LWDD-6

==Chapter 6 Lest we drown in the darkness...==
by Cannonshop
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November, 2769 - Star League Defense Force Task Force, Kowloon System
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General Aaron DeChevalier wasn't surprised that the moment House Amaris was embroiled in fighting the SLDF, that Kowloon would revolt.
It was almost predictable, really.  Kowloon's membership in the Rim Worlds Republic wasn't voluntary from the start, and the Terran Hegemony, and later SLDF, had helped keep them 'in the fold' as it were, often with force.
Sometimes too MUCH force. 
Nope, not a surprise.
The surprise is how fast it went down.  A palace coup might take a couple of weeks, and an insurgency could take years.
Kowloon's uprising took a grand total of six months from start to finish, and unlike the normal pattern of such short-run uprisings, it wasn't the Rim Worlds with their battlemech battalions and massive secret police that won.
He sighed as he reviewed the surveillance images from SLDF's military intelligence.
Craters where Bases had been, still glowing with waste heat, on one image, the shot showed the massive engineering marvel of the Highway One bridge span in Hue, with body-shaped objects dangling from it like a gaudy fringe-officials and officers stationed on that world, probably a few accused collaborators.
Telescopes showed grisly scenes in most of the major cities. In Nha Tranh, which had been lightly damaged by the thing that cratered the RWR's primary military base, bodies dangled from every lamp post, balcony, and tree in the city.
There was the frantic radio call as soon as his task force entered the system. The remnants of the Governor's staff and dependents were holed up in City of Hue. They were begging for someone, anyone really to come save them from the people they had oppressed. (He could finally think the word, thanks to Stephan's Perfidy) That was because those people were intent on breaking the defenses of the fortified shelter in downtown they were hiding in, and there would inevitably be more blood to follow.
"What should we do, Sir?" Admiral Tsuvakis asked.
The General sighed, "We find someone down there to negotiate with." he said, "These might be the people we need."
"The Rim-Worlds people?" Admiral asked
"No, the Kowloonese." he said, "So we find out if anyone is in charge, and we talk to them...and if that lets us stop an atrocity, it's a bonus."
"Yes sir." admiral grimly replied
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