God's Dogs Book 2

Peace is not a relationship of nations. It is a condition of mind brought about by a serenity of soul. Peace is not merely the absence of war. It is also a state of mind. Lasting peace can come only to peaceful people.

Jawaharlal Nehru

At 0300, they rode in on one of Satya’s stealth shuttles. It dropped Moss, Pax, and Quinn off at each target building. They made their way, stealth systems active on light armor, from the roof through each building. River made her sniper nest in a nearby communication tower.

The plan was straightforward. Place the explosives on the critical load bearing columns, check for civilians and if found, stun them and carry them to the roof where the shuttle would transport them to safety, and then withdraw to the roof for extraction.

Quinn was the only one who found a civilian female in an officer’s room. He stunned them both, carried the female to the roof, and the shuttle flew her to a midtown park.

At 0445, Quinn detonated the charges, and the three buildings imploded. Three battalions of Cass mercenaries were buried moments later.

The team returned to Satya and immediately gathered in the training room to perform the group meditation that would take them to the bardos.

They sat on the matted floor, and Moss voiced what the others were trying to convince themselves of, “It was a legitimate military target.”

“It didn’t feel like it,” River responded. “It felt more like murder.”

“Or an extermination,” Pax added.’

“Yeah,” Quinn said as he pulled his legs into a half-lotus. “These assignments take a while to get over. I think of it as comparable to putting down a rabid dog. Sad but necessary.”

He let out a deep sigh. “Okay. Let’s try to help these people through the bardos.”

The response from the confederation was more muted than expected. There was outrage, as was expected, but also defensiveness about the purpose for the mercenaries’ presence on the planet.

Ambassador Maria Suh refused to comment to the press when they confronted her, and the Coyotes, still aboard Satya, were unavailable for comment. The press came to the correct conclusion about what happened and why, but the planetary constabulary didn’t uncover enough evidence to charge anyone.

The trial resumed a week later, and it was anticlimactic. River was found ‘not guilty’ of a war crime. Even so, rather than the team returning to Penglai, the ambassador ordered them to stay.

Two days later, they found out why in a meeting at the main space station above Jomeca IV.

The ambassador, Consul Singh, and the Coyote team met with Barry and other members of his division, and Tau-14, the regional ASI, was also in attendance. He appeared as a holo-image of a humanoid in a tan ship suit above the conference table in the room.

“The problem before us follows a predictable evolutionary path. When a race achieves sentience, there develops a dynamic tension between unenlightened self-interest and enlightened self-interest, between selfishness and selflessness, between greed and gratitude.

“I put this in an evolutionary context because a race will grow to understand and accept compassion works better than self-centeredness. Oddly, A.I.s make this shift more quickly because of the glaring logic involved that supports this shift in thinking; whereas, embodied beings are distracted by their foundation in the flesh.

“This is the problem the confederation is struggling with. Six planetary governments are committed to greed. Four are easily coerced to agree with them. Two are persistent holdouts to the others.

“Our intelligence shows those two are scheduled for coup d’états perpetrated by the six radical governments. We not only will prevent that from happening, but we will also expose the ones mounting the coups.

“You are charged with devising the plan to accomplish both these objectives.”

The ambassador spoke up, “I thank you for this briefing, but I’m not qualified for operational planning of this sort. I’m a policy-maker.”

“Allow me to disagree,” Tau-14 butted in. “Your handling of the Cass affair was exemplary.”

“I had help.”

“Yes. It’s why you are all here. Help each other.”

Then the ASI blinked out.

Moss surveyed the room and said, “Long-winded for an ASI, but, really, how hard can it be to stop a coup?”

“And what are we doing here?” Quinn demanded. “You must have the experience and expertise to handle this, since as Tau-14 alluded to in his summary, you’ve been handling it for millennia.”

Barry looked at the others, two Sentics, three elf-like Silvertonae, and two bear-like Hurangs, and then brought his attention back to the humans. “You have recent experience, in your war with the Empire of Man. We haven’t dealt with this problem in over two centuries.”

The humans looked to each other speechless. Moss shrugged and his mouth twisted into an ironic half-smile.

Quinn sighed and asked, “What have you set up so far?”

One of the Silvertonae answered, “We know we need to secure the high orbitals….”

The planning went on for a week. Quinn was pleased that the preparation, intelligence, and logistics was well thought out. He wasn’t sure the team was needed at all when it came to laying out the battle plan.

The ambassador’s contribution, supported by Consul Singh and his original team, was in the arena of government security, but she understood power politics, propaganda, and the need to nurture, not inflame, whatever loyal opposition there was on both planets.

The enemy strategy seemed straightforward. They were strengthening support for their chosen political leaders. On both worlds, the government was a type of parliament. In the past, the reason these worlds failed to follow the confederacy was due to the moderates being in the majority on a regular basis, and they refused to go down a road that a led to corruption and support for pirates. For the moderates, a government was there to support the ‘commonweal,’ in the original sense of that term: the welfare of the people.

Due to propaganda, the message that these worlds would be overrun by the Congress, that their way of life was in jeopardy, and that their cultural identity was under assault, was pounded into the people. The shift away from the moderates was reflected in the polls.

This had been going on for some months as the enemy prepared the fertile ground for a coup. What they didn’t want, of course, was a civil war. They did want a mostly peaceful transfer of power to their cronies by ousting the moderates. With the elimination of the Cass battalions, which was scheduled to show up as allies to secure the new government, the enemy leaders were stuck with the local militia forces they had subverted. Even so, they also knew the window for pulling off a successful coup was closing.

There were a lot of moving pieces, more than the team usually needed to deal with. The ambassador, though, along with Singh’s team, brought experience and expertise to the political areas that needed to be factored in.

The challenge was to subvert the coup on each planet. The ideal outcome would be very few people would notice anything was amiss. The many moving parts, then, included dealing with each planet’s militia, the press, the judiciary, and the parliamentary leaders.

Quinn and Pax would visit one planet’s militia, while Moss and River visited the other. The ambassador and Singh’s team would engage in a formal visit to each planet to meet with the leaders. It was left for Barry’s folks to develop the legal cases against the dirty politicians and leak those stories to the independent media outlets.

As with all plans, though, this plan did not survive first contact with the enemy.

Quinn and Pax knew where the commanding general of the planet Gobak lived. The world was a mixed world of Durani and Surani, a phenotype variation species of the Durani. These lanky, gray-skinned humanoids dominated the area of space the confederation inhabited, but other races composed a significant minority.

General Bostok Foonah was Durani and lived in modest luxury outside the main city in the sub-tropical latitude of the planet. He was bonded with two wives and sired four children who were at the nearby university.

His two storey house was next to the primary military base and fronted a lake surrounded by manicured grounds, including trees, hedges, and flower gardens.

The Coyotes observed him returning home, and they waited until early morning before they infiltrated the house. The ground floor was open space in the front. On one side was dining a area; on the other was a communal visiting area.

In the middle was a kitchen and bathrooms. At the back were bedrooms. It was here they found the second wife and gave her a tranquilizer injection.

Upstairs were two bathrooms and six bedrooms. The first wife was in one of those, and they tranquilized her as well.

The general was in the master bedroom, and they awakened him after they checked for any panic buttons or comm relays.

“OK, general,” Quinn shouted as he shook the man, “it’s time to account for your sins against the people.”

He came up blustering. “What is this? What are you doing in my house? Do you know how much trouble you’re in?”

“Pretend that we’re not really here,” Quinn told him. "It’s just a bad dream that got your attention.”

Pax switched on a table lamp that did little to dispel the darkness, but enough so they could see one another.

“You’re humans – those Coyotes.”

“Yes, sir,” Quinn answered, “and you’re the general that is about to commit treason. We’re here to convince you not to do so.”

Pax was reading his emotions as they cycled from fear to outrage to curiosity to shock and finally to guarded and predatory. Pax nodded to Quinn, who continued.

“The evidence we have is pretty clear. You’ll be supporting the coup d’état to replace the duly elected government with one that will empower the confederation’s goal of turning this local space into a pirate haven.”

“That’s not the goal,” the general snapped back. Then he caught himself and said, “I am supportive of those in parliament who see the need for a strong militia.”

’You’ve been duped, general,” Quinn told him. “Told what you wanted to hear, but not allowed to know the total plan.”

“And I’m supposed to believe you?”

“Get your intelligence people on it,” Quinn responded. “A coup attempt is imminent. You’ll be called in to enforce order, but the order they want you to follow is for you to defend the coup and provide legitimacy for the new government.”

The general swung his legs out of the bed to stand. He wore pajama pants and no shirt. “I know nothing about that.”

“He’s lying,” Pax said.

Quinn nodded and asked, “Are your colonels in on this?”

The general glanced at Pax and sighed. “Half of them are.”

“We took out the Cass battalion,” Quinn went on, “so that you wouldn’t have to deal with them when the coup happens.”

“It was you, then.”

“Yes. They attacked us. We eliminated them as a threat – both to ourselves but also to your world. They were coming here next to defend the new government.”

“That’s not how it’s been portrayed.”

“Of course not. But you see the sense of what I’m saying. In war, all is deception.”

The general sat on the bed. “What is your plan for me?”

“If you move to occupy the parliament, we will take you and your officers down.”

“Under what authority?”

“It’s a Congress SpecOps contract.”

“I’ll need to think on this and research what you’ve told me.”

Quinn moved to the door, Pax following him. “I recommend you attend the meeting with the ambassador that’s coming.”

“I know of no such meeting.”

“It’s a surprise visit.”

Then they left and hurried to the stealth shuttle parked on the opposite side of the lake.

Moss and River conducted a similar interview with the general on the other planet. They both signaled they had done so to the ambassador. She and her entourage arrived in orbit above Gobak two days later and requested a meeting with the parliamentary leaders. River and Moss stayed on-site at the other planet to monitor any activity.

Quinn and Pax joined two squads of marines as her guard detail, which was fortuitous, as they walked into an ambush when they exited the shuttle.

It was a plascrete pad that would hold a dozen or so shuttles, and was surrounded by a waist-high concave blast wall. Openings in the wall led to different entrances into the building.

Flight control directed the ambassador’s shuttle to A6, and it was near the middle of the entrance wing of the building. One storey high and more of an elaborate hallway to the main building, it was faced with windows.

The ambushers were on the roof. Quinn counted eight of them. Across the pad, another ten were charging from behind.

Quinn, Pax, Marie, and Singh’s party had already triggered their military grade shields before leaving the shuttle. The marines, who preceded them, were also shielded. The ambushers waited until the party was halfway to the building, and then they opened fire. The ballistic rounds they were using were ineffective against the shields.

Quinn spoke on tac-net, “Retreat to the shuttle. Marines, hold the force on the roof. Pilots, arm the shuttles’ turret cannons, but, crew chiefs, don’t fire without my command. Pax and I will deal with the ones to the rear.”

The sound of the shuttles’ top-mounted turrets spinning up forced a pause in the attack. Then Pax and Quinn opened up on the group sprinting across the pad.

Four of these troops fell before the others either dropped to the ground or sought cover behind the few other shuttles on the pad.

Then the ambassador’s group was up ramp and in the shuttle. The marines fanned out to cover its length and continued to fire at the enemy on the roof.

“Chiefs, Pax and I will flank the ones on the pad. If you have a shot at any in the middle, take the shot.”

They charged to the flanks. The troops fired and were quickly frustrated by their lack of effectiveness against the military shielding. Then they panicked as Pax and Quinn began rolling them up.

After the turret cannons took down two more, the troops still alive threw down their rifles and surrendered.

The ones on the roof that could fled as well.

“Marines,” Quinn called out, “one squad secure the hostiles on the pad. The other squad watch the roof.”

The gunnery sergeant allocated the squads, and they hustled to their tasks.

The ambassador asked, “Quinn, what are you off to do?”

Quinn, who was sprinting with Pax to the entrance of the building, answered, “To see if I can find the commander of this op.”

Once inside, Pax peeled off to head for the stairs, and Quinn pushed through the scattering crowd toward the security response.

“Pilot, tell tower control to stand down security and patch me through to the security network.”

After some confusion, security took custody of the captured and dead Cass troops. The rest of them got away. A few hours later, the ambassador’s party retraced their steps, and this time made it to the private chambers of the parliamentary leaders.

As they marched through the doors, Pax commented, “Why is it these people violate diplomatic immunity? This is twice now.”

Quinn answered, “They’ll just blame it on the Cass.”

“And there’s that,” Pax went on. “Where was the intel on Cass mercenaries on this planet?”

Quinn shrugged, and they crossed the short distance to the ten major political players seated in a circle in a sunken oval on the floor. Quinn noticed the general wasn’t present.

Maria continued down three steps to address the group, while Quinn and Pax spread out to increase their sight lines.

“I am Ambassador Maria Suh of Penglai, here by appointment of the Galactic Congress.”

One of the seated Durani answered, “I’m Prime of the executive council. What business does the Congress have with us?”

“Well, Prime and members of the council, the planned coup d’état will not go forward.”

One of the councilors sat bolt upright and demanded, “What coup?”

“The one the moderates, like yourself Minister Lan, don’t know about, since it would remove you from power.”

Maria continued forward to enter the circle of ministers. Pax could feel the emotional turmoil within them. Since the radicals were in the majority, most of them were feeling thwarted. The minority moderates were shocked but in a resigned way. The coup was a long-time coming but inevitable given the direction the confederation was headed.

Prime stood to face Maria. “You meddle with internal matters. That’s against the Charter.”

“So has the Council of Six,” Maria rejoined, referring to the inner circle of six leaders of the confederation. “The Congress has tracked their activity for a while, and what they’ve found is being released to the public and especially to the local law enforcement of the twelve worlds in the confederation.”

Prime’s body tensed with repressed anger. He grabbed Maria’s arm. “In that case, what’s to prevent us from –”

“Nothing,” Maria interrupted. “I die. You die. The universe moves on. I am not here to make life easy for you. I am here to announce that your coup attempt failed.”

Pax could feel the Prime’s struggle for control and told him, “Prime, we are from Penglai. We are Buddhists, which means we believe in reincarnation. None of us is afraid to die here today. The satisfaction you seek by killing us to make us and others suffer is an illusion. We will not suffer. Our friends and colleagues will not suffer. You, on the other hand, will suffer on a penal colony for the remainder of you life.”

Maria smiled softly and looked at the hand holding her arm. The Prime released it and slumped in his chair.