TBntG Chpt 13

==The Bull and the Genie- Chapter 13 - Situation FUBARed==
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==A Broken Promise==
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Coromodir, Aurigan Reach
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"Where are our prisoners?" Mary snarled. 
"What?" the Directorate flunky said. "They were processed and are being sent to a holding facility."
Mary stared at him. "That was not what they were promised for their surrender." The last month had been going… well. The mercs and Lady Arano were now running into the problem that they had a rebellion, not a few units, and that meant they had to protect their allies. Mary had been hammering away at any fixed location she could find. 
And it had been working. Oh, they hadn't succeeded in bringing them down, but every time they had to retreat, it was another sign that they couldn't protect the people flocking to their banners.
Well, except those hiding in the cities. 
But now… "You provided us with paper records, and yet, when one of my officers checked up, the hospitals had never even HEARD of those people, much less treated them. Where. Are. They?"
"At the detention center north of the city! It's a filter center to see who needs to be sent to the secure facility!" He'd turned pale. Mary glanced behind her, and noticed that Thomas had lowered one of his Mech's PPCs. Just a little bit. 
"We're going there, right now."
"But they are traitors—", the man sputtered
"Who surrendered on the basis of the promise of fair treatment. A promise offered by a Taurian officer and by extension, an promise by the Taurian Concordat.", she stated to the man.
Blake, I hope this isn't as bad as I think it might be.
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==Telling it how it is==
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It wasn’t. It was worse. Mary stared down at the network of cells, thrown up using prefab components. Some of them were full of people to the point where you couldn’t lay down. The stink of human feces and untreated wounds made her want to puke. 
“You.” She looked at the warden. “My men will assist you in finding hospital beds for the injured.”
“This is a Directorate Facili—“
“Not any more. We’ll be taking over security. Your only role will be in finding facilities for the prisoners.” Mary leaned forward, and for all that she was shorter than he was, he backed away. “You will also provide my XO with information about where the rest of the prisoners were taken. Nothing will be lost. Nobody will vanish, and if they are dead, you will provide us with the cause of death and what became of the body. Am I perfectly clear?”
“Yes, Ma’am. But what should I tell my superiors?”
“I’ll talk to them.”
But Mary didn’t go to the palace. Not first. First she had to make another stop. The Comstar Station. On the way over, she’d dictated her report, which summed up could be said: “Things are going to shit. Help.” 
We can’t win this war. Every person sent to the prison would never forgive Espinoza. Nor would their families. But if they pulled out the Directorate would fall. Best case, fall and let Lady Arano in, who probably had no reason to like them. Worse case, the entire region would dissolve into civil war. 
I should have checked the POWs. Personally. “But I didn’t think of it” wasn’t an excuse. It never was an excuse. 
She didn’t just fire off one message. She fired off several. To the TDF high command, to the Protector’s office, to the Diplomatic Corps, which might actually have someone there who was doing their job.
Be fair. They might have been lied to as well.
But now she was stomping up the steps to the throne room. And there was Espinoza, looking annoyed.
“Brigadier Cheng, I believe you have exceeded your authority—“
“How do you think we can win this fight if you make yourself hated by the people?” Mary glared at him. “Half the prisoners I just saw weren’t royal guards or mercenaries, they were common people who joined her banners!”
“They are traitors,” Victoria said. “they should be happy that they’re not being sho—“
“Traitors like you?” Mary asked. 
Victoria stared. “What?”
“You didn’t win in an election, Lady Victoria. Your father shot his way to the throne.” Mary shook her head. “I’m just a soldier, and yes, as some of your people have been painfully happy to tell me, young for my position. But the only legitimacy you started with was the legitimacy of force. To win this, to really win this, we have to win the people over, and you’ve ensured that probably isn’t going to happen!”
“When they realize they cannot win, they will surrender.” Espinoza said. “The noble houses are on our side, and they are the ones that matter.”
“Are they?” Mary asked. “Or are they on our side because you have guns pointed at them?” She paused. “More importantly, I’m suspending active operations, at least until we have our POW situation fixed.” She smiled, the expression not reaching her eyes. “Because I promised fair treatment to any POWS as a Concordat officer and I will not violate the regulations of the Taurian Defense Force.” She looked up at him. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to wait for further communications from home.” She didn’t wait to be dismissed.
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==Message from Command==
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Later, Mary was in her office, going over the reports, when Thomas stuck his head in. “We just got the reply from Comstar.”
“So soon?” Mary said. That must have been a fast turnaround. Someone was evidently reading the increasingly annoyed reports she’d sent.
The document had to be decoded through the computer, and then…
Okay, this is very classified. Mary pulled out the isolated decoding machine, keyed her personal cipher into it, and then ran the code that the decoding process had generated. 
A one-time code. Now that code was useless for any further use. Not only that, but the message files were scrambled as it was printed out.
What the hell are they sending me? Then Mary stared. Oh. ******.
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DESTROY AFTER READING
FOR UNIT CO EYES ONLY
HAVE RECEIVED YOUR COMMUNICATION REGARDING CURRENT CONDITIONS IN ARUGIAN DIRECTORATE. 
PROBABILITY OF LONG-TERM DISORDER OR FRAGMENTATION IS UNACCEPTABLE. YOU ARE TO CONTINUE TO COOPERATE WITH AUTHORITIES, CONSISTENT WITH YOUR BEST JUDGMENT.
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Best judgment? What the hell?, Mary thinks to herself as she reads on.
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RCT 03 WILL BE DIVERTED FROM PREPARATIONS FOR OPERATIONS IN THE TORTUGAN THEATER. ESTIMATED TIME OF ARRIVAL, 45 DAYS. UPON ARRIVAL, YOU WILL SUBMIT YOUR UNIT TO GENERAL CHIVES WHO WILL ACT TO STABILIZE THE REGION. LOCAL AUTHORITIES ARE NOT, TO BE INFORMED OF THIS OPERATION. 
RPT: LOCAL AUTHORITIES ARE NOT TO BE INFORMED OF THIS OPERATION.
IN ADDITION TO OTHER OPERATIONS, YOU WILL COMPILE A LIST OF ARUGIAN GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS, IN CASE IT BECOMES NECESSARY TO TEMPORARILY DETAIN THEM. FURTHERMORE, A LIST OF ACTIVE DIRECTORATE AND REBEL UNITS WILL BE PROVIDED TO GENERAL CHIVES UPON ARRIVAL. 
MESSAGE ENDS.
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Mary stared at the message. Then she said about the only thing she could say:
“Well… ******.”
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