8th February
19:57 GMT
The two gordanians I brought with me troop out through the doors to the Council chamber, their body language speaking of profound depression. The Council wanted to speak to
me first, but I felt that it would underline their position better if they listened to the witness reports
first. The head of the escort detail who brought me down here slaps his tail on the floor in the direction of the door, and I nod amiably.
"My turn, then.
"
I create two construct-ushers to hold the doors open and stroll unhurriedly through, arms hanging loosely at my sides. There are six occupied seats on the right, representing those clans with the greatest military strength. Another eleven on the left, representing those who have strength that is less but still significant. And a huddle at the back of the room for those clans whose military strength is nonexistent, trivial or just not around here.
A gordanian with the three yellow line and a white blob emblem of
Unending Conquest waves to me from her place near the front of the huddle. Her position makes sense; while Unending Conquest have plenty of military force it's all at the other end of the galaxy. She's essentially an ambassador from a foreign power at this point. Though… If the Council were willing, having the more militant clans head out that way might not be such a bad thing.
I'd be happy for them to spend their military strength fighting the Reach with a view to colonising one of their worlds at the end of the campaign.
"Ladies and gentlemen. Councillors,-
" Right.
"-representatives,-
" Left.
"-and emissaries.
" Forward.
"As I'm sure that you know… You're in the shit.
"
The representative of the Meat Barter clan snorts in agreement. If their ships are all in the vicinity of Karna right now then they might well be finished as a clan. At best, they're looking at losing all of their on-Karna holdings.
"The karnans are out for blood and there's no help coming.
"
The Councillor from Gizzard Spiker takes a second to glare at the emissary from Unending Conquest, who happily wiggles her tail in response.
"You might be able to negotiate something -in theory- but no one's listening. The people on the ground have been raised hating you from birth and now that they're here they're not going to stop killing while there are gordanians in front of them. They will -however- listen to me.
"
A few of the assembled gordanians freeze, or straighten up slightly.
"That's not to say that they
like me, but I'm happy to act as a go-between if you want to try-.
" 'Talking things out' doesn't seem appropriate.
"A negotiated surrender. And since I don't like wasting my time, I'd like to outline the things you will have to agree to give up as a bare minimum. Obviously, any karnans still held as slave workers
anywhere will have to be handed over. You will have to give up any claim to territory in Karettah. You will most likely have to disarm to a considerable degree and make some sort of payment to the new karnan government. And you will most likely have to allow the karnans to go wherever they want in your territory in order for them to confirm for themselves that you are complying with the terms.
"
"If you can agree to all of that from the
start, I'll go to the karnans and see if that's enough to convince them to suspend their attack.
" I look around.
"Well?
"
The Councillor from Blood Flecks drags the talons on his right hand across the material of their desk, creating an audible screeching noise. "And what do
we get?"
"Don't know. Probably not a lot. What do you want?
"
"The members of our clans in their territory returned to us. Guarantees on
our territory."
"What territory in particular?
"
Which I
do need to know. The karnans might well want the gordanian species off Karna in its entirety, but several clans own territory in other places in Vega. A few even own territory
outside of it.
"Everything we hold now."
"I think that
unlikely-.
"
The Councillor from Gizzard Spiker
bangs his fist on the desk. "Then they will come here and
die."
Hm. Assuming no psion surprises… Ring, probable outcome of a confrontation, the karnan fleet versus the gordanian fleet and planetary defences?
Likely behaviour of vessel commanders unknown. Unable to accurately predict. A direct confrontation would result in a narrow karnan victory. The gordanian combined fleet would be entirely destroyed at substantial cost to the karnan navy. The remaining karnan naval units would be sufficient to perform a rotating bombardment of remaining ground targets.
More or less what I was expecting. De-orbiting the gordanian wrecks would be more efficient than shooting until their shields start to weaken and then backing off, but it would also be a good deal less precise. Would the Crown Imperium care about something like that? They… Might, actually. They're fine with slaughtering pirates and slavers outright, but bombarding civilian areas never looks good. And it would increase the chance of the karnans in the areas being targeted getting killed.
"A lot of them will die, yes. All of you will. May I take it that the gentleman from Gizzard Spiker intends to make their victory so costly that their will breaks while some of you survive?
"
He beats his chest armour with both fists. "
Yes he
does."
The others generally look
less certain. Oh, I'm sure that the gordanians will
fight if it comes to it, but good luck maintaining any sort of organisation with morale like this.
"I don't believe that will work on anything more than a
local level. These aren't karnan merchants or outmatched irregulars. This is a war fleet full of people who hate you. And I think that the Omega Men are a little-
" There's a slight stir at the name.
"-annoyed about me kill-stealing Citadel Complex and have decided that you'll be a reasonable substitute. Still, if that's your intent I will mention it to them. Anything else?
"
The Councillor from Blood Flecks looks around and gets a series of slow blinks. Compliance. He then turns back my way. "No. Go. Return when you have terms."
I bow mockingly and then straighten, raising my right hand to my forehead.
"…progress on all fronts, aid.. ed…" Pren slows to a stop as he notices me. This time it's him, Kalista, Gaharrugh, the officer from the Crown Imperium, a few other karnan officers and a… Huh, a news crew, who step back a little awkwardly and point a camera my way.
And… We're actually in the same room.
"Are you still here? It's been an hour and a half.
"
Gaharrugh rises to his feet. "What do you
want?"
"I've just come from speaking to the gordanian Grand Council. They would like to discuss terms for their surrender.
"
Pren blinks, risking a small smile as he sits back. Kalista blinks, not meeting my eyes, presumably trying to work out how this affects their strategy. Gaharrugh's throat rumbles, and the general smoothing of fur from the karnans suggests that they find the idea extremely pleasing.
"Not
joining them, then?"
"I'm enough of a realist to know that civilians die during wars. But I wasn't about to let it happen right in front of me. My only real objective here is to keep the casualties as low as possible.
"
"The 'Grand' Council can
surrender when they crawl up to me on their knees and kiss my boots!"
I ignore the snorting from several karnan officers.
"Alright. Over what sort of distance?
"
"What?"
"Over what sort of distance do you want them to crawl? They'd have difficulty getting here from their bunker-.
"
"It wasn't a serious suggestion!"
I give him a condescending look.
"Please try and take this seriously, Supreme Commander. Millions of karnan lives are at stake.
"
He steps towards me, towering over me. As if such a basic intimidation technique would work on me any more.
"I am
aware of that. I will accept the Council's unconditional surrender."
"I'm not sure they would be willing to risk that. Could you present a more concrete set of demands?
"