He, like most of the other inhabitants of the red planet, had been watching the events on the Internet channels as they unfolded. At first he had been pleasantly amused by the resistance the MPG troops had offered at the capital, chuckling as they took the feds into custody. As a professional soldier of the highest caliber, he had little respect for the part-time soldiers of the MPG or the man who led them. It had been his opinion that the hostage crisis would be over by dinnertime with Whiting either on a ship to Earth or dead, all of her supporters in the MPG under arrest and awaiting trial on federal charges. But when the news that a general call-up of MPG forces had been issued reached him through his intelligence chief, his opinion quickly changed to one of excitement. This excitement grew when he saw the camera shots of the MPG soldiers deploying around the capital building in their APCs. The excitement came not because he had any ill-will towards the federal officers that had been killed or captured — on the contrary, he had the greatest sympathy for them (at least that's what he would say in public) — but because the problem on Mars was no longer something that the federal officers would be able to take care of by themselves. In short, it would take real soldiers with real guns to take back the capital and enforce the federal warrant against that traitor Whiting. And that meant his marines would finally get to see some action. Granted it would probably be brief action, over in a matter of hours, a day at the most, but action was action and something that any soldier longed for. Here would be a chance to get some much-needed publicity for his forgotten division.
While the MPG platoons around the capital building were still securing the area, Sega had already been on his office terminal, telling his colonels to tell their majors to tell their captains to start arming up and getting ready for deployment. It had of course already occurred to him that the quickest, easiest way to diffuse the situation would be to have his marines march on the MPG base itself and capture it, cutting the incoming Eden reservists off from their weapon and ammunition supply. That would not prevent them from deploying in the other three principal cities of Mars but it would deny them of their most powerful division and sap the morale from those that were left.
"How much longer until your men are ready to move?" he asked Colonel Westley, the commander of his best brigade.
"Fifteen more minutes, General," Westley told him over the Internet terminal. "The boys are suited up in their indoor armor and their loading their weapons up right now."
"Good enough," Sega said. "I want that base captured as soon as possible. The more greenies that are allowed to reach it, the more problems we're going to have if they decide to fight us."
"Will they fight, sir?" Westley asked hesitantly. "They have an awful lot of armor over at that base. And until our boys can get some of our equipment down from TNB we won't have anything to battle armor with."
"We won't be bringing anything down from TNB," Sega said, as if speaking to a six year old. "And don't worry about those greenies hitting us with their armor. Chances are they'll surrender as soon as they see us heading their way. And even if they don't, they haven't had enough time to deploy any of their APCs or tanks yet. It takes time to gear those things up."
"Yes, General," Westley said.
"Incoming communication from Director Corban Hayes of the Federal Law Enforcement Bureau," his computer terminal suddenly spoke up. "Would you like to accept?"
Sega smiled. Here was the communication he had been waiting for, the one that would give him the authority to unleash his men upon the greenies. "On screen," he said.
Hayes appeared on the terminal, his hair somewhat in disarray, his eyes showing a great deal of strain. "General Sega," he said, nodding respectfully. "Thank you for receiving my call."
"Of course, Director," Sega said graciously. He had never actually met Hayes before either in person or online. Federal agents and military commanders did not usually run in the same circles. "What can I do for you? I assume this has something to do with the events at the capital building?"
"That's correct," Hayes said. "As I'm sure you're aware, elements of the MPG have fired upon my men as they attempted to served an arrest warrant on Laura Whiting."
"I've been watching on Internet," Sega said. "My sympathies for your men."
Hayes waved his hand dismissively at the mention of his men. "The perpetrators will be brought to justice, I can assure you of that," he said. "But at the moment I'm reading some alarming intelligence about the remainder of the MPG."
"You mean the call-up?" Sega said. "Yes, we've been monitoring that from here as well."
"Then you know that greenies are streaming onto those bases from all over the planet," he said. "They're hopping onto MarsTrans trains and being taken there and they'll be loading their guns and firing up their tanks pretty soon. I fear that they may have reacted a little strongly to the arrest warrant for their governor and that they might be... well... contemplating serious action."
"A revolt," Sega said, not mincing words. "You're afraid they're planning to attempt a capture of the planet or something equally foolish."
"That's correct," he said. "And while the FLEB has the investigative authority in this instance, this unfortunate turn of events has left us woefully short of firepower to prevent such a thing. We need to stop these greenies before they hurt someone or before they cut into productivity of the various businesses that operate on this planet. Hell, I wouldn't put it past them to attempt some act of terrorism against the agricultural fields or something like that. They need to be stopped from deploying."
"I've already anticipated your request," Sega told him. "I have my entire division gearing up for duty as we speak. I'll deploy an entire brigade to the Eden MPG base within thirty minutes."
"I see," Hayes said, a little confused. "And a brigade is?"
Sega gave him a look of contempt. "I take it you've never served in the armed forces before?"
"Well... no," he said with a shrug.
"A brigade is four battalions of combat troops," he explained. "About 2500 men."
"That's a lot," Hayes said uneasily.
"Better too much than too little," Sega responded. "My guess is that the greenies will give it up as soon as they see us marching on them. In any case, once the MPG base and Eden itself is secured I'll get the rest of my men to the other three cities where the MPG is deploying. I'll send a brigade to New Pittsburgh, one to Libby, and one to Proctor."
"How will you do that?"
"We'll load them on our C-12 transports and put them into orbit," Sega said. "We have enough lifter craft to move the entire division up to our ships in less than twenty-four hours. Instead of putting them on the ships though, I'll just have them de-orbit and land at the other three cities. We can capture the spaceports and use them as operations bases from there. My guess is we'll have this entire planet, including the Capital Building, secure and under control in forty-eight hours."
Hayes nodded wisely, obviously pleased with the efficient self-confidence of the general. "It sounds good, General," he said. "You do whatever needs to be done. There is one concern I have about your men however. You have a number of greenies in your division, do you not?"
"About one thousand total," he confirmed. "Most of them are in support positions. I've already ordered my MPs to remove them from their units and place them under house arrest."