Faith & Empire: Book One of The Holy Terran Empire

9. SURRENDER!

Buoyed by the respite from enemy fire, we made short work of the climb up the crater wall. We ascended in three columns. It was rough going at first, but the higher we went, the firmer the ground grew under our boots. The mechs were forced to wait for the returning Halberds to pull them out of the silt. It was just as well, because the small ledge that remained of the defile might have collapsed under their great weight. On the climb, we listened to Colonel L'Amour trade notes with Captain Obey and Lieutenant Sheed on how best to breach the airlocks.

As we trudged up the last steep stretch of slope, our HUDs were fed the details of the enemy's compound from the ground penetrating scans of the disabled El Cid. The base consisted of a ten-story, fifteen-hundred-meter-wide cylindrical shaft. There was a kilometer and change of twisting tunnels to wind our way through before we reached the base proper from our end. Fortunately the sensors did not pick up any signs of ore wyrms in the vicinity.

The scans also exposed a five-hundred meter wide bowl-like structure buried deep under the crater. It was, in fact, a hollow sphere with the top half split and retracted alongside the bottom hemisphere. The bowl was undoubtedly the pen from which the wyrms were loosed on us.

Sixty-three of us who survived the ordeal in the pit climbed over the crater's rim and gathered on both sides of the five-meter-square steel doors of the outer airlock.

The old mining base wherein the pirates hid was enveloped by yet another low-energy kinetic force shield used primarily to repel the ore wyrms. This inner shield was produced by man-tall, pyramid-shaped aether generators on either side of the airlock. The top-side and northern airlocks were also bracketed by pairs of these pyramids. There would be other such generators buried underground to give the base full coverage, but these didn't concern us. Taking out the four on the surface would be enough to burst the installation's last protective bubble and let us at the doors.

Izzy and 1st Platoon's burner, Ludlum were given the honor of melting the pylons on our end.

Captain Obey alerted Colonel L'Amour, "We're ready to burn the generators on your signal."

The colonel had a different idea all of the sudden. "Before we do that, let's see if these rogues have had a change of heart to go with their change in circumstances," L'Amour said.

He opened up a channel to the base and we listened in. "This is Colonel Llewellyn L'Amour of the Knights of Saint James, Matamoros. In the name of God Almighty and by the command of His Most Benevolent, Imperial Majesty, Emperor Andreas VI, you are hereby ordered, one final time, to surrender to the mercies of God and Emperor."

After a long pause, a harried, nearly breathless voice responded. "We have hostages. Lots of them. You'll let us be, if you value their lives."

"We do not negotiate with pirates," the colonel answered. "Surrender at once!"

Our helmet computers informed us that the pirate's voice was not a match for Lugo Grogorum, but for a Sven Krogstadt who had nearly thirty outstanding warrants across half a dozen systems for larceny, kidnapping, assault, rape and half-a-dozen murder charges.

"We're a sovereign power, we are! You have no authority here, knight," Krogstadt continued. "You're trespassing on Free Alliance territory. Don't enter the base or... or we'll kill the hostages, we will!"

"If a single hostage is harmed, then by Imperial law, you will all be subject to summary execution."

"This is Imperial aggression!"

"If you want to live, you better be certain that we find the hostages unharmed and all of you on the ground, face down with your hands behind your head."