CS3056-22

=Chapter 22= 
==Clover Spear - The Story of the '56 War==
Prologue, Book 2, The Hammer Falls
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===Greetings from Hanse and Melissa Steiner-Davion===
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Throne Room
Forbidden Palace
Sian
Sian Commonality, Capellan Confederation
November 18th, 3056
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Sun-Tzu Liao was somewhat satisfied with himself thus far, EAST SEA’s first wave had gone about as well as he had any right to expect. Taking Sarna was a damn coup, and one you didn’t expect at all, I wish they’d all been that easy. Now if my father-in-law would get off his overstuffed ass on Atreus, we could really humble the Davions and their spawn. But until then, we will do the best with what we have.
The briefing teams were shuffling into the room for the twice daily briefing, and from the looks on their faces. It appeared that the news was as usual, mixed. Shang was on an troubleshooting assignment, which might even involve actually shooting someone, as the war was discovering the rot in the CCAF did run pretty deep. Even with the Blakists helping us, the CCAF isn’t equal to the task we have asked it to perform, but the Mask and ROM is doing a fine job of keeping the enemy off balance. I may personally not approve of the methods, but as Grandfather used to say, or at least as the official records said he said, “Never hesitate to complicate the life of your enemy by any means possible, they won’t hesitate to do it to you if give half a chance.”
What frustrated Sun-Tzu is that he had to keep so many units watching St. Ives or the Marik frontier or the Periphery. For EAST SEA, the Capellans didn’t have that much to work with, but he was tempted to make a fast grab of Bromhead. It’s not like the Davions had a garrison there. Not that the planet’s worth much.
The briefing droned on with the usual news, stalemate here, minor successes there. More terror attacks on “soft” targets in the Capellan and Sarna Marches, when a courtier, resplendent in an outfit of Liao Jade Green and piped with Gold, came to one knee and cleared his throat to get the attention of all in the room. “Celestial Wisdom. I come bearing an important delivery from ComStar. It is a message from the current regent of the Davions, Katrina Steiner-Davion herself. May I approach the throne with the ROM and hand it to you, Celestial Wisdom?”
Sun-Tzu nodded, and the courtier deftly walked up the few steps to the dais, bowing while averting direct eye contact and handing the disk to Sun-Tzu, then quickly retreating off the dais, down the stairs, and to the rear of the throne room. Sun-Tzu examined the disk. It was a normal enough ROM disk. It had the Fist and Sunburst of the Federated Commonwealth inlaid into the disk, and a simple message printed into it “FOR THE EYES OF THE CAPELLAN CHANCELLOR ONLY.”
There was a small slot for the playing of ROMs laid into the design of the Celestial Throne, and a screen on the opposite wall where the playback would be displayed. Sun-Tzu inserted the disk, and rose from his throne “Perhaps the Davion bitch has come crawling to us for our mercy, eh?” I doubt it, the last time the Davions sent a ROM here, it was an ill omen, but appearances must be kept up. Sun-Tzu’s mind groaned even as he kept an outward smile.
The screen showed a test pattern, beeped three times, and then came to an image of a blonde, blue-eyed woman of about twenty years of age. She looked tired, haggard, but there was a steel in her eyes, and a righteous anger too. I will have to be careful with this one. Katherine Steiner-Davion has something of her Grandmother in her. The Mask clearly underestimated her.
“Greetings Sun-Tzu Liao,” the video began. “you know me and who I am. But if you think I sent this video to beg for mercy or offer you worlds or praise you don’t deserve, you are clearly mistaken. I sent you this message to inform you of something, Your sister is dead. In fact, she, her staff, and all of her courtiers are dead.”
The image soon switched to a first-person camera view of what had to be a soldier running through the halls of a mansion, a mansion Sun-Tzu knew quite well. It was Kali’s on Highspire. The radio transmissions were clipped, professional, and from people who knew what the hell they were doing. 
<<<VALKYRIE SIX, THIS IS TWO, WE GOT THREE DOWN IN THE FOYER, NONE ARE PRIMARY TARGET, CHARLIE MIKE.>>>
<<<ROGER TWO, MEET US UPSTAIRS, PRIMARY TARGET HAS A SAFE ROOM AND WE WANT TO HEAD HER OFF FROM THAT.>>>
One could hear the soldier’s elevated briefing as he took the stairs two at a time, and it soon became clear the camera was attached to the primary sight of the soldier’s weapon. The weapon came up and the muzzle flashed, and two of Kali’s servants fell, blood and gore blossoming from their wounds as they fell at the head of the stairs.
The soldier moved with practiced ease, checking room to room. When he met resistance in one room, he simply fell back, pitched a grenade into the room, which after a few seconds, went off with a stark white flash, and a small cloud of dust. He then fired several quick bursts at a collection of overturned furniture in the corner of the room. As he approached the body it resolved to be one of Kali’s pet Thugees, tattooed and maimed in the name of Kali and her self-proclaimed godhood. Who are these people, they are going through her people like a buzzsaw?
The figure turned right, then left and came to a set of teak double doors, inlaid with jade and gold in the form of characters in Chinese and Punjabi. Oh no, they got to Kali’s room. Sun-Tzu showed no outward sign, but inwardly, he knew what was to come next.
The doors were quickly wired with some form of explosive from another commando, and then they blew open with a small, sharp BANG. A group of commandos then kicked open the door and flew into the room, the POV camera going right, then shifting towards the middle of the room, swinging towards the image of his sister, Kali, her slender frame clothed in a green and red silk robe, and armed with an semi-automatic pistol. She was trying to get around to shoot the person with the camera, but she was too late. Several off-screen reports sounded, and gouts of blood, bone, and vicera exploded as if by magic from her head and chest. Kali dropped like a puppet with her strings cut, she said not a word as the pistol clattered to the floor. The POV approached Kali, kicked away the pistol and in the same motion, put two more bullets into her already shattered skull. 
An excited voice soon got on the radio, it was out of breath, but the elation was obvious;
<<<RINGMASTER, THIS IS VALKYRIE SIX, PRIMARY TARGET IS DOWN. REPEAT PRIMARY TARGET IS DOWN AND WE HAVE CONFIRMATION. EXECUTING EXFIL NOW, OVER.>>>
<<<RINGMASTER CONFIRMS VALKYRIE SIX, WELL DONE, SEE YOU AT THE EXFIL, OUT.>>>
The image froze and returned to Katherine Steiner-Davion. “Sun-Tzu, you killed my parents in cold blood, you have gravely wounded my brother in cold blood, and forced the rest of my family into hiding. Worse, you have murdered thousands of my people. My father attacked your grandfather for a lot less. Now, now I intend to finish what you started. I don’t intend to just destroy the Capellan Confederation or make you part of the Commonwealth. No, I intend to end you. You and your entire diseased line. Your sister was just the start.”
“You started this war with a perfidious stab in the back, when I come for you Sun-Tzu? You’ll see the ****** knife coming. I promise you. Because, to quote an old move, ‘I am coming, and hell is coming with me.’ Until then, see you on the battlefield, Sun-Tzu, because your victories won’t last long, and I think you know that.”
The recording froze on Katherine’s ice-cold smile. It was then that Sun-Tzu noticed two things. First, was the fact that that smile had never left Katherine’s face, and that it never, ever reached her eyes, and the second? That a chill had entered the throne room, and it was only getting colder.
Sun-Tzu barked “Send a company of the Red Heart Guard to Highspire. Confirm the claims of this video. NOW! Second, fetch Major Tsang and my Senior Colonels, and my Maskirovka Director! I WANT OPTIONS!”
The senior Maskirovka briefing officer got on his phone and called his superior, attempting to summon his boss, but his demeanor soon changed. “Sire, Chairman Ferarra is dead, her VTOL was shot down by a SRM launcher, we just found out. A note was recovered at the scene. It said, “Greetings from Hanse and Melissa Steiner-Davion.”
“Where was her security detail?” Sun-Tzu thundered.
“Their helicopter was shot down too. We’ve brought in the Death Commandos to find the assailants.” the briefer answered meekly.
Sun-Tzu saw red. “Out, everyone OUT NOW!!!” Sun-Tzu came down off the throne in a fury and snatched a polearm out of the hands of one of the throne room guards and began to randomly smash items in the throne room in a cacophony of metal, ceramics and wood until he was tackled by several courtiers and guards. The tangle of limbs struggled with him mightily, one courtier being badly disfigured by a swipe of Sun-Tzu’s reinforced claws. It took three minutes to tackle him to the ground, and drag him back to his private quarters, with everyone involved whispering apologies for having violated his person the entire way.
Sun-Tzu didn’t stop screaming until he was administered a sedative ten minutes later.
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===The Free Worlds League Parliament in Session===
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Free Worlds League Parliament Chamber
Atreus
Free Worlds League
November 20th, 3056
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“The Chair recognizes the Captain-General for the purposes of answering the questions of this august body today, and thanks him in advance for making time from his schedule for us.”
Captain-General Thomas Marik rose from his chair. His uniform resplendent with medals that in many cases, were little more than honorifics and attendance awards. His beard covering the worst of the scars from the bombing that had killed most of his family, and his body stooped with age as his brown eyes searched the aisles for friends. There doesn’t appear to be any today. His hair shone with grey, the brown of his youth having been chased away by the years long ago.
He arrived at the podium and cleared his throat, waiting for the deluge of questions to begin, the wait wasn’t long at all.
“The chair recognizes Lady Demantha Korenth, MP Marik Commonwealth.”
“Captain-General, I would ask if it is a good idea to maintain relations with two powers whom in the last month. Both of which have shown a great predilection to shed innocent blood, and even now, may be bringing some wholly justified vengeance down upon the League. I would remind the Captain-General that we were not consulted before one of these powers were allowed to enter the League?”
Thomas Marik cleared his throat. “Ms. Kortenth, I would remind her Ladyship that foreign policy is a exclusive domain of the Captain-Generalcy, and I made the decision to allow the Word Of Blake entry to the League under my reserved powers in that arena. As for their recent actions, I, and my cabinet are monitoring events in the newfound war between the Federated Commonwealth and the Capellan Confederation. The Word of Blake is allied with the Confederation, and they have the right to do so. I acknowledge that reports of their activities in the conflict thus far are alarming, but much of that can be dismissed as Federated Commonwealth propaganda.”
There was an uproar. One MP shouted “Propaganda my ass! You’ve thrown our lot in with murderers!”
The Speaker attempted to gavel the body to order, but he was shouted down by at least a dozen voices shouting, “Impeach the Captain-General” and “Repeal 288!”
Thomas took this as his cue to leave, turning and making for a side entrance that was intended for parliamentary pages, and reporters, but was also useful when a Captain-General had to make a quick exit, such as today.
His SAFE Director, Wilson Chernikov, was waiting.  Wilson’s flowing white hair and green eyes belied long hours at the office, tracking the two wars that were coming uncomfortably close to the League’s borders..not to mention the fact that the League may have unwittingly allowed a bunch of terrorists to start up shop inside the borders of the League.
“Tell me you have some good news, Wilson? Thomas asked.
“I do.” Wilson answered in a clipped tone, as he handed a lengthy stack of documents in a folder marked “Special Tasks”.
“I will do the Captain-General a service and summarize. He’s been cheating on your daughter with a member of his palace staff for some time. Were this to come to light, we could…”
“..back out of the alliance with little issue, and avoid war. But what’s the chance that lunatic comes after us? Or worse, Joshua on New Avalon? He blew up six thousand people to get at Hanse and Melissa Davion for Christ’s sake!”
“Word is Sun-Tzu’s on some sort of crusade and the Blakists may have sold him a bill of goods, sire.” 
Thomas swore softly. “So it’s either war on a faulty premise where most of the provinces are going to stay home, Addendum or no. Or, I betray an alliance where I let my only daughter marry a man who’s cheating on her rather than produce a ****** heir! It seems obvious on what I should do.”
“It does, Sire. Frankly, I agree, but there is the small issue of the Blakists still in the League. Were we to announce our neutrality in this war..”
“..they might turn on us and you’re worried you cannot find them all?” Thomas opined.
“Sire, they’ve had six years to burrow into our military, intelligence agencies, and our bureaucracy. If they wanted to, they could cause some real havoc. But, Katherine’s offer is worth entertaining. We just have to tread very, very carefully.”
Thomas nodded “Ok, Wilson. Compile a list and get set to move on these people. I want them alive to turn over to the Fedcom, but if not, their bodies will do. If the Fedcom come for them first, don’t get in the way. Meanwhile, let’s let the Blakists think we’re are about to jump into the war on the side of the Capellans, for now. If somehow, the Capellans beat expectations…then we can just honor the alliance..and if not..”
“We can back down. Iffy game of brinkmanship, Sire.” Chernikov intoned, raising an eyebrow.
“Do we have a choice, Wilson?” Thomas stated, a tone of exasperation obvious in his voice.
“No, we do not sire. No, we do not.” Wilson stated, as he shook his head with his own sense of resignation.
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