Chapter Forty-Two

Ten Towers. The Iron Islands.

Major Gwynenya Ionael watched as Ser Harras Harlaw, a man also known as Harras the Knight, an anointed knight of House Harlaw and the head of House Harlaw of Grey Garden, knelt before her and offered up his sword. By local tradition she should take the sword so as to signal the acceptance of the surrender. On the other islands she'd given the swords offered to her to the officer who would command the garrison and take charge of the island to act a sort of symbol of office.

Those scholars in grey robes would keep serving as advisers to help ensure that things ran smoothly once most the guard were gone. If they didn't carry on with their duties then they would be hung.

This wasn't the first surrender of the day and it wouldn't be the last either. The Major had been ferried by shuttle from island to island as the natives surrendered to the overwhelming might of the Imperium. She intended to let the common folk go on living their lives after her show of force and to only leave a small garrison behind on each of the major island. Should any of the Ironborn dare to challenge the authority of the Imperium by attacking the garrisons that she left here then the Major would make an example of them.

The invasion of the Iron Islands had gone much more smoothly than expected. Ionael had anticipated much more fearsome resistance form the raiders, but they'd proven to be cowards when those stronger than them appeared. Not that she was too surprised to discover how quickly the raiders and pirates surrendered as those that preyed upon other humans were after all the lowest sort of scum around and if she'd not been ordered to capture these islands for the Rogue Trader she would have laid waste to the Iron Islands.

From the reports she'd gotten the castles and keeps on the islands hadn't fought much at all. No sooner did the troops land than people knelt. Anyone foolish enough to resist was gunned down in short order as to ensure that everyone knew the price of resistance.

While the troops transport did their job and got soldiers on the ground the other support craft also had a role to play. Any wooden vessel sailing in the waters around here would soon be destroyed by the laser cannons of the support craft. Not all of the vessels would be crewed by Ironborn but their loss was acceptable as long as it ended the Ironborn raids. The same had been done over in the Stepstones to great effect.

"A fine blade" commented the Imperial Officer.

It was soon explained to her that this was ancestral Harlaw valyrian steel sword, a weapon called Nightfall. The blade was clearly of better quality than anything the savages of this world could hope to produce. The Valyrians must have been much more advanced than the other peoples of this world back before The Doom had ended that civilization. Ionael had read about the Valyrians as they had been mentioned in some briefings. She wondered if they could have resist the Imperium enough to justify an orbital bombardment or if they would have bent the knee, perhaps they would they would have fought the Imperials to last warrior while flying on the dragons they were supposed to have ridden on as other men rode horses.

She'd already acquired a sword much like this one from House Drumm who had until recently been lords of an island called Old Wyk and she now carried it on her person. The Major considered handing this sword over to the Lord Captain as a symbol of the conquest made in his name as it never hurt to butter up the boss, and for a time she thought about gifting to the Lord General in order to keep himself in his favour. In the end she decided that a fine weapon such as this belong in the hands of a warrior so she decided to gift it the Lord General.

"I accept your surrender" she said the kneeling noblemen "Cooperate and you will not be harmed as long as you are my prisoners".

The existing noble houses needed to be removed so that Guard officers placed in charge of the garrisons could start their own and of those who did surrender many questions would be asked. The worst of the raiders would be turned into servitors and those more deserving of mercy would be sent to work the plantations on the Stepstones or be sent to Ameros to work as serfs depending on which had the greatest need for labour. Turning them into servitors would harm them, but that was out of her hands and wouldn't happened while they were in her custody.

Lord Thrax had plans for these islands and the mines found here. The mines would be worked by criminals who would pay for their crimes with hard labour and the metals dug up here would be used to help manufacture the guns and ammo that would be built elsewhere.

"Load them up" she ordered.

The support ships would ferry the members of House Harlaw to a holding centre over on the Stepstones until they could be processed along with the other prisoners taken this day.

"Major we have news from Pyke" reported a guardsmen with a vox unit strapped to his back "There is some resistance on that Island. The Greyjoys have sealed themselves in and if we employ heavy weapons the castle is likely to fall into the sea".

Pyke was a day's sail from Harlaw, but her shuttle would have her there much sooner.

"Are there any other suitable places to serve as a home for the garrison?" asked the Major.

One of her aide's consulted a map

"There is a keep" said the aide "Called Iron Holt, it is the seat of House Wynch, they have surrendered to us".

While the Lord General brought whole cities to their knees and the Lord Captain decided on the fate of nations she was stuck facing the scum of these islands. At least it would be over soon, these Greyjoys wouldn't last for long.

"Bring down their castle and bury them in the rubble" she ordered "Iron Holt will serve us a garrison for the island".

She would go to oversee the fall of the Greyjoy stronghold in person and stick around for a while afterwards to ensure that the occupation was set up smoothly, and then she'd return to the Stepstones to prepare for the next invasion. Hopefully it would be more of a challenge than these islands had been.