[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
get to road's end everyone walks or rides or takes a steamboat or blimp. If I
split the five hundred or so Mobile Force personnel up, the Helots will eat
them alive! This gang that attacked the Velysens's place, there were sixty of
them they blew the satellite dish and cut the landlink to the Torrey estate
and had an ambush force emplaced to block the road in."
"Classic," Ace Barton said.
"Seems so," Owensford said.
"You've faced this kind of thing?" General Desjardins asked.
"Oh, yes," Peter said. He nodded to Barton.
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"So far it's late Phase One guerrilla ops," Barton said. "To stop it, you
can't sit and wait for guerrillas to come to you. They'll destroy you in
detail. You have to be more mobile, and let militia do the positional
defense."
Desjardins laughed without humor. "That's what the Velysens thought," he said.
"They had a dozen armed guards and electrified wire. My forensics people are
pretty sure the six guards who died were killed by their buddies, and the
sabotage was an inside job too."
Owensford and Barton exchanged a glance and a thought: so much for a peaceful
training command.
Alexander spoke. "So you see, gentlemen, we need the Legion more than ever,
which is one reason we kept the rest of it on retainer. Unfortunately, we're
less able to pay for it than ever, as well."
Catherine Alana looked up from her notes. "Your Majesty sir surely this hasn't
reduced your revenue that much?"
"Not yet," his co-monarch answered; the Freedmans had been economists, holders
of the professorships at Columbia and the CoDominium University in Rome. "But
Captain, the economic justification behind the Field Force yes, I know the
strategic arguments, Alexander, but we have to cut our coat to fit the
cloth the economic rationale is that it will help our foreign currency
situation."
file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20kruis...Falkenberg%203%20-%20Go%
20Tell%20the%20Spartans.txt (35 of 159)20-2-2006 23:17:51
file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20kruiswijk/Mijn%20d...lle%20-%20%
20Falkenberg%203%20-%20Go%20Tell%20the%20Spartans.txt
Peter nodded agreement. Many of the newly independent planets defrayed the
costs of their national armies by hiring them out, with a little low-budget
imperialism on the side. For some like Covenant and
Friedland, it was their major industry. Sparta had planned to get into the
game. Foreign exchange aside, it was necessary in order to develop and
maintain the kind of military force that would make it obvious to the likes of
Friedland that here was no easy prey.
David sighed. "Ideologically, we're free traders here, Major Owensford;
bureaucracy and regulation were what our parents came here to avoid, after
all. But 'Needs must when the devil drives.' All foreign currency is allocated
through the Ministry of Trade, and luxury imports anything but capital
equipment
are highly taxed. It's one of the slogans the NCLF use to whip up the
non-Citizens, they say they want imported luxuries and more welfare."
Captain Jesus Alana smiled thinly; he was a dark man, a few inches shorter
than his red-haired wife, with a trimmed black mustache. "There was much the
same on Hadley. Your opposition will be the . . .
Non-Citizens' Liberation Front?" he said. "Mr. Dion Croser?"
"Citizen Dion Croser, and that's half the problem," Desjardins said. "And a
son of one of the Founders, which is even worse. Sir, I'm morally certain he's
in this up to his well-bred neck. Just let me pull him in, and "
Alexander made a sharp gesture. "No. Not without evidence linking him to these
Helots. Which I don't believe; Dion Croser's misguided, but he is Anthony's
son, after all. 'Liberty under Law,' General
Desjardins." He turned to the soldiers. "Croser's got some following here in
Sparta City, mostly among the recent immigrants and unskilled workers; and a
few at the University." A wry smile. "Our founders were political scientists
and sociologists, but they underestimated the effect of an underemployed
intelligentsia when they founded our higher educational system."
"Layabouts," David snorted. "Hanging around the campus and complaining they
aren't allowed to mind other people's business in the civil service. Major,
our government has only a few thousand employees and contracts most of its
limited functions out " He stopped his impulse to lecture with a visible
Page 38
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
effort.
"The fact remains, that to fully equip the Field Force regiments we must
expend hard currency, and that's hard to come by. We need more export
earnings. If we have soldiers employed off-world and we collect their pay in
Dayan shekels or Friedlander marks, that is one thing. If they have to stay
here and fight . . ." He shrugged.
" 'Opulence must take second place to defense,' " Owensford recited; the
Freedman king looked mildly surprised to hear a mercenary quoting Adam Smith.
You'd be surprised what Christian Johnny gets us to do, Owensford thought. His
father was a history professor after all. "You have indigenous munitions
manufacturing."
"Small arms and mortars, nemourlon under license from DuPont; weapons are one
of our main processed exports, along with intermediate-technology equipment [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl exclamation.htw.pl
get to road's end everyone walks or rides or takes a steamboat or blimp. If I
split the five hundred or so Mobile Force personnel up, the Helots will eat
them alive! This gang that attacked the Velysens's place, there were sixty of
them they blew the satellite dish and cut the landlink to the Torrey estate
and had an ambush force emplaced to block the road in."
"Classic," Ace Barton said.
"Seems so," Owensford said.
"You've faced this kind of thing?" General Desjardins asked.
"Oh, yes," Peter said. He nodded to Barton.
Page 37
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"So far it's late Phase One guerrilla ops," Barton said. "To stop it, you
can't sit and wait for guerrillas to come to you. They'll destroy you in
detail. You have to be more mobile, and let militia do the positional
defense."
Desjardins laughed without humor. "That's what the Velysens thought," he said.
"They had a dozen armed guards and electrified wire. My forensics people are
pretty sure the six guards who died were killed by their buddies, and the
sabotage was an inside job too."
Owensford and Barton exchanged a glance and a thought: so much for a peaceful
training command.
Alexander spoke. "So you see, gentlemen, we need the Legion more than ever,
which is one reason we kept the rest of it on retainer. Unfortunately, we're
less able to pay for it than ever, as well."
Catherine Alana looked up from her notes. "Your Majesty sir surely this hasn't
reduced your revenue that much?"
"Not yet," his co-monarch answered; the Freedmans had been economists, holders
of the professorships at Columbia and the CoDominium University in Rome. "But
Captain, the economic justification behind the Field Force yes, I know the
strategic arguments, Alexander, but we have to cut our coat to fit the
cloth the economic rationale is that it will help our foreign currency
situation."
file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20kruis...Falkenberg%203%20-%20Go%
20Tell%20the%20Spartans.txt (35 of 159)20-2-2006 23:17:51
file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20kruiswijk/Mijn%20d...lle%20-%20%
20Falkenberg%203%20-%20Go%20Tell%20the%20Spartans.txt
Peter nodded agreement. Many of the newly independent planets defrayed the
costs of their national armies by hiring them out, with a little low-budget
imperialism on the side. For some like Covenant and
Friedland, it was their major industry. Sparta had planned to get into the
game. Foreign exchange aside, it was necessary in order to develop and
maintain the kind of military force that would make it obvious to the likes of
Friedland that here was no easy prey.
David sighed. "Ideologically, we're free traders here, Major Owensford;
bureaucracy and regulation were what our parents came here to avoid, after
all. But 'Needs must when the devil drives.' All foreign currency is allocated
through the Ministry of Trade, and luxury imports anything but capital
equipment
are highly taxed. It's one of the slogans the NCLF use to whip up the
non-Citizens, they say they want imported luxuries and more welfare."
Captain Jesus Alana smiled thinly; he was a dark man, a few inches shorter
than his red-haired wife, with a trimmed black mustache. "There was much the
same on Hadley. Your opposition will be the . . .
Non-Citizens' Liberation Front?" he said. "Mr. Dion Croser?"
"Citizen Dion Croser, and that's half the problem," Desjardins said. "And a
son of one of the Founders, which is even worse. Sir, I'm morally certain he's
in this up to his well-bred neck. Just let me pull him in, and "
Alexander made a sharp gesture. "No. Not without evidence linking him to these
Helots. Which I don't believe; Dion Croser's misguided, but he is Anthony's
son, after all. 'Liberty under Law,' General
Desjardins." He turned to the soldiers. "Croser's got some following here in
Sparta City, mostly among the recent immigrants and unskilled workers; and a
few at the University." A wry smile. "Our founders were political scientists
and sociologists, but they underestimated the effect of an underemployed
intelligentsia when they founded our higher educational system."
"Layabouts," David snorted. "Hanging around the campus and complaining they
aren't allowed to mind other people's business in the civil service. Major,
our government has only a few thousand employees and contracts most of its
limited functions out " He stopped his impulse to lecture with a visible
Page 38
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
effort.
"The fact remains, that to fully equip the Field Force regiments we must
expend hard currency, and that's hard to come by. We need more export
earnings. If we have soldiers employed off-world and we collect their pay in
Dayan shekels or Friedlander marks, that is one thing. If they have to stay
here and fight . . ." He shrugged.
" 'Opulence must take second place to defense,' " Owensford recited; the
Freedman king looked mildly surprised to hear a mercenary quoting Adam Smith.
You'd be surprised what Christian Johnny gets us to do, Owensford thought. His
father was a history professor after all. "You have indigenous munitions
manufacturing."
"Small arms and mortars, nemourlon under license from DuPont; weapons are one
of our main processed exports, along with intermediate-technology equipment [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]