The Clone Sedition (2 page)
TRANSMOGRIFICATION OF THE UNITED STATES
With most of its citizens living off Earth, the IGTA is renamed “The Unified Authority” and restructured to serve as a government rather than an economic union.
The government of the Unified Authority merges principles from the U.S. Constitution with concepts from Plato’s
Republic
. In accordance with Plato’s ideals, society is broken into three strata—citizenry, defense, and governance.
With forty self-sustaining colonies across the galaxy, Earth
becomes the political center of a new republic. The eastern seaboard of the former United States becomes an ever-growing capital city populated by the political class—families appointed to run the government in perpetuity.
Earth also becomes the home to the military class. After some experimentation, the Unified Authority adopts an all-clone conscription model to fulfill its growing need for soldiers. Clone farms euphemistically known as “orphanages” are established around Earth. These orphanages produce more than a million cloned recruits per year.
The military does not commission clone officers. The officer corps is drafted from the ruling class. When the children of politicians are drummed out of school or deemed unsuitable for politics, they are sent to officer-candidate school in Australia.
UPRISING IN THE GALACTIC EYE
On October 29, 2452, a date later known as the new “Black Tuesday,” a fleet of scientific exploration ships vanishes in the “galactic eye” region of the Norma Arm.
Fearing an alien attack, the U.A. Senate calls for the creation of the Galactic Central Fleet, a self-broadcasting armada. Work on the Galactic Central Fleet is completed in 2455. The newly christened fleet travels to the Inner Curve, where it vanishes as well.
Having authorized the development of a top secret line of cloned soldiers called “Liberators,” the Linear Committee—the executive branch of the U.A. government—approves sending an invasion force into the Galactic Eye to attack all hostile threats. The Liberators discover a human colony led by Morgan Atkins, a powerful senator who disappeared with the Galactic Central Fleet. The Liberators overthrow the colony, but Atkins and many of his followers escape in G.C. Fleet ships.
Over the next fifty years, a religious cult known as the Morgan Atkins Fanatics—“Mogats”—spreads across the 180 colonized planets, preaching independence from the Unified Authority government.
Spurred on by the growing Morgan Atkins movement, four of the six galactic arms declare independence from Unified
Authority governance in 2510. Two years later, the combined forces of the Confederate Arms Treaty Organization and the Morgan Atkins Fanatics defeat the Earth Fleet and destroy the Broadcast Network, effectively cutting the Earth government off from its loyal colonies and Navy.
Having crippled the Unified Authority, the Mogats turn on their Confederate Arms allies. The Confederates escape with fifty self-broadcasting ships and join forces with the Unified Authority, leaving the Mogats with a fleet of over four hundred self-broadcasting ships, the most powerful attack force in the galaxy.
In 2512, the Unified Authority and the Confederate Arms end the war by attacking the Mogat home world, leaving no survivors.
AVATARI INVASION
In 2514, an alien force enters the outer region of the Scutum-Crux Arm, conquering U.A. colonies. As they attack planets, the aliens wrap an energy barrier around the atmosphere. Called an “ion curtain,” the barrier cuts off escape and communications.
In a matter of two years, the aliens spread throughout the galaxy, occupying only planets deemed habitable by U.A. scientists. The Unified Authority loses 178 of its 180 populated planets before making a final stand on New Copenhagen.
During this battle, U.A. scientists unravel the secrets of the aliens’ tachyon-based technology, enabling U.A. Marines to win the war. In the aftermath of the invasion, the Unified Authority sends the four self-broadcasting ships of the Japanese Fleet along with twelve thousand Navy SEAL clones to locate and destroy the Avatari home world.
RISE OF THE ENLISTED MAN’S EMPIRE
The Unified Authority Congress holds hearings investigating the military’s performance during the Avatari invasion.
When two generals blame their losses on lack of discipline among their cloned enlisted men, synthetic conscription is abolished and all remaining clones are transferred to frontier fleets—fleets stranded in deep space since the destruction of the Broadcast Network. The Navy plans to use these fleets in live-ordnance military exercises designed to test its new, more powerful Nike-class ships; but the clones thwart this plan by declaring independence.
After creating their own broadcast network, the clones establish the Enlisted Man’s Empire, a nation consisting of twenty-three planets and thirteen naval fleets. As hostilities continue between the Enlisted Man’s Empire and the Unified Authority, the Avatari return, attacking planets using a devastating weapon that raises atmospheric temperatures to nine thousand degrees for eighty-three seconds.
The Avatari attack three planets in December, 2517—New Copenhagen, a Unified Authority colony, Olympus Kri, an Enlisted Man’s colony, and Terraneau, a neutral nation. Working together, the Enlisted Man’s Navy and the Earth Fleet successfully evacuate Olympus Kri prior to the attack. Following the attack on Olympus Kri, the Avatari accelerate their attacks, incinerating a new populated planet every three days as they work their way toward Earth.
Despite the mutual threat, the Unified Authority renews its assault on the Enlisted Man’s Empire.
DESTRUCTION OF THE AVATARI HOME WORLD
The Japanese Fleet locates the Avatari home world in Bode’s Galaxy. While the inhabitants of the planet have become extinct, its automated mining and military systems continue their destructive expansion.
After depositing all nonessential personnel on New Copenhagen to establish a new colony, the
Sakura
, the last ship in the fleet, launches a successful suicide attack on the Avatari planet.
FALL OF THE UNIFIED AUTHORITY
Unaware of the Japanese attack on the Avatari home world, the Enlisted Man’s Empire divides its military into two groups. One group establishes a colony on the burned-out remains of Terraneau, while the other launches a preemptive assault against Earth, defeating the Unified Authority and establishing a clone-controlled government.
PROLOGUE
Location: Seattle
Date: January 9, 2519
Three men were following me, but I only needed one to answer my questions, so I decided to kill the other two.
It was near midnight. It was that rare dry winter night in Seattle. A thick cloudy fog filled the street, making the darkness darker. Only a few lights shone over this part of town at this time of night. When I walked under them, they made the fog glow.
There was a strange odor in the air, a sharp, chemical scent I did not recognize. The smell was faint and becoming weaker. I did not have time to wonder what it was, though. My mind was on the men who were following me.
Ironically, those men might have taken me by surprise if they had not tried to sneak up on me. I was out late, alone, letting my thoughts wander. On empty streets like these, I could hear their footsteps from a block away and read the sounds they made the way trackers read footprints. Three guys, sticking to empty alleys, stopping at corners, walking as quietly as they could—that much was obvious. I had to surmise the rest.
Muggers or assassins?
I asked myself. Muggers didn’t worry me. In truth, neither did assassins; but that was because death held a certain attraction for me, especially if I could take these bastards with me.
The streetlights glowed white-tinged amber above the sidewalks, but the fog smeared their light into a pastel smudge. I was a block in from the waterfront, in the part of Seattle with the fancy bars and the movie holotoriums.
I was dressed in civilian clothing instead of the uniform of a Marine in the Enlisted Man’s Empire, and I did not have a
gun or a knife. No problem. I’d use their weapons against them, whatever they had brought. I’d even return their weapons when I was done.
Muggers tended to be big, strong, and aggressive, but untrained, relying on fear as much as violence. I wasn’t afraid. I was trained, and I was ready.
I listened to their footsteps.
Not muggers,
I thought. Muggers would come at me from all sides. They would pretend not to notice me until they had me surrounded, then they’d attack.
I came to a corner and looked both ways before crossing, not searching for cars or muggers but surveying the potential battlefield. Seattle’s restaurant district butted up against old town. Of course, this was Earth, and not just Earth, it was former United States territory. The old Unified Authority government had considered the United States the cradle of modern society, and they had maintained it like a museum exhibit. When buildings in U.S. cities reached their expiration date, so to speak, the Unified Authority Department of Historical Preservation replaced them with immaculate reproductions. Square walls, glass windows, revolving doors, brick, slate, and mortar façades…whatever it took to preserve “the cradle of society.”
The Unified Authority was now every bit as extinct as the United States, but the Enlisted Man’s Empire wanted to maintain appearances as well.
Maybe I should run,
I thought. Would I stand a better chance of luring them in if I pretended to be afraid?
If they had come after me hoping to mug some random civilian, they would respond to my panic like sharks respond to blood. If they knew I was a military clone, a show of fear would make them suspicious. If they knew I was Wayson Harris, the commanding officer of the EME Marines, my pretended panic would scare them away. Anyone who knew who I was knew I was programmed to ignore fear.
A strange thought ran through my mind.
Anything that can be programmed can be reprogrammed.
I had no idea where the thought had come from or what it meant. It was a stray.
My shadows saw me standing by the curb and stopped abruptly. One scuffed his shoe across the concrete.
If these guys are assassins,
I thought,
they’re the dumbest specking assassins on the face of the earth.
Dumb and slated for extinction. Charles Darwin would have said they needed to die for the preservation of the species—the dumb ones and the broken ones are the first to go.
I walked across the street and sprinted into the fog. The hunting party followed my example; but, of course, they had given me a head start.
Now that they knew I had heard them, they abandoned their attempt at stealth and raced after me.
I was twenty-nine years old and in my prime. I kept myself in shape. Apparently, only one of my would-be attackers jogged every day. When I turned a corner and paused to listen, the sound of their footsteps told me that one of my pursuers had pulled away from the pack. He would be the tough one, the athlete.
“Careful, Butch,” one yelled.
Butch?
Butch didn’t have an opportunity to answer. He came tearing past the corner where I waited, and I stuck out a leg, sending him on a seven-foot flight. He screamed as he tripped and landed face-first on the concrete, dropping his knife.
I placed a foot across the back of his neck and snapped his spine. Then I quietly walked back into the alley, into total darkness, and I worked my way slowly and silently back around the block. By the time I came back to the street, Butch’s two pals had found his corpse.