(Lake Dharra, Coldana Prime, Coldana System)
Colonel Lurhak Hardminer shuddered as the wind kicked up off the lake. Once upon a time, he wouldn’t have even noticed it. The smell of the wind off the lake was something he’d lived with his entire life, after all, and it wasn’t that cold yet, even though it was moving into winter.
There were many days where he would have sat on the lakeside, just like this, whenever he had liberty from his duties in the planetary militia. A fishing rod in one hand, and a bottle of Old Copperpot’s finest in his other. Didn’t even matter if he caught anything, not really.
Of course, that was before the Harvester came, and the X’thari blotted out the skies with their ships and their drones. The nature preserve had been hit hard by artillery. Mostly theirs, but the Consortium’s forces got in on the act, too, once they had started pushing the X’thari back from the cities. Yesterday was the anniversary, and they’d only just finished purging the continent of the damned insects. The fighting was still ongoing on the southern continent, though it should be over in a couple weeks, if the scuttlebutt was correct.
He didn’t bring his fishing pole today. That had been lost, early in the fighting. X’thari lander had decided his house was a great landing field. The artillery shells had taken that lander, but none of his possessions survived.
Not that he had much time to go rescue anything, of course. There had been the frantic rush to bring in as many supplies as possible, and to create the walls needed to force a siege. Everyone was far too busy.
There hadn’t been any point to it either. Not at the time. They hadn’t expected to live. In fact, they knew that they were dead. The Harvester was a world-eater, after all. What could they do against that?
They were utterly without hope. Their only goal, from the moment they confirmed the X’thari were attacking, was to make them bleed as much as possible, make the Harvester choke on Coldana. All of it for the simple goal of making the next system have just that infinitesimally greater chance of making it through.
When they’d found out that the fleet had hurt the Harvester, and hurt it bad, there was still no hope. They were still up against odds that were completely impossible. But when the X’thari landed, they knew that they would get even more of a chance to make the bugs bleed, and that was fine with them.
Leaning with his back against the wrecked hull of a X’thari lander, he looked out over the lake. The trees were gone. So were the fish, for that matter. The water was black with pollution and runoff. It was still one of the more scenic places in the area, which spoke volumes about the planet’s condition.
The people of Coldana had survived, but they had done so by burning their own world, and by pushing the ecosystem so far beyond the brink that there was no chance of it recovering naturally. The air quality was getting worse by the day. The only reason the population hadn’t been forced into domes was because the domes were still being built, and there wasn’t that much population left.
Roughly seven hundred million of the planet’s population of three billion were still breathing when the Harvester died. Injuries, accidents, illness, and the X’thari still on the planet cut that down to just over three hundred and fifty million. Most of the rest had been resettled elsewhere as Coldana’s industry was all but gone, and there was no infrastructure to speak of.
Between the ten enclaves that had survived the Devastation of Coldana, the population of the planet was now just shy of three hundred and fifty thousand people. Out of a population that had been three billion. So much death. And the world was still dying.
“Colonel, you’re a tough man to find.”
Hardminer looked up at the voice, surprised. He’d been so lost in his thoughts that he hadn’t even heard the Gauz man’s footsteps. The uniform marked him as Consortium military, but there were no pins to signify his rank, and he couldn’t see any indication of which branch he served in. That didn’t inspire confidence.
Slowly getting to his feet, he nodded. “Didn’t seem to be much point in keeping my commlink with me. The X’thari have been driven off the continent, and the unit was due some liberty. I take it there are orders?”
“Just jumping straight in, then?”
Hardminer shrugged. “No point. You’re either Intelligence, in which case I’m about to get screwed, or you’re from legal, in which case I’m about to get screwed, or you’re from command, in which case I’m about to get screwed, but I’ll have to pretend I like it.”
Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
“That… is not the kind of attitude your file indicated you would have, Colonel.”
“Well, your precious files may need to get updated, then. I lost too many good troops to those damn bugs. And even with them getting burned off and wiped out, what good does it do? Coldana is dead, it just doesn’t know it yet. My fucking home is dead.”
“And what if I told you that we could change that?”
The Colonel’s eyes narrowed. “And what the hell would you be meaning by that, hmm? And if something like that was possible, why the hell would you be talking to me about it? I’m just a Colonel. Worlds dying or not is a decision for higher.”
The unnamed man nodded. “Oh, there’s several reasons I’m talking to you. First, you’re something of a hero to the people of Coldana, you know. Even though most of them have gone to other worlds, the story of the Colonel who led the last defense of Dharram during the Devastation, holding the line as the X’thari burst through the walls, has traveled with them. You’re not the only one, of course, but Dharram was the last enclave to have the walls breached, and the only one to survive once X’thari were inside the walls.
“You then proceeded to lead your troops in the pacification efforts, hunting down the X’thari and driving them completely from your area of operations. The Dharram Theater was the first to be declared free of the X’thari. And you did it with planetary militia, not regular army.”
He took a breath. “You’re right that Coldana is incapable of supporting a standard Consortium colony. The ecosystem has suffered a total collapse, and the infrastructure, both on the ground and in space has been almost completely wiped out. There are no profitable ventures that a standard colony could use to justify its existence to the Consortium.”
He paused, and then offered a grin at the Colonel. “However, there have been proposals put in place, which should change that. The long term terraforming and ecological revitalization of Coldana is theoretically possible, using technology that has proven potentially viable in laboratory settings. Coldana would be the first potential test bed for this new technology.”
“And why would the Consortium spend all that money, just to bring back a dead world?”
“Because Coldana isn’t just another lifeless rock. While the resource outlay is expected to be significant, and long-lasting, if successful, the efforts to restore Coldana will play well in the public eye, providing a significant morale boost in both the short and long terms, for a variety of reasons. In addition, there are parties who are quite interested utilizing the current situation to establish a new style of Consortium colony.”
“So, selling off the planet to be used as a test bed for technology in a place where it couldn’t get any worse, and spinning it as a PR win, with a bonus of being able to use any technology that comes out of the deal?”
“Crude, and doesn’t cover the entire reality, but that is the general idea.”
“And who are these interests that are oh so generously taking the Consortium’s capital to give them this PR win?”
“Well, actually, other than some tax breaks on behalf of the biotech companies, making it easier to test their products on Coldana, there is relatively little capital outflow because of this. In fact, Corporate analysts believe that there should be a net positive in revenue streams within fifteen to twenty years, with projected growth continuing past that point.”
“Just what in the hell do you have planned?”
“Well, as you know Capitol City has been the army’s de facto base of operations since they reclaimed it during the naval battle against the Swarm. However, the Starport is designed for civilian use, and the costs to permanently convert a civilian starport to a military one are roughly equivalent to building a new starpot. This is, naturally, not an agreeable state of affairs.
“So, the current plan is for the army to relocate from Capitol City, and the terraforming concerns and any corporations that want to set up shop will make that their base of operations. The cheap land, even under a dome, will encourage some businesses to move into the area. Between tax breaks, cheap land, and the patriotic PR spin, we expect several groups to take the leap.
“The military, however, has decided that a continuing presence on the planet is required, especially as Coldana is in a strategic location. Unfortunately, all pre-Devastation military bases were overrun and destroyed, forcing a change of strategy. Therefore, in addition to orbital facilities to Navy specifications, the Consortium will be financing a military base and training school for the Army and planetary militia.
“To that end, the Dharram Dome, when it is completed, will be given over to the military, and will have a fully military starport constructed, to create the proposed Coldana Military Scholarium. This will not only have a steady supply of military personnel on the planet to stimulate the economy, but will also offer real world hazardous environment training. Having more soldiers that can go into hazardous areas without constantly tripping over their own safety gear would be more than welcome, naturally.
“And, finally, a secondary civilian starport will be constructed in Bugaldur. The former enclave has much of the needed infrastructure remaining, thanks to it not coming under as devastating an assault as some of the other enclaves. This settlement will be redesignated as a Free Port, run by the Shattershield Company.”
Hardminer growled. “You mean the bloody pirates are getting a place where they’re being just begged to set up shop?”
“Please, sir. The Shattershield Company—”
“Is just the damn Shatterback pirate clan under a different name, and there isn’t a damn person in the sector that doesn’t know that. And you’re just fucking giving a piece of Coldana to them? Fuck, that’s stupid.”
The unnamed man drew himself up to his full height. “Well, suffice to say that the Shattershield company, despite any prior activities they may have taken under a different company name, are a legitimate business concern that has not, to our knowledge, committed any illicit acts since their ‘reform’. Because of this, the business plan they have presented for the fiscal revitalization of Coldana has been accepted.”
Hardminer just glared at him, unimpressed. After dealing with the Swarm, an idiot trying to make himself look important didn’t even register as a threat. “And you still haven’t told me why you’re telling me all of this, especially not without signing a confidentiality or consulting contract first.”
“Ah, well, that is because, given the disparate nature of the proposed ventures, it has been decided that the overall jurisdiction of Coldana will fall to a military governor, taken from the ranks of the planetary militia. This will ensure that local forces remain in control, and that the governor will be able to call on enough force to keep the scientific and free trader groups in line.”
Hardminer got a sinking feeling in his gut. “No.”
The unnamed man nodded. “Yes. Out of the entire Coldana Planetary Militia, you are the senior surviving officer. Therefore, by order of the Consortium Council, you are now designated as the military governor of Coldana, General Hardminer.”
Hardminer just groaned. As predicted, he had indeed been screwed. And, as predicted, it was the kind of screwing where he had to pretend he was happy about it.
“Fuck.”