Chapter 9: Delenda Est IV
2409
-00:50 – Aurelia
Jouret IV.
A former Federation colony, populated now by Romulan separatists. Independents. There is talk of weapons of mass destruction, of a credible and pressing threat to Imperial security, but Kirina has told me of the extra surgical bays that have been installed below my feet, and the extra personnel transferred on quietly at Rator.
They are not for the strange alien ships that have joined us, I think.
00:00 – K’haeth
K’haeth is speaking on the shipboard comm as we put our armor on and secure our personal shields and rebreathers. We are supposed to obey the commander alone, but I’ve known for months that Galan’s power has been effectively siphoned away by the needs of the project and the major’s desires. After all, he’s taken away the power of my team, kicked us out of the War Room, made us common soldiers again – and my team is angry with it, trigger-prone and desperate to make their name, thinking it was their fault they were pushed out and replaced with Tal Shiar flunkies.
On the comm, the twist of K’haeth’s fingers as he stands behind Galan speaks of power, of surety –
“We will not beg,” he says. “We will not bow. We are proud and we are powerful.”
“Together, we will advance the cause of the Romulan people and restore our birthright to the Way of D’era. We will retake the Empire and re-establish our rightful place in the galaxy.”
My rifle is in my hand. At least this feeling is familiar.
00:22 – Jouret IV, Tai Settlement
The settlement is new – angular prefab buildings in dark greens and greys, scattered across a hilly landscape hundreds of miles from the shipyards. The colonists had farmed here, but now the fields were ablaze.
The smoke makes it hard to see, but that’s the point. We have visors in our helmets. Our targets do not.
00:49 – Salara
The alien walker does all the work – it whirrs and whines, and then fires on the big prefab, cracking the front wall and window like an eggshell, the crescent weapons-fire hitting in definitive concussion. The inside of the house is suddenly brimstone and terror. We move in to clear the building. No-one in the front room, no-one in the kitchen; ah, there’s a sound in the cupboard –
It is Salara that opens the door and screams for the family to come out. When the head of the household refuses, clutching his dathe’anofv-sen, she shoots him without orders. The children are tagged and transported, the servants dragged out by a walker and tossed into a transport that lifts off the ground with grim efficiency.
H’daen, the Tal Shiar officer babysitting our patrol, commends her initiative.
01:23 – H’daen
The community center is burning.
It is the only building on the block constructed in the traditional way, with wood and metal. Hit by strafing fire, the brown beams of the ceiling catch fire immediately. The walkers surround the building and do nothing. H’daen orders a full stop, and for a few seconds we hear only the crackling of the fire and the whine of the alien shuttles above –
“Sir,” I finally say, “there are twenty life signs in there. Give the order, we’ll go in and tag them.”
The commander silences me with a wave of his hand and orders charges set to help the fire along. About half of the poor bastards make it out.
That is apparently enough for H’daen, who motions for the squads to tag them and move on.
02:02 – Nniol
Nniol is only an Uhlan, but he snaps if we’re too slow, sneers at the screaming townspeople being yanked up to the transports by the alien walkers, is a little too handy with a headshot. I imagine he will make a fvadt good Tal Shiar agent someday.
He is winning the game. He has fifteen points in the game, Salara five, H’daen twelve, and me – zero.
I am not sure how much longer I can refuse to play.
02:59 – Hleidra
I have known Hleidra for a long time. I did not know that she had become like the rest of them; that she had drank the atmosphere and the propaganda of the Project so deeply that she would treat the bodies like that.
The Romulan bodies. Like they are nothing, like they are alien.
03:02 – Galan
The Maiori and his staff are penned up in the town hall. We have split-beam rifles, plasma grenades and pulsewaves; the Maiori has two outdated disruptors and a table across the door.
It is not much of a fight, and we end up tagging them like all the others. Like most of the others.
Galan himself drags the Maiori behind the building. I do not see them again.
06:31 – Shiarrael
After the mission, I spend a long time in the bathroom – but not long enough that my team will suspect that something is wrong. When I come out, they want me to drink, but I do not think I can stand to put anything in my stomach, let alone allow my defenses to tumble thanks to the warm comfort of kali-fal, so I plead off like I am exhausted from the day and go to my bunk and stare at the ceiling for three hours, thinking of Jouret, of what the Tal Shiar has made me do, of what the Tal Shiar has made me do my entire life. Everything is wrong, I think, everything is wrong and nobody else can see it.
I am drifting off to an uneasy sleep when –
– It is Shiarrael, the grounded one, the realist, who lets out a whoop.
“Ha! Are you sure the vector the ship is on is taking us there? Really? It’s about time! Artaleirh! I can’t wait to try this on a real planet! Fvadt those farmers, we’ll show 'em that you can’t mess with the Empire!”
Artaleirh, I think.
My brother is on Artaleirh. And Kirina –
I have to tell Kirina.