Deathstalker 04 - Deathstalker Honor

Three times, in fact. The last time you smashed the comm unit, and I took that as a hint you weren’t really interested. Besides, there was nothing you could have done.” Hazel scowled and threw herself into a chair opposite him. “God, I hate it when you go all smug. I was entitled to get my head down for a bit after everything we’ve been through recently.”
    “Quite right. Now that you are rested, composed, and hopefully wide awake at last, perhaps you’d care for me to brief you?”
    “Oh, go on. You live for moments like this, when you get to lecture people on things you know that they don’t. But keep it short and succinct, or I’ll throw things.”
    “We are currently in the vicinity of the planet Brahmin II,” said Owen calmly. “Maintaining a safe distance from the planet and the twelve golden ships lying in orbit around it. Yes, twelve. Our shields seem to be working nicely. Brahmin II is occupied by our one-time allies, the newly revived Hadenmen.
    They have claimed the planet in the name of their Second Crusade of the Genetic Church. They bring the gift of transformation, from men into Hadenmen. Whether the men want it or not. Brahmin II has been renamed New Haden, and is now the new home and base of the augmented men.”
    “I got all that at Parliament,” snapped Hazel. “Tell me something I don’t know.” “Patience. I’m getting there. During the rebellion the Hadenmen took over a hundred and twenty thousand prisoners. These have since been transferred to New Haden to join the one and a half million colonists as captives. We have no idea of their current… condition. Parliament is demanding their release, but the Hadenmen didn’t even bother to reply after their initial statement. And since the Imperial Fleet currently consists of maybe a dozen starcruisers held together with baling wire and prayer, the Empire is helpless to do anything to save the colonists and prisoners from their fate.” “So they sent us instead. Because we’re expendable.”
    “Because we’re heroes. And because we have a better chance than most of actually achieving something.
    Besides, it’s my duty. I’m responsible for everything that’s happened here. I woke the augmented men from their Tomb. Brought them back into the worlds of men, to walk in all their nightmares once again.”
    “We needed them,” said Hazel almost gently, the anger gone from her voice. “We couldn’t have won the rebellion without them.”
    “Maybe. And maybe all we’ve done is exchange one evil for another. Before the rogue AIs escaped and built Shub, the Hadenmen were the official Enemies of Humanity, and with good reason. Hadenmen. The Slaughterers of Madraguda. The Butchers of Brahmin II. Defeated, thrown back, safely bottled up in their Tomb. Until I let them out.”
    “You trusted them,” said Hazel. “They gave you their word. They called you Redeemer and swore an
    oath of allegiance to you. They betrayed you.” “Of course they did. They know nothing of honor.”
    Owen’s head and shoulders bowed, as though weighed down by some great burden. “I never trusted them. But I needed them. So I let them out anyway.”
    Hazel leaned forward, one hand lifting as though she might reach out to him.
    “Owen…”
    He lifted his head sharply, and Hazel pulled back her hand. He didn’t notice.
    His face was calm and composed, and when he spoke his voice was all business. “You worked on Brahmin II once, before I met you, before the rebellion. What can you tell me about the place?”
    “Not a lot,” said Hazel, taking her cue from Owen. If he wanted to change the subject, that was fine by her. “Dismal bloody place, all hard work and discipline and damn few comforts. Not really surprising after what the Hadenmen did to it the last time they were here. I thought you might ask, so I took the time to pull up the computer records of the first invasion. They’re pretty scrappy, mostly on-the-spot news coverage broadcast live, but it should give you some idea of how bad things were. You need to see this, Owen. I don’t want you going down there with thoughts of negotiating or making deals. Force is all these bastards have ever understood.”
    She called up the records on the main viewscreen, and she and Owen sat side by side and watched history unfold before them. Golden ships filled the skies, shining brighter than the sun. Disrupter beams stabbed down, blowing apart buildings, starting fires that quickly raged out