The end of the Cloud rebellion

 

Bosun “bloody” Mary Meron was having a drink, while at the same time keeping an eye on her crew. A good group of her people were in the club with her, most of them chatting up girls at the bar, or dancing on the floor as the loud music washed over them. Suddenly, there was a loud boom, louder than the booms of the music, although not by much, and the building shook. Meron stopped taking a drink, and began to reach for her special.

                                                  

It was about this time the power cut off, and several soldiers wearing an odd uniform walked in.

“You will all remain calm and surrender immediately, and without resistance. As soon as the new revolution is over, you will be able to return to your regular lives under the rule of a new government, who will immediately return us to the path of greatness by ceasing all relations with the evil British…” it then suddenly occurred to the soldiers, most of which were young, that the room had an odd population, most of whom now had their hands with their jackets.

 

It also occurred to him that those in the club did not seem to be willing to surrender peacefully.

 

Several seconds later, the soldiers learned why shore police often had military training when their job was effectively police work.

* * *

Paul looked up from the paperwork on his desk. It was about a rebellion op. these were the operations that Paul ran to combat rebellions against the Empire.

 

In his eyes, they were the probably the best way to combat Rebellions. The theory behind it was actually quite sound:

1)     there will always be people wanting to overthrow the current regime,

2)     these people will sometimes band together in groups to try to do it, and could potentially do it,

3)     the best way to stop this is to have intelligence on these attacks, and to watch these groups well,  

4)     this requires having someone on the inside,

5)     people in these groups know this, and are on the lookout for spies.

6)     The one person that the group does not suspect is one of the founding members

7)     The Founding members are the ones who know about every operation,

     Thus, the best person to have on your side is the founding member,

9)     And so you pay people who work for you to found these groups, and also then keep track of the groups actions,

10) Like minded people will join these groups, and when you have enough, you just wrap up the operation in someway where all the Rebels just happen to be killed.

 

For the most part, it worked well. Few of the rebel groups did severe damage. In fact, well over half of the Rebel groups were funded and run by Paul and the Empire. Occasionally something went wrong, such as someone who had seen it a few times too often.

 

After several of these operations, few people were left to want to rebel, although there were still some, their moral was lower as the other groups always failed.

 

Of course, one of the advantages was that the founder was almost always the leader as well. And could easily kick off the rebellion early, and when it is most likely to fail.

 

This meant that the British rebellion success rate was, for the most part, exceedingly low. Despite many of the worlds that the Empire claimed as its own had some people who hated the Empire and all that it stands for, and many of the Allies think they would be better allied to someone else. 

* * *

Xexo awoke. He was lying on a bed in what looked like a hospital. He began to rise, and then spotted a nurse hurrying over with an expression you get when you see someone doing something they shouldn’t, and so he gave up. Then, in walked the Chairman, who proceeded to walk over to him. The chairman smiled, and then sat down in the chair next to Xexo.

“How are you feeling?” he asked.

“I’m fine, but what happened?”

 

“You took a few rounds from the machine gun, regrettably friendly fire, but it was a battle situation. However, your bravery with the Tank allowed us to win the battle, along with your crew. With the tank destroyed, the Palace guard was able to defeat the remaining rebels within the Palace ground. That tank was their last they had for the attack on the Palace; the others were all destroyed in the attack on the gate. They had others, but they were otherwise occupied. It seems that three of them tried to attack the harbour, but were all destroyed by your ship. What is that weapon used to destroy them anyway?”

 

“Probably a Railgun, normally used to deflect incoming missiles or for close in action. Most warships have them. It’s an old technology” replied Xexo, knowing full well that a tank would have been no obstacle to a fridge sized bullet travelling faster than sound.     

 

“Well, it certainly made quick work of them. The Rebels mostly had troops, and they all surrendered once loyal tanks got here. It seems that the rebellion was kicked off prematurely, and they weren’t quite ready, but with enough time, I don’t think we would have won so easily. We only have a few more groups to root out and then we will have won.”

The Chairman got up then seemed to think, and said “by the way, it seems the rebels near the port were defeated quite quickly and we have no idea how, in fact, none of my troops had any time to get there, you wouldn’t happen to know how they were defeated so quickly, or by who, would you?”

 

“No, none” replied Xexo, knowing full well that it was probably the crews of the ships in the harbour who had done it, but probably with what some may view as illegal weapons. Space goers were strange in that, often carrying about “specials” on shore leave, just in case anything happened.

 

“Strange, well, I must be off. We managed to capture some of the leaders, although, most of them went down when we hit their headquarters. I think you are well enough to return to your own ship” and with that the Chairman walked out of the office.

 

* * *

The Republic agent looked at the building. It had been the headquarters of the rebellion, which had just failed. Plus, she knew that it was most likely that her superiors were inside when the bullet hit. She then turned his head towards the shredded remains of one of the rebellions tanks, which lay in front of the base. Behind that, was the hated British ship.

 

The Republic agent hurried off, to inform her superior’s superiors, that her superiors were dead. And the implications that now Munro, the Spy chief, now was dead.

i think this will be the last of the cloud saga. i will probaly move onto something else next. again, sorry for last week. i ought to have some sort of filler pieces for use when i dont have time. hmm, not a bad idea.