The Lost Stars: Tarnished Knight

“What about our own soldiers?” Colonel Gaiene asked. “Discipline is very shaky, especially in the local ground forces.” Outwardly, Gaiene usually displayed a devil-may-care attitude, so the open concern in his expression underlined the seriousness of the problem.

“Pair the locals with platoons of our people and issue instructions that any soldier who refuses to follow orders will be shot. Any other questions?”

“The local authorities, sir?” Kai asked. “What do we do with them?”

“I’ll be giving them orders. If there are any problems getting them to do what they’re told, I’ll notify you to send troops. Local soldiers can handle that job since none of them have any love for their appointed-elected leaders.”

“What about the snakes’ housing compounds?” Rogero added. “We’ve swept up the snakes who were still home, but there are families there. Sooner or later, the crowds of citizens will head for those compounds, and you know what will happen to those families.”

“The same thing that’s happened to a lot of other people’s families for a long time at the hands of the snakes,” Gaiene commented. “I won’t shed any tears if the citizens take revenge.”

Drakon hesitated, then shook his head. “We’re not the snakes. I’m not Hardrad. Put guards around the snakes’ family compounds. Enough guards to keep the crowds off, and make sure those guards are our people and not local ground troops.”

“We’re going to be spread thin as it is,” Kai said. “We’ve all seen children die, sir. It’s ugly, but . . .”

“I know. We killed some of them in the fighting on Alliance worlds. I hated it then, but I couldn’t do anything about it. Now I can, and I don’t want to see any more dead kids. Understand?” All three colonels nodded. “Now, get your people and the police moving.”

“Yes, sir.” Rogero, Kai, and Gaiene chorused, all saluting before their images vanished.

Morgan shrugged. “At least you got that part about shooting anyone who doesn’t obey orders right. But the mobs—”

“I’m not done,” Drakon said. “How much of the snake comm net still exists? The stuff they used to issue proclamations and propaganda to the populace and give orders to local authorities?”

“It’s intact,” Malin said with a grin. “Not the control nodes in the headquarters and subsector stations, of course. Those have been destroyed. But we’ve seized the relay points, so we can modify the software to allow them to broadcast signals from an improvised control node.”

“How long?”

“Ten minutes.”

“Make it five.”

It actually took about six minutes, which gave Drakon time to issue the same orders to the rest of the ground forces on the planet that he had given to Rogero, Kai, and Gaiene, and time to come up with something to tell the growing mobs of citizens that hijacked ISS surveillance systems were spotting everywhere. Exactly what to say had taken a little thought before he realized that the Syndicate Worlds had long provided the perfect rationale in its own propaganda.

“This is General Drakon,” he said into the net linking all local officials. “I am in control of all the ground forces on this planet and am operating with CEO Iceni. We are in charge. All local officials are ordered to get onto the streets and calm the situation. You are to help maintain order, you are to reassure the citizens that the snakes have been dealt with, and you are to direct all celebrating into harmless paths. Use your local police to ensure that all liquor stores, bars, and pharmacies are closed and locked down immediately. There will be ground forces detachments visiting your homes to make sure that you are following these directions. Get going.”

Malin shook his head. “They’d be a lot more effective if they actually represented the citizens in their areas. Being able to control voting software is a lot easier than controlling voters.”

“Shift me to full broadcast,” Drakon ordered, waiting as Malin entered the commands. When he spoke next, his words would go out to every phone, vid screen, terminal, speaker, public announcing system, and anything else on and off the planet with the ability to receive messages.

“Citizens,” Drakon began, “I am speaking on behalf of myself and CEO Iceni. We have eliminated the ISS on this planet and throughout this star system. Henceforth, Midway will be an independent star system. We will no longer follow orders from the failed Syndicate Worlds.