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“Again, light,” Overstreet said “At this time, we have five confir detail, two fro to minor Only two locals confir, so that nuo up”

“To be willing to do so e to their own station, to their own people, just to try to hurt us …” Singh said, then trailed off

“We have several persons of interest in custody,” Overstreet said “One of the off alarms immediately before the blast It’s possible he wasn’t involved, but the coincidence see him once we’re done here”

“Is he a local?”

“Former captain of a Transport Union ship James Holden”

Singh frowned “Why do I know that name?”

“Apparently he’s son and the defeat of the Free Navy back in the day”

Both things that had happened when Singh was a child The old guard still playing old-guard games

“We will need to h said

Overstreet nodded, his face grih didn’t understand “Sir, the radical factions of the Outer Planets Alliance fought a guerrilla ith Earth and Mars for nearly two centuries The veterans of that war are alency That means we have some difficult decisions to make About the scope of response”

“I’ …”

“Insurgencies are historically nearly impossible to eradicate, for a few very sients don’t wear uniforms They look just like the innocent populace And, they’re the friends and faent killed tends to increase recruiting for the insurgency So unless you are willing to rack up a sizable civilian casualty count, we can’t just shoot everyone we suspect If we take the strongest possible response, we stop calling it counterinsurgency and start calling it genocide”

“I see,” Singh said He’d studied counterinsurgency and urban pacification at the academy, of course

Afghanistan had been i all the way back to Alexander the Great Ireland in the twentieth century The Belter troubles for the last two centuries It was different reading about it, but now he sa this cycle of violence could go on and on for him too “I’m not prepared to execute every Belter on the station”

Overstreet see at all