[Azatol]

Chapter 6 – Inquest


A stranger series of events spanning three months could not be imagined. Not only strange but gruesome in the extreme. And now here I was, at a senatorial inquest, as the guest speaker, or more precisely, guest answerer, on homeworld. Three months ago I had listened to the comm chatter of Operation Glory, now I, a mere 1st Lieutenant, was answering questions before the senate about the operation.

The King’s senator, who served also as chair of the legislative body, spoke up.

“Could you, first of all, give us an account of how you arrived here, from the Nizzarum system?”

“First of all, I would like to say that I am merely a first lieutenant, and thus I do not have all the facts, but I will tell all I can.

Sometime during the three day war with the Amon’krie militia groups, I received a message from the Military Space Academy here on homeworld. My superior officer had previously informed me that I might get an offer from them. The dean of the School of Weaponry messaged me to offer me the position of Missile Systems Instructor. The Captain of the Turnaveni felt that it might be appropriate to return to homeworld after the incident which will be described later.

As a result I was allowed to board the Turnaveni and ride along with its crew in the now empty transport. As you know, the Turnaveni is now docked on planet. Discovering that I was the officer with the longest tour of duty on homeworld, you sought me out for this inquest.”

“Alright then, we know that after you left the fleet, the Reserve fleet was folded into the main fleet, and they now are stationed at the wormhole into Ashadra, which according to the navy, contains three colonies of the Amon’krie Continuum.

Part of what this inquest is about, is finding out what happened, and the other part is deciding what to do. Of course we could always rely on the King’s staff to communicate by relay, but face to face we can ask more questions. Describe this incident you speak of, with a mind to the fact that when the Turnaveni returned home, we expected that she would be filled with troopers returning from a successful operation. Instead she returned empty.”

“This will take a while to describe, so first I will tell you about something we have faced from the beginning. Missile systems like the ones I manage as unit leader, use targetting computers to hit. Missiles, however, are designed to hit large targets not small ones.

Orbitting the Amon’krie homeworld, is a network of satellites that can not be targetted by our missiles. As a result we have avoided the network, and so did the Turnaveni prior to the invasion. You see, these satellites are armed with short range cannon that can not hit us as long range, where we fire our missiles from.

When the Turnaveni launched its pods, the system worked great and those pods unleashed 200 divisions of the King’s finest. The Amon’krie have no standing army, and so militia groups were formed to fight us. They failed to defeat us as the marines wiped out the militia and forced the planet’s surrender in three days.”

“Lieutenant, I want to get this clear, Operation Glory was a success, you defeated the enemy on the ground and achieved their surrender.”

“Indeed. Despite the incident, the planet is now under our control, the Amon’krie on planet have surrendered, leaving only their colonies to fight. And one other thing, their satellites.”

“So what is the incident then, if not Operation Glory.”

“Soon after the planet surrendered, the cannons on the satellites of the network began firing.”

“How large were the cannons and how many?”

“Battleship main cannon with incendiary rounds, twenty of them, firing incessantly. They first fired on concentrations of our troops, but the damage affected the Amon’krie civillians as well. The incendiary rounds set off fires that expanded in the absense of an adminstration. No firefighters were combating the blaze at first. More and more fires were set off, and the satellites continued to target our concentrations of men.

Divisions scattered into companies than platoons, and eventually squads. Military command and control was lost. Meanwhile, General Duke Adram was coordinating with the Amon’krie local adminstration in transitioning them to our rule. He began to get cooperation from the Amon’krie in fighting the fires.

But with our Space Marines essentially destroyed as functional units, the satellites did not stop firing. No, they continued, now firing at population centers such as cities. They were firing on their own civillians. We were in utter shock in the fleet. That a nation would fire on its own people just to flush out an invading force, it was hard to believe. Many of our scattered soldiers must have died, but others aided the General in commanding firefighters and trying to organize our own administration. The fires continued to spread though, despite limited success, and the satellites continued to fire.

It seemed as if the satellites would kill everyone on the planet. But then the General got in touch with the designer of the satellites, and found the satellite control center. The controllers had tripped an invasion flag for the satellite computers which meant they would fire on the planet until it was deemed to be unoccupied.

The General and his motley group of Amon’krie found a way to temporarily deactivate the satellites. It required the fleet to leave orbit. You see, the satellites were put in a rest state, watching only. If they detect a warship in close vacinity, they will wake up, try to fire on the warship, and then if not possible, begin firing on the planet again.

The actions of a small group of Amon’krie satellite controllers killed 153 divisions of our soldiers. The war prior killed the other 47. In addition, the controllers killed 697 million of their own people, including possibly themselves. They are dispersed into the population now, so they cannot be identified and tried for war crimes. Eventually the General’s leadership ended the vast fires spreading across the planet. Now the general is attempting to maintain control of the planet in proxy for the king.”

“So would you say, its absolutely imperative that the military put top priority on the development of anti-satellite weaponry.”

“We already have anti-satellite weaponry, we just haven’t used it, because no one in power in the military thought about it.”

“What is this newfangled weaponry?”

“It is old fangled, senator, we take battleship class sea navy guns of our own into space. We will have to fight the satellites without a range advantage, but with a substantial force, we could destroy the satellites and any others we encounter. Not only that, but in the meantime, we could construct planetary platforms using the guns to fire back at the satellites.”

“Why didn’t anyone deal with the satellite threat before?”

“No one thought what was essentially an old naval gun could be of any threat. The Amon’krie use the same kind of design we have for our battleships on their satellites. Now of course we must have a contingent of anti-satellite vessels.”

“How would you recommend we respond to the Amon’krie’s horrible actions against our soldiers and their own men. They have killed some of the finest soldiers we’ve ever raised. But with their homeworld conquered, the Amon’krie have no way of stopping us from taking our revenge.”

“Its not really my place senator, but we will not be able to conquer the remaining colonies without raising more soldiers. The only other option is to blow the colonies up with missiles. That is your decision, these colonies contain perhaps a few million residents apiece, and also shipyards that have sent destroyers against us.”

“Thank you Lieutenant. I propose we conduct a strategic bombing campaign on Amon’krie colonies in retaliation. Focussing especially on any and all enemy shipyards and headquarters. The Amon’krie will have to learn civility, they don’t deserve to kill more of our men. It is obvious our missile boats are the best, and they have truly given us this victory. They should be the bringers of final victory against the Amon’krie.

In the meantime, the General will construct old naval cannons in planetary platforms as the Lieutenant has suggested. On a parting note, how many times have you fired live missiles?”

“16, for 8 fleet kills – 6 destroyers, 1 mystery ship, 1 frigate. With a whole fleet salvo, nothing can survive.”

“Thank you Lieutenant, you are dismissed.”

***

Home sweet home, something so rare since I’ve joined the navy. My parents had watched what turned out to be a worldwide televised event. My face was suddenly more familiar than could be imagined.

As part of the cadet line of the King’s family, we didn’t have a huge castle or palace, but we did have a decent mansion that felt like a mansion after what I’d lived in. Family being what it was, I knew they’d have a feast in celebration of my return home. I swung the heavy brass knockers against the solid door, and standing there in formal navy blue uniform with insignia and everything, my father opened the door.

Father had long since retired from the sea navy, but he still had that military spirit too him and he saluted as he opened the door. I returned the gesture.

“First Lieutenant eh?”

“Colonel next week when I get my new position.”

“Impressive, come in, you don’t have to knock you know.”

“I know.”

“We saw you on the news, I was most impressed by your kill count.”

“That was for the whole fleet father, the way salvos work, no one ship can claim credit. We do have one kill that was ours alone though.”

“Still impressive even if it is the whole fleet. My ship only sunk 3 vessels in the whole rebellion, and they were tiny yachts.”

We went inside, where my younger brother Jonathan, was eagerly waiting.

“There was a special vid about the Amon’krie, they aren’t rebels, father,” Jonathan said.

“They are quite skilled in short range weapons. Which is why we haven’t let them get close. Missiles are the reason for our success. But I think with the Senate upset about the satellites, we will have cannons in space within a year. On the Amon’krie homeworld the general will be constructing anti-satellite cannons as well. Hopefully those killer sats will be destroyed in another three months.”