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Ullr Uprising
H. Beam Piper
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Ullr Uprising
H. Beam Piper
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Terra has a problem. The Ullr are uprising and the uprising must be put down at any cost. A brilliant retelling of the Sepoy Mutiny set against an interstellar empire. H. Beam Piper was one of the best writers of space opera that science fiction ever produced. Well written, insightful, and revealing.
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VI
There was fresh intelligence from Konkrook, by the time he returned to the telecast station. Mutiny had broken out there among the laborers and native troops, who outnumbered the Terrans and their Kragan mercenaries on Gongonk Island by five thousand to five hundred and fifteen hundred respectively. The attempt to relieve Jaikarkās palace had been called off before the relief-force could be sent; there was heavy and confused fighting all over the island, and most of the combat contragravity and about half the Kragan Rifles had had to be committed to defend the Company farms across the Channel, on the mainland, south of the city. There had also been an urgent call for help from Colonel Rodolfo MacKinnon, in command of Company troops at the Keegark Residency.
He called Keegark; a girl, apparently one of the civilian telecast technicians, answered.
āWe must have help, General von Schlichten,ā she told him. āThe native troops, all but two hundred Kragans, have mutinied. They have everything here except Company Houseādocks, airport, everything. Weāre trying to hold out, but there are thousands of them.ā
āWhat happened to Eric Blount and your Resident-Agent, Mr. Lemoyne?ā
āWe donāt know. They were at the Palace, talking to King Orgzild. Weāve tried to call the Palace, but we canāt get through. General, we must have help....ā
A call came in, a few minutes later, from Krink, five hundred miles to the north-east across the mountains; the Resident-Agent there, one Francis Xavier Shapiro, reported rioting in the city and an attempted palace-revolution against King Jonkvank, and that the Residency was under attack. By way of variety, it was the army of King Jonkvank that had mutinied; the Sixth North Ullr Native Infantry and the two companies of Zirk cavalry at Krink were still loyal, along with the Kragans.
*
There was a pattern to all this. Von Schlichten stood staring at the big map, on the wall, showing the Takkad Sea area at the Equatorial Zone, and the country north of it to the Pole, the area of Ullr occupied by the Company. He was almost beginning to discern the underlying logic of the past half-hourās events when Keaveney, the Skilk Resident, blundered into him in a half-daze.
āSorry, general; didnāt see you.ā His face was ashen, and his jowls sagged. āMy God, itās happening all over Ullr! Why, itās the end of all of us!ā
āItās not quite that bad, Mr. Keaveney.ā He looked at his watch. It was now nearly an hour since the native troops here at Skilk had mutinied. Insurrections like this usually succeeded or failed in the first hour. āIf we all do our part, weāll come out of it all right,ā he told Keaveney, more cheerfully than he felt, then turned to ask Brigadier-General Mordkovitz how the fighting was going at the native-troops barracks.
āNot badly, general. Colonel Jarmanās got some contragravity up and working. They blew out all four of the Tenth N.U.N.I.ās barracks; the Tenth and the Zirks are trying to defend the cavalry barracks. Some of our Kragans managed to slip around behind the cavalry stables. Theyāre leading out hipposaurs, and sniping at the rear of the cavalry barracks.ā
āThatāll give us some cavalry of our own; a lot of these Kragans are good riders.... How about the repair-shops and maintenance-yard and lorry-hangars? I donāt want these geeks getting hold of that equipment and using it against us.ā
āKormorkās outfit are trying to take back the lorry-hangars. Jarmanās got a couple of airjeeps and a combat-car helping them.ā
ā... wonāt be one of us left by this time tomorrow,ā Keaveney was wailing, to Paula Quinton and another woman. āAnd the Company is finished!ā
Colonel Cheng-Li, the Intelligence officer, approached Keaveney and tried to quiet him. At the same time, a woman in black slacks and an orange sweaterāthe one whose pursuers had been overrun by the Kragans at the beginning of the fightingāapproached von Schlichten.
āGeneral; King Kankadās calling,ā she said. āHeās on the screen in booth four.ā
*
Kankadās face was looking out of the screen at him, with Phil Yamazaki, the telecast operator at Kankadās Town, standing behind him.
āVon!ā The Kragan spoke almost as though in physical pain. āWhat can I do to help? I have twenty thousand of my people here who are capable of bearing arms, all with firearms, but I have transport for only five hundred. Where shall I send them?ā
Von Schlichten thought quickly. Keegark was finished; the Residency stood in the middle of the city, surrounded by two hundred thousand of King Orgzildās troops and subjects. Sending Kankadās five hundred warriors and his meager contragravity there would be the same as shovelling them into a furnace. The people at Keegark would have to be written off, like the twenty Kragans at Jaikarkās palace.
āSend them to Konkrook,ā he decided. āThem Māzangweās in command, there; heāll need help to hold the Company farms. Maybe he can find additional transport for you. Iāll call him.ā
āIāll send off what force I can, at once,ā Kankad promised. āHow does it go with you at Skilk?ā
āWeāre holding, so far,ā he replied.
Captain Inez Malavez, the woman officer in charge of the station, put her head into the booth.
āGeneral! Immediate-urgency message from Colonel OāLeary,ā she said. āNative laborers from the mine-labor camp are pouring into the mine-equipment park. Colonel OāLearyās used all his rockets and mg-ammunition trying to stop them.ā
āCall you back, later,ā von Schlichten told Kankad. āIāll see what Them Māzangwe can do about transport; get what force you can started for Konkrook at once.ā
He left the booth. āBarney!ā he called. āGeneral Mordkovitz! Whoās the ranking officer in direct contact with the Eighteenth Rifles? Major Falkenberg?ā
āThatās right.ā
āWell, tell him to get as many of his Kragans as he can spare down to the equipment-park.ā He turned to Inez Malavez. āYou call Jarman; tell him what OāLeary reported, and tell him to get cracking on it. Tell him not to let those geeks get any of that equipment onto contragravity; knock it down as fast as they try to lift out with it. And tell him to see what he can do in the way of troop-carriers or lorries, to get Falkenbergās Rifles to the equipment-park.... Howās business at the lorry-hangars and maintenance-yard?ā
āKormorkās still working on that,ā the girl captain told him. āNothing definite, yet.ā
*
In one corner of the big room, somebody had thumbtacked a ten-foot-square map of the Company area to the floor. Paula Quinton and Mrs. Jules Keaveney were on their knees beside it, pushing out handfuls of little pink and white pills that somebody had brought in two bottles from the dispensary across the road, each using a billiard-bridge. The girl in the orange sweater had a handful of scribbled notes, and was telling them where to push the pills. There were other objects on the map, tooāpistol-cartridges, and cigarettes, and foil-wrapped food-concentrate wafers. Paula, seeing him, straightened.
āThe pink are ours, general,ā she said. āThe white are the geeks.ā Von Schlichten suppressed a grin; that was the second time heād heard her use that word, this evening. āThe cigarettes are airjeeps, the cartridges are combat-cars, and the wafers are lorries or troop-carriers.ā
āNot exactly regulation map-markers, but Iāve seen stranger things used.... Captain Malavez!ā
āYes, sir?ā The girl captain, rushing past, her hands full of teleprint-sheets, stopped in mid-stride.
āWhat we need,ā he told her, āis a big TV-screen, and a pickup mounted on some sort of a contragravity vehicle at about two to five thousand feet directly overhead, to give us an image of the whole area. Can do?ā
āCan try, sir. We have an eight-foot circular screen that ought to do all right for two thousand feet. Iāll implement that at once.ā
Going into a temporarily idle telecast booth, he called Konkrook, and finally got Themistocles Māzangwe on the screen.
āHow is it, now?ā he asked.
āGetting a little better,ā the Graeco-African replied. āHalf an hour ago, we were shooting geeks out the windows, here; now we have them contained between the spaceport and the native-troops and labor barracks, and down the east side of the island to the farms. We have the wire around the farms on the island electrified, and weāre using almost all our combat contragravity to keep the farms on the mainland clear.ā He hesitated for a moment. āDid you hear about Eric Blount and Lemoyne?ā
Von Schlichten shook his head.
*
āThe whole party that were at Orgzildās palace were massacred. Some of them were lucky enough to get killed fighting. The geeks took Eric and Hendrik alive; rolled them in a puddle of thermoconcentrate fuel and set fire to them. When we can spare the contragravity, weāre going to drop something on the Kee-geek embassy, over in town.ā
Von Schlichten grimaced, but heād expected something like it. He told Māzangwe about King Kankadās offer. āHis crowd ought to be coming in in a couple of hours. What can you scrape up to send to Kankadās Town to airlift Kragans in?ā
āWell, we have three hundred-and-fifty-foot gun-cutters, one 90-mm. apiece. The Elmoran, the Gaucho, and the Bushranger. But theyāre not much as transports, and we need them here pretty badly. Then, we have five fertilizer and charcoal scows, and a lot of heavy transport lorries, and two one-eighty-foot pickup boats.ā
āHow about the Piet Joubert?ā von Schlichten asked. āShe was due in Konkrook from the east about 1300 today, wasnāt she?ā
Māzangwe swore. āShe got in, all right. But the geeks boarded her at the dock, within twenty minutes after things started. They tried to lift out with her, and the Channel Battery shot her down into Konkrook Channel, off the Fifty-sixth Street docks.ā
āWell, you couldnāt let the geeks have her, to use against us. What do you hear from the other ships?ā
āProcyonās at Grank; we havenāt had any reports of any kind from there, which doesnāt look so good. The Northern Lights is at Grank, too. The Oom Paid Kruger should have been at Bwork, in the east, when the gun went off. And the Jan Smuts and theChristiaan De Wett were both at Keegark; we can assume Orgzild has both of them.ā
āAll right. Iām sending Aldebaran to Kankadās, to pick up more reenforcements for you.ā
*
Leaving the booth, he heard, above the clatter of communications-machines and the hubbub of voices, Jules Keaveney arguing contentiously. Evidently Colonel Cheng-Liās efforts to drag the Resident out of ...