Star Force: Secession (SF13) Read online

  “You’d make all the gains my people have fought so hard to acquire mean nothing?” the Ambassador protested. “Thousands of Germans have died fighting this war to come to the aid of the Americans in what we believed was a just cause, and you’d have us give back what we’ve rightfully won as if this whole thing was some giant game where you get to reset the pieces after it’s over?”

  “The pieces aren’t going back where they were, Ambassador. The map is changing, and those nations involved in this war are losing territory. You’ve already lost Mars. What do you have to gain by continuing to fight?”

  The German was silent for a moment, chewing on the inside of his cheek distractedly. “If we were to back out now, the American fleet would be overrun. We won’t abandon them.”

  “This war is coming to a close, sooner or later. The question before you now is how much will Germany have left when it does end?”

  “You didn’t answer my question. What about the American fleet?”

  “If you both surrender, my fleet will move in to protect your installations and ships, as we have always said we would do, but we will not protect those who are perpetuating the aggression.”

  “You would equate Germany with Japan?”

  “Not entirely. When all is said and done Japan will have to atone for its actions.”

  “You intend to lengthen their ban?”

  “What we do will depend on their past actions and future ones. The conflict isn’t over and I’m not about to start quoting terms while there is still fighting going on.”

  “We will not surrender,” the Ambassador said firmly, “but would it make any difference to you if we pulled back our forces into defensive arrangements only?”

  “It would be noted, but you’re still not going to be able to keep your captured territories.”

  The German stood up in disgust and stared down at Davis across his desk. “Geh zur Hölle,” he said icily as he turned around angrily and left.

  “Always a pleasure,” Davis whispered as the ambassador descended the staircase.

  Flipping his desk computer screen back on he noted the four priority flags that had appeared during the interim, one of which was marked priority 2, making it the highest non-military/emergency rating Star Force used. Davis clicked on the icon and brought up a newscast time-stamped 12 minutes ago, labeled ‘Tranquility Declares Independence.’

  The Director’s left eyebrow shot up in curiosity and he touched the icon, which brought the recorded feed up on his display screen. Rather than the typical news anchor offering insights, the feed was a video statement released directly from Tranquility.

  “Good morning,” an elderly man offered, accompanied by a curt nod. He was seated at a desk with the Lunar surface visible behind him, bracketed between two flag posts carrying dark blue banners with gold trim and a photo image of Luna centered on the Sea of Tranquility. “I am Duke Nevil Windsor, Governor of the British Lunar colony known as Tranquility. To date we have not been involved in the war, fortunate in geographical isolation, but the currently imposed Star Force blockade now affects us all.”

  “Given our limited resources and inability to resupply, either from orbit or overland, my colony faces a difficult road ahead. Star Force won’t rescind the blockade until the war ends…and it appears that the British parliament is not of a current mind to end the war through anything short of total victory. Where then, I ask you, does that leave my colony? If the United Kingdom cannot resupply us, and we cannot purchase supplies from Star Force or our neighbors, are we to be left to starve to death?”

  “That is the grim situation that we and other colonies face. I cannot speak for them or their intentions other than to instill a sense of urgency in you that something must be done now, before our colonists begin to suffer. After repeated pleas for assistance from London, they stopped taking my calls, insisting that there was simply nothing they could do so long as Star Force blockaded the moon…but this is not so. I do not fault Star Force for trying to put an end to this war, as they have repeatedly said that the blockade will end when the fighting does, and the reports from an identical situation in Mars have validated their claims.”

  “Star Force is not our enemy, and I believe the London is counting on their good graces to stop short of starving us to death. They came to the aid of various colonies on Mars after militarily securing those territories, then relocating all the colonists back to Earth. During the interim both our British colonies and others suffered, while our governments back safely on Earth did nothing to right the situation. The colonies and colonists were treated as expendable, and had Star Force’s Martian offensive not been so swift, the damage to those populations would have become much more extreme.”

  “I fear a similar repeat of history, even though we are early into the Lunar blockade. Unlike Mars, there are considerably more ground troops here, given our proximity to Earth, and even if Star Force repeats their ground offensive to remove all the war factions, I imagine it would take far more time to achieve than my people can afford to wait. Our cached supplies are considerable, but not infinite.”

  “I am Governor of the Tranquility colony. I have a responsibility to safeguard the colonists, so too does London. They are derelict in their duty. I will not be so in mine.”

  “Cut off from resupply and abandoned to our fate, the United Kingdom has betrayed us. As such, I hereby announce our separation thereof. If London is not concerned with our fate, then we shall make our own way. As of today, the 29th of March, 2109, the colony of Tranquility claims its sovereignty out of necessity and severs all ties with the United Kingdom. May they continue their war apart from us, and with the considerable wisdom inherent in Star Force, I ask that they rescind the blockade orders for Tranquility, given that we are no longer affiliated with a faction in this war.”

  “To my fellow countrymen…I say that we do not take this separation lightly. It was not of our choosing, but of London’s making. If parliament cannot safeguard our citizenry, then it is up to us to do it ourselves.”

  “And furthermore, if democracy is only interested in the well being of the masses and is willing to sacrifice the minority, then it is not a system for the honorable man. The honorable man fights to protect each and every citizen, poor or rich, weak or strong, worthless or valuable. This is the common cause of brotherhood.”

  “Yesterday the colonists of Tranquility took part in two final, symbolic votes. The first of which was the affirmation of separation. I and the other administrators of this colony had already made the decision, the vote was to determine the level of agreement amongst the colonists. 83.2% were in favor, 2.4% opposed, 14.4% abstained.”

  “The second vote was to determine the future of our new nation’s leadership. Rather than repeat the mistakes of London, it was decided that I should continue to lead Tranquility as Regent. The affirmation vote was 92.7% in favor.”

  “As Regent of Tranquility, I hereby open up diplomatic channels with all the nations of Earth and Star Force. We offer the hand of friendship and economy to those who would accept it, and open our borders to civilian commerce and migration. At present, we do not possess a proper military, and do not plan on fielding one for some time. We ask that Star Force’s protection of sovereign states be extended to us as we seek to grow our new nation through economic ventures rather than warfare.”

  “Finally, to my former countrymen. We will always consider you brothers, regardless of the actions of your government. Never let yourself think otherwise.”

  “Again, I bid you good morning and good day. May all our futures be equally bright.”

  The video feed ended, replaced by a news anchor who began to offer commentary…at which point Davis shut the link off, a wry smile forming on his face. The first cracks were beginning to show, and now the warring parties had to worry not only about the actions of their enemies and Star Force, but the possibility of secession by the spacebound populations that they’d been nil to consider while prosecuting this war
.

  Davis knew that if he showed a viable path for that possibility using Tranquility as an example then others would break away, or at the least the threat of which might persuade the warmongers to seek armistice.

  Bringing up a secure comm prompt, Davis typed out a quick message to Archon command, not knowing which one of them would be on station, recommending that Tranquility immediately be exempted from the blockade and extended military protection should the British attempt to reassert their authority or should anyone else try to take advantage of the vulnerable colony.

  Next, Davis sent a message off to his wing of the corporation, indicating that the ban on services was to be kept in place for Tranquility, just in case the local merchants on Luna had ideas to the contrary. After which he contacted the Australian and Brazilian Ambassadors, urging them to offer what economic assistance they could, short of becoming middlemen reselling Star Force goods, which would be a violation of the existing rules of conduct concerning banned nations.

  Lastly, he sent a message to Greg, who he thought was still in the city, requesting a naval and Archon escort for himself on a trip out to Luna. If this fledgling colony was going to have half a chance of surviving, he needed to meet with the Regent face to face to settle on terms…as well as to send a message to everyone else that he was taking their declaration of independence seriously.

  4

  April 3, 2109

  Greg sat in the seat next to Davis as their dropship disconnected from the Lunar starport, studying his datapad. The thrust from the engines made the screen bob around a bit in his hands, but he had little trouble analyzing the recent reports concerning the large scale war taking place below. With the blockade in place the tactical situation had altered significantly. Without dropship transit, attacks could now only take place on adjacent territories, limiting the warring factions’ attack options…as well as their resupply routes.

  Certain opportunities had presented themselves, most notably a mismatch between a German territory and an adjacent Japanese pair. An American stronghold lay just a few hundred miles to the North, but without dropship flights any reinforcements would have to come overland, passing through either Russian, Canadian, or Polish territories. Given that those nations were not involved in the war they weren’t of a mind to allow transit, thus isolating the German territory.

  Japan had sought to take advantage of this, launching a new assault with what troops they had in their two adjacent territories. The Germans had been forced into a makeshift defense, with neither side really geared up for this kind of fighting with barely over 400 troops between them, but they were determined to make the most out of the situation. As it was, the Japanese had captured various satellite facilities within the territory while the German defenders held on to their main colony structure.

  Reports of similar small scale engagements filled Greg’s datapad, eliciting a slow shake of his head. What they sought to gain from all of this he didn’t know. After what happened on Mars they should have known by now that Star Force wasn’t going to let them keep any of their captured territories, so why fight over what they couldn’t possess? It didn’t make any strategic sense, but it was the situation at hand and something they were going to have to work through regardless.

  Further down the intelligence reports, compiled by a select Archon team working out of Atlantis, he saw that the one of the American military bases had tried to reinforce a relatively nearby base via a short dropship transfer, never making orbit, but hovering across the surface at low altitude and still a violation of the blockade. An addendum indicated that the dropships had subsequently been confiscated by a Star Force retaliation raid, which also seized control of the British facility that the Americans were attempting to overrun. Prisoner counts were tallied on both sides, with an uncertainty icon next to the numbers.

  Greg tapped on the icon and got a link to a subsequent report, indicating that the satellite facilities in that territory were being swept up by Archon teams with a suggestion that the numbers would be rising in short order.

  Switching back to the main map of Luna, he noted that that particular territory had a Star Force marker on it, with a yellow outline indicating that there was still some level of conflict within the area. Many others were indicated, most of which also belonged to Star Force with a scattering of national territories. Those with ongoing conflicts were highlighted in slowly pulsing red, with dozens of the tiny regions on the moon-wide map flashing as if they were viral infections on an otherwise healthy planetoid.

  Switching back to the main report screen the Archon scrolled down the list of captured ships resulting from the blockade. Everything owned by the warring factions in orbit around Luna at the time had been confiscated, including 15 warships. All of those had been damaged during the seizure, but repair crews had gotten them workable enough to slowly limp to the nearest shipyard. It was also located in Lunar orbit, but with too few slips available for all of the repair and refit work needing to be done on the captured ships.

  Those cargo ships that had been seized were therefore redirected to other shipyards, given that most of them had been taken without a naval fight and their engines were still intact. Small boarding teams had docked and secured the ships, followed up by assaults on the orbital facilities of the seven warring nations. In one quick operation that lasted the better part of 3 days, Star Force had locked down the Lunar micro-system, leaving only the surface of the moon still to be dealt with…though without resupply it was just a matter of time before they capitulated.

  Or that was the hope. Greg knew they’d probably have to go down and root out some stubborn remnants, but with Mars setting the precedent he didn’t think that there’d be as much force required this time around. It was, however, going to take them some time to get to the desperation point.

  Davis glanced over Greg’s shoulder at his war reports. “Anything new?” he asked as the dropship began a heavier descent burn to bleed off orbital speed.

  “About like we expected, though there’s a lot of small engagements popping up that hadn’t been there before. Looks like it’s going to take some time for reality to sink in.”

  “Any moves against Tranquility?”

  “No, we’ve got the area locked down tight and mechs ready for a hot drop in case anything does get through. If there are going to be any problems, they’ll be internal.”

  “Dissidents?”

  Greg shrugged. “Could be anything from a psychopath to a British intelligence cell.”

  “I like the positive thinking,” Davis mocked.

  “I’m just pointing out that we’ve got all the big angles covered. It’s the small ones that tend to surprise you.”

  “Point taken,” Davis said as the ‘golf ball’ dropship decelerated over the Sea of Tranquility. The ‘sea’ wasn’t actually water, which would have boiled off in the airless environment, but rather a smooth basaltic plain that appeared darker from orbital views than the rest of the moon. All the ‘seas’ made up approximately 16% of Luna’s surface, with the Sea of Tranquility being of average size, a little over 800 km in diameter.

  The city of Tranquility was located in the northeastern section of the sea, which sat on a relatively flat plain between two lower regions on the east and northwest, the Sea of Crisis and the Sea of Serenity. To the north was a region of rougher terrain that swung down through the east, cutting off the Sea of Tranquility from the Sea of Crisis, and running down around to the south, making a large backwards ‘C’ that bracketed the east end of the Sea of Tranquility and several territorial zones.

  Star Force owned and operated the two adjacent territories to the northeast, neither of which were leased zones. The Australians had one to the northwest, the Spanish one to the southeast, and the Brazilians with two in the center of the Sea to the west/southwest. Little pinpricks of civilization could be seen in six of the seven territories from the monitors inside the dropship, with the exception being the second and more southern Star Force territory,
which hadn’t yet been utilized save for housing a connective rail line.

  The Brazilians had several visible settlements, as did the Australians. The Spanish had three markers, all of which were sizeable mining sites, but it was the singular city within the formerly British territory that ate up the attention of the monitors. With a scattering of tiny satellite facilities around the perimeter, the central city mushroomed out with a series of tightly packed and interconnected buildings centering on one spire-like tower with a blue strobe light on top, seeming to visibly signal to the approaching dropship.

  As they got closer two sets of landing pads became visible, with their target being the southern of the two groups that housed six individual pads, lined up 3x2 with a rectangular docking ring circling the enclosed area. Two of those pads already housed British dropships, caught on the ground by the blockade and now the property of Tranquility by default. The Star Force dropship touched down on one of the empty four slots, then waited for the docking umbilical to stretch out from the rectangular ring and mate with the airlock on the side of the giant spherical ship.

  The whole docking assembly had been designed and built by Star Force, so the atmospheric connection proceeded without delay and Greg led the Davis out through the small tunnel with two armored Knights in tow. He wore no armor, but had a stinger pistol strapped to his right hip over top his pristine white Star Force uniform, marred only by the long red stripes extending down from his collar, along the length of his outer arms and legs before tucking into his spotless white shoes that the bottom of the pants melded into seamlessly.

  Greg met the Tranquility security detachment at the other side of the umbilical, sizing them up. There were four guards, armed with little more than cuffs and a baton, wearing the uniforms of British policemen. They parted respectfully as he walked out a few steps ahead of Davis to where the newly minted Regent and several other personnel were waiting for them.