Metal Swarm - Kevin J. Anderson [207]
The General raised his hands to stay them, then turned his needle gaze toward Allahu. 'You people had your chance to speak over the past few weeks, and we've heard more than enough. We don't want to hear any more.' Gathering steam, the General went on for another ten minutes without saying anything new.
Willis let him finish his blowhard statement, and when he paused, as if preparing some other harangue, she commandeered the podium, and addressed the uniformed ranks, whose faces seemed pale and uncertain. 'You are the best soldiers we have. You all remember why you joined the Earth Defence Forces. As soldiers, you've always known you would have to follow difficult orders. Our military has endured plenty of turmoil in recent years, not just from Soldier compies and hydrogues, but from embargoes and trade shutdowns that caused severe shortages. We had to abandon plenty of Hansa colonies because we just plain didn't have enough stardrive fuel to power our ships.'
'Damned right,' Lanyan put in. 'The Roamers and their embargo brought us to these straits.'
Now she smiled sweetly at him. 'Sir, we all just watched you destroy a civilian Roamer trader departing from Rhejak. Everyone here has heard King Peter's condemnation of your actions and those of Chairman Wenceslas. We've all listened to Patrick Fitzpatrick's confession. My troops are eager to hear your side of the story.'
Lanyan's face turned stormy. 'Admiral, you received strict orders to purge all traces of that message.'
Willis feigned a shocked expression. 'General! You don't have authority to censor the words of the King. So tell us, once and for all, did you give the order to destroy Raven Kamarov's ship after seizing its cargo of ekti?'
Lanyan rounded on her. 'I don't see what that has to do with our current mission.' It was not a very inspiring answer, and everyone understood his meaning. More of her soldiers muttered uneasily.
'I take that as a yes, then?' Willis swept her gaze over the Company boss, the medusa herders, the fishermen, and Allahu. The three teenage boys had looks of abject fear on their faces. None of these people deserved to be crucified, like those poor elders on Usk. 'General Lanyan, I won't force my soldiers to do anything I wouldn't do myself. And I won't ask them to follow orders that J wouldn't follow.'
'Exactly as it should be, Admiral. And now I will issue instructions--'
Willis slipped the twitcher from its ceremonial holster at her side. Before a look of befuddlement could settle completely onto Lanyan's face, she felled him with a burst of nerve-scrambling energy. He lost control of his muscles and collapsed into a shuddering puddle of arms and legs next to the podium.
The fifteen members of his hardline escort guard grabbed for their weapons, but Willis shouted, using the podium's microphone to boom out. 'You men, stand down! My troops, arrest these soldiers. As a command officer of the Earth Defence Forces, I hereby relieve General Lanyan of his rank and charge him - and all those men - with war crimes.' She glanced at the thinscreens and their images of Usk. 'I'd say the evidence is overwhelming, and it's about time we did something right for a change.'
She stood tall as the uproar built around her. Her soldiers, clearly delighted with the unexpected orders, ran forward to overwhelm the fifteen appalled hardliners.
One hundred and twenty-seven
Prime Designate Daro'h
Durris-B had exploded into heat and light, reigniting, shining forth again into the Ildiran sky. The seventh sun was no longer dark and dead. But this was not cause for immediate joy.
Ten vengeful fireballs filled the Ildiran sky like suns. The air smelled of smoke and burned blood. Inside the Prism Palace, looking through