Assembly Hall, Kowloon...
"Order, god-dammit!" Speaker of the House Charles Vanh bellowed out across the crowd. The shouting and arguing died down. "That's better."
"Admiral, the floor is yours."
Admiral Alicia Li stood up. "OCB doesn't agree with the LIC's public position that the nuclear attacks on Tharkad were the work of the Clans-analysis branch has three reasons for this, and after discussion with my tactical staff and about a thousand HPG messages back and forth to Relief units on-site and along the border, I'm forced to agree with that assessment."
"Do you have hard proof?" Dineh Longwalk, the rep from Pastorville on the Ia Drang Plateau, asked.
"Well, isotope analysis indicates the main columnular generated at Tharkad didn't contain the right isotopes-lots of carbon 14 and other alpha emitters, very little in the way of beta or Gamma-that's not normal for the type of warheads used by military forces." Li said, "It is normal for a massive fission-pile detonation like Dinh Diep-Clan warheads are expected to be related to Neutron or laser-triggered fusion devices-these don't leave long-term fallout, they burn too efficiently, and don't have the kind of incomplete fissionable combustion the NEF found using atmospheric sampling-lots of U-238 and PLU-240, more of a fission detonation than a fusion one-it's rather unlikely the Clans would deploy dirty-bombs, since they're bulky and easy to detect. Contacts in Free Skye indicate that they also don't build dirty-bombs, they're too damned expensive and better warhead configurations are easier to get parts for."
"So...who does that leave?" Gwen Giap of the 11th District New Saigon (Social Democrat) asked.
"Well..." Li looked uncomfortable, "we built a few prototypes back in the late fifties on the logic that the Falcons would come knocking after Serpent left-but those are accounted for in LCAF storage at Coventry, and the yeilds we tested in '58 would have been too high, and the fallout too low. The ground sample at the subsurface detonation of Mount Wotan,however, gives a different story from the open-air detonation in the Triad..."
"What kind of story?" Giap pressed.
"Fast-burning laser trigger, Americium wrapped in Tritium wrapped in Deuterium." Li recited, "Yeild was in the mid 500 kiloton range, probably the warhead from a Peacekeeper. Rad counts and isotope levels in the ground at the site match up text-book, as does the EMP damage and range generated, temperature range and cooling...that was an SLDF bomb, but since the outside of the mountain is mostly intact, it would have had to have gone off inside the base."
looks were exchanged.
"I contacted the Coventry, Alarion, Skye, Bolan, and Arc Royal arsenals-the Alarion and Bolan arsenals are missing warheads." she said quietly, "They didn't say as much, but they were evasive in their answers to queries, and my contact inside Lohengrin tells me that Alarion, at least, is missing one SW-91 five hundered KT warhead from storage-and may be missing more, since the records appear to have been altered."
"WHO does OCB think is most likely, then, if neither Free Skye, nor the Clans?" Giap asked.
"OCB believes the most likely culprit is the Rim Worlds Republic-they have means, motive, and have had inside-access all along." Li said, "Given the current strategic situation, they're the only group that could or would benefit strongly from decapitating the Lyran Commonwealth."
