Everywhere in the cities on this planet, crowds were on the verge of becoming mobs.
Iceni hit another control. “Mobilize every police officer and order them to assemble at local stations. Call all government employees into their offices with orders to report immediately. Lock down all government buildings, security status one alpha. Get me someone at ground forces headquarters. Who is in charge there until we find Colonel Rogero?”
A wide-eyed woman stared back at Iceni. “We’re… going to use the ground forces, Madam President?”
Everyone raised in the Syndicate knew what that meant. Compliance measures using live ammunition and killing as many citizens as necessary to make the survivors submit to authority. If word started going around that Iceni was planning such an action, every crowd would explode into violence. “No! We need the soldiers to protect the citizens! Tell everyone that! Someone is trying to make the people riot, someone wants them to cause deaths and destruction! The soldiers will protect the people and their property! Now get me someone at ground forces headquarters!”
Brave words. Idealistic words. But if the mobs erupted into full-scale rioting, would she be able to abide by those words? Or would she have to order the actions necessary to stop the rioting?
Iceni paused, all of the comm links off so that for a moment no one could see her, and leaned heavily on her desk, her arms locked, head lowered, trying to find the strength inside not to give in to despair. She had to look strong, be strong, and, most important of all, be smart. Her enemies had clearly outthought her, and outthought Artur Drakon as well. A long, carefully thought-out chess game had reached a climax with both the queen and the king under threat of check.
But the queen was still the most powerful piece on the board.
Iceni hit another control with vicious force. “Togo! Where the hell are you?”
No response. She tried two more circuits, including the emergency circuit, then hit another control. “Where is Mehmet Togo?” she demanded of her chief of staff.
“I—I do not know, Madam President.” The chief of staff didn’t bother trying to hide his bewilderment since Togo always came and went purely by Iceni’s orders. No one was supposed to question or hinder Togo’s movements.
“When was the last time he was seen?”
The chief of staff barked an order to an underling, then waited nervously until the answer came. “His last sighting was thirteen hours ago, on a security camera.”
“Thirteen hours. Wait. He wasn’t seen by someone? He was recorded on a security camera?”
“Yes, Madam President.”
Iceni ended the call, staring at the top of her desk. Togo has the equipment to blind security cameras and knows where they all are. He never lets his movement be tracked by routine security equipment. Why would he let himself be seen by one?
The star display next to her desk, almost forgotten as she concentrated on the situation on this planet, suddenly showed a bright warning symbol near the hypernet gate as an alarm blared for her attention.
Iceni raised her head and looked at the display.
A lot of warships had arrived at Midway’s hypernet gate about four hours ago. A lot of large warships. Midway’s sensors were busy evaluating the new arrivals, trying to identify who they were.
Iceni realized that she was smiling, her lips tight in a snarl of defiance, as she gazed at the display. You think this is checkmate, don’t you? she mentally asked her faceless enemies.
You’re wrong.
“What’s your assessment?” Drakon asked. The building he was in shuddered as part of it collapsed.
“As the workers say, it’s root hog, or die.” Gaiene sounded happy, as if he were reporting good news. The origin of the phrase had long been lost in the mists of time, but everyone knew what “root hog, or die” meant. You’re on your own, to fail or succeed, and if you fail, you’re finished.
“Colonel Gaiene is correct,” Kai said impassively. “They’re not trying to punch through at a few points to split us up, General. I’m seeing even pressure all around the portion of the outer perimeter that my troops are defending.”
“They want to ensure our total annihilation,” Malin said, “by forcing our perimeter back upon the Syndicate forces holding their base. Right now, they are just maintaining pressure until their full force arrives and is in position. At that point, we can expect a barrage using all of their available artillery and surface-to-surface rockets, followed by all-out assault. It is already apparent that the Syndicate forces have significantly more artillery than expected.”
“They’ve got significantly more of everything than expected,” Gaiene pointed out.
“Recommendations?” Drakon said.
“We can’t hold very long,” Gaiene observed nonchalantly. “Even if we ride out the bombardments and hunker down in the rubble well enough to fight off assaults, we’ll only have a couple of days at the most before we run out of energy and ammo. Getting lifted out is impossible. The only available landing areas are covered by either the base’s weapons or the enemy troops now occupying the buildings across the street. Our shuttles wouldn’t last thirty seconds against the amount of fire those Syndicate troops can bring to bear.”
“With the Syndicate battleship here, going back to the freighters would just trade one trap for another even if we could do it,” Kai added.
“The freighters aren’t in orbit here anymore,” Malin said. “The shuttles could only move some of our troops to another location on the surface before the rest got overrun, but as Colonel Gaiene says, the shuttles would not survive any attempt to land.”
“On the other hand,” Gaiene said, “if we try to retreat on the surface, there’s only one way we can go, and that’s inward. We’ll run right into the defenses around that base.”
Drakon felt himself smiling though he felt no trace of humor within. “I know what you’re driving at, Conner. We can’t hold, and we can’t retreat. That only leaves one option.”
“Yes, General,” Gaiene agreed. “It does. We need to attack.”
“Attack?” Kai asked. “A breakout?”
“Hell, no,” Gaiene protested. “We’re outnumbered two to one on the outer perimeter. I always prefer the path of least resistance.”
“Attack inward?” Malin said. “It’s true that the least reliable troops that Haris has are those holding that base against us, and we outnumber them. But they are dug in at the base, behind their fixed weapons and fortifications.”
“We can’t abandon the outer perimeter,” Kai said as if discussing a difficult simulation whose results would have no personal impact on him. “And as soon as the forces outside the perimeter realize we are attacking inward, they will redouble their attack on us.”
Drakon studied his display, letting options run through his mind. “If we can gain control of that base, we’ll be behind their fortifications and have access to their supplies. We’ll have protection against artillery bombardment. But there’s no way to hold the outer perimeter and attack inward with sufficient force to overwhelm the defenses of the base. Half measures will leave us using too few troops to take the base and too few troops defending the outer perimeter.”
“Use them all,” Malin said suddenly. “Every soldier on the attack. Completely abandon the outer defenses and shove everything at the base, all-out attack.”
Gaiene smiled broadly. “I knew you had promise, young fella.”
“It risks everything on one throw of the die,” Kai argued. “Can we afford to do that?”