Fallout 1

"Deployment is complete." There was not even a tremor in the operations officer's voice as she made her report.

Captain Klur nodded, and leaned back in his command chair, his eyes scanning the bridge of the IKS QIb laH'e'. "Bring us to low orbit," he ordered. "Signal the planetary administrator."

A low rumble echoed in the bridge as the carrier's impulse engines sprang to life. With a deep intake of breath, First Officer Talakh rose to his feet.

"Sir," he said, "I formally protest against your orders in this matter. This course of action is -" He took another deep breath. "Sir, you must find an alternative. This action will not be accepted by the Council, it will -"

He got no further. Klur raised his hand, and the disruptor pistol in it spat green light across the bridge. Talakh collapsed on the spot, his chest a smoking ruin.

Klur snarled. "Does anyone else contest my orders?"

Commander Kysang rose from the tactical station. He was the oldest officer on the bridge, and admired by all for his long record of battles in the Empire's service. He spoke, now, with the authority of complete conviction. "This action is without honour."

Klur's disruptor spoke again, the bolt hitting Kysang between the eyes. As the headless body toppled to the deck, Klur shouted, "How many more must die before I am obeyed?"

No one spoke.

Klur holstered his disruptor. "Second Officer Tayaira. You are now First Officer. Have those corpses removed. And where is my comms channel?"

"I have the administrator now!" the comms officer shouted, fear edging his voice.

"On screen," Klur ordered.

The main screen shimmered, and the administrator's image appeared. "I am Administrator Frerv," the Tellarite said. "Say your piece, Klingon, then get off this channel, and haul that wreck of a ship out of my sky."

"I will be brief, then," Klur said. "I demand your immediate surrender, and that your world recognizes the overlordship of the Empire. Resist, and you will be destroyed."

"Empty threats," the Tellarite sneered. "That Fek'lhri carrier of yours might look impressive, but it's one ship, Captain. You can't take on a whole world with one ship. All right, I've heard your ultimatum, now you hear mine. Get out before a Starfleet task force arrives and kicks you out of this system in a million smoking pieces. Clear?"

"Pellucid." Klur smiled. "Very well. I have presented my demands, you have rejected them. The next step is for you to take the inevitable consequences." He turned to the operations officer. "Activate."

The operations officer froze at her post. "Activate what?" Frerv demanded from the screen.

Klur drew his disruptor. "Is your hearing deficient? Activate."

The ops officer swallowed hard. Her hand came down on her console. "Activating," she whispered. She looked down. "Activation... confirmed."

"I offered you the choice of life under Imperial rule," Klur said to the screen. "I do not offer you any alternative, Tellarite. I have seeded the high orbitals with tricobalt cluster munitions, and they are now descending. Some are targeted at your planet's population centres, but the majority will detonate at altitude, creating a coordinated airburst -"

"You're insane!" Frerv interrupted. "An attack like that will irreperably damage the planet's ecosystem!"

"It will sterilize half your planetary surface!" yelled Klur. "And the nuclear winter that follows will finish off all life that remains! That is the death you have chosen, Tellarite, so embrace it! I burn your world as an offering to the Empire!" He turned to the comms officer. "All that is necessary has been said. You may close the channel."

"Wait!" Frerv screamed. "We - we surrender! Call it off! We surrender!"

"I regret," said Klur, "that the mass of the munitions, and my own limited resources - I have only the one ship, as you pointed out yourself - meant that only the most basic command and control interface could be included. The weapons are descending now, and they cannot be recalled or destroyed. You have perhaps three minutes left of life, Administrator Frerv. Enjoy them. Close channel."