Free The Phoenix Darkness by Richard L. Sanders Page B

about
anything and everything they had any excuse to hate. Once the
prefect, who'd been installed by the king to bring order to the
troubled planet, by force or other means, had fled the system, the
time was ripe for the people of Renora to look for new leadership.
In their hour of need, they found supplies and aid in the unlikely
form of medical crates, food, water, and other provisions granted
to them by the Rotham Republic. This, and a generally democratic
sentiment which had long existed on the planet, led to a swift
declaration by a provisional government that the planet formally
seceded from the Empire and petitioned the Rotham Republic for
membership. A petition which was promptly accepted by the Rotham
Senate, despite claims from the Imperial Assembly and the Imperial
Monarchy that such a petition was against Imperial and
international laws, and was therefore nullified.
    All of that had been foretold by Zane Martel
to Ryker before he’d ever deployed with his team onto the surface
of Renora. And, from the surface of that troubled planet, he'd
witnessed each and every step unfold exactly as planned, like
layers of an onion. And so it came naturally to his subordinates,
and closest associates, to ask him what came next. The Imperial
flags had been ripped down, the prefect chased off world, and the
Imperial soldiers, mighty force of millions they’d been, —had been
withdrawn. Now most major buildings, whatever remained post bombing
and looting, were flying the flag of the Republic. So naturally,
for a planet still stricken with mass starvation, devastated
infrastructure, and oilfields still burning that had never been put
out, it was only natural to wonder: what is next? The only problem
was, Ryker didn’t know.
    “Zane never told me,” was all Ryker had to
offer any of the forty-seven members of his CERKO cell whenever
they asked him. And, as the days became weeks and time rolled ever
forward, and their own caches of food and water disappeared, the
CERKO soldiers themselves became unruly and demanding, almost as
much as the displaced citizens of Renora itself. It was then Ryker
had disbanded from the cell and taken only his most trusted
comrades. They’d gone away from the major city, away from all the
cities, and watched the chaos continue to unfold from afar, living
off the small freshwater stream they’d encountered and eating
berries, fish, and whatever they could manage to trap. All the
while waiting for a sign, some new instruction, or something to
change. But whatever was happening elsewhere in the galaxy, it
seemed to have forgotten about Renora. A planet which burned and
suffered and awaited promised aid, yet that aid seemed more a dream
now than anything else. Even Zane Martel, who no one had heard from
again, stopped being a reliable source of information for Ryker,
forcing the CERKO commander to realize he was ultimately alone,
left completely to his own devices to execute the rest of a plan he
did not know, and to command and keep alive a force of soldiers who
continued to look to him for guidance he could not provide.
    That was why he had taken to the woods, along
with Vulture, Tank, and Micah, leaving the rest of their cell to
fend for themselves. Ever since making that decision, and slipping
away under cover of darkness, they’d had no contact with any of the
other forty-three members of their cell. Likewise, they’d had no
contact, and heard no word from, any of the other two-hundred and
ninety-nine CERKO cells distributed all over the planet. Some,
undoubtedly, had been wiped out. Killed in battle, or killed
fighting amongst themselves over ever more precious resources,
while others likely starved or resorted to pillaging whatever
towns, storehouses, and farms they could find that hadn’t already
lost everything or been burnt to the ground. Ryker made it a point
to send Vulture out scouting every day with the binoculars. Of
their group, he had the sharpest eyes and the instincts of a
sniper,