Pournelle

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<• CHAPTER ONE
The soldier stands alone. In the time when he must either
succeed or encounter failure that will follow him beyond his
grave, he has only a little time and only two considerations —
his mission, and what strength he has within himself by which
he may accomplish it. Whether he commands a million other
men or only the weapon in his own hand, the soldier in the
moment of decision is of all men most alone- Whatever of
harmony he has achieved in his adjustment to the world as he
knows it is the source of his strength. If he has adjusted him-
self only to chaos, it is in this time that he will dissolve and
lose himself in its nothingness.
—Joseph Maxwell Cameron, The Anatomy of Military Merit
•»'><•
The most important fact of the first half of the Twentieth
Century is that the United States and England both speak
English. The most important fact of the second half will be
that the dominant race in both the United States and the
Soviet Union is white.
—Herman Kahn, I960
^ <• •»
Crofton's Encyclopedia of Contemporary History and Social
Issues (3rd Edition):
CoDominiumi The first attempts by the United States to forge
a CoDominium alliance were defeated by the failure of an
attempted Communist Party coup and the consequent
deposition of Gorbachev. The Soviet Union splintered along
national and ethnic lines; but when the economic situations of
both the former Soviet Union and the United States continued to
deteriorate, many in both nations looked back on the Cold War
with nostalgia. When a new series of military and political coups
resurrected the USSR, the United States was quick to Join its
former enemy in an alliance that established the supremacy of
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2 Jerry Poumelle 6- S. M. Stirling
the two dominant nations over the rest of the world. The alliance
was one of convenience rather than genuine friendship....
The Exodus 2015—2050t In the first generation after the
perfection of the Alderson Drive in 2010 more than forty
planetary colonies were founded, not counting closed-
environment mining settlements and refueling stops in systems
without Terresteroid planets. While the CoDominium did not
encourage governments (other than the US or Soviet Union) to
establish direct settlements, corporations or settlement
associations clandestinely backed by governments were
common. Private colonization ventures were typically either
commercial (e.g. HwSey, q.v.) or religious-ethnic in nature; see
Arrarat (q.v.), Dayan (q.v.), FrieiSand, (q.v.), Metfi, (q.v.), others,
spp. During this phase, several million emigrants left the solar
system, almost all voluntary — although both the CoDominium
Powers offered increasingly strong "encouragement" to
politically inconvenient individuals and groups. Thus there
are now planets whose population is purely Mormon (Deseret),
American Black Separatist (New Azania), Russian nationalist
(St. Ekaterina), Finnish (Sisu), and even Eskimo/Innuit
WvUttJuk).
The second phase of interstellar colonization began with
die extension of the Bureau of Relocation's mandate to
include involuntary transport of colonists (in addition to the
already existing flow of convicts, many merely petty crimi-
nals). During this period (2040 to date) voluntary emigration
has remained roughly stable, but involuntary has increased to
levels exceeding fifteen million persons per year; at the same
time, more than seventy new planetary colonies have been
founded, many specifically by the Colonial Bureau as reloca-
tion settlements- Given the sometimes extremely marginal
habitability of the planets concerned (see Haven, Frystaat)
and the endemic shortage of capital in the outsystem
colonies, casualties among the transportees are often heavy,
with life expectancies averaging as little as three years in
some cases.
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•O-
Whump.
A globe of violet fire bloomed for an instant against
the southern horizon, down in the lowlands, actinic
brightness through the gathering dark and the light
cold rain. Firefly streams of tracer began to stitch
PRINCE OF SPARTA 3
across the ground in long shallow arcs, and die reddish
sparks of exploding munitions.
The mercenary sergeant smiled in satisfaction at the
picture his facescreen showed. He turned in his
foxhole, away from the action to the south and toward
the valley below the ridge where his men lay concealed.
The twelve-man SAS section was dug in on the low
crest, invisible in their spider-holes under chameleon
tarps. Only the thread-thin tip of the fiber-optic
periscope showed above the sergeant's camouflage.
It was dark, Cytheria was just a sliver on the hori-
zon, but that was no problem with nightsight. The
enemy column was spread out down the wooded vale
beneath them, winding through the tall grass and
eucalyptus trees; the slope was in reddish-brown na-
tive scrub and shamboo. Men and mules halted at die
sound of the explosion, then scattered to shouted
orders.
"Now" Sergeant Taras Miscowsky said into the
throat-mike. Not what the bastards expected, he
thought with a hard grin in die private darkness of die
hole.
A heavy droning whisde came through the low
clouds overhead. Then: crump .. . crump .. . crump.
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Points of red fire flashed over the valley, proximity-
fused 160mm mortar rounds bursting at ten meters
up. Circles of vegetation bent away, crushed by blast
and flayed by the steel-wire shrapnel. Men and ani-
mals screamed or wridied or lay still under die iron
flail; the faint bitter scent of explosive joined the
smells of wet earth and grass. Anodier salvo came in^
and another, the air whistling continuously. The ob-
servers called fire on die clumps of guerrillas forming
around officers and noncoms, throwing men into
panic flight and chopping into dog-meat any attempt
to rally.
4 ferry PoumeHe iv SM. Stirling
That's doing it to them. Captain," Miscowsky said
as he threw back the tarpaulin. Then more formally,
"Sir, they're taking heavy casualties. I estimate thirty
percent casualties on a full company. Better than half
the mules are down, too. They're moving, one six five
degrees true."
"Roger that. Tracking. We'll get the blocking group
in fast."
"Sir. We'll lose most of them if we don't act fast."
"Right. Thank you. Sergeant,"
Some of the enemy troops were moving straight
west up the slope toward his position; the hill was
gentle, and there was good cover. Mortar shells landed
closer, probing for them as they moved up toward the
ridge. The SAS unit was well dug-in, but they were
infiltration scouts, not a line unit. and there were only a
dozen of them. Miscowsky flashed a ranging laser at
the center of the enemy group.
"Fire mission. Personnel, not armored. Five-fifty-
six meters, bearing one hundred seventeen degrees."
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"On the way," his commanders voice sounded in
the helmet mike. Seconds later Corporal Washington
spoke:
"Getting troop movement noise to our rear, Sarge.
Multiples, light vehicles and infantry."
"Roger. Cap'n, the Royals are coming in from my
west."
"Roger that, Miscowsky; the other side of the trap's
moving in from the southeast around now."
Miscowsky turned his head in that direction and
switched his facemask to IR sensors. There was a hell
of a firefight going on down there a couple of klicks
away, at the works the guerrillas had been planning to
attack. Small arms, mortars ... and the lance-shaped
blossom of a Cataphract light tanks 76mm cannon.
Several of those, coming toward him fast; he could see
PRINCE OF SPARTA 5
the faint waver of heat from their engines. Relayed
sound-sensor data gave him the push from behind the
SAS position. Boots thudding on turf, and a quiet
whine from fuel-cell electrics. Then a louder shoop-
wonk as their mortars opened up, lighter 81mm s and
120mm mediums.
He tapped at the side of his helmet to switch to the
Royalist units push.
"Miscowsky, Falkenberg's Legion," he said.
A dark machine shape came bounding up the low
reverse slope behind him. A cycle, boxy body slung
between two wheels thatwere balls ofCharbonneau alloy
monomolecular thread. It braked to a stop and a figure in
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