Chapter 14

DAY 27 – RESISTANCE BASE – RUZA

“Allow me to introduce Yohanes and Henrik,” Bergmann said, gesturing to the two newcomers at the conference table. Their little operations room was still buried in the depths of an old mine, with naked bulbs hanging from a rock ceiling that was secured by steel braces. There had been a few upgrades, however. The chairs were more comfortable, and there were now a few desks and computer terminals scattered about near the walls. All of the usual people were in attendance, including Amy, who gave Ruza an excited smile from the other side of the table.

“Yohanes is to be our permanent liaison with the FMU, and Henrik comes to us from the Trade Association,” Bergmann continued. “We thought it was time to reach out, considering the supply situation.”

“Pleased to meet you,” Reed began, the other people present echoing the sentiment. “It’s about time the TA finally got involved. We have all of the major unions on Hades with us now, except for the Municipal Guild.”

“The supply issue should be our first order of business,” Ruza said. “Perhaps Henrik can tell us more.”

“We did try to negotiate with Governor Serio,” the man called Henrik began. He was a little younger than Bergmann, and he lacked the stocky build of someone who was accustomed to hard labor. Judging by his suit, Ruza guessed that he might be fairly high up in the company, perhaps dealing more with logistics than the actual hauling. “We’ve been bombarding his staff with requests for meetings since the blockade started, and we can only conclude that he’s giving us the cold shoulder. He’s made some rather generous offers to the other unions, so we believe it’s likely that his hands are tied. The occupiers won’t budge on the matter.”

“What exactly have they been doing?” Bergmann asked. “We’ve heard rumors about trade goods being rerouted or intercepted, but not much more.”

“We’ve felt the shortages, too,” Astrid added.

“As soon as they arrived, they took control of the tether station and the anchor from the PDF,” Henrik replied with a scowl. “There’s been an embargo ever since – they have total control over trade. My union’s domain is the transportation of cargo to and from Hades. We pick up the raw materials and export goods on the ground, and we handle imports coming into the colony. It’s up to us to predict the population’s needs before they arise and make sure we have a steady flow of supplies coming down the tether. Things can get complicated when you’re dealing with such large distances and delayed shipping schedules. You can’t let emergencies happen, because they’ll take half a year to solve.”

“Goods have to be ordered months or even years in advance, and Hades pays for imports mainly through exporting ore and industrial equipment,” Astrid explained. “Not to get too deep into how the economy works, but if there’s nothing going out, there’s no money coming in.”

“We had shipments that were scheduled months ago and never arrived,” Henrik continued. “The likelihood of freighters being lost en route or stiffing us is extremely low, so we can only conclude that SWAR are intercepting those shipments. When freighters leave, they’re supposed to load up with export goods, which they haven’t been doing. We’ve not been in contact with any of the shipping companies – our access to the FTL sat is blocked. They claim it’s having technical issues.”

“Sounds like jamming to me,” Rivera mused. “We know that they have an EWAR ship on station.”

“Do you have any people working in the anchor or the station?” Bergmann asked.

“The guys at the anchor are under very strict instructions to only load what the occupiers tell them to load,” Henrik replied. “We’ve been out of contact with our guys on the station. It’s pretty clear that trade has completely broken down. Hades is not self-sufficient by any means, especially when it comes to food, and we can’t afford to play games with the Governor anymore. The higher-ups at the Association want the blockages removed – by any means necessary.”

“That’s the plan,” Rivera added. “What do you have access to?”

“There’s a slow trickle of food and goods coming in,” he replied with a shake of his head. “Not enough by any means. What we’re really concerned about is the shipment from Franklin that was supposed to come in a couple of days ago. There’s been no sign of it. We’re talking hundreds of tons of meat and grain – staple foods that the colony depends on to survive. They were supposed to pick up a load of ore before they headed back, and we haven’t seen head nor tail of them.”

“When was the next shipment supposed to follow?” Amy asked.

“Not for another couple of months,” he replied.

“We’re already seeing shortages at the markets,” Amy continued, glancing to Bergmann with a worried expression. “We’ve stockpiled enough food to last a while – at least for the population living on-base, but it might be a good idea to warn everyone to start rationing.”

“We wouldn’t want to cause a panic,” Bergmann said.

“There will be more than panic if people begin to starve,” Ruza rumbled, his low voice commanding their attention. “I have seen such hardships before, during my territory’s decline. Our land was too meager to grow adequate food, and we most often took what we required from others. We were little better than raiders and pirates. There is nothing like a growling belly to make a man forget his morals.”

“Amy, I want you to start preparing contingencies,” Astrid said. “If we find ourselves in a situation where the people are in need, we want to be able to do all we can.”

“Just make sure that we have enough food for ourselves first,” Rivera warned. “An army can’t fight on an empty stomach, and if our operations suffer because of it, we’d be doing the opposite of helping.”

Amy gave him a look that Ruza recognized as disapproval, but although Rivera’s words were harsh, he wasn’t wrong. The resistance was the only thing keeping the enemy from overtaking Hades entirely, and being too charitable could leave them weakened.

“There is another matter,” Rivera continued. “Recently, the enemy has been stepping up its operations. As well as the heightened patrols and surveillance, there have been abductions and arrests by teams of PDF who are often overseen by SWAR agents.”

“I can’t stress how unusual this behavior is,” Omar added, glancing across the table with a dour expression. “Under UN law, the PDF can act both as a peacekeeping and paramilitary force, but they have to follow the same rules that a police officer would when interacting with civilians. There have to be warrants signed by a judge, probable cause, a statement of rights – that kind of thing. Hoff was stretching the rules, and I’m sure he could have the Governor sign whatever paperwork he wanted, but these new commanders are flaunting them entirely.”

“They’re grabbing whoever they want right off the street, and those people are disappearing,” Rivera continued. “These raids usually take place at night with the element of surprise. They pull up in APCs and take the prisoners to the nearest garrison, where they drop off the face of the planet.”

“We’re missing FMU members,” Yohanes confirmed. “They were relatively high up in the union, and their families haven’t seen them for more than seventy-two hours. There’s no doubt that it’s punitive – revenge for the attack at the steel plant.”

“They could be interrogating people – even executing them,” Reed said with a shrug. “We just don’t know, and nothing is off the table at this point.”

“These kinds of arrests would usually go through the garrison chain of command, meaning that people like me would see the orders before they went out,” Omar added. “That’s not happening anymore. They may suspect that there are sympathetic elements within the PDF, or they may just not care enough to maintain the pretense anymore. Either way, we need to step up our efforts if we’re going to protect the population.”

“We cannot let this go unanswered,” Ruza said. “If they seek to strike fear into the people, then we shall strike fear into them in turn. We must make these arrests fraught with uncertainty and danger. If the PDF fear to enter homes, and SWAR cannot stay out of the line of fire, they may be less eager to carry out these abductions.”

“You want to do some ambushing?” Reed asked with a grin. “I think we can arrange something like that.”

“The problem is predicting when and where the raids will happen,” Omar said. “Remember – I’m out of the loop now.”

“Perhaps we could have field agents watch enemy movements and report in when they see unusual activity,” Astrid suggested. “The garrisons are all very close to civilian homes.”

“Maybe, but they’d risk exposing themselves with all the surveillance drones, and we can’t guarantee that we’d have people in the immediate area who could respond in time,” Rivera mused. “That’s our biggest operational weakness right now. Yes, the smuggling tunnels and old mines allow us to move safely and strike with impunity, but their sheer size hampers our mobility and our response times. We’re limited by the need to plan our attacks well in advance, and we can’t do much if the target is too far from a convenient tunnel entrance. All of our successful operations have gone down by carefully preparing an area and luring the enemy into an ambush while maintaining the initiative.”

“I might have suggested moving troops above ground before the crackdown,” Reed added. “These days, with all the patrols and the curfew, there’s no way we’d get away with it for long.”

“It may be wise to begin dispersing our forces,” Ruza added, his long claws clicking on the table as he leaned on it. “We cannot be successful in preventing every arrest, and the enemy will eventually extract the information that they seek, by one means or another. If they locate this base and launch a large-scale assault, we will be powerless to resist. A single PCE could cut a swathe through our ranks.”

“You’re talking about forming cells,” Reed said with an approving nod. “Breaking up our forces into smaller, more mobile units. If we spread these cells throughout the tunnel network, it could help with our mobility issues, too. We’d be able to respond more quickly to enemy movements and be more reactive.”

“At the expense of the structure we have here,” Rivera argued. “Having our stockpiles of weapons and supplies in one centralized location allows for a high degree of readiness. The men have adequate quarters, access to medical care, an armory, a firing range, trainers, power and water. Any cells would be living rough in the tunnels, and they’d stand even less of a chance if the enemy’s patrols caught them with their pants down. Remember that the Borgs are sending in PDF to map the network.”

“What we have here is an effective military force, granted,” Reed replied. “But we’re not going to win this war through conventional means. You’re a Marine, and you want to run this operation like the Corps – I get that. Your training and your experience are invaluable, but Ruza has experience fighting exactly this kind of war, against exactly this kind of enemy. If he says we should disperse, I think we should listen to him.”

“What about a compromise?” Astrid suggested, preempting Rivera before he could reply. “We could maintain a large main force here at the base, but we could also establish cells and hide caches in the tunnel network. In the event that the main base was attacked, we’d have fallback positions, and we’d gain some mobility. We also wouldn’t be sacrificing the setup we have here.”

“We have enough resources and weapons to spare,” Amy confirmed with a glance around the table. “I can make sure that it doesn’t have a negative impact on the base. We could even have people take turns so that they’re not spending all of their time without beds and showers.”

“Troop rotations,” Rivera said.

“I’m a secretary, not a soldier,” Amy chuckled.

“No, it’s a good suggestion,” the Marine replied.

“We could establish satellite outposts throughout the network – move some amenities and resources to those locations,” Reed added. “It might even be worth establishing our own patrol routes that move between permanent outposts and temporary camps.”