The Lost Stars: Tarnished Knight

FROM a covered position across the street, Bran Malin studied the nondescript building that his stealth suit’s sensors told him was packed with defenses. He had seen armored figures moving within, flitting past windows almost too quickly to spot, and none had left despite the roar of battle as the main body of Colonel Senski’s brigade had landed all around the valley. Partly that was due to the limpets leaving the snakes uncertain as to what was happening, but with combat near enough to hear, it was odd that not even one scout had been sent out to check on things personally. That could only mean whoever was inside had given staying hidden the highest priority.

Extensive landlines with full security shielding had led to the structure from the crater where the original headquarters building had been. Malin had followed them, and now he evaluated the building. There were apartments in the upper stories, providing both deceptive camouflage from overhead observation as well as citizens going in and out by day and night to further mask the nature of the structure to anyone spying from above. That meant there were probably still citizens in those apartments even though none could be seen.

Call in another orbital strike and ensure the snakes could not order any doomsday strike with their dying gestures? Malin looked at the apartments, knowing he had mere seconds to decide.

You do what must be done. Sometimes, some must be sacrificed. The decision and the wrong are mine.

He called the cruiser, then faded back only a short distance in the brief time before three more projectiles tore through the atmosphere, through the building, and into what must have been reinforced bunkers beneath. Malin lay flat as pieces of all that had once been in that location fell to earth in the wake of the bombardment, trying to keep his mind centered not on those who had died but on the larger purpose he served.

A blinking alert told Malin that the limpets were no longer able to find any snake command nodes active. Walling away any sense of triumph behind the same barriers where regret lay, he sent the mission-accomplished report.

* * *

DRAKON felt tension bleed out of him as Malin’s mission-status marker switched to green. “All right. Let’s wrap this up,” he sent to his commanders.

“All done here,” Colonel Gaiene reported on a private line that only Drakon could hear rather than using the command net. “We ran out of snakes to kill. The citizens are all being extremely well behaved. But we had about a company’s worth of the loyalists surrender. They belonged to various units, but all of those units are on the Free Taroans kill-not-capture list.”

Drakon glanced at Sub-CEO Kamara, who was busy talking to some of her own commanders about moving into the valleys that Drakon’s soldiers had captured. “I suppose,” Drakon said, “that all those who surrendered say some other guys committed any atrocities?”

“You suppose correctly. I could kill them all now,” Gaiene added offhandedly, “or turn them over to the Free Taroans, which would just mean they died a little later, or I have some empty shuttles waiting in case wounded need to be evacuated to the orbital docks. We do need every good soldier.”

“That would give us time to, uh, triage everyone,” Drakon agreed. “Get those ‘wounded’ up to the orbital docks, but make sure they don’t have weapons, and have a strong escort keeping an eye on them. Find out if they are really clean under full interrogation sensors, and we’ll deal with any who aren’t.”

“As you wish, General. I’m so glad we had this conversation.”

“I enjoyed it, too, Colonel Gaiene.”

Colonel Kai reported in next, sounding slightly peevish. “We have a holdup.” Through the remote video feeds, Drakon could see a large building, the exterior already battered, from which weapons fire erupted every time any of Kai’s soldiers showed themselves outside.

“Diehards forted up in a building full of citizens,” Kai added, as if annoyed at the citizens for getting themselves into that situation. He probably was annoyed at them. Kai disliked anything that complicated the smooth completion of operations. “At least platoon strength, with heavy weapons. I can destroy the building easily enough, but you told us to avoid killing citizens.” This time, Kai sounded accusatory because Drakon’s instructions were preventing the simplest solution to the problem.

Sub-CEO Kamara had a stern expression. “He should get those loyalist diehards.”

Drakon raised an eyebrow at her. “Even if he kills all the citizens in that building? It’s pretty big. You’re probably talking hundreds.”

“We’re willing to pay that price.”

“That’s noble of you,” Drakon remarked with heavy sarcasm. “You’re willing to let them die. I know you’ve been fighting a civil war here, but you’d better start thinking of those citizens as your citizens. Do you want your citizens to die, Sub-CEO?”