Heart of Steel: Book II of the Jonathan Pavel Series (9 page)

“Be seated” Banjour said to everyone after he took his seat.

“First things first, what are we doing to get our surviving people from LP-115 back.”

Foreign Minister Tao leaned forward, “Sir, as per your instructions the Colonial Ambassador’s credentials have been revoked, and he and his staff have been unceremoniously put on the first flight back to Charlemagne. We’ve also recalled our ambassador so there is no direct diplomatic channel to the Colonial Government. Not that they would be taking our calls anyway.  As such, we have accepted the offer of the Kingdom of Vinland to provide a conduit. The Colonials have offered to repatriate the 76 Solarians they are holding. However, they're also demand we apologize for violating the treaty that stipulated our borders remained demilitarized.”

The Minister glanced at Cain.

“The OMI informs us the Colonials are trumpeting to everyone who will listen that we had WMDs at LP-115.”

There was a collective mutter of disgust around the table.

“When exactly did a nominal democracy like the Colonial Confederacy start coming up with propaganda pronouncements that rival the Helvetians in ridiculousness?” Marshal Chung asked.

“The Confederacy is hardly a democracy these days.  It’s more of a semi-democratic oligarchy. It’s been a gradual transformation over the last couple of decades,” Cain said.

“Our analysts point to a two fold causation. One, is the gradual economic decline because of populist protectionist policies by short sighted populist leaders. The other is a rise in xenophobia often spurred by those same leaders. The Colonials are a far more ethnically homogenous bunch than most nations, so it’s easier to blame the foreign ‘other’. Their political decentralization, which use to be a safe guard against overly powerful government has given way to a system that is dominated by personality and identity politics. The bottom line is their current crop of leaders, especially Louis Dupont and Simon Kisane, see war as a quick and easy way to secure their own power base, and fulfill their deluded dreams of territorial expansion. The propaganda is a by-product of their own self delusion. They know we don’t have WMDs on LP-115, and most of their voters know it, but a lot don’t. More importantly, it helps to justify their aggression.”

“How we got here is beside the point,” Banjour said. “What we need to focus on now is how we respond. To that end, I will go before a joint session of the legislature tonight as soon as a quorum can be established. I intend to call for a vote to issue the ultimatum my office has drafted with the Foreign Ministry to the Colonial Government. The wording and terms of the ultimatum is not up for discussion at this time. What I need from you is if the Colonials choose war, how do we plan to beat them?”

Douglas briefly glanced at the copy of the Ultimatum in front of him. It was clear, precise and harsh without being unreasonable. You had to give the Foreign Office credit, they knew their stuff. No doubt they’d began drafting when tensions started to build, and had modified it based on events.

The Premier was here for his military briefing, and as the ‘senior in service’ it fell to Marcus Ho, Admiral of the Fleet, to do that.

“Sir,” Ho said rising and walking over to the holo projector.

“The Navy in conjunction with our colleagues in the other armed services have activated Case Yellow. Following revisions and updates, we will send the 7th, and 5th Fleets along with Eight Army Groups and Four Marine Expeditionary Forces into the the Colonials northern territory. These six systems comprise 45% of the Colonial’s heavy industry and 65% of their mineral extraction. While the offensive is ongoing, the 3rd, 11th, and Home Fleet will hold our territory in conjunction with Five Army Groups and launch localized incursions. The 2nd Fleet will serve as an active reserve. Once the northern systems are secure, we’ll drive on Charlemagne. We estimate that barring the Colonials suing for peace, the conflict will take two to three years possibly four. Our main obstacle is how well developed the Colonial interior systems are, heavy investment in terra-forming and infrastructure development. Once we achieve space superiority, we should be able to wear them down and force a negotiated cease fire.”

“And you're confident we can beat them in space?” Banjour asked.

“The only thing I am confident of is that no plan survives contact with the enemy. OMI’s intel estimates have us at a 3 to 1 advantage in Capital ships, 2 to 1 in Light ships. The only advantage they have is in Carriers, because they have 12 to our 9.”

Douglas noticed a look crossing General Cain's face.

Banjour saw it too.

“Something to add, General?” the Premier asked.

“Nothing concrete yet sir, just rumors and inference. We’ve heard whispers that a major ETO manufacturing firm has been subcontracted to fulfill an order of replacement parts for the Colonials. Considering the Colonials own heavy manufacturing capability, this could indicate that these orders need to be filled by ETO based companies because the Colonials have recently aquired a large quantity of ETO or more likely Terran Federal equipment. Perhaps even a good number of warships.”

“Do you have any concrete evidence of this though?” Banjour asked.

“No sir,” Cain replied levelly. “Just whispers.”

“Whispers? Sounds like you are grasping at straws more than usual Loretta. Maybe you should spend more time focusing on the enemy we are suppose to be fighting, rather than chasing your Commonwealth obsession,” Atherton Gao commented.

Cain bristled and Douglas wished heartily that he could hide under the table with dignity. The ill feelings between the Director of OMI and the Minister of Public Safety were legendary. Though no one had needed to physically separate them yet, it was an open secret there was a pool among the junior staff as to when the two would have an all out brawl.

Before the shouting match could commence though, Banjour held up his hand.

“See if you can follow up on these whispers General Cain,” The Premier said making a point of using her rank and title. “You were saying Admiral Ho?” Banjour continued.

“Yes sir. As I was saying, while we currently have a superiority in number of hulls, the Colonials, thanks to stellar geography, have a much narrower front to defend. They also, as General Cain indicated, have a strong heavy industry base. Intel indicates they’ve already ramped up a Naval expansion, which began ten years ago. In three years, they’ll be on par with the forces we can commit to fighting them, without leaving our other borders undefended. While they won't surpass us at the current rate  that we are laying down new ships, it’s still imperative that we beat them before their industrial base can fully mobilize.”

The briefing would go on for several hours as every aspect of the plan was reviewed. Banjour, true to his nature, scrutinized various aspects. The big picture was staggering when you looked at it. All told, the Solarian forces would consist of close to 400 ships, nearly two thirds of the fleet, and nearly 10 million Soldiers and Marines. Solaria would also call up nearly 20 million auxiliaries from its client nations to serve as rear echelon and occupation forces. Solaria had a population of about 12 billion citizens. Eight billion of whom lived in the Solaria system, and another 4 billion who lived in the daughter colonies and client states. Solaria’s client nations collectively numbered about 14 billion people, not counting the Free Worlds League, which was a Solarian ally, though in truth it was very much a puppet of the Republic.

“The League?  My daily briefing is already talking about protests against potential involvement. How sure are we that they will get behind us?” Banjour asked.

“Sir, the League is between a rock and a hard place,” Foreign Minister Enoch Tao said.

“On the one hand, elements within their government don’t want to get involved in this conflict, and on the other hand if we pull out the Commonwealth will eat them for lunch.”

“I hope we are not planning to give the League’s Anti-Solarian factions, or any of our Clients Anti-Solarian political groups ammunition.”

“No sir, as per doctrine,” the Deputy Foreign Minister for Client relations piped up. “Client and League citizens as well as foreign nationals are as always eligible to enlist in the armed forces for a twenty year term in exchange for citizenship. Client military formations will be used for local defense, and we will be asking the League Navy to pick up the slack in anti-piracy and convoy protection duties.”

The Republic’s policy toward its Clients in times of war was pretty clear cut. As tempting as it was to use auxiliaries rather than citizens for combat, Solarian law and conventional wisdom argued against it. Client militaries would be used to defend their home systems, and in many cases divisions would be rotated to captured territories to help serve as occupation troops. There were rarely objections to this. Solarian Client treaties dictated that Client Nation military forces needed to be all volunteer, and recruits were granted  Provisional Solarian Citizenship, which wasn't full citizenship but was better than nothing. Using volunteers meant that Client peoples didn’t face the prospect of mass conscription into a war that wasn’t theirs. It was an occasionally awkward system, but it worked. One major issue was that Clients were not allowed to maintain a Navy or Paramilitary Space force. Although that policy was changing more and more, because Client worlds were being granted the right to maintain small in-system patrols. These forces were incredibly weak, maybe one or two ships of an older build and mostly used for customs enforcement. They were also few and far between with less than a tenth of Solaria’s Clients being approved to organize such a force, or for that matter even wanting to. It was far easier and more cost effective for Clients to rely on the Solaria Navy and Customs and Rescue Service for their space based military needs. The Republic prefered it this way since it kept the Clients from getting too powerful, but it also meant the Navy and CRS were tied down defending and patrolling Solaria’s vast domain. The League Navy, which was a small but well built force, offered some relief but not much. Douglas and most Solarian Navy men actually prefered the current system. Although, the League Fleet component was notorious for its nepotism and discrimination based on which of the dozen or so ethnic groups the service men hailed from. God forbid, the League Fleet ever needed to do  more than chase some raiders or escort fat bellied merchantmen Douglas thought. The briefing finished up around 2pm when Banjour was informed by his Chief of Staff that the Tribune would have a quorum no later than 7pm, and that a session had been called for 9:00 pm that night.

“Well, gentlemen and ladies,” Banjour said rising. “Seems I have a speech to write and very little time to do it. I will expect you to keep me informed of events. With any luck they will accept our ultimatum and back down. If not, expect hostilities to break out no later than six weeks from now.”

Six weeks was the universal deadline for a ultimatum between nations. It gave four weeks for a message to be carried between governments by courier ship and a week for each party to formulate a response. These days, actual messages were sent by laser com but the time frame persisted, sadly because it often gave both sides time to mobilize. The prospect of peace seemed to grow dimmer and dimmer by the moment.

Singking, Solaria Prime, Solarian Republic

The Capital, Chamber of the Quorum of the People

September 21st 844 AE 9:00pm

The Capital was the largest building in central Sinking by square footage.
It sprawled over 200,000 square feet, and had enough space for both the Senate and the Quorum to sit in session and committee. There was enough office space left over for the various administrative and historical departments, and offices for a quarter of the Republic’s elected officials. It was built in traditional Solarian Neo-Classical style with vaulted ceilings, polished marble floors and red granite walls. The Capital had replaced the Old Parliament building after the end of military rule, but construction had begun during the Triumvirate of the Second Republic, only to stall and stagnate as so many things had in those days because of a dispute over funding. When it was finally finished though, it was magnificent. Its great bronze dome was an icon not just for Sinking but all of Solaria. The dome was  painted to match the rest of the building, and it was crowned by a statue of a great Crag Dragon protectively curled around a flagpole from which flew the Republic’s banner. The banner always flew proudly above the building with its red and white horizontal stripes with a golden twelve-pointed star on a green field. The Quorum chamber was located on the ground floor of the seven story structure, and was by far the biggest room in the building.  The Senate chamber that sat on the seventh floor was far smaller. The Senate only needed to comfortably sit the 300 conscript Father’s of the Republic. The Quorum seated the 650 delegates plus a resident deputy from each Solarian client who couldn’t vote, but could petition the Quorum. All told, the room usually held 700 plus people when you added in government ministers, staff, and the Tribune - the official elected by the chamber who oversaw the procedures and his six deputies and the guards. Even with all those people, there was still the public gallery that sat another 1,800  comfortably and was usually full. The chamber was laid out in a horseshoe shape with the Tribune positioned on a raised dais at one end with the delegates all seated facing him. The Tribune’s position determined seating arrangements with right wing delegates on his right, and left wingers on his left with the independents and minor parties crammed together at the bend. By ancient custom, there was no ‘government side’. Rather, the ‘government bench’, where Ministers and the Premier sat when present in the chamber, was a heavy but still movable piece of furniture that shifted to the side that held power, and was placed at the bend if there was a coalition. The noise was deafening at the best of times and more so today. On Terra in the ETO Parliament House, spectators could be thrown out for whispering too loud. Not so on Solaria. In the public gallery, the mass of spectators talked and jabbered, argued and shouted adding to the din coming from the floor below. In fact, the only way anyone could get ejected from the building was by posing a physical threat to anyone’s safety. For those who couldn’t get a seat in the building it was easy enough to watch the goings on from the holo. Above the chamber, dozens of camera drones no bigger than a sparrow whirred about silently providing feeds to over a hundred news networks. Due to its openness, its history, and above all else the rough and tumble nature of Solarian Republicanism, the Quorum was disorderly on its best of days, and during a joint session it was pure madness. Delegates with red and white sashes, Senators with purple sashes and colored armbands  to show political affiliation, milled about shouting, waving ballots, making motions at each other and shouting them down. Solaria had five major political parties. The Nationalist were the party of the common Solarian and appealed across all classes and backgrounds. They stood for a center-right ideology, which advocated continued Solarian expansion, government backed private development of client states, a greater emphasis on economic development over welfare, a fair and open immigration system with an emphasis on integration, and a low but still surplus tax rate. Caucusing with the Nationalists, but outside the government, were the Judicalist who were Solaria’s far right party. They  stood for law and order above all else, as well as a completely secular state dedicated to due process. The Judicalist broke with the Nationalist on foreign policy as they wanted less immigration and less expansion. It hadn't been that long ago the Judicalist had proclaimed, ‘Solaria for Solarians’. They also wanted lower taxes. They were the party of the citizen who found the Nationalist to lefty and the Conservatives too aristocratic. In opposition, was the left wing Democratic Populist. This party was  the self-proclaimed party of the poor, the working man, the provo, and the conscientious Landed. Populist stood opposite from the Nationalist on most issues except for immigration and client relations. Both Nationalist and Populist wanted immigration and development of client states, but the Populist wanted to ease immigration and full integration requirements making it easier for immigrants to become full citizens. The Populist also favored increased funding for client economic development. Populist were also opposed to continued expansion. Some found this policy continuing to be part of their party platform odd, because it had been under the Populist-Liberal coalition that the Republic had broken the Thaos Dominion, and made its presence in the Keplar sector permanent. This enacted the greatest expansion to Republic territory in almost a century.  To the right of the Populist but left of the Nationalist were the Liberals. They were the center left part of Solarian politics taking in the academics, the left wing Landeds and educated middle class who were put off by the Populist’s pinkish hue. Finally, there were the Conservatives. This was the party of old money, blue blood, and new money that wanted respect. Just over a dozen strong, they were a quirk of Solaria’s electoral system where Senators were elected by the Estate General, but only Landed’s whose names appeared in the roll of landowners could stand for Senate. As a result of these laws, nominations were made by the Estate’s Landed society and sometimes only one candidate was nominated. The Conservatives were a bunch of xenophobic -put the Steaders back in chains - reactionaries whose continued existence was tolerated because of their willingness to sell their votes, and the political sway many held over their often poorer and more rural estates. Of course as a measure of revenge, the Conservatives when in joint session needed to sit near the independent and small parties. There were over a dozen of these including the Islamic Republicans, the Christian Democrats- religious fanatics the lot, the New Communist -who made the Populist look like Conservatives, the Libertarians, who everyone avoided, and the various independents who caucused based on where they thought their district could get the most gain. All told, these minor parties held about a dozen seats with no one independant holding more than a seat or two, but sticking a dozen old, curmudgeonly senators in their midst always led to a show, and occasionally a fist fight. In the center of all the chaos and commotion, sat the Tribune like some kind of unmoving statue in his ceremonial gold and green robes and great white curled wig, while the Guardsman positioned along the back walls did their best to stay out of the way. Some thought it odd that a nation that had experienced military rule kept armed soldiers in all of its government's legislative proceedings. The Republican Guard was unique for a military unit in that the regiment answered to no one but the Quorum, the elected representatives of the people. Each Guardsman wore a ceremonial red and white uniform that was cut very differently than the Sinking Metropolitan police uniform, but still shared the same color scheme. Because it was a joint session, next to each Republican Guardsman stood a soldier in a uniform of the same cut and color, but with the color scheme reversed. The Senatorial Guard, li
ke the Republican Guard, answered to no authority except the Senate. The bar for joining either unit was high. Recruits needed to be ten year veterans of the Army or Marines, and at the very least hold a Jager Tab, denoting they had finished Jager School and a triple Jump Halo, indicating they had qualified for low altitude, high altitude, and orbital jumping. To reduce bureaucratic competition, both Guard Regiments were commanded by the Master at Arms an office filled by a candidate nominated by the Senate and confirmed by the Quorum.  It was the Regiments duty to protect the proceedings of the duly elected servants of the people.  Should there ever be any attempt to overthrow the State, they were expected to follow the example of their predecessors in the first Republican Guard who died  facing a rioting mob during the three days of blood. It was commonly thought that just as their role was to symbolically protect the proceedings, it was also to remind the delegates not to put politics before their duty to the State. The Parliament and Triumvirate of the First and Second Republics had destroyed themselves through infighting and in the end, had been overthrown not because the military sought power, but because it was acting in its capacity to preserve the State.  Whatever the reasoning, the Guardsman were helpful in keeping the unruly assembly from tearing itself apart. The din in the chamber began to lessen as two men in traditional army olive and khaki, but in uniforms of an ornate cut and armed with sabers entered the chamber. Members of the Premier’s Own, who by convention took up position as the honor guard outside the building whenever the Premier entered, except for the two who escorted him into the chamber.  The Tribune saw the Premier’s guards also, and made a slight motion with his hand and his six deputies rose to their feet and began shouting for order banging their gavels. The Guardsmen seeing this began rhythmically pounding their ceremonial, but still functional rifles on the floor until gradually the the steady thump, thump, thump brought the chamber to order and quieted the gallery. When the audio in the chamber had reached a hushed whisper, the Tribune rose to his feet.