Shock and Awe

“The main objective of the Unknown Colonies was to completely destabilize the Edden Empire, not to control it. They put surprisingly little effort into ground forces, preferring to use a small and mobile strike force in a planet's orbit that was capable of reaching an entire population at once. Though it may seem impossible for a few people to destroy an entire way of life , we know that the power's true limits are those of the concentration and knowledge of the sensitive wielding it.”

-from “Fleet Apprentice Onboarding Manual”, version 4.1.3.0, IKRB

The journey to Jenjin aboard the God's Engine was a subdued one. Aymon spent much of the time going over and over the plan for the removal of Governor Vaspar. He hoped that the new interim governor he had chosen was still alive, holed up somewhere safe. He didn't really expect that Halia Xu, a former elected council member, would have been killed, but the situation on Jenjin had been deteriorating as Aymon lingered at the front, and it was sure to have gotten worse as the God's Engine made its journey there. It was a long trip. Even pushing the stardrive to its maximum, it was about five days of travel. That was a long time for him to be out of contact with his agents on the ground.

Kino spent the entire time holed up in her room, the lights off, trying to rest off her concussion. The few times Aymon had seen her, visiting her during meals, she looked sick and sad. Half of her face had a massive, fading, bruise that continued down the entire left side of her body. She had no interest in talking about her experience in the cave or anything else, and she had even less interest in letting Halen heal her concussion. Aymon and Halen left her alone, for the most part.

On one hand, Aymon desperately wanted to 'debrief' the experience she had had, but on the other, that brush with danger had left him feeling overly protective in a way that he resented. Maybe some time to think about things alone would be good for the both of them.

Halen was quiet and reflective on the journey as well. His presence was a balm to Aymon's jangled nerves, but the inherently insular nature of space travel gave them nothing to talk about but the past. Neither of them were particularly in the mood for that, though, and they spent the journey for the most part in silent companionship. At least, they did when Aymon wasn’t stalking the corridors of the God’s engine and taking out his pent up nervous energy on his subordinates. Aymon knew that Halen was feeling as rattled as he was about the whole Kino situation, but that may have been partially due to Halen picking up on Aymon's feelings.

When the God's Engine finally arrived outside the Jenjin system, the real work began. The plan to bring the planet back into line had a few basic stages. All of those stages needed to go smoothly in order to ensure as painless of a transition of power as possible. First and foremost, there needed to be a bloodless removal of the current governor, Vaspar.

The planning team had gone back and forth on how it ideally would play out. Aymon had been a small part of the planning, but he was much more of a grand scale figure than anyone to involve in the details. Whenever consulted, he had to crush the temptation to ask to indulge his flair for the dramatic, which he rarely got to let out. Although deposing a governor by sitting at his own desk and delivering a dramatic monologue was a more than appealing daydream, it was neither practical nor safe. Aymon did have to keep in mind the well being of the populace, not just his own sense of satisfaction.

In the end, Aymon wasn't even going to set foot on Jenjin until the governor was ousted and some order was imposed. It was an unfortunate reality that there would be martial law for a little while during the transition of power. His replacement for governor, Halia Xu, would be serving out the remainder of Vaspar's term without an election. Not that it was much different from when Vaspar himself was in power, since Vaspar was standing accused of fraudulent elections in the first place.

What remained to be seen was just how loyal the Jenjin Defense Force was to Vaspar. They were at least willing to follow his orders while he remained governor, but there was always the chance of a counter coup when Vaspar was ousted, which was part of the reason why the God's Engine, with its full complement of Fleet soldiers, was on hand. If necessary, the God's Engine would be stationed there until all the next election. Aymon sincerely hoped that would not be the case.

There was base of operations for the coordinating team in the boardroom of the God's Engine. There were many hands and pieces involved in the operation: the military coordination, the negotiating with the leaders of the striking farm workers, shipping aid to the cities who were slowly being starved out. Everyone had their own corner of the room, laying out their computers on the tables, and projecting maps on the walls. In the front of the room, right behind where Aymon sat at his own table, was a massive timetable, listing out the order of operations, their status, and the parties responsible for them. Though Aymon was not the one directly coordinating the operation, being there in the room still felt like trying to direct a hurricane.

Halen lurked at his own table in the back of the room, Kino was next to him. She was finally feeling well enough to participate in human society, but her face was still bruised and she was wearing sunglasses and headphones to shield her from the chaotic ambiance of the room. Still, since gaining political experience on this mission to Jenjin was the reason she had come in the first place, it was gratifying to see that she made an effort to appear. Aymon sent a smile her way every time he glanced over to that end of the room. Kino looked to be dutifully following the progress of the operation and making notes on the goings on.

This operation had been in the works for a long time, primarily organized by agents on the ground. That group had been put together almost a year before, upon the Emperor's warning to keep an eye on Jenjin. It was comprised of a network of trusted individuals already working within the Jenjin government as well as operatives scattered across the planet. That clandestine web had the difficult job of making sure the transition of power went smoothly during this coup. They needed to keep the population calm: the lights on, the net working, the radio playing. They also needed to keep an eye to make sure that nobody else would attempt to violently size power during a vulnerable moment.

It wasn't possible to ensure that things would go well, but they had to hope for the best. They did have a backup plan in case things went completely south, but it was that middle ground, where some things went well and some went horribly, that was hardest to predict and plan for. A puzzle with all the pieces missing is a blank slate; a puzzle with half the pieces missing is a disaster.

Several shuttles of Fleet soldiers had left the God's Engine hours previously, and everyone in the boardroom tracked their progress as they approached the planet. Theoretically, one of the members of the operation on the planet was going to allow the shuttle to land on the airfield nearest to the capitol city, Veruit, without alerting anyone to its presence.

The shuttle landed without being fired upon, which was a success, and the Fleet soldiers made their way into the capitol. It was still night, about two hours before sunrise in that part of the world, so the Fleet soldiers, riding in cars procured for them by the network on the planet, didn't have to contend with much traffic as they drove towards the governor's residence.

Though Aymon knew he was never again going to lead a charge like the one happening on the ground, the familiar excitement built in him as they watched over the video feed. The Fleet soldiers surrounded the house, disarmed the guards from the Jenjin Defense Force (aided by the one sensitive on the team), and entered the residence. They had good intel that Vaspar was there, and he was, asleep in his bed. The idea was to pin Vaspar down, get him on a call with Aymon, and have a peaceful transition of power. That would have been the simplest way to go about things.

The first snag in their plans came as Vaspar woke up early. He must have noticed something was amiss before the Fleet team arrived in his room. An encrypted transmission was sent out from the house, and Vaspar made his escape.

Of course, he couldn't make leave before setting his own house on fire. Aymon swore aloud when the Fleet soldiers had to scramble to retreat from the burning building. Fucking sensitives.

That was the real problem with this phase of the operation: Vaspar was a sensitive, just as talented as he was slimy. It was fairly rare for an Academy trained leader to be as far gone as Vaspar was, but it happened on occasion, and it was always a mess when it did.

The team on the ground did their best to track Vaspar, but he had some sort of underground tunnel that he had escaped into, and between the fire and their unfamiliarity with Vaspar's power signature, the sensitive on the team couldn't track him.

Then it was on to plan B, because there was a flurry of activity from the Jenjin Defense Force, as every unit went on high alert. Someone, most likely on Vaspar's failsafe orders that he had activated as he ran, ordered all the cities to go into complete lockdown and forbid civilian traffic. Nothing on that grand of a scale could go into effect immediately, but since the goal was to have minimal civilian impact, it was important that they stop this wave of military panic in its tracks.

Aboard the God's Engine, there was a new and more desperate energy, as the communications officer attempted to open up a line between the ship and the JDF's headquarters, so that Aymon could address them directly.

The God's Engine was currently quite far out, on the edges of the star system. They had wanted to be undetectable as they came in, but it looked as though all subtlety was being abandoned. It was inconvenient that they had jumped in so far from the planet, as it meant that any reinforcments sent on shuttles would take a while to arrive. There were still a few hours before the God’s Engine could jump to a new position in orbit around Jenjin.

"Are we in contact with the JDF yet?" Aymon asked one of the communication staff.

"We're still trying to get through. It may be that part of the failsafe command that Vaspar sent out was to lock down communications except through approved channels," the staff member said. "We're continuing to try."

Aymon motioned Halen and Kino to come over and sit with him.

"Do you really think we'll need to get close for shock and awe?" Halen asked.

"I hope not, but it doesn't hurt to be prepared," Aymon said.

"It does we’ll have to get put on a shuttle," Halen grumbled. "I hope we can wait the eight hours for us to jump in, so we don’t have to deal with the acceleration."

"You're getting soft in your old age," Aymon said.

Kino spoke up. "Why is the JDF not responding to communications from outside? Were they warned that we were coming?"

"We can only hope that they didn't know ahead of time, and that the lockdown procedure that Vaspar set out involves following a strict set of instructions without any outside interference. They might even be under the impression that this is a coup by people on the planet, and their communications are being spoofed in some sort of trick. Of course, Vaspar may have also prepared for this specifically, simply on the assumption that he was pushing too many buttons to be allowed to continue without Imperial intervention. That make sense?" Aymon said.

"Is there any hope of getting in contact with them?" Kino asked.

"Yes. We have a few people in our ground network that are in the JDF who may be able to open a line of communication with their leader." Aymon consulted the file on his tablet that contained all the relevant information for the operation. "Unfortunately, the leader of the JDF, General Hamark, is a long time friend of Vaspar, so it remains to be seen if he will accept the higher Imperial authority or fall back on whatever Vaspar ordered him to do."

Getting in contact with General Hamark of the JDF was not the only thing that the team aboard the God's Engine was trying to coordinate. Along with the contingent of soldiers, the God's Engine carried a massive relief cargo for the population of the cities, which was vital to distribute as soon as possible, because most of the cities' populations had been surviving on an increasingly diminished food supply. There were also the other shuttles sent down to the planet as stealthily as possible to try to capture the leaders of the farmworker's rebellion, who, even if they had been initially wronged, were contributing to the starving out of more than half the planet's population.

"How did this all get started?" Kino asked. "I don't understand how things got to this point."

Aymon sighed. "To put a long story very short, the problems on Jenjin began during the founding of the colony, years and years ago. This planet was one of the ones that needed significant terraforming."

"Why is it even worthwhile to colonize that type of planet?" Kino asked.

"For Jenjin, it was because the planet had already been in use as a mining center. It's naturally rich in all sorts of materials that aren't easy to farm from asteroids," Aymon said. Kino looked like she was going to interrupt and ask another question, but Aymon held up his hand.

"Don't ask me what, I'm not a mining expert. If you really want to know the details you can ask somebody else later."

"Okay," Kino said. "Why did it expand from being a mining center into something that could be terraformed?"

"Heh. Well, part of the reason, if I'm remembering correctly, was that during the manufacturing processes they were using, they were pumping a lot of greenhouse gasses into the air anyway, so they were making a good start on the terraforming. Then it was just convenient to build up and build up a community around something that already existed, especially a community that already had a trade route established to it. The Trade Guild was highly supportive of expanding the manufacturing there into a real colony, since it would bring them more business."

"Then what happened?"

"Once terraforming began, then we the internal process of getting proposals for the rest of the colony. The issue was that the typical group that wants to start a new colony has radically different lifestyles than a group of people who have been living in a mining zone for years. The colony group whose proposal was approved by the Colonization Board was, hm, an especially poor fit to get along with the existing miners and manufacturing already on the planet."

"Why?"

"Well, part of it is that while colonies are all politically separate from their home planets, mining operations are not. So the miners all still considered themselves to be citizens of Galena, and it was a major disruption to their established way of life when they were given the choice to leave or become citizens of the new Jenjin colony. It is understandably upsetting to have this whole group of people you don't know descend onto your planet with their own different ways of doing things. Both groups believed in their hearts that they should be the ones in charge of this new colony, if it was to be one. The miners and manufacturers had been living there for years, many for their entire lives. They had thriving cities. Well, as much as cities can thrive when they have to be built in sealed domes around mineshafts and factories."

"Hm," Kino, for the little piece of her face that Aymon could see beneath the sunglasses she was wearing, seemed thoughtful. "So there was tension, but what led to this?"

"It slowly built up over time. The colonists were resentful that they were treated as second class citizens while still being expected to provide food for the cities- as colonists are primarily farmers. The political leaders in the cities, Vaspar being the latest incarnation of this type, quickly realized that with their higher population they could pass laws and vote into local and Imperial office those who would benefit them most. Of course, the population of the colonists grew fairly quickly, so that didn't last as long as those in the cities would have liked. I completely believe the allegations of fraudulent elections that the farmers have."

"I thought the farmers wanted their own colony, which was why we went to Tyx III?"

"Heh, yes. It's a classic situation of getting something you want and immediately hating it. They were lucky to get a colony in the first place. They think that they can bully their way into a new colony of their own, and they might have gotten it if Tyx III wasn't so bogged down, but..." Aymon trailed off. "As a government, the Empire can’t allow the farmworkers to continue to deny food to the cities, and I also can't allow the current leadership to rig elections to get their way. It's gone too far, which is why we're stepping in."

"Makes sense, I guess," Kino said. "I remember... Nevermind." She shook her head.

"What?" Aymon asked, surprised that Kino was tempted to volunteer something.

"When I was a kid, when we had to leave Falmar, and we all went to Hanathue, there was... People hated it. Us. They didn't want us there."

"One failed colony after another, I suppose," Aymon said, but the moment it left his lips he realized it was the wrong thing to say. Kino turned her head to the side, not looking at him.

Halen glared at Aymon in a classic 'look what you just did' expression. Aymon raised an eyebrow, purposely glancing around the room. Halen shook his head slightly and then looked away.

Aymon checked the status of the ground teams on his tablet. No one had managed to locate Vaspar yet, and they still hadn't managed to get into contact with anyone in the JDF, but there was promising news that one of the leaders of the paramilitary group formed by the farmworkers had been taken into custody. There were still several others on different parts of the planet, but that was at least one thing that was going well.

"When are we going to call it and make the announcement?" Aymon asked one of the people coordinating the operation, a white haired woman with thick glasses by the name of Eda Sath.

"The original timetable had us making the announcement after we took Vaspar into custody. Since that's looking unlikely to happen soon, we would like to make it after we discuss the transition of power with the JDF."

"And if we're not able to make contact with them?" Aymon asked.

"That would be a worst case scenario. If the situation begins to deteriorate further, we would need to make the call before sending down a full force."

"Is that even possible from out here?"

"We don't have enough shuttles to send the entire force down at once, no. But it would be a truly worst case scenario to have to send in the Fleet against the JDF."

"It shouldn't come to that," Aymon said. "If we need shock and awe then we can employ it."

"Ideally we wouldn't need that either," Eda said. "And shock and awe is more effective against civilian problems than it is against specific military actions, anyway."

"That's true. Keep me updated, ok?" Aymon said. He didn't really need to ask; of course he was going to be kept in the loop. It just felt uncomfortable to be sitting at the helm of this operation, but not be involved in it as anything other than a figurehead or last resort. He should be used to that feeling by now, but even after years of learning to delegate, there was something about being in the room where the action was happening that made him only want to dive in deeper. It was a wonder that he had survived his apprenticeship, when he was out in the field on a regular basis and always wanting to jump in, but maybe that was because he was very careful about the actions he did take.

The time dragged on. Every once in a while there was some exciting new update from the surface teams, but only the ones capturing the leaders of the farmworkers rebellion seemed to be having much success. As night turned into day in the capitol city, and the whole place remained under lockdown, and with the governor's residence burned to a smoldering ruin, agents on the ground reported that the situation in the already somewhat besieged city was becoming tense. What tense meant exactly was unclear to Aymon.

It was unfortunately only when the JDF trucks all suddenly started moving out of their barracks, carrying convoys out into the country, that they were able to finally, finally make contact with General Hamark of the JDF. Aymon stood in front of a camera to talk to General Hamark as the communications lead passed the call on to him.

"General Hamark," Aymon said, looking at the remarkably un-frazzled face of the general. "I am very glad to finally reach you."

"First Sandreas, I must say, it's a surprise to find you all the way out here at our distant doorstep. I was under the impression that you were taking a tour of some newly discovered planets," Hamark said. He was being remarkably conversational for a man who was, by all accounts, under siege.

"There are important matters to attend to in all corners of the Empire, not least of all here. General Hamark, I am placing Jenjin under Fleet authority from this moment forward. Governor Vaspar is unfit for leadership," Aymon said. "I order the troops of the JDF to stand down from their alert and return to their normal postings."

"I'm afraid that isn't possible," Hamark said. Aymon barely resisted the temptation to roll his eyes. Of course this was how it was going to be, he didn't know why he had expected any different.

"General Hamark, be advised that if you do not follow these direct orders you will be charged with crimes against the Empire and brought into immediate custody," Aymon said. He kept his voice as neutral as possible. "Again, Jenjin is being placed under Fleet authority from this moment forward. Recall your troops."

"That's all well and good, First Sandreas, but someone has gone and murdered Governor Vaspar, and burned down his official residence. It's of the utmost importance that we catch the criminals responsible for this heinous act. You're backing the wrong ship in this race," Hamark said.

"I'm not backing any ship but my own," Aymon said, "And the God's Engine, with her full complement, is within spitting distance of Jenjin. Order your troops back now."

It wasn't really true that the God's Engine was within spitting distance of Jenjin. The ship was still beyond the orbit of the fifth planet, and Jenjin was the third. To get the God's Engine actually into orbit around Jenjin would take another jump with the stardrive, whenever that was ready.

"I'm sorry, First Sandreas, but this is more important you could possibly realize. The people of Jenjin are grieving the loss of Governor Vaspar, and we must find and punish those responsible."

"General Hamark, if you continue to send your troops out against your own people, I will have no choice but to counter them with the Fleet."

On the other side of the camera, Halen was giving Aymon the 'are you kidding me right now' stare. Again, Aymon resisted rolling his eyes, still on the video call with Hamark.

"As soon as we have destroyed the leaders of this little rebellion, we will be more than happy to stand down, First Sandreas. And then you may do with me what you must, but I know that I am doing the right thing for the citizens of Jenjin."

Below the field of view of the camera, Aymon gave the hand signal to cut off the transmission. Only then did he allow himself to make the disgusted face that he had been holding in.

"The man's clearly a lunatic," Aymon said, turning to the director of the operation. "What's our next step?"

"We have a few choices at this juncture," Eda Sath said. "We can make the broadcast to the planet, we can deploy Fleet troops to the ground to halt the JDF, or both."

"What do you suggest?" Aymon asked, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"It's clear that General Hamark is using this as an opportunity to take his revenge. He knows that Vaspar is still alive, but he also knows that he's about to be stripped of his power and connections, so he may believe that this is his last chance to make an impact. Of course, he could still be operating completely under Vaspar's orders, we're not sure of that, but in any event, we don't believe he is going to hold back. In my opinion, I think that the Fleet should be sent in to prevent civilian casualties as much as possible."

"And the call?" Aymon asked.

"It will be important to let everyone on the planet know who is actually in charge, leaving them in a directionless panic is not ideal. However, it may cause General Hamark to accelerate his movements. He may be acting restrained right now only because he wants to avoid panicking his own base."

"This is what you consider restrained?" Aymon asked.

"Consider that he could be sending out planes to bomb settlements, and he is sending out foot soldiers to search for scapegoats instead. That's fairly restrained."

"Isn't the damage going to be equivalent?" He waved his hand. "Nevermind, no, of course not. Alright, we'll hold off on the call for now. How long would it take for us to get soldiers on the ground?"

Sath looked at her tablet and typed in a few parameters into a program. "The maximum acceleration for the shuttles is about four gravities. They'll need to decelerate for half the trip... It would take them about two hours to get there, but they'd be able to land before we can jump."

"And how long until we can jump again?"

"Four hours," Eda said.

"Alright, alright," Aymon sighed. "So we're sending out the shuttles, that's definite, and we're waiting on making the call for now. I do think we should make it right before we land the Fleet. There's going to be panic when that happens regardless, and I'd like to make sure people are panicking in the right direction."

"The situation could look completely different by then," Sath warned. "But I understand what you're saying."

"Obviously this is all subject to change. Sending the Fleet out is a commitment action," Aymon said. "But we need them on the ground to stop any massacres that Hamark is thinking of trying."

"And we’ll keep trying to find Vaspar and anyone else on the ground with who we’ve got,” Sath reminded him.

"Let’s not risk people’s lives needlessly. If Vaspar is as loose of a canon as he seems to be, I don’t think he’d blink an eye at killing Fleet soldiers," Aymon said. "That's a last resort, or if they have an easy shot they should take it, but I don't think it will come to either of those things. When all the shuttles are on the ground, it will be a totally different picture. What's our status on the farm groups?"

"Levelers. That's what the armed farmers group is calling themselves," Sath said. "We have all of the known leaders in custody, but we don't have the manpower at the moment to stop them from doing anything insane, or to protect them from whatever Hamark is sending."

"So it comes back to getting feet on the ground. Fine. The sooner that happens the better. Is the message that we prerecorded still good, or does that need to be updated to fit the current situation?"

"We specifically made all of the different versions fairly generic, so yes, we still have one that will work. You won't need to broadcast live," Sath said.

"Good. I have the nagging feeling that we will need shock and awe, so I want to get on a shuttle. If things start to go wrong in a more major way, I want to be in position without having to wait to jump the God's Engine in."

"Are you sure? The JDF may be willing to use their orbital defenses. Not to overstep my bounds, First Sandreas, but I would prefer if you did not put yourself in the line of fire."

"I appreciate your concern," Aymon said. He knew that she was at least partially right, it was almost beyond stupid of him to fly a shuttle into what was effectively an active war zone, but there wasn't anyone else around who had quite the touch with shock and awe as he did. And there was a part, a little part, of Aymon that wanted the danger and the thrill. "I think the potential benefits outweigh the potential risks."

Sath frowned, but didn't protest. "Then you should get to a shuttle now. The sooner you leave, the faster you'll arrive."

"Of course," Aymon said. "I leave this operation in your capable hands, then."

"We won't disappoint, First Sandreas." Sath saluted him as he turned away.

"Kino, how much acceleration are you feeling up to?" Aymon asked.

"I can survive it," Kino said, sounding weary.

"Four gravities?" Aymon asked.

"If it's dark and quiet," Kino said.

Aymon looked over her at Halen, who shrugged. Neither of them had any idea what the health consequences of sustained acceleration on a healing concussion were. Perhaps they should have asked a doctor, but Aymon wanted to get going. If Kino was willing to come then they were going to go. It was important that, if they were to need shock and awe, that Kino get a chance to experience it firsthand. It was a shame that Yan and Sid weren't around to get the experience, too, but they were on the other side of the galaxy.

"Let's go, then," Aymon said. They made their way to one of the massive shuttle bays of the God's Engine, where they were assigned a shuttle with a small crew to bring them into a close orbit around Jenjin. They had to be prepared for all eventualities; it could be that they would need shock and awe only on small areas, or it might be necessary planetwide. They might avoid having to do it at all. Being mobile and ready was the key to the plan.

Leaving the God's Engine was a relief. Being in the center of the coordinating chaos was interesting, but it made Aymon feel unusually helpless. Their small teams on the planet were the only ones capable of taking action in the moment, and Aymon wore himself out trying not to micromanage the operation. Aymon wasn't bad at delegating, per se, he simply hated to acknowledge the fact that he was doing so.

The relief of leaving the God's Engine was quickly destroyed by the misery of sustained acceleration. Their little shuttle was pushed to the limits of human withstanding, and everyone was unable to do little more than survive the grueling ride. Kino looked like she fell asleep at one point, but Aymon couldn't really tell. Her classic invisibility in the power was in full force, so her closed eyes and shallow breathing could have meant anything in the context of the journey.

Even when they arrived in orbit around Jenjin, there was nothing that they could do. They were forced to wait and listen to the news that the God's Engine sent them about the goings on on the planet. The Fleet soldiers in the other shuttles landed. If they had been a little earlier, they may have been able to interpose themselves between the JDF soldiers and the front line of settlements that were being raided, but they were unfortunately too late for that and had to choose to protect more distant targets.

It was amazing how quickly the chaos could travel. The JDF was well armed and well positioned, specifically in case it ever needed to orchestrate this attack on its own citizenry. It had always been a better organized planetary defense than most because it had grown out of the need to protect the planet's mines from pirates, and it stayed as an active military even when the planet grew into more of a colony than an easy target. In the years leading up to Vaspar's reign, it had only grown larger and with a greater capacity to wreak havoc. Now, as it drove and marched out into the countryside in all directions, on both the night and day sides of the planet, the JDF ransacked houses of people they thought were leaders, searched barns and silos for weapons, confiscated hoarded food, destroyed equipment, and caused terror everywhere their convoys stopped.

Everyone in Aymon's shuttle watched the broadcast that was simultaneously flashed to the net on Jenjin, as well as showing over the television and radio. It began with a solid red screen, superimposed with black text: "PLEASE STAND BY FOR AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM FIRST SANDREAS, VOICE OF THE EMPIRE." Then it cut to the prerecorded segment Aymon had filmed days before, sitting calmly at a desk aboard the God's Engine.

"Citizens of Jenjin," the recording of Aymon said. "It brings me no joy to interfere with the local governing of planets within the Empire. Self governance, with fair and open planetary elections, is one of the values that we hold most dear. Unfortunately, it has come to the Emperor's attention that Jenjin is suffering a crisis of almost unprecedented magnitude. Not only have your elections been unlawfully tampered with, but your leaders are on the brink of waging war upon their own citizens. This, the Empire cannot allow to continue. Effective immediately, Governor Vaspar is stripped of his position, and Jenjin is placed under Fleet authority.

"Additionally, the Empire has in system the Fleet ship God's Engine, who is carrying relief for all those impacted by the rationing. As soon as order has been restored, this food relief will be distributed on a basis of need.

"You may see Fleet personnel carrying out their orders to restore stability on Jenjin. You will not be required to provide them with any material assistance, but it is imperative that they be allowed to carry out their duties. All Fleet personnel have been specifically instructed not to impede in the lives of the citizens of Jenjin, but some disruptions to normal routine may be necessary. We appreciate your cooperation during this time.

"In the near future, a new governor of Jenjin will be appointed to serve out the remainder of former governor Vaspar's term. News updates will be delivered to you regularly over the net, television, and radio. Please stay informed of all developments by..."

The recording went on and on, discussing safety measures and delivering trite lines about planetary security and the utmost concern the Empire had for its citizens. Aymon tuned it out. In the best case scenario, this announcement would cause the JDF to step down. In the worst case scenario, it would ramp up their activities. It was much more likely that individual groups of JDF troops would come to different conclusions of who they were supposed to be fighting.

With more Fleet troops on the ground, a subset of them focused on getting the capitol under control and arresting General Hamark. They first broke through the blockade that had been set up, and then they made their way down the city streets towards the JDF command, which was situated several blocks away from the main government building.

The Fleet troops were met with heavy resistance from the JDF, but the Fleet was full of soldiers who had actual combat experience in much more harrowing situations than taking a half defended city piece by piece. The tone of the talk on the radio, coming from the capitol, at least, was one of relief that they weren't fighting in a maze of tunnels deep underground. It was still a chaotic environment, and as the morning turned into afternoon, it was clear that the JDF was unwilling to relinquish control of their planet without putting up serious resistance.

This was true across the planet, with skirmishes breaking out between JDF and Fleet troops wherever they encountered one another. It was a truly unfortunate situation, almost the worst case scenario. There were a few instances of JDF surrendering when they came into contact with the Fleet, but they were rare, and on the whole, the planet was becoming chaotic. Even civilians were starting to panic. In cities, looting was rampant as people took the lack of law enforcement as an opportunity to make off with any food they could find.

"Are we going to do anything about this?" Kino asked, hearing yet another report come over the radio. "Or are we just going to let the Fleet fight it out."

"We came here to prevent a civil war, not make more of one," Aymon said. "We're waiting on the analysis from the coordinators on the God's Engine if we are going to make our move."

"Shock and awe is... That's the thing that they talked about in the Fleet apprentice manual, right?" Kino asked.

"Yes, the tool that brought down the Edden Empire. Still, a tool is only as dangerous as the master who wields it. Iif we do decide to go through with it today, I'm confident that it will be helpful."

"Have you ever done it before?"

"Many times. Rarely on an entire planet, though. It's... It comes naturally to me," Aymon said. "And again, it's a shame that Sid isn't here, because I suspect that it would come naturally to him as well."

"Why do you think so?"

"Did you ever get to see his final project from the Academy?" Halen asked. Kino shook her head no. "His project involved the principle, on a much smaller scale. It's funny, my own predecessor, Caron Herrault, she was fairly good at it as well, but I don't know if I would have considered it her main talent."

"Does that mean you think that Sid will be your successor?" Kino asked.

"Not at all, I'm just pointing out an interesting trend."

Kino lapsed back into silence as they waited for the updates from the God's Engine or the planet. They had been lucky; the JDF had apparently decided that trying to shoot down shuttles from orbit was not at the top of their priority list, so they hadn't needed to dodge or divert any projectiles during the entire time. Maybe the people in the JDF orbit control had decided that they weren't going to shoot down Fleet vehicles. Whatever the reason, Aymon was glad that they weren’t being attacked.

They all ate lunch while they waited for the analysis to be made. It was just simple rations that had been tossed in a crate in the back of the shuttle, but it was food, and none of them had eaten for a while, so it was a good distraction from the monotony of the waiting. Eventually, the decision was made. They would go through with shock and awe.

"The main focus is on the capitol," Sath said over the radio. "We believe that if we're able to calm the fighting there, and get the message out through to the troops in other areas, then we should be able to stop them without having to use this technique elsewhere."

"Understood. We'll do the capitol and see how things shake out from there," Aymon said. He turned to the pilot. "Can you move us directly over the capitol?"

They were pressed into their seats as the shuttle accelerated to a new orbit. It wasn't a true geostationary orbit, as they were nowhere near the equator, but with careful constant adjustments, the shuttle pilot kept them in position. They could see out the large front window the bent grid of the city's lights below them, as it curved around a massive former mine that was larger than the city itself.

"Kino, are you feeling up to joining us?" Aymon asked. She was still recovering from her concussion, and from the way she had been adamant about Halen not healing it, Aymon wasn't holding out much hope that she would be interested in joining the complicated dance of the operation.

"I need to learn how to do it," Kino said, which said nothing about her health, but it was the answer that Aymon wanted to hear.

Aymon was surprised but glad that she was so willing. He had to give Kino more credit than she was getting; she was much more resilient than she looked.

"Perfect. Halen, can you come here? Great." There was an awkward rearranging of seats as Aymon, Halen, and Kino tried to form a rough triangle, with Kino facing the back of the shuttle and Halen and Aymon facing the front. "Give me your hand."

The three of them joined hands and Aymon addressed Kino. "You won't have to use the power, just watch what we do once we're in the group meditation, ok?" Aymon said. Kino nodded. Aymon felt her hand, still covered in healing scratches from her time climbing up out of the caves on Tyx III. He gave it a comforting squeeze.

Aymon took a deep breath and closed his eyes. In the weightlessness of the shuttle, their joined hands floated loosely in the spaces between their bodies.

"Kino, since you won't be doing anything, can you lead the chant please?"

There was a moment of silence before Kino started. She picked the simplest song cycle, the one that was sung by children when first learning about their faith. For any Academy student who hadn't had a particularly devout home life, it was the first chant that they would memorize. It was a good one to use, as it could be mindlessly repeated as many times as necessary.

"We gather here in solemn joy, all creation 'neath the sky. We raise our voices with one accord and sing praise to You our sovereign Lord."

Aymon and Halen joined in, eyes closed.

"Every mind and every heart, Your love formed them in the dark. All people now in history understand Your mystery."

If Aymon thought about the lyrics too hard they started to make less and less sense, but the explicit intent was not to think about them, and instead use them to channel thought into the group meditation. The feeling of saying the words together, and the intention behind them, those were the things that brought people together, rather than the meaning.

Aymon slipped easily downward into the group mind with Halen and Kino. It was an odd dynamic; Halen had meditated with him more times than he could count, but he had never meditated with Kino before, either in a group or on their own. In fact, it was only Yan who he had ever shared in meditation with, and only then because she had a natural affinity for it. In the group mind, now, Aymon couldn't waste time thinking about the past.

The three of them took a moment to settle in to this new and slightly uncomfortable mode of operating. It wasn’t only uncomfortable because of the newness; the lingering headache of Kino's concussion bled into the shared consciousness as well. By mutual agreement, they stopped their three bodies from continuing on with the song, and breathed in unison. The lessened sound helped with the pain a little bit.

Aymon sent a feeling of comfort to Kino, thanking her for continuing with everything despite the pain. Kino's usual blankness was a feature of the mental landscape, but Aymon had come to understand that feeling as the feeling of Kino, so it wasn't as disturbing as it might have felt months earlier. She simply absorbed the thoughts sent to her, and didn't have any strays of her own floating around.

Halen and Aymon laid out a plan of attack. They were a well practiced machine, moving smoothly, but leaving their thoughts plain for Kino to see, if she chose. The first step was Halen's: to create the distraction that captured the attention of the people below. It was important, in this case, since they were targeting a limited area of their own citizens, to make it not too obvious what was happening. Weather events were often useful: big, roaring thunderstorms with hail that tapped the ground in time to the flashes of lighting and the claps of thunder. Unfortunately it was a clear day over the capitol city, and they didn't have the time to build up a weather event and bring it together over the city in a natural way.

They didn't need to hold people's attention for long, or influence them to do things that were wildly different. All they needed to do was spread a sense of calm over the city, to disorient the JDF enough that they would stop fighting. Something more subtle than flashing lights in the sky would suffice.

Halen chose the easy route. If he vibrated the air over the city just slightly, just enough everywhere, and at the right frequency, everyone would hear the faintest, slightest whine in their ears. It would be barely noticeable, nothing people couldn't chalk up to a buzzing electronic device, or the drone of an airplane far overhead. Halen could pull a similar trick with the light. Dim it, tint it just enough to cause people to think an odd cloud had passed over the sun, and that would capture their attention enough for Aymon to do his work. If both those effects were combined, and modified ever so slightly, every so often (changing pitch, flashing the lights), it would link attention even more firmly to Aymon's commands.

Those commands would first start with a subtle mental push to pay attention to the changes in the atmosphere, thus continuing to reinforce the cycle of attention and command.

Halen pressed his will onto the atmosphere of the planet over the city, Aymon pressed his will onto the people who lived there. In that shared mental space, there was a blurring of whose will was whose, whose power was whose, and whose mind was whose, but it didn't matter.

Pay attention.

Stay calm.

Stop.

Don't move.

The commands were short and simple. There were more people in the city than just JDF soldiers, so the commands couldn't be specifics to the situation. It almost never hurt to tell people to stay calm.

In the shared mind space, Aymon let loose a thought.

"Kino, listen to the radio, tell us when the Sun's Gold tells us to stop."

Their three attentions were diverted three ways, then, but it was still better to stay together than to separate. It helped with the timing, with the rhythm, with staying on task.

The three held the pattern for what felt like an eternity, but was most likely only a few minutes. They let it go only when Kino gave them the signal that they could stop. It was exhausting work, and as soon as they could let it go, they did. All of them fell out of the meditation immediately, returning to their own single bodies. A ghost of Kino's headache remained in Aymon's head, but that may have been more due to the strain of holding out the commands for so long. Such operations increased in difficulty and decreased in effectiveness the longer they went on; it was much easier to capture an entire city's attention for a single instant than it was to sustain that attention for minutes at a time. But it was over, they were done.

All three of them were still holding hands; Aymon's were feeling particularly sweaty. He released his grip on Kino and Halen and wiped his forehead on the sleeve of his cassock. Halen gave him a smile.

"I'd call that a success," Halen said.

"I hope so," Aymon said. "I always forget how much this takes out of me."

"Just say the word and we can switch places," Halen said.

"Hah. You'd never be able to pull it off like I can."

Kino, though it was impossible to tell who she was looking at underneath the sunglasses she was still wearing, stared at them during this exchange with a bored expression.

"How did you feel about that, Kino?" Aymon asked, turning his attention away from Halen.

"It was interesting. It looked difficult. How could you sustain that for a whole planet?"

"With great effort. Localized phenomenon are easier to control, especially when you consider that over an entire planet, if it's rotating in the usual way, about half the population will be asleep at any given time. Sleeping people are pretty hard to command," Aymon said. "But it's all very possible."

"You couldn't do it by yourself, though."

"Not with this size operation, no. Remember back at the Governor's Dinner? That I did myself, because I could grab attention without the power, which left me free to command with the power. That's about the scale that you can use it on without a partner."

Kino nodded. "Will you have to do this again?"

"I hope not. It's up to the operation command, though. If they decide it's needed elsewhere, well, as a public servant I must comply."

Kino furrowed her eyebrows. "Why didn't one of the Fleet sensitives do this? Why you, here?"

"Several reasons. I was going to be here anyway, I'm one of the best at it, I'm obviously trusted not to give commands that would destroy the operation, it's a learning experience for you, and simply, I wanted to."

"Why?"

"I like to be involved in things. It's... Being in my position can be isolating and, while not lacking in excitement, be lacking in the feeling of doing things for myself. It's important to me that I feel effective every once in a while."

"Now what?"

"Now we just wait and see what happens next," Aymon said. "That's the mark of any operation, especially one where you aren't directly in the thick of the action. We need to wait for other people before we can do things ourselves."