Ghost War

And killing was what he wanted to do.

The Jupiter is a humanoid ’Mech with autoca

The Jupiter turned almost casually toward one of the Scimitars. The PPCs fired, thrusting blue energy spears into the tank’s right flank. Armor disintegrated and the chassis glowed white before it melted into molten metal puddles. The turret sagged and collapsed, before the SRM magazine touched off. A gout of fire flipped the turret into the air, where it was lost in the darkness.

The BSU troops began to withdraw, but their effort was too little, too late. Missile barrages struck at fleeing targets. One of the Fox Armored Hovercars simply ceased to exist when the Condors and Catapult deigned to notice it. The explosions left a crater where it had been, with its armor and shell reduced to shrapnel.

Of the BSU force, only two of the Foxes got away. Catford would have gone after the escapees, save for the intervention of other forces. The forces that came in were the Garnet Coast district Public Safety Department troopers. They arrived in helicopter and infantry carriers disgorging officers in battle armor. Before I’d left Manville I’d phoned an anonymous tip into Niemeyer’s division that something would be going down that night at the Resort. Their intervention meant that surviving BSU troops were rounded up for questioning, which was bound to cause the Germaynes some trouble.

It would also frustrate Catford, since I was fairly certain he’d have wanted to treat them as prisoners of war. I didn’t know what his thoughts were on proper interrogation techniques, but I’d heard rumors about Siwek that meant I wanted to keep people out of her hands. I doubted the fighters would have anything useful to offer and I certainly didn’t need them giving me up on the off chance they’d seen me at the Egg.

I watched the PSD officers round people up, and saw Catford descend from the Jupiter’s cockpit. Some of the PSD emergency medtechs came over to help him, but from his gesticulating I could tell he didn’t want them touching him, and he didn’t want the PSD on Emblyn property. Someone encased in metal—I would have guessed Niemeyer, but they all looked huge in that power armor—pi

In the distance a PSD helicopter chased the escaping vehicles for a while, but peeled off when lasers and machine-gun fire threatened it.

I watched a little while longer, then turned away. I’d have given my eyeteeth to see the live feed of Bernard’s face when this news flash ran over the Tri-Vid, but I refrained from finding a set and turning it on. After all, I knew I’d see the replay endlessly and, with that thought in my head, I found a bed and slept very happily indeed.

31

I will make thee a terror to thyself, and to all they friends.

Manville, Capital District

Basalt

Prefecture IV, Republic of the Sphere

16 February 3133

Despite the resort not being open, it did have all ma

Bernard actually handled himself better than I would have expected. While the host had poked fun at him, and Bernard had shot back with a few jokes that someone had scripted, the talk turned to recent events, and that brought up the whole BSU thing. Bernard had some remarks prepared that were wholly self-serving as far as the government was concerned, and constituted a nationalistic appeal to the citizens’ pride. It pretty much amounted to a call for folks to rally around the Germayne government.

“Our world has been a very peaceful one, where we have shaped a harmonic society.” Bernard composed his face into a mask of sincerity, which, for the most part, remained in place. “The Federated Suns always found us stalwart and a positive model. The Republic did, at the start, and made us part of their grand experiment because they needed our example. But now, as this experiment is weakening and failing, we need to look to ourselves, for no one from the outside is going to come rescue us. In fact, forces from the outside are here to destroy us.

“Our future is in our hands, and we must grasp it as tightly as we can, defending it mightily. The people committing these acts of terror, we know who they are. You wonder, but you will see among them those you thought were friends. You know who you can trust, you can see it in their open, honest eyes, in the clear voices with which they speak, and in their welcoming ope

His appeal soft-soaped the racist underpi

If the host noticed Bernard’s restraint or slick delivery, he made no comment and went to a station break. In keeping with the show’s format, Bernard moved onto a couch as the next guest came out, and the next. Right after some local teen sensation had sung her heart out, the host provided Bernard a chance to comment on the news flash that the BSU had tried to destroy the Emblyn Palace. I could see a vein start twitching in the middle of Bernard’s forehead, but he refrained from exploding. In a moment of insight, he cha

In seeing the little clip on my noteputer screen as I rode the shuttle south again, I thought he’d done a good job—terrifying though it was. The Contressa and Manville media shared my assessment, but as I read other stories about it, from cities further flung and on other continents, the reviews were scathing. Some pundits suggested that he didn’t want the Palace destroyed because that was the only resort he’d not yet been tossed from. The further from Manville the source, the harsher the criticism, and his divisive comments did not go u

It’s always that way in any society were power is centralized. The further one is from the locus of power, the weaker the grip. While the people in the outlying regions might not be disgusted enough to start a revolution, they could be induced to support one. Gypsy had already talked about salting journals and opinion shows in such outlying areas with shills who would accentuate the negative about the Germaynes. A lot of the material Elle had gathered could be leaked out there and would further weaken the Germayne regime.