8th January
22:14 GMT
Mister B'lanx
oozes self-satisfaction as the captured warship in front of me gradually changes from blue to orange.
"We overran the naval depot before they could get most of their ships in the air."
T'Pexor gestures to a ship sitting in a docking cradle, tubes
containing some sort of food slurry connected to several damaged parts. "My colleague L'atroma was able to bypass their anti-phasing shielding and assault the crew directly. It seems that Manhunters don't train for that."
I nod. "They
are more of a law enforcement organisation than a military."
I look over to the tunnel to the exterior where the remains of one of the ships that
did is being… What, salvaged? Stripped for raw material? They're living creatures, so… Are they edible? They wouldn't be cutting it up if it were possible to restore it. The labour crew is comprised of Greens, while a handful of armed Whites act as their overseers.
"
Yes." Mister B'lanx's tone conveys his distaste. "And now we must learn from their failure before
they do." He extends his right arm towards another ship. "We're increasing their weapons loadout at the cost of habitation. I don't intend to send them on patrols, and the martians Karmang has freed don't have the same dependency on the proximity of others that other martians do."
"Who do you intend to send them against?"
"I had assumed that I would be sending them against the force the Manhunters would send to dislodge us. But if they're dithering, then I can use them to support a White uprising in another city."
"Wouldn't that leave you vulnerable?"
"We have good intelligence coming from fellow Whites in every city. My force would return here before anything the Planetary Council sent could reach us." He floats over the shipyard towards an area where a
White Martian wearing the Hyperclan red circle is demonstrating the use of captured weapons to a group of other Whites. "And attacking the Manhunters' ships while they are separate and in dock will be far easier than destroying a unified fleet."
True… "Do you have enough trained personnel to crew them?"
"I was trained as an auxiliary before the last Prelate come into power and abolished the auxilia. All the other surviving auxiliaries are teaching volunteers now. Or forcibly extracting schematic patterns from the surviving Manhunters. They're not ready
yet, but they will be by the time I'm ready to push things."
"About Karmang's attempt to negotiate with the Planetary Council…"
"I don't see how that's relevant to
me."
"At the moment, he's the only person formally allied to the White Martian cause who can remove the Guardian programming. And given what happened at the monastery he attacked, I doubt that there will be other volunteers. If you want your followers to be able to live in low population conditions for prolonged periods of time, you need his support."
"Or we could move the fleet as we go, basing it in friendly White-controlled cities. The only other benefit is immunity to rötschreck, and it is impractical to use fire on the surface. T'Pexor, what do
you make of this?"
"Karmang has millennia of wisdom guiding him. Regardless of the personal debt we owe to him, I do not believe that he would abandon the cause he founded for personal advancement or… Make a traitor's peace. But personally, I prefer war."
"Why?"
"Karmang has not had to live under the Reds and the Greens as we have. I do not think that he appreciates the value of wide scale violence for changing the minds of the martian species."
"You want to change the Greens'
minds?"
"We're doing this to benefit White Martians everywhere. Even in cities which were not as oppressive as this one, White Martians suffer insults and violence not just from the government but from the Green and Red populations at large. The best way to stop that, the best way to make sure that they never forget what we can do, is to destroy their armies. To march into the cities they control and publically execute their leaders. That will teach them that they will suffer the same fate if they try to go back to their old habits
far better than anything else we could try.
Including having the Planetary Council peacefully passing power over to Karmang."
Mister B'lanx stops in the air as he considers the point. "You may well be right. I know this little fight has made more of an impression on me than almost anything else I've done. And I suspect that the same is true for our
Reds as well."
I shake my head. "And then what? How do you intend to reorganise the planet when three fifths of a population is even more scared of you than two fifths are scared of the Planetary Council
now?"
"Why should I
care?" He rises in the air, getting above local obstructions to get a clearer view of this part of the city. T'Pexor and I follow him. "I'll keep this city. Rule it myself, in the interests of my fellow Whites. We're already integrating the Greens with
essential skills into our government, and training Whites to fulfil every necessary role."
"And the rest of the planet?"
"I'll attack anywhere that oppresses Whites, but beyond that I don't really care."
"Your Red prisoners?"
"Why are you so
interested?"
"I'm trying to understand your reasoning, and to make sure that you've thought this through. These are weighty issues, and a leader needs to give it due consideration. Will they be allowed to live
here-?"
"No. No. Once the matter is decided, I will either exile them to another city or have them build a new city for themselves and leave them to their own devices."
"I am prepared to offer them a place of exile now." The Psion Wombworld isn't much to look at, but even after the bombardment it's a more hospitable place than
Mars. "If you simply want them taken off your hands. I can ensure that they will not return for the duration of the conflict."
"No, they're useful to me where they are now. And I'm positively
giddy at the idea of forcing them to do the same work they forced
us to do. I certainly won't send them to a
friendly land merely for the convenience of being rid of them."
"You're not worried about an escape, or a rescue attempt?"
"Fire might not be much use on the surface, but their prison has enough incendiaries that any attempt by them to leave would be…
Immolatorially stupid."
"I see."
Reminds me a little of the ending of
Small Gods. Vorbis dies, and Brutha takes his body to the leaders of the invading army and surrenders Omnia. He offered to pay reparations for Omnia's prior actions, to return territory they'd seized and to disarm the nation… Only for the Omnian army to form up on the edge of the beach
anyway, and the invaders to form up to fight them
despite the whole fight being rendered completely unnecessary. Karmang isn't Brutha, but he honestly hated those priests and he still didn't kill most of them. J'onn believed that the only reason that the Planetary Council weren't openly talking about making some fairly significant concessions was fear of the uprising, and B'enn seems set on proving their worst fears
right.
"If that's your final word, I will inform Karmang. Could I give him some idea of how long he has?"
"If the Manhunters don't move first, I want to move on Mal'ren'ranna in ten days. The fighting there was inconclusive, but the Manhunter garrison has few ships."
"I understand. I'll leave you to your preparations."
"Yes. Go. It would be helpful if Karmang saw things
my way. I disagree with his approach, but I have a great deal of respect for him. All White Martians who truly know him do."
I nod politely. "I will be certain to pass that on."
Mother Box, hush tube.
Ping.
8th January
17:18 GMT -5
I step out into the Hall of Justice, shaking my head as J'onn looks around.
"Not good. I think I'm going to need to borrow M'gann."
