Part 12 (1/2)
”Alpha-Thirty thinks we're going to kill him, Sarge. We're bringing him back to base until we get this sorted.”
”Moron.” Sull sounded as defiant as ever. ”You've got no idea, have you?”
”What?”
”You're dead men.”
He didn't say it like a threat. Sull said it like Skirata did.
That was what Skirata used to call them back in training: his dead men. It was all part of his unconvincing veneer of abuse, because the whole company knew Sergeant Kal would give them his last drop of blood, but the words now made Darman shudder.
”We all are, sooner or later,” he said.
It was sooner for clones than most.
Chapter 5.
Order 4: In the event of the Supreme Commander (Chancellor) being incapacitated, overall CAR command shall fall to the vice chair of the Senate until a successor is appointed or alternative authority identified as outlined in Section 6 (iv).
Order 5: In the event of the Supreme Commander (Chancellor) being declared unfit to issue orders, as defined in Section 6 (ii), the chief of the defense staff shall a.s.sume GAR command and form a strategic cell of senior officers (see page 1173, para 4) until a successor is appointed or alternative authority identified.
-From Contingency Orders for the Grand Army of the Republic: Order Initiation, Orders 1 Through 150, GAR doc.u.ment CO(CL) 56-95 * * *
GAR landing strip, Teklet, Qiilura, 473 days after Geonosis Etain stood on the deserted landing strip by the troop trans-porter, up to her ankles in a fresh fall of snow.
The only footprints were hers and the ridged soles of army boots, whose impressions were so much larger than hers that for a moment she felt like an insignificant child.
The farmers weren't going to show. She hadn't expected them to; now her duty was unavoidable. She'd given them two extra hours, kidding herself that they might have had difficulty pa.s.sing blizzard-blocked roads, but the deadline had Pa.s.sed and Levet was walking toward her from the HQ building, datapad in one gloved hand. She turned and walked back to save him the journey.
”One last try, Commander,” she said. ”I'm heading into Imbraani to give them the now-or-never speech.”
Levet handed her his datapad. ”Orders just in, ma'am. Direct from Zey. The Gurlanins just gave him a little demonstration of intent.”
Etain swallowed to compose herself before reading.
Zey had a terse message style. She could have spoken to him by comlink, even had a virtual face-to-face meeting, but he'd sent Levet a message-stark, to the point, and leaving no opportunity for discussion or argument.
GURLANINS CLAIMED RESPONSIBILITY FOR CLa.s.sIFIED IN-FORMATION ON TROOP MOVEMENTS AND READINESS STATUS RELEASED TODAY TO CIS COMMANDERS. LEAK HAS RESULTED IN 10,653 CASUALTIES: FLEET AUXILIARY CORE GUARDIAN DE-STROYED WITH ALL HANDS WHILE DEFENSIVE CANNON WAS OFFLINE DURING UNSCHEDULED MAINTENANCE. REMOVE QIIL-URA CONTINGENT IMMEDIATELY. CIVILIAN CASUALTIES ACCEPT-ABLE IF COLONISTS USE LETHAL FORCE.
Etain handed the datapad back to Levet and saw ten thou-sand dead troopers in her mind's eye before she saw farmers, dead or otherwise. It hit her hard. Her imagination blanked out and was replaced by a cold hard focus on the next steps to remove the remaining farmers.
”He's not a happy camper, ma'am.”
”They warned they could be anywhere and pa.s.s as any-one.” Etain carried on walking. Why didn't I feel them dying in the Force? Am I that out of touch? ”So there's a little re-minder of the damage they can do whenever they want. It'll escalate. Let's get this over with.”
”You could have prevented the deaths,” said a voice be-hind her.
Jinart appeared out of nowhere, loping like an arc of black oil. She could have been a mound of snow, a piece of machinery, or even one of the leafless trees on the strip perimeter before she metamorphosed into her true form. She darted a little ahead Etain and Levet, leaving featureless round paw prints behind her. Gurlanins could leave false tracks, making them impossible to hunt down. They were, as so many had said, perfect spies and saboteurs-as long as they were on your side. If they were the enemy then they seemed very different indeed.
”You didn't have to kill troopers. Don't you think they've got short enough lives as it is?” Etain tried not to lose her temper, but it was hard. She didn't want the baby sensing any of this ugliness. ”We're evicting the colonists anyway. You could have waited.”
”You don't have the stomach for killing unless you're put in a corner, girl,” Jinart said. ”Unlike that soldier of yours. And I know where he is.”
It was a risky thing to say in front of Levet, but he didn't react. Etain took a moment to realize that Jinart was making a veiled threat. Her pulse began hammering in her throat.
”If anything happens to him,” she said, ”you know what Skirata will do to you.”
”So now you know the stakes, and what we both stand to lose. . .”
Etain's anger welled in her throat, choking off any coherent response. She stopped dead, hand going straight to her lightsaber without any conscious thought, and a blind urge to kill swept over her. It wasn't a Jedi's reaction at all. It was a woman's-a mother's, a lover's. It took all her self-control not to draw the lightsaber.
Her dead Master, Kast Fulier, would have understood. She knew he would.
”They're leaving today.” She thought of the Separatist collaborators caught by Gurlanins not far from here, throats ripped out as befitted a carnivore kill. ”But you can't deal with them yourselves, can you? Just two thousand humans, and that's too many for you to take on. Which tells me how very few of you there really are.”
Jinart slowed down and looked back over her shoulder. Two twin-pointed fangs extended almost to her chin. When she spoke, they gave her a strangely comic lisp that almost took the edge off her menace. ”If we were many, there would be no farmers left for you to remove. What you need to re-member, Jedi, is where we might be, and that like your gallant little clone army, a very small force applied intelligently can cause serious damage...”
Level interrupted at just the right moment. Like Commander Gett, he had a knack for defusing situations. ”Permission to put the men in position, General?”
”The farmers have already scattered. They won't all be in Imbraani.”
”I know, but we have to make a start somewhere. We'll move on and clear stragglers area by area.”
Jinart loped ahead. ”We'll locate them for you.”
Gurlanins were predators. Etain had no doubt that tracking humans was easy for them. She watched Jinart disappear into the distance, and then she really disappeared-vanished, merged into the landscape, melted. It was disturbing to watch. Metamorphosis was a shocking enough spectacle, but the way the creatures could simply step out of existence troubled her more than anything.
She had no idea if one was right behind her, or in her room in her most private moments.
”I know all the places the colonists used to hide out during the Sep occupation,” she said to Level. ”Zey and I used them, too. I still have the charts.”
The commander dipped his head and put his hand to the side of his helmet for a moment as if he was listening to his internal comlink. ”So, ma'am, how are you interpreting lethal force? Can we shoot as soon as they try to kill us, or do we have lo wait until they actually do?”
Up lo a year ago, Etain would have had a clear-cut answer based on a Jedi's view of the world, where dangers were sensed in advance and intentions clearly fell: she knew who meant her harm and who didn't Now she saw the war through the senses of ordinary human men, who were trained lo react instantly and whose long-drilled movement eventually bypa.s.sed conscious thought. If someone targeted them, their defensive reflex kicked in. Sometimes they got it wrong by firing; sometimes they got it wrong by hesitating. But she had no intention of handicapping them by expecting them to be able to make the judgment calls that she could. Zey could promulgate all the rules of engagement he wanted. He wasn't here, in the line of fire.
”Once they open fire on you,” Etain said, ”return it. They can't be civilians and engage in armed conflict. Their choice.”
She'd square it with Zey. If she couldn't-too bad. It was her command, and she'd lake the consequences. Levet summoned a speeder bike, and she climbed onto the pillion behind him. They set off for Imbraani at the head of a column of armored speeder buses and speeder bikes while an AT-TE carrier pa.s.sed overhead lo deploy troops lo the east of the town.
”Are you wearing any armor, ma'am?” Levet asked.
The chest plate didn't fit properly now, but she couldn't tell him that her b.u.mp got in the way. She'd leaned back a little so that he wouldn't feel it press into him. To her, it felt enormous, but n.o.body appeared to have noticed it yet. ”As-sorted plates, yes. And a comlink.”
”Good. Two things I don't like-a general who can't communicate with me, and a general who's dead.”
”Well, I'll be a live general who listens and takes notice of her commanders in the field.”