The Oncoming Storm by Christopher Nuttall Read Free Book Online Page A

something is supplying the insurgents with heavy weapons from off-world. The wretched planet is sucking in too many of our cadre of Marines, not to mention the Army and forces from Commonwealth planets. Hell, the latter are growing increasingly reluctant to send any further forces to Cadiz, citing the Commonwealth Charter. Overall, Marine Intelligence thinks that Cadiz isn’t the only world that has received attention from the Theocracy. Those missionaries might have done more than try to spread the good word.”
    Kat grimaced. The Commonwealth had total religious freedom—and total separation of church and state. There had been no choice. The Commonwealth couldn’t afford to exclude potential member states because of their religions, as long as they adhered to the Commonwealth Charter. If someone wanted to worship Satan, or accept a subordinate position because of gender, there was no law prohibiting it . . .
    . . . which made it hard to deal with missionaries from the Theocracy. Kat suspected—and she knew that most of her fellow officers shared her suspicions—that the missionaries were nothing more than spies. But they couldn’t be barred from any member planet, not without breaking the Commonwealth’s laws. All the intelligence services could do was keep an eye on them and watch for signs they had something else in mind.
    “All along the border,” she mused. “And those insurgent groups might be receiving help too.”
    “Not on the same scale as Cadiz,” Davidson said. “But every other world voted for annexation. Cadiz . . . did not.”
    And that, Kat knew, was the core of the political struggle that had deadlocked the houses of Parliament. Cadiz had been, for all intents and purposes, invaded and conquered, without even the benefit of a great many people willing to welcome the Commonwealth. Peace was needed to start investments on the surface, investments that would pay off handsomely in the long run, but the locals weren’t interested in peace. All they wanted was to get the outsiders off their world, which would leave them hopelessly vulnerable when the Theocracy came calling.
    Other resistance groups could be handled. They could be fended off until the newly annexed world was ready to take responsibility for its own security . . . and the economic boom undermined whatever support the resistance had from the population. But Cadiz . . . Kat suspected that there were members of Parliament who would vote for unilateral withdrawal tomorrow if the issue were put to a vote. And that would be costly too.
    Davidson cleared his throat. “It does look like war is looming,” he said. “Many of the readiness reports from Cadiz are not good either.”
    Kat looked up at him, sharply. “You have evidence?”
    “Just funny little reports from Marine detachments,” Davidson said. “You do realize that there are very few Bootnecks on 7th Fleet?”
    Kat blinked. Davidson commanded a full company of marines, one hundred in all. A superdreadnought rated at least four companies of marines. In total, Admiral Morrison should have had around three thousand marines assigned to his fleet. Marines didn’t just kill people and break things. They served as everything from shipboard police to damage-control officers and emergency manpower.
    “They’ve been assigned to the planet, largely,” Davidson explained, answering her unspoken question. “The report wasn’t too clear, but it looks as though the only ships that still have Marine complements are starships on escort or border patrol duty. Now . . . what does that tell us about the situation on the ground?”
    “That it’s poor,” Kat said. It wasn’t a guess. The Commonwealth had assigned nearly a million soldiers and marines to Cadiz, but they were garrisoning an entire planet. If they needed to strip marines from their starships, she suspected, the local commander clearly felt he needed them. “And that there’s hardly anyone to provide support