The Empire’s Corps: Book 01 - The Empire's Corps (25 page)

“His armour took most of the blast,” Sally said, as the Marines swept away the remaining opposition. The relief in her voice was all too clear. They’d all feared losing their lucky mascot. “He’s alive, if burned. Its a few days in a regeneration tank for him.”

“Blue-one, land for medivac,” Young ordered, calling down the Raptor gunship. “Blue-two; provide overhead cover and watch for trouble.”

Jasmine pushed the thought to one side as she followed Blake towards one of the huts, covering him as he kicked down the door and burst in, weapon at the ready. He stopped dead a second later, allowing her to see the remains of a man, killed by the four naked women in the hut. Their eyes were alight with a savage fury that eclipsed the scars and bruised on their bodies. They showed no sign of guilt, or remorse, merely a heartfelt relief that it was all over. Jasmine could understand just how they felt.

“Stay down,” she said, as gently as she could. The Marines had to be a terrifying sight in their armour. “We’re here to get you out of here.”

She stepped back outside and realised that the fighting was over. A handful of bandits had tried to flee into the jungle, only to be shot in the back as they ran. Others lay on the ground, having breathed in some of the gas, waiting to be picked up and transferred back to the holding pens at the platoon house. Marines moved among them, cuffing their hands with plastic ties, just in case they proved to have only inhaled a tiny amount of the gas. The former prisoners were treated more gently – they’d be separated from their captors – but they were secured as well. Jasmine didn't complain. It would take days, perhaps weeks, to sort out just who was who.

A second Raptor orbited low overhead, allowing a third platoon to jump down to the ground, reinforcing the Marines already present. Jasmine smiled tiredly, doubting that the bandits would try to catch the Marines on the ground, although she was grateful for the help. Joe would be evacuated back to Castle Rock, while his buddies cleaned up the mess. The remains of the bandit camp would be thoroughly searched before it was burned to the ground. There would be nothing left for any of their successors.

“Good work, all of you,” Captain Stalker said, on the general channel. “The medic reports that Rifleman Buckley will be fine in a few weeks.”

There was a general cheer. “I guess he was still wearing his lucky red shirt,” Blake said. He sounded relieved. He might have argued with Joe and the others from time to time, but Marines always looked out for one another. And, on a more practical level, they couldn't afford to lose anyone. Joe Buckley would have been missed even by those who didn't like him. “Did we get enough prisoners?”

“Over fifty,” Captain Stalker said. Jasmine smiled. There was a good chance they’d taken one of the bandit leaders alive, then. “And we’ve captured plenty of their weapons and deprived them of one of their bases. It was a very good day’s work.”

Chapter Twenty-One

What is won by soldiers, at a high cost, is often given away by political leaders.

- Professor Leo Caesius,
The Waning Years of Empire
(banned).

Lucas Trent was a careful man by instinct and training, such as it was. He’d mastered the skills required to stay alive on Earth, in the Undercity, and many of them had proved applicable to Avalon when he’d been transported to the planet. Indeed, or so he told himself, he had never truly failed. The Civil Guardsmen who had arrested him had had no idea who they had caught. They’d thought he was just another thug. Some of his subordinates had thought that he took excessive precautions, but they hadn’t dared complain to his face. And, now, some of them would never have the opportunity.

His headquarters was in a secret location, known only to his most trusted subordinates and the guards he kept around him at all times. The slaves – the women the Knives had kidnapped from various homesteads over the years – were never allowed to leave, although few would dare pass through the badlands without weapons and armour. There were nastier things than human beings lurking in the undergrowth. The last slave who had tried to escape had stumbled into a mud hole and been devoured by a lurking crocodile-like creature. It seemed, now, that all of his precautions might have been insufficient.

“They definitely took out the entire camp,” Steven said, after the runner had been debriefed. Literally; the Knives hadn’t wanted to believe him at first. “They just walked right up to it and smashed their way into the camp.”

Lucas stared down at the table, unwilling to believe what he had heard. His local leader had known – he’d certainly been ordered often enough – to have scouts out on every possible angle of approach, watching for trouble. The Civil Guard might have been largely corrupt, but even they had their dedicated leaders and soldiers, men and women who might brave the badlands to hunt down the bandits. The Marines…the Marines were just inhuman. They’d slaughtered over a hundred gang members and if they’d lost anyone…

He looked up at the naked runner, seeing the sores covering his body from the whipping. The runner had claimed that a dozen Marines had been killed, but Lucas discounted that claim automatically. It was his experience that runners always lied, if only to avoid being punished for bringing bad news to the leaders, and in any case, the camp had had few heavy weapons capable of penetrating even light armour. He’d have to plan on the assumption that none of the Marines had been killed, which gave them a depressingly big advantage. If a handful of Marines could wipe out an entire camp, his grand plan was on the verge of coming apart at the seams.

“The idiot should have had scouts out watching for their approach,” Lucas said, trying to put a brave face on affairs. As sure as eggs were eggs, any sign of weakness would have his subordinates thinking about sticking a knife in his back. He trusted Steven, yet even he might be tempted by the prospect of supreme power. It was one of the other reasons for persistent gang warfare in the Undercity. The gang leaders knew that they had to keep their thugs happy or they might revolt. “Have we heard anything from our sources?”

“Nothing,” Steven said, calmly. The Civil Guardsmen who had been bribed should have warned them if the Marines were planning anything, yet the whole thing had been assembled and launched terrifyingly quickly. The last time the Civil Guard had attempted to make a showing in the region, it had taken those weekend warriors two weeks to get ready and the bandits had had a month’s warning, more than long enough to make preparations. And they’d never dared go into the badlands in force. “Either they didn’t know…or they simply didn’t inform us.”

Lucas frowned. Treachery was part of his daily existence and he always assumed that the same was true of everyone else. He’d had all of his sources warned that failure to deliver would be punished – if only by revealing their activities to their superiors, who wouldn’t hesitate to hang them for it – yet they were out of easy reach. One of them might have decided to withhold information in the hopes that the Marines would slaughter the Knives before they could betray them to the Empire. In that, Lucas was sure, they would be disappointed. He had taken pains to leave a dead man’s chest behind to make sure that any betrayer was punished.

“All military operations have to be cleared through the Governor,” he said, tightly. The Governor didn’t completely trust the Civil Guard – not an unwise position – and insisted on approving all operations personally. The sources he had in the Governor’s office insured that he would hear about all planned operations in advance. “Could the Marines operate without the Governor’s approval?”

“Perhaps the Governor didn’t mention it to his staff,” Steven suggested. “It’s not like you tell us everything you’re planning.”

“Oh, come on,” Lucas snapped. “That idiot of a Governor can’t even take a shit without polling his staff and taking opinions from anyone who feels that having a pulse gives them the right to have opinions. He insists on filling out requests in triplicate just to have new pencils forwarded to his office! He’d have run it past at least a few of his most trusted allies and one of them would have leaked.”

“And if the Marines can operate nearly independently, we may be in trouble,” Steven pointed out. “They could be anywhere.”

Both men looked upwards, towards the foliage that hid the base camp from intrusive eyes high above. Lucas had never considered the possibilities of satellite observation before he’d been transported to Avalon, but he’d learned quickly. Cold unblinking eyes, eyes that never tired or lost focus, were watching from high above. The old satellite network had been a joke, yet he was sure that no one competent would allow it to remain that way. The Marines still had a pair of destroyers in the system, according to his source in System Command. They could have rotated one over the badlands and used its onboard sensor suite.

“There are only a few dozen of them,” he protested. It might not matter. Horace Netherly had had nearly a hundred bandits under his command, but they’d been rapidly and quickly slaughtered. The camp the Marines had attacked had been built to stand off an attack, yet it had been destroyed. It wasn't easy to admit, but he was starting to realise that his imagination might have been inadequate for the task at hand. If the Marines were really that deadly, the Knives might be totally outclassed. “They cannot be everywhere.”

“They can give the locals hope,” Steven reminded him. “That would encourage them to call in to the Marines and warn them of our movements. The whole plan might come apart.”

Lucas rubbed the back of his head, feeling a headache pounding away at his temples. A protection racket – and that was what government was; a large-scale protection racket – depended on two things. It had to be capable of carrying out its promises – both of protection and of retribution – and it had to be present. If a rival force entered the picture – and he saw the Marines as a rival force – it had to be destroyed before it could break the racket completely. If he pulled back into the badlands, the prudent course of action, the Marines would have all the time they needed to prepare for the next encounter.

“We can push at the locals when the Marines aren’t around,” he said, firmly. “We’ll see how many of those fucking idiot farmers support the Marines when we hit them after the Marines are gone.”

“Except that would force us to keep a presence in the area, outside the badlands,” Steven reminded him. “We might lose someone to interrogation.”

Lucas ground his teeth. Against the Civil Guard, that wasn’t so much of a concern, not when all prisoners had to be transported back to Camelot, if they weren't released by the jailers. The Marines might have taken the time to interrogate the prisoners themselves…no, that was wishful thinking. They
had
taken the time to interrogate the prisoners. The attack on the base camp proved that, if nothing else. And the thugs…the Marines could have used drugs, or bribes, or simply kicked the shit out of them until they talked, but it hardly mattered. Anyone could be broken, given enough time. The farm girls who now serviced the Knives as if they’d been born to be whores were proof of that.

And if the Marines captured someone who knew more than the bare minimum…the consequences didn’t bear thinking about. They could find their way to the main camp and destroy it. He could almost feel a rope around his neck already.

“We pull back,” he decided, finally. “Pass the word to the other camps. They are to pull back into the badlands and wait for the Marines to get tired and leave. Once they leave, we can remind the farmers who really rules here.”

He smiled. The farmers might be armed, but they couldn’t afford to keep a militia on permanent alert, waiting to be attacked. The Knives could choose the time and place of their attacks, striking hard against vulnerable homesteads. The Marines would be gone soon enough, but the bandits would always be there.

***

“How many prisoners did you take?”

“Fifty-nine,” Captain Stalker said. Brent stared at him, noting the calm confidence of the Marine. Fifty-nine prisoners…no one had bothered to take so many bandits alive in the past, not when they knew that most of them would simply be released by their gaolers. Most bandits who fell into the hands of the Civil Guard’s more competent formations didn’t survive the experience. “Four of them are wounded, but the remainder are fit and healthy.”

“Good,” Brent said, wondering if it really was good. He looked up at Linda, seeing the expression on her face. She was worried about how it would all play out in front of the Council. “We’ll have to hold a trial, of course.”

“There’s no need for that,” Captain Stalker assured him. “They were all captured in battle. We have interrogated their former prisoners and have a comprehensive case against each of them for terrorism and bandit-related activities. Under Imperial Law, they can be hung at once – and they should be hung at once.”

Brent opened his mouth, and then closed it again, rendered speechless. “You would simply execute them now?” Linda asked, stepping into the breach. “You don’t want to indenture them and put them to work?”

“Many of them started out as indentured workers,” Captain Stalker pointed out, calmly. He didn’t seem bothered at all by the implication. “There is no reason to believe that they will revert to being good workers, now that we took them prisoner. Justice needs to be done, Governor, and the punishment is laid down in Imperial Law. They are sentenced to death by hanging.”

His gaze sharpened. “And, besides, if we put them back to work, how long are they going to stay there?”

Brent stared down at his hands, and then up at the map of Camelot his aide had placed on the wall. It was a political map, rather than one reflecting the local population demographics, and it mocked him every time he looked at it. The Council wouldn’t be happy if he simply went along with the Captain, yet…if he refused to execute the bandits, he’d lose whatever remaining support he had from the middle class. They’d know that they had spared the bandits for political reasons.

“Captain,” he said, finally. “You must realise that there are political issues here.”