Deathstalker 08 - Deathstalker Coda

frontal attack, and we kick his arse, he’ll have rebellions breaking out on every planet in the Empire.”
    “You’re forgetting the transmutation engines. As long as Finn has those, he has a gun to everyone’s head.”
    “Oh, poo to the engines. You’ll figure out a way to stop them. It’s what you do.”
    She chattered on cheerfully, and Douglas let her. He enjoyed her company, both as his adviser and his friend. She was always so alive, so full of energy and down-to-earth. He didn’t know what he’d do without her. Nina . . . was good for him. And she had a brain, behind all the chatter. She helped to plan rebel sorties into the outer city, based on information coming in all the time from the various stringers who kept the news site up to date on the very latest breaking news, facts, and gossip. She had people everywhere now, and her news site was on the air twenty-four hours a day, despite everything Finn could do to shut it down. Douglas approved of Nina.
    “Oh! Oh! I almost forgot,” she said suddenly, beating her hands together before her like a child. “We finally got confirmation that the two fleets have made contact, fought a battle, and then Finn’s fleet surrendered to Lewis!”
    Douglas sat up straight. “How the hell could you forget something that important?”
    “Don’t be such a grouch, Douglas. You keep frowning like that and you’ll get lines on your face. I knew I had a reason for coming back here, it just escaped me for the moment. Anyway, we’ve been getting some marvelous battle footage, including Lewis doing a few things you are just not going to believe, but, but—the big news is . . . the combined fleet is heading straight for Logres!”
    “An exclusive,” said Douglas, smiling.
    “Yes!”
    “Nina,” Douglas said sternly. “Are you sure you didn’t know this before the meeting?”
    Nina pouted. “Only rumors, sweetie, nothing definite. And it isn’t the sort of thing you want to announce without definite evidence. We’re still getting details, and broadcasting it all, including the surrender, to every planet in the Empire. And my people are looking at some information provided from a ship called the Heritage , about what really happened at Usher Two, when the Terror came. Some rather disturbing details that Finn suppressed. You know . . . I can’t help feeling I’m getting jaded, darling. There was a time when news like this would have had me bouncing up and down and hyperventilating. I haven’t done my happy dance in weeks.”
    “It is excellent news,” said Douglas, rising up suddenly from his chair, and almost knocking Nina off the arm. He steadied her absentmindedly, and then strode up and down in the small room, thinking hard. “Assuming there wasn’t too much damage during the battle, the sheer size of the combined fleet should mean Finn hasn’t got anything big enough or powerful enough to put up against it. All he’s got left are the transmutation engines . . . We have got to find a way to knock them offline . . .”
    “What do you think Finn will do, when he hears the news?” said Nina.
    Douglas smiled grimly. “Knowing him, something extreme. You’d better call everybody back, Nina. We need another meeting.”

    Emperor Finn heard the news of his fleet’s surrender, and took it very badly. The loss of his fleet was just the latest in a series of last straws. He smashed every piece of furniture in his quarters, and pounded his fists on the bare walls, before falling back into a cold and very dangerous self-control. He needed to do something, something big and dramatic and horrifyingly nasty, to make it clear to everyone that he was still in charge. So he turned on the nearest target, the most irksome thorn in his side. The Rookery. He walked across the room, kicking pieces of shattered furniture out of the way, and when he was sure his breathing had returned to normal, he activated his viewscreen and called Joseph Wallace in his bunker.
    Joseph appeared before his Emperor, straight from his bed, looking a little tousled and distinctly wary. News this late in the evening was rarely ever anything he wanted to hear.
    “The time has come,” Finn said crisply. “I want the Rookery crushed, and you’re going to do it for me. I give you complete charge of all my armed forces, dear Joseph, and all I ask in return is that you should march into the Rookery and kill every man, woman, and child you find there. No one is to be allowed to escape. No