Kowloon, 35 hours later...
"hello Daffy. Colonel Mosovich, How fast can you raise as many forces as humanly possible because we do not have a lot of time." Elizabeth hadn't bothered with makeup, and her eyes were red with swelling.
Notably, she WAS freshly showered.
"We've barely gotten the militia reorganized, what kind of rush is on the schedule?" Evelynn asked.
"I've got Li going out to tell me exactly that, assume within two months we're going to be staring down the barrels of a Clan force, how much can you put together to counter that? Assume two months is a maximum, what's our biggest possible defense force assuming a three week transit from the jump points and the enemy arriving tomorrow?"
"Ground forces Militia in the major regions can maybe bring up three regiments of infantry." Evelynn said, "That's calling in the ban and the fit portions of the arriere-ban."
"Do it. right now, or as soon as physically possible. Get the training school people to the factories at Camranh, Camp John, and New Saigon, they're to go over the new vehicles right off the production line and get them ready for action..." she paused, "Daffy, how long will it take you to get whatever forces the Archon gave you to put me out of business loaded on dropships and bound for here, and where are they coming from?"
"Three jumps away right now..." Daphne settled on preserving SOME operational security over denying that AFFC had a force ready to move in the event that the 'new immigrants' to Kowloon had to be driven away and the Duchess arrested.
"Get them, tell them whatever lies or truths you need to tell them to get them boarding ship for Kowloon ASAP. I need to talk to Gina about how many of her assets she's willing to lend us... Evelynn, gimme a status report by FIVE, I need contingencies for enemy assault landings should they get past the Guard, which they will, and get local regionals to start emplacing fortifications, assume this will be a Dinh Diep situation."
and with that, having disrupted the morning staff meetings, Liz was gone.
"Dinh Diep?" Lt. Kinney asked.
"The scar. in twenty-seven-twenty nine, back when House Amaris was considered a loyal supporter of the Cameron dynasty." it was a story Daphne knew well, both from Liz, and from her own family's history, "The Kowloonese revolted against the Rim Worlds Republic, they almost succeeded, decimating the 281st Rim Worlds Guards regiment and the 122nd Republican Guard. The planetary capital was the city of Dinh Diep, home to fifteen million people. House Amaris called on the SLDF, which sent the 22nd Heavy Regiment which had been on manuevers at Arluna with the LCAF, and the warship SLS Belleau Wood."
"You can see the scar from orbit." Evelynn mentioned, "The clean-up took forty years."
He was shocked, "What happened?"
"The revolt was led by an ex-Star League special forces officer, he was a pretty effective leader-they successfully opposed the assault landings, bad intel-"
"a lot of us still think it wasn't, story was that Kerensky investigated and he didn't think it was bad intel either." Evelynn noted.
"-Bad intel marked a series of fortified buildings near the municipal powerplant in Dinh Diep, which was a Hanford-N pattern water-boiler fission plant. Stray fire-"
"Alleged stray fire." Evelynn insisted.
"-stray shots, hit the powerplant. a Naval-grade PPC brought the low-yeild nuclear material to critical mass, wiping out the city. General Phllip Chivington was cleared in the inquest, in spite of it being a blatant violation of the Ares Conventions, since neither government wished to prosecute at the time."
"oh my god, how??"
"They lost half a regiment or more trying to land in the city." Evelynn noted, "since the 'insurgents' were mixed into the civilian population by dint of being the civilian population, Phil redesignated the city as a military target, and called in orbital support fire to cover his second landing wave. Lost another quarter of the regiment when the powerplants went up. Story from Tran Truk Ngo's journal is that Chivington was forced into retirement in 2731, and when then-Major Kerensky did a second inquest, the results were quashed by the Tribunal board as being politically unacceptable."
Daphne capped it, "No charges were filed, no convictions ever registered."
"A 'Dinh Diep' situation means Liz has reason to believe whoever is coming, is coming with significant force and they'll be operating under weapons-free rules of engagement." Mosovich explained, "it's a win-or-die scenario. The Clans claim descent from the SLDF."
"but the Star League was humanity's best!" Kinney said it, he believed it.
"They've done worse before." Daphne noted. "Including Dinh Diep. we have a legendary view of them today, but if you look at original sources..."
"Nice people don't forge interstellar empires or sit on feuds." Evelynn added. "When you look at a map, there's something that was there, back in 2729, and it's not there now-and the Star League did that, too." she finished putting her notes away. "Your pardon, Kommandant, but I suddenly have a lot more work than I expected to do."
