War Against the White Knights (24 page)

“The Amilxi,” said Indiya to the wider group, ignoring Finfth, “are unknown and unknowable. They are a risk we may need to react to. No more.”

“There are so many unknowns,” said Xin, “and just a single certainty – that we are being manipulated. If we can, indeed, open the barrier, then why not use the opportunity to rain down nukes until the moon is sterilized? Do you imagine I would shed a tear if the White Knight homeworld was burnt to a crisp? And I recommend especially dirty nukes ringing the Imperial citadel, so if the Emperor lets down the citadel’s barrier to take an exploratory stroll outside, he gets the hot reception he deserves.”

“We stick by General McEwan’s decision,” Indiya replied. “We take the Imperial citadel, hold the Emperor in our power, and negotiate through strength. I am still assuming that General McEwan will be fit enough to lead those negotiations, with the assistance of Ambassador Sandure.”

“But the general isn’t here,” said Xin, “and you told us the decisions are yours. What are
your
war aims, Admiral? Or don’t you have any? If I survive this war, will my child be born into the Cull, or will she be free of such horrors?”

“Those decisions are for General McEwan.”

“Admiral, if we proceed then my Army Group Sky Strike will descend into the most heavily defended world in the galaxy and rip it open so that General Aelingir’s army group can scythe through its interior. When I explain how tough the nut is that they are to crack, what do I tell my soldiers they are fighting for?”

“She wants to discredit you,” Finfth advised.

“But General Lee’s question is also a very important one,” added Daex.

“Tell them they are fighting for a better future,” said Indiya. “
That
I can guarantee.”

“My friends, have faith,” urged Kreippil. “The Goddess tests us, as she was always wont to do. If we are to achieve victory against the blasphemers then it will only be once we have faced our darkest hour – that moment when so much appears hopeless, and we must rely on our faith to push onward to the final battle. We now face that moment – our divine test. Throughout the Human Legion there are those who must now call upon their faith, and I recognize that many do not place their faith in the divine. Some place their trust in their training, the morality of our fight for freedom, or in the wisdom of their commanders. They may not feel that their faith is spiritual in nature, but I believe that sentients of every race have the capacity to believe in something bigger than they are – something that deserves to be believed in – and when large numbers of people come together with faith in their hearts, great feats can be achieved that defy rational explanation. Admiral Indiya, you are right to subject your decision to the utmost scrutiny and in the transparent manner you have chosen, but, realistically, we have no other choice but to trust the Hummer plan will work. Forgive me, Admiral Indiya, I know you told us not to argue our cases, but I felt that the spiritual dimension of our situation needed to be articulated.”

“Not at all, Admiral Kreippil. I think there is a deep truth in what you say. And you have aided my decision. Thank you, my friend.”

“But the Cull?” said Xin. “Is the eradication of the Cull your personal war aim or not, Admiral Indiya?”

“I have given my answer,” Indiya replied coldly, “and I am not in the habit of repeating myself. Flag Lieutenant Hood, mark this moment as T-40. The invasion of the White Knight homeworld will commence in forty hours. Freedom
shall
be won! And we shall win it right here.”

THE INVASION
OF
ATHENA

HISTORY OF THE LEGION

– Order of Battle for the Invasion of Athena

The table below shows a representative sample of the major fighting formations of Army Group Sky Strike. Other units played a vital role but have been excluded: e.g. Recon battalions, cyber-strike battalions, and logistical units.

Marine Navy Component
–
Cmdr. Stone Gaze (Jotun)

Heavy Support Squadron

Void Defense Squadron

Marine Air Force Component
–
Group Capt. Shliack (Gliesan)

1
st
Shock Wing
–
Wing Cmdr. Kulka (Human)

1
st
Scour Squadron

2
nd
Scour Squadron

3
rd
Scour Squadron

2
nd
Strategic Aerial Destruction Squadron

3
rd
Strategic Aerial Destruction Squadron

2
nd
Fighter Squadron

3
rd
Fighter Squadron

5
th
Fighter Squadron

6
th
Fighter Squadron

2
nd
Shock Wing
–
Wing Cmdr. Dock (Human)

8
th
Scour Squadron

16
th
Scour Squadron

17
th
Scour Squadron

21
st
Scour Squadron

4
th
Strategic Aerial Destruction Squadron

1
st
Fighter Squadron

7
th
Fighter Squadron

8
th
Fighter Squadron

9
th
Fighter Squadron

3
rd
Shock Wing
–
Wing Cmdr. Druas (Tallerman)

4
th
Shock Wing
–
Wing Cmdr. Abayomi (Human)

5
th
Shock Wing –
Wing Cmdr. Scalahal (Tallerman)

I Marine Army
–
Sub-General Balor (Jotun)

Marine Combat Engineer Regt.

3rd Field Artillery Regt.

1
st
Assault Marine Division

8
th
Tactical Marine Regt.

12
th
Assault Marine Regt.

87
th
Assault Marine Regt.

2
nd
Aerial Artillery Regt.

2
nd
Assault Marine Division

12
th
Assault Marine Regt.

87
th
Assault Marine Regt.

301
st
Void Marine Regt.

342
nd
Void Marine Regt.

1
st
Aerial Artillery Regt.

3
rd
Assault Marine Division

2
nd
Assault Marine Regt.

7
th
Assault Marine Regt.

8
th
Assault Marine Regt.

352
nd
Void Marine Regt.

3
rd
Aerial Artillery Regt.

1
st
Mechanized Infantry Division

1
st
Infantry Regt. (Human irregulars)

2
nd
Infantry Regt. (Human irregulars)

2
nd
Armored Claw (Tallerman)

3
rd
Armored Claw (Tallerman)

7
th
Armored Claw (Human/ Hardit irregulars)

II Marine Army
–
Sub-General Rutherford (Human)

III Marine Army
–
Sub-General Pree-Haccarem (Littorane)

IV Marine Army
–
Sub-General Byleist (Jotun)

Similar O/Bs are available for the following units:

Army Group Armored Fist
– Lt. Gen Aelingir (Jotun)

Army Group Deep Strike
– Lt. Gen Mountain Root (Troglodyte)

Orbital Reserve Army Group
– Lt. Gen Graz (Tallerman)

The universe was on leave of absence – or at least the region around Athena that had decided to sever all links with Indiya’s reality.

Indiya had reported the situation to the Emperor, using the last dregs of material chbit polarized and then quantum entangled before being split: one part remaining in the Imperial Citadel, and the other having found its way through a tortuous route to the Legion flagship,
Holy Retribution
. The Emperor’s voice was the only indication that the region inside the barrier still existed in some form.

If the Hummers’ reprogramming of the Euphrates barrier generator was more than a charade, then the Legion was about to substantially alter the region inside Athena’s barrier. With no knowledge of what had happened inside the enemy’s sphere of contravallation, Indiya’s plan relied on surprise mixed with brute simplicity.

The solid red bar to the side of the main display screen in
Holy Retribution’s
CIC began to drain away, counting down the final seconds to the invasion.

The CIC was flooded with water, and the crew stations were not set for maximum acceleration buffering, both reflections on Indiya’s preference for the crew to have clear heads and optimal communication, rather than be ready to hightail it out of the area with bone-crushing acceleration. Being cocooned in a coffin with your mouth and lungs stuffed with buffer gel was not the best environment for fast thinking.

They were moments away now, and Indiya couldn’t help noticing the stiffness in the tails of the Littorane crew: a sure sign of tension.

She felt guilty for not offering a votive speech to the crew, invoking the spirit of the Goddess as the guarantor of their final victory against the blasphemers. But Indiya didn’t think she could pull that off. Not today. Her nerves were shot because…
because this was it!
The fighting would not be over, but today the war would be won.

The countdown bar drained away, and a signal was transmitted to the living barrier controller inside Euphrates.

The view of the missing region where Athena had been went haywire, forcing Indiya to look away, fearing for her sanity. When she looked back, she saw a huge moon wreathed in swirls of orange and brown clouds, and about that moon were the survivors of the New Empire fleet.

Whatever instinct had forced her to turn her head hadn’t afflicted the AIs controlling the armada of missiles that were circling the moon, waiting for the barrier to go down. Thousands of them selected the highest value local target and raced to contact.

The defenders had been caught unawares, but enough automated systems were alert to the Legion’s appearance that their warships and orbital defense platforms fired back.

The Legion sent a second signal to the controller.

The barrier reestablished itself, trapping the enemy’s fire inside.

After waiting eighty seconds for their first salvo of missiles to do their work, the barrier was lowered again, and this time the Legion fleets moved in, attacking at point blank range.

Outnumbered, and with their command and control still reeling from the unexpected hammer blow of the initial missile attack, the Imperial response was feeble and uncoordinated.

The Legion swept all before them, not ceasing in their assault until anything orbiting Athena larger than a grain of sand was destroyed, irradiated, or boarded.

As soon as she had won total control of orbit, Indiya broadcast the pre-recorded ultimatum to the doomed forces on Athena that were still besieging the Imperial Citadel.

Against Kreippil’s protests, Indiya had insisted on using her old mentor and creator, the Reserve Captain, as the herald of the Human Legion. The ancient Jotun recorded a message from the cabin in
Vengeance of Saesh
that she hadn’t left in years, and almost certainly never would. Speaking in the Jotun tongue, she urged the New Empire forces to surrender in return for guarantees of safety. All this, declared the Reserve Captain, was done in the name of the lawful Emperor, a political necessity Indiya was glad she didn’t have to hear in human words.

If the enemy found it less shameful to accept the ultimatum from the respected Jotun scientist, and surrendered, then the bloodshed saved would be worth any number of battles with Admiral Kreippil.

The New Empire commander responded to the peace overture without hesitation, sending over a hundred missiles up against
Vengeance of Saesh
.

The Legion fleet in orbit swatted away the attack with ease and readied the next phase of the invasion.

From her command post in the troopship
Gallipoli
, in orbit around Athena, Lieutenant-General Xin Lee considered the tactical view of the world below. She wasn’t one for empathizing with the enemy, and certainly never suffered doubts about the morality of what she did. If the defenders of the New Empire forces wanted to live, they should have accepted the Legion’s terms of surrender. And so it came to this: Operation Blowtorch. Beneath the poisonous mutagenic clouds that shrouded the moon, a toxic brew known as Flek, was a habitat that impressed even Xin in its arrogance.

With the obscuring Flek clouds stripped out from her tactical map, the view from above was like looking down upon a jungle canopy, or the islands of coral that glistened in the shallow waters of the Littorane homeworld. But the mega structure that covered Athena was artificial, and not built from the ceramalloys that were the standard construction material throughout the Empire. The world tree that covered Athena was made of burnished metal. If not for the obscuring clouds of Flek, Athena would be a gleaming jewel against the black of space. Even Athena’s oceans were crisscrossed with a network of metal walkways and habitations.

Xin’s eye settled on an island in the Southern Ocean that the human mapping team had named Australia, after a landmass on Earth of similar size. The objective of Operation Blowtorch was to seize and hold Australia. If the Legion could take a continent-sized segment of the world tree, and establish a firm foothold on the White Knight homeworld, then all doubts about the Legion’s ability to take this world would be dispelled. Surrender terms would be reissued, and they would discover just how strongly the New Empire would stand by its beliefs.