Chapter Nine

Tantos System

At a range just far enough from Tantos III to avoid being detected by the planet’s defense systems’ long-range scanners, a small fleet of warships dropped from jump. The core of the fleet were Equestrian-class battleships, the standard heavy cruisers of the Dozen Stars’ Royal Navy, their hulls shielded and reinforced and armed with an extensive arsenal of powerful weapons. A small escort of lesser frigates and a screen of fighters hovered about them, and then as one the attack force began to advance towards Tantos III, keeping engine burn on a low enough level so as not to appear on scanners until they were almost down the planet’s throat.

Duchess Sateira ast Tashir sat in her command chair on the bridge of her flagship, Sun-Sword, hands folded beneath her chin as she watched the small, dully glowing sphere that was the capital of Tantos Duchy slowly growing larger in her viewport. The duchess was clad for war in golden armor that was intricately decorated and had been polished until it gleamed, a shimmering silver cape hanging from its shoulders – it prioritized appearance over function, but then, Sateira had no intention of taking part in any fighting herself if she could avoid it. Though of course, should anyone be foolish enough to think her an easy target, they would soon learn the error of that thought – the dueling sword at her waist was absolutely not for show, as several rivals in her youth had learned when they’d made the mistake of giving offence to the then-heir of Tashir Duchy.

And Sateira had far more powerful weapons at her disposal than mere swords or starships, as Kallistrae ast Tantos was soon to learn.

The Sun-Sword’s captain came to stand beside Sateira’s chair and cleared his throat loudly. “Report,” the duchess said, not moving her gaze from the planet before her.

“We’ve received confirmation from our allies, Your Grace,” Captain Karas said. “Respen and Naudar’s forces are in-system as well, moving towards Tantos III at the prescribed vectors. We’ll come at the planet from three sides, as planned.”

“And Kallistrae’s forces will be caught between us and spread too thin,” Sateira said. “Excellent. Have they sighted us yet?”

“There is no sign of unusual activity from the planetary defense, Your Grace,” the captain said after taking a moment to confer with one of his officers. “If they’ve detected us, they haven’t had time to do anything about it yet.”

“At least that fool Respen’s blunder hasn’t cost us much, beyond accelerating our timetable,” Sateira muttered. “Imagine if the girl queen had been killed; the whole Kingdom would be buzzing; since she survived things are still proceeding somewhat normally, and that gives us an opening to exploit.”

Respen was a fool, Sateira thought – a grasping, vain, entitled fool who thought his dubious royal pedigree ought to grant him a throne and hated the fact that the galaxy seemed determined to deny him. Naudar was smarter and more cautious, but he was still fatally flawed by his determination to build a dynasty, a goal on which he was so fixated he’d never noticed that his own firstborn son and heir had no desire to be a king and certainly not one who held a throne taken by force, something anyone with half a brain could see. The alliance between the three of them was a fragile, temporary thing, and they all knew it – they all wanted Artakane off the throne, but in the end, they all knew that only one could rule.

Sateira intended to be that one, and today she would demonstrate exactly why she should be.

“And our other allies?” she asked casually. “Are they still prepared to play their part?”

“They are, Your Grace,” the captain replied. Sateira smiled coldly; she’d known they would be. Their allegiance had certainly cost enough, but it was money well spent.

“Then get ready,” she said, letting one of her hands drop to rest on the hilt of her sword. “It’s time for the fun to begin.”

///

Kallistrae ast Tantos had never wanted to rule a duchy.

What she’d told the other dukes at the last council meeting was true; at heart, she wasn’t a businesswoman or a politician, but a soldier. She could duel as well as anyone in her generation, she could command a starship and keep her head in a crisis, but administering a planet, overseeing the various barons sworn to Tantos, keeping the proper balance between obligations to the council, the crown, and the guilds – that required a set of skills that Kallistrae was beginning to fear, in her darker moments, that she didn’t possess. Then again, her cousin Hiram had never even bothered to try, so far as she knew, foisting off some of his duties on the barons and most of the rest on the guilds. She often found herself cursing him for not even managing to sire a legitimate heir – though, rumors had it, he had produced a number of illegitimate offspring, some of which she knew to be true – and thereby dropping the duchy on her shoulders when he’d been unceremoniously killed.

But when Kallistrae found herself awoken in the early morning by the sound of alarms echoing through the Tantos ducal palace, her first thought was of an odd sort of contentment. Though she’d never heard that particular alarm before, she knew what it signified – military attack. And that was something Lady Kallistrae ast Tantos, Knight of the Realm and former commander of the planet’s defense force – knew how to deal with.

Dressing hurriedly in her uniform, Kallistrae waved away servants and mechs as she left her rooms and took the lift down to the palace’s war room. There she found a number of the duchy’s other ranking knights and – she noticed with some distaste – officers of guild security waiting for her.

“All right, people, report,” she said. “What in hell is going on here?”

“We’re under attack, uh, Your Grace,” Bastias, one of the younger knights and another of House ast Tantos’s numerous cousins, said with a quick salute.

Kallistrae rolled her eyes. “I’m aware of that, Sir Knight,” she said. “Can someone here tell me who exactly is doing the attacking? For the Lord’s sake, don’t tell me the Commander came back from the dead again.”

“It’s not pirates, Your Grace,” Firus, a veteran officer who had served with Kallistrae before, said, regarding a tactical display. “It looks like a Dozen Stars attack force, though they’re not broadcasting identification signals so we can’t tell yet which duchy. They’ve been exchanging missiles with our orbital defense platforms above the capital; so far, our shields are holding.”

“I bet I can guess which duchy,” Kallistrae muttered. Well, she’d give herself one in three odds. Scramble fighters and launch our battleships; get those platforms reinforced. Well run them off, whoever they are, and then someone will have some explaining to do.”

“My lady!” another officer called from across the room. “We have more enemy contacts inbound, approaching from the north. More Dozen Stars ships; another basic battlegroup.”

Kallistrae swore. “Get us more ships to reinforce the defenses in that region!” she snapped angrily, gratefully accepting the cup of kaf a young officer pressed into her hands. “And keep scanning for an identification signal, or even visual if they get close enough. I want to know who the hell is attacking my planet!”

“More enemy contacts, my lady,” called out another officer. “A third fleet coming up below the elliptical plain, targeting the southern islands.”

“Damn,” Kallistrae swore. “All three of them, then. I don’t have enough ships to cover the whole planet. Damn you, Hiram, for wasting our money on parties and ignoring our defenses!”

“My lady,” Firus said, looking up from his console. “We’re being hailed by the first enemy force. It let us get a read on the ship’s identity. It’s the Sun-Sword.”

“Of course, it is,” Kallistrae muttered; she recognized the name. “Well, if Sateira wants to talk, put her through.”

Firus bent over his console, and a moment later a shimmering holo-image appeared over the middle of the central table, depicting a classically beautiful woman on the final edge of youth and middle age, clad in armor that bordered on the gaudy – though Kallistrae suspected that it was every bit as functional as it was decorative.

“Duchess Sateira,” Kallistrae said coldly. “To what occasion do we owe the pleasure of your… invasion?”

“I prefer to think of it as a social call, Kallistrae,” Sateira’s image said. “Naudar, Respen and I have put something of a gathering together, and we were curious if you might be interested in joining us?”

Kallistrae snorted. “Dare I ask what sort of gathering?”

Sateira smiled indulgently. “You military types – always so direct. Let’s get down to it, then. My confederates and I agree that the current state of affairs in this Kingdom aren’t acceptable. A child sits on Carann’s throne, and we have only the word of a manipulative mystic and a softhearted idealist that she has so much as a drop of royal blood in her veins. What if the Empire decided to invade on her watch – do you think the girl could handle such a crisis? We think a change in leadership is in order.”

“A change here meaning you, I take it?” Kallistrae asked.

Sateira waved her hand dismissively. “Or Respen or Naudar. I’m not terribly picky,” she said, but Kallistrae heard the lie in her voice. “It could even be you, if you join us. What do you say? ‘Kallistrae I’ does have a certain ring to it.”

“You can’t be serious,” Kallistrae said. “When I took the rulership of Tantos Duchy, I swore an oath to serve its people and to serve the throne. A throne that, I’ll add, is currently occupied by Artakane ast Carann. I’m a duchess, a knight, and a military officer; as all three of those things, I’ll do my duty, and I will never be party to treason.

Sateira shrugged. “Your loss,” she said. “But I’ll warn you, so far we’ve just been testing your defenses. Now we’ll be attacking for real. And I don’t think you have the resources to defeat us all. Think on that, and if you decide fighting a losing battle really isn’t in the best interests of Tantos Duchy, do let me know. I don’t plan on going anywhere. Until next time.” She bowed mockingly and the holo flickered and vanished, leaving a heavy silence hanging in her wake.

///

“She didn’t take your offer, Your Grace,” the captain said, frowning.

Sateira laughed. “It would’ve been helpful if she had,” she said, “but we weren’t really expecting she would. Kallistrae’s too much the old-school knight. Very noble of her – but also, very predictable.”

She nodded towards the captain. “Begin the full assault. I want the Tantos forces pushed to their limits, and when they are, we’ll have Kallistrae exactly where we want her.”

///

Kallistrae watched the invading forces close in around her orbital defenses on the war room’s holoscreens and scowled. On the screens, each ship was represented as a simple glowing dot – blue for her own forces, red for the enemies – but the duchess of Tantos had seen space combat often enough that she had no trouble visualizing what was happening far above. In her mind’s eye she saw the Equestrian battleships hanging back, pounding her own heavy ships and the defense platforms with barrage after barrage of missiles, while disgorging swarms of small, agile fighters to penetrate holes among the defenders that the bombardments left behind. Her own fighters flew out from the platforms and battleships to meet them, but they were outnumbered and had been caught off guard. Though Tantos Duchy had suffered from the recent pirate attacks, it had been decades since Tantos III itself had been a target of a sustained assault, and who knew how long the three rebel dukes had been preparing their plans? Probably since the moment the crown touched Artakane’s head; after all, Tantos was her home duchy.

And on the holoscreens the blue lights were fading, one by one, being pushed back by the unrelenting tide of red.

“My lady,” Firus said finally, “under the current conditions I don’t think we can hold out against a sustained assault for much longer. What are your orders?”

“They outnumber us three to one and have the element of surprise on their side,” Kallistrae muttered, cursing her late, lamented cousin again in her thoughts for the shabby state of what he’d left her to work with. “Of course, they’re beating us. Are they jamming our transmissions?”

“No,” Bastias said after checking his console, surprise evident in his voice. “They’re not. That’s odd.”

“It’s more than odd,” Kallistrae said. “It means they’re not trying to keep this a secret – they want word to get out. Sateira, Respen, Naudar – they’re making a statement. But that doesn’t mean they’re the only ones who can take advantage of the opportunity to make the Kingdom their audience. Send a distress signal to Carann, with footage of the attack. If we fail here, I still want to make damned sure that the entire Dozen Stars gets to see our enemies for the criminals they are.”

“Yes, Your Grace,” Bastias said. “But I have to warn you, it’s extremely unlikely that we’ll be able to hold out against this attack long enough for reinforcements from Carann to reach us here.”

“I know,” Kallistrae said grimly. “Then we’ll just to hold them for as long as we can and take as many of them as we can with us.” She sighed. “While you’re at it, issue a general call for civilian evacuations. Try to give as many of our citizens time to escape as we can – I know the enemy commanders personally, and I doubt Respen or Sateira in particular will be very kind conquerors.”

A silence fell across the war room, and then as one the officers around it saluted grimly and set to their tasks. Kallistrae sighed, and then looked up at the sound of footsteps. One of the guild officers, a woman in a silver uniform and dark glasses who had stayed silent since Kallistrae had arrived, was approaching. “Your Grace,” the guildswoman said, “if you’re concerned about being outnumbered, my people might be able to offer you a solution.”

“Go on,” the duchess said darkly, having a feeling she knew where this was headed.

“The guilds have always had a strong investment in the Tantos system, dating back for generations of your predecessors,” the guildswoman said. “We do not wish to see those investments ruined. Though we aren’t under your direct command, Guildmaster Madran has direct me to inform you that our security forces stand ready to assist you in battle, should you request it.”

“Tantos Duchy does not need the guilds to fight our battles for us,” Kallistrae snapped. “Tell me, were you one of the security officers who was busy shooting at our own civilians a few months ago for peacefully protesting? Maybe Hiram was willing to overlook that; I’m less lenient.”

“For the record, Your Grace,” the guildswoman said, squaring her shoulders, “I wasn’t there, and those who were in command were reprimanded. Dead civilians do not generate profit for the guilds. I know you find our attitudes and practices distasteful, but for now the guilds are your best hope of protecting the people of this duchy from those who would conquer them. Are your principles more important to you than their lives?”

Kallistrae was silent for a long moment, and then finally she sighed. “No,” she said. “Give the order. Firus, tell our forces in orbit to expect reinforcements from guild security.”

“At once, Your Grace,” the veteran knight said, snapping to salute.

///

“Your Grace,” Sun-Sword’s captain said, “a number of battleships are rising from the planet’s surface and falling into place to reinforce the defenders. They appear to be of guild design, Excelsior-class, comparable to our Equestrians. Guild security has joined the battle, as you predicted.”

“Thank you, Captain,” Sateira said, grinning like a contented lioness. Now was the time to put her arrangements to the test. “Broadcast a message on a secure frequency. This is what you are to say…”

///

With the arrival of guild security, Tantos’ defenders still couldn’t match the attackers’ numbers, but they were much closer to parity, and had the advantage of the orbital defensive stations. The enemy advance was stalled on all three fronts, the red tide now holding steady in the face of the combined blue and silver forces. Kallistrae let out a breath she hadn’t even realized she was holding. Was it possible they could actually win this battle, or at least hold out long enough for Carann to reinforce them?

She should have realized then that such a dream was too good to be true.

The tide turned suddenly, as one by one the large blue dots on the holoscreens that represented the defense platforms flickered and went out. “What’s going on?” the duchess demanded in shock, but her officers seemed to be equally as stunned.

“We’ve lost contact with the defense platforms, Your Grace!” Firus said. “We can’t raise them at all. I can’t explain it…”

“Your Grace, several of our battleships are reporting critical damage!” another officer called. “Their engines have been disabled, leaving them dead in space. They were fired on…” she paused and swallowed before continuing. “Fired on by guild security.”

“What?” Kallistrae demanded, just as she heard the click of a beam pistol being armed behind her and felt the weapon’s barrel pressed against the back of her neck. Across the war room, the guildsmen and guildswomen, who had stood quietly since the engagement began, drew their own weapons and pointed them at the knights and officers of Tantos, backing them up against the central table.

“Hands up, if you please,” the security officer whom Kallistrae had spoken too earlier, and who now held a gun to her head, said from behind her. “Do this without a fuss and no one has to get hurt.”

“Traitor,” Kallistrae spat, though she slowly raised her hands as she said it.

“Technically, we’re not traitors,” the security officer said. “The guilds aren’t actually part of the Kingdom’s feudal systems, so we’re not, strictly speaking, answerable to the dukes and duchesses. And I did promise that if we intervened, it would protect the people of Tantos III. By bringing this fighting to a swift end, that is exactly what we’re doing. The guilds manufactured your battleships and your defense platforms – who better to disable them without a fuss? I’m sorry it had to end like this, but business is business.”

“You’re still a traitor to the crown,” Kallistrae said. “And for all your high-minded words, I bet one of the enemies bought you off. What do you think you’ll accomplish here?”

“The Queen isn’t here,” the security officer said. “And the guilds are, first and foremost, commercial organizations. As for what we want, at the moment it’s for you to declare a surrender and order your forces to stand down. If you don’t, then my orders from the Guildmaster are to shoot you and issue a surrender in your name. Either way we win, but if you do things our way, you’ll get to live to see it, and hopefully to take your duchy back one day. The guilds have done business with House ast Tantos for generations, after all – we’d hate to see such a strong working relationship go to waste.”

Kallistrae looked down at her feet silently for what felt like an eternity, then she raised her head, staring forward and feeling like she had a black hole lodged in her chest. “All right,” she said heavily. “You win. For now, at least, you win.”

///

“The Duchess ast Tantos has surrendered,” Darius ast Sakran said, looking over at the chair where his father sat, both hands resting on his cane; Darius’s siblings hovered behind him. “Just as Sateira said she would.”

“Did you really doubt me?” Sateira’s holoimage said from where it was projected on the Sakran flagship’s bridge. “The guilds are really quite amenable, so long as you speak their language – money. Hiram and his predecessors tried, but they weren’t good enough at it and got entangled, and Kallistrae never managed to get herself extracted all the way. We of House ast Tashir, on the other hand, learned long ago how to make guild connections work for us, rather than the other way around.”

“Oh, quit patting yourself on the back, Sateira,” Respen’s holoimage said; the Duke of Aurann crossed his arms and glowered. “The point is, Tantos is ours. Now the next phase of the plan can proceed.”

“Yes, it can,” Naudar said. “We’ve issued a challenge that Artakane can’t ignore. She’ll have no choice but to act, and when she does, we’ll be waiting for her.” Sateira and Respen nodded at him, and then both holos vanished.

“With the help of the guilds the occupation should be smooth,” Naudar said to his children when they were gone. “Not that we need to hold Tantos III for long. Now we only have to prepare the planet for our next battle, with the girl queen herself.”

“And when she falls, we’ll take what is rightfully ours,” Galen said, grinning nastily and no doubt remembering how Artakane had bested him at the tournament on Carann.

“I don’t like this,” Darius said. “We won this battle only because we had treacherous allies. And speaking of, I don’t trust either Respen or Sateira. Father, you have to know that in the end, only one house can hold the throne.”

Naudar regarded his eldest son coolly from over his cane. “You don’t need to lecture me on strategy,” he said. “I assure you that I like and trust our friends no more than you do. And don’t think you know all of my plans. Everything is proceeding exactly as it should be.”