8th February
18:22 GMT
Oh… Dear.
Using the burned-out wreck of a gordanian battlecruiser for concealment, I have my ring give me a more detailed picture of near-Karna space than my own eyes could give me while simultaneously trying to piece together the contents of the ship's computer. Sadly, gordanians aren't big fans of automation or centralisation. The data I want is spread out across a dozen local data stores, at least some of which were critically damaged during the fighting which slew the ship. There aren't any backups onboard the ship and most gordanian clans don't do off-site backups either. They also don't seem to think that keeping a historical database onboard their ships is worthwhile…
Extraction complete.
Ah. Not unexpectedly, once word got out that the Tearing Bite clan had lost most of their warfleet, the Gizzard Spiker clan decided to finish the job. Rather than simply absorb their fellow Citadel allies, or support them for favours later, they decided to annihilate the competition. But that broke pax domum, which was all the other clans who wanted Gizzard Spiker taken down a peg or two needed to justify weighing in. And then some idiot blew up the Citadel, which threw every alliance into confusion... And
then, just when things were starting to die down…
My ring shows me a construct image of the Karnan fleet currently raining fire down in support of the slave uprising currently taking place on Karettah, Karna's northern continent. That part of the Gordanian fleet which survived the internecine conflict is staying quite firmly on the opposite side of the planet to defend their older holdings on Gordane. The Karnan fleet appears to consist largely of ships which fled the original Gizzard Spiker led take-over, but not exclusively. There are new builds there, based on the designs of the other ships. And clearly they've had access to raw materials. Most of the old fleet didn't leave without being severely damaged, and there's little sign of their old injuries now.
How do I want to handle this?
Honestly, I
don't. Gizzard Spiker deserve pretty much everything they get, but a lot of the other clans aren't
that bad. And the Karnans certainly aren't blameless for creating the situation which led to the original war. Yes, Karnans are formally enslaved to Gordanian clans in a way that the Gordanians were never slaves to the Karnans, but the difference between a well-treated slave and a poorly treated villein isn't particularly great. I don't know any of these people, and there's no obvious route that doesn't involve slaughtering one side or the other… Or at the very least forcibly relocating far more people than I could move. Best case scenario… Some sort of rerun of the partition of India, moving each people to their continent of origin when some of them have never lived there and don't actually want to move.
But since I'm here, I should at least see if I can make the situation less bad.
"Ring… Contact…
"
Who?
Who? The only contacts I
might have would be surviving members of Tearing Bite, and I doubt that they actually
want to hear from me. I could ask Amalak to try taking the area, or… Providing a neutral force…
"Contact the Karnans. Find me whoever's in charge.
"
Compliance.
"What?"
"Orange Lantern here. Please put me through to whoever's in charge over there.
"
"Orange-? Please hold."
Not like I'm paying by the minute. He should be able to get hold of the Supreme Commander… Gaharrugh I think his name is, reasonably quickly. If they've got any sort of intelligence at all then they know what I'm capable of, and a Supreme Commander doesn't really need to do all that much when the attack is ongoing. There just aren't any strategic level decisions that need to be-.
"Why are you here?"
"Supreme Commander Gaharrugh?
"
"Mini-Beast the spider-fucker."
"That's uncalled for.
"
"Is it? When the Citadel Complex was destroyed, I held out a small hope that whoever did it would liberate my own home at the same time. And yet, here we are. You did nothing to help us, we begin the process of liberating ourselves-"
"Blowing up the Citadel Complex was 'nothing to help you'?
"
"-and now here you are. Don't even
think about-"
I raise my right hand to my forehead.
"-trying to intimidate us into leaving-"
I appear in his ready room, and-.
"-because you-."
Queen Kalista and Sir Pren look up from their position to Gaharrugh's right. Sir Pren raises his hands from the table slightly, the air between myself and the three of them shimmering faintly as he generates a telekinetic shield. Good reflexes. An officer of the Crown Imperium was sitting on Gaharrugh's left but has now jumped to her feet and drawn her pistol. The soldiers behind me are a little slower on the uptake, but their… Crown Imperium-made grasers.
"So you're sponsored by the Crown Imperium. Generous of them. Though I suppose that proxy-fighting is the only way to prevent Vega acting in concert against them.
"
Kalista nods. "Until recently. Your actions have been both a help and a hindrance. By destroying the Citadel, you have created a situation in which this intervention could happen-."
"Destroying the Tearing Bite war fleet probably helped as well.
"
"That was-." Pren frowns. "Our reports say that the Beast destroyed it."
"Yes, because I lured him in to attack it while I evacuated the slave workers at the facility it was guarding.
"
"You
also created an alliance between the worst of the pirates and slavers in Vega."
"I felt it was better than your plan, as it was explained to me. The level of collateral damage that would have happened if the fighting on Raggashoon had continued in the way you hoped it might would have been appalling.
"
Kalista glances at Pren for a moment. "What happened to Felicity?"
"I took her on a brief sightseeing trip on Tamaran and then left her with a slave rehabilitation charity in the Crown Imperium. I don't know what she's done
since then, but that was where I last saw her.
"
There's a sort of
rumble from Gaharrugh, and the navy officer next to him lowers her sidearm. "The alliance you created is the reason why the Karnan Fleet is trying to take back our homeworld without the Crown Imperium's
overt aid. What do you plan to do to make up for all of the Karnans who died because our strongest ally is forced to keep their fleet back to guard against your pirate friends?!"
Not a trace of red. His words are pure posturing.
"Nothing, actually. If you ask nicely I
might do something for you, but I don't consider myself even slightly obliged to you.
" I turn around and regard the soldiers with contempt.
"Put those down before I insert them in you.
"
Behind me, Gaharrugh nods. The guns are lowered and I return my attention to the table.
"What exactly are you trying to achieve here?
"
"We're liberating our home, and destroying one of the remaining centres of the Citadel Alliance."
"Exactly how many gordanian civilians are you planning on 'liberating'?
"
He glowers. "As many as it
takes."
"I prefer low body counts. With the clans most closely allied to the Citadel largely gone, I don't really bear any sort of grudge against those who remain. And from the sounds of things… Are you planning on going after Emana after this? And the Wombworld?
"
Nods.
"I'm not exactly
thrilled with-.
"
Gaharrugh bears his teeth.
"You allied yourself with pirates, slavers and cannibals. If you aren't going to help, then
go! Before I kill you myself!"
"Not just yet.
" I raise my right hand to my forehead once more.
"See you shortly.
"
