And don't bother taking any
prisoners; we can't spare personnel to guard them."
Kormork grinned. The taking of prisoners had always been one of those
irrational Terran customs which no Ullran regarded with favor, or even
comprehension.
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 Jaikark's
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.
"We must have help, General von Schlichten," she told him. "The native
troops, all but two hundred Kragans, have mutinied. They have
everything here except Company House--docks, airport, everything.
We're trying to hold out, but there are thousands of them.
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