the people live under rules that would put to shame even the strictest mother. It was intolerable for a Comensal to live under the rule of Abominations, and action is to be taken to get these creatures to leave the planet. Butter didn’t exactly understand all the big words his parents used, but he knew that they wanted him to help. So, like a good son he did what he was told.
     The patrol, consisting of a squad, was centered on an armored car. Butter and his friends spoke in low voices, reaching down to the bottles their parents provided. Each bottle was filled with a sticky substance that reminded Butter of syrup, and at the top was a rag. With a match, again provided by their parents, the boys lit the rags, eyed their targets, and threw the bottles. The friends threw theirs at the armored car while Butter, the best ball thrower in his grade at school, hit one Hokum solider directly in the face. Broken, the bottles’ spilled contents caught fire immediately; the solider, having his face shield up, yelled in great agony as he fell to the ground.
     From house windows on either side of the street Comensal adults opened fire with cut-down rifles and grenade launchers. This from adults just three days earlier turned in their other weapons and accepted ID cards so readily. Butter and his friends had ducked down behind the wall and scurried away, again complying with their parents’ orders. What they left behind them was chaos. Hokum troops fired backed at the armed adults, causing great ruin with their tri-barrel assault guns and grenades. Fires started and then consumed the houses, yet the fight continued for several more minutes.
     This was the first of many such incidents in every city on the planet. Three Hokum soldiers were killed, including the one that was set on fire. Five Comensal adults were dead with an unknown number wounded. Subsequently the whole block was evacuated and each house, including the burnt-out ones, was searched strenuously. Back home, Butter, with yellow eyes beaming, got congratulatory hugs from his parents and older sister. They broke out the frozen steaks, saved for special occasions, and had a hearty dinner that night. He hoped next time he would be allowed to fire a gun instead of throwing a bottle.

Captain Linus was amazed by the facts in front of him. His sensors techs had confirmed that the original alien drive field detected in Solid State had grown to over fifty-five. To a one, the drive field frequencies were Terpla’n in nature. They were approaching the Axis military freighter at high speed on an intercept course. Clearly they would get to the ship first and Linus decided to let them do so. There was no way that the 1st RSF in its entirety could pose as a threat to the Terpla’ns, especially since so many of the ships were moving at maximum cruiser speed. Linus wanted to believe that all those contacts were just explorers or even just frigates. Then again, fifty-five explorers armed with plasma guns could send his three ships well enough off even with massive losses.
     The light code representing the Axis ship merged with the Terpla’ns and disappeared five minutes later, either having been captured or destroyed. Only then did Linus open a communication channel, requesting to speak to the Terpla’n commander. With one light-minute distance separating them, though closing it at the same time, Linus had to be patient for the reply. It came, and he found himself looking at his Terpla’n counterpart. Like the former Emperor Boban the sight of the tall alien made Linus think he was looking at an animatronic creation rather than a live being. “This is Rear Admiral Bapha of the Commonwealth Space Force,” said the squid-like being on the flat panel screen, “commanding the 1st Survey Force. Hokum Commander, state your purpose in this system.”
     Linus was well aware that his choice of words and information he was willing to share were going to be major determining factors on the ultimate outcome of this meeting. He wished Admiral Cennan, commander of the 1st RSF, was here for this talk. Not that he wanted to shirk responsibility; Linus felt that this was above his pay grade. Moreover his original command, a destroyer, was blown out from under him during the Short War with the Terpla’ns years ago. All that was needed for things to go wrong was an unconscious thought being blurted out. “This is Captain Linus of the Imperium Space Navy. My three ships are part of the 1st Reconnaissance Strike Force, engaged in a declared war against a nation known as the Asteroid Axis, comprised of a race called the Comensal. Having seen the disappearance of the Axis military freighter we were pursuing for the purpose of destroying it, I have to assume it has surrendered, been captured, or destroyed by your forces. Is your Commonwealth engaged in a war against the Asteroid Axis?”
     He waited, and was reward by what the computer subscript on the screen said was a Terpla’n smile. “I’m sorry to have poached your kill, Captain Linus. In compensation, if salvageable data is found on the ship, I will on my own authority share it with you. For the time being, I suggest we hold our present positions until both of us have informed our respective superiors. We may be here for some time, but I will let you know this. For being at war with the Axis your nation, like mine, has found it to be an implacable font of evil that must be confronted and waged against at every opportunity. I hope by this new common ground the relationship between our two nations, already nurtured by trade, will grow stronger.”
     The translation matrix had rendered Bapha’s words leaden but that didn’t lessen their impact. Linus banished the mental image he held of the being speaking to him and took what reality offered him. He trusted those words, and more importantly he believed them. “I’m sure my superiors as well as yours will see the wisdom of what you said, Admiral. We have found the Axis as you have described it. As one of our ancient philosophers once said ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’."

Chapter 2.50
For the ISA on Crimson Expanse it was supposed to be a major milestone when the last Axis Army unit was accounted for and destroyed three months into the campaign. Instead it was a day like any other as groups of Comensal civilians attacked patrols, checkpoints, and guarded structures and services. For Field General Ronon, now promoted to the rank of Region General, he felt like he was being besieged by an army that was everywhere and nowhere. The attacking civilians only had one thing in common. All of them happened to live in very close proximity of each other, often on the same block or apartment complex. There was no hint that these groups were part of a larger insurgent organization. It was as if they decided in a very short period of time to come together and attack. As for the weapons used they appeared deceptively crude but at the range employed were quite deadly. Searches for hidden weapon caches have turned up nothing. Ronon was tempted to think that the Comensal had hidden the weapons in plain sight right from the start, judging from several reports where previously searched civilians seemingly materialized weapons out of thin air.
     Professor Alba wasn’t making much headway in her study of the Comensal. While cooperative enough to where they tolerated alien oversight it was clear that they expected the Hokum to leave the planet in the near future. They went about their daily routines and affairs, their only major concessions were the planting of backyard gardens (even though there was no food shortage) and, of course, the random daily attacks. Alba submerged herself in her work, trying to find something in Comensal culture and history that would help foster enduring, mutually respecting relations.
     The Comensal governor remained at large, along with Axis general Narsan. As for the lieutenant governor, having surrendered himself along with what was left of the city of Blood Valor, his conduct would make a brick wall proud. Only the city’s director of power and water works acted on the behalf of the military government. Rebuilding the city was going to take years; the removal of rubble went without letup all day, every day. What aid the Hokum could spare was devoted to this effort but it was made clear that the Comensal were going to do practically all of it.
     For civilian combatants captured following their attacks on Hokum troops they were placed in a prison camp not too far from Blood Valor. It was a youth camp, complete with permanent structures, water and power. Over three hundred inmates were in the camp, awaiting sentencing and for the completion of a larger, more secure prison located in a remote region. Despite every security measure taken the prisoners had, somehow, armed themselves with weapons and attack. It took a concerted effort to put down the revolt. After four hours of violence the camp was in ruins and over 200 prisoners were dead, along with forty soldiers with twice that many wounded. It took the firepower of a rapid response force composed of Mongoose armored vehicles and Kangaroo personnel transports to secure the Hokum victory if one could call the result such a thing.
     With no new orders from higher headquarters the Mongoose platoon commander, Piton Susex, had his crews assist in the removal of corpses. As he supervised the work Susex knew he was looking at an example of what the Asteroid Axis expected of its people: active and deliberate violence to assert the supremacy of the Comensal race. He wondered what kind of culture produced such a people so regimented yet so unnaturally restrained when confronted with the very thing they pledged to destroy. Had they wanted to do so they could’ve resisted from the very start yet acceded to alien military orders without so much as a protest. Now the Comensal civilians were attacking Hokum soldiers as much as six times per day across the planet. As Susex saw it as more soldiers land on Crimson Expanse the number of casualties can only increase.
     What the Comensal expected to gain from all this remained a mystery to Susex. For every soldier killed at least two civilians shared the same fate. It wasn’t as if the ISA was looking for trouble, far from it. Much effort went into making the ISA presence as unobtrusive as possible. It was as if the civilians wanted these combats for the sole purpose of tying down troops all across the planet, which would make sense if the Axis came back in a big way and landed troops, securing regional supremacy. It was a given that if Lord Admiral Janus was defeated at the warp point then the whole of the Expeditionary Corps would be lifted off of CE, leaving behind their heavy equipment (irradiated so as to be useless to the Axis, of course). By conducting their attacks the civilians were only making their eventual integration (by the looks of it several generations) into the Imperium costly and needlessly wasteful.
     Susex was interrupted in his analytical thoughts by Furdex, one of his Mongoose commanders, and Pendex, a driver. In the hand of Pendex was one of the crude-looking rifles the captive Comensal had somehow acquired in the makeshift prison. “Piton, can you spare a moment?” Furdex said. “Sergeant Pendex found something.”
     “Show me.” After seeing body after body being extracted from the rubble Susex was in need of seeing something else. He was taken to a portion of a building that still stood, missing its northern and western walls. Pendex handed the Comensal rifle he was holding to Furdex and then proceeded to collect what appeared to be decorative parts from the remaining walls and bits of rubble on the floor. Then, with just a cross-point screwdriver, he assembled a rifle in less than five minutes. All that was missing was ammunition. Pendex found that by extracting a pipe from a hole in the floor and unscrewing one end. Nine rounds fell into his front hands.
     “How did you discover this?” Susex said in a perplexed tone.
     “In addition to my carpentry training, Piton, I’ve also studied plumbing and interior design,” Pendex said authoritatively. “I was curious about Comensal building materials and decorations; in my down time I inspected captured structures. Yesterday I happen to see our maintenance chief take apart one of these rifles. That’s when I recognized the parts. The barrel is made to look like a piece of piping, right down to the threading. As for the grip,” he tapped it for emphasis, “it’s a detachable one from a power drill or a staple gun. The magazine is a spring-loaded candy dispenser.”
     Susex looked at the assembled rifle. For the life of him it looked a stage prop instead of a deadly weapon. “How is it fired?”
     “Easy, Piton. Each tube of ammunition comes with a micro transmitter that’s keyed to its rounds, each of which labeled in the order they go into the magazine. Attached to the inside of the trigger, the transmitter sends a firing order when pressed against the handle. Each round is caseless and has a cake of propellant. I figure the weapon can be used up to three magazines safely before the firing tube is warped from heat.” Pendex rolled one of the rounds in his hand. “Since the rounds are stored in lead pipes our scanners couldn’t pick them up.”
     “We used a similar weapon during our civil war centuries ago, Piton,” Furdex added. “It had no moving parts; just an electronic trigger to fire the rounds. We abandoned it when rail gun technology was miniaturized to the point where it could be deployed as 4mm tri-barrel assault weapons.”
     With a wrinkled brow Susex inspected the weapon handed to him by Pendex. “Sergeant, I’ll give you prominent credit in my report to the Torero. We’ll have to assume that every building on the planet have weapons built into them. Oh, damn.” He snapped the fingers of his rear hands. “The Comensal are hauling debris out of Blood Valor. There’s no telling how many of these weapons they were able to recover.”
     Furdex agreed. “We better do something soon, Piton. If every building has a hidden arsenal then we’ll be facing an army comprised of every Comensal able to use one of those pipe rifles.”

Lord Admiral Janus was feeling better now that the first set of substantial reinforcements reached her Expeditionary Fleet. Twenty carriers now formed the core, though 144 of the 360 Spears were still of the prototype variety. All further fighter deliveries will be of the first generation type though 60 F0s were still among the stores carried by the replenishment ships. Six more Imperiums, including a flagship and all having been refitted with additional point defense, arrived with six Interiors in tow. Nine Type 2s, also refitted in light of previous combat experience, and three prefabricated BS4s (awaiting assembly) completed the combat portion of the reinforcements. Two prefabricated Reclamation space stations and six mobile yards, including the first two FT9 models, were going to be a great help in making the captured Axis corvettes usable for Hokum crews. As for the larger captured ships they’ll be patched up just enough to make the trip to Whel for more extensive refits.
     Making contact with the Commonwealth in the Solid State system proved to be a big surprise for everyone involved. Privy to the classified information from previously captured Axis databases Janus knew the CW was at war with the Axis. She was certain that Emperor Valsur, having known about Axis atrocities in Hamthen space due to those databases, was going to inform the CW ambassador (actually the Trade Commissioner) in the Coral Bridge system of how the Imperium came to be war with the Axis and what it had learned about the now-mutual foe.
     Given the intransigence of the Imperial Council, having grudgingly approved the trade treaty with the CW (and only then because the revenue generated would help the war effort), it was unlikely that a proper military alliance would be reached. They certainly won’t allow any CW ships into Imperium territory, and any collaboration will have to occur in the field. Since the CW entered the Solid State system first Janus was sure Valsur would agree to let them keep it. In one way that was a hindrance since no follow-up attack on Fallowed Field could be staged by the ISN via Solid State. On the other hand since the ISN did get to Fallowed Field first and sustained combat casualties, albeit very minor, Valsur can claim that system for the Imperium for it could be gotten to via the Tire Iron system. If the Axis should send a reconnaissance in force into Solid State they were going to find a substantive CW force, backed up by the now comparatively miniscule 1st Reconnaissance Strike Force.
     An alert warble brought Janus to the CIC of the EF’s flagship, the Watch Tower. A swarm of 200 Axis courier drones spilled into Crimson Expanse, 32 of which interpenetrated and exploded. Without a beacon for orientation 102 of the drones, addled by transit, locked onto the wrong set of co-ordinates and headed for deep space. The other 66 held true, making for the volume of space that held the planet of Crimson Expanse Prime. The minefield only knocked out eight of the drones, and the fleet, slowly orbiting the warp point, was out of position to intercept even with point defense. At the speed of 0.2c the drones would also be beyond the reach of F1 Spears.
     Janus sent a warning to Region General Ronon, believing the drones carried information for the resistance fighters on CE Prime. A general uprising at this time would compel the ISA to employ maximum effort to suppress it. If the AFC successfully breaks into CE the troops would be stranded on the planet, even if they abandoned all their equipment. The Troubadours simply didn’t have the speed to escape. It all depended on when the AFC launched its decisive assault. Perhaps not in days, but definitely in weeks, giving Ronon the tough decision whether or not to keep his army in place. With a heavy head Janus pondered the probabilities and options available to her.

With a security team in tow Ronon walked into one of the few intact buildings along the perimeter of Blood Valor. Armed with cross-point screwdriver and a pry bar he went about the structure, following the report he received from the Torero of the 31st Tactical Armor Regiment. In ten minutes time he assembled a pipe rifle, complete with ammunition. There was no notch with which to use as a sight, but Ronon recalled the briefing he got on Comensal physiology, especially the part about their eyesight as well as kinesthesia. Taking no particular aim, he fired at a wall at the end of a hallway three times. The way the wall was cratered from those hits made the Region General appreciate the immense hazard that now faced his troops.
     A soldier stepped forward and gave Ronon a comm unit, accepting the rifle in return. It had been three days since the Axis drones broadcasted their encrypted message to CE Prime. Ronon thought it was Corps Intelligence informing him of a breakthrough but instead found it was Professor Alba. She was among a handful of Hokum on the planet that had immediate, unfettered access to the General. Right now she looked excited and worried at the same time. “General, there’s something very important playing on the Comensal closed-circuit networks. It’s on every channel.”
     About to use another comm that would link him to his headquarters Ronon was shown by a solider that there was a wall screen in the building’s foyer. Still connected to power and undamaged the screen came to life quickly. Ronon went ahead and contacted his headquarters and had real-time translation done. From what he was seeing it appeared to be a children’s show. He recalled watching part of one episode a few weeks ago, finding it very much in the same vein like the ones his grandchildren watched, such as learning the pronunciation of words. In this case the Comensal children in the studio audience were taught the word ‘liberation’ and sang a simple song about it. What was disturbing was the inclusion of words like blood and violence in that song, and the exhortation that children must participate in ‘liberation.’
     Ronon’s disgust was replaced with focused interest when the host of the show introduced two special guests – the planetary governor, Banjun, and General Narsan. Even as he listened to the translation from one comm and gave confirmation for special action plans to another Ronon noticed the tone of voice the two adult Comensal used. It was self-righteousness that one would expect from comedic villains of literature. He couldn’t make sense of the message they were telling, even with words that the children could understand. All he saw were the two men, having refused to surrender and negotiate, that were responsible for the destruction of a whole city and the deaths of over 10,000 civilians.
     The gross spectacle culminated when stage hands brought out life-sized standups of Hokum soldiers. Following this a large crate was wheeled out in front of the audience. Banjun and Narsan got behind the crate, reached in and started to chuck pipe rifles at the children. Seeing gleefully squealing little children accept the weapons like candy was an unconscionable act of cynicism imaginable to a Hokum. Every effort was made to get the message across that the civilians had nothing to fear from the Imperium, not the least of which was the specter of genocide.
     Ronon recalled something else. In the captured reports and stories of Axis Army actions on Hamthen Prime the authors commented how guerilla groups fought the fiercest when a sanctuary area was discovered. The mockingly noted that had the Hamthen children been armed and fought alongside the adults then a more substantial fight would’ve resulted. At that Ronon had an epiphany. Had the Comensal any care for the future, if only for their children, then the program he just saw would never had existed. To have children involved in fighting, on a colony world that still had a chance to be recovered by their forces, wasn’t an act of desperation but of delusional madness.
     Back on the screen Ronon saw the children fire the pipe rifles, loaded with colored balls instead of actual bullets, and scoring more hits that not on the standups, including a disproportionate number of head hits. The charge used to fire the balls was less than that for a bullet but it still produced a kick that made the children reassert their footing after each shot. The show abruptly ended and was replaced by regularly scheduled programming, in this case a cooking primer. Ronon got back into contact with Alba. “Professor, what were Banjun and Narsan talking about? I was occupied in giving orders for most of it.”
     With the same look of disgust that Ronon was showing Alba gave the answer. “It’s something historians call the Beautiful People myth. The myth is set in a past where the people lived in a harmonious civilization and in balance with nature. War was unknown and the people only took what they needed and returned all excess back to the land. That civilization was destroyed when the people forgot to maintain the balance.” She rubbed her jaw like she had a toothache. “They believe that only their race deserves to be stewards to all the worlds in the Cosmos with the permission of Providence. Banjun himself said it was the Comensal’s duty to make the ideals of the old civilization a reality. All other races, being abominations and desecrators of the land, are to be exterminated and their worlds restored to balance.”
     Ronon made a decision on the spot. “Professor, I’m going to have you removed from North Barrows immediately and taken to my command camp, along with the other civilian specialists. Those toy guns you saw were not toys, but actual weapons loaded with practice rounds. It isn’t beyond the realm of possibility that the number of attacks against our troops will increase dramatically in the next few hours.”
     “That is advisable, General. It seems cultural imperatives are instilled into Comensal at a very young age. What I just saw confirms it. I’ll tell you more about it once I’m in camp. Good thing I have a light pack.”
     “See you soon, Professor.” Ronon handed his comms to a soldier and then, with the pipe rifle in the grip of his right front hand, took aim and fired at the wall screen. Its destruction served no purpose other than to vent rage he wanted to use against Banjun and Narsan. Minutes after he boarded the flyer that took him back to the command camp the first reports of violence inspired by the broadcast came pouring in.

The commander of Camp Lazlo, though just having seen the tail end of the broadcast, put all units at standby deployment status. Others, enjoying until then a well-deserved R&R posting, had seen it all. Having tapped the closed circuit feed some time before the camp-wide network broadcasted Comensal programming complete with subtitles with just a one-minute delay. In one of the several dining halls in Camp Lazlo sat the crew of the Loaded Vice. It was while watching a Comensal game called football that the crew saw it abruptly replaced by a children’s show. After attempting to find something else and discovering it was on all the channels the mess hall viewers decided to watch the show just for amusement.
     By the end of it everyone was thoroughly disgusted, most of all Licus. Her arms trembled with rage. “What kind of perverted cultural imperative do they have that requires 6-year-olds to know how to fire a weapon? They should be out on a playground for fun, not learning how to kill.”
     “Perhaps they’ve been at war so often that weapons training has become part of the curriculum,” offered Spuran. “Or it may be a tradition that goes back hundreds of years.”
     “It’s still wrong,” Licus seethed. “They all acted like soldiers at a firing range, complete uniformity in action. Hell, the front row even went down on one knee so the row behind them could fire over their heads.”
     “She’s right,” Pendex admitted. “Remember playing guns at school? What was certain to happen every time? You shoot your friends just as often you shot at the other team, just for the fun of it. There was none of that on the show. They didn’t even shoot at the adults, and that tells me that they’ve been conditioned to treat every weapon as loaded with live rounds.”
     Furdex knocked the table top with three sets of knuckles. “Given how easy it is to make a rifle from those hidden-in-plain-sight parts do you want to bet that the children know how to assemble one, even in the dark? Want to bet how many of them are asking their parents right now to go out and shoot some Hokum?”
     “Hold on there, Sarge,” Spuran protested. “You think we’re going to face armed children out in the field? That’s insane. They’re be throwing away an entire generation, if not the planet, for a fight they can’t win.”
     “I believe they have been, Spuran, right from the start.” Furdex looked at Licus sharply. “Tell them about the technicals.”
     Having to grip the table so as to still the tremors in her arms Licus spoke deliberately. “It kept bothering me why the technicals we engaged earlier were carrying so many people for the type of opposition they were going against. So I went to the divisional field analysis post and requested to see the refined data. It was assumed the rocketeers in the back of the technicals were adults laid prone. They were children. For them to use children in such a way, using weapons that wouldn’t make a damn against our vehicle….” She stopped herself, knowing she would’ve shouted the rest and made a scene.
     An announcement came over the PA, informing all field troops and vehicle platoons to prepare for immediate deployment. Furdex gave Licus’ left back shoulder a squeeze in a sign of support. She stood up with the rest of the crew and made for motor pool, thinking to herself what she had wanted to say aloud. For what the Comensal have done and were all too willing to accept for it Licus damned them with the wrath of the Five Gods. It was going to cost the Hokum an untold number of lives to pacify the planet along with a portion of their souls.

It was one hour before the broadcast that eventually became known as ‘Banjun and Narsan’s Excellent Storytime’ reached the Expeditionary Fleet at WP 2. The crews had developed an interest in watching Comensal programs, even the ones that were so propagandistic in message they came across as comedies. This morning was different as the whole fleet was at general quarters: Admiral Janus came up with a plan.
     With no regular pinnaces having made it back from probing the far side of the CE/Abyssal-018 warp point after three months of trying it was time to do a probe assault. Given the number of imponderables involved sending in just armed pinnaces was the only justified course of action. Armed exclusively with FRAMs the 120 Apins were going in Abyssal-018, gauge the strength of the enemy, and destroy any nearby warships and as many fighters as possible and return.
     As much trouble as it had been in getting the Apin force up to strength it was going to be much easier from now on to restore it. The five systems between Crimson Expanse and Whel now had space stations, albeit each with half the tonnage of a corvette. The project, which used 80% of the ISN’s mobile FT5 machine shops, also served as a route for regular, liner and cargo pinnaces, freeing up the large bulk transports so they could transport prefabricated base components. An Apin moving at cruising speed, using the 14 stations en-route, could cover the distance from Whel Station to CE WP 2 in 29 days, making it faster than using a tender by nine days.
     From the Watch Tower’s CIC Janus observed the Apins, now officially designated as Garrochas, plunge as one through the warp point. Statistically at least 18 would interpenetrate on the far side, but that was a sanitized way of saying 108 people were dead without having firing one shot at the enemy. She kept her gaze on the holographic warp point icon; its pulsing seemed like breathing. So much so she found herself breathing in tempo with it, only stopping when 95 seconds later the Garrochas returned.
     There were 28 ID codes swarming over the warp point, but only briefly as two pairs combined and winked out, leaving just 24 from an initial force of 120. The 80% loss rate resulted from interpenetration, minefields, fighters, and shipboard weapons. 576 personnel, almost the number needed to crew a single Interior class cruiser, were lost. In material terms the cost of 96 Garrochas and 480 FRAMs nearly equaled 10 Type 2 destroyers. Janus hated the losses because they were a result in having to employ a force large enough to ensure enough came back to report. Now with stabilized systems the Garrochas began to transmit their sensor logs. Watch Tower’s CIC computers correlated the data and displayed the results on the main flat screens.
     Extrapolating from the density of the minefield portions the Garrochas entered there were 900 patterns around the warp point. 900 buoys were sown among the mines and orbiting them were eight squadrons of fighters. What looked like six type-5 bases sat almost 5 LS from the warp point. As for warships they were 1.5 LS out, comprising 6 DN, 6 BB, 12 BC, 9 CA, 9 CL, 12 DD and 12 FG. The apparent Axis carrier group was 4 LS out, containing 4 CV, 4 CVL, 2 CA and 2 DD. For their horrendous losses the Garrochas destroyed 6 Hailfire BCs, severely damaged two more and shot down twelve fighters.
     In less than two months the first Indomitables, Implacables, Imperial Valors and Turtles will arrive in Crimson Expanse. Even if the Axis reinforced in that time Janus was sure that her assault would succeed. With resources stretched fighting the CSF there was little the AFC could do in the short run to bolster Abyssal-018, much less Fallowed Field. No, the worst Janus expected from her boney opponents was a spoiling attack, either here in CE or at Laser Burn, a system that connected to Circuit Run and in turn to Borehole, Forger’s Gate and Bedrock. Mobile machine shops were just now assembling control bases to back up the Empresarios in Laser Burn, a system that was also taking the bulk of new mine and buoy deliveries for the next two months. The money was still on CE, for it was just three transits from Bedrock while going via Laser Burn would entail a four transit voyage and facing the automated defenses of three warp points instead of just one.
     So it was two hours after the Garrocha assault that the fleet finally got to see the Comensal Broadcast. Two hours after that came the first reports of mass groups of Comensal civilians attacking ISA troops. It made mention of attacks conducted by children, but didn’t initially include one of the most bizarre incidents. That had to wait until much later.

Region General Ronon’s command camp was Camp Tallan, located 30km north of Blood Valor and home of the 5th Division. Of the prefab buildings there were none taller than two stories, one of which was the command center. On the second level was Ronon’s office, overlooking the ground floor with its many consoles and operators going about their duties. The general was sitting on his folding chair, reading and checking off items on a datapad. Professor Alba was also in the office, having recently arrived from North Barrows. She had finished the coffee offered to her by Ronon, holding the empty cup in her back left hand. “So I take it that it’s started,” she mused.
     The tired-looking general tossed the stylus and pad onto his desk. “It has, Professor. Those that didn’t have the hotblood before are now charged up. I guess seeing the governor and hearing that story gave them enough encouragement.” The once-steaming cup of coffee on his desk had now cooled, but that didn’t prevent him from downing it all in one swig. “You said you had more information for me?”
     “Yes I do,” Alba said, the caffeine banishing her fatigue. “The medical specialists have made a discovery in the Comensal medical texts. Basically, by the time a Comensal is four years old its brain is practically filled of synaptic connections. In comparison the brain of a Hokum doesn’t reach that level until age 12.”
     “Sounds like they should be brainiacs,” Ronon said off the cuff.
     “If properly trained,” Alba asserted, “they could literally be anything. All those untold number of synapses are like unused circuit connections. A four-year-old Comensal child would utilize only a tenth of those connections. To make use of the rest the Comensal have all their children attend an intensive schooling program that lasts for two years. After that their education is more sedate but the foundation has been created.”
     Being a former student of Alba always resulted in one utilizing their imagination. Tired as he was Ronon had an insight. “They wired their brains to accept, even on the subconscious level, the ideals of their culture and the righteousness of their destiny. Programmed like so many robots.”
     Alba sighed. “Not so melodramatic but essentially correct. If they were older, it would be considered brainwashing. This explains a great deal about their conformity….” Finding Ronon wasn’t listening Alba turned to what had his attention. It was one of the large ceiling-mounted screens, and on it there was appeared to be a live feed. From appearances the location was outdoors, and the camera moved about as if the holder was walking. An adult Comensal was on-frame, chatting away while approaching something that was burning a short distance away. It turned out to be a wrecked Weasel tactical utility vehicle, and the form of a Hokum soldier was slumped against it.
     The real-time translation came as subtitles scrawling across the bottom of the screen but no-one was reading it. All watched as the purple-eyed adult first poked and then kicked the soldier. He took off the helmet and then, producing a handgun, the adult took aim and shot the soldier in the head. As bad as the scene was it got worse when the camera turned to pick up the source of off-screen laughter.
     Eight Comensal children, all armed with pipe rifles and clad in dark jump suits, were behind the cameraman. The adult said something that made the children shut up and come over to the vehicle. In a minute they had dragged out the driver, badly wounded and yelling in pain. They pulled on the driver’s back pair of arms in the belief they were fakes and got more howls of pain for their effort. Getting another admonishment from the adult the children tied the driver’s front arms together and dragged him through the ferns to one of the few tall trees native to the planet.
     Alba’s eyes were almost shut from squinting in revulsion but Ronon’s were completely open. He watched as the adult assisted the children in hanging the driver by his front arms from a stout branch of the tree, his back to the camera. Then, in a scene that made more than a few of those watching sick, the children used the suspended driver as target practice, shooting at his back arms until they fell off and landed in the ferns at the base of the tree.
     In an excited voice the adult pointed to the sky, the cameraman zooming in to show that it was an Eagle Eye UAV. The children rushed and circled the tree, pipe rifles defiantly pointed skyward. Imagery from the drone was shown on the large screen which now split to show both views. The drone had zoomed in on the hanging driver, showing that he was still alive from the movement of his head. As for the cameraman he backed off a bit so that he could get the children and adult in the same frame. Jeering at the drone, it appeared they were actually taunting the controller on the other end to kill them and by doing so kill the driver in the process.
     Ronon found himself fighting back the bile in his throat. On secondary feeds he saw and heard reports of other patrols and guard points coming under attack by adult-lead children squads. In their understandable revulsion to shoot children the soldiers were restraining themselves and suffering for it. Ronon could all too easily imagine a campaign fought with sleep gas and kid gloves lasting years and inflicting massive Hokum casualties. Scenes like the driver would be repeated thousands of times as a result, and that was something neither Ronon or his army was willing to take.
     The drone launched a weapon and its camera tracked it all the way down. It was a napalm dispenser, coating an ellipse-shaped area with sticky fuel that burned out quickly but at a high temperature. Ungodly screams came from the Comensal, including the cameraman, dropping his charge so that it covered his short-lived running. He staggered and fell face-first into the burning ferns. Up on high the drone confirmed that everyone had been burned to death, including the driver, his corpse still dangling from the charred tree limb that looked ready to give way at any moment.
     Ronon turned to a stunned Alba, feeling like he’d been made a monster against his will. “Well, Professor, it looks like I’ll be getting a failing grade after all.”

Chapter 2.75
As the first emperor ever to preside over a war there was no established protocol for Valsur to consult when it came to vacations. Going to a resort off-planet was an option until research showed that the majority of previous emperors and empresses often went off-planet when confronted with scandal. To avoid that impression Valsur spent a week at a forest house that belonged to his wife’s parents.
     Little Vendex was kept occupied by his grandparents while Valsur and his wife Avita took to hiking, wildlife study, tennis and swimming. It was a pleasant enough of an escape, but the war had its own priorities. On the fourth day a government courier arrived and had Valsur sign for a message that came from the Imperial Council. He was required to read it and send a response as soon as possible. Only after sending Vendex to bed that night did Valsur read the message in the company of Avita.
     “The last of the Expeditionary Corps has landed on Crimson Expanse,” Valsur said after sipping fruit juice. “Our casualties are now 20,000 with 6,000 dead. Comensal casualties are at least 100,000 with 17,000 dead.”
     “What about prisoners?” Avita asked pensively. “Are we still trying to take prisoners?”
     Valsur shook his head. “That is the reason why our casualties are what they are now. Comensal fight to the death, and those we did capture with sleep gas kept attempting to escape until they die trying or become the center of insane rescue attempts.”
     Avita finished her glass of juice. “Has there been any real thought given in collecting Comensal babies? They wouldn’t be burdened with the indoctrination given young children.”
     Valsur shook his back hands in an unconscious display of denial. “I seriously doubt we’ll get even one infant. They fight and die as families. Even the babies are used as weapons. Several dozen incidents have been reported of babies being rigged with explosives so that if they’re picked up….”
     “Monstrous!” Avita exclaimed. Like everyone else that fought against the Axis she found its disdain for their children’s’ future to be sickening. “They’re that callous with their own? They think that after all is said and done they’ll just make more children to replace the ones they so casually used like ammunition?”
     “At the risk of sounding like a monster, at the rate they’re going they’ll run out of ammunition,” Valsur stated harshly. “They may have been egged on by their officials to fulfill the tenets of their cultural imperatives. I’m willing to concede that point. All they need is dissuasion.” Writing hard and fast so that he needed two hand to hold he pad firmly Valsur composed a reply. “I just made an imperial decree for IA Bemus. He is to instruct Ronon to smash each city, town, and work site on CE and lay waste to the fields. That, along with the winter season that’s now occurring in the northern hemisphere, which also had the bulk of the population, should make the Comensal rethink their priorities.”
     “That could take years, Valsur,” Avita said in counter-point. “Are we willing as a race to take casualties for that long while our enemies, having firmly stated that their purpose in life is to kill all of us, slowly starve and sicken in the field, never conceding defeat and dying to prevent being captured?” She looked at Valsur with an intensity usually found in fighting or lovemaking. “As Emperor, will you be able to handle the burden of this decision?”
     “I’m going to have to take it, Avita. The emperor that comes after me will have the means to incorporate the Comensal into the Imperium, either as citizens or corpses.”

Camp Lazlo had been busy continuously ever since the uprising started six weeks ago. Surgeries operated with rotating teams of doctors, armories doled out ammunition like groceries, and mechanics patched up vehicles without knowing if it was day or night. The pit chief in one garage had his gang work over a vehicle called Loaded Vice. It sustained numerous hits and scuffs while in the field but it took the platoon leader, Piton Susex, to order the crew to take it in for repairs
     “How did you manage this?” the pit chief asked Furdex, the vehicle commander. He pointed to a big deformation in the bow plate. “This wasn’t done by a rocket hit.”
     Looking a bit strained and with lines below his eyes Furdex rubbed his left front hand over the dent like a driver inspecting a bumper after a collision. “We were supporting a company of infantry in an urban assault sweep when our mortar rounds ran out. On one building there was a persistent set of snipers. Our proximity 30mm rounds were having no effect, so I had my driver ram the building’s northwest support column multiple times. That caused the whole corner to collapse; crushing some of the snipers and making the others expose themselves to counterfire as they tried to leave.”
     “You’re lucky the front axle didn’t get out of alignment,” the chief spat out. “As it is it’ll take five days to get Vice back up to specs, even with the fabrication shop on the Minstrel Show.” He looked back to the turret and found Spuran the gunner painting something in red. “You’re doing it again? It’ll just serve as an aiming point for those boney bastards.”
      “All the better for me to shoot back at them,” Spuran boasted. “Nothing draws out the fire of a boney like a Mongoose.”
      “Just what is the score now, quickdraw?”
     A flick of the wrist and Spuran was done tallying Vice’s kill board in bright red lettering. “Two tanks, eleven technicals, one Black Bird UAV and 280 personnel, give or take five.”
     “By personnel you mean ones actually armed with weapons?” the chief said critically. “You heard what happened to that Mongoose crew in the 4th Division?”
     Spuran’s back arms flexed instinctively from the tone of the chief’s voice. He looked down from his turret perch like he was about to pounce. Furdex stepped forward and placed himself in-between his gunner and the wrench monger. “We heard that story, Chief. For the record they did go overboard in their response, despite the fact their vehicular commander had her head blow clean off by a sniper on the school’s roof. They practically leveled the building in response and circled the burning debris, not caring what they ran over in the process. As for my crew, my vehicle,” Furdex slapped the side of the Vice with both left hands, “we only shot at those that shot at us or the troops we’ve supporting. And yes, they were all armed, regardless of age, whether it was a pipe rifle or a bottle of fire syrup.”
     “I was just saying….” The chief said, but was slapped down by Furdex.
     “It’s going to get a lot worse before it lets up, Chief. Frankly I’m surprised the boneheads haven’t tried to assault our divisional bases. They’ve attacked practically everything else of ours on this planet, including forward aid stations. My crew witnessed the result of a boney attack on an aid station. Of the children involved, they used knives on those wounded that couldn’t defend themselves.”
     The rest of the pit crew had stopped and listened to Furdex’s story. He looked at them with a level of contempt reserved for those that haven’t fired so much as one shot in anger. “I see all of you aren’t wearing sidearms. You may think you’ll have time to get armed in case of attack, but you haven’t seen how fast or stealthy a boney child can be when the need is upon him. Unlike the helpless wounded, you wouldn’t have an excuse.” He gestured to Spuran, having him come off the vehicle and accompany him to a dining hall. The pit crew and the chief resumed work on the Loaded Vice, but only after arming themselves with service handguns and holsters, along with three extra clips of ammunition.

As for the Expeditionary Fleet the past six weeks was a study of agitated waiting. The Comensal broadcast centers on CE had been all destroyed, leaving only the daily news report originating on a mobile shipyard orbiting the planet. It offended the sensibilities of the spacers that enemy civilians would rather expend themselves in ultimately futile battles than wait for a rescue by their fleet. It was as if they wanted to fight just so the survivors could say they did their part in killing Hokum soldiers.
     The flood of Axis courier drones weeks earlier that had in all likelihood started the CE uprising could only have come from the ships guarding the other side of the CE/Abyssal-018 warp point. Question was, when will the Axis mount a proper assault to reclaim CE? As if offering a response an Axis intrusion started two hours after the news broadcast announced the ISA casualty totals reached 20,000.
     First to appear were two DN-sized vessels, likely assault carriers or equally-armored minesweepers. More than a few jaws and curses were dropped when a mass transit of 240 ships was detected. When the sensors cleared from the numerous interpenetrations it was shown the Axis had 110 explorer-sized vessels, 14 escorts, 14 undersized corvettes, and 26 full-sized corvettes. Behind them were two more DNs and a CV. The explorers, escorts, and full-sized corvettes were classes not previously seen by the ISN. All the small ships were facing the arbitrary direction of southeast while the bulk of the ISN ships were 1.5 LS northeast of the warp point.
     Had this assault happen just two weeks later then it would’ve seen the participation of three ISN type-4 beam bases, currently in the final stages of reassembly over CE. Without them the defenders still had the considerable force of the Expeditionary Fleet and its antimatter-armed fighters. Fifteen squadrons were on the CAP and as one they swarmed the warp point when the first Axis ship made its appearance. First to fire was an Axis DN, believed to be an assault carrier for it fired just one HET laser, hitting a Type 2 while failing to knock out a single minefield pattern with BAM-Rc rounds.
     Just five of the fifteen CAP squadrons became active and fired their FRAMs, each targeting one of the large Axis ships. With shields down it was revealed that the DNs were two assault carriers and two minesweepers. Those ISN ships that became active focused their efforts in smashing a DN(V)s hanger bays while taking out as many explorers as possible. Having so many of those small ships involved meant not only to dilute buoy fire but also signal the Axis’ intent to bodily clear a path through the mines. One DN(V) lost its hangers and fighters and 9 out of 110 explorers were vaporized.
     A buoy tender and one of the recently completed control bases became active and together had 200 energy-beam buoys open up on the Axis intruders. It was enough to reveal that the small ships had shielding to one extent or another and that the normal sized corvettes had overload dampeners. Those that happened to be hit twice were able to disperse the energy that got past their shielding, thus preserving their interiors. Upon seeing this Lord Admiral Janus had to complement her foe for readily adapting his assault force to counter the energy buoys. At the same time those corvettes were more expensive to build than the previous model, making their destruction a priority.
     Like the last time there was no second wave, and the intact DN(V) and CV launched nine squadrons of fighters. One explorer and escort transited back into Abyssal-018, leaving the remaining 100 explorers to launch their cutters and engage engine modulation. The minefield patch targeted by the Axis ships with their BAM rounds was reduced to 73 patterns. First to enter this ravaged patch were 73 explorers, all of them barely surviving the initial mine attacks yet only 44 remained mobile. Momentarily those 44 completed their destruction as they attempted to leave the minefields with the corvettes following on their heels. Other than losing armor the corvettes were intact, yet jamming from the Deflectors rendered their datalinks useless.
     The 100 cutters had split into three groups, each heading for their own Interior cruiser. Still rushing to action stations, the trio could only offer tepid resistance, shooting down only three rammers. Shields collapsed and armor buckled; it was clear which ships were going to be brought down by the corvettes’ plasma guns.
     Just outside the jamming radius of the Deflectors the Axis fighter squadrons went after those Hokum CAP squadrons that still hadn’t fired yet. F1 Spears that did fire their FRAMs earlier still had their guns packs, killing Axis fighters even as they shot down squadrons that opened up on the dreadnoughts. Of the 27 explorers still on the warp point 16 were destroyed by Hokum ships along with the 29 immobilized ones in the minefield. With nine corvettes also blasted there were just 64 active Axis ships left.
     Utilizing 280 of the reusable laser buoys and last 100 available energy buoys the Hokum were able to immobilize 20 corvettes and finish off the first DN(V). As a group the fifteen escorts plunged into the warp point and returned to Abyssal-018, followed by the remaining 11 explorers of which two interpenetrated on the far side. Of the eleven corvettes in the mines still able to generate a drivefield they pressed on, being completed obliterated in return for taking 220 mines down with them.
     Having done their duty over the warp point the Axis fighters turned on the Hokum ships, gunning for a destroyer with their short range attack missiles. They fired, despite having their datalinks broken by jamming, and managed to destroy one Type 2before succumbing to pursuing fighters and point defense. With needle beams at work the remaining Type 2s sought to disarm and immobilize the remaining Axis ships. The battle ended two minutes after it had started. Janus had to marvel at the expense the Axis incurred just to conduct a spoiling attack. It was apparent they hadn’t developed antimatter ordnance yet or the armed pinnace, a weapon far more ideal to mass transit attacks than ships by any stretch of the imagination. For the great expenditure of lives the enemy only destroyed one BC, three Interiors, one Type 2, 26 fighters, 18 energy buoys, and 55 mine patterns and damaged another Type 2.
     Still contending with the previous probe assault captures the bounty from this battle would have to wait for conversion work. One DN(V), two DN sweepers, a CV, two regular-sized and sixteen undersized corvettes were systematically towed to CE. With some many ships the odds favored at least one will still have an intact database (which was proven to be the case), so Janus decided to spare her boarding parties and simply destroy the live support of those Axis ships that still had it.
     It occurred to Janus that had her opponent elected to send in the known forces in Abyssal-018, even in normal transit, ISN casualties would’ve been higher. Given what happened in Fallowed Field, had she been in charge, then the mobile defenders in Abyssal-018 should’ve been pulled backed to Bedrock. The fact that the Axis was content with staging another probe attack, and a half-hearted one at that, meant they were waiting for further reinforcement. Janus was sure that meant antimatter ordnance, and given how much punishment the one DN(V) took to be destroyed composite armor was now in the Axis fleet.
     Two weeks. In just two weeks the assault DNs would be on hand. Provided that the Axis wasn’t hideously reinforced in that time the Expeditionary Fleet would move on Abyssal-018 in force. The more she thought about it Janus doubted she would get clearance to move a segment of ships into Tire Iron via Fallowed Field, thereby isolating the forces in Abyssal-018. The situation with the CSF and the Solid State system has so far not been resolved. Rather than think about missed opportunities Janus worked with her staff in coming up with an assault plan. Two pinnace probes would be conducted before the DNs arrived so as to see if the Axis had been reinforced in the interim.
     SAR operations successfully recovered 1,100 personnel from the downed ships. The defensive minefields and energy buoys were rearranged so that there was an even distribution. An order sent to the mobile machine shops over CE to prep 26 replacement fighters. With anticipation building the crews of the Expeditionary Fleet were eager to attack. A spectacular success would go a long way to boost morale in the Imperium in light of the hellish combat on Crimson Expanse.

It was snowing in Vista Platte, a city of 16,000 roughly 800km northwest of the capital city of Blood Valor. The minimal ISA presence that was in the city before the Uprising was gone, forced out with heavy casualties. Eagle Eye UAVs prowled at attitude, attacking any sign of armed activity. A subsequent blockade prevented vehicles from going in and out. Being an agricultural processing center Vista Platte had a considerable supply of food, and denying its service to other population centers would render useful results. Under what came to be known as the ‘miserable and wet’ policy the city was one of the first to be demolished for the sole purpose of denying its inhabitants a roof over their heads. While they may have their basements those caught in them while the buildings above them collapse would be effectively entombed. Calls for the civilians to surrender their arms went unanswered along with amnesty offers. The Comensal civilians prepared for ISA troops to invade the city in a conventional way.
     Vista Platte had the distinction of being the first city to be subjected to attack by the recently developed orbital kinetic bombardment system. Observed warehouses were attacked first, utterly demolished by 100kg projectiles fired at 10% the speed of light. For the troops waiting on the city’s perimeter it was like watching lightning being hurled from the heavens. Fires broke out where the ‘rods from the gods’ hit, each subsequent strike provided more fuel for the flames. In twenty minutes all the major buildings were destroyed, with fires spreading to housing areas, yet there was no civilian exodus. That night the steady light snowfall was replaced by blizzard conditions and bitter cold.
     For the troops observing the civilians it was surreal. Between the fires and the snow they showed no inclination to leave the city. Instead they concentrated in putting out the most dangerous fires and digging entrances to basement shelters. Teams of civilians still kept to the perimeter, watching and practically daring the ISA to attack, even in a major snow storm. Five days into the wretched weather a surprise attack was launched on one concentration of ISA troops, causing massive casualties and only ending when armored vehicles bulldogged their way in and provided close-in covering fire. It was found that the civilians were equipped with military-grade thermal cloaks, effectively hiding them from Hokum sensors and well as their eyes in the blizzard.
     It turned out to be the same in other cities and towns that were selected to be rendered uninhabitable via bombardment. They stayed put, though often a group of civilians would come forward to surrender only to pull out concealed weapons, even knives, to die attacking. It was also proven time and again that there was no way to handle Comensal prisoners other than keeping them unconscious practically all the time. Professor Alba was on the edge of despair after reading battlefield reports. Incredible as it seemed the civilians in towns that had yet to be bombarded demolished their structures so as to make them better suited for defense.
     As distasteful as it was Alba had to conclude the Comensal were so truly set in their beliefs that any sort of accommodation, much less peace, was impossible. Most telling and gruesome on exactly how far the Comensal were willing to go to defy the Hokum was that infants were killed by their own parents rather than run the risk of them being captured. She wracked her brains to come up with an explanation for such behavior. Feeling that something obvious had missed her attention Alba delved into Comensal historical texts again. After three days of intense searching she found a connection.
     Many centuries ago on the Comensal homeworld there was a major clash of nation states. In one of those wars one nation invaded another and made considerable gains. Rather than admit defeat the leader of the besieged nation called upon his citizens to resist and engage the invaders while the army rebuilt itself for a decisive offensive. The invaders became so tied down fighting guerrilla bands that it had failed to subdue the nation before the winter season. By the time spring came the invaders, weakened and short of supplies due prolonged guerrilla activity, were unable to resist the resurgent army and were decisively defeated. In time the nation triumphed and destroyed the invaders, taking its territory and people for its own. Two pairs of snapping fingers mentally went off in Alba’s head. After furthering research she found that the nation that resisted the invaders was the one that held beliefs that eventually became those of the entire Comensal race. With brains that absorbed knowledge and intolerance at an early age, repeated for generations, resulted in the current incarnation of Comensal civilization. Alba wrote her report and sent it to Ronon. She had a fair guess to the conclusions he’ll draw from it, but in the end it was a matter for the IC and the Emperor to decide.

The defenders of Abyssal-018 felt confident. Sensor readings from the latest probe attack in CE had shown only a modest increase of Imperium ships. More important there were no signs of battleships or dreadnoughts. Until the appearance of heavily-armored assault carriers, and barring a massive tsunami of armed pinnaces, it was felt the Imperium would stay put. With Circuit Run threatened by CSF forces in Borehole the AFC didn’t need a fresh breakout to contend with at this time.
     Sitting at the other warp point in Abyssal-018 were eight mobile shipyards, a small freighter and three small tugs. Two BS5(V)s and a BS5(E) were being assembled from prefabricated parts. Already with one month’s work done, it would be two more months before the bases were completed and another three weeks after that for the crated fighters on the freighter to be prepped and made ready. The other five mobile yards were engaged in refitting the new composite armor on three DNs and three DDs. In three weeks a quartet of mobile repair ships and additional warships would arrived to bolster the defenses. As it turned out their services would be utilized elsewhere.
     It was two weeks after the last Axis spoiling attack when first ship of the Hokum assault wave, an Imperial Valor, made transit. Two more followed it, and what came after them were 120 Garrochas (armed pinnaces) and 40 Turtle escorts. 18 Garrochas and 14 Turtles were lost via interpenetration. The Axis crews noted this increase in Imperium aggressiveness, using for the first time small ships with which to dilute laser buoy fire. Rounding out the first wave was another Imperial Valor and a Rodeo Clown minesweeper.
     The Axis task group was the same as the Garrochas left it two months earlier. Regular warships orbited the warp point clockwise at a range of 1.5 LS at a speed of 0.033c. Currently they were northwest of the warp point. The carriers were 3.75 LS northeast, moving at the same speed and going counter-clockwise. As for the six known bases they were still 4.75 LS north. Eight squadrons of Hatchets, the same number as before, were on the CAP. As they fell on the Hokum ships, racing to activate fire control systems, the first DN fired its CAMs at an Axis Prestige. Just three hit, but armed with antimatter the CAMs took down 1/3 of the Prestige’ shields.
     Losing 11 of their number in the mines the 91 remaining Garrochas opened up with internal guns and point defense, knocking out nine buoys. The presence of the Turtles muddled the targeting priorities of the Axis units to such an extent that those ships and CAP squadrons that became active focused on destroying them instead of the DNs. 11 of the little ships were destroyed with two more damaged. One Imperial Valor was heavily damaged with another losing its shields and 14% of its armor. The targeted Prestige lost all of its passive defenses and was streaming air. On a positive note for the Axis three of their fleet carriers crashed-launched 12 squadrons.
     Just one buoy controller attained on-line status which meant only 100 one-shot laser buoys could be activated. Each of the 20 Hokum ships on the warp point were targeted by five buoys each. Only one previously damaged Turtle was obliterated. The one heavily damaged Imperial Valor only got hit by three lasers, a twist of fate that allowed it to survive to launch its brood of 42 fighters. Had the captain of just one Axis destroyer or frigate fired on the ship then it would’ve gone up in an apocalyptic fireball for its fighters as well as those in its three sister ships were armed with FRAMs.
     It wasn’t the sight of 168 fighters catapulted into space that angered the blood of the Axis defenders. The second wave entered, composed of five DNs of yet another new class and a second Rodeo Clown. Drive field frequencies of the fourth and fifth DNs caught the eye of scanner techs, realizing that there was a match in their databases. Optical inspection revealed them to be Axis hulls, though they were painted in yellow and blue instead of red, white and black. Even the targeting sensors of the two DNs were of the same kind as used by the Axis. This was totally unacceptable for the defenders. In the history of the AFC this was the first time an enemy used hulls it had captured against the original owners. Targeting priorities was now set. Starting with the two desecrated hulls every enemy ship was to be completely destroyed.
     14 squadrons of Spears stayed on the warp point to engage the remaining armed CAP squadrons and buoys with their lasers while the other 14 squadrons and 55 Garrochas went after the warships. Many ships were mauled, especially the destroyers and frigates. Of the 36 other Garrochas they took a different course that would put them on top of the missile bases in 120 seconds. Only 6 Spears where shot down by the Axis ships, a pitiful number especially in the light of the disproportionate damage they received. The CAP squadrons found their datalinks jammed, courtesy of the first wave DN(V)s. Making the most of their predicament they went after Turtles, smashing them so as reduce their effectiveness in diluting buoy fire.
     Both of the Axis-hulled Hokum DNs were destroyed with great malice. The only other consolation was that only 4 Turtles remained, making for just 13 ships on the warp point. When two of the small control bases became active they coordinated with the controller on the BS5R, releasing 300 IDEW-Ls. Though only capable of doing two-thirds the damage of a similar number of the one-shot variety they did their job. The first Imperial Valor was lost along with the last of the Turtles. One second wave Indomitable was badly damaged but retained it full suite of weapons. The fourth Axis CV launched its 24 embarked Hatchets while the CVLs still struggled to get their magpults online.
     Wave three was made of five Indomitables and one Rodeo Clown. They passed the three surviving Imperial Valors as they transited back to Crimson Expanse. Initiative yielded to the Hokum. The first three Indomitables in the second wave took aim and let loose with their needle beams on shieldless DNs and BBs while their forces beams pounded on a National Will CL, crushing it like a soda can. The 13 northern Spear squadrons turned south to assist the other 14 to engage the 12 Hatchet squadrons that were now attacking the third wave ships. Just one Indomitable fell to Axis short range attack missiles but only 21 out of 72 Hatchets lived to fall back to their carriers.
     After the depredations of the Axis ships and missiles bases (all of which had now become active) there were just five Hokum ships on the warp point, all from the third wave. The 55 Garrochas that had fired their FRAMs had busied themselves in attacking buoys. With this in mind the master controller elected to fire the remaining 127 one-shot laser buoys before they were splashed like clay pigeons. All five ships had breached armor with the Rodeo Clown nearly on death’s door.
     The fourth wave had five Indomitables, representing the last of the current members of the class, and a Rodeo Clown refitted with a jammer. Only seven Spear squadrons stay on the warp point to intercept the four squadrons of Hatchets that had launched a minute earlier. 120 Spears, including 84 that still had FRAMs, went back to finish the Axis warships. Again initiative fell to the Hokum, firing a pair of Indomitables before they succumbed to Axis counterfire. Weapons were pinched by needle beams and a previously hit Sprinter was tripped up by capital force beams and exploded in slow motion. The improved accuracy of the Indomitables capital fire control in conjunction with ECCM helped to offset the ECM generated by the slow-moving Axis ships.
     A trio of missile bases, now synced up, fired their capital launchers and flushed their racks at a third wave Indomitable. It was complete overkill, for it would’ve worked out better had they split their fire between two ships, making it easier for the cruisers to finish off the wrecks. The second trio realized this and fired on a pair of fourth wave Indomitables. Spears tore into ships that had yet to bleed air, leaving behind a trail of debris that stretched hundreds of kilometers. With single-mindedness that went beyond obsession Axis ships finished off all the third wave ships and polished off one from the fourth. 167 IDEW-Ls that had yet to fire were tasked to do so against the five Hokum ships at the warp point. An Indomitable already pounded by Axis fire exploded into several dozen parts while the fourth wave Rodeo Clown lost most of its point defense.
     The CVLs had gotten their act together and launched their eight on-board squadrons. Coming in the fifth wave were three Implacables and three Imperiums, including Janus’ flagship, the Watch Tower. With their laser packs the Spears strafed Axis ships that had already been breached, taking out engines and weapons until all the surviving DDs and FGs had nothing left with which to shoot. The 36 Garrochas still with FRAMs kept their distance from the missile bases. When the Implacables stabilize their fire control the first targets were the bases; only then would the pinnaces attack, forcing the defenders whether to use their point defense against them or the missiles. As it was two fourth wave Indomitables were destroyed by overwhelming missile salvos.
     Given the state of the defenders they had nothing left to lose by firing their remaining 63 IDEW-Ps at the eight Hokum ships. It was mostly engines that got pierced by the incredibly focused weapons, but the Hokum weren’t going anywhere while the minefields were still intact. Wave six was the same as wave five and this time the Axis was on the mark, electing to fire their missile bases at the fifth wave Implacables at the expense of using their point defense against the Garrochas. For this effort they shot down 15 Garrochas while two bases were practically destroyed and another with its armor breached. Meanwhile the Spears devastated the 8-squadrons strike sent out by the CVLs which had only done moderate damaged due to their downed datanets. The first Implacable ruptured along its spine as it went into its death throws, being the center of attention for Axis fire once the last Indomitable was destroyed.
     Only five Axis warships retained any sort of offensive weapons when the seventh wave, made up of six Type 2 DDs, made transit. As for the Axis carriers, having only 65 embarked fighters in the process of rearming, they went to full speed, prompting the Spear squadrons to pursue. Even with just laser packs they intended to cripple the carriers before they could put up an effective defense. Not much damage was exchanged between the bases and an Implacable except for one base that lost 40% of its launchers.
     While the Garrochas busied themselves in knocking out the recharging buoys the eighth wave, again made up of Type 2s, entered. The bases kept to their task and took out another Implacable yet were left with only one armed warship engaging the Hokum. The vast number of Axis ships were crawling wrecks, many without point defense, and all painfully pulling away. The Type 2s began their task of lancing engines so that the ships would be immobilized.
     Wave nine had three CLs and three DDs. This made the Axis crews feel rage again as these ships, all captured back in Whel, had been converted to Hokum use. Drive field frequencies, fire control and even shields were kept the same even though their armament was changed. Madness took the Axis crews, even those on the crippled ships, making the choice to stop running, turn around, and charge the warp point. All this served was to make the Hokum’s job easier, and they wanted to capture those ships to make up for the losses they sustained in this battle.
     Due to the course the carriers took they found that the Spears had closed to within 0.75 LS. Point defense, lasers, and sprint mode missiles only took down nine Spears. By sheer numbers the fighters beat down the armor of one CV and wrecked its hanger bays, taking out the two squadrons of Hatchets that were just moments away from being launched.
     In the tenth wave the three CAs and three DDs, all captured Axis hulls, found the battlefield in its ending stage. The Spears had closed to point-blank range with the Axis carrier group and encountered two squadrons, part of the original CAP, launched to intercept them. Taking the drubbing, the Hokum pilots pressed on and crippled two CVs and a CVL, their hanger bays transformed in charnel houses. An escort destroyer was also hobbled, falling behind to lend cover to its fellow cripples. Work done, the seven Hatchets (the other five having been shot down by Senior Picador Maro’s squadron), turned tail and headed for the warp point, intend on ramming. They were shot down by the buoy-killing Garrochas.
     Set on crippling than destroying the carriers and their escorts the Spears didn’t witness the end of the missile bases. Having been reduced to firing as individuals the last two concentrated on a BC of the fifth wave, which turned out to be Janus’ flagship. Thankfully it wasn’t blown up under her feet this time though it would require some time in a repair slip. When the fourteenth wave appeared all direct threats to the Hokum ships had been eliminated.
     Ships kept coming in; racks and launchers filled with mine clearance charges. Imperial Wave carriers and Troubadour troopships came in the sixteenth wave. Fresh squadrons and marine-laden assault shuttles went after the carrier group which by now was moving so slowly due to damage they had no realistic hope of escaping. One carrier and two escort destroyers were destroyed in the process of knocking down their shields, interiors already so wrecked that little additional damage was needed to finish them off. The three control bases were located 8 LS south of the warp point and were dispatched with no loss to the fighters. The battle for Abyssal-018 was over.

Lord Admiral Janus elected to stay in Abyssal-018 and had the only three available repair ships come in and tend to her flagship’s damage and that of two other ships. SAR operations had recovered over 9,200 spacers, and a sensor net was in the process of deployment between the starless region’s two warp points. Admiral Cirro, the head of Janus’ staff, had tallied the other costs of the battle. All fifteen Indomitables, representing the first production run and including the two Axis hulls, were destroyed. Four Rodeo Clown minesweepers, all forty Turtles, three Implacable DNs, and one Imperial Valor assault carrier were also lost. As for smaller craft 44 of the 120 Garrochas had been destroyed, the majority by interpenetration and minefield casualties. Finally 100 out of 168 F1 Spears were shot down, many by point defense fire.
      In return the Axis had the ignominy of have most of their ships involved captured. 6 DN, 6 BB (1 lost), 6 BC, 9 CA (1 lost), 9 CL (3 lost), 12 DD (4 lost), 12 FG (2 lost), 4 CV (1 lost), 4 CVL (1 lost), 2 CA(E), 2 DDE (both lost), 192 fighters, 300 one-shot and 600 reusable weapon buoys and, eventually, 900 patterns of mines. Just 41 Comensal were taken prisoner in the course of boarding actions. Of course, all six BS5Rs and the three undersized BS2s were eliminated. In the math the Axis lost 63% more tonnage than the Imperium.
     “I thank the Five Gods for allowing our full strike to launch,” Cirro commented as he handed a datapad to Janus. “We would’ve suffered more otherwise.”
     “More to thank dumb chance in my opinion,” Janus opined. “Just one more laser hit on the Rescript and she would’ve gone up in a massive fireball earlier than she did. It was my decision to have the fighters loaded with FRAMs. We could’ve lost the battle had the Turtles not distracted them.”
     Cirro saw the sour look on Janus’ face. The Turtles had originally been intended for warp point defense. When the Axis demonstrated their mass transit of corvettes over two months ago the idea came to use the Turtles for the same thing. Janus half-heartedly recommended that such a tactic be used if the defenses in Abyssal-018 rated it. She was surprised when the Emperor himself gave permission to employ the tactic if the defenses were above a certain threshold. While it worked in this case it was a usurious way to conduct war. Losing 30% of one’s ships in a simultaneous transit was like giving free kills to the enemy, and Janus resented giving the Axis the satisfaction for those free kills.
     “There is one positive note about all this,” Cirro offered. “We only had to use boarding actions on relatively little number of ships. The rest we merely had to take out their life support and lance any repairs to their engines, preventing them from self-destructing. Back to distractions it really served our cause that the Axis had a hissy fit when it came to us using their hulls against them. Had they just ignored them in the latter part of the battle then they could’ve effected their self-destruction. Instead they crawled back to the warp point and allowed to be lanced by needle beams.”
     Janus hummed in agreement. “Yes, I will have to consult with Professor Alba on that point. If they remain that distracted by the sight of captured hulls being used against them I will consider using those corvettes we captured for a future operation. Speaking of hulls there is good news. Eight newly commissioned repair ships will be arriving in the Cain system in four weeks. They’ll assist the prefab station in converting and repairing the Axis capital ships that we captured there and send them to Whel for conversion work. Once that’s done they’ll work on the smaller ships and refit them on-site, sending them to us or the other two segments as needed.”
     “Other segments?” Cirro questioned.
     Janus smiled. “I got the news only yesterday from a top-secret message delivered by chip. Our diplomats have reached an agreement regarding the co-belligerent status between us and the Commonwealth. No longer paranoid about having a CSF fleet barging into Imperium space the IC gave the Imperator of the Navy permission to detach two segments from the Home Fleet. Both will be heading to the Laser Burn system where they’ll guard the warp point leading to Circuit Run. Scout forces will also probe the warp links leading out of Laser Burn and into what is labeled in Axis records as the Nu’Chut sector. Not only will we be looking for Axis systems we’ll also be laying claim to them. Whichever side that enters a particular Axis system first has claim to that system. So it’s in our best interest to speed up our surveys as much as possible.”
     “Nothing like a war to grab land for oneself. Just like ancient times,” Cirro chimed in.
     “We need the space, Cirro. Even Corral Bridge is nearing full exploitation.” Janus scrolled through the datapad. “What of the investment of the Abyssal/Tire Iron warp point?”
     “On schedule, Lord Admiral. Aside from our damaged units the whole of the Expeditionary Fleet is on station with a CAP in place. Six hundred patterns of mines and a like number of one-shot laser buoys are in place. It’ll be another two months before we get the force and energy beam buoys you requested. On a side note, with so many long range scanners in proximity a patch of debris was found one light-second from the warp point. Intelligence believes it was the result of bases under construction that were scuttled. Clearly the Axis didn’t have reinforcements in hand, namely carriers, to protect this assembly project.”
     “Then it’s a good thing we moved in when we did,” Janus said. “Regardless what kind of bases they were it would’ve been a tougher fight.”
     Cirro continued. “We also got word from Fleet Headquarters. A survey squadron will be sent to the Com-9 system to investigate the unknown warp point.”
     Janus’ eyes narrowed in thought. “Unknown indeed, Cirro. The CE database showed it as unexplored as of five years ago. The system Com-2 was considered the frontier as its other warp point, the one linked to Doorstop, was unexplored. Same goes for the third warp point in Com-9. In the interim they may well have done so, yet the warp links from Com-8 and Com-5 are closed in Com-9. After finishing their survey the Axis may have felt Com-9 made for a good gatekeeper system and deferred exploration beyond it until the sector was more developed.”
     “If that’s the case, Lord Admiral, we might very well be exploring virgin space. After receiving the Axis and encountered the CSF in contested space I hope this time around the surprise will be more pleasant.”

08/08/08
updated 09/05/08

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