The Diamonds of Montora (The Chronicles of Montora Book 5) Read online

  The Diamonds of Montora

  The Chronicles of Montora – Book 5

  Third Edition

  Ward Wagher

  The Diamonds of Montora

  The Chronicles of Montora – Book 5

  Third Edition

  Ward Wagher

  This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

  www.wardwagher.com

  Copyright 2013, 2015, 2020 Paris Mountain Press

  Taylors, SC 29687

  All Rights Reserved

  Cover Photo by Jörg Angeli on Unsplash

  ISBN: 9798638817756

  DEDICATION

  To my readers. I am thankful for their patience and willingness to read my stories.

  .

  CONTENTS

  DEDICATION

  CONTENTS

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

  CHAPTER FORTY

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

  CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

  CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

  CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

  CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  While not my best selling series, the Montora stories are steady sellers. I have finally gotten around to doing print editions for the last two books and used that as an opportunity to proof the book one more time. And one always finds more errors! I personally enjoy these books, so it was fun to go over them again. I hope you enjoy it.

  CHAPTER ONE

  The vibration of a large impact transmitted itself through the floor of the office. Colonel Otto Putin of the Baltic Regiment looked up as the long low boom of the explosion swept across the regimental base, rattling windows and causing dust to drift down from the ceiling. The sound of a distant burst of automatic weapons fire clearly carried into the office, and the white-haired military officer swore as he got to his feet.

  He stepped over to the hat tree, and took down the shoulder holster containing his 45-caliber automatic pistol, and carefully buckled it on. He then lifted the space-black tunic off of its hanger and slipped his arms into it. After carefully buttoning the tunic he stepped over to a mirror on the wall and inspected his appearance. Grabbing the high peaked hat with its silver-plated crossed rifles of infantry from the desk, he marched into the outer office where his adjutant, Major Balthazar Sims was already on his feet.

  "Anyone call it in yet, Sims?"

  "No, Colonel. Whatever that was, I think it was on the other side of Esquire."

  Putin swore again. "If that was across town, it had to be unprintably big. I wonder what the Barkers are up to this time. I suppose we shall have to investigate."

  The term Barkers generically referred to anyone on Addison's Planet who felt compelled to take up arms against his fellows. Putin walked out onto the small porch in front of the regimental offices, followed by Major Sims. The regimental sergeant major was just walking across the dusty sward to where Putin stood on the steps.

  “Sergeant-Major Hellinger, what have the denizens of this unbelievably toxic waste dump done to themselves this time?"

  "Saah! Some fool drove a mining truck down off the plateau and into the headquarters of the Caledonian Minerals Combine. It must have been packed with explosives. It looks like the whole building is pretty much gone."

  "And how did we find this out so rapidly?" Putin habitually spoke in a medium yell. His shout seemed a little louder at the moment.

  "Saah! Lieutenant Castellini had a drone up and saw everything in real time.”

  Putin shook his head and swore some more. "Good for Lieutenant Castellini. Put the quick response team on alert. I think we can assume those fools have started shooting again at one another."

  “Saah!” The regimental sergeant major saluted, his arm and hand appearing to be spring-loaded. It actually quivered when he saluted. He then pivoted on his toe and marched back to the barracks.

  Putin turned back to his adjutant. "Well, Major, it looks like it's time for us to earn our pay again."

  He stepped down off the porch and marched to Base Operations. If Lieutenant Castellini had a drone up, then he probably already had a situation map started. Putin wondered again at the perversity of human beings. Despite the troops of the Baltic Regiment sitting on their main town, the inhabitants seemed to revel in opportunities to kill each other.

  The mayhem on Addison's Planet had been ongoing almost since it was discovered. It was not quite as unmanageable as Earth, but it was close.

  § § §

  Colonel Raganhild Bora stood on the bridge of the combat transport Monrovia as she dropped out of FTL drive at the edge of the star system they had been navigating towards. Captain Alida Desmet reviewed her status screens, and turned to Bora.

  "I confirm our arrival in the Panoz system, Colonel. We will transmit the request for bunkerage to Hepplewhite at your command."

  "Where are the destroyers?" Bora asked.

  "We have not localized them yet, Colonel. I expect to at any time."

  "Then I suggest we wait on any communications until you get your house in order, Captain. I want this operation done smartly."

  The tactical officer raised his head and looked around for the captain. "Skipper, I have Edinburgh at 270 and a little below us. Distance looks like about twenty-five million miles. She just translated."

  Someone else on the bridge whistled.

  "Excuse me Colonel, I need to tend to the mission." Desmet managed the same edge of condescension that Bora had used, and she turned back to her instruments. "TACO, I'm surprised we were able to pick them up. I hope Glammorgen is not any further out."

  When starships transition from FTL to sub light, a burst of Berthold waves spreads from the translation point. These are instantly detectable out to a distance of about twenty-five million miles. When starships travel in convoys, they tend to drift apart while traveling faster than light. This is due to the difficulties of ships tracking one another, each wrapped in the quantum singularities generated by the Berthold Drive. If the convoy does not drop into sub light periodically, it is easy to lose track of some of the ships.

  The tactical officer sang out again. "Okay, I have Glammorgen at a hundre
d thousand miles."

  "Does Edinburgh have us?" Desmet asked.

  "Unknown, Ma'am."

  Desmet turned to Bora. "I suggest we send them a signal on a tight beam, so they can rejoin us."

  The commander of the Highlanders Regiment nodded. "Please do so, Captain. Since we have located our wandering chicks, go ahead and send of the designated message to Hepplewhite Control."

  Desmet nodded, and pointed to the communications officer. "Send the arrival message, Jack."

  "Aye, aye, Ma'am. Sending now."

  Three minutes later the Edinburgh began accelerating, and turned its nose towards Monrovia.

  "Skipper, Edinburgh has us, now. She's headed this way."

  "Thank you, TACO."

  Desmet slipped out of her command chair and walked around to where the colonel stood. "Do you think they'll buy it?"

  Bora shrugged. "They just need to hesitate long enough for us to neutralize their destroyer. With that out of the way we will hold the high orbitals, and they will not be able to do a thing about it."

  Desmet managed a wry grin. "We will do our best to keep them in the fog, Colonel."

  "In that case, I need to see to my Regiment. Please call me if there any status changes."

  Desmet nodded. “Of course, Colonel."

  The captain watched the colonel leave the bridge, then turned with a deep sigh. The money everyone was promised from this operation ensured they would all cooperate with one another. But Colonel Bora was not easy to like.

  The two destroyers formed up on Monrovia, and the convoy began its passage to Hepplewhite, the third planet of the Panoz system. Hepplewhite had been settled a century earlier by its namesake, Robert Hepplewhite, who had purchased the world with the intent of fulfilling his life's dream – the creation of a planetary theme park. Proving once again that dreams rarely come true, Robert Hepplewhite went broke, and the planet was passed down through a succession of Dukes with bigger dreams than fortunes.

  The discovery of vast amounts of mineral wealth by an agent of Colonel Bora's employer led to the present mission, with its goal of making Hepplewhite the permanent possession of Panslavic Minerals. To that purpose, Monrovia had embarked the entire Highlanders Regiment along with its owner and commander, Colonel Raganhild Bora. The mercenary group was tasked with subduing the planet, so that Panslavic could get about pulling minerals from its soil. A successful mission would not only place Panslavic among the first rank of mining companies in The Sphere of Man, but it would incidentally make Colonel Bora a wealthy woman.

  Three hours passed as the small fleet accelerated towards Hepplewhite. Colonel Bora stepped onto the bridge of Monrovia.

  "Where's that destroyer, Captain?" She barked.

  "Colonel, tactical shows a large freighter, or passenger liner in orbit along with some kind of smaller ship. It's too small to be a destroyer."

  “Has Hepplewhite control given any indication they suspect what's happening?"

  "No, Colonel. Other than giving us the orbital coordinates, they have not communicated further with us."

  The tactical officer interrupted. "Skipper! The smaller ship is getting underway."

  Desmet strode over to the tactical station. "Where is it going?"

  "It's almost vertical to the plane of the ecliptic. That's really piling on the acceleration. I think we're looking at a corvette."

  Desmet looked up to find Bora standing next to her. "Suggestions, Colonel?"

  "I think we need to stop that ship."

  The skipper turned to the communications station. "Send a message to Edinburgh, and instruct her to run down that corvette. Halt her by force, if necessary."

  "Aye, aye, Skipper."

  Colonel Bora bit her lower lip as she watched the tactical plot develop. "I hope we can stop that ship before she leaves the system. News will get out sooner or later, but in this case, I would prefer it to be later."

  "Can Edinburgh catch her before she hits the FTL limit?"

  The tactical officer nodded. "She will definitely be in missile range, Skipper."

  The two senior officers stood behind the tactical station and watched the plot for about ten minutes, and then the corvette disappeared off the tactical plot.

  "What's going on?"

  "The corvette shut down his drives, Colonel," the tactical officer said.

  "I don't think that's going to help him," Desmet said.

  "Agree, Skipper. Edinburgh is close enough to localize him. He's either going to have to strike his flag, or be blown out of space. Oh, and it looks like that freighter is powering up his drives."

  "Hail him and tell him to stand down, or we will open fire."

  "Aye, aye, Skipper."

  "Perhaps we should send Glammorgen to babysit that freighter," Bora said.

  "That may not be wise, Colonel We don't know where their destroyer is."

  Bora blushed. "My apologies, Captain. You've got better tactical sense here than I do. If the local destroyer engaged us without any coverage, we would be in trouble."

  Desmet bit the inside of her cheek and thought for a moment. She decided to be gracious. "No problem, Colonel I'm sure you have a much better command of ground warfare than I."

  Localizing the corvette was apparently not going to be as easy as Captain Desmet thought. As Monrovia settled into orbit around Hepplewhite, Edinburgh was still running search patterns without success.

  "No luck on finding the corvette?" Bora asked Desmet.

  The captain shrugged. "It's a matter of time. We had a good fix on her before she dropped off the sensor screens. Otherwise it would be nearly impossible."

  Bora nodded. "Well, I suppose we should open the ball. Get me a comm link to the governor of the colony."

  The Colonel waited impatiently as the communications tech made the necessary connections. It always seemed to take longer than necessary when the stress levels were high. The tech nodded as he typed the necessary commands, and transferred the call over to the screen where Bora was standing. A cadaverous looking man in over-sized clothes stared out of the screen at her.

  "This is Colonel Raganhild Bora of the Highlanders Regiment. Are you Governor Glenn Foxworth?"

  There was a perceptible pause due to the lightspeed delay of the communications link. The man continued to stare at her for a few moments, and then his face changed as he listened to her announcement. He cleared his throat before responding.

  "I am Governor Glenn Foxworth. I represent the Duke, Carlo Roma. How can I help you today, Colonel?"

  "Governor, you can help me by standing down all the armed forces in the Hepplewhite system. The Highlanders are establishing a protectorate here."

  "As the personal representative of Carlo Roma, whom you may know as the CEO and owner of Nano Roma on Earth, what makes you think you can assume that kind of authority here in the Panoz system?"

  Bora considered his reply. She didn't expect him to simply roll over and allow her to take over the system, but she hoped to avoid active resistance. She had no problem engaging in combat with the rump of the Baltic Regiment that was stationed in Montora, although she hoped to avoid it. But, getting civilians into the mix made everybody nervous. The mercenary armies operated under strict Rules of Engagement, which allowed them to avoid interference by the Merchants and Manufacturers League Navy. Indiscriminate civilian deaths, however, were just about guaranteed to bring the Navy in. She had just opened her mouth to reply when the communications tech exclaimed.

  "Skipper! Colonel, we just had a system-wide broadcast. It was encrypted, and on a military channel."

  Bora turned back to her screen, where Foxworth watched her. "Governor, what did you just send?"

  She watched as he leaned back in his chair and tilted his head. "I did not direct any broadcast messages to go out. So, I imagine it was a military communication. I don't know the contents of the message, but I suppose we could make a good guess." He had a slight smirk on his face.

  "You will send the cancellation or
der immediately!"

  "I do not have that ability, Colonel, even if I wanted to."

  Bora felt her face begin to flush. Even though this was not unexpected, she had a hard time sitting on her temper.

  “Perhaps you should reconsider whether you want to, Governor.”

  Again, there was that slight smirk. “There is little I can do to stop you, Colonel, but don't expect me to simply roll over and hand you everything on a platter.”

  "That shows very poor judgment, Governor.”

  Foxworth snorted. “I know I'm holding a losing hand, but as I said, I see no reason to hand you the key to the planet.”

  Bora bit her lip. Foxworth ought to know how the game was played.

  “I will have forces on the ground at Cambridge, Montora village, and Castle Paravel within the hour. You will, of course, meet me at the Cambridge starport.”

  Either Governor Foxworth really was a poker player, she thought, or he was able to maintain a strong control over his emotions. He simply nodded.

  "Of course. I will see you within the hour, Colonel."

  She started to respond, but he had already closed the communications link. She swore under her breath, and then stopped to take a deep breath. Things were going according to plan, but there were too many minor issues that bothered her.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Bora turned to Desmet. "I need to lead the assault wave down on the planet. Your task is to neutralize that Corvette, and make sure the destroyer is either neutralized or eliminated, if it is in the system."

  The captain nodded. "Of course, Colonel, that's what I'm here for, and I will take care of things for you."

  "See that you do," Bora said, as she turned and walked off the Monrovia's bridge.

  Desmet muttered a pungent noun under her breath, and she moved to the tactical section.

  "Begging your pardon, skipper, but the Colonel is awfully pushy."

  She gave the tactical officer a one-sided grin. "Officially, Mr. DesJardins, I can't take notice of comments like that. It's bad for discipline, et cetera. However, unofficially, you probably understated it. Now, let's see if we can locate those other ships."